Viral Marketing
TermiKnowledge - Supply Chain, Procurement and Inventory Terminologies
Viral marketing is so self-explanatory; it's actually a brand of advertising that tends to quickly generate buzz, interest, and subsequent sale of an item or services. A viral marketing campaign aims to create heightened interest, drive, and subsequent sale of an item or service among viewers, who then spread it among their contacts, and so forth. In essence, it's a way for marketers to extend their promotional reach by putting their message into the mouths of others. This is done through viral distribution of written material, images, video, or audio or interactive software, or even just plain old passing along of an email or instant message. In short, this type of promotion has taken the internet by storm and is now a staple in the marketing community.
In order to understand how viral marketing can benefit your inventory management process, it's important to examine what exactly it is. Basically, viral marketing is all about promoting an offer so strongly that it becomes a topic of conversation. Perhaps it's a great new product you saw on the television, or a new website with an interesting sales offer. Whatever it is, once it becomes popular, it tends to spread like a virus-without a lot of effort. So how does a web savvy entrepreneur go about creating such a buzz around an offer?
The key to successful viral marketing campaigns lies in developing a targeted list of recipients. For this, you will need to work with a reputable online retailer or supplier, or an affiliate program that has been specifically set up for this purpose. Your target list should include people likely to have particular inventory control problems, such as supply chain management consultants, or similar specialists. As long as you are targeting the right audience, your efforts will be highly effective, and even if it doesn't work out as beautifully as you had hoped, you'll have learned an important lesson about how to effectively handle inventory control problems.
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