An Investigation into the Critical Factors in Viral Marketing

• Main Authors: Ya-WenLee, 李雅雯
• Other Authors: Shuang-Shii Chuang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/76246751892814141001

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 企業管理學系碩博士班 === 100 === Recently, most companies use different marketing methods to communicate with their customer, one of which is Viral Marketing. It has become a common and popular tool used by companies and advertisers in order to enhance a brand, a service or a product since the last decade. Whether a viral marketing program can succeed or not depends on receivers' willingness to pass along the viral marketing message. In response to the importance of the receivers' forward intention, this study examined the effects of few critical determinants. This study conducted an Internet-based experimental design in Taiwan, and the results showed five essential insights. First, the design of the message content is positively related to the receivers’ attitude toward the message and has positive impact on their intention to forward this message. Particularly, the humor level and the media richness can encourage the receivers’ forwarding intension. Second, the receivers do not really care about if the message content involves commercial intension and the ethical or legal issues. This research reveals that the receivers’ forwarding intension is not significantly related to these characteristics. Third, the diffusion of the message is positively related to the viral marketing campaign’s success. Fourth, this study shows that the more conduits the message uses, the more successful the viral marketing campaign will be. Lastly, if there are some inducements to encourage receivers to forward the message, the chance to make the marketing campaign go viral will increase.