September 6, 2007 

Talk Amongst Yourselves

Dianne Rinehart, Globe and Mail Update

When Anne Day launched her business, Company of Women, five years ago, she admits she spent a "fortune" on advertising and promotion. In fact, about 50 per cent of her budget went to newspaper ads, and promotional items, such as post it notes bearing the company logo, as well as gifts for renewing members. Then she discovered something: "If women like something, they tell their friends about it."

So instead of spending all her marketing money on advertising, she began to focus on connecting with other women's networks to promote her business, and on delivering a "quality experience, one they'll remember.

"Then they tell their friends, who tell other people," she says, likening it to the famous Breck hair shampoo commercial, "I told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and…"

In fact, Day believes word of mouth is responsible for 75 per cent of her company's growth, which now has 360 annual members, with many more attending a much-expanded roster of breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings held in Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville and Burlington. [read the rest of the article]