Comments on: Forcing It, Word-of-Mouth, and Community “Factor X” http://kozinets.net/archives/133 Robert Kozinets on Marketing, Media, and Technoculture Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:36:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Eva Schiffer http://kozinets.net/archives/133#comment-900 Eva Schiffer Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:47:13 +0000 http://kozinets.net/archives/133#comment-900 Great thoughts. You say: "paying people in a neighborhood to attend a town hall meeting" seems like a very strange idea... Well, in Ghana, that is exactly what happens: When development organizations hold community meetings, they pay people to attend and the effect is just as you describe. Even though these meetings are about ways how these very poor people might be able to improve their own situation (so they know that there will be long term benefits for them) most community members will not go to a meeting like this if there is no payment. And development agencies are in a perverse competition where everyone struggles with a lack of commitment of community members but also feels like they can't stop paying for participation because everybody else does it. Great thoughts. You say: “paying people in a neighborhood to attend a town hall meeting” seems like a very strange idea… Well, in Ghana, that is exactly what happens: When development organizations hold community meetings, they pay people to attend and the effect is just as you describe. Even though these meetings are about ways how these very poor people might be able to improve their own situation (so they know that there will be long term benefits for them) most community members will not go to a meeting like this if there is no payment. And development agencies are in a perverse competition where everyone struggles with a lack of commitment of community members but also feels like they can’t stop paying for participation because everybody else does it.

]]> By: MartinOetting http://kozinets.net/archives/133#comment-888 MartinOetting Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:06:29 +0000 http://kozinets.net/archives/133#comment-888 Thank you very much for this very helpful post. There are two things I would like to comment: I have been involved with researching WOM stimuli in which the brand - to use your above terms - employs community logics, and actually follows a model that I borrowed from the human ressources. We have published a first working paper about it, as a precursor of my dissertation thesis which will come out later this year. In case you want to take a look, you can find it here: http://www.empoweredinvolvement.com/ - If you do find the time to take a look, I would be excited about your feedback. Secondly, I work with a BzzAgent-like company in Germany, called trnd AG ("the real network dialogue"). And while we do send products to our members, we do subscribe to you point of view that intrinsic motivation is what creates the best results. However, we need to send out the products because we want people to spread honest word of mouth about their experiences with the brand, and for that, they need to experience the product. But we know from the applications and reports that our members send in that there is a whole lot of intrinsic motivation. Our selection process, in fact, is geared towards finding those individuals who demonstrate the highest levels of intrinsic motivation to interact with and help the brand. So in that respect, your observations do not show limitations and risks for our model, but rather validate and support it. Thank you very much for this very helpful post. There are two things I would like to comment:

I have been involved with researching WOM stimuli in which the brand - to use your above terms - employs community logics, and actually follows a model that I borrowed from the human ressources. We have published a first working paper about it, as a precursor of my dissertation thesis which will come out later this year. In case you want to take a look, you can find it here: http://www.empoweredinvolvement.com/ - If you do find the time to take a look, I would be excited about your feedback.

Secondly, I work with a BzzAgent-like company in Germany, called trnd AG (”the real network dialogue”). And while we do send products to our members, we do subscribe to you point of view that intrinsic motivation is what creates the best results. However, we need to send out the products because we want people to spread honest word of mouth about their experiences with the brand, and for that, they need to experience the product. But we know from the applications and reports that our members send in that there is a whole lot of intrinsic motivation. Our selection process, in fact, is geared towards finding those individuals who demonstrate the highest levels of intrinsic motivation to interact with and help the brand.

So in that respect, your observations do not show limitations and risks for our model, but rather validate and support it.

]]> By: rpwagner http://kozinets.net/archives/133#comment-867 rpwagner Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:31:49 +0000 http://kozinets.net/archives/133#comment-867 Robert, have you already heard about Radian6 Crawler? (http://www.radian6.com/crawler/) It "is a social media monitoring company that has developed a product offering specifically tailored to PR and marketing companies, that helps companies find and listen to conversations about their brands" They have visited my blog about stock market (http://drtraders.com.br/blog). Maybe it's interesting to know how they will analyze my "voice". Renan Robert,

have you already heard about Radian6 Crawler? (http://www.radian6.com/crawler/)

It “is a social media monitoring company that has developed a product offering specifically tailored to PR and marketing companies, that helps companies find and listen to conversations about their brands”

They have visited my blog about stock market (http://drtraders.com.br/blog). Maybe it’s interesting to know how they will analyze my “voice”.

Renan

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