How to make ambassadors turn their friends into ambassadors

Abstract: With the internet's rampage, the possibilities for consumer-driven distribution of information are massive. One way to use this inter-consumer approach is to encourage existing customers, or ambassadors, to invite their friends and family to become a part of the brands success. But how can companies motivate existing customers to play a more important role in the brand expansion? The purpose of this thesis is to explore the motives and triggers for existing customers to invite friends, to become new customers. This by combining the empirical data collected from telephone interviews and web surveys, with theories on brand equity and inter-consumer marketing. To delimit the thesis, only motives connected to the marketing of premium products with a high customer involvement have been analyzed. For this purpose, Mackmyra Svensk Whisky AB was chosen. The empirical delimitation of this thesis is thus the customers of Mackmyra. The results showed that the motives that are perceived motivational differ from person to person. The incentives identified as more prevalent than others were access to unique products, priority to limited editions, possibility to experience the company from the inside, invitations to exclusive events, price reductions and points to exchange for merchandise.The identified incentives were segmented. After the segmentation, every company should carefully consider which segments to target, as those best suited for incentive programs differs from case to case.