Back in November, SourceMedia held its Mortgage Fraud Conference at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. In the area adjoining our space was several booths and conference rooms for another meeting from an organization I had never heard of before and whose name I found intriguing.
It was a meeting sponsored by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. I will admit to being surprised that something that seems as informal as word of mouth marketing, also known as referrals, has a whole organization dedicated to its growth.
But even more importantly, WOMMA has an ethics code of conduct to define best practices, unacceptable practices and baseline rules for word of mouth marketing.
"The WOMMA Code is a tool for marketers to understand where the lines are drawn and how to do the right thing," said the group's president, John Bell. "The word of mouth marketing environment is changing rapidly, the rules are evolving, and ethical practices are still being defined."
The key principles of the WOMMA Code are:
The WOMMA Code's key principles are:
1. Respect and promote practices that abide by an understanding that the consumer, not the marketer, is fundamentally in charge and in control and dictates the terms of the consumer-marketer relationship.
2. Openness and honesty between consumers and marketers requires that consumers engaged in a word-of-mouth programs disclose their relationships with marketers with other consumers and marketers disclose their relationships with consumers in relation to word-of-mouth initiatives.
3. Clear disclosure of identity is vital to establishing trust and credibility. Identification should not be blurred in a manner that misleads consumers as to the true identity of the individual with whom they are communicating.
4. Working with minors in word-of-mouth marketing programs carries important responsibilities and sensitivities, therefore, children under the age of 13 should not be included in any word-of-mouth marketing programs.
5. Promote honesty in all downstream communications to assure that ethical standards are upheld even after multiple generations of a conversation.
6. Respect the privacy of consumer at all times and comply with the highest privacy, opt-in and permission standards.
"The industry is proactively drawing the lines about what is and isn't acceptable in this evolving space. These changes impact every brand and every marketer," said Paul M. Rand, WOMMA vice president.
The WOMMA Code is part of the ethics section on the group's website, located at
