RE: "viral marketing" on Radio 4

From: Vincent Campbell (VCampbell@dmu.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 07 Jun 2004 - 13:04:01 GMT

  • Next message: Alan Patrick: "RE: "viral marketing" on Radio 4"

    Is it?

    Does it work by telling someone that if they get someone else to buy five packs of cornflakes, say, they'll get one free or something? Then it would be like pyramind schemes.

    The last time I discussed viral marketing with a colleague- about 4 years or so ago now- I was under the impression that viral marketing was an attempt to tap into/generate the kinds of bottom-up commercial successes of things like the hush puppie revival (that Gladwell talks about in the tipping point) or the Blair Witch Project phenomenon by identifying opinion leaders within a target demographic and marketing to them directly (i.e. not through mass media).

    I sometimes think that scaremongering over the tactics of advertisers and marketing people is self-generated so that people think what they do has an effect on behaviour. What they never admit to is that the persuasive industries are reception driven, not content driven, but they certainly take the credit if a product succeeds.

    Vincent

    > ----------
    > From: Alan Patrick
    > Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 10:20 AM
    > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Subject: Re: "viral marketing" on Radio 4
    >
    > --- derek gatherer <dgatherer2002@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
    > > Did anybody catch John Humphreys this morning on the
    > > "Today" programme on Radio 4? It was about 7.40am,
    > > and there was an item about the food industry and
    > > how
    > > children are getting too fat. I was driving and
    > > only
    > > half listening, and suddenly JH says that viral
    > > marketing is "unethical", "unjustifiable" and "ought
    > > to be banned". Apparent Kelloggs were doing
    > > something..... I wish I had been paying attention.
    > >
    >
    > Viral Marketing is these days a synonym for Pyramid
    > schemes.
    >
    > Semantic shifts...
    >
    > alan
    >
    >
    >
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    >

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