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So there I was, doing some birthday-gift shopping on a Saturday. I was at the mall because I had put off the dirty deed for too long and couldn’t turn to online shopping to save me.

I’m shoulder to shoulder with humanity when I hear someone ask for a game called Scene It. You would have thought someone offered the crowd $10 to ooh and aah at the mention of this game.

People started saying, “That’s the most fun I’ve had in years” and “They’ve been sold out of those for weeks!”

The game wasn’t on my shopping list. But I could not help getting caught up in the buzz. Next thing I knew, I was standing there extolling the details of both the “Harry Potter” and “Friends” versions of the popular game.

Later that same afternoon, a little poorer and more tired, I stumbled across a games/toy store. Right out front they had a sign that said, “We’ve got Scene It!”

Guess what I had to go take a peek at. Yup. I wonder if I would have even noticed the sign had I not been engaged in the earlier conversation. But because the buzz had engaged me, I was much more inclined to respond to the brand and the marketing of it.

Yes, it’s important to be smart, sophisticated marketers. To know our demographics, speak to the benefits and guard the brand. But that doesn’t take away anything from the simple power of buzz.

What product or service of yours is worthy of that sort of street talk? If your answer is “nothing” – what could you create that would get people talking?

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and blogs at www.drewsmarketingminute.com. He can be reached at Drew@MclellanMarketing.com. © 2007 Drew McLellan