Small companies are discovering the power of buzz marketing, once the province of major marketers. Now smaller companies are experimenting with word-of-mouth campaigns in which people known as "buzz
agents" are hired to spread the word about a product to friends and acquaintances. It's yet another tactic in a bulging bag of tricks all marketers are using (or at least considering) to supplement
traditional advertising, which marketers fear has lost much of its power. "Word of mouth is the lifeblood for most, if not all, small businesses," says Ben McConnell, a marketing consultant based in
Chicago and co-author of churchofthecustomer.com, a marketing blog. "It's something that should be part of the DNA of any small company." One company that specializes in such efforts is Boston-based
BzzAgent, a word-of-mouth marketing firm that recently engineered a 12-week campaign for Hahn's Yogurt & Cream Cheese Spread that used 2,000 volunteers from a roster of about 120,000 people who
registered online to participate in BzzAgent campaigns. Hahn's declined to say how much it paid BzzAgent, but the marketing firm says it generally charges its clients $95,000 for a full-service
campaign with 1,000 agents.
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