Viral Marketing Rhetorical Analysis

913 Words2 Pages

My task for this MSc Marketing assessment is to read and analyze article “The rhetoric of managed contagion: Metaphor and agency in the discourse of viral marketing”. According to article the author talks of viral marketing and the tension that exists in its presentation and how it can be domesticated. The tension arises since people do not believe that marketing through the Internet can be possible. The objective of this article is to present and examine engagements of viral marketing from academic and professional angles (Cruz, D. and Fill, C. 2008). Further, it bases its arguments on the rhetoric strategy specifically the existence of contagion metaphor in the marketing discourse. In addition, the article objective goes further and highlights …show more content…

A study done by Rayport’s (1996/97) assumes that viral marketing originated from biological and computer viruses. It assumes that the activities that takes place in viral marketing have a correlation on with what happens in the market in that they possess a virus that enable them to do what they want to do in the market. Rayport’s point of view focuses on the viral comparison of what happens in the real market and what is done through the internet (Boase, J. and Wellman, B. 2001). Another assumption of origin of viral marketing is the one by Godin’s in his book of unleashing the idea virus. In his book he assumes that for an idea to it needs to multiply and transforms itself so as it can spread to a wide target group just like a virus. This is brought clearly in that for a marketing concept to develop the marketers need to develop it then build on it and transform it so that it can reach a wide variety of consumers. He goes further and assumes that ideas are like live creatures which are born, grow and later die if they are not taken care off (Godin, S. 2000). Similarly, marketer’s ideas need to be born, developed so that they can grow and develop the whole market. Another assumption is by Gladwell who stipulates that social trends in the market are like epidemics in which ideas, messages and products spread and infect like the …show more content…

The rhetoric analysis is carried on several stages, which helps in revealing what viral marketing entails. The Hotmail stage is where there was a campaign, which led to the viral marketing being placed on the map. This campaign established what online contagion strategies were. This approach was focused on the short tag of a text that enables one to log in the Hotmail. The approach enabled the consumers to know how they can engage in the viral marketing, by allowing an entrusted person to send a marketing message on their behalf. The reason why it was done was to establish how the word of the mouth spread across members of a community. The other stage of analysis was the establishment of two step flow model of communication. This was aimed at establishing how communication flows between the sender and the receiver concerning the viral marketing. The reason why this was conducted was to establish the diffusion of information, which was essential in establishing the word of mouth in communication (Engel, J., Kegerreis, R. and Blackwell, R. 1969). This is also important in establishing how the word of the mouth is used between the consumers on the issues regarding product and marketing

More about Viral Marketing Rhetorical Analysis

Open Document