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cable TV ad, if you could afford it,<br />
and you were good to go. You knew<br />
that a certain percentage of your patients<br />
would tell a certain number of<br />
their friends and family members<br />
about your practice, and that would<br />
bring a certain stream of new patients<br />
through your door each year. Now,<br />
people are texting, blogging,<br />
Googling, posting, Twittering, Stumbling,<br />
emailing, and IMing … a far<br />
cry from when word-of-mouth took<br />
place around the water cooler!<br />
Good or bad, like it or not, wordof-mouth<br />
happens. And, with communications<br />
being what they are<br />
nowadays, it’s easier than ever to<br />
spread. So, as a dental practitioner,<br />
you have a couple of choices: Ignore<br />
word-of-mouth, or embrace it. But<br />
just remember, whichever choice you<br />
make, it’s going to happen – with or<br />
without you.<br />
A November 2007 article in<br />
AdAge.com reported on word-ofmouth’s<br />
“meteoric rise,” as defined by<br />
PQ Media – who conducted what is<br />
believed to be the first in-depth study<br />
of word-of-mouth marketing. The billion<br />
dollar a year industry is expected<br />
to grow to $3.7 billion by 2011.<br />
An excerpt from the article states:<br />
“Equally important to the success<br />
of word-of-mouth marketing may be<br />
the research suggesting it is more effective<br />
than other forms of advertising.<br />
For instance, a recent Nielsen<br />
Global Survey of over 26,000 people<br />
found that nearly 78% of respondents<br />
trusted “recommendations<br />
from consumers,” a total 15 percentage<br />
points higher than the secondmost<br />
credible source, newspapers.” –<br />
AdAge.com, 11.15.2007<br />
Traditional media, in terms of advertising<br />
and marketing, will always<br />
have their place. But given the fragmentation<br />
of media over the last several<br />
years, its no wonder even the<br />
biggest advertisers are turning to<br />
word-of-mouth as a path to success.<br />
They call it creating buzz. Doing<br />
extraordinary things that give reason<br />
for people, news organizations, and<br />
bloggers to talk about their products<br />
and create excitement.<br />
In his best-selling book, Buzzmarketing,<br />
author Mark Hughes regales the<br />
reader with his story of how he convinced<br />
a small Oregon town to change<br />
its name from Halfway to half.com (for<br />
one year) in order to draw attention to a<br />
startup website of the same name. The<br />
stunt resulted in the kind of buzz you<br />
could never buy, with appearances on<br />
Good Morning America, the front page<br />
of USAToday.com, as well as radio and<br />
TV exposure throughout the United<br />
States and the world.<br />
<strong>LVI</strong> VISIONS • JANUARY • FEBRUARY • MARCH • APRIL 2008 73
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