The 3-Step Formula for Positive Word of Mouth

Word of mouth is the holy grail of marketing.

I define it as the unaided spread of your brand (by happy customers).

That last part is in parentheses because word of mouth can be positive or negative.

Here's a helpful formula for creating positive word of mouth. I adapted it from author and entrepreneur Chip Conley and his formula for building customer loyalty:

(my addition in bold)

Here's the key takeaway:

You create customer loyalty and word of mouth by meeting not only their needs and desires, but also their unrecognized needs.

I'll briefly define these:

Meet customers' needs: Meet the base expectations of your customers

Meet customers' wants: Deliver more than what your customer expects.

Meet customers' unrecognized needs: Solve problems your customers aren't expecting from you.

Next week, I'll give you an example of how this works for Apple.