The Voice Heard Across the Land

Most people listen to their peers for information about products. Sometimes they regard their parents and relatives, or maybe even a respected celebrity as source of information. However, above all these people there has risen one individual that when they speak we listen. Her voice is like a signal of what to buy, what’s cool, good, and popular. It has more product push behind it than a Billy Fuccillo ad. This person is Oprah Winfrey.

Many people have termed the influence of Oprah’s word-of-mouth marketing as the Oprah Effect. Basically it means what she says sells. Everyone has heard of the Oprah Book Club. We’ve come to take this club’s recommendation more seriously than a Nobel Prize winner. It’s become a fact that if a book makes this club, it makes the best seller list. The Book Club has helped some authors get higher up than probably ever would have been considered possible without this recommendation. During 1996 she started the club and had been releasing two books a month. She has begun making her choices more exclusive after the premiering year. In turn, even more hype comes with every book.

It’s not just books that are big with Oprah though. She’s touches on everything. There are tons of Oprah success stories out there. Even for burgers. A prime example of the Oprah Effect is The Counter. This is a small town burger place in Santa Monica, California. It runs on the concept of BYOB, build you own burger. Oprah mentioned the establishment on her show in February of 2006. After this the Counter went from a $40,000 a month business to a $245,000. They now have plans for 60 new locations throughout the country.



People are another area Oprah covers. One researcher for UCLA today wrote about Oprah and other talk show hosts influencing politics. He says "For politically inattentive individuals, watching political coverage in such soft news outlets such as "The Oprah Winfrey Show" can make the difference between voting one's convictions and not."

For a marketer or a student of marketing such as myself, the power of Oprah is astonishing. It's almost scary. What some companies spend millions on and I spend years studying, she can in accomplish in two simple words.. Buy This.


http://www.today.ucla.edu/news/061106_oprah-effect/ http://www.slashfood.com/2006/08/30/the-oprah-effect-on-the-counter/ http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/08/oprah/index_01.htm