A

RESEARCH ON

“EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL MARKETING:

A STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO

MAGGI”
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We hereby regard our sincere thanks to Dr. Raju Rathod, Project guide under whose

guidance this project was undertaken.

I would like to thank our Centre Head Mr. Manish Amin of NIS ACADEMY for his

guidance and kind support as well as our project guide Mrs. Nisha Kurup for their

valuable guidance and experience.

Finally I am glad to thank our all faculties who have provided me substantial guidance &

support in preparation of this project. This successful completion of this project could not

have been possible without their co-operation and support. I would also like give some

share of thanks to my friends for their support.

We would like to thank our friends for their generous support and the respondents who

gave their valuable piece of time for participating in the survey to complete the study.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 PREFACE

The main objective behind this project is to get the knowledge and experience

about the real business world and I am glad to know the business tactics and was

happy to learn that how business runs and how to expand it.

Such a project is very useful to increase the ability and development of students. It was

a great experience for preparing this report.

What is viral marketing?

Viral marketing is an idea that spreads and an idea that while it is spreading actually

helps market your business or cause. Viral marketing only works well when you plan for

it, when you build it in, when you organize your offering to be spreadable, interesting

and to work better for everyone involved when it spreads.

Viral marketing offers two new insights. First, it envisions a world where

marketers can build a customer base at a (nearly) zero acquisition cost. Second, it

argues for a move from marketer-to-consumer communication to consumer-to-

consumer communication.

Viral marketing depends on a high pass-along rate from person to person. If a large

percentage of recipients forward something to a large number of friends, the overall

growth snowballs very quickly. If the pass-along numbers get too low, the overall growth

quickly fizzles. At the height of B2C it seemed as if every startup had a viral component
to its strategy, or at least claimed to have one. However, relatively few marketing

viruses achieve success on a scale similar to Hotmail, widely cited as the first example

of viral marketing.

Definition of Viral marketing

"Viral marketing refers to the marketing techniques

that seek to exploit pre-existing social networks to

produce exponential increases in brand awareness,

through viral processes similar to the spread of an

epidemic. It is word-of-mouth delivered and enhanced

online; it harnesses the network effect of the Internet

and can be very useful in reaching a large number of

people rapidly."

This is the online term for word-of-mouth advertising. You provide something that

encourages others to spread the word about your product, quickly and inexpensively

with little effort on your part. This potentially creates exponential growth in the

message's visibility and effect. The message spreads in a viral form in a manner similar

to the spreading of a common cold virus from person to person.

One example of successful viral marketing is Hotmail, which began offering free

e-mail accounts, with a link back to Hot Mail at the end of every e-mail message sent by

one of its customers. That spread the word about the service like a virus, with every

customer a virtual "carrier" of the message.

Source: adapted from~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing

Statement of Problem:

Viral marketing of Maggi is spread by advertisement and other promotional offer. The

major problems are lack of measurement of viral marketing, too much creativity in ad

and internet.

Viral marketing result has either positive or negative impact so the problem is to

measure the impact of viral marketing to control its negative impact and strengthen its

positive impact. Viral marketing can lead to unanticipated growth paths.

Objective of the Study:

1. To evaluate the awareness of Maggi brand and its viral marketing campaign
In market.

2. To study influence of viral marketing with special reference to Maggi.

3. To analyze the impact of viral marketing on buying decision on Maggi.

4. To access the level of customer satisfaction in terms of marketing campaign.

History behind viral marketing

There was once a television commercial aired about a woman who loved her shampoo

so much she went on and told two friends. Based on the convincing recommendation,
the woman's friends who tried the shampoo was so satisfied with the product that they

were compelled to go on and tell two more friends and so on.  Within seconds, the TV

screen was filled with happy women with shiny, radiant and manageable hair. This

commercial was a perfect example of word-of-mouth marketing, and the method works

better today than ever, thanks in large measure to the Internet. Viral marketing was a

term originally coined by venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson to describe the unique

referral-marketing program created by Hotmail, one of the first free e-mail services.

How Jurvetson helped Hotmail spread using Viral Marketing:

Hotmail would include a promotional line for its free e-mail services at the bottom of

every message. Users of Hotmail were automatically promoting the free service to their

friends and colleagues every time they sent an e-mail message. The free service

spread like a virus, and Hotmail reportedly received 12 million new subscribers within 18

months of its launch from this simple technique!!! Draper Fisher Jurvetson reported that

Hotmail spent less than $500,000 on marketing, advertising and promotion during this

period while its nearest competitor, Juno, spent $20 million for a fraction of the

subscribers. Thus, it was originally Hotmail, who developed the concept of viral

marketing.

The term “Viral Marketing” is almost ten years old now, and refers to a new incarnation

of “word of mouth” advertising, a technique that’s existed since time began.

How does “word of mouth” advertising classify as “viral” marketing you ask? Well think

about it. The concept of viral marketing is that it perpetuates itself though existing (low

or no cost) media: word of mouth is exactly that in its purest form. Since Cain heard how

much Abel was loved and got jealous, this type of advertisement has been generating

reactions from others. You can review a lot of history, human nature and past

campaigns to see what has worked and what has not worked.

Most importantly is having or gaining an understanding of personalities and people so

you can learn how to influence them to spread your message when you want them to-

and that’s without doing anything that can harm you or your business.

It is a well-known axiom that word of mouth can either kill or make a company, and that

bad news seems to travel much further and faster than good news. Studies have shown

that people are much more likely to speak out when they are upset than when they are

happy with a service or company. Simply put, people expect to get good service and

don’t react when they get it.

If they get poor or insufficient service or goods, they feel that they HAVE to respond to

“get even.” The facts vary from research groups, but the consensus is that between two

and eight people will complain about something that is upsetting for every one person

who will speak out about good service. This is why it is so important to understand

customer relations and what makes people happy and what can make them upset in

any interaction.

Viral Marketing – Is It For You?

Many folks might have heard the term viral

related to different styles of promoting and

wonder what a number of them are, but in

particular what’s viral marketing? Well, the

straightforward answer to the question is that

this kind of product promotion is a kind of

advertising, which deals typically with the

infiltration of the Net, with adverts, symbols, and vital product placement in a way that

may most easily lure folks to buy their products.

The idea behind viral marketing is if you can get the product up in multiple places on the

internet and in front of as many eyes as possible for as tiny money as possible you do

some really good selling n a restricted budget. The majority of the companies behind

this style of promotion are smaller companies that just desire to get the word out about

their product but do not have the cash to hire a press firm or spend money on

advertising. One of the better systems of viral marketing is to form a partnership with

another business.

While you’ve got the product, your JV partner may bring his client content list of

thousands and his selling abilities to the project. In most situations a JV will benefit both

parties concerned with an equal split of the profits and possibly the work. Another form

of getting your product, to race around the web world, is to line up an affiliate marketing

programmed with hundreds of people and business promoting your product. The
difference between a JV and an affiliate is the affiliate will only get paid a share of each

individual sale personally manufactured by them.

If you need to get into the nitty-gritty of what is viral marketing, then you must realize

that it is something anyone with a P.C. and a little of technical savvy can do. Firstly,

using social networking sites like Face book or MySpace is a reasonably inventive

method of getting your product out to the general public.

You can set up a site, get all the applicable info noted on your homepage, and then add

pals. Allegedly , just adding whoever to your profile isn’t about to do you any good as

they’re likely looking to attach with chums and will not have an interest in your product.

The only way to market you is to look thru the MySpace groups and find those with

similar interests. Say that you’re a writer promoting a new book. Adding other writers

isn’t going to get you a ton of buyers, but adding folks who are fans of your genus, well,

that sure is a different story. Some viral marketing ideas include sending out chain

letters with info about your product buried inside a tale that urges folk to continue

resending the letter to all of their buddies.

This is a respectable concept, but if you use the chain letter to try to collect cash for

something that doesn’t exist or run a trick for a business, then that’s crime and is a

crime. You’ve got to be cautious and ensure that you are not breaking any laws. Now

you have a reply to the issue of what’s viral marketing, you should also know that using

viral marketing plans too much may cause some issues. If folk feel they’re being

slammed by the product, then you’re going to find plenty of your potential clients turned

off by your aggressiveness.

Just remember that you are attempting to get the word out and tell folk about your

concept without being too forceful and you should be fine. If you would like more

information on this as well as many other strategies for online marketing please sign up

to my newsletter!

How Does Viral Marketing Work?

The basic idea is to generate an 'infection' of thought among the base users, who are

also lured into the advertising gimmick for a promised commission that increases with

every subsequent sale. The ripple effect created and paid for involves sharing of

product benefits with potential users and causing nothing short of an epidemic, while

generating multi level marketing opportunities. There is a pre-designed logistic curve to

map the users used to further the interests of the campaign. The success of the

marketing campaign largely depends on the rate at which the sales take place. Viral

marketing strategies are often put in place alongside other marketing communication

systems such as dedicated public relations and/or extensive advertising.

While viral marketing is more about getting the customer to come TO you, you also

need to do a good job once you get them and make sure you meet (or preferably

exceed) all their expectation. Otherwise, you may find your own viral campaign being

used against you, sabotaging the results you hoped to achieve!

 The goal of viral marketing programs is to identify people who can contribute to sales

via quality social networking potential. The aim is to generate viral or easy to

understand and replicate messages that appeal to the common man and generate a

dedicated marketing environment. Extensive social networking helps to increase the

probability of the product or service remaining within the community for a longer time.

Viral marketing is a stealth marketing campaign that uses unscrupulous means of

under-market advertising to generate an impression that the word of mouth enthusiasm

actually springs from use of the product or service.

Advantages of Viral Marketing:

 Viral marketing enables businesses to remain buoyant within the competitive business

world, via a strategy that is not only easy to integrate within a defined buyer-society, but

also one of that empowers the unattached onlooker with training, marketing tips and

guidance.

 This marketing strategy enables business propositions to reach out to a global

audience, by effectively putting the Internet connectivity to play. Extensive use of

Internet affiliate marketing, ezines and interactive forums enables the entrepreneur to

promote the business, globally.

 The word-of-mouth concept ripples on to peer-to-peer recommendation of the product

or service. It also enables the business to generate revenue from local interest in the

venture.
 Disadvantages of Viral Marketing:

 In the viral marketing strategy, association with groups and individuals who are

unknown could generate scope for the promotion to be subject to competitor viewing.

The strength of the marketing depends on the transmission of enthusiasm between

people, with regards to the benefits of the product being sold. The presence of a

competitor within the generated link could dampen the desired strain.

 Exposure to the Internet, to further the interests of entrepreneurship and generate

additional revenue from a global clientele is not without spam threats, unwanted

marketing mix, and also brand dilution.

Viral Marketing - Create More Sales Opportunities

Viral marketing is an internet marketing technique to promote online business and

create more sales opportunities. Viral marketing is fast becoming the preferred option to

promote online business and create more sales opportunities. It is one of the most

effective and inexpensive means of spreading your marketing message. It is done

through interactive Flash games, audio clips, text messages, images and video clips.

Viral Marketing - Free, Word-of-mouth Advertising

Viral marketing is a free, word-of-mouth advertising technique to market your business,

improve sales, etc. As the advertising world is changing, more and more businesses are

making use of viral marketing strategies to enhance their online presence since these
 are efficient, and cost-effective procedures. Viral marketing is a free, word-of-mouth

advertising technique to increase your brand awareness online and offline by getting

people to talk about your products and services.

According to a research, the results are:

 18% advertisement on TV can create a satisfactory rate of return on investment.

 84% B2B campaigns brings lower and lower turnover.

 100% adding investment on advertising create only more 1% to 2% revenue.

 14% consumers believe in ads

 And 69% consumers like preventing ad technology.

From these “significant” figures, we realize that traditional marketing and advertising are

more and more mixed, unbelievable, poor performance, higher cost but rate of return on

investment is low. A simple philosophy is “…any costly marketing campains not creating

money for you is all wasted of money...”(Kirk Cheyfitz, CEO, Story Worldwide);

additionally, researcher also discover an exciting one: each person having on average

of 11 to 12  intimate relationships, about 150 scocial relationships, and 500 to 1500 of

other fugitive relationships. Therefore, economists found a “new measure” for today.

When is Viral marketing not Suitable?

The nature of viral marketing is that the message can be forwarded to people anywhere.

Therefore regionally-based companies are not well suited to exploiting the effectiveness

of viral marketing.

Similarly, products aimed at the elderly may not be ideal because elderly people

traditionally watch online videos and play interactive games less than the younger

generation.

Also, you do have to be careful when promoting products that are only for people aged

18 and over because the nature of viral marketing means that your message can

spread anywhere, especially into the hands of under 18s.

In reality the vast majority of companies can utilise the effectiveness of viral marketing,

particularly with its relative low cost, the potential to reach huge numbers of people, its

brand interaction value, and the way that it can be used as a data collection tool, to

generate traffic, or awareness.

Principles of Viral Marketing

Viral marketing, or “refer-a-friend,” email campaigns have received a lot of

attention in the media recently. These campaigns, which encourage recipients of

promotional emails to forward the message to their friends, have garnered both positive

and negative reviews from consumers, privacy advocates, and industry pundits. At the

heart of the issue are concerns over sending unsolicited email, but by using viral

marketing tactics carefully, marketers may avoid negative reactions and gain an
excellent return on investment (ROI) as they increase the reach of a marketing

message to a targeted group far beyond their original audience.

Top Tips to Keep in Mind

Some products are more suited to viral advertising than others. With regards to the

product itself, it helps if it is in some way unique or different. Viral marketing is an

excellent way to create buzz, something that is made harder if you are promoting a

mundane product or service. However, a clever and creative viral marketing agency can

often overcome a ‘dull' product and produce an effective viral ads. As with all marketing

you must keep your target audience in mind. Those that view viral ads tend to be

students and young professionals.

Viral marketing does also tend to have a predominantly male audience, even more so

when it comes to interactive games. Bear this in mind. If you have a product directed

towards young women it may be best to produce video viral ads. If your target audience

is the elderly it may be best to use an alternative marketing approach. The success of a

viral marketing campaign is ultimately dependent on the quality of the viral ad itself.

Without a good viral it won't be passed on and viewers won't obtain such a positive

image of the company it's promoting. Around half of all viral ads produced use some

form of humor. There's always room for another funny viral ad so it's certainly the safest

approach.

MAGGI
Maggi is an over 100-year-old Nestlé brand of instant soups, stocks, bouillons,

ketchups, sauces, seasonings and instant noodles. The original company came into

existence in 1872 in Switzerland, when Julius Maggi took over his father's mill. It quickly

became a pioneer of industrial food production, aiming at the improvement of the

nutrition of worker families.

Over time the scope of MAGGI has been extended from a predominantly dehydrated

cooking aid brand towards a general savory food brand including many types of ready

meals and also frozen food. This is in line with the fact that people all over the world are

cooking less and less from scratch. There is a wide range of MAGGI products marketed

worldwide in several countries. These include dehydrated bouillon, granulated

seasoning, soups, recipe mixes, snacks, frozen foods, etc.

In 1863 Julius Maggi developed a formula for bring added taste to meals, which later

became lead to the beginning of Maggi and convenience food products.

MAGGI, known worldwide for innovation and quality worldwide, understands that

consumers are usually under great pressure in terms of time, budget, cooking skills etc

and therefore tries to establish a bond through giving ideas and advice that make

providing food easier. This results in the food provider being appreciated by family and

friends.

Maggi as a brand is globally known in the product category of bouillon or soup cubes.

Nestle decided to introduce Maggi brand in India in the same product category. This

soup was initially test marketed in 1974 in Kerala. The response was not encouraging.

Having then realized that the dietary habits of Keralites are not conductive to the idea of

drinking soup, test marketing of the brand extended to Goa with the idea that Goan food

habits have some similarity with western habits. Fortunately for the company, the test

turned out to be positive and Maggi became an accepted brand in India.

Maggi has faced lot of hurdles in its journey in India. The basic problem the brand faced

is the Indian Psyche. Indian Palate is not too adventurous in terms of trying new tastes.

That may be the reason why we are still stuck with Idli and Sambhar.