When companies want to sell their products or services quickly, they’re putting a lot of money in advertising and promotional material. But which promotion style is the most effective? Traditional media like television, radio or newspapers? It is effective and traditional media will always reach your focus group, but it is very expensive. And what if a company hasn’t got enough money for a TV-campaign, a radio spot or an advertisement in a popular newspaper?
Traditional media is decreasing. On the other hand increases the Internet. A lot of individuals use this medium for buying, searching, blogging and entertaining. So the Internet has a lot of consumers and public. All focus groups are present. Therefore, Internet is an appropriate medium for selling a product or service, and also very inexpensive!
Viral Marketing
And then Viral Marketing came. It is a cheap way to make your focus group aware of your product or service. Companies pick consumer data from there database and send their campaign or other promotional material to them. Most likely the buzz is funny, entertaining or has a shocking effect. It can be a photo, a game or a film. The promotional material or campaign encourages individuals to pass the message to others. It spreads the word of the product or service. Word of mouth is a method that is the most effective way to sell. When somebody heard it from his friend, he believes it and becomes familiar to it, most likely to buy it. And that was exactly the purpose of the company.
A company like O’Neill could try Viral Marketing. It is a company with a lot of money, but it is also a company that is trying all kinds of promotion styles. To make it clear: O’Neill is a brand that has his focus on the surf and board sport. The competitors aren’t using VM and the focus group of O’Neill (girls in the age of 17 to 20 years) is a frequent internet user. A funny film, an entertaining game or a shocking picture will attend them on O’Neill, and hopefully they will buy something. Or maybe the friends she sent the mail.
So way aren’t all companies using Viral Marketing? Are there cheaper ways of promoting? Or isn’t it that popular yet in the businessworld? Maybe businessmen don’t understand the effectiveness of the word of mouth. They think that it takes too much time, time they can’t afford. But if there are businessmen and –women who are seeing it, their sales will increase a lot.
(Words: 431)
Sources:
Value of Viral Marketing, by Laura Lake; http://marketing.about.com/cs/viralmarketing/a/viralvalue.htm
Use Viral Marketing, by Ana Rincon; http://onlinebusiness.about.com/od/marketing/qt/viral.htm
Viral Marketing, by Annette Cardwell;
http://www.efluentials.com/news/ZDSmartBusVM.html
1 Comment
October 19, 2007 at 11:10 am
Weblog Article Peer Review Form B – Second Review
Writer’s Name ___Charlaine Scholten________________________________
Assessor’s name ___Kiran Singh_____________________________________
Date ___October 3th, 2007________________________________
Rating Scale: 1 = Yes 2 = Somewhat 3 = No
Rate the article by giving a 1, 2 or 3 for each question. Read the article once to get a general idea of what it is about, then read it a second time to rate it.
1. Is the topic interesting? _1___
2. Is the title original and appropriate? _1___
3. Is the introduction complete? _1___
4. Is the body of your article complete? _1___
5. Is the conclusion well-developed? _2___
6. Is the article well-organized overall? _2___
7. Is the article easy to understand? _1___
8. Is the article interesting to read? _1___
9. Has any plagiarised material been removed? _3___
Do you feel that the writer has improved the article? Why or why not? Be specific.
___Yes, the article is improved. Words which had spelling mistakes are changed.______
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Has the writer changed the article adequately according to your suggestions for improvement of your first assessment? Describe the changes and state specifically whether you think they are an improvement.
____Yes and no, my suggestion was to make an example of an campaign which used Viral marketing successfully. She did not make an example. But she did improved the language an the spelling mistakes.___________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Are you happy to have this article on your weblog? Why or why not? Be specific.
__Yes, it has great topics and it has a good and interesting title. Further it is easy to read.
_____________________________________________________________________