Viral Marketing - Coursework Example

Business all around the world are looking towards different techniques to market their product and services and gather a larger chunk of the market. This has made marketers develop new techniques and tools to improve the aspect of marketing. Marketers are looking towards new methods to ensure that they are able to lure customers towards their product. One such marketing method is viral marketing. Viral marketing is a strategy where businesses rely on internet to market their product and services rather than on the traditional method. (Foster, 2008) In this marketing technique businesses use the already created social networking sites to promote their product. (Godin, 2003) It helps businesses to increase their penetration due to wide spread increase and penetration of internet. Internet has been a major force in changing the face of the consumer products. It has brought about change in the way marketing was conducted and is a major marketing tool which has defined the way consumer market performs. Internet has ensured that consumers get a lot of options and variety to choose from. Viral marketing ensures that the cost associated with this marketing technique is minimal. Since it uses the already created network the cost associated with it low and allows the business to transmit information to far off places. Internet has educated the customers “by transmitting information about the product and services thereby changing the usage of internet from the educational purpose to a commercial tool”. (Anderson, 2010) The penetration of internet to vast areas has ensured that consumers get information about the product and when they purchase the product they recall whatever information they have gathered to decide which consumer product to purchase. The owners thereby need to ensure that “maximum information is displayed and provided to the customer at the least time possible so that his decisions are quicker”. (Anderson, 2010) This has thereby increased the importance of viral marketing. Viral marketing through internet has ensured that the businesses are able to get information about their product and services quickly. The usage of internet has also “strengthened the consumer chain as consumer use blogs where they update their satisfaction so that other consumer can see those and decide what to purchase”. (Kotler, 2002) This helps to create a chain of customer. A higher customer satisfaction will ensure that more consumer purchase the similar product thereby increasing their bargaining power and will help them to ensure customer satisfaction increases. This will help internet marketing achieve the objective and ensure that relationship improves. Viral marketing has also evolved the consumer market as it has “made the market a global place where the customer can look for products all around and ensure that they get the best one at the correct price”. (Chaffey, Fiona, Johnston & Mayer, 2008) This has increased the bargaining power as people from different background, culture and religion can convulse together and ensure that their satisfaction and bargaining power increases. This is helping marketers lay more stress on viral marketing and device ways which helps them to increase their profits Viral marketing has shaped the customer market as it has “increased transparency as consumer can gather all the information via the internet about each product and company and decide their future course of action accordingly”. (Chaffey, Fiona, Johnston & Mayer, 2008) This ensures that the bargaining power of the consumers increase as they are able to extract the best deal and will increase the bargaining power. Viral marketing is thereby helping both the producers and the users to gather valuable information. Viral marketing has also changed the 4 P’s of marketing and given it a new form as 4 C’s. The internet is concerned with “Content, Commerce, Customer Care and Converting to Leads”. (Vantage, 2004) This is basically an extension of 4 P’s to 4 C’s which has defined the way consumer market deals. Product has been extended to Contend where the customer gets the information about the various products (Vantage, 2004) which helps him decide upon the product. Place has been extended to Commerce where the customer shops by seeing the products, knowing its features and price on the internet. (Vantage, 2004) Price has been extended to Customer care where quick response by the customer helps the customer to get the product quickly. Promotion has been extended to Converting leads where the customer returns and purchases the same product again thereby enabling sales to rise. Despite the 4 P’s evolving for in the usage of marketing but the basis remains the same i.e. “customer satisfaction so that the customer is able to feel the part of the organisation”. (Biff, 2002) Viral marketing thus through internet has brought a change in the manner business was conducted. Viral marketing has ensured that the producers are able to “deliver on the promise of customer satisfaction as it has helped them to evolve the way it functions”. (Biff, 2002) This has changed the way consumer market perform as can be seen from the following example. The usage of internet for electronic goods has pushed the market beyond the physical stores to electronic store where the customer can gather information about the product and compare with others thereby pushing sale for the electronic item. (Biff, 2002) This shows that internet has evolved in the manner consumer market performed. Even a research conducted shows that “internet has changed the face of market as it has increased the customer value and power as it provides the customer with lots of option to chose from”. (Jose & Carmen, 2004) This has reduced the bargaining power of the suppliers as consumers can search the internet and gather valuable information about a product and also find out the best possible option available. This has made the consumer bargain more and companies need to ensure that they charge the price which falls in line with the competitors. Viral marketing is thus taking a toll on companies but has helped them to extend their reach and eye even those customers which were difficult to target. Another research conducted also shows that “internet marketing has ensured that consumers pay 2% more than the normal customers who purchase offline as customer uses the search options to find about the product”. (Morton, Florian & Jorge, 2004) This ensures that companies get a better bargain as consumers using the internet finds various options and then choosing on the basis of that helps the company get a better price as the price is charged according to the other competitors. Thus viral marketing is helping businesses to ensure that they are able to sell more products at a slightly higher price because of the comfort associated with purchases. The above research and the transformation of working have changed the way marketing is carried out. This can be seen from the following chart which shows the way viral marketing “has confluence the changes in trends and made it a major force for the consumer sector”. (Neuman, 2010) The above graph shows that businesses are using different media over the internet to increase the penetration and ensure that they are able to target more customers. The growing importance of internet and the usage of viral marketing can be seen from the increase in the usage of different networking sites which has grown the role of viral marketing. The growing importance of viral marketing can also be seen from an interview conducted with Richard Spalding which showed the manner in which different viral marketing campaigns were used all around to improve the performance of the business. (Maven, 2007) For example the dove campaign which highlighted the manner in which people was using Photoshop and other method to visualize the effect of cosmetics. (Maven, 2007) Thus, the penetration of internet and the wide usage of viral marketing have changed the way the consumer sector performs. It gives them a new platform to market their product. This is helping the companies to find a new way to sell the product. The customer also benefits due to this as a lot of information about different product is availed at the same place. This helps them to compare them with the others and ensure that they get it at the best price. It ensures that customer satisfaction is achieved and has also ensured that the bargaining power of the consumer is more than the suppliers. Thus, we see that internet has changed the way the businesses performs and has also increased the bargaining power of the customers. The usage of viral marketing as a tool is bound to grow and businesses are looking towards different varieties of tools and techniques to ensure that they are able to market their products accordingly. This will help businesses to bring a change in which work was carried out and will help businesses to ensure that they are able to use the best marketing mechanism to lure their customer to purchase their products. References Anderson L, 2010, “How the Internet has changed the face of marketing”, retrieved on December 8, 2010 from http://www.prospectamarketing.com/ArticlesAndCaseStudies/faceofmarketing.htm Biff L, 2002, “The 4 P’s: the internet has changed some of the ways companies approach the 4 P’s, but the basis is still the same”, ABA Banking Journal, Volume 23, Issue 5, page 23-47 Chaffey D, Fiona C, Johnston K & Mayer P, 2008, “Internet Marketing”, 4th Edition, page 237-239, Pearson Education, India Foster N, 2008, “What is viral marketing”, Conjecture Corporation Godin S, 2003, “What is viral marketing”, Zoom Inc Jose M & Carmen E, 2002, “The internet and consumer power”, Journal of Retailing and Consumer services, Volume 12, Issue 4, page 255-271 Kotler P, 2002, “Marketing Management”, 11th Edition, page 147-149, Prentice Hall, India Morton F, Florian Z & Jorge S, 2004, “Consumer Information and Discrimination: does internet effects the pricing”, Journal of Quantitative Marketing & economics, Volume 1, Number 1, page 65-92 Maven R, 2007, “Interview with Richard Spalding on Kontraband”, retrieved on December 8, 2010 from http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/363320/interview-with-richard-spalding-of-kontraband.html?keywords=richard+spalding Neuman J, 2010, “How has internet changed marketing forever”, retrieved on December 8, 2010 from http://thecompleteinternetmarketer.com/articles/article_internetmarketingintro.html Vantage, 2004, “The 4C’s the new 4P’s of Internet Marketing”, Product Management Library of Knowledge, AIPMM.com Read More