How Procter & Gamble is Using 600,000 Moms to Buzz Products

Women Beware! The laundry detergent recommendation that you just received from a work colleague, along with a handy coupon, may be a result of a crafty big business marketing plan, and not just the friendly personal experience endorsement that you thought it was.

Personal recommendations, or word of mouth marketing, is powerful. And, as women we are drawn to buy products or services based upon the good word of friends and colleagues.

Big business has caught on! Noted in the May 29, 2006 issue of Business Week, business giant Procter & Gamble has been focusing on the powerful word of mouth marketing method and has enrolled over 600,000 women as their 'salespeople' for P&G products. The women are provided with specifically crafted product messages and coupons and then are expected to spread the P&G product word far and wide to their extensive social networks. They receive product samples in return.

You can call this smart marketing, but there seems to be a dark underbelly to this method.

This cadre of women have no obligation to divulge their connection to P&G and what they are receiving in return for their endorsement. This raises an ethical concern.

When you watch an ad on TV you know why it is there - the company is trying to sell you something. When you listen to your neighbor's presentation for health related products you know that you will be asked to consider buying.

When a friend at work tells you that they have achieved wonderful results from a P&G product and that you should try it, you would believe that they are simply sharing their experience with you - not delivering you a crafted marketing message from the product company.

We are already marketed to at every turn - do we want to turn our personal relationships into a product selling vehicle? Do we want to question the words of our friends and family and wonder if they are simply trying to sell us something?

Don't get me wrong. I'm a business owner and I whole heartedly embrace word of mouth marketing. I participate in network groups that function from this method, I buy direct sales products and my own business thrives or dies based on client's experience and recommendations.

However, when I talk to someone about coaching services, they know I'm a coach and that I might be interested in their business. It is a clear communication - the other person knows my interest.

In the P&G word of mouth method it is up to each woman to choose to disclose her affiliation with P&G. I'm sure some do and many don't.

What I would like to see is a requirement in this method for full disclosure, like mandated in the newly formed Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).

I think we should know when our relationship is being used as a marketing opportunity. I'm not against this method, just when it's done deceptively.