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Lessons in Word of Mouth Marketing from the American Revolution

Here’s the analogy: a small group of undisciplined, poorly trained, poorly equipped average citizens takes on the most powerful Empire in the world and defeats it through the sheer force of the passionate belief in their cause. Sounds kind of like bloggers vs traditional media to me. But there is more to the story: Word of Mouth was Washington’s secret weapon in defeating the British Empire.

Surrender

John Trumbull’s painting “Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown”, 1797

I drew the analogy to the American Revolution in my speech at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association Basic Training conference last week. Andy Sernovitz asked me to kick off the panel on “Word of Mouth 101: Core Strategies and Tactics” by introducing the philosophy of WOM: listening to consumers, not pushing messages at them.

I began by noting how different this philosophy is from what I was taught as a young Account Executive at Ogilvy & Mather: create a compelling message, distribute it broadly to drive high reach and frequency, and repeat in consistently over time to build awareness. Listening to consumers turns this approach around.

And then I remembered from my high school American history class that after Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown and the British Army marched off the battlefield, the regimental band played a tune named “The World Turned Upside Down.” In this example from Intuit, the Quickbooks Online Edition group asks their users to vote on a new tag line. Having our target audience approve our ad copy? Truly the world turned upside down.

But there is more to the story.

Cornwallis’ army represented only about 25% of the British forces in America. Even after the battle, the British held key strategic cities including New York and Charleston. The analogy here: consumer-generated media doesn’t have to destroy the entire traditional media empire, nor even defeat its largest, strongest troops (e.g., television) to become a major world force.

And here’s the final, and most compelling, part of the analogy.

Yorktown was a significant victory but on the face doesn’t seem a strategic, devastating blow to such a powerful empire. So why was this the decisive victory in the five-year War for Independence?

The answer is Word of Mouth.

Washington’s original plan was not to meet Cornwallis: he was on his way to New York, believing that the war could not end while the British held this major city and important port. But Ben Franklin, ambassador to London, had his finger on the pulse of British public opinion and was convinced that if the British forces suffered another loss, the public would turn against the war.

Hearing this, Washington changed strategy, avoiding a difficult and uncertain battle in New York for a more certain victory at Yorktown. Cornwallis surrendered, the British entered into peace negotiations, and the prime minister, Lord North, resigned in disgrace.

Such is the power of listening and adapting your strategy to your consumer. Such is the power of Word of Mouth.

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Posted by Jim Nail on January 26, 2006 at 10:14 AM | Email this post Permalink

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