Viral Marketing For

Fabulousbeauties.nl

Marketing Minor Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences

Grp 2A IBMS 401

Name: Nesiagho Patience Ekene Student number: 0893843 Coach&Coordinator : Mr Jan Looman

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Content Preface ....................................................................................................2 Dedication...............................................................................................2 Abstract..................................................................................................2 Goal.........................................................................................................2 1.Introduction.........................................................................................3 Aim/ Objective of the Study of Viral Marketing for Fabulous beauties..3 Methodology...................................................................... .......................3 Research Objectives............................................................. .....................3 Research Questions............................................................ .......................3 Fabulous beauties Introduction.................................................................4 Viral marketing Tools Used By Fabulous beauties............................4,5,6

2. Theories 2.1 What is Viral marketing............................................... .......................7 2.2 How Viral Marketing does works?.................................. .................7,8 2.2.1 The Incentives.........................................................................................9 2.2.2 Provide Contents for Effortless Transfer to Others...............................9

2.2.3 Build Trust..............................................................................................9

2.2.4 Humor....................................................................................................9

2.2.5 Tastemaker share it............................................................................9,10

2.3 Internet Viral Marketing- Two Effective Steps.................................10 2.3.1. Development of Concept that is worth spreading....................10 2.3.2. Word of Mouth........................................................................ ..10 2.3.3 Opinion Leaders..................................... ...................................10

3.Research Methods ......................................................................11,12,13

4.Findings .........................................................................14,15,16,17,18,19

5.Conclusions &Recommendations ........................................................20 5.1 Conclusions.................................................................................. ..20,21 5.2 Recommendation.................................................................................21 References ........................................................................................22,23,24

Appendices Appendix 1 .................................................................................25,26,27,28 Appendix 2...................................................... ...........................................29 Appendix 3............................................................ .....................................29 Appendix 4............................................................... ..................................30 Appendix 5.................................................................. ...............................31 Appendix 6................................................................. ................................32 Appendix 7.................................................................................................33 Appendix 8................................................................................................ 33 Appendix 9.................................................................................................34 Activity Log..........................................................................................35,36 Lesson Learned....................................................................................37,38

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Preface Currently I'm completing a Bachelor's degree in International Business and Management studies at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands. As a partial requirement for the completion of Bachelor Degree in International Business and management studies, I have to conduct three months Digital Marketing Minor and select a topic related to digital marketing. For this reason, I have decided to carry out an extensive research on Viral Marketing for Fabulous beauties and present my results in a written report. The main aim I choose to do a research on viral marketing is to acquire broad knowledge on viral marketing and build ore brand awareness for fabulous beauties.

Dedication I dedicate this report to my family, teachers, friends, customers of fabulous beauties and to the dedicated and cooperative coaches of Rotterdam University of Applied sciences in The Netherlands.

Abstract Viral marketing is a constantly used nowadays by individuals businesses to market their products. It has high potential to quickly reach large audiences at low costs compared to traditional advertising. Since consumers are becoming more cynical about the influence from marketers, viral marketing seems the perfect weapon for marketers. One of my aim of writing this report is to investigate how viral marketing can be best used in marketing fabulous beauties. Since one of the two goals of a viral tactic is to increase forwarding behaviour, this thesis will investigate how the intention of fabulous beauties customers to forward viral videos can be increased.

Problem

There is no online content of fabulous beauties that has profoundly gone viral. Fabulous beauties do like to have its content online and offline to go viral so that we can reach more potential customers and increase acquisition.

Goal The goal of this thesis report is to discover whether fabulous beauties can increase the chance of their videos being forwarded by utilizing certain message characteristics. This will be done by exploring whether constant blogging, surprise, humour, creativity, relevance and a soft sell message approach have a significant influence on the intention to forward. This finding will result in interesting recommendations for fabulous beauties and other companies interested in applying viral marketing strategies.

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Chapter 1 Introduction Viral marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on spreading information and opinions about a product or service from person to person, especially by using unconventional means such as the Internet or e-mail. Marketing has changed enormously, consumers are becoming prosumers where knowledge and ideas of consumer is required for a business success . Meanwhile, knowledge of marketing channels is even more complex, from the first rumor spreading to newspaper, radio and television. Even the newest channel of marketing, the internet, is evolving into new channels within itself (Kirby, 2004). Among these internet channels we find new names and words like Facebook, Twitter, blogging and YouTube. These are all names of different social-communities or networks where people meet, exchange information and receive marketed messages every day. The world is becoming a global village and people tend to spend more time on internet. As a marketer for fabulous beauties, it is essential for me to learn the new trend involved with viral marketing.

Aim/ Objective of the Study of Viral Marketing for Fabulous beauties The aim of this study was to explore viral marketing campaign, planning and evaluation in order to help me as a marketer for fabulous beauties develop better campaigns. My motivation for the study came primarily from my interest in Digital marketing and sales and to improve my marketing skills.

by studying the behaviour of customers online. I used questionnaires to gather information for business owners( Please see appendix six for the questionnaires).

I studied my social media activities online for creating awareness for Fabulous beauties.

I also used online case studies and articles regarding viral marketing. Furthermore I conducted direct interviews with related business

owners.

Research Objectives The objective of this study is to study

The effect of Viral marketing on fabulous beauties as a business. To establish suitable viral marketing method suitable for Fabulous

beauties as a businesses. To identify challenges faced by the business when carrying out

viral marketing. Research Questions

What is Viral Marketing? How does viral marketing works? What is the effectiveness of viral marketing versus other marketing

tools? What are the good viral marketing campaigns carried out by other

companies in similar business line as fabulous beauties? How does fabulous beauties practice viral marketing? How do you make a marketing campaign or video go viral?

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1.6 Fabulous beauties Introduction Fabulous beauties offers services such as Manicure, pedicure, make-up, photography, photo studio rent and modelling.It is located in’s-Gravenpolder Zeeland, The Netherlands .Our services can also be offered at location. We are registered at the chamber of commerce in Middelburg nr. 58179186 (Fabulous beauties, 2014) was founded by me and my husband Mr. Aart Rietveld in September 2013. My aim of choosing viral marketing which is related to digital marketing is to gain more knowledge in this field and subsequently apply it in marketing and sales for fabulousbeauties.nl

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The Internet is huge, with billions of websites on every topic imaginable. Viral marketing is beneficial for fabulous beauties because it will help our company to create a buzz, easy to share, works online and offline too.

93% of marketers had used video for online marketing. (emarketers,2013). Fabulous beauties uses the internet to promote its products and services by

sharing videos and pictures on social media. Video tends to educate the viewers. Another attractive characteristic about pictures and videos is that it can be disseminated around the web very quickly, and that lends it to viral

capabilities very well. Using social media for marketing helps fabulous beauties to save cost of advertising. YouTube Channel Fabulous beauties uses the viral power of social media for it marketing activities. YouTube is the world’s most popular video sharing website, and the second largest search engine. You Tube streamed more than 800 billion videos in 2013. 25 hours of content was uploaded every minute (Online Schools,2013). Fabulous beauties account on YouTube has eight thousand five hundred views and nineteen subscribers. Content is key. Fabulous beauties shares quality and relevant content online. I film product reviews, Do it yourself (DIY), make-up tutorials beauty and styling and post it on YouTube. I also make sure I post my websites and links to my social media activities on the description section of YouTube in order to create more awareness, in hope to get them to click the links in the video’s description. I also have Playlist so viewers can immediately view the next video without having to search further. I also encourage comments, sharing via social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and subscribing

1.7.2 Facebook Page Fabulous beauties uses Facebook as a social media tool for promotion. I post regularly on my Facebook page with updates of my activities. Facebook enables persons to like, comment and share contents. This means enhances viral marketing and creates awareness for fabulous beauties. Presently fabulous beauties Facebook page has eight hundred and forty likes. I promote fabulousbeauties.nl and my blog on Facebook groups. This activity increases the number of visitors on my blog, face book page and website.

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I also invite friends to like my Facebook page. I also created a Facebook group to promote fabulous beauties. Due to my regular updates on Facebook, I apply soft marketing tactics, and I am able to establish relationship with potential customers.

Instagram Instagram is a great tool for content marketing. The website enables individuals or businesses to post pictures and short videos to promote their brand and acts as a review sites for companies. I do post pictures of Makeup, client’s pictures, tutorials on Instagram to create awareness. I also use videos. Videos have four key components, Message, Emotions, satisfaction and share provoking. Our company strive to post quality contents that might go viral. Starbucks is great example of company that has used Instagram efficiently. The company writes names of the customer’s coffee or other product cups and encourages them to post it on social networks such as Instagram. Studies have shown that Instagram provides more traffic than other social media tools.

Twitter Twitter is a powerful social media tool that gives businesses the opportunity to go viral. Fabulous beauties uses twitter to post news, updates and customer service for its clients and prospective customer. Fabulous beauties use twitter to interact and build relationship with its prospective customers by engaging them with useful contents. I do make up tutorials and reviews and upload them on YouTube afterwards I share these contents on Twitter via YouTube. I also use twitter for customer service.

Google plus According to Visually, Google plus has over 343 million active users, 80 percent which are active once a week and 60 percent are active daily. One of the main reason fabulous beauties uses Google plus is the search engine visibility it offers. Fabulous beauties make use of key words when marketing via Google plus which is very important. Frequent posting on Google plus generates more traffic to our website, more likes and followers. There are a lot of communities on Google plus, fabulous beauties have joined several to build brand awareness and trust. I have almost three hundred thousand views on my Google plus account.

Website The name of the website of fabulous beauties is www.fabulousbeauties.nl. My YouTube tutorial videos are embedded on the website because videos increase a visitor's time on page and improve conversion rates." The website link is written on my flyers, complementary cards which I distribute in beauty shops, schools, events and on my online social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and so on. sharing my website online helps to create brand awareness. I often include link to my website each time I share a post on my blog, this helps to increase traffic to my website and conversion rates

Sharing blog posts that offer valuable and helpful information builds credibility with our readers. When you have that trust with customers, there’s a good chance they’ll stay on your site to check out what else you offer after reading your blog post(Bruceclay.com, 2014).

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Tumblr Tumblr is one of those important social networks which are often overlooked, but which has tremendous potential for SEO and social media marketing. (Young. 2013).Fabulous beauties uses tumblr or blogging, popular posts (pictures or videos) are usually reposted to many other tumblogs. Tumblr is very important in promoting our brand online, engage with fans and build relationships with potential customers. Why does Fabulous beauties uses Tumblr?

130.5 million blogs on Tumblr, as of August 2013 28th highest traffic site on the web according to Comscore 300 million unique monthly visitors according to Yahoo 50% of Tumblr users are under the age of 25 53.5% of Tumblr Visitor are females

Events/ Events Sponsorship Events helps fabulous beauties to create awareness. I have participated in several beauty events and workshops. These events creates an opportunity for me to talk to the clients and potential customers about our business. At the end of the events, I usually give out my complementary cards. I have been able to acquire clients via this method. For instance on the third of October, my lectures Miss Tanya Dimitrova and Mr. Looman asked me to be a guest lecturer. I was a guest lecturer at Rotterdam University. I gave my classmate lectures on how to build a website and I also discussed my business with them. I have conducted couple of workshops for teenagers from age range 10 to 18 years old here in the Netherlands to teach them how to apply make-up, do hair styling and so on. Afterwards these young ladies share their experience with their parents and friends. I have acquired more customers by this means of word of mouth marketing.

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Chapter 2 2.0 Theories 2.1 is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing also known as the internet version of word of mouth marketing (WOMM) describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions. Viral marketing has become an increasingly marketing tool for businesses,' like a viruses' takes advantage of the rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands - or even millions. Word-of-mouth is a known marketing technique known for its effectiveness for centuries. Word of mouth are very important for marketing on the internet. The value proposition of viral marketing is largely based on its use of existing digital network, which are relatively inexpensive, fast and easy to use and often include a global audience. Fortune magazine calls Viral Marketing 'inexpensive and potent'. Consumers often cannot process all the information before making a decision to them for purchase they often engage in simple guides for making their information-seeking and decision-making processes easier by asking friends, family or going to conduct research online for more information about the product. WOM communication helps to reduce the amount of information that must be processed in order to make a decision (Duncan et al, 2014).

2.2 How does Viral Marketing works?

The basic principle behind Viral marketing is the ability for others to forward the message to one another as a result acquiring potential customers; in viral marketing, the communication style used for transmission is usually informal. Messages are spread through different channels including e-mail, chat rooms YouTube videos, eBooks and article marketing. They may encompass various types of content ranging from text and images, to Microsoft PowerPoint files, Adobe's Flash animations and so on (Woerndl et al, 2008).

2.2.1 The Incentive

Free is the most powerful word in Marketer's vocabulary (Sznajder, 2014). In order to have a successful viral marketing campaign, Businesses have to offer incentives for individuals/ customers to participate i.e. a reason to pass on the message to others. The reason for this should be obvious - why should people choose to forward your marketing message to others? Our need to give them an incentive to do so. The important point here is that an incentive can take many forms - the exact choice of the incentive depends on your goals, resources and audience. One of the main reasons people share information is because it is useful. Coupons or articles about good beauty shop helps others save money. Consumers might share these information for altruistic reasons (e.g. to help others) or for self enhancement purposes e.g. to appear knowledgeable (Wright, 2014). Unique videos also has high tendency to go viral!

The viral marketing transmitters spread the word most of the time voluntarily. This increases the trustworthiness of the message and the listeners are more open to the product or service and will listen or read to the message. A reason for that is that the

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sender knows his/hers network and who would be interested in the message (product/ service). If someone is paid to speak about a product people are more skeptical towards it (Dobele, Toleman & Beverland, 2005).

2.2.2 Provide Contents for Effortless Transfer to Others

It is very essential to provide easy and effortless ways of sharing your video or other content online, just like viruses which only spread when they are easy to transmit. The medium that carries marketing message must be easy to transfer and replicate: email, website, graphic, software download. Viral marketing Works famously on the Internet because instant communication is easy and inexpensive. The digital format makes copying simple. From a marketing standpoint. Companies must simplify our marketing message so it can be transmitted easily and without degradation. Short is better. The classic is: “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com.” The message is compelling, compressed, and copied at the bottom of every free email messages. Dunkin' Donuts and Harley- Davidson to Volks wagen and Victoria secret have created YouTube channels. GM and other companies have posted visual contents on Flickr. Coca-Cola Facebook page has 5.4 million fans. (Herman, 2006).

According to Ahuja, Michels, Walker and Weissbuch (2007) the offline conversation is still about 80% while the online are the leftover 20%. This means that the major part of viral marketing is taking place offline and not in front of a computer. Furthermore, according to the authors Ahuja et al., (2007), The offline behavior how the members act when they are not online on a social community or a website is not visible. This makes it hard to measure the offline behavior when it sometimes has a higher group influence than an online dialogue. The core member is important for the construction of a social community network, he/she is the expert at the subject at the site and other members listen to them. That makes the core member the creator of the site and in which direction the web site is taking depends on the core members’ knowledge. People are influenced by others in social communities, but the extent they become influenced has a strong connection if the community has a high heterogeneity or not.

Giving away that content creates a relationship and builds one of the most important things a business can have with their prospective customers; credibility and trust. It builds your brand as a market authority. Due to social media, great content also has significant viral potential. Getting your content shared will multiply it’s effect significantly and increase your brand’s reach far more than you could ever hope to achieve on your own. (Plus, 2014)

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2.2.3 Build Trust

Trust is another element involved with viral marketing. Customers tend to become loyal customers and brand ambassadors with the brand their trust. It

is very essential for businesses to build trust among their customers in order to receive patronage and consequently gain brand ambassadors/evangelist.

Big brands such as Lancome and L'oreal has used Michelle Phan as their brand icon because of her popularity on social media . Michelle Phan is a YouTube beauty guru with more than seven million subscribers on her

channel (Phan, 2014). Her followers trust her recommendation. There is a lot of positive reviews on her by her fans.

Companies strives to improve creativeness, uniqueness and humor because this will increase the chances of our product and services to go viral on and off the digital world. An effective viral marketing campaign can create an instant buzz, thereby our company can experience a huge improvement in gross revenue of your business or company. This is how a viral marketing campaign can benefit businesses. Dove a well known brand went viral last year with Real beauty campaign sketches. Just one month after its release, Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" has garnered more than 114 million total views, making it the most viral ad video of all time (Stampler,2013).

2.2.4 Humor

Video that has humour in it has a higher tendency to go viral on YouTube and other social networks. But even if your video is funny that doesn’t necessarily guarantee that your video will go viral. Although, Viral Marketing Videos are unpredictable,

but that’s part of what makes them so successful! Take the Old Spice Commercial for example…that went Viral on YouTube and on Facebook! And why?? Because it was original and hilarious!! So the common theme will usually either be clever originality, humour or both! Originality that is based on the current pop culture–what is big and popular RIGHT NOW! Or that is just so clever and smart that it will then just BECOME our pop culture!! A good example is the YouTube video of Evian Baby which was very humorous and unique video. Evian's babies are giants across the digital-marketing landscape.

DANONE's luxury water brand earned its first taste of viral immortality with 2009's "Roller Babies," which featured CGI infants tackling extreme roller-skating stunts. One of the first YouTube-exclusive campaigns by a major brand, the clip earned a spot in the Guinness World Records as the most viewed online ad ever, with more

than 25 million views in less than two months.( Ankeny,2014)

2.2.5 Tastemakers Share It These are the influencers with large tribes of followers that introduce us to new and interesting things and bring a larger audience (Bullas,2012). Almost all viral videos get their legs after being discovered by tastemakers and digital influencers they

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mention it, post about it, Tweet it or otherwise bring attention to the video, others pass it on via Facebook, blogs, and Twitter, and pretty soon everyone you know is saying, “What does it meeeeeeean?”. Kevin Alloca gives a good TED talk on the subject.

2.3 Internet Viral Marketing- Two Effective Steps

2.3.1. Development of Concept that is worth spreading This can be helpful information's, tutorials, jokes, quiz or games. If an individual or company is lucky, the content might spread so much that it might become an international phenomenon.

2.3.2. Word of Mouth Word of mouth (WOM) is known as unpaid spread of information about a product by consumers. Consumers tend to talk about the products they are interested in on their daily dialogs. (Wampole, 2012) Word-of-mouth marketing can be encouraged through different publicity activities set up by companies, or by having opportunities to encourage consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer communications. It includes buzz, viral, blog, emotional and social media marketing. Positive WOM usually results for a good brand experience and is spread by 'brand ambassadors' online and offline. Customers tend to remember a better a good service or experience compared to bad experience from a brand. Consumers often make their decision on patronizing a brand when it’s being recommended by a close friend or family members.

2.3.3 Opinion Leaders Opinion leaders are small group of people who interact frequently with each other for example bloggers. Consumers seek out help in making purchasing decisions; they have the standing to be able to influence others in their decision making. Opinion leaders are usually people who belong to one clique. Companies that wish to have their products or services go viral can approach more influential users who can function as opinion leader. For instance Oral B Toothpaste Company used the famous Shakira, the musician for its advert videos and promotions, this act have enabled the company’s message to reach millions of customers( P&G, 2013). Heineken also used the same tactics by using young European footballers as their brand ambassadors. Ideas and opinions of Opinion leaders are discussed daily and influences consumer behavior(Brownsell,2011). Marketers can ask opinion leaders to promote their products on their blogs or YouTube videos; this enhances the chances of sales. Opinion leaders sharing videos in their social circles. A single video can be seen by millions and millions of potential customers over time. It is advisable to find an opinion leader in any given industry or niche market, there are bound to be handful opinion leaders who can take a new idea and spread it. These might be popular YouTuber, Twitter account with thousands or millions of subscribers and followers.

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Chapter 3

3.0 Research methods

How does it work?

Research question

How does viral marketing works?

Objective In order to gain a background knowledge on how other business owners in more or less the same line of business as fabulous beauties participate in viral marketing and how it works for them. I carried out research using quantitative and qualitative methods in collecting information.

Research method

Interview with Mrs. Juliette Esajas

I conducted an interview with my coach Mrs. Juliette Esajas. She is an Independent Sales Director for Mary Kay in The Netherlands . She has been a beauty consultant for several years. I chose to conduct interview with Mrs. Julliete Esajas because she is the Director of Mary Kay beauty consultant association in The Netherlands. She is well known amongst beauty consultant in The Netherlands and Germany. She has been able to acquire lots of clients and helped ladies to becoming Independent beauty consultants for Mary Kay. Please find in the appendices my interview questions with Mrs. Juliette Esajas

Effective Viral marketing

Research question What is the effectiveness of viral marketing versus other marketing tools?

Objective

To gain knowledge on the effectiveness of viral marketing compared to other tools (Online and offline) used for marketing .

Research method

In order to investigate the effectiveness of viral marketing, I used a questionnaire to conduct interview with Mrs Bereshna Niazi (CEO) Parfumstar in Rotterdam (Please see appendix 6).

Parfumstar is a beauty shop located in Hoogstraat Rotterdam the Netherlands. Parfumstar sells luxurious perfumes, cosmetics and make-up for very affordable prices.

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I chose to conduct interview with the Ceo of Parfumstar because , I have had the opportunity to work in her beauty shop few years ago, I have been able to learn and gain experience on her she participates in promotions and creating awareness for her business.

Fabulous beauties online activities

Research question How does fabulous beauties practice viral marketing?

Objective

To study fabulous beauties online and offline activities and its effects on viral marketing for our company.

Research method

I studied my online and offline activities for fabulous beauties. The research method for this is desk- research.

What are the good viral marketing campaigns?

What are the good viral marketing campaigns carried out by other companies in similar business line as fabulous beauties?

Objective

To enable fabulous beauties gain insights on most effective tools to use for marketing its products and services online and offline.

Research method

In order to find out good viral marketing campaigns done online, desk research is done. I studied articles, social media activities and website of Nikkie's tutorials.Nikkie is a make-up artist and a You Tuber from The Netherlands. She started make-up tutorials eight years ago online . Her channel NikkieTutorials” started growing bigger and bigger, ending up being The Netherlands’ number 1 most subscribed and most watched beauty channel (Nikki's Tutorials, 2014).

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How to make a marketing campaign or video go viral

Research question How do you make a marketing campaign or video go viral?

Objective

To learn how successful business owners in similar line of business as fabulous beauties has been able to make their contents go viral

Research method

In order to gain insight, I studied the online activities of world's best make-up artist on YouTube

Michelle Phan. I also bought and studied her book called MICHELLE PHAN Makeup (Your life guide to beauty, style and success online and off .

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Chapter 4 4. Findings After having done the literature review, interviews, questionnaires and studied my online activities, certain interesting findings came out. Below are the results of all the research and interview on Viral marketing. Some visuals are included, but more can be found in the appendix.

4.1 Interview with Mrs. Juliette Esajas After conducting an interview with Mrs. Juliette Esajas uses social media for practicing Viral marketing for practicing Viral marketing. She told me she uses Social media tools for creating awareness such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube,Flickr, and email marketing ( see appendix 2). She said that these social media tools has enabled her to increase her conversion rate by regularly posting updates on her Facebook page about her product offers, sales and discounts. She also regularly sends emails and Whatsapp messages at least once a week to all her contacts informing them about new products, events and seminars. In her event invitation emails, she advices the beauty consultants to spread the message and invite their friends or family members for the upcoming events and seminars. She also advised that content is key, She usually post beauty related contents on her social media pages with beautiful pictures and videos related to Mary Kay. (Please see appendix for more information). These online marketing tools has enabled her to create awareness tremendously. She also conducts sales by using the Mary Kay Intouch web shop, by creating an online web shop and sending the links to her clients and customers. She has been able to safe cost of advertising by practicing viral marketing using online tools for marketing her products and services.

Facebook profile of Julliette Esajas

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Questionnaire I used the questionnaire in (appendix five) to collect information from Mrs Breshna Niazi CEO Parfumstar Rotterdam. Basically, the main marketing tool she uses is (WOM) Word of mouth marketing, hence she sells very affordable items, customers that visits her shop and buys the items, tends to tell their friends and family members who then comes to the shop and buy these items. Parfumstar also uses complimentary cards, flyers and coupons to promote its products by offering it to their customers who visits their shop. Parfumstar is not very active on social media, although she has a Facebook and Google page. Another tactics she uses is she gets in touch with popular bloggers online who then writes articles and reviews for her. Misslipgloss.nl (a very popular blogger in The Netherlands) writes article for Parfumstar. She also makes use of offline methods such as signboards, flyers, coupons, complementary cards and so on. I also write blogs and reviews for her on my blog accounts.

Blog post written about Parfumstar by www.misslipgloss.nl

Last year, I did a collaboration with her, she gave me the opportunity to use some space in her shop in Rotterdam for my clients for Make-up, Manicure and Pedicure. This was a strategic way to increase the number of clients for both of us, some customer who came to do manicure with me, afterwards buy cosmetics or perfume from Parfumstar. I did promotion of Parfumstar on my website as well

Flyer and business card Fabulous beauties in collaboration with Parfumstar

The flyers and business cards I made was distributed by Parfumstar Rotterdam in her shop to her customers. I also informed all my friends and customers that I also offer my services at Parfumstar Rotterdam.

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Nikkie's Tutorials After having done desk research I found out that Nikkie practices viral marketing by sharing her YouTube videos via various social Medias, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google plus, Instagram and so many other channels. Viewers and subscribers also help her in disseminating the contents on her channel. She has appeared on several Dutch television programmes and magazines. As a result, Nikkie's tutorials on YouTube has over eighty five thousand subscribers and fifty four million views. She earns money via her monetized video on YouTube and advertisements placed on her website and blog.

Nikkie's tutorials instagram page

Nikkie has more than one hundred and sixty thousand followers on her Instagram profile. She places the link on her YouTube video on her Instagram page so that her followers can easily visit her YouTube videos She also promote her YouTube channel and practices viral marketing by collaborating with other famous You Tuber who also have millions of views and subscriber. This is one of the means she uses to earns more views, creates more brand awareness and recognition. Please see links of her website and YouTube channel on the appendix to gain more insight of her social media activities. Nikkie's tutorials earns income from her monetized YouTube videos. On her Facebook page she posts, well edited beautiful pictures of herself wearing beautiful make-up which her followers tend to share regularly hereby creating more awareness for her. SHe has more than fifty eight million views on her YouTube channel.

Nikkies tutorial YouTube account statistics

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My online activities In the course of this research, I studied my online activities , I found out that I tend to acquire more views on my Google plus page and website when I blog often, i.e., the more I blog, the more I create awareness and acquire more views, visitors and followers. I have studied the statistics of my website www.fabulousbeauties.nl, I noticed that I earn more visitors in those periods I blog often.(see appendix one)

Statistics of Fabulous Beauties website

Blogging helps me with search engine optimization. I have links of my website displayed on my blogs. Visitors tends to visit my website via my blog accounts, thereby increasing the statistics of visitors to my website. Presently, Fabulous beauties website has more than eight thousand visits and over seventy thousand hits. Using social media tools has helped to create more awareness without spending money. I have also noticed that when I do post important contents on my blog, some visitors tend to re-share these articles on their blogs or social media sites, hereby helping me to earn more views and creating more awareness. I write often articles related to my line of business on my blog, such as make-up, manicure, pedicure, beauty tips and so on. I optimize articles I post on my blog by using relevant keywords.

My Google plus account

I have also written articles on local and international offline magazines sold in different countries in order to create awareness for our business.(Please see appendices) I also place my complimentary cards on beauty shops, bridal shops, super market and distribute it during events and occasions. I have experienced that clients get to contact me directly via telephone calls after these activities. I also organize and attends beauty events and workshop for networking.

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Few months ago, I was a guest lecturer at Rotterdam University, whereby I gave my fellow colleagues lessons on how to build a website and told them about my business fabulous beauties. It was a great experience for me. I was able to create awareness, inspire some ladies in my class, at the same time I was motivated and also recieved tips from my colleagues on how to improve my website. The picture above is a snap shot of my Google plus account with more than two hundred and fifty thousand page view. In the course of my research, I have noticed that the more I blog, the more page views I earn on my account as a result creating more awareness for fabulous beauties.

Michelle Phan In order to gain insight on how to make a marketing campaign or video go viral, I studied literature reviews, Michelle Phan's book and her online activities. Michelle Phan is a digital pioneer and burgeoning entrepreneur. Michelle Phan is a world's most viewed make-up artist on YouTube with more than seven million subscribers on her YouTube channel.

Michelle Phan's Facebook Page

I have bought and read her new book called MICHELLE PHAN Make-up ''YOUR LIFE GUIDE TO BEAUTY STYLE and SUCCESS ONLINE and OFF''. She wrote about social media success and she gave the following advice on guides to how to

be successful online.

Consistent Company name: It is very important to have consistent company name so that customers and prospective clients can find you easily online. She also advised on picking the best social media platforms and also encouraged having friends and family spread the word for an entrepreneur who just started a new business (Phan,

2014).

Creative Content: To be truly successful on social media, we need fans and followers, You need interesting content that entertains or informs- preferably both.

You want people to look forward to your post and come back for more.

Fans and Followers: In her book she told, that fans and followers are very important in viral marketing, if you are lucky, customers will find you, but more importantly we need to go find our customers our selves. Figure out who needs to know you exist, Are there editors, or bloggers key to your industry? stylist or make-up artist? and do not overlook friends, family members, classmates and colleagues'. Hopefully they will be happy

19

to follow your business and even promote it to their cycle.

Michelle Phan

You Tube Account Statistics

Engage: In her book, she advised not to worry if no one is commenting, re-tweeting your posts online. Part of social media is the ability to engage with others. For instance , if you are a model and find a photographers you like his or her work,

comment on is post and ask if you can work together, get the conversation going

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Chapter 5

Conclusions/Recommendations

5.1 Conclusion All in All, Viral marketing is very important for fabulous beauties in order to promote our business through social media. Viral marketing campaign using social media such as YouTube video costs a fraction as much as a TV commercial or advert on a newspaper. Another social media tools I use for marketing campaign is a Blogging. Blogging regularly have enabled me to increase traffic to my website. it helps in search engine optimization(SEO). With blogging, I am able to engage and understand my customers better. I have been able to convert some regular readers of my blogs to become customers at fabulous beauties. Fabulous beauties also uses other social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, Tumblr to create awareness. For instance I post four to five times a week on Facebook page with beauty updates, look books, make-up tutorials in order to create engagement. I also post beauty tips, Make-up tutorials and product reviews on fabulous beauties Youtube channel, afterwards I share these videos on other social media websites such as LinkedIn, twitter, Pinterest. Using social media tools have enabled our business improve customer relationship management too. Organizing and attending events is another method used by fabulous beauties for its viral marketing campaign. I have organized workshops for over fifty teenagers in Goes, The Netherlands on how to braid hair, apply make-up and pose during photo session. After these events, the attendees refer me to their friends and family using word of mouth marketing. When trying to generate word of mouth, marketers often targeting 'influential's' or opinion leaders (i.e. some small set of special people who , whether by having more social ties or being more persuasive theoretically has more influence than others. In reference to Bereshna Niazi the Ceo of Parfumstar.nl in my report, she contacts popular bloggers who write articles about her beauty products. This helps her to create more awareness and reach more audience. Nikki tutorials has also been very successful on her YouTube channels because of her consistency and great contents she post on YouTube, these quality contents motivates her followers to share them on their Facebook or twitter pages hereby creating more brand awareness for her. Michelle Phan video went viral after few weeks she made her first YouTube video seven years ago. She is 2nd most subscribed female, with over seven million subscribers. Her signature video style—clean, artful, creative content, and expertly edited, with clear, easy-to-follow titles and voiceover instruction—has earned Michelle millions of loyal subscribers around the world, including a major following in the United States and Asia. The Internet is huge, Viral marketing is beneficial for fabulous beauties because it will help our company to create a buzz, easy to share, works online and offline too. I recommend that fabulous beauties should continue to use the internet to promote its products and services by sharing videos and pictures on social media. Video tends to educate the viewers. Another attractive characteristic about pictures and videos is that it can be disseminated around the web very quickly, and that increases the chances of it going

21

viral. Using social media for marketing helps fabulous beauties to save cost of advertising. T.V ads, radio or advertisement on newspapers can be very expensive.

5.2Recommendation It was great to learn how other business owners in the similar line of business as fabulous beauties such as Mrs Julliette Esajas, Nikkie's tutorials, Parfumstar and Michelle Phan practice viral marketing. Personally, I have also observed that using relevant key words during blogging and regular online activities on social media increases visitors to my website, subscribers to my YouTube channels, more views to my Google Plus account, and more followers and likes on my Facebook page. I practice viral marketing by effectively using the social media tools I mentioned above. I highly recommend viral marketing for fabulous beauties and other (SME's) Small medium enterprises or large scale companies. Companies that are not very active on social media, can contact high profile bloggers on the net related to their line of business to write articles or advertise on their blog page. The future of viral marketing is bright. As a rather modern form of advertising, the opportunities that surround the use of viral marketing are boundless. As technology develops in the future, marketers will have the opportunity to adopt viral marketing strategies that align with the trends in the market, and successfully reach their target audience.

22

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Appendix 1

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/Fabbeauties

Using Facebook Page for Promotion

Posts with the type, date, reach, and engagement

The blue part represent the amount of clicks on the post and the purple part represents the likes it

received. Reach stands for the amount of times it was viewed by the public, whether by going to the

page or it showing up in their timeline, this was taken from Facebook Insights (Facebook, sd).

26

Website www.fabulousbeauties.nl

Instagram http://instagram.com/ekenepatience

Twitter https://twitter.com/ekeneaart

I use Twitter to create awareness for our company

Google plus https://plus.google.com/113173105628810148937/posts?hl=en-GB

I use my Google Plus account for promoting fabulous beauties

Blog www.ekenepatience.blogspot.com

Statistics of my blog

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LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=128378667&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile_pic

Tumblr www.ekeneaart.tumblr.com

Wordpress www.ekenepatience.com Pinterest www.pinterest.com/ekenepatience

Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/95626466@N06/

Prezi http://prezi.com/_wyow8svjj9p/fabulousbeautiesnl/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOLmXgE1DAI

Online Promotion

Cyclex http://s-gravenpolder.cylex-bedrijvengids.nl/bedrijf/fabulousbeauties-nl-12269831.html

Zeelandnet http://www.zeelandnet.nl/prikbord/user_advertentie.php?znid=g319226

Beauty in Nederland http://www.beautyinnederland.nl/fabulousbeautiesnl-s-gravenpolder/2021001132400414400

www.pedicure.nl http://www.pedicure.nl/s-gravenpolder/fabulousbeautiesnl

www.modelmayhem.com http://www.modelmayhem.com/3439258

Offline promotions Flyers and business card fabulousbeauties.nl

Flyers and business card fabulousbeauties.nl in Collaboration with Parfumstar, Perfume

And Cosmetics Shop Rotterdam, the Netherlands

28

Signboard fabulousbeauties.nl and

Dorcas.nl( I also do social work for dorcas.nl to collect cloths for less privileged ones in Africa and other

countries)

Photos of me working

29

Appendix 2 Juliette Esajas Mary Kay Beauty Consultant

Facebook Juliette Esajas

https://www.facebook.com/juliette.esajas?fref=ts&ref=br_tf

YouTube

YouTube promotional Video of Juliette Esajas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2dqav3aF4o Pinterest http://nl.pinterest.com/julietteesajas/

Appendix 3

Parfumstar Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Parfum-Star/544589685583734

ParfumStar

ParfumStar Advert on Drimble http://drimble.nl/bedrijf/rotterdam/22713786/parfum-star.html Article written by me about Parfumstar on Google Plus https://plus.google.com/113173105628810148937/posts/N1HxnfugC8e

ParfumStar Advert on Yelp http://www.yelp.com/biz/parfum-star-rotterdam

An article written About Parfumstar by A popular Blogger

Misslipgloss.nl http://www.misslipgloss.nl/rotterdam-shoplog/

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Appendix 4

Nikkie’s Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/NikkieTutorials Website http://www.nikkietutorials.com/site/

Google plus https://plus.google.com/u/0/111801037109032314792/posts

Nikkie’s YouTube Page https://www.youtube.com/user/NikkieTutorials

Nikkie’s Instagram page http://instagram.com/nikkietutorials Nikkie’s Twitter page https://twitter.com/Nikkietutorials

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Appendix 5

Michelle Phan's Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/MichellePhanOfficial

Twitter

https://twitter.com/MichellePhan

Instagram http://instagram.com/michellephan

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuYx81nzzz4OFQrhbKDzTng

Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/michellephan/nails/

Website www.michellephan.com

Book

MICHELLE PHAN MAKE UP Your life guard to beauty, style and Success ONLINE and OFF

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Appendix 6

Questionnaire Interview Questions with CEO Parfumstar Rotterdam

What is your position in the organisation?

Are you actively involved in vital marketing of the organisation?

Identity:

Do you try to put more emphasis on the product, person, symbol, organisation, etc?

What product advantage are you trying to communicate in your campaign? (price, quality, functionality, etc.)

Positioning:

What position did you try to achieve with the campaign?

What was your market position before the campaign?

Viral Marketing Strategy:

Do you encourage your customers to spread the information about the company and product/services?

How do you do it?

Have you ever considered to give away a product or a part of product for free?

Achieving Brand Awareness:

What kind of marketing techniques do you use for brand awareness?

The campaign:

Have you ever promoted your brand on any online community (blog. guestbook, etc.)?

If yes, how do you market your brand using online community?

Measuring Brand Awareness:

Are you satisfied with the marketing technique you use?

Have you noticed any difference before and after the campaign?

Have your sales, customers or webpage

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Appendix 7

Interview Questions with Juliette Esajas 1.Tell me about your self 2. How long have you been a Mary Kay Beauty consultant 3.How do you practise viral marketing? 4. Do you use other marketing techniques to create awareness? 5. Do you use social media tools? 6.What are the social media tools you use and which ones are most effective for you? 7. Are you satisfied with the results so far from using social media tools for marketing?

Appendix8

Diagram of Content Marketing-How giving away the farm can affect the bottom line.(Plus,2014)

34

Appendix 9

Publication Inside Niger Delta Magazines PZC newspaper in Zeeland The Voice Magazine Top Stories celebrities magazines Hints Magazine Stephany's Blackstyle magazines Het '-s-Gravenpoldertje News brief

35

Activity logs

Ekene Patience Nesiagho Date Activity Duration (hours)

10-09 Chose the individual task and assignment 4

10-09 Made a paper with my plans 2

10-09 Meeting with Mr. Looman 0.5

14-09 Searched for sources 5

15-09 Continued to search for sources 6

18-09 Meeting with Mr. Looman 0.30

19-09 Adjusted the paper made, put it in the right format with the sources and sent it

4

21-09 Formulated a questionaires and interview questions 3

22-09 Prepared my task as a guest lecturer at Rotterdam University 5

26-09 Prepared Prezi online preseantation 3

23-09 Started doing some research online on Viral marketing 2

25-09 Meeting with Mr. Looman with more coaching on how to present my task on (How to build a website)as a guest lecturer with my classmates

0.25

26-09 Did research on how to make a good presentation 2

27-09 Prepared information for the presentation, made snapshots of my Facebook page, blog, Google, twitter, statistics of my website.

2

30-09 Spoke with my husband Aart and we went together on the backstage of website of fabulousbeauties.nl . He gave me some coaching on how he build the website. I was able to gain more knowledge .

3

31-09 Continued research for the literature and made part of the literature chapter

5

01-10 Started researching on viral marketing activities of other business owners in the similar line of business as Fabulous beauties.

5

01-10 Did some more literature reviews on viral marketing 3

02-10 I was a guest lecturer at Rotterdam University with my fellow students on how to build a website and told about my business Fabulous beauties.

1

03-10 Meeting with Juliette Esajas to conduct an interview over her business 2

02-10 Met with Mrs Bereshna Niazi, The Ceo of Parfum star to conduct an interview with her .

3

06-10 Continued with the literature search 5

08-10 I started blogging more often, posting regularly on my social media accounts in order to measure and monitor my viral marketing activities online.

6

09-10 Studied the cause and effects 2

09-10 Met with Mr. Looman to discuss further progress 0.25

12-10 Adjusted the work to Mr. Looman's recommendations 4

13-10 Created some great contents with videos, pictures and word documents for my blogs

5

14-10 Made print screen shots of Parfumstar,Juliette Esajas Nikkie's tutorials social media pages online and website.

2

15-10 Wrote down my findings of social media activities of other business owners in similar line of business as fabulous beauties(Mentioned above).

5

17-10 Worked on my report 1

17-10 Did research on posts other business owners in more or less in the same line of business as fabulous beauties post online

4

20-10 Searched for literature 5

22-10 Searched for new posts and things to add to my page 4

23-10 Started studying the social media activities of Michelle Phan ( Most 2

36

popular make-up artist online) who became famus from her viral videos on the web.

25-10 Put the document together 3

28-10 Bought and read Michelle Phan's book 3

28-10 Changed the research methods and made the conclusion 5

29-10 Searched online on how to create great content for new posts on social media

4

30-10 Met with Mr. Looman 0.25

31-10 2

31-10 Changed the report to the feedback I received 5

01-11 Continued to change the whole report 3

01-11 Searched for new posts 4

02-11 Added the new conclusion and changed the layout, made the reflection 5

02-11 Completed my report Submitted it 3

20-11 Received feedback on my report from Mr Looman 5

21-11 – 30-11

Kept working on my report, made more print screen shots, added some more findings, literature review, activities log and lessoned learned

8

20-11 Total time spent 151.75

Lessons learned

Ekene Patience Nesiagho It was great to have been a guest lecturer at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences on the 2nd of October 2014. I was able to plan with the help of my lecturers a guest lecture, to teach my fellow students on how to build a website. I am also very happy to have chosen an assignment on Viral marketing for fabulous beauties. The creation of this report has enabled me to learn how to create more awareness for our company.

The process

When my lecturer asked me to carry out a task as guest lecturer to teach my fellow

students on how to build a website, I was a bit nervous because I always have stage

fright any time I need to conduct a presentation before an audience, but with the

help, coaching and encouragement I received from my teacher, I was able to plan

and gave a good presentation to my fellow students on How to build a website and told them about my business fabulous beauties.

The presentation was successful, my fellow students gave me tips and feedback on

how to improve my websites and blogging activities. I was also able to inspire my

colleagues and some students learned from my coaching and build great websites for themselves and for their school projects.

The topic viral marketing for fabulous beauties is a great eye opener for me.

I have been able to learn a lot about marketing using social media by studying my

activities online and also other business owners in the same line of business as fabulous beauties.

37

What I learned

Firstly, I learned a lot in the field of viral marketing using social media, I learned

tips on how other business owners create awareness and how important connections are, even for the awareness and participation.

Furthermore, I learned how my social media activities and blogging plays important roles in creating awareness for our business.

What I learned from the process is that planning and being well organised is very important as a business owner and a student. I tried prioritising my tasks, assignment, academic work and business in order to achieve good results. I have improved my research skills by studying relevant articles, books online and offline about viral marketing. I have also conducted quantitative research by using questionnaires which was answered by related business owners on how they practise viral marketing.

Furthermore, another lesson for me through this process is that I should ask my

teachers more questions during the feedback section regarding how to present a professional report.

For example ,I went ahead and wrote a lot, without writing the hours spent on the

assignment. I just got feedback few weeks ago from my teacher that I have to

include that on my report. Next time, I will make sure to ask my teachers the right

questions during the feedback sections and make sure my report has a professional standard.

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