Viral marketing is the best resource available to companies who have to get their message out to the general public without spending an inordinate amount of cash. Nonetheless caution should be used as you are tapping into a volatile resource- public opinion is easily swayed and there’s a fine line between a great viral marketing campaign and one that turns your customers against you. selling styles have changed drastically over the last twenty years.

It used to be that marketeers were primarily involved with saturation- putting out the same image or sound byte / slogan time after time enough times that the ad literally gets beat into the consumers head. While this can promote brand recognizability, this strategy creates a few issues ; most notably the aggravation made by seeing the same monotonous message continually. Advertisers had to adjust, and they invented the concept of having the consumer publicize for them.

This led to T-shirts with funny advertisements, little crocodiles on the breast, and numerous other more delicate ways of promoting ones products. Today, the internet has changed the landscape of selling forever . Advertisers are now concentrating on viral videos and e-mails, in essence once again making an attempt to put the brunt of the advertising on the shopper. By depending on the customer to forward your message to other people, you create a far more effective network of possible purchasers while reducing your advertising costs- you just need to get your message out to a small percent of the populace and allow them to spread the word for you. Since you are counting on the consumer to spread your message, you have to say something that makes them wish to share- the easiest way to do this is by have a humorous or creative message. online marketing can be a dangerous weapon.

While you are counting on patrons to spread your message, sometimes what gets spread is feedback of your message. Take Sony’s failed attempt at viral marketing with their PSP campaign. They created a website supposedly started by a boy who wished to convince his mom and dad to get him a PSP for Yuletide, but some fact checkers checked the domain owners and traced the website back to an advertising company Sony had employed. The comeback was quite large- it seems that shoppers were infuriated by the attempted deception, and it cost Sony quite a lot in market relations. The lesson here is that you would like the buyers to willingly work for you, and deception simply doesn’t pay online- there are simply too many people who have the time to ferret out the truth on the web.