Viral marketing

9 Key excerpts on "Viral marketing"

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  eBook - PDF

  Marketing Metaphors and Metamorphosis

  • P. Kitchen(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  8 Viral marketing: How to Spread the Word via Mobile Device Shintaro Okazaki Introduction Broadly defined, Viral marketing is the process of encouraging honest communication between pre-existing consumer social networks (Phelps et al., 2004). More specifically, it seeks to increase brand awareness expo- nentially, through processes similar to the spread of a viral epidemic. Thus, the concept of Viral marketing fits into the metaphor construct because it highlights information transmission as if it were an infection in living organisms. In a way, this term helps us to comprehend human relationships as a physical bond that can be connected, and therefore also contaminated, by a ‘buzz’. Buzz is another metaphor, and describes ‘contagious’ commentary, about products, services, brands, and ideas, that catches the attention of ‘noisy’ enthusiasts who spread the word via electronic or face-to-face conversation in social networks. Thus, the buzz helps firms to give people reasons to talk (often in entertaining and/or informative ways) about their products and services, and makes it easier for that conversation to take place. In a sense, this is the major benefit of using this metaphoric term. The earliest known use of the term ‘Viral marketing’ appeared in PC User magazine in 1989 (Carrigan, 1989). In an article about the adoption of Macintosh SEs versus Compaqs, the copycat effect was described: At Ernst & Whinney, when Macgregor initially put Macintosh SEs up against a set of Compaqs, the staff almost unanimously voted with their feet as long waiting lists developed for use of the Macintoshes. The Compaqs were all but idle. John Bownes of City Bank confirmed this. ‘It’s Viral marketing. You get one or two in and they spread throughout the company’. 118 Initially, therefore, the term referred to the phenomenon of catching an idea and imitating it after seeing somebody else adopting it.

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  Digital Marketing Outreach

  The Future of Marketing Practices

  • Kavita Sharma, Swati Aggarwal, Kavita Sharma, Swati Aggarwal(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  Part 1 Understanding digital consumers Passage contains an image

  Chapter 1

  Revisiting antecedents of consumers’ perceptions towards Viral marketing

  A scale validation approach

  Balpreet Kaur, Rishi Raj Sharma, and Rama Bhardwaj

  DOI: 10.4324/9781003315377-2

  Introduction

  In today’s era of the revolutionary and digitized business environment, marketers tend to interact with consumers through ‘social networks’ or ‘social media’ (Shareef, Mukerji, Alryalat, Wright, & Dwivedi, 2018; Shareef, Dwivedi, Kumar, & Kumar, 2017) which is popular with the name ‘Viral marketing’ or ‘social enhanced word-of-mouth’ (Juvetson, 2000). It is a type of marketing that taint its customers with the message content, which spreads in a contagious and exponential manner like ‘rampant flu virus’ (Montgomery, 2001; Swanepoel, Lye, & Rugimbana, 2009). Viral marketing is the non-commercial proactive promotion of products among consumers by exploiting their pre-existing social media networks (Hayes & King, 2014). In the last few years, usage of blogs or social networks and video-sharing sites has been growing very rapidly (Farooq & Jan, 2012; Gunawan & Huarng, 2015; Rune & Vinberg, 2009; Godar, 2005; Zwanka, 2018), and the extensive use of social media by consumers benefits marketers and consumers as well (Gunawan & Huarng, 2015). As ‘powerful networks of interpersonal relations’ play an influential role not only in affecting consumers’ buying behaviour (Brooks, 1957; Mangold, Miller, & Brockway, 1999) but also in the diffusion process of new products which aids in the adoption of new products by consumers (Arndt, 1967). Nowadays, Viral marketing has become a conduit for organizations which not only creates new opportunities for organizations but also enhances their competitiveness to proliferate their market shares (Ahmed, 2018). On the other hand, to enjoy the benefits of social media networks as a tool for advertising, it is necessary to identify which social media communication strategy is more effective in terms of consumers’ perceptions towards it (Floreddu & Cabiddu, 2016; Khadim, Hanan, Arshad, & Saleem, 2018).

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  Emotionalizing Fashion Retail

  • Jochen Strähle(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Books on Demand

    (Publisher)

  Self-replication is not easy to be achieved and memes need […] to fit the environment of the brain and [need to have] a better fit than the multitude of other idea, utterances and theories that compete for brain space. More specifically, in advertising, the advertiser is attempting to create new combinations (mutations) of ideas that they hope will fit – be adapted to- the target market. However, only the fittest will survive. (Blackmore, 1999, p. cited by; Williams, 2002, p. 163)

  The term Viral marketing arises from the similarity between the dissemination process of memes and the spread of viral infections. Viral marketing incorporates systematic strategies, tactics and measures to specifically trigger Word-of-Mouth (Langner, 2009, p. 24). This marketing discipline uses the connectivity amongst individuals to capture attention and to create buzz (Posner, 2011, p. 30). Building on the power of Word-of-Mouth in social networks Viral marketing campaigns involve individuals who know each other and individuals who do not know each other (Brannon, 2010, p. 64). The aim of Viral marketing campaigns is to trigger a snowball effect or to create a meme. Thereby, the connection between Viral marketing and Word-of-Mouth marketing is one of cause and effect. Viral marketing creates awareness and buzz by using attention getting and captivating marketing tools. Positive Word-of-Mouth is theoretically the desired output which in turn contributes to higher profitability and new customers (Ferguson, 2008b, p. 178). The following figure illustrates the possible reach which can be achieved through Viral marketing campaigns if a multiplier effect occurs. Assumed that one customer forwards the Viral marketing campaign to five other customers and these are sending the message to five others, 125 potentially new customers are reached. On the next level 625 and then 3.125 new customers are addressed (Langner, 2009, pp. 15-16).

  Figure 52: Multiplier Effect in the Transmission of Viral marketing Campaigns

  Adapted from: (Langner, 2009, p. 16)

  To evoke an epidemic-like propagation of marketing messages the composition of society has to be considered. Gladwell (2001) stated in his book “The tipping point” that in the beginning of the diffusion process the desired message is forwarded by a few key individuals or carriers (Gladwell, 2001 cit. Brannon, 2010, p. 64) Therefore, he subdivided society in connectors, mavens and salesmen to explain who is influencing the diffusion of WOM or trends. Connectors are decisive for the diffusion of Viral marketing campaigns because they know many people and connect different social networks. Market mavens, or so called information specialists, are people who are more likely to share their knowledge with general public due to underlying altruistic motives. Salesmen or persuaders are the third decisive group in the transmission process. They boost or weaken the viral campaign (Langner, 2009, pp. 21-23;Mourdoukoutas & Siomkos, 2009, p. 7). This perception of society shows companies which customers they have to contact directly while implementing a Viral marketing campaign. The contact between the firm and the “normal audience” is therefore just indirect and mavens, connectors and salesmen are functioning as intermediaries. Nonetheless, it is inevitable to create high qualitative, memorable and context related messages to trigger viral infections in the market place (Helm, 2000, p. 159). The viral campaign content can be presented in several ways:

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  Advertising, Promotion, and other aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications

  • J. Craig Andrews, Terence Shimp(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  62 21-5 Viral marketing The preceding section applied traditional concepts such as opinion leadership to describe the process of WOM communication. That section may have given the impression that WOM is something that just happens and that marketing communicators are like spectators in a sporting event who passively enjoy the action, but are not involved in its creation. The present section clarifies that marketing communicators are—or should be—active participants in the WOM process rather than merely idle bystanders. Brand marketers have found it important to help influence what is said about their brands proactively rather than merely hoping that positive WOM is occurring. V iral marketing is often used to accomplish this and refers to techniques that use social networks to increase brand awareness or other marketing objectives, through a self-replicating, viral process, similar to the spread of a virus. 63 Marketing practitioners refer to this proactive effort as “creating the buzz.” More specifically, we can think of buzz creation as the systematic and organized effort to encourage people to talk favorably about a particular brand— either directly or online—and to recommend its usage to others who are part of their social network. (Terms other than Viral marketing or buzz creation are used to refer to proactive efforts to spread positive WOM information; these include guerrilla marketing , diffusion marketing , and street marketing .) We now examine the special topic of Viral marketing, using social networks to create brand awareness via self-replicating viral means, similar to the spread of a virus. 21-5a Viral marketing IS AKIN TO CREATING AN EPIDEMIC Viral marketing can be compared to an epidemic. By analogy, consider how the common influenza (flu) virus spreads.

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  Viral Marketing within Social Networking Sites: The creation of an effective Viral Marketing Campaign

  • Sven Wilde(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Diplomica Verlag

    (Publisher)

  In advance, it can be said that Viral marketing can also concern non-business marketing, as Obama's election campaign in 2007 and the current KONY 2012 campaign show. But for the purpose of this study, only commercial Viral marketing is considered. In this chapter Viral marketing will be classified within the marketing mix and furthermore delineated from contiguous fields. 2.6.1 Viral marketing within the Marketing-Mix The analysis in the previous chapters has shown that Viral marketing can be used manifold, e.g. to communicate and create or raise brand awareness, but also to distribute digital products and drive sales. Thus, it cannot be allocated in just one single field of the marketing mix, respectively the 4 C's, but several. Each of them will be briefly discussed: 1. Considering that VM can serve to distribute viral products, it is also about delivering the product or service to the customer at highest possible convenience . 2. To make a product VM-compatible, the product design and attributes must be developed accordingly and, hence, the customer solution also is part of a Viral marketing campaign. 3. Considering the business model of many online services or products, one can sense that the customer cost is also affected by VM. This occurs in terms of free basis products or services 9 , whereby the suppliers make profit with either extra services or advertising. In terms of the transaction cost theory (Williamson 1981, p. 574), this increases the transaction efficiency by lowering the financial costs to zero, 8 The 4 P's as the sellers view were developed into a more customer-oriented view, the 4 C's: Customer Solution instead of Product, Customer cost instead of Price, Convenience instead of Place, and Communication instead of Promotion (Kotler/Armstrong 20120, p. 77) 9 Examples are numerous, e.g. online social networking pages in general (Facebook, Xing, etc.), Chat-programs (Skype, ICQ, etc.)

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  Global Advertising Practice in a Borderless World

  • Robert Crawford, Linda Brennan, Lukas Parker, Robert Crawford, Linda Brennan, Lukas Parker(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  As soon as a potentially viral advertisement has left its source, the sender has lost the ability to maintain the integrity of the message and the context it in which it will be received. This opens up the ability for potential transmitters to alter the message and co-create their own message – be that positive or negative. Spoof advertising replicates readily in the digital environment where ad aficionados adapt the image or text to suit their own purposes (see, for example, www.adbusters.org/spoofads/absolut-craze/). Viral advertising and Viral marketing, terms which are used interchangeably, are commonly thought of as electronic word of mouth (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2011). Viral marketing can be defined as ‘the act of propagating marketing messages through the help and cooperation from individual consumers’ (Liu-Thompkins, 2012, p. 59). It relies on consumers to spread the message rather than the traditional mass media. Viral advertising, however, supersedes notion word of mouth marketing in that it has the possibility of influencing and reaching a much larger audience at a greater than exponential rate (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2011). Moreover, given that concepts of online and offline are increasingly blurred, word of mouth transcends the original medium of transmission (one-to-one versus one-to-many or many-to-many). This is particularly evident in an age where the majority of Internet interactions occur on mobile devices (Pew Research Center, 2013). Most digital advertising aspires to be viral in nature. However, transmission of the ad, once it leaves the hands of the advertiser, is in the hands of the sharing audience, who will pass on the ad according to their own agenda and using whatever device is being accessed at the time

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  Public Relations For Dummies

  • Eric Yaverbaum, Robert W. Bly, Ilise Benum, Ilise Benun(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • For Dummies

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 18

  Getting Hits from Buzz Marketing and Viral marketing

  In This Chapter

  Understanding buzz and Viral marketing

  Generating more leads with buzz marketing

  Identifying brand evangelists and terrorists

  Leveraging the Web and e-mail for maximum buzz

  Measuring and tracking buzz

  Meeting the legends of buzz

  M ost marketing efforts are carefully calculated pitches choreographed by professionals to convey a specific message to a target audience, and it’s obvious. Buzz marketing, on the other hand, is just as carefully calculated but it doesn’t appear to be so. It’s a combination of creative grassroots tactics and creative PR stunts that capture the attention of consumers and the media who then begin to talk or spread the word about your company in a way that is entertaining, fascinating, and newsworthy.

  In this chapter, you find out what makes buzz marketing so effective, the four elements of buzz marketing, how to determine the right moment for buzz, plus eight things you can do right now to get the buzz going.

  Understanding the Difference between Buzz Marketing and Viral marketing

  Buzz marketing is the overall volume of noise about a product or service and it includes all sorts of tools, such as Viral marketing, word of mouth, press coverage and more.

  Viral marketing, an element of buzz, is restricted mainly to the online space, because that’s where things are easily passed around, whether they be viral e-mail messages with jokes or links to Web sites, photos, or JPEG files of static images or video clips.

  For a brand, one of the most successful Viral marketing campaigns has been Burger King’s Subservient Chicken. To promote a new chicken product from a company known for beef, their ad agency, Crispin Porter, created an irreverent Web site where people could go and give commands to the chicken. The link to the Web site was sent to 1,000 people as a test and it immediately mushroomed into millions of hits to that site.

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  Principles and Practice of Social Marketing

  An International Perspective

  • Rob Donovan, Nadine Henley(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  While marketers sometimes tried to hurry this process along by sampling promotions and developing ad materials that generated discussion, the advent of the Internet and social network media has provided a whole new dimension to the concept. Feedback on products is now all over the net, with WORD-OF-MOUTH AND Viral marketing l l l l l l 349 comments on such things as new release movies being sent instantly around in the first couple of days after release. The three major changes in this area are: the speed with which information spread by word of mouth can now reach millions • of people all around the globe via the Internet; companies now make ads specifically to be spread via word-of-mouth (via YouTube • or simply email, ‘buzz campaigns’ or ‘Viral marketing’); ‘stealth marketing’ (not disclosing one’s identity as a marketer in a communication), • ‘shilling’ (paying someone to endorse a product without disclosing that fact) and ‘infiltration’ (using a fake identity in an online discussion) (Mucha 2005 ) appear to be increasing as marketers become far more aware of how important it is and how quickly it spreads. Alcohol marketers are known to pay people to ask for a particular brand in a bar as well as buy for others, and tobacco companies paid college students to offer cigarettes around at parties, bars and other gatherings. Tweets have been discovered on Twitter containing paid plugs for companies including Apple, Skype, Flip, StubHub and Box. net (Weir 2009 a), and the US Federal Trade Commission is now drawing up guidelines that will allow it to investigate bloggers who are paid to promote products but do not disclose that fact (Weir 2009b ). Facebook supposedly allows only brand sites that are actually sponsored by the company and are clearly disclosed as such. There is now also an Advertising Age Viral Video Chart, which in August 2009 was led by Evian’s ‘Rollerbabies’ (infants skateboarding etc.), Nike and Microsoft (Klaassen 2009 ).

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  An Introduction to Social Media Marketing

  • Alan Charlesworth(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Essentially, the success of any Viral marketing depends on three fundamental issues. They are: 1. The originator of the message must benefit from its propagation – therefore there should be a specific objective behind any viral campaign. “ Viral marketing does not have to be complex ” 118 Operational social media marketing 2. The sender – that is, anyone who passes the message on to others – is actively seeking, or at least willing to receive, any kudos that comes from forwarding the message. 3. The receiver must perceive value in the message. A fourth element might be added here – one that relates to the time that the viral is in the public domain and is consistent with another offline model – the product life cycle (PLC). In its early days, the viral advert will be worth more kudos to the sender in that it is new – these people are the early adopters in the PLC. They are proactive in seeking new virals and are seen as influencers in the marketplace. As time goes by the early adopters will distance themselves from the campaign as the mainstream and (eventually) laggards take in the viral. In the longer time frame this notion becomes detrimental to the campaign itself. If anyone has already received the message when the media-fed user sends it out then: • The esteem in which the sender is held is reduced – and so they are unwilling to risk their reputation by forwarding ‘old news’. • If they have seen it before, the receiver perceives no value in the communication. • The originator receives no benefit – and such is the nature of some campaigns being seen as ‘leading edge’ that they may experience an ‘unfashionable’ backlash if the campaign goes on for too long. A final point to raise is that the most suc- cessful viral campaigns are strategically planned and executed, they do not ‘just happen’. With a very few exceptions (and industry insiders will argue there is none) commercial – i.e.

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