Page 30 - Marketing the Basics 2nd
P. 30
22 Marketing: the Basics
matures. Companies in high-technology industries are often in this situation. Originally, Facebook was solely a tool for Harvard students to share class notes and make comments about the classes they were taking. As more users signed up to the system, it didn’t take very long for users to start demanding additional features like their own personal wall and the status feed to name two.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP (OR ONE-TO-ONE) MARKETING CONCEPT
Because of the technologies supporting the Internet, it has become cost-effective to provide personalized interactions with a target market that is as small as one individual. Paying greater attention to an individual customer’s needs fosters greater customer loyalty and can generate positive word-of-mouth marketing for the company. We’ll discuss this concept further later in the book.
VIRAL MARKETING CONCEPT
Viral marketing entails encouraging individuals to spread a marketing message to other individuals in their social network, creating the potential for exponential growth in the exposure and influence of the message. Individuals typically ‘spread’ the message to others by ‘infecting’ their friends each time they forward a link or tell another in person. If the process repeats itself enough times, eventually it becomes a virtually unstoppable, self-propagating phenomenon, spreading across networks at an exponential rate.
Creating a viral hit requires a clear and entertaining or inspirational message. Susan Boyle’s rendition of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ is an example of viral marketing. Were it not for YouTube, only those who watched that episode of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ would have discovered her singing talent.
While viral marketing is very successful in generating awareness, the jury is still out on if all that attention translates into actual sales. The Subservient Chicken campaign sponsored by Burger King was one of the most successful viral campaigns of all time – five years and still running. However, their stock price didn’t experience a significant boost.
