We used to call ourselves “Bargain Hunters” or “Smart Shoppers” – now we are “Recessionistas”, finding the best buy and beating the economic woes of the land! My co-worker and friend, Afsheen, coined the term… and I have been using it with relish for about a week. My circle of friends have adopted it and so on and so on… who knows where it will end up next. That is the joy of a “living language”. Not that I am assuming that my adoption of this clever term will make it into the jargonaries of the world, nor that by our usage we will change the language – my point about it is that usage is viral because people tell others about what they are using.
In the decades prior to mass media (not really THAT long ago), most products were spread through word-of-mouth marketing. One person would tell another person about how well it worked or how wonderful the product was, and it spread. This is why so many advertising formats are “Testimonials” of one kind or another… because the majority of humans like to pass things along, share, and enjoy as a group. The concept of viral (word of mouth) marketing came back into vogue when the internet became mainstreamed. Social networking and the marketing that comes with it, is the good old fashioned word of mouth type of testimonial marketing that was prevalent a century ago. The village is bigger now… the “mouth” is a screen.
A person in Dallas can coin a term like “Recessionista” and in two days, it can be heard in San Francisco and Boston in a conversation 3 times removed from the source. Just think what you could do with a strong strategy and purpose!
