Viral Marketing – Where’s the Buzz?

What is viral marketing?

Viral marketing is…

„a marketing activity in which information about a product is spread between people, especially on the internet“ – Cambridge Dictionary

Viral marketing is buzz or sometimes also called marketing buzz. It is based on the principle of word-of-mouth, which means passing on information about a product, service, brand or company via oral communication. Basically, viral marketing is a digital word-of-mouth. People share their experience or advertising material via internet. Nowadays, who is not sharing videos and other information via Facebook, Twitter, E-Mails, Blogs, etc.?

Like the name suggests, viral marketing is used to spread messages over the internet like a virus. The goal is not to reach a specific target group but rather to try reaching as much people as possible. This can be done for example via YouTube. Those videos or other messages will then be shared and spread out via social networks. By sharing, people basically give their recommendation to others about the product or service that is displayed by the company.

Looking at the U.S., around 75 million people watch online videos on a daily basis. YouTube owns the majority share of this amount and has more than a billion visitors every month watching a total of four billion hours of video. But just creating a video about your company or product is not enough. You need some extraordinary, fun and special content to stand out and differentiate yourself from competitors.

You might be surprised of what people are willing to share and think is funny. Some videos that got spread over the internet like a virus can be seen below.

Another video that was spread like a virus on the internet is the following one about Microsoft X Box. The reactions about these video were controversial. Some thought it is morbid and disturbing while others said it is rather interesting and innovative. Anyhow, the goal of creating attention has been accomplished. See for yourself.

One of the most successful movies that has been produced is the Blair Witch Project. The goal has been to make people believe that a certain event really has happened by posting information and details on their website before the movie was even shown.

Check out with what kind of idea Burger King came up in 2004. You want to try it yourself? It is still existent: here!

Now imagine, you see an awesome video at Youtube from a company about its product (although the product and message are more in the background and you might not even be aware of it but the funny content makes you laugh) and of course you would like to tell your friends about it. Nowadays, the easiest and fastest way to share is via social media like facebook or twitter. Check out the chart below… the facts and numbers speak for themselves.

Considering this, how effective do you think viral marketing is? Have you ever shared something and therefore helped companies to market their products?

Referring to Wirtschaftslexikon, EdelundFein, INC, Webbythoughts, Smosh

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Content Marketing On the Rise

Traditional marketing like magazine ads or TV ads are becoming less successful since consumers are able to skip TV ads with a DVR, don’t look at tangible magazines that often anymore and instead receive all their information online.

Content marketing can help a company to attract customers and retain them.

But what is content marketing exactly? Check out the following definitions:

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
– Content Marketing Institute

“Storytelling for Sales.”- Pushing Social

“Content marketing is publicly and freely sharing information about your business and industry. It can include text (blogs, ebooks, press releases and tweets), video, audio and online events.” – Bryan Haines

The purpose of content marketing is the attraction and the retention of customers by continuously creating and sharing relevant, valuable and free content to enhance consumer behavior. Content marketing can be seen as an ongoing process focusing on owning media rather than renting it. Taking this into consideration, content marketing is communicating with your customers and prospects without selling your products. Instead, you are educating them about your products so that they know about you, like and trust you to achieve the goal of driving sales. It is a good way to built relationships and a community to win customers’ loyalty.

Based on a survey by Roper Public Affairs, 80% of business decision makers stated that they would rather prefer to receive company information in a series of articles instead by ads. Additionally, it has been revealed that 70%  would feel much more connected to the company due to content marketing and that 60% feel supported regarding their product decisions. This means customers would like to receive your advertisement and would actually take a closer look at it. For further recent research about content marketing, click here.

Here are some examples of companies that are doing effective content marketing. You might know them already.

The Furrow Magazine by John Deere agricultural machinery (which began in 1895)

ZMOT Research Project by Google

Lego Club Magazine by Lego

Red Bulletin by Red Bull

Kraft Foods is a leader when looking at content marketing. They launched their website kraftfoods.com even before content marketing became popular. Most of the company’s competitors did not even have websites at that time. Customers are able to look for recipes, interact with the Kraft community or look up other food-related information. The director of the CRM Content Strategy & Integration at Kraft, Julie Fleischer, said:

“The ROI on our Content Marketing work is among the highest of all of our marketing efforts.” – Source

Content marketing can definitely be used as a competitive advantage but I am starting to question whether it will stay like this. Like mentioned in the headline of this blog entry, content marketing is on the rise and used by more and more companies. This means customers and prospects will be bombarded with more and more content. They might start to filter again like they do it with other advertisements. So if everyone is starting to use it, can it still help to achieve a competitive advantage? Or does this mean that as a result of this developmend or trend companies have to find new ways of gaining competitive advantage? What do you think?

Referring to Content Marketing Institute, Copyblogger, Pushing Social & Sproutcontent

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Publicity & Marketing Stunts – Effective Communication Tools

You will be surprised about the ideas companies or other parties come up with just to get the immediate attention of potential customers, or in other words: your attention!

A publicity or marketing stunt is an event especially planned and designed with the purpose to attract the public’s attention towards the planning organization. Those events are not only used by marketers but also by athletes, celebrities or politicians.

But whether these stunts are successful or not depends solely on you, the potential customer. If the event is stunning, extraordinary and stays in people’s minds, it is likely that the publicity stunts will be successful. Well, the goal is to encourage people to talk, talk about the event, the product, service or purpose that was displayed and to talk about the company. This talking can be via mouth-to-mouth or social media like Facebook or Twitter. Nevertheless, the danger of conducting such stunts is to make a negative impression on the public which will subsequently be spread out. Therefore, publicity and marketing stunts have to be carefully planned to achieve the intended effect and to communicate the right message.

Using publicity and marketing stunts well can be a great and effective communication tool that creates interest as well as awareness of the organization, its purpose, products and services.

Entrepreneur.com released an article from Jim Joseph who states three guidelines for ‘pulling a badass marketing stunt’:

1.      Shock is the answer. The stunt needs to be unexpected, shocking and encouraging people to like it, talk about it, and share it.

2.      Make it easy to share. The purpose of stunts is to encourage people to share it. Therefore, one should make it easy for people to share it by a share button or a voucher which they can pass on.

3.      Be loyal to your brand. It is important to do a stunt that fits with your brand and that communicates the message you want to reveal. Just doing a stunt to do one will be inappropriate and miss the purpose.

Red Bull pulled a publicity stunt last year by sponsoring Felix Baumgartner’s jump from a helium balloon into the stratosphere and managed to achieve the ‚marketing nirvana‘. This stunt fit perfectly with Red Bull’s statement ‘Red Bull gives you wings’ and attracted the world’s attention.

Check out the video here!

Some other inspiring marketing stunts which are worth taking a look at:

By watching different publicity and marketing stunts I can state that in my opinion this is a very effective way of attracting attention and differentiate from competitors. Companies need potential customers, they need you to market their product and to be successful. There is nothing stronger than a personal referral from another person. So you might not be aware of it but you have a strong impact on a company and its image. Therefore, I do believe that a successful stunt which encourages people to talk about it and spread the word can have a great effect.

So what do you think about this kind of communication tool? Have you ever experienced a publicity or marketing stunt and how has this affected your opinion about the organization? Have you spread the word and forwarded the message?

Referring to entrepreneur.com, trendhunter.com, prexamples.com, tomfishburne.com, jaunted.com & about.com

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Gender Marketing – Does It Really Work?

While researching, I found an article about gender marketing from the 4th of September 2013 in The Independent with the following heading “Toys R Us to stop marketing its toys by gender in wake of sexism claims“. So what exactly happened?

Toys R Us reacted on anti-sexist marketing demands and promised to stop using gender labeling for their products since it aimed at sexual stereotyping. There also has been pressure from the consumer group Let Toys Be Toys who campaigns for a sale of toys not aiming in particular at girls or boys. The Let Toys Be Toys campaigner, Megan Perryman, stated that:

“Even in 2013, boys and girls are still growing up being told that certain toys are for them, while others are not. This is not only confusing but extremely limiting as it strongly shapes their ideas about who they are and who they can go on to become.”

This leads to another marketing strategy or rather another category marketers can divide their target group in: Gender marketing. What does gender marketing mean?

Men and women are different – we all are aware of this fact. Gender specific differences are not only evident in daily life but also regarding communication and buying behavior. Men and women choose which product to buy or what they need in different ways. Therefore, marketers use different gender strategies to market their product to the specific target group. Gender marketing considers the wishes of male and female customers as a user and purchaser. With help of psychology and brain research, marketers try to figure out the preferences of women and men.

Source

I think the most known example for gender marketing is Coca Cola. They found out that men also are aware of calories but would never buy Coca Cola Light – simply because it sounds related to diet which is a female thing. Therefore, they launched Coca Cola Zero for men. The black and red colors are perceived more male.

Bosch showed how successful gender specific marketing can be. During the end of the 1990s, Bosch found out that there is a group of infrequent do-it-yourselfer, which were mostly female. This target group demanded electronic tools without a lot of extras but with characteristics like small, easy and compact. As a result, the cordless screwdriver Ixo was born. More than half of all customers are female.

The psychologist Mr. Hans-Georg Häusel said that there is a biological explanations for this kind of behavior. The hormone estrogen has the effect that women react more on the esthetics of a product while the testosteron affects that men are more interested in the function of a product. Luxury producers and fashion magazines make use of this biological fact intuitively. Products in a fashion magazine are displayed according to shapes and colors. In a magazine for men, products are sorted according to their functions.

Mr. Häusel emphasizes that this separation does not have to be absolute since there are men who concentrate more on the esthetics of a product and women who focus more on the functional aspect of a product. Nevertheless, there are consumer goods which can be classified in male and female. The Mineral water Evian is supposed to be more femine (if you follow the link it will become clearer why!) while Bonaqa is perceived as more maskulin. Raffaello from Ferrero targets, considering shape and advertisement strategy, female customers, the chocolate bar Mars targets male customers.

Check out the newest Raffaello advertisement – what’s the target group?

Mars ad (it is in German but the message regarding gender marketing is clear!)

But not all women love pink and not all men like blue – at least this is not what I have experienced? The danger of gender marketing is that stereotypes are used to target men and women although not every women and not every men validates these stereotypes.

Take a minute yourself and think about the products you buy. Are there any female or male products or products that are marketed in a female or male way? Does this marketing strategy affect you or can you think of any examples where you buy products which are intentionally meant for the other sex?

Referring to FAZ & The Independent

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5 Marketing Trends For The Upcoming Years

Today I would like to show you five main marketing trends of the upcoming years that you might already be aware of: Fragmentation of the Media Landscape, Mobile Market Penetration, Content Marketing, Facebook and Social Media Marketing.

Fragmentation of Media Landscape

Well this sounds high-toned. What does this mean? According to Edison Research, 256 million US citizens own a TV, 243 million have a radio, 232 million use internet and 139 million possess a Smartphone. During the last years there has been a rapid increase of Smartphones and Wi-Fi – almost everyone owns a Smartphone.  Consequently, this means, especially for marketers, that they have to come up with creative ideas and stand out with the help of visual content since the attention span of consumers is decreasing and they often tend to media multitasking.

Mobile Market Penetration

Again it is all about Smartphones. In the U.S., there are 139 million Smartphone owners which account for 53% of all US citizens. That is more than half of the whole population! Let’s have a closer look at Western Europe. It is expected that in the year of 2014, 50% of all citizens in Western Europe will possess a Smartphone. Regarding a global perspective, it is estimated that this will happen in 2017. According to eMarketers, market penetration in Europe and North America will be over 70%, which puts Smartphone further in the spotlight.

Besides the fact that we make ourselves more and more dependent on technology, Smartphones and tablets offer marketers a variety of opportunities and innovative ideas, in particular in areas of gamification, geo-targeting and content.

Content Marketing

Referring to Wishpond, 91% of B2B marketers and 86% of B2C marketers use Content marketing. What exactly is Content marketing?

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”(Source)

In short, Content marketing means to communicate with your customers without selling your product or service but instead rather delivering information about your products. This strategy believes that delivering information or content will increase customers’ loyalty and purchases.

           Source: Wishpond

78% of all interviewed CMOs by Wishpond agree on one fact: specially produced and customized content is the future of marketing. Based on a survey of Econsultancy from October 2012, 93% of agency marketers and 90% of In-House-Marketers certify that Content marketing increased its relevance during this particular year. Consumers want interesting and relevant information or content instead of plain advertisement.

Facebook

Everyone knows it and almost everyone has it. Facebook clearly dominates the Social Media Area but competitors gain more and more importance. According to Edison research, 58% of all US citizens (starting at an age of 12) own a Facebook profile, 17% have a LinkedIn profile and 15% are active on Twitter. Another 12% use either Google Plus or Instagram.

Source: Edison Research

Looking at Fortune 500, Twitter owns the most importance and is followed closely by facebook and YouTube. In the end this means that 77% of companies use the micro blogging service.

Social Media Marketing

It is no secret that Social Media Marketing is on the rise. Also more and more marketers realize the advantages of this marketing strategy like the increased number and frequency of advertisement contacts or traffic increase for the company’s website.

Edison Research states that especially Facebook shows more and more marketing activities. 62% of all interviewees said that they realize an increased number of company, brand or product related content in their Facebook news feed.

But with opportunities there also arise challenges. Users react on irrelevant content – like with all other marketing channels – by blocking the information source. Therefore, marketers have to find a way to keep users interested on a long-term basis and to encourage them to interaction. As a consequence, Content has to be more appealing, more visual and more relevant.

Source: Edison Research

How you can see in the chart above, increased exposure is the greatest benefit of Social Media whereas improved sales is on the bottom of top benefits. Nevertheless, the strategy is to increase sales by advocating exposure.

Take a minute and think about it yourself. Do you realize that the mentioned marketing trends are becoming more and more evident? How important are Smartphones for marketing and is it affecting you? My Smartphone is my daily companion and I use it to get rid of boredom in the metro or whenever I have to wait for something. Think back and try to figure out whether company, brand or product related content appears more often in your Facebook news feed?!

Referring to OnlineMarketing.de

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