Walter Carl of ChatThreads Corporation

Dr. Walter Carl is the founder and Chief Research Officer at ChatThreads Corporation, an independent Word of Mouth (WoM) measurement and analytics company that helps brands quantify the ROI and reach of their WoM marketing initiatives. ChatThreads’ clients include Johnson & Johnson, Nike, Unilever, Kelloggs and Wyeth. ChatThreads’ proprietary G2X methodology was developed by Dr. Carl while a faculty member at Northeastern University in Boston, MA and received the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s (WOMMA) award for Best Research Paper 2007. Dr. Carl is an active member on WOMMA’s Advisory Board, co-chair of their Research and Metrics Council and led the workgroup editing Volumes 2 and 3 of the research book Measuring Word of Mouth. Dr. Carl also served on the drafting committee for the WOMMA Terminology Framework, the first set of industry standards for researching and measuring WOM marketing. Dr. Carl received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and his master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Bonin Bough of Weber Shandwick Back to Speakers Kathy Baughman of ComBlu

WOMM-U: Day Two Case Study: Houlihan’s Restaurant

The final session of the conference featured a case study on Houlihan’s Restaurants, presented by Jen Gulvik, VP Marketing, Houlihan’s Restaurants, Inc.

In the past few years Houlihan’s has undergone a tremendous transformation. Spreading the word about this has been an interesting challenge. They’re not a national advertiser. While they are in some major markets, they don’t have the budget that many of their competitors do.

The task was to see if they could turn their customers into a marketing force. In the past many of their restaurants had established e-mail lists, it was one-way only. However they do receive a large amount of customer feedback, and this is increasing. She thinks this matches the trend of customers taking control of their brand experiences.

At a WOMMA event a year ago, Jen realized that they’re in an industry (food & beverage) that is heavily talked about. Why not take advantage of that?

First step was to determine who their brand lovers were. They created and sent out a survey. Some quick metrics: 114,949 sent, 18,695 received. From there they began to build out a program, an advisory group. This group would advise them on menu choices and other brand assets. They also developed a program for the HouliFAN’s.

The primary communication channel with the advisory group is the HQ, a password protected site that allows Houlihan’s to provide information to the fans. It also allows them to participate in coversations and get feedback.

One of the first things they did was ask the advisory group, what would you do? Early on they saw an issue related to the removal of fajitas from the menu, or as Jen said, a fajita-freakout.

Once the site was established with the advisory group, it expanded to the entire fan-base, the HouliFANs.

Soon afterwards they rolled out a new menu and used their fans and the site to spread the word. They found that 35% of the fans had spread WOM about the menu.

The program is still new and growing but they’ve been thrilled with the response and feedback they’ve received.

Walter Carl of ChatThreads Corporation

On the agenda

WOMM-U: Day Two Case Study: Houlihan’s Restaurant

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