Advantages and Disadvantage of Viral Marketing

Taking the example of IKEA Facebook Showroom, the main advantage of using Facebook to create viral marketing buzz is that its message can reach a larger number of Facebook users within seconds in a cost-effective way.

The vital of successful viral marketing is that message are forwarded on to friends, family and social group who know the sender. Unlike junk mail, the receivers are happy to receive and forward any message among their friends. The positive word-of-mouth will allows marketers to tap into the community’s existing networks and spread not only the marketing message but also increase their purchase intention.

The main disadvantage of viral marketing on this case is that IKEA limited their marketing communications within the social networks of Facebook only. I believe some of their target audience or brand loyalists are not in the Facebook networks yet, they definitely miss out the opportunities to reach them.

The other problem is that IKEA cannot control the users’ comment posted at the Facebook, it can be either positive appraisal or negative sentiment about their company.

Source: http://09832994s.blogspot.com