Viral Marketing Primary Research Project

PARITOSH AGARWAL 1

H.R. College of Commerce and Economics

Paritosh Agarwal M.Com. Part 1 Semester 1

Marketing Strategies Viral Marketing

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express my sincere regards to my parents and friends who have rendered their cooperation in

compiling this project on Viral Marketing and conducting primary research. I would also like

to express my gratitude to the subject Professor, Dr. Pooja Ramchandani for her guidance and

encouragement in making this project a success.

INDEX

Sr. No. Title Page No.

01. Abstract 02-02

02. Introduction 03-05

03. Review of Literature 06-07

04. Evolution of Viral Marketing 08-08

05. Advantages and Disadvantages 09-09

06. Marketing Mix 10-12

07. Types of Viral Campaign 13-14

08. Methods of Transmission 15-15

09. Success Stories 16-17

10. Failure Case 18-18

11. Research Methodology 19-19

12. Analysis of Data 20-28

13. Findings 29-29

14. Conclusion 30-30

15. References 31-31

16. Questionnaire 32-33

PARITOSH AGARWAL 2

Abstract

The following primary research was conducted to determine what the key driving force for

viral marketing is and how various tools of communication are supporting the same.

The aim of this research is to understand how media work on social networking sites works

and in what manner can it be improved so as to touch as many people as possible.

The findings from this research are rather interesting and draw the attention to various details

which the marketers might be overlooking as yet. From various elements in viral marketing to

how viral marketing can be made better to survive every field of communication and fulfills its

purpose.

PARITOSH AGARWAL 3

Introduction

Viral marketing is essentially a network marketing technique that exploits consumers either

knowingly or unknowingly to act as advertisers in spreading messages and/or promotions

throughout pre-existing social networks. Viral marketing is a type of word-of-mouth

advertising and while word-of-mouth advertising has been around for quite some time,

information technology has enhanced the proficiency and effectiveness of an individuals

ability to spread a message to others to the point where if successful viral messages have the

ability to be viewed exponentially. The messages objectives are typically aimed at creating

exposure and influence in an effort to increase brand awareness or to achieve other marketing

related goals such as increased sales. Viral marketing is a fairly new phenomenon, and has only

existed on the internet for about a decade now. The technique was dubbed viral because of

its inherent ability to spread a marketing message like a virus through each customers social

network, bring news of the product and service to a wide range of potential customers.

Viral marketing can either target a specific group of consumers, or broad audiences. The

content of viral messages typically utilizes humor, entertainment, trendy, or other related

attention grabbers that will entice individuals to view and share the message. The viral objects

commonly passed around include: video clips, images, text messages, email messages, blogs

and web pages, branded software and apps, and so on. To date, some of the most common

transmission vehicles for viral messages have been: pass-along based, incentive based, trendy

based, and undercover based. However, due to the creative nature of viral marketing there are

an endless amount of potential forms and vehicles the messages can utilize for transmission.

(Day, 2011)

The six elements of a viral marketing strategy include: gives away products or services,

provides effortless transfer to others, scales easily from small to very large, exploits common

motivations and behaviors, utilizes existing communication networks, and takes advantage of

others resources. However, it is not hard rule that a viral marketing strategy should contain all

these elements, but the more elements it embraces; the more powerful the results are likely to

be. The benefits of viral marketing can be vast if utilized effectively. Some of the benefits

include: low cost, far reach, and high credibility. Some of the disadvantages include: failed

campaign, lack of control, and message misinterpretations.

PARITOSH AGARWAL 4

In the late 1990s, Hotmail.com was one of the first businesss to achieve a great deal of success

using viral marketing, and is now referred to as the classic example of viral marketing.

Hotmail was able to sign up 12 million users in 18 months by inserting the tagline Get your

free e-mail at Hotmail at the bottom of every e-mail sent out by its customers. At the time this

was historically the fastest growth of any user based Media Company. By the time Hotmail

reached 66 million users, the company was establishing 270,000 new accounts each day.

Today, a decade after Hotmails success, as more and more businesses are having trouble

reaching consumers through traditional advertising, many of them have turned to alternative

marketing methods such as viral marketing. Some of these companies had success while others

have failed. Studies show that fewer than one in six video ads achieve high viral viewing. A

few of the successful blue chip companies have included: Old Spice, Audi, Coke, E-Trade, and

Google.

Old Spices latest viral marketing campaign which focused on promoting the companys body

wash gained widespread popularity, and has become one of the more famous viral marketing

campaigns. How it worked was Old Spice collected fan questions and then created direct video

responses to the questions featuring NFL player Isaiah Mustafa that were posted on

Youtube.com. Latest figures state that the video responses attracted over 35.7 million unique

views, and sales of the body wash jumped 55% in the three months following the viral

campaign.

The future of viral marketing currently remains uncertain, although, the possibilities and

potential of this tactic of reaching and marketing to consumer groups are endless. Moreover,

as more forms of communication are created by technology and more of the population

maintains a presence online involved in social media interactions, so will the inventiveness of

marketers as they attempt to permeate these networks. Furthermore, we can be certain that

marketers will continue to attempt to achieve mass marketing success by utilizing consumers

as vehicles for transmitting their viral messages. (R., 2000)

PARITOSH AGARWAL 5

Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing

message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the messages exposure and

influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the

message to thousands, to millions. Off the Internet, viral marketing has been referred to as

word-of-mouth, creating a buzz, leveraging the media, network marketing; but on the

Internet, for better or worse, its called viral marketing.

The concept of viral marketing is by no means new. Word-of-mouth marketing, virals

forefather, has been around for ages. The Internet has radically changed the concept of word-

of-mouth, so much so that the term viral marketing was coined by venture capitalist Steve

Jurvetson in 1997. The term was used to describe Hotmails email practice of appending

advertising for themselves to outgoing mail from their users. While email may have been the

original catalyst; the advent of social networks, online communities and chat provide the ability

to distribute information exponentially faster than ever before. Where word-of-mouth

marketing could take weeks or months to reach a thousand people, viral marketing can reach

hundreds of thousands or millions in a matter of days or hours. The spread of an effective viral

marketing campaign is akin to an epidemic outbreak of a virus, limited only by the potency and

relevance of the marketing message. (Web Marketing Today, 2012)

PARITOSH AGARWAL 6

Review of Literature

In the research paper Success Factors in Mobile Viral Marketing: A Multi-Case Study

Approach, the authors states that a prior study showed that mobile viral marketing is an

important issue of mobile marketing. Using a multi-case study research approach, the authors

introduced a typology of four standard types of mobile viral marketing and extract eight success

factors for this new form of marketing. As a final step, the relationship between both was

structured, showing success factors' significance in different standard types and deriving a

success factor framework. The authors concluded with a consideration of research implications.

(Pousttchi & Wiedemann, 2007)

In the research article, Mobile word-of-mouth A grounded theory of mobile viral marketing,

the authors mention Mobile devices as personal communication tools are used as platforms for

viral marketing within existing social networks. Although there is some evidence on the

usefulness of mobile viral marketing from the marketers perspective, little is known about the

motivations, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers engaged in this marketing instrument. The

purpose of this research is to better understand the motivations behind a consumer's decision

to engage in mobile viral marketing strategies. The outcome is a grounded theory of mobile

viral marketing with respect to the consumer and his social network, decomposing the mobile

viral effect and identifying the determinants of reception, usage, and forwarding of mobile viral

content. This result helps researchers and marketers to better understand the critical

components of mobile viral marketing strategies and prepares the ground for further research

in this emerging field. (Palka, Pousttchi, & Wiedemann, 2009)

Sabrina Helm in her research article, Viral Marketing - Establishing Customer Relationships

by 'Word-of-mouse' shares her views that newcomers to electronic markets are forced to

accumulate customers as rapidly as possible. One strategy to fulfil this aim is so called viral

marketing, which seems an appropriate term for describing the pattern in which Internet

companies spread by making use of customer referrals. The aim of this article is to describe

and explain common features of viral marketing strategies and to outline chances and risks

associated with using Internet word-of-mouth in consumer settings. (Helm, 2000)

PARITOSH AGARWAL 7

Viral Marketing: The use of surprise states Viral Marketing involves consumers passing

along a companys marketing message to their friends, family and colleagues. It reviews viral

marketing campaigns and argues that the emotion surprise often is at work and that this

mechanism resembles that of word-of-mouth marketing. The article also talks about the

emotion of surprise that attracts many. It is simple to plan as well. It also speaks of how surprise

can be a useful tool. (Lindgreen & Vanhamme, 2005)

Robert E. Moore talks about Viral Marketing in his article From genericide to viral marketing;

on brand. The contemporary phenomenon of brand is addressed within a Peircean

semiotic framework, showing brand to be an inherently unstable composite of tangible

(e.g. product) and intangible (e.g. brand name) values. The professional literature of brand

strategy is drawn upon for definitions, and branding work in an Internet-focused New

Economy consultancy is described. Three phenomena of brandinggenericide, ingredient

branding, and so-called viral marketingreveal the vulnerabilities of brands, and show that

it is not only material things, but events, experiences, and acts of communication that can be

branded. The wider macroeconomic implications of these semiotic vulnerabilities are

briefly explored in conclusion. (Moore, 2003)

The rapid diffusion of the Internet and the emergence of various social constructs facilitated by

Internet technologies are changing the drivers that define how marketing techniques are

developed and refined. This paper identifies critical factors for viral marketing, an Internet-

based 'word-of-mouth' marketing technique. Based on existing knowledge, five types of viral

marketing factors that may critically influence the success of viral marketing campaigns are

identified. These factors are the overall structure of the campaign, the characteristics of the

product or service, the content of the message, the characteristics of the diffusion and, the peer-

to-peer information conduit. The paper discusses three examples of viral marketing campaigns

and identifies the specific factors in each case that influence its success. The paper concludes

with a viral marketing typology differentiating between viral marketing communications,

unintended viral marketing and commercial viral marketing. This is still a rapidly evolving area

and further research is clearly needed to monitor new developments and make sense of the

radical changes these developments bring to the market. This is what is addressed in Internet-

Induced Marketing Techniques: Critical Factors in Viral Marketing Campaigns. (Woerdl,

Bourlakis, & Michael A. and Li, 2010)

PARITOSH AGARWAL 8

Evolution of Viral Marketing

The proliferation of marketing and advertising, coupled with the onslaught of millions of media

channels in todays world, has given cause for consumers to tune out and effectively avoid a

great deal of traditional supplier driven messaging. The creation of technologies such as PVRs,

satellite radio and Internet ad blocking software are driving a fundamental shift in the way the

public consumes media and the advertising often tied to it. Television ads, radio spots, online

ads and even emails are facing increasing competition for effectively capturing the viewers

attention and provide positive ROI for the marketer. This competition, coupled with the rising

cost of media buys, has caused marketers to search for an alternative means to reach the

customer. Viral marketing is an attractive solution because it utilizes the free endorsement of

the individual rather than purchase of mass media to spread the word. Because the distribution

model is free, viral can potentially be lower cost and more effective than traditional media.

More than 90% of consumers said they told at least one other person about a Web site when

the original recommendation came from a friend, according to Jupiter Research.

PARITOSH AGARWAL 9

Viral marketing, like all marketing is a hit or miss. However, viral marketing by nature is often

riskier or controversial than traditional marketing. If done improperly then viral marketing can

backfire and create negative buzz, otherwise it creates a positive wild fire.

Advantages

1. Cuts through the clutter of traditional advertising, allowing marketers to effectively

reach the audience.

2. Doesnt require a product with a wow factor in order to raise awareness, generate buzz,

and kick-start peer-to-peer spread. Instead, the viral campaigns communication agent

is the element that needs a wow factor or element of interest.

3. Unlike traditional advertising viral is not an interruptive technique. Instead, viral

campaigns work the Internet to deliver exposure via peer-to-peer endorsement. Viral

campaigns, whether ultimately liked or disliked, are often welcomed by the receiver.

The focus is on campaigns with material that consumers want to spend time interacting

with and spreading proactively.

Disadvantages

1. Size: If viral content is a video clip or streaming video then it may be too large for the

recipient to receive. However, newer technologies are eliminating this problem, as

internet connections grow faster and e-mail inboxes become more capable of receiving

large files.

2. Media Format: A viral marketing campaign will be unsuccessful if the message is in a

format that most people can't use, like a media requires installation of special software.

3. E-mail attachment: Many people receive viral marketing messages while at the office,

and company anti-virus software or firewalls can prevent people from receiving or

viewing such attachments.

4. Cumbersome Referral Mechanism: For a viral marketing campaign to be successful, it

must be easy to use; like if the promotion is a type of game or contest then asking for

referrals should be an option immediately after the game, not as a condition to play.

5. Sabotage: Especially in the case of Undercover style marketing campaigns, the

discovery of the marketing nature of a popular campaign may cause the same social

networks to inform people of the commercial intent of the meme, and promote a formal

or informal boycott of the company or product in question.

PARITOSH AGARWAL 10

Marketing Mix

Viral marketing is by no means a substitute for a comprehensive and diversified marketing

strategy. In employing viral marketing to generate peer to peer endorsement, brands have also

learned that the technique should not be considered as a standalone miracle worker. James

Kydd, Brand Director for Virgin Mobile who sometime back launched the 11th release in their

successful series of viral marketing campaigns, states, viral marketing is best used not as a

one-off tactical end in itself, but as an integrated strategic part of the overall marketing mix. It

is a means to an end whereby it not only generates buzz, but also provides ongoing, quantifiable

brand benefits, such as increased awareness, peer-to-peer endorsement and ultimately more

sales.

While the messaging and strategy ranges radically from campaign to campaign, most

successful campaigns contain some commonly used approaches. These approaches are often

used in combination to maximize the viral effect of a campaign.

Free Products and Services

Many viral marketing programs utilize free products or services to spark interest. Giving away

low-cost items such as t-shirts can often lead to the sale of much higher cost items. Marketers

often use low cost items as a method of collecting consumer data and building a database of

potential customers that are already familiar with the brand.

Compelling Content

From hilarious to raunchy to controversial good content and concepts can often make or break

a viral campaign. Creating quality content can often be more expensive than simply offering a

free product; however the results are often better. The general rule of thumb is that the content

must be compelling; it must evoke a response on an emotional level from the person viewing

it. This fact alone has allowed many smaller brands to capitalize on content based viral

campaigns. Traditionally larger brands are more reserved and risk adverse to the possibility of

negative reaction.

PARITOSH AGARWAL 11

Exclusivity

This form of messaging is designed to appeal to our natural tendency to desire things we cant

normally have. This messaging includes invitations to join V.I.P clubs, access to products or

services before they are released to the public and the ability to choose the fate of others within

a peer group. While this tactic can be extremely successful, there is a built in cap to its success.

If the offer spreads too wide it will lose its exclusive appeal.

Get Paid

Rewards and financial incentives often play a role in viral referral campaigns. Marketers can

incent users to pass along a message in exchange for compensation ranging from points, special

offers and in some cases cash.

Making it Viral

Successful viral campaigns are easily spread. When creating a campaign marketers should

evaluate how people will communicate the message or campaign to others. Marketers should

ask themselves the following questions when developing a viral strategy:

Does the content require special plug-ins?

Will an attached file in email be too big?

Does the Web site require broadband?

Is the URL easy to remember?

Is the referral mechanism easy to use?

Is the barrier to entry too high?

The easier a campaign can spread the more successful it can ultimately be. A large majority of

campaigns miss the mark because they fail to take this into consideration.

Campaign Seeding

Seeding the original message is a key component of a viral campaign. Seeding is the act of

planting the campaign with the initial group who will then go on to spread the campaign to

others.

PARITOSH AGARWAL 12

The Internet provides a wide array of options for seeding, including:

Email

Online Forums (Google groups)

Social Networks (MySpace.com, Facebook.com)

IM (AIM, ICQ, MSN, Google)

Blogs

Podcasts

When determining where to seed it is important that marketers consider the audience you are

seeding for. If a campaign is skewed towards a certain audience marketers should make sure

they seed towards that audience. Failure to do so may kill a campaign before it ever gets off

the ground, Marketers should leverage existing media buys by incorporating the promotion of

the viral campaign. This can range from a simple reference at the end of a commercial or in

print to a fully integrated approach using mass media to directly promote the viral activity.

The goal of a viral campaign is explosive reach and participation. Marketers should be

adequately prepared to meet the needs of participants in the event that the campaign is

successful. Server space, bandwidth, support staff, fulfillment and stocking should be taken

into consideration well in advance of campaign launch. The marketer should have the ability

to capitalize on the full success of the campaign. (Mind Comet, 2008)

PARITOSH AGARWAL 13

Types of Viral Campaigns

The following are the types of Viral Campaigns:

1. Pass-along: A message which encourages the user to send the message to others. The

crudest form of this is chain letters where a message at the bottom of the email prompts

the reader to forward the message. More effective are short, funny clips of video which

people spontaneously forward. Many of these, such as the Cog (television commercial)

from Honda began life as TV commercials and have since circulated on the web by

word of mouth. The number of people reached in this way is often much greater than

the number who viewed the original Ad.

2. Incentivised viral: A reward is offered for either passing a message along or providing

someone else's address. This can dramatically increase referrals. However, this is most

effective when the offer requires another person to take action. Most online contests

offer more chances of winning for each referral given; but when the referral must also

participate in order for the first person to obtain that extra chance of winning, the chance

that the referral participates is much greater.

3. Undercover: A viral message presented as a cool or unusual page, activity, or piece of

news, without obvious incitements to link or pass along. In Undercover Marketing, it

is not immediately apparent that anything is being marketed. Particular effort is made

to make the discovery of the item seem spontaneous and informal, to encourage natural

mimetic behavior. Outside world "clues", such as graffiti appearing in cities with key

viral words is often used to direct people to search out the presented "mystery". Because

of the large amount of unusual and entertaining content on the internet, this can be the

hardest type of viral to spot, especially as companies try to imitate the style and content

of amateur websites and authentic underground movements.

4. Edgy Gossip/Buzz marketing: Ads or messages that create controversy by challenging

the borders of taste or appropriateness. Discussion of the resulting controversy can be

considered to generate buzz and word of mouth advertising. Prior to releasing a movie,

some Hollywood movie stars get married, get divorced, or get arrested, or become

involved in some controversy that directs conversational attention to them. An alleged

example is the publicity campaign about the dubious love affair between Tom Cruise

and Katie Holmes that came out just before each of them released a movie.

PARITOSH AGARWAL 14

5. User-managed database: Users create and manage their own lists of contacts using a

database provided by an online service provider. By inviting other members to

participate in their community, users create a viral, self-propagating chain of contacts

that naturally grows and encourages others to sign up as well. Examples of such services

include anonymous matching services like eCrush, business contact management

services like Plaxo, and other social databases like Evite and Classmates.com.

PARITOSH AGARWAL 15

Methods of Transmission

Transmission of viral marketing can occur in various ways:

1. Word of Web: Typing into a web-based form that converts that information into an e-

mail, sends to recipients. An example of this is any article at MSNBC.com. In the

article, there are links that encourage readers to send the article to a friend; this brings

them to a web-based form to be filled out. This form converts all of the information to

the recipient in an e-mail.

2. Word of E-Mail: A very common type: forwarding e-mails, such as jokes, quizzes and

'compromising' pictures.

3. Word of mouth: Word of mouth is the oldest and still very effective form of Viral

Marketing. In this method, the information is passed from one person to another via

physical conversation.

4. Word of IM: Perhaps the fastest-growing mode of transmission, hyperlinks are sent

over instant messaging servers such as Jabber, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, or Google

Talk. This method is popular with many young people who are arguably more likely to

trust a link sent by a friend via IM than by that same friend through e-mail.

5. Reward for Referrals: Sometimes, the marketing company offers a reward for referring

customers, encouraging them to use any of the above methods.

6. Communications Protocol: In amateur radio, the ham operators on each end of a

conversation generally exchange QSL cards. The communication protocol generally

expects each person to transmit their QSL information to the other person. If that QSL

information refers to an electronic QSL card exchange, then the subscriber base of the

exchange will grow exponentially.

7. Bluetooth: The widespread use of mobile phones which support free Bluetoothing has

enabled promotional videos to be distributed virally between handsets.

PARITOSH AGARWAL 16

Success Stories

One of the most successful viral marketing campaign of all time was the original, Hotmails,

simple text advertisement appended to each users email. The free e-mail service spent a mere

$50,000 on traditional marketing and still became the worlds leading e-mail provider almost

overnight, with 75 million users. Since that time there have been thousands of failures and

successes, a few of those are highlighted below.

The Trojan Games

The Trojan Games viral marketing campaign, with its award-winning sex-and-games spoof

video content, has been seen by over 38 million people globally since the site launched in

October 2003. In its first month alone, over 6 million people visited the site. Only sites such as

Google and Yahoo reach more people over such a time period. The following brand benefits

were revealed in a consumer survey:

77% recalled the Trojan brand after seeing the campaign

73% positive rating of the overall impression of the campaign

80% perceived the campaign to be unique

50% would be more likely to consider the Trojan brand after seeing the campaign

(Trojan Games, n.d.)

Mazdas parking campaign

Mazdas parking campaign is another example of a viral campaign delivering tangible brand

benefits. The campaign used an online video to strike a chord with online users, sparking global

debate on blogs and forums about male and female parking capabilities. Globally the campaign

generated over a million quantified clip views in less than a month and helped sell a product

that is very similar to many others in its class. As Steve Jelliss, CRM Manager for Mazda

Motors stated, Our ongoing series of viral marketing campaigns have proven their value in

providing high brand exposure to a wide-as-possible audience, and ultimately contributing to

car sales. (Mazda, n.d.)

PARITOSH AGARWAL 17

Small brand, big results

The 2004 online viral campaign for Bullguard proves that you dont need to be a big brand to

make viral marketing work. Bullguard makes anti-virus and firewall software and distributes

their product only online. They created a viral campaign using a home-video style clip and

specialist viral site seeding. The campaign generated over 6 million clip views and over 30,000

post-view trial products download globally in less than seven months. On the brand benefit

front, it has doubled Bullguards Google search results, increased the number of dealers

endorsing and selling their products (offline now as well as online), and repositioned the brand

as the young rebel in the security software industry. (Bullguard, n.d.)

PARITOSH AGARWAL 18

Failure Case

Raging cow

Some high profile campaigns illustrate the risks brands take when venturing to use online viral

marketing without fully understanding the factors of success. For example, the infamous Dr.

Pepper Raging Cow online viral campaign generated a backlash from the blogging

community for what was perceived at best as a clumsy infiltration of a tight-knit community.

Dr. Pepper showered teen bloggers with gifts and indoctrinated them on how to blog its new

Raging Cow beverage. The plot backfired, with a well-publicized boycott and global media

covering the debacle. Ironically, online influencers may have liked the product; they just did

not like being told how to blog about it.

Viral marketing is a credible marketing tactic that can deliver positive ROI when properly

executed as a component of an overarching strategic plan. Marketers should utilize viral

marketing when the messaging can coincide and support a measurable business goal. (Mara,

2004)

PARITOSH AGARWAL 19

Research Methodology

A primary research was conducted to understand the behavior of the market. The study was

conducted in many age groups starting from 15 years and going to 50+. The respondents were

asked about their general usage and time spent on accessing social media websites and the

medium used for access like mobile phones, tablets or desktops. Male or female, the

respondents were not restricted to any particular category and they were also open to select as

many social media websites to select as they are active on. This helped in getting a comparative

study on which websites are widely used and on an average how much of their time do people

spend in a day on such websites. Questions were also posted on the various aspects that

attracted the respondents to see or forward a message that they came across while accessing

such websites. Over 70 respondents filled the survey giving a wide variety of readings to draw

our conclusion. In the next section, the analysis of this data collection is processed and further

later, conclusions are drawn.

PARITOSH AGARWAL 20

Analysis of Data

The data is analysed on each and every question that the respondent had to answer.

Q1. Age

Parameters Statistics

15-25 63

25-35 5

35-50 4

50+ 2

Total 74

In this section, it is noted that the maximum number of respondents fall in the age group of 15-

25 years.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

15-25 25-35 35-50 50+

PARITOSH AGARWAL 21

Q2. Gender


Female 46

Male 28

Total 74

Out of the count of 74, female respondents took the lead with 46 fills, i.e. over 62% and male

respondents were 28 in total.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Female Male

PARITOSH AGARWAL 22

Q3. How much time in a day do you spend on an average on social networking websites?


less than .5 hour 12

.5 - 1 hour 17

1 - 2 hours 24

More than 2 21

Total 74

Surprisingly here, there are a lot of respondents that said that they spend an hour or more in a

day only to access social media websites. Together these two categories form 60% of the time

spent on social networking websites in a day.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

less than .5 hour .5 - 1 hour 1 - 2 hours More than 2

PARITOSH AGARWAL 23

Q4. Which of these devices do you use the most to access social media websites?


Laptop/desktop 11

Tablet 8

Mobile 55

Total 74

As the technology advances, we see a rise in the number of mobile phone users and here it

occupies maximum of the respondents accessing websites on mobile phones and sharing such

data.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Laptop/desktop Tablet Mobile

PARITOSH AGARWAL 24

Q5. Which social media instrument do you use?

In this question, there was a choice to select multiple options on the websites. Note, that

Facebook and WhatsApp are the most selected media instruments. They together reach nearly

up to 47%

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70


Facebook 52

Instagram 38

Skype 16

Wordpress 3

Youtube 30

WhatsApp 62

Twitter 19

Google+ 13

Tumblr 6

Pinterest 1

LinkedIn 1

Snapchat 2

Total 243

PARITOSH AGARWAL 25

Q6. How likely is it that you will read/watch forwarded messages/images/videos?


Almost Always 11

Always 7

Depends on the sender of the message 14

Never 1

Rarely 13

Sometimes 28

Total 74

An interesting point to study in this section is that there are very less number of respondents

who opted for Never tab which states that the forwarded messages are widely and more often

read.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Almost Always always Depends on the

sender of the

message

Never Rarely Sometimes

PARITOSH AGARWAL 26

Q7. How likely is it that you will re-post a message/image/video that you liked?


Almost Always 6

Always 9

Depends on the content of media 14

Never 5

Rarely 22

Sometimes 18

Total 74

Here we see that who not only reads forwarded messages but also share them are very less.

For most of them state that it is dependent on the sender of the message.

0

5

10

15

20

25

Almost Always Always Depends on the

content of

media


PARITOSH AGARWAL 27

Q8. How likely is it that you will talk about a message/image/video to your friends/colleagues?

Parameter Statistics

Almost Always 14

Always 4

Depends on content of media 15

Never 7

Rarely 7

Sometimes 27

Total 74

Sometimes is the general selection for respondents to talk about a message that they liked

followed by those who talk about a message depending on who sent them.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Almost Always Always Depends on the

content of

media


PARITOSH AGARWAL 28

Q9. How likely is it that you will watch advertisements or promotional banners on display on

these social websites?


Almost Always 4

Always 4

Depends on the content/marketer 8

Never 11

Rarely 22

Sometimes 25

Total 74

We notice a contradictory response here as rarely and sometimes have been selected the

most of the times.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

PARITOSH AGARWAL 29

Findings

The study conducted on a scale of over 70 respondents helped to determine on an average how

much time in a day is spent on social media networks accessing and sharing information. It

also shed light on the reasons as to why a person reads forwarded messages and on what

grounds does it share further with its friend circle. An interesting finding here is that many a

times a person shares messages with another party based on the content. This not only makes

us understand how we can expand our marketing and spread it over a larger area, i.e. by making

good content. Other findings are as follows:

1. There was a majority of late teenagers and early youth who access these social

networking websites to read and share information

2. Facebook and WhatsApp are dominating the market with maximum number of users

with Instagram slowly approaching

3. Over 1 hour to further more than 2 hours is the time spent in general to access these

websites

4. Another interesting reading from this primary research that came out in the open was

that mobile phones are now extensively used and desktops are slowly losing their hold

on this segment. As the mobile phones connect the user on the move to such networking

sites, its easier for the customer to stay connected

5. A lot of message sharing and watching of promotional banners/videos is dependent on

the sender of the message or the content of the media

6. People share messages and videos over these websites as per their liking of the media

PARITOSH AGARWAL 30

Conclusion

As per the primary research conducted on a variety of respondents, its findings and thorough

analysis, we conclude that marketers looking at Viral Marketing need to focus on the content

to promote through various forms of media. When the beginning of any promotional banner is

creative and holds the attention of the public then there are greater chances that such

promotional banner will be circulated more over the web and thus the information is

automatically passed over to others.

Marketers also need to look at optimizing options for mobile phones as there is a huge rise in

smart phone users. This has opened a whole new segment to carry out viral marketing. In

addition, while these are used as tools for marketing, promoters also need to make the content

crisp and attractive accordingly to draw and hold the attention of the public. This helps in longer

lasting marketing.

PARITOSH AGARWAL 31

References

Bullguard. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.bullguard.com/pamelaspeak

Day, N. a. (2011, January). Viral Marketing. Retrieved from Night and Day: http://ndgraphic.com/viral-

marketing/

Helm, S. (2000). Viral Marketing - Establishing Customer Relationships by 'Word-of-mouse'.

Lindgreen, A., & Vanhamme, J. (2005). Viral Marketing: The Use of Surprise. Rotterdam.

Mara, J. (2004). ClickZ News.

Mazda. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mazdamovies.com

Mind Comet. (2008). Viral Marketing. Retrieved from CMG Interactive:

http://cmginteractive.com/uploads/viral_marketing.pdf

Moore, R. E. (2003). From genericide to viral marketing: on brand. Elsevier.

Palka, W., Pousttchi, K., & Wiedemann, D. G. (2009). Mobile word-of-mouth A grounded theory of

mobile viral marketing. Journal of Information Technology.

Pousttchi, K., & Wiedemann, D. (2007). Success Factors in Mobile Viral Marketing: A Multi-Case

Study Approach. IEEE Explore, Digital Library.

R., W. (2000). Demystifying Viral Marketing. Web Marketing Today, Issue 70.

Trojan Games. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.trojangames.co.uk

Web Marketing Today. (2012, May 10). The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing. Retrieved from

Web Marketing Today: http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/viral-principles/

Woerdl, M. a., Bourlakis, S. a., & Michael A. and Li, F. (2010). Internet-Induced Marketing

Techniques: Critical Factors in Viral Marketing Campaigns. Kent Academic Respirotary, 35-

45.

PARITOSH AGARWAL 32

Questionnaire

*Required

1. Age *

a. 15-25

b. 25-35

c. 35-50

d. 50+

2. Gender *

a. Male

b. Female

3. How much time in a day do you spend on an average on social networking websites? *

a. Less than 30 minutes

b. 30 minutes - 1 hour

c. 1 hour - 2 hours

d. More than 2 hours

4. Which of these devices do you use the most to access social media websites? *

a. Mobile Phone

b. Tablet

c. Laptop/Desktop

5. Which social media instrument do you use? *

a. Facebook

b. Twitter

c. WhatsApp

d. Instagram

e. Skype

f. Google+

g. Youtube

h. Tumblr

i. Wordpress

j. Other:

PARITOSH AGARWAL 33

6. How likely is it that you will read/watch forwarded messages/images/videos? *

a. Always

b. Almost Always

c. Sometimes

d. Rarely

e. Never

f. Depends on the sender of the message

7. How likely is it that you will watch advertisements or promotional banners on display

on these social websites? *

a. Always

b. Almost Always

c. Sometimes

d. Rarely

e. Never

f. Depends on the content/marketer

8. How likely is it that you will re-post a message/image/video that you liked? *

a. Always

b. Almost Always

c. Sometimes

d. Rarely

e. Never

f. Depends on the content of media

9. How likely is it that you will talk about a message/image/video to your

friends/colleagues?*

a. Always

b. Almost Always

c. Sometimes

d. Rarely

e. Never

f. Depends on the content of media

Viral Marketing Primary Research Project

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