You just can't stop the word from spreading in China — as McDonald's recently discovered.

In March, the American fast food chain invited people who had discount coupons on chicken wings from any restaurant in China — including rivals like KFC — to use them to buy McSpicy Wings at a discount.

Building on the buzz, McDonald's promised that if one million people in China were to pledge their love online for McSpicy Wings, it would hand out free chicken wings for seven days at seven restaurants.

In just four weeks, more than two million people signed the pledge and McDonald's happily handed out 10,000 free wings. Because of these word-of-mouth promotions, sales of McSpicy wings shot up by 10% in March over the previous month.

Follow the link below to read the entire article in a new window:

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/04/the_power_of_word-of-mouth_in.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-DAILY_ALERT-_-AWEBER-_-DATE