viral marketing & tipping points 1. malcolm gladwell’s best seller thomas schelling (nobel...
TRANSCRIPT
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 costly.
Media clutter: Difficulty of standing out
against the background of advertising.
Cynicism: Consumers have become jaded
toward traditional 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 Pinterest
Tumblr Twitter Social networking media
MySpace Facebook
Blogs
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ALS ice bucket challenge Slacktivism? Hashtag
activism? Memes, Vines Kony 2012, “Invisible
Children” documentary Gangnam style, Psy Rebecca Black’s “Friday”
video Flash mobs Harry Potter books Livestrong bracelets
Examples, Intentional and Unintentional
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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 of the curve
Imitation, social modeling Rubber wristbands for
various causesEmail, 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.
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More Downside
Viral marketing may backfire Wal-Mart's attempt to launch a
Facebook pageMomentum 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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