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February 04, 2008
Selling word of mouth
Watch out for taxi drivers in London. They may be doing double-duty as secret salespeople.
The company that sells ads on the outside of the car hopes to sell what happens inside, by paying cabbies to secretly talk up products.
Monetizing person-to-person conversations is simply another form of spam, lacking merit, value or ethics.
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Yep, it may be lacking merit, ethics and value - but it sure doesn't lack creativity.
This really is a bizarre idea. Salespeople are propfessionally trained (or experienced) at influencing the customer's decision to purchase a product.
Cabbies, amusingly, aren't.
How is this going to work?
"Please take me to London Victoria Underground"
Cabbie - "Sure thing, want me to drop you off outside MCDONALDS!"
"err, not really"
Cabbie - "why not? McDonalds taste great, and they're healthier than ever!"
I even heard that Nuns read peoples lips for the CIA!
Have you?
Have you?
I agree with you entirely. A good reputation is earned, not purchased. Selling fabricated personal accounts amounts to disinformation.
Advertising is often an exaggeration at best, but at least the source - the creator of the advertised product - is identifiable. The consumer, when fully informed, can actively choose to buy in to a message or not. Such a choice is greatly diminished when the product creator hides its advertising behind a supposedly partial, independent source.
This is not word of mouth. It’s underhanded advertising.
I am seeing this in two ways. On one hand, this is as vile as companies that send street teams to pretend they use products without mentioning they are actually being paid to do so.
But there is another side to this, too. This kind of advocacy reminds me of Virgil Simons' Prostate Net. For those who don't know, this is a non-profit that uses barbers to talk up the benefits of getting tested for prostate cancer to their clients.
http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.asp?docID=607992
Answering my own question, it could be that barbers are talking about something they would already have been predisposed to talk about, whereas the cabbies are getting paid a euro to chat up products they wouldn't have otherwise mentioned. But let's speak hypothetically here ... if the cabbies were required to disclose that they were paid by XYZ.com for talking about product XYZ, would there be as much of a problem here?
I'm not trying to start a fight. I'm just trying to see this from both angles. Obviously, there's something repugnant going on here since these guys don't abide by the Honesty ROI as outlined in WOMMA's Ethics Code. But if they were indeed being open about everything, would we still be up in arms over it?
I am intrigued that any marketing agency could directly/indirectly value the benefit of paying the cabbies to talk up their promoted products. How do you monitor the return on this marketing spend? How do you know which, if any, cabbies are actually promoting the product?
On a personal note I "switch off" when cabbies start talking. I place little or no value on a cabbies recommendation. This is not intended to be derogatory towards cabbies. But how much value to we place on the recommendation of
- someone we don't know
- have not been introduced to
- are paying at a low level for a very simple service
- and likely will never meet or have contact with again!
The sub-conscious comfort of taking a recommendation from someone we "know" is that in the event of the product not meeting our expectations we can go back to that person - whether in fact we do is another question.
Cabbies in London have such a poor reputation for being whingers, whiners and complainers that "cabbie product promotion" may in fact drive potential customers away from those products!
As a real cab driver in Nashville Tennessee, I can tell you that I've been doing this for more than 20 years, promoting that is. Here's how it works - say restaurant A wants more business. Now, first off McDonalds isn't a choice. Only 3 star or above will be in the game. The restaurant management will call the cab company and tell them that they will pay X number of Dollars for each person that a cab drops off at their restaurant. The company will pass the word to the drivers.
The cab driver will suggestively sell the places that pay the largest bounty. By the way, we do get a number of people in the cab that ask "Where is a good place to eat?" Would you suggest McDonald's or would you suggest the highest bidder?
Isn't that the same way we sell ad space on web sites? to the highest bidder? I wouldn't suggest some place I wouldn't want to eat.
We aren't going to do soap or shoe polish. But hotels, restaurants, strip clubs, casinos and brothels are all game.
I do think, however, that Taxi Promotions UK is a stupid idea because there is no incentive (commission) built into their system. Cash speaks loudly. I can't imagine saying "oh, ny the way, did you know that XYZ insurance company is having a sale on life insurance." for a few bucks a week. LOL
I totally agree with James I have been a cabbie in Sydney and everyday people will ask where is the best restaurant driver.To refer someone to something and get a return fot your recommendation is perfectly right it is how the world operates.
