The Hindu Business Line : Viral marketing

We have all heard the phrase being used by just about everyone who is associated with marketing (and who isn’t?). Unfortunately, the use is not always in the right context.

One of the best examples of the successful use of viral marketing is that of Hotmail. And another is the enormous popularity of SMS among today’s youth.

Often, when people say they plan to use viral marketing, they mean that they intend to exploit word of mouth and references rather than using traditional methods such as advertising. While there can be no doubt at all that word of mouth is a very effective and important marketing tool, it is not to be confused with the specific term viral marketing.

So let us examine how people started using e-mail services. That should make the concept of viral marketing clear.

When Hotmail was first developed, the developer had to make someone use it – probably the developer himself. Now, for him to use e-mail / Hotmail, he would have needed someone to whom he could send the email. So he had to get someone else — at least one other person — to use it too.

Now, for the second person to use this facility fully and not be restricted to communicating only with the developer, he / she had to get some other friends to start using it. And so on and so forth.

This is exactly what viral marketing is all about — the only way for a customer to use a product / service is by making other people use it as well.

Clearly, this applies to SMS as well. And this is also applicable in case mobile-to-mobile calls are made free but mobile-to-fixed line calls are expensive.

Actually, the phrase viral marketing is self-explanatory. A virus has no existence unless it gets a host and then spreads.

There is also one other requirement for viral marketing to succeed. The cost of trial or the cost of failure should be fairly low. For instance, it is quite cheap and easy to start sending SMS’ once a person has a mobile phone.

On the other hand, if a mobile phone is very expensive, and mobile to landline calls are very expensive, then the mere act of making mobile-to-mobile calls free is unlikely to ensure that viral marketing takes hold. In other words, entry barriers must be fairly low for the prospective user.

(Compiled by Kaybase, a business consulting firm. Mail: Info@Kaybase.com)

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