Why “Viral” marketing doesn’t make any sense
The concept of viral marketing doesn’t make any sense.
Marketers have seen how viruses spread and have decided that they want their products to spread too, just like a virus. Then they make efforts to ensure the success of their “virus” by reaching the “tipping point”.
What they apparently don’t realize is that viruses don’t do much to ensure their spread. The majority of viruses aren’t successful. Viruses as a class are only successful because they evolve by dying.
To me, the proper definition of “viral marketing” is a product / business that evolves by changing it’s features / products until it matches customer needs. This is a better definition because it matches the actual nature of a virus.
In addition to being a more accurate definition, I think that we will eventually see that investment in forcing buzz to generate a viral campaign doesn’t pay off very well and it is a more profitable strategy to imitate the true nature of a virus and mutate your product until it spreads.
