1. VIRAL MARKETING & TIPPING POINTS 1

2. 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 2

3. 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. 3

4. 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 4

5. Conduits for Viral Marketing Face-to-face interaction Cell phone Email Texting Instant messaging Pinterest Tumblr Twitter Social networking media  MySpace  Facebook Blogs 5

6. 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 6

7. Gangnam style: the race to 1 billion views 7 More than 2 billion views as of 8/28/2014

8. 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 causes 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 8

9. 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 9

10. 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 10

11. 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 11

12. 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 12

13. 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. 13

14. 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 14

15. 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. 15

16. More Downside 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. 16