What our industry calls “buzz marketing” involves recruiting young people to talk up a product to their peers, at an age when all of them are presumably forming brand loyalties. A number of Wharton students, in fact, have been among those eager to become buzz agents.

One of my research assistants, a senior named Kwany Lui, for example, has promoted products such as Energizer batteries and Ralph Lauren perfume. She can readily recite the mantras of both. “Energizers last seven times longer in digital cameras. They’re the world’s longest-lasting batteries in high-tech gadgets.” She offers these sound bites on road trips when friends are listening to portable music players or at family gatherings where everyone is taking pictures. When old batteries give out, she reaches for a fresh set. In return for her services to Energizer, she is eligible to receive products from companies that are partnering in the deal with Energizer: the soundtrack from the movie Garden State or a picture frame from Crate and Barrel.

Kwany first became a buzz marketer last summer, in response to an email from Wharton Publishing. There was no formal training program, but she received a bound notebook with instructions on what sort of people would be appropriate targets and what situations are suitable for buzzing. Her clients generally have her log onto a website to report where and when she has buzzed a product and how people responded to it.