Strategic analysis of mobile viral marketing through a holistic study in technological evolution of mobile devices

Rapid advancement in Electronic Communication gives rise to the popularity of Viral Marketing. Mobile Communication, in particular, offers greater potential in the utilization of this Word-of-Mouth phenomenon as a Marketing tool. Researchers have studied Viral Marketing from different perspectives, but little emphasis has been given to the unique characteristic of Mobile Communication as a platform for Viral Marketing. This thesis is therefore intended to explore this unique form of communication. Using the point of view of mobile devices, which are directly related to the users, an analysis on technological evolution in this domain was conducted to study the fit between current Mobile Viral Marketing practices and the technological parameters. To support this study, extensive literature research on Viral Marketing was conducted, along with industry analysis on Mobile Communication and sample cases of known Mobile Viral Marketing practice in the U.S. In general, the analysis found that existing Mobile Viral Marketing strategy mostly mimics the general practice of Word-of-Mouth Marketing and some aspects of this general practice are not suitable for the unique characteristic of Mobile Communication. The study on technological evolution also yielded several patterns on the key parameters of Mobile Device Technology that were used to model the future of this domain. Lastly, using the identified shortcomings of existing strategy and the future depiction of this technology domain, a strategic framework for Mobile Viral Marketing was constructed. This framework is intended to provide businesses with a forward-looking perspective in the utilization of Mobile Communication as a means to spread the words about their products or services.

Department dc:contributor.department

System Design and Management Program.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Surya, Yulia

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Michael A. M. Davies.

• System Design and Management Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55248

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/55248