Referral Marketing

Referral Marketing
Author:
Guilherme Italo Nunes Alves da Silva
Supervisor:
Prof. Roland Hänni
Client:
Digicomp Academy AG
Bachelor Thesis, International Management
th,
August 11
2010
Authenticity Statement
The author declares that all material presented in this document is his own work
or fully and specifically acknowledged wherever adapted from other sources.
It is understood that if at any time it is shown that there is significantly
misrepresented material presented in this document, any degree or credits
awarded to the author on the basis of that material may be revoked.
All statements and information contained herein are declared to be true, correct
and accurate to the best knowledge and belief of the author.
Olten, August 11th 2010
Guilherme Italo Nunes Alves da Silva
Page I of 66 I
Executive Summary
The purpose of this paper is to develop referral marketing solutions for the client
Digicomp Academy AG. This work is based on a conceptual background which
serves as basis for the development of the solutions.
Referrals are important contributors to the promotion of educational institutes
because of their high level of credibility and authenticity. Digicomp wishes
therefore increasing engagement in the referral process , with the goal of
developing a higher degree of influence and control over customer referrals.
The conceptual part of this paper investigates at first the importance of referrals
for the business context of Digicomp. The author further analyses the relevant
factors to consider for a referral marketing strategy. Those are based on the
customer experience which implies the necessity of considering that aspect as
well. The conceptual part finalizes with the illustration of a referral marketing
framework which is applied for the creation of the solutions.
Six referral solution ideas and some general suggestions are indicated at the
end of the paper. Those ideas target mainly the two most important segments of
Digicomps customer base: IT-Professionals and Office Users. The ideas
employ various marketing tools and have the purpose of providing a structured
and systematic way of generating referrals.
II
Figure Index
Figure 1: Four-step Methodology ................................................................................ 3
Figure 2: Referral Marketing Framework ................................................................... 5
Figure 3: Continuum of Evaluation for Different Types of Products ...................... 7
Figure 4: Maslow Pyramid of Needs ......................................................................... 10
Figure 5: The Total Design Concept ......................................................................... 20
Figure 6: Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction: .................................................... 22
Figure 7: Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction potential, based on the Kano Model 23
Figure 8: Post-Course information Feed Mechanics .............................................. 32
Figure 9: Illustration of the post-course challenge referral tool process ............. 50
III
Table of Contents
Authenticity Statement .................................................................................................................... I
Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................... II
Figure Index ................................................................................................................................. III
Table of Cont ents .........................................................................................................................IV
1.
Initial Situation.............................................................................................................1
1.1.
Background Information ...................................................................................................... 1
1.2.
Problem Definition .............................................................................................................. 2
1.3.
Limitations ......................................................................................................................... 2
1.4.
Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 3
2.
Problem Solving Approach ......................................................................................4
2.1.
Importance of referrals for Digicomp .................................................................................... 6
2.2.
Requirements for a referral marketing strategy ..................................................................... 9
2.3.
Customer Experience ....................................................................................................... 18
2.4.
Referral Framework .......................................................................................................... 24
3.
Referral Solution Ideas and General Suggestions ......................................... 29
3.1.
Post-Course information Feed ........................................................................................... 30
3.2.
Cont ent Marketing – Youtube, Slideshare and Ustream ...................................................... 36
3.3.
Developer Contest ............................................................................................................ 40
3.4.
Memorial Items of courses of longer duration ..................................................................... 43
3.5.
Post-Course Challenge ..................................................................................................... 47
3.6.
Buzz Worthy Give-A ways .................................................................................................. 53
3.7.
General suggestions ......................................................................................................... 55
4.
Concluding observations ...................................................................................... 57
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 58
Appendix .................................................................................................................................... 61
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IV
1. Initial Situation
1.1. Background Information
The project client, Digicomp Academy AG, provides education in the field of
Information Technology. The institute offers approximately 650 different seminars, 20
boot camps and 40 training courses which are conducted by around 300 practically
oriented trainers who possess over educational formation.
The client recognizes the importance of customer referrals for the education business
and is therefore planning to increase its marketing efforts in that specific area.
Customer referrals enjoy a high degree of authenticity and credibility by message
recipients, which leads to a more positive attitude towards the referred organization.
The service portfolio has five different segments with IT-Professionals and Office
Users being the most important ones. The customer volume ratio of those segments
is 1:5. The company turnover is distributed as follows: 60% IT-Professionals
(including Developers), 30% Office, 9% Management and 1% Business Software.
In 2009 Digicomp conducted a customer survey involving a sample of 1‟295
customers. The 82% response rate revealed the following:
87% of the customers were between 26 and 50 years old and costs were covered in
90% of the cases by the employer. 75% of the survey participants were male. The
segments with highest skewness in gender demographics were office users with 55%
female representation and IT-Manager with 94% male representation. Most survey
participants claimed to be very satisfied (57,8%) or satisfied (31,8%). 6% were
delighted, 2.5% neutral, 1.4% dissatisfied and 0.5% very unsatisfied to excessively
disappointed. 96% expressed a repurchase intention (Müller, 2009).
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1.2. Problem Definition
Digicomp Academy AG has already undertaken referral activities in the past. These
activities were however executed in a less structured manner and were based on
customer feedbacks which the company describes as “of limited use for marketing
purposes”.
The lack of structure of the referral activities and an inadequate integration of the
data into the internal IT-System has lead to a moderate degree of control and
effectiveness.
The initially intended project scope has been redefined with the agreement of
Digicomp. The main goal is to create pro-active solutions for referral marketing. The
secondary goal is to identify the role of customer satisfaction in referral marketing.
1.3. Limitations
The limited time-frame of a total of 270 working hours conducted by one single
person demands a prioritization on the project scope. The client requests an explicit
project focus on the creation of referral solutions which requires a trade-off in the
investigation depth of the secondary goal.
Digicomp conducted an investigation on customer satisfaction in 2009. This fact
decreases the need for an extensive review on customer satisfaction and allows
focus on the relationship of both topics.
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1.4. Methodology
The problem solving approach, that serves as a base for the development of the
referral marketing solutions, is divided in four steps:
Figure 1: Four-step Methodology
Source: Author
Importance of Referrals for Digicomp
Before engaging in new marketing efforts it is important to understand if they are
appropriate for the business environment that Digicomp operates in. This section
investigates various implications of the service business and how they affect the
relevance of referrals.
Requirements for a Referral Marketing Strategy
This section investigates the reasons why people refer businesses, what
circumstances detains them from referring and how companies can actively influence
referral activities.
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Customer Experience
It is widely argued by professionals and academics that customer satisfaction is
derived from the customers‟ experience. This section covers in brief important
concepts on customer experience and customer satisfaction, their relationships and
their influence on referrals.
Referral Marketing Framework
Despite the existence of a certain amount of accumulated knowledge, most expert
statements and scientific evidence only cover fragments on the topic of referrals.
Most publications reviewed for the purpose of this project fail to provide a holistic
framework. Andy Sernovitz, the former CEO of the Word of Mouth Association, was
able to formalize an structured approach to word of mouth marketing in the 5 T
Framework. The framework is taught at the Northern University in the United States
and endorsed by various professionals, academics and authors on the topic of
marketing. This section elucidates the framework which is used to structure the
suggested referral activities.
2. Problem Solving Approach
The purpose of this section is to illustrate the referral marketing concept and to point
out the implications of using it as a part of the promotional mix.
For the purpose of this project, referral marketing is defined as the process of
connecting with prospects with the support of existing customers. Customer referrals
can affect two types of prospects, those to which customers have a pre-established
relationship (E.g. A friend) and those to who they do not (E.g. An unknown prospect
who reads a customer testimonial). Referrals tend to be more reliable and trustworthy
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than other forms of marketing communications and come, unlike advertising, with the
social pressure of conforming to recommendations (Arndt, 1967). Social pressure
seems to be, however, more likely applicable to prospects with a pre-established
relationship to the customer.
As well, referrals can originate from other stakeholders such as the media, partners
and others. The target stakeholder group for this project are however the customers,
hence the operational definition.
Referrals can occur within a direct form of communication from customer to prospect
or involve the referred business as communication intermediate.
Figure 2: Referral Marketing Framework
Customer
Prospects
M
RC / M
M
Referred Business
M
=
Message
RC
=
Referral Contact
Source: Author
Direct communication - C2C, Word of Mouth/
The direct form for referral marketing involves the transmitting of a message to
known or unknown prospect recommending a referred business, also known as word
of mouth. This type of interaction can either occur in the form of one way
communication, as for example by forwarding company information to a friend by
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email or in the form of interactive communication such as personal conversations.
The original message can be either created in full by the customer but also
completely by the business (E.g. Rebate coupons for customers to give away to their
friends), in conjunction (E.g. Creating a case study together with the client which is
meant to be passed along) or by a third party. (E.g. Forwarding a thread written in an
online forum).
Indirect communication C2B2C
The indirect form of referral marketing implies that businesses receive contact details
and/or messages from customers for prospecting reasons. One typical example of
that approach can be observed for instance in the insurance business where sales
representatives ask their customers for contacts from their social circle. As in the
direct communication alternative the message can be created by different parties and
one or two way communications models can be used (E.g. One-way: Direct mail,
Two-way: Phone call).
Both referral alternatives bear the similarity that individuals provide their word
endorsing a business despite the technical difference . Due to the lack of
differentiation in literature this project refers to word of mouth concepts, that seem
however to a large extend applicable for referral marketing in general. Designed
solutions for this project are furthermore pure direct communication alternatives.
2.1. Importance of referrals for Digicomp
Digicomp offers education in the area information technology and is therefore in the
service business. Services differ from products in four different ways (Kotler & Keller,
2006):
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 Intangibility
Buyers can not see, taste, feel, hear or smell services prior to purchase.
 Inseparability
Services are in most cases produced and consumed simultaneously.
 Variability
Service outcome depends on the execution of the service provider and are
therefore highly variable.
 Perishability
Services cannot be stored which leads to constraints caused by demand
fluctuations.
These differences make it more difficult for customers to evaluate services. The
graph bellow show different products and services according to their difficulty of
evaluation:
Figure 3: Continuum of Evaluation for Different Types of Products
Source: Ostrom & Iacobucci, 1995
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This model explains three types of qualities for the evaluation of products a nd
services: Se-arch qualities, experience qualities and credence qualities.
Goods are mostly high in search qualities which are characteristics the buyer can
evaluate before purchase. Experience qualities are found in products and services
that can only be evaluated after purchase. Credence qualities are those which the
buyer finds hard to evaluate even after consumption. The higher the experience and
credence qualities, the more risk is involved in the purchase (Ostrom & Iacobucci,
1995). This has several consequences on service consumers according to Kotler &
Keller (2006):
 Higher reliance on word of mouth rather than advertising
 Price, personnel and physical cues become very important to judge quality
 Higher loyalty to service providers which satisfy customer needs
 Increased possibility of inertia because of switching costs
In reference to the referral model, it can therefore be concluded that the direct
communication is of high significance to service firms. Wilson makes a similar
statement as Kotler in which he notices that consumers are strongly influenced by
the opinion of others. The indirect communication alternative of the referral model
can therefore be accounted with considerable significance as well. Because personal
opinions of others are of high importance, the understanding and controlling of
referrals becomes even more important for service companies (2008). The influence
of other peoples‟ opinions is at times even more powerful than the perception of the
own customer itself. A study on furniture choice, for example, pointed out how much
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the customers‟ friends liked the furniture to be a better predictor of the eventual
purchase than the customers own opinion (Myers & Robertson, 1972).
2.2. Requirements for a referral marketing strategy
For the successful implementation of a referral program, it is essential to understand
why people refer products and services, what factors detain customers from referring
and how those activities can be influenced . Research studies suggest that if sales
people create a right set of circumstances, then it is probable that customers will
react in a particular way. The investigation of various sales presentations revealed
that buyers learned more in improvised presentations but had greater intentions to
buy after prepared presentations (Jolson, 1975). Human behavior is therefore to a
certain extent predictable. The degree of influence exerted by companies can rise
through well prepared marketing activities. The purpose of this section is to provide
building blocks for the creation of stimulus-response models used as referral tools.
Psychological reasons why people engage in referral activities can be derived from
various concepts and theories on motivation. Due to the practical nature of this
project it is important to consider different opinions of marketing experts on what
might drive people to refer as well.
Motivation is caused according to various theories by the human need to maximize
pleasure and minimize pain (Seligman, 2006). By that concept people refer/do not
refer if:
 It might provide them a benefit in case they refer/do not refer
 It might provide them a damage in case they refer/do not refer
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One of the most cited models in the field of motivation is the Maslow pyramid
(Maslow, 1987). It argues that there are five types‟ human needs to be fulfilled, which
lead people to action or inaction. The theory is illustrated in model below:
Figure 4: Maslow Pyramid of Needs 1
Source: Wikipedia
Another important motivational concept, that is often applied for marketing purposes,
is the concept of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation refers the act of pursuing an activity for the pleasure of doing it.
Hobbies such as doing sports are based on intrinsic motivation (Deci, 1975).
1
The examples of the five human needs illustrated insinde the pyramide serve for the purpose of
clarification and cannot be considered as complet e.
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Further research conducted on the topic of intrinsic motivation was undertaken by
Professor Steven Reiss who examined more than 6000 people on the topic. He
suggests that there are 16 basic desires which guide most human behavior (2002).
Table 1: 16 Desires theory of intrinsic motivation
 Acceptance, the need for approval
 Curiosity, the need to learn
 Physical Activity, the need for
exercise
 Eating, the need for food
 Power, the need for influence of
will
 Family, the need to raise children
 Romance, the need for sex
 Honor, the need to be loyal to the
traditional values of one's
clan/ethnic group
 Saving, the need to collect
 Idealism, the need for social
justice
 Independence, the need for
individuality
 Order, the need for organized,
stable, predictable environment
 Social Contact, the need for
friends (peer relationships)
 Status, the need for social
standing/importance
 Tranquility, the need to be safe
 Vengeance, the need to strike
back/to win
Source: Reiss, 2002
Extrinsic motivation on the other hand engages activities which are undertaken as a
means to an end and not for the sake of pleasure and can be categorized into
various categories. For the purpose of this project the focus is, however, on external
regulation. External regulation is the type of extrinsic motivation which is mostly cited
in literature. Behavior is in this case regulated by external stimuli such as punishment
and reward (Deci, 1975). An example would be, for instance, when a student states:
„I study every day after school because my parents will buy me a new bike if I pass
with a higher grade average than last semester“.
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Nevertheless, it should be considered that both concepts are not mutually exclusive.
A professional might for instance work overtime because of the joy of executing a
particular task but on the other hand also because his or her remuneration might be
dependent on performance.
There are various opinions on why people refer products and services or not. Wilson
argues that best way to obtain positive word of mouth appears to be by creating
memorable and positive service experiences (2008). Godin amplifies that in order to
generate word of mouth a company needs to offer something remarkable,
exceptional, interesting and worth talking about. Sameness, boring products and
services are not likely to stimulate word of mouth (Godin, 2003). He further indicates
reasons why referrals do sometimes not occur despite the fact that customers might
be satisfied or even delighted. He lists following possible reasons (2010):
1. It is embarrassing to talk about it.
2. There is no easy way to bring it up.
3. It might not be interesting to your contacts.
4. The topic might already be too popular and there is no benefit to bring it up.
5. People might like exclusivity and do not refer for selfish reasons.
6. Keeping things separated. People might like to preserve certain environments
from their social network. Some children for example like the idea of being the
only child of their school at a specific summer camp which allows them to
behave differently.
7. Feeling manipulated might be a reason that users might detain a referral.
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8. A doubt about the own taste. Because people personally liked something it
does not mean that their acquaintances will. This creates the risk of seeming
tasteless.
He states that there are probably various other reasons but three things are
important to understand:
1. People refer because the way it makes them feel and not because it benefits
the referred company, hence for selfish reasons.
2. If a strategy shall be based on word o f mouth it is better not to have those
reasons against your business.
3. If there are reasons, that hinder referrals for your business, it would be
appropriate to create a strategy to overcome them.
John Jantsch, the author of The Referral Engine, states that people make referrals
because they need to. Rating and re ferring is a form of survival because everyone
needs tips someday. People pass therefore information to others in order to build
credit in the community. Referring connects to other people and being recognized as
a good source of information, including referrals, is according the author a great way
to connect to others. Referring builds furthermore a form of social currency.
While people appear to be wired to refer there are also potential risks involved.
Jantsch states that referring puts the trust established with the recipient on loan to
the referred person or the company. He argues that the best way to lower the risk is
to build trust with customers and to develop offers to which customers connect on
logical and emotional levels. He also asserts that most companies focus on logical
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elements such as price, features and benefits while ignoring emotional aspects which
are essential for the total customer experience (2010).
Opinions of the cited experts, who are recognized as referral marketing authorities,
compliment and reinforce each other; no major contradictions are found.
The above-mentioned reasons and motivations for why people refer or do not are the
main building blocks for the creation of the stimulus-response models.
The referral solutions shall further make use of the concept of compliance to increase
the behavior directing effect. Cialdini defines compliance as „The act of responding
favorably to an explicit or imp licit request offered by others“. He states that despite
the existence of thousands of different compliance tactics the majority falls within six
basic categories which he calls the six weapons of influence (2006):
Reciprocation
The rule of reciprocation states that people tend to provide to others what others
have provided to them. If someone does you a favor you do a favor in return, if
someone invites you to a party you should invite this person to one of your parties in
return. Reciprocation is based on the principle of social debts which has emerged
with the rise of civilizations.
Commitment and Consistency
Once people have made a choice or taken a stand they encounter personal and
interpersonal pressures to behave accordingly to what they committed to. Those
pressures lead people to act in a way which justifies earlier decisions. Once people
agree upon the request of doing something chances increase that they act according
to what they committed to. One of Cialdinis‟ examples to illustrate the principle
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comes from a restaurant owner in Chicago. The owner faced a usual scenario in the
restaurant business: People who reserve tables but do not appear. The restaurant
owner requested his receptionist to change his phrasing when talking to callers
requesting a reservation. This change consisted of two words and decreased the noshow up rate from 30% to 10%. The receptionist changed the phrasing from: „Please
call if you have to change your plans “ to „Will you please call if you have to change
your plan? “ to what he then politely waited for a response.
Social Proof
People are more likely to take action if other people, especially people similar to them
and people they admire, do it as well. Cialdini uses as an example an experiment
conducted by the psychologist Albert Bandura to illustrate the principle of social
proof. In this example Bandura showed how people suffering from phobias can be rid
of the extreme fears in a very simple way. In an experiment children who feared dogs
and were exposed 20 minutes a day during four days to a little boy playing with a
dog. 67% of those children were able to play, pet and scratch a dog while everyone
left the room on the fifth day. A typical use of social proof in business is for instance
the old customer reference list. Cialdini quotes an advice which sales and motivation
consultant Cavett Robert gives to his sales trainees: „Since 95% of the people are
imitators and only 5 % initiators, people are persuaded more by the action of others
than by any proof we can offer.“
Liking
The principle of liking states that people tend to comply more with those they li ke.
Cialdini subdivides the principle of liking into six ingredients: Physical attractiveness,
similarity, compliments, conditioning and association and contact and cooperation.
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Research has shown that people automatically assign good-looking individuals
favorable traits such as: kindness, honesty and intelligence and enjoy various other
social benefits.
People like individuals who are similar to them in the areas of opinions, personality,
traits, background or lifestyle. Several studies have for example demonstrated that
people are more likely to help others who dress similar to them.
Joe Girard, the world‟s greatest car salesmen by the Guinness Book of World
Records stated that he sends to all his clients (over 13„000) greeting cards for
birthday, Christmas and other occasions. All cards contain “I like you” and his
signature, nothing more. The power of compliments was also demonstrated by
various scientific experiments.
Becoming associated with positively perceived people, events or objects for instance
makes individuals, companies etc. more likable. One common way in which this
principle is used is for example in event sponsorships.
Contact and cooperation is a widely used technique by compliance professionals. It
is used in new car sales situations where the sales person “battles” the supervisor to
secure a good deal for the client. Police officers employing the old good cop, bad cop
technique in which the bad cop acts against the suspect and the good cop in favor.
He calms down the bad cop, acting in favor of the suspect and offers support and cooperation for mutual benefit to gain compliance from the suspect.
Authority
Most people are raised with the social conditioning of respecting authorities which
gives them higher compliance. People are for instance more willing to follow the
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medical advice of a doctor than that of an ordinary person without regarding their
personal level of medical knowledge. Authority can be used influence people also
with the absence of an assigned position of power. There are symbols of authority,
which can be used to increase compliance. Clothing for example can be used as a
symbol to increase authority. A well suited dress can communicate wealth and
power. Titles are also perceived as a symbol of authority which can be acquired for
example through continuous education. A study done in San Francisco showed that
owners of prestige cars receive special treatment. The experiment showed that
drivers would wait considerably longer to ho nk at a new luxury car stopped at a green
light than an economic car model.
Scarcity
More available opportunities are assigned less value than less available opportunities
the same way things that are harder to obtain are perceived to be more valuable than
things which are easy to obtain. Creating the perception of limited resources and time
limits increases the perceived value of products and services. Scarcity tactics can
often be observed in retail stores with time limited price discounts for instance. When
opportunities are less available humans lose their freedom because they dislike
losing the freedom they already have. The desire to preserve that freedom is
explained by the theory of psychological reactance. The theory states that whenever
choices are limited or threatened the desire to obtain something increases causing
an emotional reaction which can which can lead people to action.
The same way motivation leads to action so does compliance. Both concepts allow
the creation of specific contexts which induce people to act in a more predictable
way.
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According the research findings referral marketing seems to be possibly proactively
stimulated and constraints directly addressed by companies. It appears of
importance to provide customers with remarkable experiences, to build-up trust in
order to decrease the referral risk and to establish a logical and emotional connection
with them to stimulate the referral process. Customer experience seems therefore to
be the core element and threshold requirement for word of mouth and is therefore
further analyzed. Designated customer experience experts even state that “the
experience is the marketing” (Gilmore & Pine, 2002).
2.3. Customer Experience
Referring products and services implies the risk of hurting the customer‟s personal
reputation. It is therefore assumed that customer only refer companies they are
satisfied with. Anton defines customer satisfaction as the way customers needs,
wants and expectations have been met or exceeded throughout the product or
service life cycle (1996). Service quality is evaluated by the degree of customer
satisfaction with the service and interaction outcome as well as with the physical
environment in which the service is provided (Brady & Cronin, 2001). Research
suggests that customers evaluate services based on five factors which apply across
a variety of service contexts and are recognized as the main dimensions of service
quality (Zeithalm, Parasuraman, & Berry, 1990):
 Reliability
The ability of performing the promised service accurately.
 Responsiveness
Readiness to help customers and provide quick service.
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 Assurance
Trust and confidence created in customers by the company‟s employees.
 Empathy
The provision individualized attention to customers and demonstrating care.
 Tangibles
Appearance of tangible elements such as equipment, writte n documents and
employees wardrobe.
A multidimensional service quality scale is attached at the appendix providing a
possible structure and questions for a survey (Appendix A). The five service quality
dimensions are however not free of criticism. Buttle argues that the five dimensions
are not universals and that the model fails to consider economic, statistic and
psychological theory and doubts the validity of the attributes (1996). The five service
quality attributes are despite criticism widely recognized and applied by marketing
professionals. The author suggests that both statements have a certain degree of
validity and that service firms should adapt their customer research to their specific
context.
Reliability has been consistently recognized as the most important attribute to service
quality (Zeithalm, Parasuraman, & Berry, 1990). Reliability builds trust, which
decreases the referral risk for the customer and is therefore considered to be an
essential characteristic for companies applying referral strategies. Professional trust
can be categorized in one of three categories: Calculus-based trust, Knowledgebased trust and Identification-based trust. Calculus-based trust is based on a costbenefit analysis of sustaining a relationship as opposed to severing it. Knowledgebased trust is based on experience and information gathered from the counterpart y.
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Identification-based trust occurs when parties understand, endorse and act in favor of
each other in interpersonal transactions. Trust is built over time and matures from
calculus-based trust over knowledge based trust to identification-based trust (Bunker
& Rubin, 1995). According to the definition, Identification based trust seems to be an
important requirement for referrals. The author notes that the no tion of time is not
quantitatively specified. The required time for establishing identification based trust
might therefore vary based on the perceived risk of referring and on the outcome of
all interactions within that time period.
Functionality by itself is argued not to be a sufficient source of differentiation, which is
a key requirement for referrals, in today‟s increasingly competitive markets (Vogel,
Cagan, & Boatwright, 2005). The same argument is also made by Jantsch as
mentioned in the previous section with the statement that company often neglect
emotional elements of the total customer experience.
Recent research defines customer experience as the compound effect of:
Functionality, Aesthetics and Meaning:
Figure 5: The Total Design Concept
Source: Srinivasan, Lilien, Rangaswamy, Pingitore, & Seldin, 2008
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Functionality stands for benefits provided by product features, aesthetics refer to
sensorial characteristics which include appearance, touch, smell, taste and sound
and meaning stands for product associations in the customers mind. The authors
state that the model is applicable for services as well as for products (Srinivasan,
Lilien, Rangaswamy, Pingitore, & Seldin, 2008).
Customer experience includes every aspect of a company‟s offer: The quality of
product and service features, advertising, customer care ease of use and other
aspects (Meyer & Schwager, 2007). One common tool for analyzing customer
experience is the touchpoint analysis. Touchpoints are all human, physical and
communication interactions experienced by the customer during the relationship
lifecycle. Each touchpoint creates an impression, good or bad. Managing touchpoints
can be therefore viewed as the essence of customer experience delivery (Intervox
Group Inc., 2005). The aggregation of all touchpoints leads to the perceived service
can translate to various degrees of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction depending
on the service expectations by the customer. Details on service expectations are out
of the project scope and clearly defined in the customer satisfaction research
conducted in 2009.
One widely applied model in the field of customer satisfaction is the Kano model. The
model differentiates customer satisfaction in three distinctive categories which makes
it more appropriate than other existing models of the purpose of referrals .
 Must-be requirements
 Performance requirements
 Attractive requirements
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Figure 6: Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction:
Source: Kano, Nobuhiku, Fumio, & Shinichi, 1984
Must-be requirements are basic customer expectations which are implicitly expected
and cause customer dissatisfaction if absent. The goal of fulfilling those basic
requirements is to avoid customer dissatisfaction. Motivational psychologist Herzberg
entitled such basic requirements as hygiene factors. He concludes that the
fulfillments of those characteristics do not lead to positive satisfaction but the
absence of them leads to dissatisfaction (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1993).
Performance characteristics are usually explicitly demanded by the customer and
can be therefore examined through marketing research. Kano argues that the higher
the level of fulfillment of performance characteristics the higher the level of customer
satisfaction and vice versa.
Attractive requirements are the elements with the greatest influence on customer
satisfaction. Those requirements are neither explicitly expressed nor expected by the
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customer. Fulfilling those requirements leads to a more than proportional customer
satisfaction and their absence do not create dissatisfaction to the customer since
they are not expected. Attractive requirements, if met, delight customers. Delighting
refers to a profoundly positive emotional state that arises when customers‟
expectations are exceeded to a surprising degree (Rust & Oliver, 2000). Another
author describes delighting services as “positively outrageous service” which is
unexpected, random, extraordinary and disproportionately positive (Gross, 1994); his
statement is in concordance with those of previously mentioned authors.
The author suggests summarizing the customer satisfaction potential, based on the
Kano model, as follows:
Figure 7: Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction potential, based on the Kano Model
Basic requirements
Satisfaction potential
Dissatisfaction potential
Non existent
High
Performance requirements Middle-High
Middle-High
Attractive requirements
Non existent
High
Source: Author
Attractive requirements are to be concluded as a necessity for referral strategies
because they are the only characteristics which lead to customer delighting. Due to
the risk factor of referring it is additionally to be assumed that the better companies
perform in basic and performance requirements the lower the referral risk for the
customer. All three types of requirements are therefore important. Basic and
performance requirements provide a solid base while attractive requirements
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stimulate referrals. Performance requirements are explicitly expressed by customers
and can be tangibilized with traditional market research instruments such as surveys.
Companies have on the other hand to uncover basic and attractive requirements
through customer insight.
The developed solutions are therefore to be directed towards attractive
characteristics; basic and performance characteristics are out of the project scope.
The Word of mouth Association argues that there are two categories of word-ofmouth marketing: Organic and Amplified. Organic word-of-mouth occurs naturally
when people become advocates and develop the desire to share their support and
enthusiasm. Amplified word-of-mouth occurs when marketers launch campaigns
directed to the encouragement and acceleration of word-of-mouth in existing or new
communities (2007). The sphere of the project solution is the creation of amplified
referral marketing activities in the form of stimulus-response models. How those are
organized is described below.
2.4. Referral Framework
This section covers the tactical framework on the subject of amplified referrals and
answers specific how-to questions. Most of the information originates from the book
Word of Mouth Marketing, written by the former CEO of the Word of Mouth
Association, Andy Sernovitz. The framework was established for word of mouth
marketing but seems applicable for referrals in general. Previous sections covered to
most part theoretical knowledge which is as well applied in this project; this section
however is mostly devoted to practical advice from referral marketing experts.
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Sernovitz defines word-of-mouth marketing with a simple two step definition:
1. Giving people a reason to talk about your stuff
2. Making it easier for that conversation to take place
After studying hundreds of word of mouth successes he suggests that each of them
was based on five basic elements which serve as base for planning referral activities
(Sernovitz, Worlf of Mouth Marketing, 2009):
1. Talkers:
Who will tell their friends about you?
2. Topics:
What will they talk about?
3. Tools:
How can you help the message travel?
4. Taking part:
How should you join the conversation?
5. Tracking:
What are people saying about you?
Concerning the five elements it has to be stated that the degree to which they can be
employed depends on the specific co ntext of the marketing activity. Offline word of
mouth referrals can be for example more difficult to measure than online activities.
Everyone who could possibly forward a message concerning a company is a
potential talker: Customers, journalists, experts, business partners, employees and
others. For this project the focus is howeve r to target company clients as talkers.
All word of mouth starts with a topic. If companies want people to spread the word
they need to give them something worth passing along. Topics can involve
everything like for instance excellent customer service, interesting packaging,
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freebies and others. Sernovitz argues that good topics are (Sernovitz, Worlf of Mouth
Marketing, 2009):
1. Simple
They should be short and developed around a single idea that is easy to
repeat.
2. Organic
Good organic topics are based on exceptional qualities which make products
and services stand out and make it “buzzworthy”.
3. Portable
They should be easy to move along and expressible in a simple sentence like:
“You should try_______, it is ______.” or “Can you believe_____did______?”
One implication that arises is that one cannot predict what and if customers will talk
about, the same way one cannot predict the success of an advertising campaign. He
suggests companies first to try many different little things, to reinforce what is
effective and quit what is not, before engaging in word of mouth activities of higher
complexity. To increase the likelihood of success Sernovitz advises companies to
ask the question of “is it buzzworthy” to various people and set priorities based on
feedback. He further states that topics are often not directly related to the core
business. He cites the example of a dental clinic which obtains a considerable
amount of word of mouth by handing out a questionnaire to customers and asking
many lifestyle related questio ns such as their favorite music. At the second visit this
music is played in the background as the customer enters the dental room
(Sernovitz, Talking Word of mouth with Andy Serenovitz, 2009). Seth Godin refers to
such simple “buzzworthy” topics as soft innovations and describes them as clever,
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insightful, useful small ideas which everyone in the organization can think up (Godin,
Free Prize Inside, 2007). Since Digicomp is not yet very experienced with amplified
referrals the author suggests keeping referral activities simple and practical to begin
with.
Simple solutions have oftentimes proven to be highly effective. There is a large
variety of available tools to drive referrals such as testimonials, email marketing,
direct mail, giveaways, phone calls and social media networks which can be
integrated in referral activities.
The first step of joining conversations is to find them. Some are out of reach while
others, especially online conversations , can be tracked with a variety of tools.
Sernovitz states that companies should reply and respond in every possible chance
and make themselves available to talk because the only way to influence a
conversation is by joining it. The basic two functions of joining conversations are to
thank people who say positive things about the company and to handle problems. He
further suggests three points of good manners when joining conversations:
1. Never sell
Taking part does not mean selling which is not appreciated neither. The
purpose is to share knowledge, add to the conversation and make people feel
appreciated and special.
2. Follow the Rules
Different contexts have different rules. Joining conversations on the street, on
an online message board, on a trade show imply different types of rules and
norms to be followed.
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3. Say who you are
When joining conversations it should be clearly disclosed who is joining:
Name, company and if necessary job position.
Tracking referrals can involve various techniques and tools. Important points to
consider are that indirect referrals and online referrals are more tangible and easier
to measure than traditional word of mouth. Word of mouth research has undergone
significant advances in recent years. Specialized companies now offer various types
of solutions for tracking; those are nevertheless out of the scope of this project. The
author suggests measuring referrals in-house with simple solutions, especially for the
suggested activities which are kept simple.
Considering indirect referrals, Jantsch suggest following occasions to ask for them:
 When a customer voluntarily suggest that the companies‟ product or service is
“incredible”.
 When a customer sends an unsolicited testimonial.
 When a customer refers someone is the perfect time to ask for more referrals.
 When a customer admits the company‟s solution prevented him or her from
big problems.
 When a strategic partner tells about an association they have joined.
 When a customer project is completed.
He further suggests contacting the customer who referred the new prospect in order
to show appreciation and to ask why he or she referred. This might provide important
customer insights which can be used in future marketing activities (2010).
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To conclude the 5 T framework, Sernovitz suggests businesses to ask following
questions concerning at the customer:
 When she walks out the door, what have I given her to talk about?
 How will he remember to tell his friends?
 Could I have made it easier for her to talk to more people about me?
 Was anything about his experience remarkable?
Complementary information to this section is provided in the appendix: WOM 101 –
Word of Mouth Association (Appendix B).
3. Referral Solution Ideas and General Suggestions
This section is concerned with the implementation of the information provided in the
theoretical framework. The goal is to create reasons and mechanisms for customers
to refer Digicomp.
The solutions range from simple delighters in order to improve the customer
experience and eventually generate organic word of mouth to systematic referral
generators with built-in interaction and tracking mechanisms.
The author provides various solutions for the referral efforts. He advises Digicomp to
experiment with different alternatives and variations over time, to reinforce what
proves to be effective and to de-emphasize what does not. One example would be to
change the talkers. A suggested referral effort targeted to a specific group of talkers
might be tested on talkers of other customer segments or courses.
15 Ideas were presented to the client (Appendix C), eight were chosen of which six
are developed in detail and two described in brief together with the general
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suggestions at the end of the paper. Some small alterations and additions were
suggested and taken into consideration during the development phase. Specifics of
the concepts are in some cases to be defined internally by the company. This might
provide the benefit of feedback from various stakeholders such as clients, employees
and partners. The author spent three days in the clients‟ office where issues were
clarified and agreed upon concerning the suggested activities.
Digicomp has no clear measurement on what percentage of customer are gained
due to referrals. The author does therefore only indicate objectives qualitatively
because he would not hold personal estimations for reliable. He recommends
Digicomp to define attainable and time-bound objectives based on the suggested
metrics. The suggested metrics are self-explanatory and measure what the author
perceives as most important to track in order to evaluate the main goal and additional
benefits provided by the tactics.
Concerning tools the author mostly describes what functions are necessary to be
provided by those despite suggesting individual tools for specific functions. Since
various tools can be used and Digicomp has professional staff for implementation;
the author suggests tools to be chosen based on the preferences of the company.
3.1. Post-Course information Feed
Tactical Plan:
Digicomp customers shall be provided with different articles related to the content of
the course they participated in. This information is to be found on different online
sources, mainly on blogs, company and product websites and online portals and
magazines. To increase the degree of involvement with the Digicomp Brand a short
summary and eventual comments on the content shall be provided, which is either to
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be found on the Digicomp webpage or in emails. The summary serves as a teaser
and exposes the customer continuously to the Digicomp brand over time. The
summary shall link to the root source of the content provider. The course instructor
should introduce the service, explaining and selling its benefits after the course,
preferably when the customers are on a computer with internet access to increase
the likelihood of subscription. The customer shall be encouraged, and tools shall be
provided to facilitate content sharing and subscription recommendations.
Additional Benefits
1. Builds an audience with the permission to communicate with.
2. Increases public exposure.
3. Creates additional post-course touchpoints with the customer and between
course participants.
4. Builds goodwill (Reciprocity).
5. Deepens
the
customer
relationship
(Through
personal
post-course
interaction).
6. Increases website traffic in a measurable way. (Traffic source indicated in web
analytics).
Talkers
The author suggests targeting the office users segment. The reason for the choice is
because the IT-Professional and Developers segment requires heterogeneous and
specialized content, which is probably available in smaller quantities and difficult to
evaluate without the required technical background.
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Topics
This activity is likely to create two types of topics: a general standard topic and
various specific topics. The general topic passes along the message of the service in
general and could be like something as follows: “Digicomp provides very useful free
information, you should subscribe as well”. The specific topics are content related
and indicate to the delivered information. The message could be for example as
follows: “I read an interesting article on online security; you should read it as well”.
Tools
For a better overview and illustration of the referral mechanism:
Figure 8: Post-Course information Feed Mechanics
Source: Author
This
referral
system
has
as
three
main
components:
Content
sources,
communication channels and a teaser page.
Content source:
Using content provided by third parties brings time saving benefits but requires a
systematic content generation process for the efficient use of the tool.
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The three main questions are:
 How can such content be found continuously in an efficient way.
 What content is relevant, interesting or both.
 In what frequency the content shall be sent to subscribers.
The author suggests facilitating the content search with crawling tools 2 next to
manual content search. It is furthermore important to recognize the important
information sources on specific topics such as renowned blogs written by industry
experts. These can be as well scanned in automated fashion, the author suggests
however to track those manually with the help of RSS readers and tools.
Repeated sending of irrelevant information could lead to the feed being ignored and
unsubscribed which hurts the Digicomp brand. It is therefore important to plan and
define what type of information shall be forwarded and at what frequency which
varies depending on the target audience . A list of questions concerning customer
concerns is provided in the appendix to support the content definition (Appendix D).
The author suggests brainstorming those concerns to generate ideas. Those ideas
shall be used for content search and typed as keywords for web crawling. These
questions can be answered through customer insight but can be as well included in
customer feedback. One simple way to integrate the voice of the customer in the
process would be to ask for topics of interests at the time of the subscription and
sporadically during the year through the feeds. The author suggests Digicomp as well
to seek similarities within the different audiences to distribute certain contents
2
A web crawler is a search tool which browses the int ernet automaticaly searching for predefined
criteria of which a protocol is sent to the user. One popular example is for instance Google Alerts
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through various feeds. Ergonomics could be for example an interesting subject for
office employees and for IT-Professionals because both share the same
consequences of performing sedentary work.
Communication Channels
The selected communication channels are Email, Facebook, Rss and Twitter. The
reason behind establishing various channels is for the customer to have the
possibility to subscribe in the way he or she perceives the most convenient.
Facebook and Twitter have integrated referral functions (Facebook – Share, Twitter –
Retweet). Emails can be forwarded and the idea of referring can be brought up within
the text. Sharing tools can be as well embedded in emails like for instance ShareThis
(http://www.sharethis.com) which facilitates content distribution to various platforms.
How sharing-friendly Rss is depends on the Rss reader which is used. However, this
is not a major drawback because a sharing function can be added as well in the
teaser page.
Teaser Page
The author suggests the teaser page to be based on a different template, with a
different layout than the company website. The reason for this is to provide a feeling
of exclusivity. The author suggests this message to be emphasized, preferably on the
banner of the page next to the logo. This message could be something like
“Digicomp Continuous Learning Platform – The place where the insiders meet”. The
teaser page can be built from scratch or make use of pre-established platforms such
as Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.org). The advantage of such tools is next to
time saving also that they provide other functions such as archiving, tagging,
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comment functions etc. A sharing function should be provided on every page to
facilitate referring.
Taking Part
Despite answering direct requests Digicomp should as well interact with customers
who comment on the content. In case of high volume of content and an automated
solution to track conversations should be employed. Following tools are for example
popular online conversation trackers co.mments (http://co.mments.com/) and
Backtype (http://www.backtype.com/). One further aspect to be regarded is the
possible interaction with the content creator. The author suggests Digicomp to send
them a short notification on why Digicomp is linking to his or her conte nt. The author
suggests cultivating relationships with good content providers because this could
lead to further benefits such as being linked and recommended by the content
provider, having the possibility to conduct an expert interview or inviting the content
provider for doing a presentation and others.
Tracking
While there are various online metrics which can be chosen based on personal
preference the author suggests a special emphasis on following measurements:
 Number of subscribers
 Number of visits to the Teaser Page
 Ratio of visits to Teaser Page divided by number of subscribers
 Traffic Source
 Number of referrals
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 Number of website visits incoming from social media channels and e-mail
 Number of comments on forwarded materials
The
author
suggests
tracking
the
Teaser
Page
with
Google
Analytics
(http://www.google.com/analytics). All communication channels provide referral
counting mechanisms except Email. Tracking email referrals can be supported with
email marketing tools such as for example Aweber (http://www.aweber.com).
3.2. Content Marketing – Youtube, Slideshare and Ustream
Tactical Plan
Digicomp already engages in content marketing with the tips and tricks section on the
company website. The company has furthermore started to communicate through
social media channels. This referral activity brings both elements together and
provides an expansion in the usage of those tools.
Digicomp establishes continuously documents and hosts various events and
presentations suitable for social media content sharing. Without much additional
work, various channels shall be proactively promoted to course participants and other
stakeholders, stimulating content sharing and leading to the establishment of
permission based audience. This activity also brings Digicomp additional exposure
through the presence in new communication channels not yet used by Digicomp.
The author suggests following three channels for the context of Digicomp:
Slideshare, Ustream and Youtube.
The company has access to many different Power Point presenta tions. Those are
mostly used for courses and presentations held by various instructors and speakers.
The slide sets could be uploaded directly to Slideshare or previously edited according
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the preference of the Digicomp. This requires however the permission of the content
creator. Those slides can be further announced through different channels such as
E-mail, Twitter or Facebook. In case that content creators should have an
established audience, such as Twitter followers for example, Digicomp could request
of him or her to distribute the content to their contact list. This creates a multiplier
effect reaching new prospects. This also associates Digicomp with a source those
receivers know and might like which increases compliance.
Digicomp has already successfully used Ustream on a test event for the live
broadcast of a public presentation. Events should be previously announced through
the various online channels and as with Slideshare the involved people shall be
asked for permission prior broadcasting. The videos of those live events can be
saved on Ustream and accessed on at later point. The platform furthermore provides
the option to upload saved videos directly to a Youtube account. This is highly
recommended to increase exposure with an additional channel.
Youtube shall be the only channel for which content is explicitly created. As the other
channels it is meant to stimulate referrals through content sharing, might require the
agreement of involved people prior publishing and a multiplier effect can be ac hieved
if content can be distributed to other established audiences. The creation of videos
serves furthermore the function of tangibilizing the service to customers and
prospects, increasing the level of assurance which adds value to the Digicomp brand.
As with the post-course feed the questions to answer are: What is relevant and how
frequent to update.
Additional Benefits
1. Increases public exposure.
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2. Increases customer assurance through service tangibilization.
3. Builds an audience with the permission to communicate with.
Talkers
Talkers are divided in two categories for this activity: members and non-members of
Digicomps‟ established audience. Members of the established audience are
characterized by the fact of having subscribed to the channels. Members should be
actively informed concerning the new content while non-members can find and
access the content either by specifically searching for information, finding it by
chance or by being forwarded the content from another talker. Every single person
accessing the content is therefore a potential talker. Because the contents concern
various topics it is suggested to target specific audiences who are more likely to
value it. Certain contents of broad interest could be forwarded to the mass, those
should however be used sparingly.
Topics
The topic is mainly expected to revolve around the content itself. Some talkers might
explicitly mention or comment something on Digicomp like “Here is a cool slide set on
topic XY from the IT school in which I did course XY” but the main topic is expected
to be the content itself. Digicomp should therefore ensure that the Digicomp brand
and the website address are included in the content.
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Tools
There are three types of tools used for this activity:
1. Content
2. Communication channels: Social Media networks and E-mail
3. Established audiences of involved people
The content is the key of this activity; the outcome relies therefore strongly on its
quality. People need to perceive a benefit, as mentioned in the theoretical part, on
forwarding the content. Forwarding average quality or bad content provides no
benefit to talkers and endangers their social reputation.
The suggested social media platforms are powerful referral tools. They provide a
platform for content hosting, have built-in content sharing and comment functions to
generate conversations and have integrated tracking tools.
The content can be further distributed through established audiences of involved
people like Twitter followers, blog readers or E-Mail lists. Those people are talkers as
well with the only difference of sending mass messages instead of single messages
to specific people. Mass talkers are as well only likely to forward a message if it
provides them a benefit. Content marketing establishes furthermore trust, credibility
and authority which increases compliance of the message receiver (Copyblogger,
2009).
Taking part
Because comments are automatically monitored through integrated functions of tand
social media communication occurs on fast pace the author recommends fast
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reaction to the comments. The faster the response the better, otherwise it is
suggested to answer comments twice per workday for time saving reasons , while still
answering within a reasonable time frame.
Tracking
Following metrics are suggested for tracking:
 Number of content views
 Number of content forwards
 Traffic source (Links on websites, search function, referral and others)
 Number of channel subscribers
 Number of website visits incoming from social media channels
3.3. Developer Contest
Tactical Plan
Developers take pride in solving complicated problems. The instructor shall provide
at the end of a course a developer challenge. This challenge contains a complex
problem to be solved within a specific time by course participants. There should be a
way to measure results and create a ranking. 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners should
be provided with prizes. The extent of those prizes is to be decided by Digicomp
internally. Prizes shall be announced immediately on the screen once the time is
over. Next to the ranking and the prizes there should be a text prompting the course
participants to challenge their acquaintances by forwarding the challenge to which
they can participate online. People have the intrinsic need of vengeance which
makes them respond to challenges. Because the solving of the challenge requires
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technical knowledge it is not geared towards the broad public. The author suggests
therefore allowing participants only to challenge a limited number of people to create
a sense of scarcity and increase the likelihood of forwarding the challenge because it
makes it seem more valuable. Depending on the results of the activity the author
suggests following possible extensions:
1. Offering of prizes for online participants as well.
2. Creating follow-up contests for the winners in the form of a K.-O.-System.
3. Offer online participants the possibility to challenge their acquaintances as well
trying to viralize the challenge.
4. Create public all-time best ranking list.
Additional Benefit
1. Consecutive promotion of feed and social media channels.
Talkers
The initial targets for talking are developers. Extending the activity to online
participants would allow a possible expansion of talkers to further tiers of the social
network of course participants.
Topics
The author suggests framing the sharing functionality around a challenge to which
participants can invite their acquaintenances. The forwarded topic could possibly look
as follows:
 “Are you clever enough to solve it in less than 30 minutes?”
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 “I scored 70 points, how many are you able to do?”
Tools
This referral activity is a specific solution which applies to the context of Digicomp.
While there might be available templates which can be bought or downloaded for
free, those are likely to require adaptations in functionality and design. The referral
tool needs satisfy following mechanisms:
1. Online Test
2. Ranking System
3. Sharing / Invitation
This referral tool could as well be set-up on Facebook. This could bring various
advantages for the sharing functionality such as selecting specific people in the friend
list but also imposes the constraint that people without Facebook account cannot be
reached. The Facebook alternative seems attractive and should be considered as
well, creating it on a dynamic webpage provides nevertheless more flexibility.
Taking Part
The course instructor can join discussions after the test personally. All participants
who refer the challenge to someone should be thanked. This can be done with an
automated email for example; a small, symbolic thank-you gift could be added as
well to reinforce the impact of the message.
Tracking
The following metrics are suggested for tracking:
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 Number and percentage of course participants who take the test.
 Number of referrals.
 Referral to participant ratio.
 Conversion rate of referrals to participants.
3.4. Memorial Items of courses of longer duration
Tactical Plan
Digicomp provides Information Technology courses spanning multiple months.
Course participants are therefore class fellows during that period. After the course
every participant shall be sent a t-shirt with a group picture, course title, date and
Digicomp logo. With that T-shirt a letter thanking for participating in the class,
preferably personalized by the course instructor and asking for a written testimonial.
Personalized letters require a higher time investment but create a more positive
reaction, have delighting potential and could serve as motivator for the writing of the
testimonial; it would also prompt reciprocation for a personalized message. The letter
should further request that testimonial to be written publicly in case the person has a
blog or likes to share content online, preferably with a picture wearing the T-shirt.
Having testimonials linked to blogs and other personal online platforms of
participants increases authenticity, credibility which increase the social proof effect.
This t-shirt can be used for multiple purposes: Clothing item, souvenir, decoration for
the office wall and eventually others. It serves despite utilitarian also various
emotional needs fulfilled through self-expression such the need for individuality. The
t-shirt can also include other components to make it more attractive such as symbols
which talkers associate with personally. Long-term and repetitive exposure leads to
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long-term conversation and referral potential which could be created by the t-shirt in
case it is often worn. Additionally to the t-shirt Digicomp should also upload an online
photo album of the course. Participants are to be asked for permission before
publishing any pictures. Pictures should be published on an own section in the
Digicomp website and preferably on Facebook as well for exposure and participation
reasons.
The customer has to agree to the request of having the picture taken and having it
published. The author suggests asking people who seem more extroverted first.
Those people are more likely to agree to such requests. Receiving the approval and
taking pictures in front of the other class participants creates on the one hand social
proof and on the other hand peer pressure to comply with the request previously
complied by others.
Additional Benefits
1. Creates a potential long-term exposure of the Digicomp brand.
2. Increases the referral authenticity with customer publications.
3. Facilitates course participants to stay in contact.
Talkers
Since Digicomp provides various longer term courses it is important to decide which
courses this activity shall be implemented for, because of cost and time investment
reasons. Providing this additional feature to all courses would increase costs,
economics of scale should however not be overlooked and volume discounts for
printed t-shirts should be analyzed.
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Topics
This referral activity is likely to create two types of conversations; one started by the
course participant himself and the other by his acquaintances as a reaction to the
exposure of the t-shirt. Those topics could sound as follows:
Initiated by the participant
“If you are looking for a course on XY try Digicomp,
they have awesome service.”
“Have a look at this t-shirt, no other company has
ever done that”.
Initiated by an acquaintance
“You did a course on XY? How was it?”
“What is Digicomp?”
A further aspect to be considered is referrals between course participants. One
participant, if connected to others (which is facilitated due to the use of online
platforms), can stimulate further course participations. Follow-up courses and new
software versions for example could generate topics such as: “Hello XY, I will take
the advanced course in three months, let us do it together.”
Tools
This activity is technically very simple and only requires a few tools that most people
can manage. Concerning the pictures it is important to consider the image quality of
the group picture needs to be printed. One alternative would be to send a sweatshirt
instead of a t-shirt. A sweatshirt would be more expensive and it would be rather
used on colder days. From a utility perspective on the other hand, people usually
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have more spare t-shirts than sweatshirts which could make the sweatshirt more
utilized.
Pictures for online publishing can be taken with simple digital cameras or even
mobile phones. A photo gallery section should be created on the Digicomp website
with an index categorizing the pictures according course type and date. This
additional section is as well a good opportunity to place testimonials from course
participants of the different albums. A personal picture should be placed next to the
testimonial, if possible, to reinforce the social proof effect through authenticity. One
additional option to the album is a comment function, which should be experimented.
In case that comments are written with certain regularity the author suggests keeping
the function, otherwise to remove it to prevent a possible negative social proof effect
like “nobody is writing anything, this cannot be any good”.
Taking part
This activity creates following situations which should be participated by Digicomp:
 When people write testimonials.
 When people comment in the photo albums (Website and Facebook).
Tracking
The following metrics are suggested for tracking:
 Number of visits to the photo galleries.
 Number of comments on photo galleries.
 Number of personal publications of testimonials and how many of them
include the t-shirt.
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3.5. Post-Course Challenge
Tactical Plan
Course participants shall be sent an automated email invitation to participate in an
online assessment two to six months after the course to control how much they
retained. To create a more personalized impression the author sugges ts the
generation
of
a
customized
URL
for
all
participants
(Example:
online-
assessment.digicomp.ch/coursename/surname.name) and to display a personal
welcome message addressing the participant by his or her name. Some feedback
questions shall be added at the end of the assessment because the customer is at
this point better able to evaluate the course utility (Reason for suggested waiting of 26 months). The feedback should end with a question asking if the customer would
refer Digicomp to make use or the commitment and consistency principle. After
completing the assessment the customer shall be informed about the score and
evaluation of his or her performance with a n automated message. Automated
messages shall be divided in three categories and could look as follows:
Above average:
“Congratulations, you belong to the upper-range
and your level of knowledge seems on track!”
Average:
“You scored on average range. Did you actually
utilize your learnings so far? Revising your course
materials might be a good idea in case you did not.”
Below average:
“You slightly below average. Maybe you just had a
bad day. Otherwise we suggest you to revise your
course materials or to retake the course for free.”
Page 47 of 61
The below average score should be delivered in a deadened fashion so as not to
offend the customer but still showing transparency. Concerning the course retake
there are auxiliary issues to be considered. People might not take advantage of the
offer for ego protection reasons, to avoid the embarrassment of “failure” in front of
others or for time investment reasons. The author does therefore not expect many
additional courses retakes to be caused by this activity.
Providing transparent, personalized messages is likely to enhance the customer
experience and level trust in Digicomp. The three responses are based on weapons
of influence which are placed purposely one step before asking for referrals to
increase compliance beforehand. Providing a free course creates reciprocity, giving
advice displays authority if considered by the customer and compliments increase
likeability. On the same page of the message Digicomp should thank fo r participation,
ask for referrals and promote the free feed service for continuous learning and other
online channels. The author suggests two alternatives to obtain referrals:
1.
Provide the possibility to forward the assessment to acquaintances
for testing their knowledge on the subject (Test your knowledge,
when sent by a friend might appear more intriguing and even be
perceived as challenge which people tend to respond to).
2.
Provide the incentive to forward a message confirming satisfaction
with Digicomp and providing X % of rebate. The customer should
have the option to send a standard text prepared by Digicomp or
to type a personalized message
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The purpose of the rebate is to provide a small, symbolic discount which serves the
customer for building a social currency by offering benefits to acquaintances. The
rebate encourages the referral and makes it easier to talk about.
Additional Benefits
1. Demonstrates of post-service customer attention
2. Provides of assurance to the customer (One of the main service quality
criteria)
3. Gathers of customer feedback
4. Promotes of the feed service and other online channels
Talkers
It is suggested to target participants of longer courses with that activity. There is
more to ask about, more content to be forgotten and a higher involvement due to the
superior time and often monetary investment. Those courses tend as well to provide
higher margins which make rebates more feasible.
Topics
The author expects topics to revolve around following issues: knowledge test, rebate,
general customer satisfaction, course retake, approval and recognition. Topics could
possibly sound as follows:
Knowledge test:
“Check how much you know about XY on this link”
Rebate:
“Digicomp offers X % discount to my friends in
case you are planning to take any course soon.”
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General customer satisfaction
“The course was amazing, you should try Digicomp
as well.”
Course retakes:
“I can retake the course for free, Digicomp is
amazing!”
Approval and recognition:
“I scored within the higher range in the course
assessment!”
The topic on approval and recognition can be especially triggered if the course was
paid by the employer to confirm that it was a good investment.
Tools
The tools are appointed below together with the process illustration:
Figure 9: Illustration of the post-course challenge referral tool process
Source: Author
Page 50 of 61
Assessment Invitation
The author suggests sending an automated email within two to six months after the
course. The goal is to build goodwill and to persuade the customer to take part on the
online assessment. Writing the email-draft is not part of the project scope, the author
stresses however following points:
1. Making use of a persuasive headline to encourage further reading
Example: A quick way to see how much you still know (Evocation of curiosity)
2. Writing a short text body
3. Making it seem effortless. (“It only takes 10 minutes”)
The author suggests experimenting with the email content in the starting period to
discover what type of text generates the highest participation rate.
Online Assessment
The assessment process is suggested to be split in three steps:
1. Welcome page
Greeting with the personal name to create an agreeable and personalized
customer experience.
2. Assessment
It is important to ask the most crucial review questions in a comfortable and
digestible way. Crowded pages and complicated texts could lead to dropouts.
3. Score and referral page
The last page should show the assessment score, promote the feed-system
and other online channels and ask for referrals. The framing of the referral
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request is critical and might have a significance impact on the referral rate A
form should be provided for the indication of the referral contact details. Two
possible alternatives for the referral page could be:

Leaving out the referral request. It should be tested if more people
subscribe to the feed if the referral request is left out. As long people
subscribe to the feed Digicomp has an established channel in which
referral requests can always be sent. Reading free feed content also
increases compliance due to reciprocation.

Adding a thumbnail of the photo gallery with a reminder text and link
like: “Did you already see the pictures of your seminar?”. The idea is
to display both activities with delighting potential together. This
should reassure the customer that he or she is referring a company
which values and takes good care of its customers.
Taking part
This activity leads to two or eventually three talking opportunities: Referral, Feed
subscription and photo gallery visit. In case the customer makes a referral Digicomp
should enter send a thank you letter, preferably with a small gift to show appreciation
and motivate continuous referring. Feed and photo gallery interaction are to be
undertaken as well as suggested above.
Tracking
The following metrics are suggested for tracking:
 % of opened emails
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 % of assessment participation
 % of referrals
 % of clicks on provided links (Feeds, Website, Youtube channel and others)
3.6. Buzz Worthy Give-Aways
Tactical Plan
Giveaways are used by many companies in traditional marketing activities. The
difference shall be made by selecting specific items which are worth talking about. To
be more effective those giveaways need satisfy more than utilitarian needs but
should as well evoke emotional responses. For this activity two types of buzz worthy
giveaways are to be considered: general and contextual giveaways. General
giveaways are supposed to stimulate conversations through the whole year for all
target groups. Contextual giveaways are more specific and relevant to the customer
and specific situations. They need to have a direct relationship to somethi ng the
customer considers personally relevant. This could be related to a current event, to
the customers industry, to the season, to the customers‟ interests, lifestyle, values
and others. For the purpose of referral effectiveness all giveaways directed towards
referrals should provide exposure by nature such as IT periphery standing on office
desks, interesting things to hang on the wall, something which the customers can put
on the door of the home refrigerator and others. Those items should be signalized
with the Digicomp brand.
Additional Benefits
 Exposure and branding
Page 53 of 61
Talkers
This activity can be mass targeted to all Digicomp customers, specified to the
different segments or both. It is suggested to used a combined approach and make
use of general and specific giveaways. Digicomp should differentiate the customers‟
importance to the company for the promotional budget of specific giveaways.
Topics
Because those items shall provide exposure by nature there are active and reactive
topics to be expected. On the one hand when the customers pass along a message
concerning the item, Digicomp or in conjunction such as “Look at this cool gadget, I
got from the IT school I did course XY”. On the other hand when someone asks
something or makes a remark concerning item like “This looks really cool, where do
you have that from?”.
Tools
Specific giveaways are likely to create a more positive response due to the
contextual relevance; general giveaways can be however effective as well. Examples
of specific giveaways would be for instance usb-ventilators for the summer or LED
Binary desk clocks for IT-professionals. Because Digicomp knows their customer
better the author suggests collecting ideas internally. Course instructors could
provide very valuable input because they often have similar backgrounds as course
participants and higher customer intimacy. General online research could lead to
good ideas for giveaway items as well. Those giveaways can be handed to the
customer after a seminar or at a later point by mail which could be sent together with
a bill or other type of document which would have been sent anyway. The author
Page 54 of 61
suggests sending the buzzworthy giveaways afterwards to either create an additional
touchpoint or to improve the customer experience of an existing touchpoint. There
are many opportunities to delight the customer during the seminar as for instance
through service delivery. Because building customer relationship is a process and not
an event it is suggested to spread delighters over time.
Taking part
This activity is from a participation part rather limited. Digicomp should simply thank
for positive feedbacks and join public online conversations in case they are
stimulated by the giveaway.
Tracking
 Number of unsolicited positive feedbacks
 Number of referrals generated by receivers of the giveaway
 Online conversations
3.7. General suggestions
Additionally to the aforementioned specific solution ideas the author provides some
general suggestions to be implemented by Digicomp.
Expansion of testimonial utilization
Testimonials are a typical social proof tool which increases compliance and the
customers‟ assurance. Digicomp already employs testimonials in their marketing
activities. The author suggests an expansion of the testimonial utilization in breadth
and depth. The breadth expansion concerns attaching testimonials to additional
touchpoints such as on invoices, email signatures, in the background of social media
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channels and others. For broad utilization the author suggests a periodic rotation of
testimonials to increase the probability of customers being exposed to different
testimonials leading to an increase of the social proof effect. Digicomp should
however avoid embedding testimonials in inappropriate situations such as with
dunning letters. The specific expansion concerns using selected testimonials to
increase the contextual relevance. Examples would be for instance if a prospect
requests documentation and expresses the interest on a specific course. A
testimonial of the requested course should be added if available. Adding testimonials
of customers to photo galleries of the courses they participated would be another
form of depth expansion.
Written appeals for referrals
The idea is to remind customers to refer Digicomp. The author recommends
Digicomp to add a text or stamp to their documents requesting referrals which can
vary depending on the desired framing , some possible examples below:
“We appreciate referrals”
“We love our customers, we love referrals. Spread the word.”
“We rather spend on our customers than on advertising, please refer Digicomp”
Training employees to ask for referrals
Jantsch suggests several situations in which companies should ask for referrals
(2.4). The author highly recommends training and providing incentives to the staff
and trying to incorporate a referral mindset in the corporate culture.
Page 56 of 61
4. Concluding observations
The suggested solutions are co nstructed in a flexible manner. The author highly
suggests making use of that characteristic by experimenting around the ideas. As
illustrated in a few examples, small details can make a significant impact. Most ideas
are not particularly resource intensive and include barely any sunk costs. The time
investment of developing and executing new ideas, should not just be regarded as an
expenditure, but as an investment in a company-intern learning process of an
important issue.
Delighting the customer can be successfully achieved by simple measures as
described in the paper. Despite implementing the suggested ideas the author also
recommends Digicomp continuously to create new delighters and to spread them
through the customer life cycle.
Marketing is not a department. When an employee takes the phone that is marketing,
when a bill is sent that is marketing, when the customer enters the course room that
is marketing. Those things are marketing because every single interaction of the
customer with the Digicomp brand adds to the customer experience and leaves an
impression. It is therefore suggested to act accordingly, especially when the goal is to
delight the customer. Delighters should be created through the whole organization.
Employees know their tasks better than anyone else, or at least better than most
people, and can therefore come up with ideas a marketing department never could.
Digicomp has a high number of satisfied customers but only 6% who reported being
delighted. This indicates that most basic and performance characteristics, referring to
the kano model, are already in place. It is therefore important to start focusing on the
third curve (Attractive requirements) and making it easier to talk about.
Page 57 of 61
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Appendix
Appendix A: Servqual Survey
2 Pages
Appendix B: Wom 101
8 Pages
Appendix C: 14+1 Referral Ideas
4 Pages
Appendix D: Useful questions to understand the target audience
1 Page
Page 61 of 61
Appendix A (2 pages) - Beginning
Servqual Survey
Appendix A (2 pages) - End
Servqual Survey
Appendix B (8 pages) - Beginning
Wom 101 – Word of Mouth Association
WOM 101
© (c) WOMMA 2007
An Introduction to WOM Marketing
with Definitions:
Word of Mouth: The act of consumers providing information to other consumers.
Word of Mouth Marketing: Giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place. It is the art and science of
building active, mutually beneficial consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer
communications.
What is WOM Marketing?
Word of mouth is a pre-existing phenomenon that marketers are only now learning how
to harness, amplify, and improve. Word of mouth marketing isn’t about creating word of
mouth -- it’s learning how to make it work within a marketing objective.
That said, word of mouth can be encouraged and facilitated. Companies can work hard to
make people happier, they can listen to consumers, they can make it easier for them to tell
their friends, and they can make certain that influential individuals know about the good
qualities of a product or service.
Word of mouth marketing empowers people to share their experiences. It’s harnessing the
voice of the customer for the good of the brand. And it’s acknowledging that the unsatisfied
customer is equally powerful.
Word of mouth can’t be faked or invented. Attempting to fake word of mouth is unethical
and creates a backlash, damages the brand, and tarnishes the corporate reputation. Legitimate word of mouth marketing acknowledges consumers’ intelligence -- it never attempts
to fool them. Ethical marketers reject all tactics related to manipulation, deception, infiltration, or dishonesty.
All word of mouth marketing techniques are based on the concepts of customer satisfaction, two-way dialog, and transparent communications. The basic elements are:
•
•
•
•
•
Educating people about your products and services
Identifying people most likely to share their opinions
Providing tools that make it easier to share information
Studying how, where, and when opinions are being shared
Listening and responding to supporters, detractors, and neutrals
© (c) WOMMA 2007
Types of Word of Mouth Marketing:
Word of mouth marketing encompasses dozens of marketing techniques that are geared
toward encouraging and helping people to talk to each other about products and services.
Common types of word of mouth marketing are listed below. This is not a complete list -we’re publishing it as a means to begin a dialog toward standardization, and we welcome
your comments. (Not everyone agrees that each of these should be part of word of mouth
marketing, and many marketers use different terms to describe them.)
Buzz Marketing: Using high-profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about your
brand.
Viral Marketing: Creating entertaining or informative messages that are designed to be
passed along in an exponential fashion, often electronically or by email.
Community Marketing: Forming or supporting niche communities that are likely to share
interests about the brand (such as user groups, fan clubs, and discussion forums); providing
tools, content, and information to support those communities.
Grassroots Marketing: Organizing and motivating volunteers to engage in personal or local
outreach.
Evangelist Marketing: Cultivating evangelists, advocates, or volunteers who are encouraged to take a leadership role in actively spreading the word on your behalf.
Product Seeding: Placing the right product into the right hands at the right time, providing
information or samples to influential individuals.
Influencer Marketing: Identifying key communities and opinion leaders who are likely to
talk about products and have the ability to influence the opinions of others.
Cause Marketing: Supporting social causes to earn respect and support from people who
feel strongly about the cause.
Conversation Creation: Interesting or fun advertising, emails, catch phrases, entertainment, or promotions designed to start word of mouth activity.
Brand Blogging: Creating blogs and participating in the blogosphere, in the spirit of open,
transparent communications; sharing information of value that the blog community may
talk about.
Referral Programs: Creating tools that enable satisfied customers to refer their friends.
© (c) WOMMA 2007
WOM is...
*
*
*
*
The voice of the customer
A natural, genuine, honest process
People seeking advice from each other
Customers talking about products, services, or brands
WOM Marketing is...
Recognizing that a happy customer is the greatest endorsement: We work to create customer enthusiasm instead of pushing marketing messages
Giving customers a voice: Providing something worth talking about Providing tools that
make it easier for them to share their opinions
Listening to consumers: Engaging them in open, unfiltered conversation Promptly and
honestly responding to their concerns Valuing customer opinion, whether it is positive,
negative, or neutral
Engaging the community: Finding the right people and connecting them to each other
Helping new communities to form Participating in and supporting existing communities and
conversations
The only marketing based on
genuinely passionate people...
Word of mouth marketing is the most honest form of marketing, building upon people’s
natural desire to share their experiences with family, friends, and colleagues.
Our work empowers people and gives them a voice … a process that can never be reversed.
If we succeed in satisfying our customers, we will benefit greatly because they will share
their enthusiasm and support our brand. But if we fail, that same voice will hold us accountable and broadcast our failings.
Only honest marketers with confidence in their products dare engage in word of mouth
marketing -- because it will backfire if the promise of your marketing message isn’t backed
up by reality. Once you give people a voice, they will tell the true story of your company,
good or bad.
Word of mouth marketing is self-policing and pushes marketers to create better products
and provide genuine satisfaction.
© (c) WOMMA 2007
Organic vs. Amplified Word of Mouth
The following terms attempt to explain the differences between word of mouth that results
from day-to-day interaction with customers and the kind that occurs as a result of a specific campaign to create or encourage it.
By no means are these terms commonly accepted. Some marketers feel that word of mouth
is always there, and that a campaign can amplify it, but that word of mouth is the same regardless of its origin. Other marketers don’t use campaigns specifically to promote word of
mouth, and feel that there is an important distinction.
Organic WOM
Organic WOM occurs naturally when people become advocates because they are happy with
a product and have a natural desire to share their support and enthusiasm. Practices that
enhance organic word of mouth activity include:
*
*
*
*
*
Focusing on customer satisfaction
Improving product quality and usability
Responding to concerns and criticism
Opening a dialog and listening to people
Earning customer loyalty
Amplified WOM
Amplified WOM occurs when marketers launch campaigns designed to encourage or
accelerate WOM in existing or new communities. Practices that amplify word of mouth activity include:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Creating communities
Developing tools that enable people to share their opinions
Motivating advocates and evangelists to actively promote a product
Giving advocates information that they can share
Using advertising/publicity to create buzz or start a conversation
Identifying and reaching out to influential individuals & communities
Researching and tracking online conversations
© (c) WOMMA 2007
Positive Word of Mouth Marketing Strategies:
Good word of mouth marketing strategies involve finding ways to support satisfied customers and making it easier for them to talk to their friends.
1. Encouraging communications:
* Developing tools to make telling a friend easier
* Creating forums and feedback tools
* Working with social networks
2. Giving people something to talk about:
* Information that can be shared or forwarded
* Advertising, stunts, and other publicity that encourages conversation
* Working with product development to build WOM elements into products
3. Creating communities and connecting people:
* Creating user groups and fan clubs
* Supporting independent groups that form around your product
* Hosting discussions and message boards about your products
* Enabling grassroots organization such as local meetings and other real-world participation
4. Working with influential communities:
* Finding people who are likely to respond to your message
* Identifying people who are able to influence your target customers
* Informing these individuals about what you do and encouraging them to spread the word
* Good-faith efforts to support issues and causes that are important to these individuals
5. Creating evangelist or advocate programs:
* Providing recognition and tools to active advocates
* Recruiting new advocates, teaching them about the benefits of your products, and encouraging them to talk about them
6. Researching and listening to customer feedback:
* Tracking online and offline conversations by supporters, detractors, and neutrals
* Listening and responding to both positive and negative conversations
7. Engaging in transparent conversation:
* Encouraging two-way conversations with interested parties
* Creating blogs and other tools to share information
* Participating openly on online blogs and discussions
8. Co-creation and information sharing:
* Involving consumers in marketing and creative (feedback on creative campaigns, allowing
them to create commercials, etc.)
* Letting customers ‘behind the curtain’ to have first access to information and content
© (c) WOMMA 2007
Unethical Word of Mouth Marketing
Strategies:
Any practice intended to deceive people is unethical and should not be used. WOMMA
is absolutely opposed to the
following unethical word of mouth marketing tactics:
Stealth Marketing: Any practice designed to deceive people about the involvement of marketers in a communication.
Shilling: Paying people to talk about (or promote) a product without disclosing that they are
working for the company; impersonating a customer.
Infiltration: Using fake identities in an online discussion to promote a product; taking over a
web site, conversation, or live event against the wishes or rules set by the proprietor.
Comment Spam: Using automated software (‘bots’) to post unrelated or inappropriate comments to blogs or other online communities.
Defacement: Vandalizing or damaging property to promote a product.
Spam: Sending bulk or unsolicited email or other messages without clear, voluntary permission.
Falsification: Knowingly disseminating false or misleading information.
Word of mouth marketing cannot be faked:
Artificial word of mouth marketing is dishonest and ineffective. Word-of-mouth marketing
must be based on the honest opinions of real people. We strongly oppose any practice that
tries to fake word of mouth.
* Ethical and responsible word of mouth marketers do not…
* Impersonate people, shill, or hide their identities
* Manipulate or corrupt honest opinions Infiltrate, invade, or violate online or offline venues
Marketers must work to oppose and eliminate unethical practices.
All marketers should be aware that unethical practices are currently used by unscrupulous
or uninformed companies. The standards of ethics and consumer protection are evolving
rapidly, and many marketers have not yet learned about the current standards (or choose to
ignore them). Regardless of intent, such unethical practices jeopardize consumer trust and
ultimately harm both consumers and honest marketers.
We strongly recommend that marketers aggressively review the practices of their agencies,
vendors, and internal departments. Insist on the highest level of ethics, and insist that all of
your campaigns comply with the WOMMA Code of Conduct and the Honesty ROI.
© (c) WOMMA 2007
About WOMMA
WOMMA, www.womma.org, is the leading trade association in the marketing and advertising
industries that focuses on word of mouth, consumer-generated and social media platforms
-- or marketing techniques that include buzz, viral, community, and influencer marketing as well as brand blogging. The organization is committed to developing and maintaining appropriate ethical standards for marketers and advertisers engaging in such marketing
practices, identifying meaningful measurement standards for such marketing practices, and
defining “best practices” for the industry.
Founded in 2005, WOMMA currently has approximately 400 members. They include marketers and brands that use word-of-mouth marketing to reinforce their core customers and
to reach out to new consumers, agencies that deliver word-of-mouth services and technologies, researchers that track the word-of-mouth experience and offline and online practitioners.
© (c) WOMMA 2007
Appendix B (8 pages) - End
Wom 101 – Word of Mouth Association
Appendix C (4 pages) - Beginning
14+1 Referral Ideas
14+1 Referral Ideas – Guilherme Nunes, 20. July 2010
This list contains brief summaries of referral ideas. The client is requested to choose ideas
which he likes the most for a detailed discussion and elaboration. The selected ideas shall be
planned in detail by the author of this list. The author refers to theoretical background and to
advice of referral marketing experts in the project document. The specific reasons why ideas
are composed in a certain way shall be explained in the document.
Idea 1:
Sending course related online articles
Course and seminar participants shall be provided over different channels (Facebook,
Twitter, Email, and RSS) with interesting articles related to the course they took. This tactic is
commonly seen on Twitter. The German speaking room, especially the Swiss web
community is much behind with the use of such tactics. There are various key-word trackers
and search engines to find popular blog posts and online articles on specific topics. This
function shall have an integrated share/recommend function that past course participants can
pass on the information channels to people they know and which might be interested in the
topic. This creates an opt-in list which can be used to send offers to the referred people. This
tactic was for example successfully applied by the online magazine rack Alltop (Traffic
statistics: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/alltop.com# - select max time span below the graph).
A major advantage for Digicomp is the frequent personal contact with the audience which
can be used to explain the article system and adapt the communication channel according
the customers preference.
Idea 2:
Online forum invitation mechanism
Digicomp offers 60 days of forum membership to clients after the attendance of a course.
The option of keeping the forum private makes it exclusive. The suggestion is to create an
invitation function for course participants to invite people they know. This recipe was
successfully used by various online providers such as Gmail and the social media platform
Orkut; exclusivity creates value. At the end of a course the instructor should quickly pitch the
forum and explain the benefits to the course participants. When benefits are explained the
instructor shall explain the offer that every participant is allowed to invite 3-5 people (not
more because it makes appear less exclusive and to avoid a high number of inactive forum
members). By sending this invitation the course participant is making an exclusive gift to
someone, this shows appreciation to the receiver of the invitation. The online forum is a tool
which allows interactive communication and relationship building and can be as well used for
promotion.
Idea 3:
Youtube channel
Create a Youtube channel and post videos on following issues: Testimonials, in class video
samples, in class discussions, how-to video guides, agreeable moments such as eating
lunch together, outdoor activities with clients and partner and others. The purpose is to sell
the customer experience visually, use it as promotional tool, make the content viral and
interact online with customers and prospects. The channel shall be used proactively and
make use of different activities to stimulate traffic, viewer participation and others.
Idea 4:
Developer contest
Developers are proud of solving complicated problems. The instructor shall provide at the
end of a course a developer challenge. This challenge contains a complex problem to be
solved within a specific time by course participants. There should be a way to measure
results and create a ranking. 1st, 2nd and 3rd place should be provided with prices. For the
1st place it is suggested to provide a free follow-up course and the right to bring someone
with for free. Participants shall receive a result screen with the score list, in case they won
the announcement of their price and a share button. The contest result can be shared
publicly through online channels (Example: Share function on Facebook wall) and the
contest shall be made available to those people which the course participant shared the
contest. One further promotional possibility would be to create prizes for online participants
to make the contest more intriguing; prices can be course related such as rebate coupons or
not course related as for instance computer periphery items.
Idea 5:
Whitepapers - Content marketing
One of today’s online marketing tactics is content marketing. It is based on free reports made
available from companies which are mostly in pdf-format. Those reports are often shared and
forwarded. The reason why whitepapers are especially attractive for Digicomp is because
there are always changes and updates in Software which provides consistently new topics to
write on. These reports are useful to build-up opt-in lists and to attract traffic to the website. A
practical way to create white papers is to search the internet for already written whitepapers
on the topic. Those are usually written earlier in English so that the content could just be
translated and slightly adapted.
Idea 6:
T-shirt with group photo and online album to generate referrals and
publicity
Digicomp provides many courses on-site to companies. Employees have often no single
picture together. The course is a good opportunity to take one. After the course every
participant shall be sent a t-shirt with a group picture, course title, date and small Digicomp
logo. Every person shall receive a letter thanking for participating in the class and asking for
writing a testimonial. In case the person has a blog or likes to share content online Digicomp
would appreciate to make that referral public and to give write a quick message with the link.
This t-shirt can be used for multiple purposes: Clothing item, souvenir, decoration for the
office wall. Long-term exposure creates long-term conversation and referral potential.
Idea 7:
Post course challenge
Participants shall be sent an invitation to participate on an online test some months after the
course to check how much they retained. Also in this occasion there is a possibility to work
with prizes. Digicomp could provide an offer to retake the course for free because the cost of
teaching to one additional person is basically zero. This should be however well framed, if
people have a high score they should not be encouraged to do so. The advantage of this
strategy is that it is a generous offer which is likely to be denied due to social pressure. Even
though the course would be for free an employee might want to avoid the embarrassment of
explaining to his employer that he or she forgot much of what was thought and needs
therefore additional days off-work to retake the course. In case the employee still asks for it
there is also no guarantee that the employer will agree to it. After providing such an offer is a
good moment to ask for referrals on an online form.
Idea 8:
Buzz worthy giveaways
Special giveaways can be an effective way to drive referrals for certain audiences. One
example would be for instance an usb-ventilator with Digicomp logo for people who take the
course in the summer. The importance is that those giveaways are visible and generate
conversations. Giveaways which are held on the office desk, hanged on the kitchen wall and
so forth are possible conversation stimulators. The more special those giveaways are the
more they intrigue conversations. Depending on how much the recipient likes it he or she will
proactively start various conversations concerning the item and its sender. Having those
items on visible places also increases the possibility that people are asked concerning those
items.
Idea 9:
Referral Club
The idea behind is to identify who referred new customers and to reward them for it. The
more people they refer the higher the reward. The person who referred a new client should
receive a thank you letter and a prospect explaining the referral club system and its benefits.
It is important to state that this is an exclusive club to which only people who make voluntary
referrals are invited. One good way to deepen the relationship would be to host an event
every year to meet those people. This provides furthermore the opportunity of gathering
more referrals and important customer insights like: „Hey, your friend XY took a course last
week, did you speak about it, did he like it?“.
Idea 10:
Time limited referral reward
This should be announced after a course. A person who refers for example 4 people within a
year receives a 100 percent refund. Important is to make a quantifiable goal which is time
limited with enough time for multiple referrals and because various referrals were made a
100% refund can be made. One way to delight customers would be to give a smaller refund
or some thank you gift for the referrals; this should be done without prior acknowledging of
the customers in order to delight them.
Idea 11:
Personalized give away discount coupon
Give customers rebate coupons to give away to people they know. Those coupons shall be
personalized with the customer’s name (In best case with picture as well). Every time such a
coupon is used the customer receives a price cut-off of the same value on the next service
he or she purchases.
Idea 12:
Printed referral messages on documents
This is a simple tactic to remind customers over and over again that referrals are
appreciated. By writing a sentence like „We crave for referrals“ in every documents like
invoices, letters, emails, newsletters and so forth customers are reminded to refer. It
refreshes the idea of referring which can be very useful if a customer does not know or does
not want to refer anyone when asked. It helps to keep the idea of referring the company in
the mind of the customer. If a friend discusses for instance that he or she has problems with
a certain type of software idea should be more likely to retrieve because of the repetition.
Idea 13:
Course for free by bringing a paying guest
The more people know and make use of a service the more people can be delighted and the
more referrals can be generated. This idea should be used with a time limit. It can be very
useful for courses on new software for instance to spread the word faster than the
competition especially because it concerns a new topic which is interesting to talk about. It
can be also used as a solution to smooth out demand variations in certain periods when
considerably less people make use of the offered services. Such an offer might be provided
with a time limit because having long-term ongoing rebates like that could hurt the
companies’ image.
Idea 14:
Testimonial collection book
Create a document with all gathered testimonials; also include a cd with video testimonials.
The purpose of this document is mainly to impress. By receiving some hundreds of
testimonials (gathered over time) the desired reaction should be: No company proved ever
so many satisfied customers in such an impressive way, they cannot be wrong, this effect is
in psychology referred as social proof. The ideal case would be to receive the permission to
put in a picture and contact details that customers ask those customers directly for feedback.
In order not to have to publish the customers email on it and for tracking reasons a tinyurl
could be used for instance.
Idea 15:
(Bonus idea)
Providing spare rooms for NGO events and meetings
This example of a non-customer related referral tactic serves for
the purpose of illustration only and shall not be deployed in this
project.
Empty rooms can be transformed in a referral tool. Digicomp has various rooms used for
teaching and other purposes which are occasionally empty. No additional cost occurs if those
rooms are used. Digicomp could be listed as room-sponsor by the NGO’s and also ask them
directly for referrals. NGO’s are often supported by companies and professionals who belong
to the target market of Digicomp. Making those rooms available transforms Digicomp in a
showroom for new prospects. If people did not know Digicomp before now they do.
Appendix C (4 page) - End
14+1 Referral Ideas
Appendix D (1 pages) - Beginning
Useful questions to understand the target audience
Useful questions to understand the target audience
• What are they called?
• Where do they want to be?
• Who do they think they are?
What are their needs?
• Who are they really?
• How old are they?
• Who do they want to be?
• How youthful do they act?
• Who do they like?
• How conservative are they?
• Who don’t they like?
• What are their driving ambitions?
• Who is their peer group?
• What are their wants and needs?
• Who do they not identify with?
• What are their pleasures?
• What are their beliefs?
• What are their pains?
• Where do they live?
• What do they love?
• Where do they work?
• What do they hate?
• Where do they learn?
Source: ProBlogger Ebook – Secrets for Blogging your way to a Six -figure Income (p 204)
Appendix D (1 page) - End
Useful questions to understand the target audience