Evangelism marketing

Marketing
Key concepts
Product • Pricing Distribution • Service • Retail Brand management Account-based marketing Marketing ethics Marketing effectiveness Market research Market segmentation Marketing strategy Marketing management Market dominance Marketing process outsourcing
Promotional content
Advertising • Branding • Underwriting Direct marketing • Personal Sales Product placement • Publicity Sales promotion • Sex in advertising
Promotional media
Printing • Publication • Broadcasting Out-of-home • Internet marketing Point of sale • Promotional items Digital marketing • In-game In-store demonstration • Brand Ambassador Word of mouth • Drip Marketing
This box: view • talk • edit

Evangelism marketing is an advanced form of word of mouth marketing (WOMM) in which companies develop customers who believe so strongly in a particular product or service that they freely try to convince others to buy and use it. The customers become voluntary advocates, actively spreading the word on behalf of the company.

Evangelism marketing is sometimes confused with affiliate marketing. However, while affiliate programs provide incentives in the form of money or products, evangelist customers spread their recommendations and recruit new customers out of pure belief, not for the receipt of goods or money. Rather, the goal of the customer evangelist is simply to provide benefit to other individuals.

As they act independently, evangelist customers often become key influencers. The fact that evangelists are not paid or associated with any company make their beliefs perceived by others as credible and trustworthy.

Evangelism literally comes from the three words of 'bringing good news' and the marketing term justly draws from the religious sense, as consumers are literally driven by their beliefs in a product or service, which they preach in an attempt to convert others.

1 History
2 Methodology
3 Kinds of evangelism marketing
4 Customer communities
5 See also
6 External links
7 References

History

Many people believe Guy Kawasaki, the former chief evangelist of Apple Computer, to be the Father of evangelism marketing. In his books “The Art of the Start" and "How to Drive Your Competition Crazy” Kawasaki states that the driving force behind evangelism marketing is the fact that individuals simply want to make the world a better place. Evangelist customers spread their recommendations and recruit new customers out of pure belief, not for the receipt of goods or money.

Methodology

In their book, Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force, Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba outline six steps to creating customer evangelists:

Customer plus-delta (Continuously gather customer feedback)
Napsterize knowledge (Freely share your knowledge)
Build the buzz (Create intelligent word-of-mouth networks)
Create community (Encourage communities of customers to meet and share)
Make bite-size chunks (Devise specialized, smaller offerings to get customers to bite)
Create a cause (Focus on making the world, or your industry, better)

Kinds of evangelism marketing

Evangelism marketing is applicable to any kind of product.
Technology evangelism is the evangelism marketing of a tool.
Platform evangelism is the evangelism marketing of the opportunity to create complementary goods for a multi-sided platform, which also involves non-marketing functions such as regulation of the platform's commercial ecosystem to maximize network effects.

Customer communities

A strong avenue for evangelists is in the form of customer communities, which bring together groups of users of a product or service to share information and discuss common issues. Some companies assist with such events, for example General Motors' Saturn division in Tennessee organizes an annual summer picnic for thousands of customers. Another example is the Harley Owners Groups (HOGS), organized by Harley Davidson, which associate bikers locally and globally through quarterly and annual meetings held all over the world.

External links

References

Ahonen, T. and Moore, Alan. "Communities Dominate Brands: Business and Marketing Challenges for the 21st Century", Futuretext, 2005. ISBN 0-9544-327-3-8

Huba, J. and McConnell, B. Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force, Dearborn Trade, 2002. ISBN 0-7931-5561-4

L. Forbes et al. (2005). "Typologies of e-commerce retail failures and recovery strategies". Journal of Services Marketing 19 (5): 280–292. doi:10.1108/08876040510609907.

Longenecker, C. (2005). "Marketing as a management style". Business Horizons 38 (4): 77. doi:10.1016/0007-6813(95)90012-8.
Rules for Revolutionaries by Guy Kawasaki
The Macintosh Way by Guy Kawasaki