During our consumer buyer behavior lecture, we discussed the influence of various social groups on decision making as well as the power of word of mouth (WOM), opinion leaders, and connectors. Now, let's look a bit closer at one particularly successful marketing strategy that illustrates several of the concepts covered in class. For this assignment, you have to carefully and thoroughly read and discuss the following article that was published in the New York Times (August 5, 2001): http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/05/magazine/here-come-the-alpha-pups.html?pagewanted=all
As you go through the article, try to recognize the concepts discussed in class and their application in this case (e.g. market research, buzz marketing or WOM marketing, opinion leaders/ influencers, etc.). Was Hasbro's campaign a success? Why? What contributed to their success? Your reaction to the article should be a minimum of 10 lines. In addition, you also have to consider whether a similar strategy would work for other product categories, or other segments of consumers? Come up with at least one example. Points: 20 DEADLINE: Friday, February 19th, 11:59pm.
From reading this article, I could see a lot of word of mouth marketing being used. The boy they mentioned, named Angel, seemed to be the best alpha pup, or connector, because he was very popular and he would tell all of his friends about this game. Angel was also an opinion leader because he said Pox was the best game ever and he influenced the other children by showing how much he loved it. I think this campaign was a success. Giving the alpha pups the games to distribute to their friends was a great idea because the marketers knew they would be sharing them at school and getting more and more classmates to join in. They would even play their games in the hallways and under their desks and get more and more excited about it. It was also successful because they only selected boys to play the game first because girls wouldn’t be interested in an alien fighting game like the boys would. If half the children they selected were girls, there wouldn’t be as many people playing it because girls wouldn’t get excited for it or tell their friends about a game they’re not interested in. What contributed to their success was the fact that they chose the most popular boys so everyone would listen to what they think and if the alpha pup was excited about the game, then every other boy would be too.
I think a similar product strategy would work for other products. For example, if a company gave an alpha pup a cool new pair of sneakers and gave him a few pairs to give to his friends, before they know it everyone will be wearing them or wanting to buy them because they want to be like the cool kids. But, with older age groups, I think products would be more successful with advertising on social networks rather than giving out the product to share with friends at school. When I see an ad on facebook, I click on it if it looks interesting. Also, having someone, with a lot of followers on twitter, tweet about a new product would be a good way for a lot of people to know about it and start talking about it.
Hasbro's campaign was certianly a success. Through their word-of-mouth strategy of marketing, they were able to get a sample of how kids would react to the release of the game "Pox". And with the positive reaction of the kids in Chicago -- and their subsequent sharing of their experience with their friends -- we saw how effective this method was. What I found interesting in the article was the section that described how video game marketing is often segmented on gender. We also saw that notion come to life when one of the female users of the game expressed discontent and confuision. Males and females have, and should be approached differently in marketing video games (due to a simple difference in interests) and we saw that no differently with Hasbro.
I think you could apply a similar product strategy for many products, so long as they meet certian requirements. Mainly, those individuals that you'd target must be of the same age group, and have use for the particular product. That way, we can gather data from a consitant, specific, and particular demographic. An example could be a new type of electronic device (hand-held). Markerters would segment the market, and determaine the thought process of certian age groups, in order to greater understand their needs/wants. A process like this, in addition to other forms of marketing, could prove to be benificial.
From reading this article, it seems as though the "alpha pup", Angel, was used as a brand ambassador for Hasbro. Hasbro chose this boy because he seemed like an opinion leader, which is a person within a reference group who exerts social influence on others. Since Angel was the most popular boy in his class, if he loved the game and played it all the time, then everyone would want to buy the game to be cool as well. Angel influenced his classmates into playing the game, which is why more and more kids played it. This campaign was a success especially since they brought the game into the schools. The fact that they selected the most popular boys to play the game first made the boys that didn't have the game want it even more. Kids were playing it in class and were able to do sneak attacks from their school lockers. Even the fact that they gave the game just to boys made it more popular because if it was given to a girl, they would most likely not get excited about aliens and would say it was boring which could affect opinions of the game. All this contributed to the games success since kids were surrounded by it in their schools.
This strategy could work for a ton of other different products. Consumer behavior is widely influenced by culture. Brand names are important to teens these days, so if a popular girl started bringing a designer bag to school, most of the girls would want to get the bag too. Even if it was expensive, most girls would get a knock-off version that would still resemble the bag. Especially since young teens are less budget conscious than adults, most of them will buy things they don't really need, like purses or clothes to help them fit in and make them look cool. Their purchase decision, which is the act by the consumer to buy the most preferred brand, is affected by what other people think is cool. Companies can learn a lot from Hasbro and their word of mouth marketing.
I think this game is definitely a success in the eyes of the company. They successfully found a way to market their product to the age group of boys that they selected through WOM marketing. It is impressive that they came up with a natural way to spread word of their new product to more consumers. They took the naturally occurring process of social hierarchy in kids and applied it in order to gain popularity for the video game. There are "cool kids" in every school and group, and since others will follow them because of their status, Hasbro knew that this would be an easy and effective way to get Pox out in the market. This example just shows how important it is to understand how other thigns such as psychology influence business, and it is essential to be able to apply different ways of thinking in marketing to be successful.
I think this strategy would definitely work with other products as well such as clothing, other games or toys, movies, etc. Also, since most, if not all, communities, groups, and schools have "alpha pups" of all different ages, it is easy to spread an idea through this naturally formed hierarchy. For example, if you gave one of the "cool kids" a brand new cell phone that had more features and capabilities than the iphone, and also created a completely spearate image from any other phone on the market right now, the popularity and curiosity of this new product would spread extremely fast through word of mouth. Right now, many companies are coming out with innovative techonological products that allow consumers to surf the web, listen to music, etc. This type of marketing could work for any new software or new technological fad.
Hasbro's campaign was successful. The reason for this was the fact that their word of mouth strategy, by giving kids who were seen as cool devices, was very effective in getting other kids excited about Pox. Hasbro's research for developing the next big thing also helped Hasbro's efforts in establishing a successful market because they made effort to see what types of toys people were buying and they also asked a child psychologist how appeals the idea of Pox would be to children. It was also important that Hasbro segmented its market by only focusing on young males because they were able to target the market that would be most interested in this product and not spend valuable resources trying to appeal to girls.
The strategy of word of mouth marketing would work on other consumers because in most cases someone is more likely to buy something when it is recommened by a friend, family member, or a review online. The only problem with word of mouth is the fact that some people may say negative things about the product, which will lower the buzz about the product and cause less people to buy it. For example, if there are good reviews for a movie more people are willings to go the first week and increase buzz about the movie. However, if there is a bad review then less people are willing to go the first week and buzz about the movie will be minimal.
I think that Hasbro’s campaign was definitely a success. They found a way to market their product through word of mouth very effectively. Instead of spending a lot of money advertizing the product on televisions, they used the WOM marketing which allowed them to find out how kids would react to the game. They took the social hierarchy of kids at school and used the “alpha” which was the kid highest kid up on the popularity status and had them try out Pox first. From there those alphas used the word of mouth marketing to tell all their other “cool” friends. Eventually the game was spread from kid to kid, and everybody wanted one because so and so had one. This example of how Hasbro marketed their Pox game shows how important other forms of marketing are, and how companies sometimes need to think outside the box in order to make their product successful. What I also found interesting is how Hasbro knew from research what groups to target this product to. They knew that the third graders would show more emotions than the fifth grades just because of the stage of their life that they were at. Also they knew that this product would most defiantly be targeted towards the younger boys, with little interest from young girls.
I think that this strategy would work for other product categories as well. - For example, high end clothing. Like Hasbro’s marketing strategy with targeting young male alpha leaders, and staying away from marketing their product towards girls, clothing brands would be the opposite. Clothing tends to be more prevalent for females, and majority of the female population likes wearing designer or high end clothes to show off the label. With the hierarchy’s experienced in schools, I do not think we ever turn away from this naturally occurring phenomenon. There are always going to be those people who are higher up with social status then others, the “popular crowd.” Those would be the alphas for the clothing market to target. If this person were to have this purse or wear this brand, then it must mean that it’s “cool.” Through the WOM marketing strategy clothing brands could also gain their popularity.
I found this article very interesting. Instead of paying thousands of dollars on commercials and other ways of advertising, Hasbro used the cheaper alternative of word of mouth and buzz marketing, and received tremendous results. There was a lot of research that seemed to go into this strategy, but it was all well worth it. By identifying the "alpha pup's" and seeing how they reacted to the game, Hasbro created a massive new trend among third grade boys. Throughout life a person is always trying to fit in, whether it's by imitating people you see or buying what they have. When the people we look up to or want to be like are using a certain product or are wearing certain clothes, we will naturally want those things as well. This is what made the marketing plan of Pox so effective. When the game was given to the popular and well-liked boys at school, all of the other boys wanted the game too, to be like them. This was extremely effective and was a great marketing plan. Hasbro sets the stage for using innovative ways of marketing to capture the attention of the target market. Hasbro understood the influence the alpha pups had on their friends, and understood that tradition ways of marketing, such as commercials, were no longer as effective when trying to reach their target market.
I think WOM can be effective when marketing any products if done in the right way. It's obvious that a lot of research went into determining how to market Pox. As in this case, it's important to understand how boys and girls think and act differently. An example of a product is the Nano Baby. This is an old product and isn't made anymore but I remember when I was 5 or 6 that Nano babies were the cool new thing. They're similar to a video game but they appeal to little girls in the sense that it's a virtual baby that you have to feed, put it to sleep, and play with. A few of my friends each had a nano baby and brought it into school. Because they were my friends, I immediately wanted what they had, plus the nano baby seemed like a lot of fun. Before the end of the year, almost every single girl in my entire grade had one or more Nano Baby. The commercials for Nano Babies were definitely appealing, but all of my friends having them is what really made me want one.
I think that Hasbro was definitely successful. They used market segmentation to determine which targets would make their product most successful. They used demographic segmentation to choose males from ages 8 to 13 and lifestyle segmentation to know that boys at this age like to spend their time playing violent video games. I also think it was smart of Hasbro to target Generation Y, because we're known for word of mouth and that's exactly what was used to spread the word about Pox. Angel was a connector and opinion leader because he really enjoyed the game and told his other friends about it, causing them to start playing it. I think all these factors played the role in Hasbro's success.
I think that this same strategy of WOM marketing would work for other product categories or other segments of consumers. I think any kind of diet plan or exercise regiment targeted at 16-25 year old females would be successful because like I said, our generation is known for relying on opinions of others and being impatient. If a young female sees another losing weight, she'll instantly want to know exactly what she's doing to lose the weight so she can follow that plan herself and get instant results. Girls are constantly talking about and trading diet and work out tips, so if a company came out with a new work out video, they could use the same plan that Hasbro did; give it to a few females 16-25 and they'll spread it by WOM.
After reading this article, it is clear that Hasbro’s campaign for its new video game was a success. Word-of-mouth influence and buzz marketing contributed to the success of the “Pox”. Using these methods was good choice for Hasbro since it is much more inexpensive than other ways of marketing which focus more on traditional forms of advertising. I think the idea of the “alpha pups” was very clever on Hasbro’s part and I think that is what played into the success of the video game. The company definitely did a lot of research before deciding on who would be an “alpha pup”. Angel would most like be considered as a connector for Hasbro rather than an opinion leader. Angel was a popular at school and had many children who followed him, but I think the ties he had with the children were weak ones which is a characteristic of being a connector. Another thing that I believe added to the success of Hasbro’s campaign was that they found a small group that their product was directed towards and focused on what that group would be interested in for their video games. If the company was to focus the video game on both boys and girls, the company would have needed to door more research and create more games for both genders since the interests for each gender vary greatly.
I think other companies could use word-of-mouth and buzz marketing for their products. I think this strategy works the best on products that are not to complex or expensive and are easily visible to the consumers. Also, it would be crucial for the company to research the segments of the market they were trying to target. I think this strategy would work for snacks in children’s lunches. At lunch, kids are always comparing who brought what to lunch and sometimes even trading their snacks. If a kid saw something new that another kid had brought they would probably want to try it and then go home to tell their parents about it. With lunch snacks being inexpensive and many children take their lunches to school with them, I think the parents would most likely buy the products and the company’s strategy of WOM would be successful.
In this article I could tell that they used a lot of the word of mouth method of marketing. In the article there was a boy named Angel who was deemed the Alpha Pup of all the kids. They introduced Angel and a number of other Alpha Pup’s to a game system called Pox. From introducing this game to these children, every other kid in school is going to hear about the game through word of mouth. This campaign was definitely a success because the point of it was to get everyone to hear about the system through the Alpha Pup’s. Having the Alpha Pup’s take home day a pack containing 10 Pox units to be handed out to their friends was definitely going to factor into making the campaign a success. All the Alpha Pup’s can hand out their Pox units to pay with their friends in school and on the playground. This strategy could be used for a lot of other products. An example could be jewelry. When women go out and buy jewelry or when men buy jewelry for their wives or girlfriends there is definitely word of mouth being used. When people go out and buy jewelry they tend to ask others about places and types so that they can find out what type they want and where they should get it.
The article "Here Come the Alpha Pups" described an interesting marketing plan. The creators of the game "Pox" introduced the game in one place as an epidemic. Chicago city was the key influencer in the plan. The coolest students aged 8-13 were selected to learn how to play a new video game.Those kids the "alpa pups" were then given 10 more units to distribute among kids their age. The marketing team focused on word of mouth influence and buzz marketing. This approch was very beneficial as the gamers enjoyed the game that they could "Win loudly and loose quietly" as in the case in the mall. Also one alpda pup said "it is the best game ever". This is great feedback on the product which will create a demand. Hasbros sucess of te "Pox' came from great demographic and target marketing while relying on WOM.
This strategy works well with fashion. Most fashion is introduced in the capitals of fashion like Paris or South Africa first.In fashion shows designers introduced what they think might be the new hip trend for the season. These trends are then critiqued by fashion experts were their opinion is influence by WOM of the attending guest.The new fashion trend acts as an eidemic to one area and slowly progresses to the rest of the world dependingon the season changes. For example in Europe men are starting to wear leggings under their jean capris. This trend has yet not hit America but I heard of it threw WOM on a talk show.
I think that this article shows the WOM marketing. Word of Mouth marketing was very effective in advertising for the Hasbro Pox. I think that Hasbro’s campaign was a success. It was successful because it sold their product, the Pox, to the people they targeted it to. By using target marketing, Hasbro hand chose their “victims.” What I mean by “victims” is that they chose boys between the ages of 8 to 13 who enjoyed video games. By asking for the most popular boy at school in different school districts, the company knew they could execute word of mouth marketing. They knew if they showed the boys a game that they would go back to school and set a trend. I think it was a great idea to choose to target the Generation Y and the Alpha Pups because this generation is known for using world of mouth. I think Hasbro’s succeeded because they knew exactly who to target and understood how trends could be set by the popular kids like Angel. I definitely think Hasbro’s Pox was a success.
I think that a similar strategy would work for other products and segments of customers. I think that Word of Mouth Marketing would be successful with teenagers. I think a product like the Blackberry is a success. From experience, I have a lot of friends with Blackberry’s and it makes me want one more. They talk about blackberry messaging and how they can surf the web while in the car, it makes you feel like you need one too to stay in with the “in-crowd.” Word of Mouth marketing is successful because everyone is talking about it and it makes you feel like if everyone has it, you have to get one to be cool too. The cell phone companys target teenagers who have families that can afford them and show on the commercials how convenient it would be to have internet at all times. I think that the cell phone companies rely greatly on word of mouth from teens talking to one another. I think they are a great success.
After reading the article Here Come the Alpha Pups, I feel that Hasbro's marketing campaign was a major success. The word of mouth aspect they were looking for to spread the news about the game worked perfectly. They chose children that seemed to be very popular in their surroundings and other children trusted in what they had to say. They didn't need to use a lot of money because word of mouth is very cheap and does the same as if they did research. The kids had no problem spreading the word about this game. It's amazing that Hasbro knew what age group would enjoy this game the most and how they targeted 3rd grade boys rather than 5th graders.
I feel like the word of mouth strategy would work on anyone because everyone talks to their friends/family members about different products or ideas and tell people how they really feel about it. The only problem with word of mouth is that you will hear people say negative things about products. An example of this would be computers. People hear all these great things about how Macs are so much better than PCs and so you see more people buying Macs because they are easier and harder for viruses.
Hasbro's word of mouth stragey was a certainly a successful one. The prominence of our society's dependence on opinion leaders was evident as expressed by this marketing strategy. The use of Angel to promote the game was particularly cunning due to his influence on the boys at school in his age group. Hasbro's pinpoint targetting and execution of WOM marketing brought them lots of success in selling their POX game. This method of marketing was cheap and highly focused to produce almost gauranteed sales by the parents of the boys they targetted to. However Hasbro's marketing was almost too focused in that, as shown by the girl who showed disinterest, their marketing didn't influence the girl population for that age group. So there were pro's and con's to their highly focused WOM marketing but overall it was still certainly a very successful marketing strategy.
I believe that this type of marketing would be effective for other products but only towards younger generations, particularly in the area of 16 to 28 who use facebook, twitter, and many other kinds of information sharing networks to talk about opinions about stuff including products. Word of mouth marketing could get news and opinions about a product all the way around the world to millions of people in just a day or two. For example new athletic gear and athletic accessories would be talked about very frequently by athletes who enjoy talking about their sport and are always looking for that edge to make them better. WOM marketing would work very well with athletic gear and accessories because most athletes are young and in the age group that uses information networks most frequently.
After reading this article I don't think that Hasbro and the Alpha Pups could have done any better of a job in this campaign. It seems like the interest that the kids have in the Pups travels fast by word of mouth. Which is why this works well with this product with today's kids. Today's kids won't play with or become involved with a toy that is not already being played with by another child at school or daycare. It takes kids to lead by example to have other kids become involved in products such as Hasbro's dicovery. In using the word of mouth strategy it helped to save and abundance of money in the long run. the WOM stragey helped to push the POX game with no stress on the company what so ever. Overall I think that Hasbro did a great job in using what they already had to market their product without spending un neccessary money.
I feel like word of mouth could be the perfect way to market with anything. WOM marketing doesnt have to be focused on young kids or even certain toys. For Example, I own a landscaping and snowplowing business with my dad and alot of new products and machines are bought because of the way people talk about them. Different companies ask around to see how products perform whether it's good or bad than can help another business make a good decision about purchasing a product that can be 1,000 dollars or all the way up to 60,000 dollars. WOM travels fast and has a positive affect on the purchasing power in this field.
You can instantly tell that this campaign was a success by the popularity of the game in Chicago before it was even released on the market or even publicly advertised. The marketers of Hasbro came up with a strategy to reach out to opinion leaders, who influence others, to promote their new video game. The article specifically talks about Angel, nine years old, who is known as the coolest kid in his grade. This is a technique known as word of mouth which helps to get the product known and with great reviews. Hasbro also targeted the right segment of the market. The company picked all boys in younger grades to test the product and share it with their friends this is because young boys will be the majority of their buyers. This marketing strategy would definitely work for other products. For example, take a new car designed by, let’s say by Mercedes, and you let the coolest parents in certain neighborhoods test drive the car. If they love the product and are seen driving it around, no doubt all of the other parents in the neighborhood would buy one to be just as cool as the ones that tested the cars. Soon word would get around how awesome this car was and little advertising would be needed to market this product. Word of mouth is the cheapest and sometimes the fastest way to market a new product.
After reading this article, I think Hasbro’s campaign was a success. The company didn’t use traditional marketing advertisements, and instead relied on word of mouth marketing. The company chose what they called “alpha pups” to try out the new game. These alpha pups were the most popular kids at school, so the company knew they would have a significant influence over the other kids at school by showing them the game and how much they loved it. I think that the company definitely made the right move in marketing themselves this way. They knew that once these alpha pups brought their Pox game to school, other kids would want to play and join in on the fun. I thought it was interesting that Hasbro knew that the third graders would be the best group to market to, based on their initial reaction of seeing Pox. They were the most enthusiastic about the game and most eager to try it. They also restricted their target market to only males because they knew that word of how great the game is wouldn’t spread as fast among girls. The majority of girls don’t find these types of video games interesting, so they knew that it would be harder to get them involved and fascinated with the game. I think that WOM marketing could be used for anything. I think that an example of word of mouth marketing could be used for new foods. Many times people try new things based off of other people’s opinions of it. I know many times that I never thought I would like a certain type of food, or couldn’t picture myself evening trying it until I heard other people’s opinions on it. I think that hearing friend’s inputs is important in people’s decision making process. If people say good things about new foods then you will most likely be more willing to try it.
This is a very hands on approach to the WOM advertising. Its almost hard to believe that they were able to find kinds and talk with them in their natural environment as they did. WOM advertising is deffinitly something any marketing group strives for, but at the end of the day it is up to the consumers to actually spread the word. Hasbro basically forced WOM into consumers to create buzz, and recognized that these "alpha pups" were the most influential in creating it.
I dont see a forced WOM advertising campaign working in many other products. I think the demographic that fits this video game is a special case in which this worked. Sure, clothing in young or teenage girls may work but clothing is also not a product that a buzz is formed, its more of a social norm. The "alpha pup" targeting really only works for a product that generates a buzz like a new video game or toy, but is also relient on there actually being "alpha pups" within the group you are targeting.
Many of the elements and concepts discussed in chapter five were evident in this article. The market research that Hasbro conducte targeted the tween demographic, which has been labeled "the most influential generation in history. Not only did they choose this demographic, they segmented it by identifying the strongest members of this group ( or opinion leader) to test a new product; the Pox This group were used as brand ambassadors as they employed word of mouth or buzz marketing. The opinion leader, namely Angel then basically did all the work! Hasbro tactfully empowered Angel by selecting him to test and then choose who else would get the game. It is a great example of how strong social influences are.
At first, I think of this demographic and how influential they are, especially in things like electronics, clothing, sneakers, etc. However, Products like diet food/programs come to mind. Nutrasystem and Jenny Craig use celebrities as influencers to convince target markets that their particular product tastes better and is more effective.
Hasbro's campaign was a success because they were able to market thier product not through advertising but through the use of other people. The kids spread the word to their friends and classmates and before you know it most of the Chicago area was informed about the game. Other than spending extra money towards an advertising pitch they tested out the game in a certain area to see if the game would be accepted. I though the game was a good idea because even though it was gender based, it was attractable to young boys and what they were looking for in a game. The game segmented the market towards the young boys because they knew it would be an instant success. Also I think it was genius for the company to use angel the boy who was considered to be the coolest in his school, the chance to market the game himself. Hasbro believed that if Angel the coolest kid in the school were to play the game then he would influence every other boy in the whole school to play it also. Other products could be marketed this way because now a days the society is in with the newest trends and what is the most popular products.
Word of Mouth marketing has been a very successful marketing strategy for many years and will continue to be for years to come. It is most effective for a target market of teenagers and early twenties. These are the people who are technological savvy and use the internet and texting on their cell phones to communicate and stay up to date. A perfect example is a company such as Glaceau, the company which produces vitamin water, if they gave a couple of the cool kids in schools free vitamin waters and gave them a few extra to pass out to their friends in the matter of days a majority of the kids in that school would be buying vitamin waters because that would be the "cool" thing to do because the "cool" kids do it. I truly believe companies rely heavily on word of mouth marketing and that is why most of them are now successful.
I think Hasbro did a wonderful job of getting their product out there. Bringing in the most popular and out going children is a real good way of getting your product out there. When looking back at elementary school, flash backs of wanting to be like certain kids or rather have their video games start running through my head. At such a young age everyone is still learning who they are, so they do alot of trial and error with trying new things. A huge part of their success was their tactics using word of mouth. Nothing spreads quicker and for some reason people are more likely to believe something that they hear from a person they know than something that they see on televsion or read from an online website.
It is easy to see that if the right alpha pups were selected than this could be used again. Especially say for a product intended for younger children. Any type of new video game could be used in the same style. Even new drink products. If certain people start drinking certain energy drinks during a sporting event and gain attention then the product would start to spread. This would work well with professional athletes as i'm sure it has been used with them before.
One obvious marketing technique used by Hasbro is word of mouth. They knew that once the cool kid played the game and enjoyed it, he would show and tell his friends. Through the playground and the school classroom, Angel exposed the Pox to all of his other friends. Also in this case, Angel would be considered the influencer because due to him exposing this toy, other kids wanted to play with it also. This campaign was successful because the marketers got what they set out for, which was to have this alpha pup spread the word of this awesome game. The fact that Angel was young and in school made this so successful.
This technique would be a useful tool for marketing any product. Many things consumers buy are recommended by another consumers. One example could be the purchase of cooking utensils by house moms. If a mother is given cooking utensils and she uses them, she will more times than not recommend them to others moms.
The marketing concept of Hasbro in this case would have to be word of mouth. I thought it was a great idea that they chose to select all of the alpha kids in most of the Chicago schools because the kids are more likely to go out and let their friends about the awesome new game they are playing. I think their campaign was a success because instead of spending thousands and thousands of dollars on TV ads and billboards, they used WOM with children to prompt their new game. By using the kids to test the products, it gave them a chance to try something new before it came out and before anyone else had it. This would cause them to want to let everyone they know and pass out the games to them.
I think word of mouth strategy would work for other product categories because for something along the lines of food, all a person has to do is try it and if they like it they are going to let all their friends. If a company coming out with a new type of food product that has never been sold before, the best thing they could do is get a group of people together and let them test it out. Depending on what type of food is was would determine the age of the group of people you would need to get. As soon as those people realize how good that new food is, they will go out and spread the word to all their friends and family members. If the company was smart, they would give the trial group some samples to take home and to pass out to their friends.
Hasbro specifically targeted opinion leaders in marketing Pox. Angel and the other "alpha pups" were effective WOM agents for Hasbro. Word of mouth is known to be very effective and Hasbro has proven it by the spread of information about Pox. Using male children opinion leaders was great for Hasbro. Hasbro considered that female children would not be effective because of studies in how girls interact with games. Hasbro even predicted the way that male children of different grade school levels would spread the word. Fifth graders in the focus group did not react with emotion the way that the third graders did.
The marketing strategy used for Pox worked great for Hasbro. WOM and opinion leaders were beyond effective for the company. I do not believe this strategy would work well for many other companies or products. WOM is easily effective given the wide spread use of the internet now but I don't believe the spread would be as infectious for another product as it was for Pox.
I am an Assistant Professor at the Bittner School of Business, St. John Fisher College. I have been at Fisher since August 2009. I currently teach Intro to Marketing and International Marketing. The purpose of this blog is to encourage students to explore marketing beyond the class textbook and the limited class time.
From reading this article, I could see a lot of word of mouth marketing being used. The boy they mentioned, named Angel, seemed to be the best alpha pup, or connector, because he was very popular and he would tell all of his friends about this game. Angel was also an opinion leader because he said Pox was the best game ever and he influenced the other children by showing how much he loved it. I think this campaign was a success. Giving the alpha pups the games to distribute to their friends was a great idea because the marketers knew they would be sharing them at school and getting more and more classmates to join in. They would even play their games in the hallways and under their desks and get more and more excited about it. It was also successful because they only selected boys to play the game first because girls wouldn’t be interested in an alien fighting game like the boys would. If half the children they selected were girls, there wouldn’t be as many people playing it because girls wouldn’t get excited for it or tell their friends about a game they’re not interested in. What contributed to their success was the fact that they chose the most popular boys so everyone would listen to what they think and if the alpha pup was excited about the game, then every other boy would be too.
ReplyDeleteI think a similar product strategy would work for other products. For example, if a company gave an alpha pup a cool new pair of sneakers and gave him a few pairs to give to his friends, before they know it everyone will be wearing them or wanting to buy them because they want to be like the cool kids. But, with older age groups, I think products would be more successful with advertising on social networks rather than giving out the product to share with friends at school. When I see an ad on facebook, I click on it if it looks interesting. Also, having someone, with a lot of followers on twitter, tweet about a new product would be a good way for a lot of people to know about it and start talking about it.
Hasbro's campaign was certianly a success. Through their word-of-mouth strategy of marketing, they were able to get a sample of how kids would react to the release of the game "Pox". And with the positive reaction of the kids in Chicago -- and their subsequent sharing of their experience with their friends -- we saw how effective this method was. What I found interesting in the article was the section that described how video game marketing is often segmented on gender. We also saw that notion come to life when one of the female users of the game expressed discontent and confuision. Males and females have, and should be approached differently in marketing video games (due to a simple difference in interests) and we saw that no differently with Hasbro.
ReplyDeleteI think you could apply a similar product strategy for many products, so long as they meet certian requirements. Mainly, those individuals that you'd target must be of the same age group, and have use for the particular product. That way, we can gather data from a consitant, specific, and particular demographic. An example could be a new type of electronic device (hand-held). Markerters would segment the market, and determaine the thought process of certian age groups, in order to greater understand their needs/wants. A process like this, in addition to other forms of marketing, could prove to be benificial.
From reading this article, it seems as though the "alpha pup", Angel, was used as a brand ambassador for Hasbro. Hasbro chose this boy because he seemed like an opinion leader, which is a person within a reference group who exerts social influence on others. Since Angel was the most popular boy in his class, if he loved the game and played it all the time, then everyone would want to buy the game to be cool as well. Angel influenced his classmates into playing the game, which is why more and more kids played it. This campaign was a success especially since they brought the game into the schools. The fact that they selected the most popular boys to play the game first made the boys that didn't have the game want it even more. Kids were playing it in class and were able to do sneak attacks from their school lockers. Even the fact that they gave the game just to boys made it more popular because if it was given to a girl, they would most likely not get excited about aliens and would say it was boring which could affect opinions of the game. All this contributed to the games success since kids were surrounded by it in their schools.
ReplyDeleteThis strategy could work for a ton of other different products. Consumer behavior is widely influenced by culture. Brand names are important to teens these days, so if a popular girl started bringing a designer bag to school, most of the girls would want to get the bag too. Even if it was expensive, most girls would get a knock-off version that would still resemble the bag. Especially since young teens are less budget conscious than adults, most of them will buy things they don't really need, like purses or clothes to help them fit in and make them look cool. Their purchase decision, which is the act by the consumer to buy the most preferred brand, is affected by what other people think is cool. Companies can learn a lot from Hasbro and their word of mouth marketing.
I think this game is definitely a success in the eyes of the company. They successfully found a way to market their product to the age group of boys that they selected through WOM marketing. It is impressive that they came up with a natural way to spread word of their new product to more consumers. They took the naturally occurring process of social hierarchy in kids and applied it in order to gain popularity for the video game. There are "cool kids" in every school and group, and since others will follow them because of their status, Hasbro knew that this would be an easy and effective way to get Pox out in the market. This example just shows how important it is to understand how other thigns such as psychology influence business, and it is essential to be able to apply different ways of thinking in marketing to be successful.
ReplyDeleteI think this strategy would definitely work with other products as well such as clothing, other games or toys, movies, etc. Also, since most, if not all, communities, groups, and schools have "alpha pups" of all different ages, it is easy to spread an idea through this naturally formed hierarchy. For example, if you gave one of the "cool kids" a brand new cell phone that had more features and capabilities than the iphone, and also created a completely spearate image from any other phone on the market right now, the popularity and curiosity of this new product would spread extremely fast through word of mouth. Right now, many companies are coming out with innovative techonological products that allow consumers to surf the web, listen to music, etc. This type of marketing could work for any new software or new technological fad.
Hasbro's campaign was successful. The reason for this was the fact that their word of mouth strategy, by giving kids who were seen as cool devices, was very effective in getting other kids excited about Pox. Hasbro's research for developing the next big thing also helped Hasbro's efforts in establishing a successful market because they made effort to see what types of toys people were buying and they also asked a child psychologist how appeals the idea of Pox would be to children. It was also important that Hasbro segmented its market by only focusing on young males because they were able to target the market that would be most interested in this product and not spend valuable resources trying to appeal to girls.
ReplyDeleteThe strategy of word of mouth marketing would work on other consumers because in most cases someone is more likely to buy something when it is recommened by a friend, family member, or a review online. The only problem with word of mouth is the fact that some people may say negative things about the product, which will lower the buzz about the product and cause less people to buy it. For example, if there are good reviews for a movie more people are willings to go the first week and increase buzz about the movie. However, if there is a bad review then less people are willing to go the first week and buzz about the movie will be minimal.
I think that Hasbro’s campaign was definitely a success. They found a way to market their product through word of mouth very effectively. Instead of spending a lot of money advertizing the product on televisions, they used the WOM marketing which allowed them to find out how kids would react to the game. They took the social hierarchy of kids at school and used the “alpha” which was the kid highest kid up on the popularity status and had them try out Pox first. From there those alphas used the word of mouth marketing to tell all their other “cool” friends. Eventually the game was spread from kid to kid, and everybody wanted one because so and so had one. This example of how Hasbro marketed their Pox game shows how important other forms of marketing are, and how companies sometimes need to think outside the box in order to make their product successful. What I also found interesting is how Hasbro knew from research what groups to target this product to. They knew that the third graders would show more emotions than the fifth grades just because of the stage of their life that they were at. Also they knew that this product would most defiantly be targeted towards the younger boys, with little interest from young girls.
ReplyDeleteI think that this strategy would work for other product categories as well. - For example, high end clothing. Like Hasbro’s marketing strategy with targeting young male alpha leaders, and staying away from marketing their product towards girls, clothing brands would be the opposite. Clothing tends to be more prevalent for females, and majority of the female population likes wearing designer or high end clothes to show off the label. With the hierarchy’s experienced in schools, I do not think we ever turn away from this naturally occurring phenomenon. There are always going to be those people who are higher up with social status then others, the “popular crowd.” Those would be the alphas for the clothing market to target. If this person were to have this purse or wear this brand, then it must mean that it’s “cool.” Through the WOM marketing strategy clothing brands could also gain their popularity.
I found this article very interesting. Instead of paying thousands of dollars on commercials and other ways of advertising, Hasbro used the cheaper alternative of word of mouth and buzz marketing, and received tremendous results. There was a lot of research that seemed to go into this strategy, but it was all well worth it. By identifying the "alpha pup's" and seeing how they reacted to the game, Hasbro created a massive new trend among third grade boys. Throughout life a person is always trying to fit in, whether it's by imitating people you see or buying what they have. When the people we look up to or want to be like are using a certain product or are wearing certain clothes, we will naturally want those things as well. This is what made the marketing plan of Pox so effective. When the game was given to the popular and well-liked boys at school, all of the other boys wanted the game too, to be like them. This was extremely effective and was a great marketing plan. Hasbro sets the stage for using innovative ways of marketing to capture the attention of the target market. Hasbro understood the influence the alpha pups had on their friends, and understood that tradition ways of marketing, such as commercials, were no longer as effective when trying to reach their target market.
ReplyDeleteI think WOM can be effective when marketing any products if done in the right way. It's obvious that a lot of research went into determining how to market Pox. As in this case, it's important to understand how boys and girls think and act differently. An example of a product is the Nano Baby. This is an old product and isn't made anymore but I remember when I was 5 or 6 that Nano babies were the cool new thing. They're similar to a video game but they appeal to little girls in the sense that it's a virtual baby that you have to feed, put it to sleep, and play with. A few of my friends each had a nano baby and brought it into school. Because they were my friends, I immediately wanted what they had, plus the nano baby seemed like a lot of fun. Before the end of the year, almost every single girl in my entire grade had one or more Nano Baby. The commercials for Nano Babies were definitely appealing, but all of my friends having them is what really made me want one.
I think that Hasbro was definitely successful. They used market segmentation to determine which targets would make their product most successful. They used demographic segmentation to choose males from ages 8 to 13 and lifestyle segmentation to know that boys at this age like to spend their time playing violent video games. I also think it was smart of Hasbro to target Generation Y, because we're known for word of mouth and that's exactly what was used to spread the word about Pox. Angel was a connector and opinion leader because he really enjoyed the game and told his other friends about it, causing them to start playing it. I think all these factors played the role in Hasbro's success.
ReplyDeleteI think that this same strategy of WOM marketing would work for other product categories or other segments of consumers. I think any kind of diet plan or exercise regiment targeted at 16-25 year old females would be successful because like I said, our generation is known for relying on opinions of others and being impatient. If a young female sees another losing weight, she'll instantly want to know exactly what she's doing to lose the weight so she can follow that plan herself and get instant results. Girls are constantly talking about and trading diet and work out tips, so if a company came out with a new work out video, they could use the same plan that Hasbro did; give it to a few females 16-25 and they'll spread it by WOM.
After reading this article, it is clear that Hasbro’s campaign for its new video game was a success. Word-of-mouth influence and buzz marketing contributed to the success of the “Pox”. Using these methods was good choice for Hasbro since it is much more inexpensive than other ways of marketing which focus more on traditional forms of advertising. I think the idea of the “alpha pups” was very clever on Hasbro’s part and I think that is what played into the success of the video game. The company definitely did a lot of research before deciding on who would be an “alpha pup”. Angel would most like be considered as a connector for Hasbro rather than an opinion leader. Angel was a popular at school and had many children who followed him, but I think the ties he had with the children were weak ones which is a characteristic of being a connector. Another thing that I believe added to the success of Hasbro’s campaign was that they found a small group that their product was directed towards and focused on what that group would be interested in for their video games. If the company was to focus the video game on both boys and girls, the company would have needed to door more research and create more games for both genders since the interests for each gender vary greatly.
ReplyDeleteI think other companies could use word-of-mouth and buzz marketing for their products. I think this strategy works the best on products that are not to complex or expensive and are easily visible to the consumers. Also, it would be crucial for the company to research the segments of the market they were trying to target. I think this strategy would work for snacks in children’s lunches. At lunch, kids are always comparing who brought what to lunch and sometimes even trading their snacks. If a kid saw something new that another kid had brought they would probably want to try it and then go home to tell their parents about it. With lunch snacks being inexpensive and many children take their lunches to school with them, I think the parents would most likely buy the products and the company’s strategy of WOM would be successful.
In this article I could tell that they used a lot of the word of mouth method of marketing. In the article there was a boy named Angel who was deemed the Alpha Pup of all the kids. They introduced Angel and a number of other Alpha Pup’s to a game system called Pox. From introducing this game to these children, every other kid in school is going to hear about the game through word of mouth. This campaign was definitely a success because the point of it was to get everyone to hear about the system through the Alpha Pup’s. Having the Alpha Pup’s take home day a pack containing 10 Pox units to be handed out to their friends was definitely going to factor into making the campaign a success. All the Alpha Pup’s can hand out their Pox units to pay with their friends in school and on the playground.
ReplyDeleteThis strategy could be used for a lot of other products. An example could be jewelry. When women go out and buy jewelry or when men buy jewelry for their wives or girlfriends there is definitely word of mouth being used. When people go out and buy jewelry they tend to ask others about places and types so that they can find out what type they want and where they should get it.
The article "Here Come the Alpha Pups" described an interesting marketing plan. The creators of the game "Pox" introduced the game in one place as an epidemic. Chicago city was the key influencer in the plan. The coolest students aged 8-13 were selected to learn how to play a new video game.Those kids the "alpa pups" were then given 10 more units to distribute among kids their age. The marketing team focused on word of mouth influence and buzz marketing. This approch was very beneficial as the gamers enjoyed the game that they could "Win loudly and loose quietly" as in the case in the mall. Also one alpda pup said "it is the best game ever". This is great feedback on the product which will create a demand. Hasbros sucess of te "Pox' came from great demographic and target marketing while relying on WOM.
ReplyDeleteThis strategy works well with fashion. Most fashion is introduced in the capitals of fashion like Paris or South Africa first.In fashion shows designers introduced what they think might be the new hip trend for the season. These trends are then critiqued by fashion experts were their opinion is influence by WOM of the attending guest.The new fashion trend acts as an eidemic to one area and slowly progresses to the rest of the world dependingon the season changes. For example in Europe men are starting to wear leggings under their jean capris. This trend has yet not hit America but I heard of it threw WOM on a talk show.
I think that this article shows the WOM marketing. Word of Mouth marketing was very effective in advertising for the Hasbro Pox. I think that Hasbro’s campaign was a success. It was successful because it sold their product, the Pox, to the people they targeted it to. By using target marketing, Hasbro hand chose their “victims.” What I mean by “victims” is that they chose boys between the ages of 8 to 13 who enjoyed video games. By asking for the most popular boy at school in different school districts, the company knew they could execute word of mouth marketing. They knew if they showed the boys a game that they would go back to school and set a trend. I think it was a great idea to choose to target the Generation Y and the Alpha Pups because this generation is known for using world of mouth. I think Hasbro’s succeeded because they knew exactly who to target and understood how trends could be set by the popular kids like Angel. I definitely think Hasbro’s Pox was a success.
ReplyDeleteI think that a similar strategy would work for other products and segments of customers. I think that Word of Mouth Marketing would be successful with teenagers. I think a product like the Blackberry is a success. From experience, I have a lot of friends with Blackberry’s and it makes me want one more. They talk about blackberry messaging and how they can surf the web while in the car, it makes you feel like you need one too to stay in with the “in-crowd.” Word of Mouth marketing is successful because everyone is talking about it and it makes you feel like if everyone has it, you have to get one to be cool too. The cell phone companys target teenagers who have families that can afford them and show on the commercials how convenient it would be to have internet at all times. I think that the cell phone companies rely greatly on word of mouth from teens talking to one another. I think they are a great success.
After reading the article Here Come the Alpha Pups, I feel that Hasbro's marketing campaign was a major success. The word of mouth aspect they were looking for to spread the news about the game worked perfectly. They chose children that seemed to be very popular in their surroundings and other children trusted in what they had to say. They didn't need to use a lot of money because word of mouth is very cheap and does the same as if they did research. The kids had no problem spreading the word about this game. It's amazing that Hasbro knew what age group would enjoy this game the most and how they targeted 3rd grade boys rather than 5th graders.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the word of mouth strategy would work on anyone because everyone talks to their friends/family members about different products or ideas and tell people how they really feel about it. The only problem with word of mouth is that you will hear people say negative things about products. An example of this would be computers. People hear all these great things about how Macs are so much better than PCs and so you see more people buying Macs because they are easier and harder for viruses.
Hasbro's word of mouth stragey was a certainly a successful one. The prominence of our society's dependence on opinion leaders was evident as expressed by this marketing strategy. The use of Angel to promote the game was particularly cunning due to his influence on the boys at school in his age group. Hasbro's pinpoint targetting and execution of WOM marketing brought them lots of success in selling their POX game. This method of marketing was cheap and highly focused to produce almost gauranteed sales by the parents of the boys they targetted to. However Hasbro's marketing was almost too focused in that, as shown by the girl who showed disinterest, their marketing didn't influence the girl population for that age group. So there were pro's and con's to their highly focused WOM marketing but overall it was still certainly a very successful marketing strategy.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this type of marketing would be effective for other products but only towards younger generations, particularly in the area of 16 to 28 who use facebook, twitter, and many other kinds of information sharing networks to talk about opinions about stuff including products. Word of mouth marketing could get news and opinions about a product all the way around the world to millions of people in just a day or two. For example new athletic gear and athletic accessories would be talked about very frequently by athletes who enjoy talking about their sport and are always looking for that edge to make them better. WOM marketing would work very well with athletic gear and accessories because most athletes are young and in the age group that uses information networks most frequently.
After reading this article I don't think that Hasbro and the Alpha Pups could have done any better of a job in this campaign. It seems like the interest that the kids have in the Pups travels fast by word of mouth. Which is why this works well with this product with today's kids. Today's kids won't play with or become involved with a toy that is not already being played with by another child at school or daycare. It takes kids to lead by example to have other kids become involved in products such as Hasbro's dicovery. In using the word of mouth strategy it helped to save and abundance of money in the long run. the WOM stragey helped to push the POX game with no stress on the company what so ever. Overall I think that Hasbro did a great job in using what they already had to market their product without spending un neccessary money.
ReplyDeleteI feel like word of mouth could be the perfect way to market with anything. WOM marketing doesnt have to be focused on young kids or even certain toys. For Example, I own a landscaping and snowplowing business with my dad and alot of new products and machines are bought because of the way people talk about them. Different companies ask around to see how products perform whether it's good or bad than can help another business make a good decision about purchasing a product that can be 1,000 dollars or all the way up to 60,000 dollars. WOM travels fast and has a positive affect on the purchasing power in this field.
You can instantly tell that this campaign was a success by the popularity of the game in Chicago before it was even released on the market or even publicly advertised. The marketers of Hasbro came up with a strategy to reach out to opinion leaders, who influence others, to promote their new video game. The article specifically talks about Angel, nine years old, who is known as the coolest kid in his grade. This is a technique known as word of mouth which helps to get the product known and with great reviews. Hasbro also targeted the right segment of the market. The company picked all boys in younger grades to test the product and share it with their friends this is because young boys will be the majority of their buyers.
ReplyDeleteThis marketing strategy would definitely work for other products. For example, take a new car designed by, let’s say by Mercedes, and you let the coolest parents in certain neighborhoods test drive the car. If they love the product and are seen driving it around, no doubt all of the other parents in the neighborhood would buy one to be just as cool as the ones that tested the cars. Soon word would get around how awesome this car was and little advertising would be needed to market this product. Word of mouth is the cheapest and sometimes the fastest way to market a new product.
After reading this article, I think Hasbro’s campaign was a success. The company didn’t use traditional marketing advertisements, and instead relied on word of mouth marketing. The company chose what they called “alpha pups” to try out the new game. These alpha pups were the most popular kids at school, so the company knew they would have a significant influence over the other kids at school by showing them the game and how much they loved it. I think that the company definitely made the right move in marketing themselves this way. They knew that once these alpha pups brought their Pox game to school, other kids would want to play and join in on the fun. I thought it was interesting that Hasbro knew that the third graders would be the best group to market to, based on their initial reaction of seeing Pox. They were the most enthusiastic about the game and most eager to try it. They also restricted their target market to only males because they knew that word of how great the game is wouldn’t spread as fast among girls. The majority of girls don’t find these types of video games interesting, so they knew that it would be harder to get them involved and fascinated with the game.
ReplyDeleteI think that WOM marketing could be used for anything. I think that an example of word of mouth marketing could be used for new foods. Many times people try new things based off of other people’s opinions of it. I know many times that I never thought I would like a certain type of food, or couldn’t picture myself evening trying it until I heard other people’s opinions on it. I think that hearing friend’s inputs is important in people’s decision making process. If people say good things about new foods then you will most likely be more willing to try it.
This is a very hands on approach to the WOM advertising. Its almost hard to believe that they were able to find kinds and talk with them in their natural environment as they did. WOM advertising is deffinitly something any marketing group strives for, but at the end of the day it is up to the consumers to actually spread the word. Hasbro basically forced WOM into consumers to create buzz, and recognized that these "alpha pups" were the most influential in creating it.
ReplyDeleteI dont see a forced WOM advertising campaign working in many other products. I think the demographic that fits this video game is a special case in which this worked. Sure, clothing in young or teenage girls may work but clothing is also not a product that a buzz is formed, its more of a social norm. The "alpha pup" targeting really only works for a product that generates a buzz like a new video game or toy, but is also relient on there actually being "alpha pups" within the group you are targeting.
Many of the elements and concepts discussed in chapter five were evident in this article. The market research that Hasbro conducte targeted the tween demographic, which has been labeled "the most influential generation in history. Not only did they choose this demographic, they segmented it by identifying the strongest members of this group ( or opinion leader) to test a new product; the Pox This group were used as brand ambassadors as they employed word of mouth or buzz marketing. The opinion leader, namely Angel then basically did all the work! Hasbro tactfully empowered Angel by selecting him to test and then choose who else would get the game.
ReplyDeleteIt is a great example of how strong social influences are.
At first, I think of this demographic and how influential they are, especially in things like electronics, clothing, sneakers, etc. However, Products like diet food/programs come to mind. Nutrasystem and Jenny Craig use celebrities as influencers to convince target markets that their particular product tastes better and is more effective.
Hasbro's campaign was a success because they were able to market thier product not through advertising but through the use of other people. The kids spread the word to their friends and classmates and before you know it most of the Chicago area was informed about the game. Other than spending extra money towards an advertising pitch they tested out the game in a certain area to see if the game would be accepted. I though the game was a good idea because even though it was gender based, it was attractable to young boys and what they were looking for in a game. The game segmented the market towards the young boys because they knew it would be an instant success. Also I think it was genius for the company to use angel the boy who was considered to be the coolest in his school, the chance to market the game himself. Hasbro believed that if Angel the coolest kid in the school were to play the game then he would influence every other boy in the whole school to play it also. Other products could be marketed this way because now a days the society is in with the newest trends and what is the most popular products.
ReplyDeleteWord of Mouth marketing has been a very successful marketing strategy for many years and will continue to be for years to come. It is most effective for a target market of teenagers and early twenties. These are the people who are technological savvy and use the internet and texting on their cell phones to communicate and stay up to date. A perfect example is a company such as Glaceau, the company which produces vitamin water, if they gave a couple of the cool kids in schools free vitamin waters and gave them a few extra to pass out to their friends in the matter of days a majority of the kids in that school would be buying vitamin waters because that would be the "cool" thing to do because the "cool" kids do it. I truly believe companies rely heavily on word of mouth marketing and that is why most of them are now successful.
I think Hasbro did a wonderful job of getting their product out there. Bringing in the most popular and out going children is a real good way of getting your product out there. When looking back at elementary school, flash backs of wanting to be like certain kids or rather have their video games start running through my head. At such a young age everyone is still learning who they are, so they do alot of trial and error with trying new things. A huge part of their success was their tactics using word of mouth. Nothing spreads quicker and for some reason people are more likely to believe something that they hear from a person they know than something that they see on televsion or read from an online website.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to see that if the right alpha pups were selected than this could be used again. Especially say for a product intended for younger children. Any type of new video game could be used in the same style. Even new drink products. If certain people start drinking certain energy drinks during a sporting event and gain attention then the product would start to spread. This would work well with professional athletes as i'm sure it has been used with them before.
One obvious marketing technique used by Hasbro is word of mouth. They knew that once the cool kid played the game and enjoyed it, he would show and tell his friends. Through the playground and the school classroom, Angel exposed the Pox to all of his other friends. Also in this case, Angel would be considered the influencer because due to him exposing this toy, other kids wanted to play with it also. This campaign was successful because the marketers got what they set out for, which was to have this alpha pup spread the word of this awesome game. The fact that Angel was young and in school made this so successful.
ReplyDeleteThis technique would be a useful tool for marketing any product. Many things consumers buy are recommended by another consumers. One example could be the purchase of cooking utensils by house moms. If a mother is given cooking utensils and she uses them, she will more times than not recommend them to others moms.
The marketing concept of Hasbro in this case would have to be word of mouth. I thought it was a great idea that they chose to select all of the alpha kids in most of the Chicago schools because the kids are more likely to go out and let their friends about the awesome new game they are playing. I think their campaign was a success because instead of spending thousands and thousands of dollars on TV ads and billboards, they used WOM with children to prompt their new game. By using the kids to test the products, it gave them a chance to try something new before it came out and before anyone else had it. This would cause them to want to let everyone they know and pass out the games to them.
ReplyDeleteI think word of mouth strategy would work for other product categories because for something along the lines of food, all a person has to do is try it and if they like it they are going to let all their friends. If a company coming out with a new type of food product that has never been sold before, the best thing they could do is get a group of people together and let them test it out. Depending on what type of food is was would determine the age of the group of people you would need to get. As soon as those people realize how good that new food is, they will go out and spread the word to all their friends and family members. If the company was smart, they would give the trial group some samples to take home and to pass out to their friends.
Hasbro specifically targeted opinion leaders in marketing Pox. Angel and the other "alpha pups" were effective WOM agents for Hasbro. Word of mouth is known to be very effective and Hasbro has proven it by the spread of information about Pox. Using male children opinion leaders was great for Hasbro. Hasbro considered that female children would not be effective because of studies in how girls interact with games. Hasbro even predicted the way that male children of different grade school levels would spread the word. Fifth graders in the focus group did not react with emotion the way that the third graders did.
ReplyDeleteThe marketing strategy used for Pox worked great for Hasbro. WOM and opinion leaders were beyond effective for the company. I do not believe this strategy would work well for many other companies or products. WOM is easily effective given the wide spread use of the internet now but I don't believe the spread would be as infectious for another product as it was for Pox.