It is funny that old school refers to rap and rap refers to talking and talking refers to word of mouth. For me old school is Run DMC and Beastie Boys - generation gap? W.O.M is a three letter acrynom for the oldest form of marketing, ever. Like when Thag told Urg that the hunting was really good upstream rather than in the plains or vice versa.
Do you remember when people told you about how good the bread was at Johnny's Bakery or how Tom down at the garage gives free tune ups if you fill up on a Sunday? I do. However I also know that print, t.v, radio and internet kinda blew the focus off of WOM marketing for a while. Contrary to the compounding of the Double Mint twins, why only tell two friends when you can broadcast to millions via radio or T.V or 100's of millions online.
Of course blogging is excellent and links make or break a website, but what about a handwritten letter to 10 customers to say Thank You? Spike Jones suggests this in his blog entry "Word Of Mouth Training Wheels"
In Japan we send out cards or gifts at the beginning of every season to say Thanks to our customers, and that we want their business this coming spring too.
Retro? Maybe. Effective? Definitely.
