Week 4 Reading Response: Tapping the Groundswell

 Neiman Marcus Official Website

Last Friday was Valentine's Day, many kinds of skincare products were on sale on Neiman Marcus. Me and my roommates were attracted by a Kiehl's set, so we decided to buy 4 sets together. Everything seemed to go smoothly. We placed our order successfully, and the order was confirmed. We were delighted and looking forward to receiving the package. However, three days later, I got an email saying that our order was cancelled, for no reason. I immediately contacted Neiman Marcus's customer service online, he told me that the company had the right to limit quantities a customer might buy. I told him I totally understood if the company had this rule, but I preferred to know this

rule before I placed the order, and Neiman Marcus should have shown this rule to customers on the website, instead of canceling orders later on. Then, I got nothing useful to solve my problem but apologies. I was so disappointed.

Well, Neiman Marcus, to some degree, "listened" to me, and "talked" to me. However, I didn't think our chat could be deemed as an effective conversation because they did not understand what I was thinking; even after I told them my thought, they still didn't get me. 

What's worse, it was just reported days ago that "over 1 million credit cards' data were stolen" in Neiman Marcus. Some friends of mine got in trouble in this Hackers attack, and they had warned me not to buy things in Neiman Marcus. Now, having this dissatisfied shopping experience on Neiman Marcus, do you think I will "spread the word" of this shopping mall to my other friends in a positive way? No. Definitely not. 

From my point of view, the purpose to start a conversation between groundswell and company is to understand "what people are thinking" (p. 80) and build a friendly, trustworthy relationship with each other, then the groundswell will help "advertise" the company in certain way. According to Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's "Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA)" theory in Part Two of Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies, "word of mouth 'is the honest form of marketing, building upon people's natural desire to share their experiences with family, friends, and colleagues.'" (p. 131) Li and Bernoff believe the importance of energizing the groundswell. So do I. 

Lancôme is one of the companies that do a great job in energizing the groundswell. The video below is posted on Lancôme's official website; it tries to tell customers some beauty tips. 

Powder Makeup How-To By Michelle Phan

You don't have to finish the video, because what I want to talk about is not the video, but the girl in it. Who is she? Well, I would like to tell you, she, Michelle Phan, is originally just one of Lancôme's customers. But her videos are now on

the official websites of Lancôme's products, and she becomes very famous in social media. As many other Lancôme's ordinary customers, Michelle Phan loved Lancôme's products, so she wrote her reviews on various social media, and put videos on YouTube to share her personal experience with others. In her makeup videos, she introduced many Lancôme's products, and more and more people followed her on Facebook and YouTube. 

Just like Jim Noble, who is an example in Groundswell as a fan of eBags, Michelle Phan is an enthusiast customer of Lancôme. 
Lancôme understands the importance of word-of-mouth and the power of energizing the groundswell, so the company put her videos on its websites and attract people to believe that Lancôme's products are as good as advertised. As stated in Groundswell, "it's energizing -- finding enthusiast customers and turning them into word-of-mouth machines." (p. 130) 

Now, Michelle Phan is hired by Lancôme, being a professional makeup girl, sharing her feelings and experiences of using Lancôme's products. If you type "Lancôme" on YouTube, there are about 330,000 results shown on the screen, and MOST OF THEM are reviews from ordinary customers. 

Estée Lauder Official Website

Compared to its strongest competitor, Estée Lauder, Lancôme is almost three times search results greater than Estée Lauder. To Lancôme, Groundswell is energized, and customers are encouraged to give feedbacks. As Li and Bernoff say in the book, "Energizing the base is a powerful way to use the groundswell to boost your business." (p. 130) I believe Lancôme will benefit a lot from the groundswell in the future.