Marketing the viral way: 21^st century marketing approach

Viral Marketing is the word today that is used to describe the revolutionary way by which any information proliferates across a million people rapidly within a short period of time. It use pre-existing social networking services and other technologies to try to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses. It can be delivered by ‘word of mouth’ or enhanced by the ‘network effects’ of the Internet and mobile networks.

The growth of social networking significantly contributed to the effectiveness of viral marketing. On July 14, 2010, Old Spice launched the fastest growing online viral video campaign ever, garnering 6.7 million views after 24 hours, ballooning over 23 million views after 36 hours.

As of 2012, two thirds of the world's Internet population visits a social networking service or blog site at least every week. Face book alone has over 1.2 billion active users. According to a new report from the Pew Research Center, the social network remains the most popular. Now, 52% of the online population uses two or more social media sites, up from 42% in 2013.

The present paper defines viral marketing. An attempt is made to discuss, the principles of viral marketing. It further explains how this form of marketing is used on the internet. The paper also highlights the techniques used by various companies to conduct viral marketing strategy. It then identifies the benefits and risks associated with viral marketing and present the critical factors that need to be considered when organizing viral marketing campaigns. The paper concludes that today almost all companies on the internet can use viral marketing as 21st century marketing approach.