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A Study of Drivers of Viral Marketing and Factors That Influence the Receipt and Forwarding of Viral Messages Viral Marketing: A Study of drivers of Viral Marketing and factors that influence the receipt and forwarding of viral messages Dissertation Submitted to the Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil University, Navi Mumbai, Department of Business Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Master in Philosophy (M.Phil) in (Business Management) Submitted by: PRATIMA NISHANT DABHOLKAR Roll No.: DYP-M.Phil-09008 Research Guide: Dr. PRADIP MANJREKAR Professor in Management, Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil University Department of Business Management Sector 4, Plot No-10, CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai- 400 614 July, 2011 1 | P a g e DECLARATION I hereby declare that the Study titled “Viral Marketing: A Study of drivers of Viral Marketing and factors that influence the receipt and forwarding of viral messages” submitted for the M.Phil. Degree at Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil University, Navi Mumbai, Department of Business Management is my original work and the dissertation has not formed the basis for the award of any degree, associateship, fellowship or any other similar titles. Place: Navi Mumbai Date: July, 2011 Signature of the Student Pratima Nishant Dabholkar 2 | P a g e CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the dissertation titled ―Viral Marketing: A Study of drivers of Viral Marketing and factors that influence the receipt and forwarding of viral messages‖ is the bona-fide research work carried out by Pratima Nishant Dabholkar, student of M.Phil., at Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil University, Navi Mumbai, Department of Business Management, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of M. Phil. and that the dissertation has not formed the basis for the award previously of any degree, diploma, associateship, fellowship or any other similar title. Place: Navi Mumbai Date: July, 2011 Signature Signature of the Guide Prof.Dr. R. Gopal Prof. Dr. Pradip Manjrekar Director Dean & Head of the Department 3 | P a g e ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil University, Navi Mumbai, Department of Business Management for giving me an opportunity to pursue M.Phil. I wish to thank Professor Dr. R. Gopal, Director, Dean & Head of the Department, Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil University, Navi Mumbai, Department of Business Management who has been a perpetual source of inspiration and offered valuable suggestions to improve my M.Phil work. I am beholden to my Research Guide Dr. Pradip Manjrekar, Professor, Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil University, Navi Mumbai, Department of Business Management for abundant guidance, support, and encouragement throughout my M. Phil Work. I sincerely thank Dr. Pradip Manjrekar for given me his valuable guidance for the project. Without his guidance, it would have never been possible for me to complete this project. I would also like to thank people from different organizations and the students, who have helped me and participated in collection of data for this project, without which this project could have never been completed. I wish to express my gratitude to my colleagues for providing me valuable information and help during my research work. I would be failing in my duty if I do not acknowledge, with a deep sense of gratitude, the sacrifices made by my husband Nishant and daughters Shweta and Nikita for allowing and supporting me to spend my free time on this project work and thus have helped me in completing the project work successfully. Place: Navi Mumbai Date: July, 2011 Signature of the student Pratima Nishant Dabholkar 4 | P a g e PREFACE Viral marketing is a powerful marketing tool with untapped potential. Viral Marketing Communication can bring about benefits to marketers with its advantages such as low cost, high reach, high credibility, accountability, fast speed, ease of usage and ability to reach a global audience. With the increased usage of broadband and internet services like YouTube, Hotmail and Facebook, there will be an increasing trend for Viral Marketing to be adopted by companies as part of their promotional mix in the future, thus fuelling my interest in this topic. For the success of the viral marketing strategy, viral marketing techniques applied from diverse platforms needs to be studied. In this study main focus is on viral marketing via email. This study aims to understand the drivers of viral marketing and investigates various attributes which influence user to receive and forward messages. Limited research has been done on viral marketing and response to such marketing techniques. Signature of the Student Pratima Nishant Dabholkar 5 | P a g e Executive Summary Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses. It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or text messages. The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to create viral messages that appeal to individuals with high social networking potential (SNP) and that have a high probability of being presented and spread by these individuals and their competitors in their communications with others in a short period of time. The term "viral marketing" has also been used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns—the unscrupulous use of astroturfing online combined with undermarket advertising in shopping centers to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm (Ref. Wikipedia) One of the most alluring facets of social media marketing is the potential for sales and branding messages to ―turn viral,‖ meaning that people start passing them 6 | P a g e on to friends just because they find it amusing, entertaining, or valuable. But in order for this to happen, you need to really have an idea of what people in your market segments are interested in. You also have to have some good ideas about how to get them to pass your message along. This study aimed to study drivers of viral marketing and factors which influence user to receive and forward viral messages. A lot of research work is done in the field of viral marketing. Key drivers of Viral Marketing is awareness(Arnaud De Bruyn, Gary L. Lilien, 2008), interest((Arnaud De Bruyn, Gary L. Lilien, 2008), Access to use this marketing techniques and experience which decides their final decision((Arnaud De Bruyn, Gary L. Lilien, 2008). The consumer has now taken an observable action, a purchase of a good or service or the sustained adoption of an innovation. One factor added to this chain of drivers of viral marketing is access to see whether regular access to internet has any significant impact on user to get experience of viral marketing. Due to advancements in computer technology and internet people all over the world can now interact and communicate with virtually anyone else who has access to a computer and the internet (Abed Abedniya, 2010). Drivers of viral marketing give user understanding about viral marketing phenomena and built their interest in getting information about product or brand through their social network via internet. This curiosity about getting information leads them to receive viral messages. User likes to receive message if it is from 7 | P a g e a trusted source, message is having relevance and user is getting perceived benefits. These three factors are influencing user to receive messages. One messages are received it is likely to be forwarded From the existing research it has been observed that tie strength, sender‘s benefit, customer satisfaction and altruism are the factors which influence user to forward viral messages. Tie strength was measured in terms of how often user saw the contact person over the network. Senders benefit is related to benefit user will receive in terms of incentives, bonus, free services, and prizes etc. Customer satisfaction in terms of product or service user used and satisfied. Ease in forwarding messages in his/her network and having good opinion about the product. Altruism is the term relates to the users kindness or is the renunciation of the self, and an exclusive concern for the welfare of others. These factors are revealed through the prior literature which influence user to receive and forward viral messages. It has been found from the earlier research that factors to receive as well as forward viral messages are not studied together in Indian context. This is one of the research gap found through literature review. Most of the study is done where data collected from the college students. Opinion of the working professional is not taken into consideration. Working professionals are required to study as they are having purchasing power. There has been little research into finding out the drivers of viral marketing. 8 | P a g e Motivation stems primarily in this study because viral marketing is a powerful marketing tool with untapped potential. Viral Marketing Communication can bring about benefits to marketers with its advantages such as low cost, high reach, high credibility, accountability, fast speed, ease of usage and ability to reach a global audience. Therefore, our objective for this research is see the influence of factors which are identified through literature review as well influence of demographic factors to receive and forward viral messages. Objective for the research are as follows: 1. To understand viral marketing through social network. 2. To identify drivers for viral marketing. 3. To reveal and validate factors which influence user to receive and forward messages.
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