Talk is Cheap: Promoting Your Business through Word of Mouth Advertising

This guide demonstrates how to make your customers your most ardent advertisers. It proposes nearly 200 ideas and techniques that will make customers generate positive word-of-mouth advertising, and different ways to prevent negative comments from damaging your business. The authors explore various techniques for promoting customer satisfaction and demonstrate how to use them effectively. All ideas are inexpensive, and beneficial to the business image.

GODFREY HARRIS is President and Chief Executive Officer of Harris/Ragan Management Group, a Los Angeles public policy consulting firm founded in 1968. He has participated in all of the firms principal consulting assignments for such clients as the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, and Housing and Urban Development; the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration; the Governments of Panama and St. Kitts-Nevis; the London Chamber of Commerce & Industry; and more

Prior to founding the company some 32 years ago, Mr. Harris was Special Assistant to the President of the IOS Development Company in Geneva; a U.S. Foreign Service Officer with diplomatic assignments in Washington, Bonn, and London; and a Management Analyst in the Presidents Executive Office with responsibility for management and organizational matters in the foreign affairs and commercial sectors of the U.S. Federal government.

Mr. Harris has also taught political science at UCLA and Rutgers; lead negotiation training for elements of the US Corps of Engineers; presented tourism seminars at the American Embassy, London, and the American Consultates General in Manchester and Glasgow; at Clemson University; and at the University of Hawaii; and he has conducted word of mouth training sessions for numerous business and civic organizations as well as San Diego Countys Parks and Recreation Department, the International Training Institute of the Sheet Metal Industry, and such Austrian organizations as the Tyrolean Tourist Board, the Ski School Association, and the Business Circle. Mr. Harris has written or co-authored 26 books on public policy issues and business topics. He holds degrees from Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Gregrey Harris specializes in direct marketing. He began his business career operating his own legal photography business and managing major accounts for Harris/Ragan. Later, he conducted market research and developed a data base for cable television's Financial News Network. In 1988, he joined the Hewlett-Packard direct marketing team, later serving in marketing capacities for Hyundai Electronic and Adaptec. He is current VP for Marketing for Cornerstone Peripheries in the Silicon Valley. He holds a BA in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MBA in both marketing and finance from the University of Southern California.