Transcript Tipping Points

VIRAL MARKETING &
TIPPING POINTS
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Malcolm Gladwell’s Best Seller
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 Thomas Schelling
(Nobel Prize winner)
first introduced the
concept of “tipping
points” in 1972
 Malcolm Gladwell
popularized the concept
in his best seller
The Downside of Traditional Marketing
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 Cost:
TV and print ads are expensive.
Media clutter:
 It is difficult for products to stand
out against the background of
advertising.
Cynicism:
 Consumers are cynical toward
“obvious” marketing.
TIVO, DVRs:
 Consumers can avoid TV
commercials altogether.
Segmentation:
 Consumers aren’t heterogeneous.
 They are segmented into different
niches.
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Viral Marketing
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 Steve Jurvetson and Tim Draper
coined the term “viral marketing” in
1997
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Also known as buzz marketing or stealth
advertising
 15 percent of marketing budgets are
devoted to buzz and related strategies
 Relies on word-of-mouth (WOM)
endorsements
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like a virus, word about a product or
service spreads from one consumer to
another
 67 percent of sales of U.S. consumer
goods are now influenced by word of
mouth
Conduits for Viral Marketing
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 Face-to-face interaction
 Twitter
 Cell phone
 Social networking media
 Email
MySpace
 Facebook
 Blogs
 Texting
 Instant messaging
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Examples, Intentional and Unintentional
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 Accessory dogs
 Blogs, blogging, the
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blogosphere
Etsy (www.etsy.com)
Flash mobs
Harry Potter books
Hip Hop (culture as a
commodity)
Ipods, Iphones
Livestrong bracelets
More Examples
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 Facebook
 Obama-mania
 Pinkberry
 “Support Our Troops” bumper
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stickers
Toyota Prius
Twitter, tweeting
Vampire movies and TV shows
YouTube
Wii Fit
Methods and Techniques
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 Poseurs: “ordinary
person at a bar, in line at
a concert, at a soccer
field
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Attractive people are hired
to be seen using products
in hip, trendy places
 Trendsetters and early
adopters
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Use of “cool hunters” and
“trend spotters” to see
ahead
 Imitation, social
modeling
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yellow magnetic ribbons
saying “Support the
Troops”
 Email, chat rooms, and
blogs
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A poseur might praise a
band’s CD in an online
forum
 Manufactured
controversies:
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Creating a publicity stunt
to drum up media
attention
Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Points”
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 Tipping point:
 the threshold or critical point at which an
idea, product, or message takes off or
reaches critical mass.
 Viral theory of marketing:
 ideas and messages can be contagious, just
like diseases
 The law of the few
 Large numbers of people are not required
to generate a trend
 A select few enjoy a disproportionate
amount of influence over others
Key influencers: Mavens
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 Mavens: possess
information, expertise,
and seek to share it
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Mavens are “in the know.”
Mavens are early adopters,
alpha consumers.
“Mavens are data banks.
They provide the message”
(Gladwell)
Mavens may be somewhat
socially awkward or “geeky”
Mavens want to educate
more than persuade or sell.
 “One American in 10 tells
the other nine how to live”
(Keller & Barry, 2003)
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They are “in the know”
They include “Alpha
consumers” or “early
adopters”
 celebrity chefs
 eco-enthusiasts
 fashion aficionados
 fitness gurus
 tech geeks
 wine snobs
Key Influencers: Connectors
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 Connectors: know everybody,
are networkers, have many
contacts
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“Connectors are social glue: they
spread it.” (Gladwell)
They have large social circles
They are social gadflies; they blog,
chat, text, twitter
They are the people who always
forward emails, jokes, articles to
you.
Six degrees of separation: a small
number of people are linked to
everyone else
Key Influencers: Salesman
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 Salesman: are
persuasive
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They are charismatic
They are good at building
rapport, trust
They often rely on “soft”
influence (not the hard sell)
They are the friends who tell
us:
 “you gotta see this movie,”
 “check out this YouTube
video”
 “You have got to try this
restaurant.”
 Note: All three types are
needed for a phenomenon to
take-off:
 Mavens
 Connectors
 Salesman
Context and Stickiness
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 Power of context
 The idea, message, or product must happen at
the right time and place.
 For example, social networking (MySpace,
Facebook) wouldn’t be possible without
widespread access to the Internet.
 The stickiness factor
 The idea, message, or product has to be
“sticky” or inherently attractive.
 The idea must be memorable, practical,
personal, novel.
 It is hard to manufacture this feature.
Scalability & Effortless Transfer
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 Scalability: message must be able to
go from very small to very large
without “gearing up.”
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Wii couldn’t ramp up manufacturing and
lost millions in sales.
 Effortless transfer: message must
be passed on for free, or nearly free, or
“coast” on existing networks.
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“word of mouse”
leveraging free media
The Downside
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 The theory is not that scientific
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The evidence is largely
anecdotal.
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The phenomenon isn’t that
reliable, predictable.
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A bit of a “finger in the wind”
approach to marketing
 Viral marketing” is something of
an oxymoron.
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The more viral marketing is
planned or contrived, the less
likely it is to succeed.
 Viral marketing may backfire
Wal-mart’s attempt to launch a
Facebook page
 Momentum may not reach the
tipping point
 No guarantee the initial “buzz”
will become contagious
 Difficult to orchestrate word of
mouth
 Good ideas don’t always gain
traction.
 Trends come and go quickly
 Like a contagion, a trend can die
out quickly or be replaced by a
new one.
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