Explaining a Concept Research Paper - Essay Example

”). THESIS STATEMENT With due consideration to this aspect, the essay intends to explain the concept of viral marketing. The objective of the essay is to inform the marketers regarding the significance of viral marketing in the present era. Furthermore, the essay also discusses certain real life experiences of viral marketing. EXPLANATION OF VIRAL MARKETING The word ‘viral’ is used in order to define such a marketing practice where the messages regarding a particular brand are spread through the word-of-mouth method from one computer system to the other.

An important component of viral marketing is that people spread the marketing messages, developed by the marketers. An effective viral marketing is characterized by controversy, community involvement and exclusive celebrity engagement. In viral marketing, a message needs to be unique and must feature a vital concept which encourages the audiences to share the message with their friends. Viral marketing at times is also deemed as a marketing program that acts as a virus, capable to replicate itself and spread from one person to the other.

In viral marketing, the messages can reach the target audience in quite a less amount of time and at a low cost (National Media Museum, “What is Viral Marketing?”). . In this way, viral marketing establishes a word-of-mouth thrill. The messages in viral marketing can arrive in different formats such as in the form of videos, pictures and applications or games among others. These digital formats can easily be shared by people who are connected through social networks (National Media Museum, “What is Viral Marketing?”). The effectiveness of viral marketing depends on the number of audiences who are viewing and spreading the brand messages developed by the marketers.

People play a vital role in the notion of viral marketing, because they actually perform on behalf of the brand. Thus, in order to become successful, marketers need to understand the motivational aspects of people for spreading viral messages. On the basis of a study conducted by Milward Brown, it is observed that there is a strong relationship between inducing the enjoyment of brand messages and ensuring the possibility of forwarding them to the people. However, enjoyment alone is not sufficient to inspire individuals to share the messages.

The massages must have certain additional scopes such as being pleasant, humorous or funny among others which are most likely to be spread by the viewing individuals (Hollis, “Millward Brown’s Pov”). SIGNIFICANCE OF VIRAL MARKETING FOR MODERN MARKETERS Viral marketing has created a strong sense of excitement for modern marketers and often it appears as an important marketing strategy. It is possible for marketers to be benefitted from the perceptions of viral marketing, due to an increased level of usage of social networking.

According to a study of Miller and Lammas, in the year 2009, about 142.1 million Americans, 46.6 million Japanese and 31 million Brazilian people accessed the social networks. Popular