Blog 5: Viral Marketing

  

     ‘Buzz Marketing’ is one of Word-of-Marketing, and it is effective marketing that one person who already has used a product recommends the product to his friends, families, or neighbors. As Information Technology is developing, the way of Buzz Marketing became various. Nowadays the most popular way of ‘Buzz Marketing’ is using Social Network Services, and it is called ‘Viral Marketing’. Its purpose is to try to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives like profits. ‘Viral’ is derived from the spread of viruses or computer viruses. And also ‘Viral Marketing’ is different from the existing online marketing. The existing online marketing did not have their target, and they just do marketing randomly. However, Viral Marketing has its target market, so it is more effective than the existing online marketing. There are some examples of success by using Viral Marketing.

    McDonald’s Big Mac Song Campaign is one of examples. It already operated in USA, 1970s, but in 2011, it got big succeed in Korea, over 4,000 videos were uploaded for a month. McDonald gave the Big Mac free coupon to everyone who uploaded their Big Mac song videos, and someone who ranked the first won the prize, ₩5,000,000(about $5,000) and McDonald used his video as an advertisement. Over 3 million people visited McDonalds’ website to vote, and through this event McDonalds’ revenue was increased by 36.5% compared to last month. The first reason that they could get big succeed in Korea is that they chose right target market. Korean is very interested in music, songs and dance, and all music programs got succeed at that time. The second reason is that IT technology developed surprisingly, so it was so easy to attract Korean’s interest. McDonalds got not only financial benefits but also positive impression, high credibility and loyal customers.

#1 Famous Comedians : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9cqBsWhPVg

#2 Real McDonald's TV Advertisement : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfYzB66dT5s&list=UUh-PIUDPlZkXnwU5zgX_oAw&index=99

    Red bull is the highest company which spends money to do marketing. Its slogan is “Red bull gives you wings”, and it really fell down from sky. It dropped down from sky at sudden, and people were surprised. People were curious that, and after that they posted in their twitter or Facebook, ‘Today I got FREE DRINKS for sky!’ Red bull applied their energetic impression to their viral marketing method, so they designed Red bull fell down unspecific places at a sudden. Their purposes were not only to test sample drinks but also to use word-of-marketing. Finally over 8 million people could get know about that, and 1 million people posted in Red bull Facebook page. The first reason that they got succeed is that they applied their products’ energetic image to their promotion event. Second is that they could attract people’s interest by creative idea which drinks fell down from sky at a sudden and free drinks.

    Not only Facebook, Twitter, also blog is effective viral marketing. Even a new word came out; ‘Power Blogger’ is the blogger who has the most impact on other consumers. Usually power blogger gather people’s interests by great contents and speedily updating. However, there are some examples that abuse their impact. There are some ‘black consumer’ and ‘black blogger’, and they post negative opinion about a product calculatedly or they threaten companies by their power in online. There are some side-effects of viral marketing, but there is nothing effective marketing as much as viral marketing. So it is expected that viral marketing must be popular to companies as the most effective marketing method. 

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