Introduction
Marketing serves more purposes than the promotion of the product over competing offerings from other companies. It can introduce radically new ideas and popularize them, changing the lives of people in the process. As such, a significant part of marketing is understanding the contemporary strategies and evaluating their success. In particular, the modern viral marketing approaches deserve considerable attention, as they offer substantial returns, but come with corresponding risks.
Main body
Viral marketing is mostly related to social networks and other mediums where information can quickly spread via word of mouth. According to Botha et al. (2018), the latter is central to such strategies, as they rely on consumer response for exponential popularity growth with the disadvantage that negative news spread with similar speed, if not faster. Nevertheless, traditional marketing remains a potent and necessary tool, and according to Todor (2016), companies should attempt to mix the two approaches.
The effectiveness of each method should be evaluated based primarily on its profit factor (Milichovsky & Simberova, 2015), and the overall strategy should be adjusted based on the results. As different firms work with varying customer categories and offer unique products, one approach cannot be effective in every case.
Conclusion
Marketing that is aimed at engaging in convincing the customers directly is essential to the introduction of new products. Modern developments such as social networks provide an excellent platform for such activities, as satisfied customers can virally propagate the information. However, traditional marketing remains a valuable tool, especially when it comes to reaching less Internet-savvy audiences. The proportions of the two approaches in a company’s overall strategy should be determined through practical examinations, which should primarily evaluate the profit factor.
References
Botha, E., Chohan, R., Karam, M., Ogbonna, E., Payne, K., & Matthews, O. (2018). The viral marketing process: Identifying the key drivers of viral success in emerging markets. In N. Malhotra & S. Burgess (Eds.), The 2018 Annual Conference of the Emerging Markets Conference Board (pp. 46-48). Johannesburg, South Africa: Wits Business School.
Milichovsky, F., & Simberova, I. (2015). Marketing effectiveness: Metrics for effective strategic marketing. Engineering Economics, 26(2), 211-219.
Todor, R. D. (2016). Blending traditional and digital marketing. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov, 9(1), 51-56.