Guy Kawasaki gives us the Thought for the Day...
"....if you have to pay your customers to evangelize your product or service, you probably don’t have a great product or service..."
This is his thought in response to a study done by Prof. Kathleen Vohs of the University of Minnesota. She hypothesized that the thought of money can create social barriers and Kawasaki's take on it is that money isn't always the best incentive for customers to spread the word about your company.
When people love your product or service, they feel compelled to tell others about it whether they are paid or not. I somewhat disagree with Kawasaki's statement because there are dozens of companies nowadays who offer affiliate programs in which website owners can link to a company and receive commissions for selling the company's product. These companies can have awesome products and why not make a few bucks telling others about the company?
Maria,
I think the difference is one of degrees of passion. An affiliate - while liking and recommending a product - is probably not going to be truly "shout from the rooftops" passionate if they're not also a customer that loves the product or service.
Posted by: Mary Schmidt | November 27, 2006 4:30 PM | Permalink to Comment