VIRAL MARKETING & TIPPING POINTS

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Malcolm Gladwell’s Best Seller

Thomas Schelling (Nobel Prize winner) first introduced the concept of “tipping points” in 1972

Malcolm Gladwell popularized the concept in his best seller

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The Downside of Traditional Marketing

Cost: TV and print ads are

expensive. Media clutter:

It is difficult for products to stand out against the background of advertising.

Cynicism: Consumers are cynical

toward “obvious” marketing. TIVO, DVRs:

Consumers can avoid TV commercials altogether.

Segmentation: Consumers aren’t

heterogeneous. They are segmented into

different niches.

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Viral Marketing

Steve Jurvetson and Tim Draper coined the term “viral marketing” in 1997 Also known as buzz marketing or

stealth advertising 15 percent of marketing budgets

are devoted to buzz and related strategies

Relies on word-of-mouth (WOM) endorsements like a virus, word about a product

or service spreads from one consumer to another

67 percent of sales of U.S. consumer goods are now influenced by word of mouth

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Conduits for Viral Marketing

Face-to-face interaction Cell phone Email Texting Instant messaging

Twitter Social networking media

MySpace Facebook

Blogs

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Examples, Intentional and Unintentional

Accessory dogs Blogs, blogging, the

blogosphere Etsy (www.etsy.com) Flash mobs Harry Potter books Hip Hop (culture as a

commodity) Ipods, Iphones Livestrong bracelets

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More Examples

Facebook Obama-mania Pinkberry “Support Our Troops”

bumper stickers Toyota Prius Twitter, tweeting Vampire movies and TV

shows YouTube Wii Fit

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Methods and Techniques

Poseurs: “ordinary person at a bar, in line at a concert, at a soccer field Attractive people are

hired to be seen using products in hip, trendy places

Trendsetters and early adopters Use of “cool hunters”

and “trend spotters” to see ahead

Imitation, social modeling yellow magnetic

ribbons saying “Support the Troops”

Email, chat rooms, and blogs A poseur might praise

a band’s CD in an online forum

Manufactured controversies: Creating a publicity

stunt to drum up media attention

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Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Points”

Tipping point: the threshold or critical point at

which an idea, product, or message takes off or reaches critical mass.

Viral theory of marketing: ideas and messages can be

contagious, just like diseases The law of the few

Large numbers of people are not required to generate a trend

A select few enjoy a disproportionate amount of influence over others

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Key influencers: Mavens

Mavens: possess information, expertise, and seek to share it Mavens are “in the

know.” Mavens are early

adopters, alpha consumers.

“Mavens are data banks. They provide the message” (Gladwell)

Mavens may be somewhat socially awkward or “geeky”

Mavens want to educate more than persuade or sell.

“One American in 10 tells the other nine how to live” (Keller & Barry, 2003) They are “in the know” They include “Alpha

consumers” or “early adopters” celebrity chefs eco-enthusiasts fashion aficionados fitness gurus tech geeks wine snobs

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Key Influencers: Connectors

Connectors: know everybody, are networkers, have many contacts “Connectors are social glue:

they spread it.” (Gladwell) They have large social circles They are social gadflies; they

blog, chat, text, twitter They are the people who

always forward emails, jokes, articles to you.

Six degrees of separation: a small number of people are linked to everyone else

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Key Influencers: Salesman

Salesman: are persuasive They are charismatic They are good at

building rapport, trust They often rely on “soft”

influence (not the hard sell)

They are the friends who tell us: “you gotta see this

movie,” “check out this

YouTube video” “You have got to try

this restaurant.”

Note: All three types are needed for a phenomenon to take-off: Mavens Connectors Salesman

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Context and Stickiness

Power of context The idea, message, or product must

happen at the right time and place. For example, social networking

(MySpace, Facebook) wouldn’t be possible without widespread access to the Internet.

The stickiness factor The idea, message, or product has to be

“sticky” or inherently attractive. The idea must be memorable, practical,

personal, novel. It is hard to manufacture this feature.

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Scalability & Effortless Transfer

Scalability: message must be able to go from very small to very large without “gearing up.” Wii couldn’t ramp up manufacturing

and lost millions in sales.Effortless transfer: message

must be passed on for free, or nearly free, or “coast” on existing networks. “word of mouse” leveraging free media

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The Downside

The theory is not that scientific The evidence is largely

anecdotal. The phenomenon isn’t that

reliable, predictable. A bit of a “finger in the

wind” approach to marketing

Viral marketing” is something of an oxymoron. The more viral marketing

is planned or contrived, the less likely it is to succeed.

Viral marketing may backfire Wal-mart’s attempt to launch a

Facebook page Momentum may not reach the

tipping point No guarantee the initial “buzz”

will become contagious Difficult to orchestrate word of

mouth Good ideas don’t always gain

traction. Trends come and go quickly

Like a contagion, a trend can die out quickly or be replaced by a new one.

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