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Shure thing: Word of mouth at retail

How does someone recommend your product at retail? It’s an interesting thing to watch.

Sure
I love my Shure sound isolating headphones.  They make your music sound AMAZING. But much more important … when you add the sound-blocking earplugs, they completely totally absolutely block all outside sound. These are the most amazing thing for frequent travelers – I can’t hear crying kids, chatty travelers, or the really drunk and annoying junior exec from Chili’s who wouldn’t stop talking on AA flight 2364 from Dallas to Chicago on August 9. (I think her boss, sitting behind us, would have loved to steal my earplugs.)  They are also great when you’re trying to get work done at a Starbucks or a house full of toddlers.

Back to the point ….

There are lots of expensive, complicated noise reduction headphones on the market. They use some sort of circuitry and batteries to cancel sound. They are complicated, big, and they only slightly work.  The Shure solution is much simpler, elegant, and effective.

So, I’m in an audio store in the airport and I see a traveler agonizing over the headphone choices.  I recommend the Shure set.  He looks at me like I’m the kind of crazy person who talks to you in airports, which is why he needed the sound-blocking headphones in the first place. 

But when I walk away, he asks the clerk which ones to buy. The clerk immediately says "Shure. Definitely."

So your word of mouth quesitons …

  1. What motivates a customer to recommend your product to a total stranger?
  2. How do you reach out to store clerks, who don’t work for you at all, and give them the knowledge to recommend you?
  3. Would those recommenders have enough knowledge and experience to make a recommendation?

P.S. Shure — give me a call! I’m in Chicago. There are many more things you could do to get great word of mouth.

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