An Integrated Framework for Competitive Multi-channel Marketing of Multi-featured Products

For any company, multiple channels are available for reaching a population in order to market its products. Some of the most well-known channels are (a) mass media advertisement, (b) recommendations using social advertisement, and (c) viral marketing using social networks. The company would want to maximize its reach while also accounting for simultaneous marketing of competing products, where the product marketings may not be independent. In this direction, we propose and analyze a multi-featured generalization of the classical linear threshold model. We hence develop a framework for integrating the considered marketing channels into the social network, and an approach for allocating budget among these channels

Creating Social Contagion through Viral Product Design: A Randomized Trial of Peer Influence in Networks

We examine how firms can create word-of-mouth peer influence and social contagion by designing viral features into their products and marketing campaigns. To econometrically identify the effectiveness of different viral features in creating social contagion, we designed and conducted a randomized field experiment involving the 1.4 million friends of 9,687 experimental users on Facebook.com. We find that viral features generate econometrically identifiable peer influence and social contagion effects. More surprisingly, we find that passive-broadcast viral features generate a 246% increase in peer influence and social contagion, whereas adding active-personalized viral features generate only an additional 98% increase. Although active-personalized viral messages are more effective in encouraging adoption per message and are correlated with more user engagement and sustained product use, passive-broadcast messaging is used more often, generating more total peer adoption in the network. Our work provides a model for how randomized trials can identify peer influence in social networks

Haven’t you Heard: Viral Marketing in Library?

Kako bi u financijski nepovoljnim uvjetima zadržale svoje postojeće korisnike i privukle nove, knjižnice se služe raznim metodama iz područja upravljanja organizacijama općenito, uključujući i marketing. Jedna od novijih metoda marketinga ima naziv viralni marketing, a riječ je o taktici stvaranja procesa u kojem zainteresirani ljudi jedni drugima mogu promovirati proizvode i usluge koje koriste. Viralni marketing slijednik je usmene predaje, jednog od najdugovječnijih i najvažnijih komunikacijskih kanala uopće. Zbog toga je viralni marketing već dugo prisutan u knjižnicama u kojima korisnici svojoj rodbini, svojim prijateljima i kolegama prenose pozitivna i negativna iskustva stečena tijekom korištenja knjižničnih usluga i proizvoda. U primjeni viralnog marketinga knjižnice sve češće koriste društvene medije, odnosno internet, kako bi doprle do što većeg broja svojih korisnika, ali i potencijalnih korisnika. Društveni mediji imaju neke prednosti u odnosu na klasičnu komunikaciju licem u lice, a u njih možemo ubrojiti prednosti kao što su dostupnost 0-24 h, široka i raznolika publika, mogućnosti uspostavljanja raznih oblika veza među korisnicima i mali troškovi. U nedostatke možemo ubrojiti slabu kontrolu nad tijekom komunikacije u društvenim medijima, nepredvidivost rezultata kampanja viralnog marketinga i slabu mjerljivost rezultata kampanje. Bez obzira na nedostatke, viralni marketing predstavlja važan, zanimljiv i iskoristiv alat za promociju knjižničnih usluga i proizvoda i potrebno ga je koristiti u tu namjenu. Stoga i ciljevi rada proizlaze iz potrebe za širom primjenom viralnog marketinga u knjižicama, a oni su sljedeći: pojasniti pojam viralnog marketinga, a potom i ukazati na njegove pozitivne i negativne strane te njegovu ulogu u upravljanju knjižnicama.To retain existing users and attract new ones in financially challenging time, libraries are employing different management methods including marketing. One of the newer marketing methods, viral marketing is a tactics of creating a process in which interested people share with each other informa tion about services and products they use. Viral marketing is a successor of word of mouth communication, one of the oldest communication channels. It has been used in libraries for a long time among users who share with their friends and relatives good and bad experiences in using library services and products. When using viral marketing, libraries use social media to reach more current and potential users. Social media have several advantages over other media: accessibility 0-24, wider audience, new types of relationships among users, low costs. Use of social media for viral marketing has its downsides too: weak control over communication in social media, unforeseeable results of viral marketing campaigns and low measurability of viral marketing campaigns. Despite downsides, viral marketing remains an important, interesting and usable tool for promotion of library services and products. Consequently, goals of this paper have their origins in necessity of implementation of viral marketing in libraries including: elaboration of the term viral marketing as well as pointing out its advantages and disadvantages and its role in library management

Managing brands in the social media environment

The dynamic, ubiquitous, and often real-time interaction enabled by social media significantly changes the landscape for brand management. A deep understanding of this change is critical since it may affect a brand's performance substantially. Literature about social media's impact on brands is evolving, but lacks a systematic identification of key challenges related to managing brands in this new environment. This paper reviews existing research and introduces a framework of social media's impact on brand management. It argues that consumers are becoming pivotal authors of brand stories due to new dynamic networks of consumers and brands formed through social media and the easy sharing of brand experiences in such networks. Firms need to pay attention to such consumer-generated brand stories to ensure a brand's success in the marketplace. The authors identify key research questions related to the phenomenon and the challenges in coordinating consumer- and firm-generated brand stories

Description of spreading dynamics by microscopic network models and macroscopic branching processes can differ due to coalescence

Spreading processes are conventionally monitored on a macroscopic level by counting the number of incidences over time. The spreading process can then be modeled either on the microscopic level, assuming an underlying interaction network, or directly on the macroscopic level, assuming that microscopic contributions are negligible. The macroscopic characteristics of both descriptions are commonly assumed to be identical. In this work, we show that these characteristics of microscopic and macroscopic descriptions can be different due to coalescence, i.e., a node being activated at the same time by multiple sources. In particular, we consider a (microscopic) branching network (probabilistic cellular automaton) with annealed connectivity disorder, record the macroscopic activity, and then approximate this activity by a (macroscopic) branching process. In this framework, we analytically calculate the effect of coalescence on the collective dynamics. We show that coalescence leads to a universal non-linear scaling function for the conditional expectation value of successive network activity. This allows us to quantify the difference between the microscopic model parameter and established macroscopic estimates. To overcome this difference, we propose a non-linear estimator that correctly infers the model branching parameter for all system sizes.Comment: 13 page

The effects of online negative word‐of‐mouth on dissatisfied customers:A frustration–aggression perspective

Conceptualizing how customers construe online negative word‐of‐mouth (nWOM) following failure experiences remains unsettled, leaving providers with inconclusive recovery strategy programmes. This empirical study recognizes online nWOM as a co‐created encounter between the complainant (i.e., the initiator of the online nWOM) and the recipient (i.e., the consumer who engages with the online nWOM), examining their idiosyncrasies to discern their understanding of the experience. It introduces frustration–aggression theory to online WOM literature, recognizing that it can support a higher‐order understanding of phenomena. Through phenomenological hermeneutics, interviews and focus groups, data were collected from millennials in Albania and Kosovo that provided accounts of nuanced and distinctive online nWOM realities. The emerged insights extended extant theory to a three‐fold online nWOM typology (i.e., lenient online nWOM, moderate online nWOM and severe online nWOM) recognizing the negative impact customers have on a provider, which is controlled by frustration–aggression tags. Frustration–aggression variations across online nWOM led to the construct of three types of customers that engage in online nWOM, namely tolerable online nWOM customers, rigorous online nWOM customers and confrontational online nWOM customers. Findings culminated with satisfactory recovery strategies aligned to customer inferences regardless of the nWOM context