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Study is about evaluation of the importance of viral marketing in improving brand recognition a case study of PEPSI CO

Home, - EVALUATION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRAL MARKETING IN IMPROVING BRAND RECOGNITION

 

Chapter 1: Introduction 

1.1 Introduction:

With the advancement of the technology the organisations, whether belonging the sector of Information Technology, research or hospitality there is a competitive race that virtually every organisation is participating into. With the effective utilization of the internet and the various online platforms, the organisations across the globe have not only reduced the cost of advertisements but, also has been able to promote themselves as better organisations to their respective consumers. 

Viral marketing is a technique that utilizes the social networking services that already exist. The viral marketing is used to increase the awareness of a brand in the consumer market. Viral marketing is done by an organisation in order to achieve the objectives of marketing through a series of viral processes that are self-replicating. 

Internet plays a vital role in the conduction of the functions in a business in an efficient way. This research focuses on the viral marketing of the organisation PepsiCo.  This research explores the importance of the viral marketing and evaluates the organisation, PepsiCo. It explores the technological benefits of the internet and outlines the ways, as how it builds a healthy relationship in between the organisation and its consumers.

The researcher has also identified the advantages of utilizing Viral Marketing by the organisation PepsiCo. In addition, in this particular research, the researcher has identified and evaluated the impacts of the viral marketing on PepsiCo. 

1.2 Background of the research:

From the previous researches and the studies, the researcher has found out that in order to keep pace with the changing technology and the innovative strategies, the organisations merely change their strategies. Viral marketing has evolved to be  a cost effective marketing strategy  and is considered to be a very reliable way of sharing the 

According to Schulze et al. 2015, Hotmail model is considered to be the foundation stone of this marketing strategy. With the usage of the viral marketing in different social media platforms such as facebook, YouTube and so on, its shapes and forms are changing from one form to another.

1.3 Background of the company:

PepsiCo: the globally recognised brand is an American multinational corporation. PepsiCo deals with beverages, food and snacks. It is headquartered in New York. PepsiCo has a worldwide expansion and it is reported that in the year 2016, it generated revenue of US$62.800 billion. 

PepsiCo makes an efficient use of marketing on the online platforms. It efficiently makes use of the social media platforms to broadcast their advertisements regarding the introduction of any new beverage or snacks. PepsiCo is a successful organisation as it provides the consumers needs. The marketing strategies of the organisation have changed from the traditional approaches to the digital and the social media platforms (pepsico.com, 2017).

 

 

Figure 1.1 Logo of the PepsiCo

(Source: pepsico.com, 2017 )

1.4 Rationale of the Research:

There are many benefits of the viral marketing. The viral marketing includes the usage of different types of websites and the details regarding the business of an organisation. The viral marketing is the current need of the hour for every organisation. This marketing procedure will help in essentially creating a positive brand image. The research has focused on the positive impacts of the viral marketing on the organisation PepsiCo. This research focusses on the brand value creation by utilizing viral marketing. Viral marketing makes the use of the social media platforms and creates a bond between the consumers and the organisation (Schulze et al. 2015). 

1.5 Research Aim:

In this research, the main aim of the researcher is to focus on the importance of the viral marketing of the PepsiCo. The researcher has aimed towards evaluating the impacts of the viral marketing in PepsiCo. The researcher has also aimed towards the factors of viral marketing that affects the building of the positive brand reputation of an organisation. The researcher has also narrated the benefits of the benefits of the viral marketing along with its limitations towards an organisation.   

1.6 Research Objectives: 

• To find out the importance of the viral marketing for the creation of a brand 

• To find out the factors of the viral marketing that influences the building of a positive brand reputation

• To identify the advantages with the utilization of Viral Marketing on PepsiCo

• To identify and evaluate the impacts of the viral marketing on PepsiCo

1.7 Research Questions:

• What are the factors of viral marketing for creating an efficient brand reputation for PepsiCo?

• How the process of viral marketing is effective in creating a brand for PepsiCo?

• How viral marketing helps in the improvements in the brand recognition?

• What is the most effective strategy utilized in the procedure of viral marketing?

• What are the core elements of the Viral Marketing?

• What are the impacts and effects of the viral marketing on the PepsiCo?

• What are the limitations in the techniques used in viral marketing?

• How viral marketing is advantageous in creating a very strong relationship in between the consumers and the company?

1.8 Significance of the Study:

The study will be able to outline the benefits of the viral marketing on the organisation. Based on the created bond by the viral marketing, the organisation will be able to achieve its organisational goals faster and will be able to create a high level of brand value (Schulze et al. 2015).

1.9 Structure of the Dissertation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1.2 the structure of the Dissertation

(Source: Created by the researcher)

1.10 Summary:

The above chapter has successfully established and created the backbone of the research. This research is based on the concept and the ideas that efficiently determines the exact rationale of the topic. Based On these points of research, the researcher has conducted this study.

 

Chapter 2: Literature Review 

2.1 Introduction

In this chapter of dissertation, the concept of viral marketing and the concept of brand recognition has been outlined. The researcher has discussed the important factors of the viral marketing. The researcher has efficiently evaluated the brand reputation of the PepsiCo at the corporate level. In this chapter the researcher has also explored the importance of the viral marketing along with its effective strategies. The researcher has pointed out the effective key elements of the viral marketing and has laid out the benefits of the viral marketing by an organisation. The researcher has also discussed the impacts of the viral marketing along with its limitation and has explained the strong relationship that the viral marketing can create in between the consumers and the organisation.

 

2.2 Conceptual Framework

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2.1 Conceptual Framework

(Source: created by the researcher)

2.3 Concepts of viral marketing

It can be efficiently experienced that every organisation is making a successful use of the viral marketing techniques. With the usage of the viral marketing, the consumers are now able to perceive the proper information required to them (Scott, 2015). An innovative strategy is used by the organisation to advertise and market itself over the medium of internet. With the utilization of the viral marketing, the managerial departments of the organisation tend to create successful brand value recognition (Scott, 2015).  

The ultimate goal of the organisational marketing strategies is to efficiently create viral advertising programs in the form of viral messages. These viral messages looks appealing to the individuals with high SNP(social networking potential). These individuals spread the these messages in a very short span of time (Scott, 2015).

2.4 concepts of brand recognition

For any organisation, the promotion of its brand is very crucial. The more the consumers are aware of that specific brand the organisation will be able to generate more revenue. In this competitive environment, brand awareness is one of the key elements in the strategies of an organisation. According to Habibi et al. (2016), there are two components of the brand awareness. The first one is the brand recognition and the second one is the brand recall. As the name suggest, brand recognition means the recognition of any specific brand over the other brands among the consumers.  The consumers recognise or identify the brand based on the attributes of the products and the design elements of that specific brand. 

With effective brand recognition, the consumers will be able to recognise the specific brand without even the display of its name by the organisation. The target of brand recognition is to achieve the potential consumer base in order to recognise the product of the brand instantly.  An organisation utilizes a number of strategies in order to make the brand recognisable among the consumers. Viral marketing is one such way of efficient brand recognition (Petruzzellis and Winer, 2016).

2.5 Important factors of Viral marketing

A number of critical factors that has been identified, that can be applied to the viral marketing. The critical factors can be categorised into 5 divisions. 

Critical factors The specific aspects

Diffusion Characteristics • Audience reach

• The speed

• Exponential

Information conduit from peer to peer • The channels that are available and that can be used

• The use specific technology

• The credibility of the Source

• The integration of the technologies leveraged

The content of the viral message • Creativity

• Colourful and appealing

• Ease of usage

• Engaging

• Fun and intrigue

• The inclusion of the products

The characteristics of the product and the services • Suitability of the product

Overall structure of the marketing message • Ethical considerations

• Encouragement of the viral activity

 

Table 2.1: The factors of the viral marketing in the organisation PepsiCo

(Source: McGrath and O'Connor, 2015)

2.6 Brand reputation at corporate level of PepsiCo

Viral marketing helps in maintaining the brand reputation of the organisation PepsiCo in a positive manner. According to Pescher et al. (2014), for an organisation, the reputation represents and reflects the types of products. It is the responsibility of the management, in an organisation to follow the effective viral marketing strategies. 

PepsiCo follows the three phases of the viral marketing, which includes initial launch boost, plateau and long tail. These three phases helps PepsiCo to conduct brand reputation. The viral content of the PepsiCo always matches the need and the current trend of the customers. PepsiCo considers three things while following the procedure of viral marketing. PepsiCo focus on the situation that may arise due to the criticism regarding any product. The organisation also focuses on effective replies to their customers on being commented regarding any lacking element. The third thing that the PepsiCo focuses on is whether their competitors will take advantage in any way. These three things highly influence the brand recognition at the corporate level.

2.7 Importance of viral marketing:

Viral marketing is considered to be target-achieving factor in many organisations. It is considered to be the goal of many organisations and industries that are looking to leverage the usage of social medial space in order to promote their services or the newly launched products (Scott, 2015). Viral marketing is defined as a piece of content generated by a specific person or a business that tends to inspire the targeted audiences (Petruzzellis and Winer, 2016). These targeted audiences tend to share the concert with their expanded social circles. Viral marketing is very helpful in the recognition of a brand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2.2:  The importance of viral marketing in an organisation

(Source: Scott, 2015)

Instant Awareness regarding the product:

Viral marketing is very useful in launching a new product of an organisation. The viral marketing is also referred to as WOM, which means the word of mouth. It Is considered to be the traditional form of marketing through the word of mouth. The awareness regarding the newly launched product reaches the consumer instantly. It is a way for an organisation to reach and represent the brand in front of their consumers instantly. It is very cost effective as compared to the traditional approaches. For instance, the YouTube videos costs not even 1% percentage of the amount that is required for the television advertisements and the commercials. The YouTube videos inspires the consumers to share the videos within their social community circle, this creates a sense of awareness among a large number of people. The viral marketing makes the brand reach a million of the customers in no time. This creates brand recognition of an organisation. PepsiCo makes the use of viral marketing on the social medial platforms such as facebook and twitter. These social medial platforms allow its users to share the content of the viral message, which in turn attracts the attention of many consumers online.

User friendly:

The viral marketing makes the use of the creative content regarding the product of an organisation. The viral message does not consist of every single detail of the product. It needs to be designed in such a way that it should give an instant reaction whether it is happiness, shock or surprise. The viral messages in the viral marketing are designed in such a way that it does not need to be an expert in order to share the viral message with the others. If an organisation already has a well-established online fan base, then it is lot more easily for the organisation to upgrade the brand value with the launch of the new product. For instance in the search engines, organisational ads are placed by linking it to the videos. PepsiCo links its ads with the search contents such as ‘refreshing drinks for summers’, ‘light snacks’ and so on.

Instant attention gainer:

Viral marketing is important to have the attention of the consumers towards the newly launched product or any existing product. The viral marketing links the viral messages with the similar contents, this way the consumers feels tempted to have a look at the viral message and in turn shares the content among their social community members. With the use of the viral marketing the organisations makes use of the social media platforms, knowing the fact that majority of the adults spends their maximum time in networking sites such as facebook, twitter and son on. 

Posting the viral messages on the social media platforms helps in achieving an instant gain for the organisation.

Helps in measuring effectiveness:

It is very crucial to construct in metrics to let the organisation know that of the viral marketing campaign is actually going viral or not. It is also important for an organisation to know that whether the marketing is having a desired effect on the awareness of the brand or not. In the viral marketing, the clicks and the shares make the organisation know that, how effective is the viral marketing campaign. There are times when the organisations provide a feedback or suggestion forms that are placed when a consumer clicks on the viral message. This gives the organization to interact with the consumers. However, the direct communication is missing, but in spite of that, with the help of the suggestions and the feedbacks, the organisation effectively reaches out to its goals.

Control factor:

The viral marketing campaign never falls flats, with the linking of the viral messages with the searched contents, the organisations always gets a large amount of possible viewers. The biggest risk in a viral marketing is the loss of control. When the viral message is viral, the control of sharing is passed on to the consumers. Hence, the content needs to be designed in such a way that it should win the consumers and makes them share it in their social groups.

2.8 Strategies used in viral marketing:

The organisation PepsiCo is a very reputed organisation. It is very popular across the world. PepsiCo has its branches all over the world. The business of an organisation always requires effective strategies and planning in order to face the difficulties in the marketing environment. In order to overcome all the possible hurdles the organisation needs to have healthy and effective business strategies. 

PepsiCo utilizes the following effective and healthy strategies in the process of its viral marketing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2.3: Strategies used by the PepsiCo in the viral marketing

(Source: Marketing-schools.org, 2017)

 

Creative video:

According to human psychology, people tend to recognise visual information more clearly than any written document. The impact of audio and visual effects is always greater. Creative videos in the advertisement of the products, by an organisation using viral marketing, help in influencing the consumer’s minds. According to Huang et al. (2013), the videos in the viral content must have creativity so that it should force the consumer to share or recommend that particular viral message to its friends and family. With the use of the creative advertising videos, PepsiCo efficiently uses the internet platform to achieve a high amount of consumer enhancement. The organisation makes the effective creative videos that target the minds and the needs of its consumers, resulting in the effectively sharing of the content.

The use of social Media:

It is known to everyone that majority of the adults spends their most of the time on the social media networking sites. Social media has emerged to be an effective way of sharing the viral messages by the organisations (McGrath and O'Connor, 2015). In the recent days, the social media networking sites are not only useful for the consumers but also to the organisation in order to advertise and marketise their newly launched or pre existing products. The organisation PepsiCo utilizes these channels of social networking sites in order to reach out to the customers. The sharing of the contents by the consumers among their friend lists, in the social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter and Instagram gives the organisation much popularity with a very little spending (pepsico.com, 2017).

Creative articles:

The organisation, PepsiCo makes effective use of the creativity in the articles that are linked to the viral messages. According to Huang et al. (2013), the articles provided regarding the product utilizes ‘catchy lines’ and the content is designed in such a way that it immediately attracts the attention of the consumers towards a specific product.

The articles in the viral messages need to be designed in such a way that the consumers should not feel boring. It should not consist of long sentences or non-interesting contents. It is always advised to utilize attractive and creative contents, so that the organisation can attract more number of consumers with the help of those effective contents. 

Many other strategies are utilized by the other organisations in the process of viral marketing. For instance the, strategy of giveaways. 

Giveaways: In the consumer world, the words discounts and ‘free’ are the words which tends to have tremendous power. These two words are considered important elements in the viral marketing strategies. With the usage of discounts and free words in the viral messages, the organisation effectively gains much popularity (McGrath and O'Connor, 2015). The free products or services makes the consumers share the content with their other friends and looks for more such products of that particular brand or organisation.

2.9 Effective key elements in the viral marketing:

According to the marketing principles applied in the viral marketing of a product in an organisation, there are various effective key elements in the viral marketing. With the utilization of these key elements, the organisations approach their customers very easily. According to McGrath and O'Connor (2015), the key elements in the techniques of the viral marketing are the sharing of the buttons, the scarcity, the usage of understandable contents, the practise of consistency and the utility. These key elements are proven very effective for the organisation, PepsiCo in order to approach their consumers with no time. According to Huang et al. (2013), these elements also help in obtaining end numbers of consumers for the organisation. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2.4: Effective key elements in the viral marketing of PepsiCo

(Source: Marketing-schools.org, 2017)

 

 

 

The sharing of the buttons:

PepsiCo effectively features the sharing buttons before and after each post in order to make the consumers effectively share the contents. With the use of social media, social sharing has also become important. To make this social sharing easier for the consumers, sharing buttons are used on the sites (Huang et al. 2013). Sharing buttons are considered one of the best ways to share the content of the viral message via social media, online channels or emails. The sharing buttons increases the traffic, the engagement of the consumers and the total online presence of the visitors.

For the image for the social sharing buttons, refer to the appendix 1.

The scarcity: 

Unique contents in the viral messages, develops a feeling of “missing out”. This fear of missing out regarding some important information in the viral message triggers the consumers to be interested in that content. 

Consumers do not like the whole idea of missing out any information. This information may contain data not as relevant to their requirements. The principle of scarcity is efficiently applied in the viral marketing of the PepsiCo. This psychological trigger helps in targeting the consumers who are on the fence about consuming or buying the products or services of an organisation (Habibi et al. 2016).

The usage of understandable contents: 

The usage of understandable contents is a necessity in the viral messages by an organisation. The content of the viral message of the PepsiCo is just the 20% of the information present in the webpage (pepsico.com, 2017). 

The PepsiCo efficiently utilizes the power words in the content and makes the consumers attracted to the content and further sharing it. According to Gürhan-Canli et al. (2016), the content should include attractive n and catchy lines, in total it should be an understandable content. The power words used in the contents develops and creates a trigger in the minds of the consumers. The content should aim towards readability of different types of consumers. The language used should be very easy and appealing to the largest audience.

The practise of consistency :

The quality and the frequency of the products and the viral messages should be consistent in nature. The organisation PepsiCo has always surprised its consumers with the introduction of innovative and unique products. PepsiCo effectively advertise each of its products with the help of traditional marketing techniques as well as the viral marketing. As per Vianna et al. (2016), the consistency in the quality and the frequency of the viral messages and the products is the main cause for the trust building of the organisation among the consumers. The trust building with the help of these messages enables the consumers to further share and recommend the viral messages to their friends and family. When the consumers trust a certain brand the sharing of the content becomes a lot more easier.

The practise of utility:

According to Gürhan-Canli et al. (2016), the content of the viral messages in viral marketing should contain some realistic data or hands on, that can be useful for the consumers in some or the other way. PepsiCo presents the practical information for instance the nutritional facts of the caffeine free diet pepsi. This information regarding the diet pepsi has proven to be very useful in gaining those consumers who did not consumed soft drinks or other aerated drinks as being conscious towards their health (pepsico.com, 2017).

The usage of the practical information in the viral messages drives the viral speed of the content and helps the organisation to gain more customers.

 

2.10 Benefits of Viral marketing:

With the use of viral marketing, the organisation experiences many benefits and advantages. The internet makes it easy for the organisation to market their products and let their consumers know about any newly launched product. It makes it easy for the people that are the consumers to know about the launch of a product from their favourite brand. According to the researcher, PepsiCo has received some beneficial result with the use of the viral marketing in order to improve their brand image toward consumers. There are a number of benefits of the viral marketing that are discussed below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2.5: Benefits of Viral marketing

(Source: Petruzzellis and Winer, 2016)

 

 

Consumer enhancement

Viral marketing is important to have the attention of the consumers towards the newly launched product or any existing product (Scott, 2015). The viral marketing links the viral messages with the similar contents, this way the consumers feels tempted to have a look at the viral message and in turn shares the content among their social community members. This results in the enhancements of the consumers (Libert and Tynski, 2013). 

With the use of viral marketing, the organisation such as PepsiCo enhances its consumer growth. An enhanced consumer list plays an important role in the online marketing of an organisation. A pre existing organisation will always expect the already existing customers to show more interest regarding any newly launched product. Viral marketing gives PepsiCo a chance to already have their old consumer’s reaction to the newly launched product. The pre existing consumer base shares the viral message for any newly launched product of PepsiCo in between their social circle, which leads to an efficient consumer enhancement. 

In the field of viral marketing, PepsiCo not only concentrates on the quantity of the customers but also on the quality of the customers. According to Vianna et al. (2016), quality of the customers has a larger impact on the business of an organisation through the medium of the viral marketing. Every loyal customer that is gained by the PepsiCo adds to the loyal customer base of the organisation and in this way viral marketing helps in enhancing the customer list of the PepsiCo.  One loyal customer suggests the brand to two more people. On liking the brand these two suggests it to other people, this is the concept that is being followed in the procedure of viral marketing. As per Habibi et al. (2016), the viral marketing, is considered just a replica of the word of mouth recommendation on the online platform. With the use of the viral marketing the organisations makes use of the social media platforms, knowing the fact that majority of the adults spends their maximum time in networking sites such as facebook, twitter and so on. Posting the viral messages on the social media platforms helps in achieving an instant gain for the organisation.

Immense growth of a product in a short time

It is very crucial to construct in metrics to let the organisation know that of the viral marketing campaign is actually going viral or not. It is also important for an organisation to know that whether the marketing is having a desired effect on the awareness of the brand or not. Viral marketing results in achieving a very high amount of traffic in a very short time. According to Pescher et al. (2014), as the name suggest viral, the viral messages used for marketing by an organisation, which has the properties and some characteristics like that of a virus. 

Viral messages develop in geometric progression and the moment it hits the consumers, its spreads everywhere in no time. This characteristic of the viral marketing helps the PepsiCo in increasing the sales and the profits of the business. The viral marketing helps the organisation PepsiCo in the achievement of the huge amount of traffic in its official website and results in more clicks, share and conversion.

In the viral marketing, the clicks and the shares make the organisation to know that, how effective is the viral marketing campaign.

 

Figure 2.6: Top ten fan growth percentage in Facebook

(Source: Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2016)

Much credibility

Viral marketing works with a full control of the consumers. It completely works based on the personal recommendations. According to Gürhan-Canli et al. (2016), the concept behind the marketing with the usage of viral marketing is that with time, a product of an organisation is known to a lot of new consumers or people. The knowledge of the product6 to the various new people is the result of the recommendation and sharing of the viral message to the friends and family. PepsiCo follows the same concept. When a viral message regarding any new launch of the PepsiCo is shared and recommended by the masses, the product of the PepsiCo gets a greater noise, which results in the creation of a remarkable buzz about its newly launched product among the masses. As per Huang et al. (2013), viral messages works like the link of chains, that is, one event leads to another event. This whole chain of procedures finally helps the organisation in the achievement of the more and more credibility. In this way, the organisation PepsiCo gets higher and better positive comments and very huge traffic resulting in adding values to the business of the organisation on a positive note.

Clear visibility of the product

With the linking of the viral message with the searched contents, makes the consumers have an idea regarding the content of the viral message. Viral marketing makes the product of an organisation visible to its consumers. According to Gürhan-Canli et al. (2016), when the viral messages and the contents used for the marketing are shared and recommended by the consumers, its creates a lot discussion and comments on that specific product or that specific brand. These discussions among the audiences and the creation of buzz, helps the organisation PepsiCo in achieving a high amount of visibility.

Cost effectiveness: 

Viral marketing is very cost effective; it is unlike the traditional ways of marketing such as the marketing through the television commercials, which takes huge sum of money from the organisations to deliver a message for a minute or two.  Viral marketing allows the organisations to reach a huge amount of consumers instantly with the usage of a very little financial cost.

With time, the viral marketing cuts down the promotional cost of the organisation.  After an organisation gets enough visibility and recommendation over the online platform, they does not need to spend any extra amount on the advertising or the promotion of the same product because it has already being shared and the buzz has already been created (Vianna et al. 2016). Viral marketing is a great way to lower down the expenditure of an organisation. PepsiCo adopts viral marketing for maintaining the same policy of the cost effectiveness. After the success of the viral message regarding any specific new launch, PepsiCo does not have to spend any extra buck, as it gets the results of the marketing by the sharing of the contents by its consumers without paying any extra charges.

According to the Petruzzellis and Winer (2016), Strategies used in the Viral marketing helps the organisations to consolidate their influences, which in turn will help them in the identification of the new and the continuous opportunities to fund the organisational investments. This will lead to the growth of the brand.

2.11 Impacts of viral marketing:

PepsiCo experienced a huge advantage after the implementation of the viral marketing in its marketing strategies. This has also resulted in the increase in the revenue of the organisation.  The organisation found a significant increase in the brand equity after efficiently implementing the viral marketing techniques via social networking sites. The number of followers in the facebook page of the PepsiCo has leaped from being around 30000 to 9 million in the year 2015 (Sankaran and Kannan, 2014).

The PepsiCo is still lagging behind the famous Coca Cola with more than 55 million fans following in the social networking sites (pepsico.com, 2017). 

 

Figure 2.7: Pepsi Vs Coca Cola, fan following in Facebook by age group

(Source: Forleo, 2013)

The organisation PepsiCo believes in considering social relationships to be the foundation for the effectiveness in the marketing strategies. This viral marketing or the word of mouth recommendation technique has largely increased the revenue and the profit of the PepsiCo.

The viral marketing has given the consumers to talk about the organisation. According to Pescher et al. (2014), the views regarding an organisation, is always based on the positive or the negative comments by the consumers. Viral marketing has assisted the PepsiCo in acquiring more referrals and as a result the organisation has earned a good reputation. PepsiCo has gained immense popularity through viral marketing. It has also provided the organisation with better innovative ideas for the future improvements. It has resulted in building a strong relationship with the consumers.

2.12 limitations of viral marketing:

Every strategy has some advantages as well as some limitations. Each marketing industry or organisation suffers from difficulty levels while establishing an effective brand reputation. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2.8: limitations of viral marketing

(Source: Petruzzellis and Winer, 2016)

 

 

According to Yeoh et al. (2013), one of the limitations to the viral marketing is the Difficulty in creating effective campaigns of viral marketing. It is of utmost importance that viral contents in the viral marketing have to be original. The viral messages need to be presented in a relevant way, which should maintain the balance between the brand name of the organisation and the commercial messages of the organisation. According to Yeoh et al. (2013), the content needs to be funny or catchy but being in limits, so as not to hurt the sentiments of the consumers in any possible way. This difficulty is a limitation to the viral marketing. In contrast according to Vianna et al. (2016), Same marketing procedure cannot be applied twice in viral marketing technique. Viral campaigns are non-repetitive in nature. As per Vianna et al. (2016), every time the organisation opting to advertise with the use of viral marketing, it has to present the content of the viral message in a complete new version consisting of new innovative ideas. However, there are times when the viral marketing is done in order to follow up campaigns in such cases reworked versions can be created. This is proved to be one of the limitation of the viral marketing. Another limitation of the viral marketing campaigns is that they are hard to measure. According to Vianna et al. (2016), it is very difficult to measure the viral campaigns, as in the procedure videos are copied and the viral messages are repeated. Hence, it results in the difficulty in discerning the original message from the buzz. In contrast, According to Yeoh et al. (2013), Campaigns of viral marketing are uncontrollable. The viral marketing is unlike the traditional paid advertisements where the organisation has the full control over the advertisements. According to Yeoh et al. (2013), the main limitation to the viral marketing lies in their uncontrollability factor, which means that they are not possible to be turned off once they are released or viral. These are fully controlled by the people. As per Vianna et al. (2016), the consumers are the ones, who decide whether a viral campaign has actually gone viral or not. They are the ones to decide with their sentiments, which can be either positive or negative. Viral marketing can also backfire, which can even damage the organisational brand. This can then result in harming the relationship among the suppliers, customers and the partners. 

 

2.13 viral marketing in building strong relationship:

According to Sankaran and Kannan (2014), if viral marketing is done in an efficient and correct way, it helps in creating a strong bond in between the organisation and its consumers. With the utilisation of the viral marketing techniques, the organisations are communicating their brands to a vast number of consumers in a much different way. With the use of the viral marketing PepsiCo have successfully been able to migrate its relationship with its consumers to a much interactive level. In contrast, according to Schulze et al. (2014), viral marketing can also damage the reputation and can hamper the relationship with the consumers. Viral marketing makes the fullest use of the social networking sites and engages the consumers through sharing and recommending. This builds a strong relationship and develops loyalty among the consumers for the brand.  In this way, it helps in sustaining a long term relationship with the customers.

2.14 Gap of literature

The researcher has completely analysed and explored every aspect of the viral marketing about the brand recognition of an organisation. The researcher has also outlined some psychological impacts that influence the consumers on the sharing and the recommending of the brand. The research work that has been used to efficiently analyse the link between the viral marketing and the brand recognition contains some loopholes. The recommendations and the new innovative ideas regarding viral marketing with the changing technology are not mentioned. Moreover, the idea of an emotional appeal that is the required in the content of the viral messages in also not mentioned.

2.15 Summary

Researcher has efficiently used the different concepts related to the viral marketing and has linked it to the brand recognition. The researcher has laid out the importance and the impact of the viral marketing on the brand development and the brand recognition among the consumers. The researcher has successfully identified the limitations of the viral marketing. Based on all these above research the researcher will provide recommendations to the organisation PepsiCo in order to create more brand recognition resulting in giving a competitive edge.

Chapter 3: Research Design and methodology

3.1 Introduction

Research methodology is a scientific way to carry out a specific research. It is a prescribed process, which solves a research problem step by step. According to Cooper and Schindler (2010), research methodology is a process with the help of which, the researcher successfully predicts and explains the whole phenomena of the research. In this chapter the researcher has analysed the different tools used in the research methodology and has chosen the most appropriate ones as per the topic. 

3.2 Method Outline:

 

 

 

Method Head Chosen Methodology

Research Philosophy Positivism

Research Approach Deductive

Research Design Descriptive

Sample • 2 managers from the marketing department of PepsiCo

• 1 retired CEO of the PepsiCo

• 1 retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency 

• 1 accounts manager of the PepsiCo

Sampling process • Simple random sampling

• Stratified random sampling 

• Purposive  non probability sampling 

Data Collection process Face to face Interview

Table 3.1: Method Outline

(Source: Created by the researcher)

 

3.3 Research Onion:

 

 

 

Figure 3.1: Research onion

(Source: Saunders et al. 2009)

 

3.4 Research Philosophy:

Research philosophy can be of three types namely positivism, Interpretivism, and realism. The type positivism tests research questions or develops hypothesis by utilising the acquired knowledge with meaningful and logical arguments. In contrast, Interpretivism is entirely reverse of positivism as it is based on observation along with the interpretation of the point of views of the researcher and others. Realism tends to describe the perceptions that are socially acknowledged rather than those which are scientifically and logically related. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3.2: The research philosophy

(Source: Crowther and Lancaster, 2012)  

For this study, the researcher has chosen the philosophy of positivism as it is  logical and argumentative in nature. Positivism focuses on answering the research questions in a the way, which is absolutely required to study the viral marketing in the development of the brand recognition of the PepsiCo. This requires interpretation hence the researcher has chosen positivism over the other two research philosophy.

3.5 Research Approach:

There are two types of approaches the first is inductive and the second one is deductive. As per Denzin and Lincoln (2011), the deductive approach focuses on answering and achieving the research questions after analysing and revising the pre existing theories. In contrast, inductive approach is opposite of deductive. It focuses on the creation of brand new theories. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3.3: The research approach

(Source: Denzin and Lincoln, 2011 )

For the research of the current topic, the researcher has chosen the deductive approach. The main reason behind choosing this approach is the researcher has to provide answers for each of the research questions after analysing the existing and the available literatures. With the usage of the deductive approach the research will be able to focus on the answering of the research questions which involves the use of appropriate strategies and the impact of the viral marketing over the brand recognition by the organisation PepsiCo. This is required for the current study as it is not possible with the inductive approach because of its nature of developing theories and hypothesis. Thus, the researcher has chosen deductive over the inductive approach. 

3.6 Research Design:

There are three types of research designs namely explanatory, exploratory and descriptive. Explanatory design concentrates on connecting causes and the effects of the research questions. The exploratory design concentrates on the background information of the topic of the research. Descriptive design explores on the systematic information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3.4: The research design

(Source: Sagepub.com, 2016 )

In the current study the researcher has selected the descriptive research design, which concentrates on the explaining in details, the happening with respect to the area of the research. This is required to understand the impacts and the issues of the viral marketing on the organisation PepsiCo. This is also required in understanding the importance of viral marketing in the development of the brand recognition. Other two research designs are not capable of explaining these aspects and hence the researcher has chosen the descriptive research 

3.7 Research Strategy:

In the research strategies, there are 4 types of strategies namely action research, case study, and interview and survey (Sagepub.com, 2016). The researcher has chosen face-to-face interview as the suitable research strategy. With the help of the face-to-face interviews the researcher will be able to understand the impacts of the viral marketing on the brand recognition of the PepsiCo. The researcher will be able to identify the loopholes in the strategies that are applied in the viral marketing by the organisation PepsiCo. 

3.8 Data collection Techniques:

There are two types of data collection techniques namely primary and secondary. Primary data focuses on data collection through the quantitative and the qualitative approach whereas the secondary data collection technique focuses on the data collection from books, web sources and journals (Saunders et al. 2009). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3.5: Data collection Techniques

(Source: Saunders et al. 2009)

 

For the current research the researcher has selected primary data collection method as existing strategies and its impacts of viral marketing needs to be analysed. For this the researcher has chosen qualitative approach. For qualitative, researcher has chosen 2 managers from the marketing department of PepsiCo, retired CEO of the PepsiCo, retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency and the accounts manager of the PepsiCo. The chosen people for the face-to-face interviews are asked straightforward questions.

3.9 Population and Sampling:

According to Cooper and Schindler (2010), it is not possible to collect data with respect to the research question from a wide range of population. Hence, for the current topic, the researcher has selected stratified random sampling approach and divided the employee population into smaller groups based on the attributes and characteristics. After dividing the population the researcher has chosen on the basis of purposive non probability sampling method.

3.10 Data Analysis Plan:

The collected Qualitative data is analysed by the views and the arguments of the participants. The opinions are compared and analysed with respect to the organisation selected.

 

3.11 Ethical Consideration:

While conducting the research, the researcher is bound to follow the principles of the data protection act of 1998. The researcher has to adapted and followed the ethical principles while conducting the research. This research has efficiently ensured that all the personal information of the participants of the qualitative data collection is kept sure and secret. The researcher has not forced the participants for any information for which the participants are unwilling to share. The researcher has collected the data for only academic purposes.  

3.12 Time Plan:

Refer to Appendix 2

3.13 Summary:

In this chapter, the researcher has successfully analysed the different tools used for the research methodology. For the current research, the researcher has used the philosophy of positivism, a deductive research approach, descriptive design and the strategy of face-to-face interview. The researcher has chosen the qualitative approach for the data collection. In the next chapter, the researcher has analysed and interpreted the qualitative data that has been acquired.

Chapter 4: Result, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

4.1. Introduction

In this chapter, the researcher has tried to interpret and argue the research findings that are collected by the primary data collection method. An enriched interpretation of the acquired data has been further made with the assistance of the qualitative data. For qualitative, researcher has chosen 2 managers from the marketing department of PepsiCo, retired CEO of the PepsiCo, retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency and the accounts manager of the PepsiCo. The chosen people for the face-to-face interviews are asked straightforward questions. The researcher has selected stratified random sampling approach. After dividing the population based on the stratified random sampling, the researcher has chosen the participants based on purposive non-probability sampling method.

4.2 Qualitative Analysis

Face to face interview - (Interviewing 2 managers from the marketing department of PepsiCo, 1 retired CEO of the PepsiCo, 1 retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency and 1 accounts manager of the PepsiCo)

Q1). What are the changes that the organisation has experienced with the introduction of the viral marketing in the organisation?

According to the first manager of marketing department of PepsiCo, the response from the consumers has been doubled. The second manager stated that there has been an efficient increase in the brand awareness. According to the retired CEO of the PepsiCo, the organisation has experienced a giant leap in all the different sectors inside the organisation. The viral marketing has given rise to more employees experienced in the creative fields. The revenue generation has almost doubled with the introduction of the viral marketing in the PepsiCo. According to retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency, the viral marketing has resulted in the employment of more employees in the department of advertisement and the results received after the introduction of the viral marketing has boosted the motivation levels of the employees and has encouraged them a lot. According to the accounts manager of the PepsiCo, the profit and the revenue both has tremendously increased. The organisation just had spent a fraction of what it used to spend for the television advertisements. The achievement has been huge with the introduction of the viral marketing in the organisation.

Q2). Do you think viral marketing gives the customers of the PepsiCo the freedom to talk about the organisation?

According to the first manager of marketing department of PepsiCo, the consumers are the ones, who control the viral marketing. Viral marketing does give the customers to discuss the positive and the negative aspects of the brand with each other. To this, the second manager stated that the organisation PepsiCo has no control over the viral messages.  He added that It is up to the consumers to further share or recommend the content of the viral message to their social groups or family. In response to this question, the retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency stated that viral marketing is the way of knowing the response of the customers regarding a specific brand or a product. In addition, the retired creative head stated that, these positive and negative comments from the customers helps in declaring the efficiency of the brand. According to the accounts manager of the PepsiCo, the viral marketing does gives the freedom to the customers to discuss and talk about the organisation. In addition, he stated that there have been lot of positive as well as negative comments in the social networking sites and the customers also discusses and compares PepsiCo with the different competing brands on the social platforms. According to the retired CEO of the PepsiCo, the customers plays a great role in the spread of the viral messages, the shares and recommends the message after discussing the positive and the negative aspects. This discussion can result in either positive brand recognition or the defaming of the brand

Q3). What are the issues that have been faced while implementing the viral marketing techniques in your organisation?

According to the first manager of marketing department of PepsiCo, in the initial stages of the implementation of the viral marketing, the organisation had issues with the limitations of the viral marketing. He added that as there is no control of the organisation on the sharing of the viral messages the organisation was in a dilemma of whether implementing this strategy or not. In contrast, according to the second manager, the major issue was the spam threats. In addition, he added that viral marketing can guide towards spam threats. As per the retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency, the issue was that the viral messages can be easily imitated by the competitors. He further added the management had to undergo many discussions regarding the content of the viral message. In contrast, the retired CEO of the PepsiCo, as the viral marketing is performed on the online platform; the competitors can take advantage of the contents and can link negative comments, which can result in the brand delusion. He added, this was the major issue, which made PepsiCo to rethink on the implementation of the viral marketing in the marketing strategies. According to the accounts manager of the PepsiCo, the organisation had no experiences of the viral marketing that whether it would increase the sales or not. He added the main issue according to him was targeting the right audience for the brand promotion of the organisation. This included choosing the various online platforms. The organisation’s decision was completely based on surveys that were conducted by the marketing department.   

 

Q4).  What is your opinion on the impact of viral marketing on the brand recognition of PepsiCo? 

According to the first manager of marketing department of PepsiCo, the impacts till date have been very positive. The organisation has experienced a huge increase in the total sales and the profit earnings. According to the second manager, the viral marketing has enhanced the consumer base of the organisation. He further added, with the effective use of the viral marketing techniques the organisation has effectively been able to interact with the customers with the means of different channels of social media. 

According to the retired CEO of the PepsiCo, on introducing PepsiCo on the social networking platforms, the fan following has increased to a large amount. He added stating that the demand for the products has largely increased in the past 5 years. According to the retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency, the introduction of the viral marketing has expanded the business of the organisation to the 10 more countries. On the response of this question the accounts manager of the PepsiCo stated that viral marketing has assisted the PepsiCo in acquiring more referrals and as a result, the organisation has earned a good reputation. PepsiCo has gained immense popularity through viral marketing

Q5). Which is the most effective strategy of PepsiCo in the process of viral marketing?

According to the first manager of marketing department of PepsiCo, the usage of the effective creative videos can be considered the most effective strategy of the PepsiCo in the process of the viral marketing.  The second manager agreed to the response of the first manager and in addition stated that the creative videos made by the Pepsi advertisement agency targets, the minds and the needs of its consumers. This results in effectively sharing of the content. In contrast the accounts manager of the PepsiCo stated the most effective strategy is the usage of the creative articles, as the customers do not have all the time to watch all the creative videos and they consider creative articles for the further sharing and the recommendation of the brand. He further added that PepsiCo always utilises attractive and creative contents, so that it can attract more number of consumers with the help of those effective contents. On the response to this question the retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency stated that both creative videos and the creative articles in combination is the effective strategy of the PepsiCo, as with the usage of both the strategies, the organisation has achieved great heights in the field of brand recognition and generating revenue. The retired CEO of the PepsiCo stated that, the most effective strategy is the use of social media. He added that, the utilisation of the social networking sites in the process of the viral marketing has made the organisation reach out to the consumers.

Q6). What do you think which is the most effective key element in the viral marketing?

According to the first manager of marketing department of PepsiCo, the scarcity in the viral messages can be considered to be the most effective key element in the process of viral marketing. He further added that the unique contents in the viral messages of the PepsiCo, develops a feeling of “missing out” in the minds of the consumers. This fear of missing out regarding some important information in the viral message triggers the consumers to be interested in that content. In contrast the second manager stated that usage of share buttons is the most effective key element in the viral marketing. He further added that, PepsiCo effectively features the sharing buttons before and after each post in order to make the consumers effectively share the contents. With the use of social media, social sharing has also become important. According to the retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency the previous two responses are not the most effective key elements and to him it is the usage of understandable contents by the PepsiCo in the viral messages. He added that PepsiCo efficiently utilises the power words in the content of the viral messages and makes the consumers attracted towards the content and makes them to further share it. According to the retired CEO of the PepsiCo, the practise of consistency is the most effective key element in the process of viral marketing. He further added by stating that quality and the frequency of the products and the viral messages of the PepsiCo has always been consistent in nature and this has resulted in surprising the consumers with the new and innovative products. In contrast accounts manager of the PepsiCo stated that the practise of utility in the viral messages has proven to an effective key element for the PepsiCo. He added that the using of the practical information in the viral messages of the PepsiCo has driven the viral speed of the content and has helped the organisation to gain more customers.

Q7). In what ways has viral marketing helped in the revenue generation of the organisation?

According to the first manager of marketing department of PepsiCo, the viral marketing has introduced the product and the brand to the large number of consumers, who were not familiar with the brand. This has made those consumers interested to buy the products of the PepsiCo resulting in more revenue generation than before. To this the second manager agreed and further stated that the introduction of viral marketing in the organisation has also led to an increase in the fan following across the globe. In response to the question the retired CEO of the PepsiCo stated that the PepsiCo had to increase its supply by almost double the amount because of the increase in the demand. He added that, viral marketing made the consumers aware about all the products that were left less advertised. According to the retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency, viral marketing has resulted in expanding the brand in almost 10 more countries and this has largely impacted the revenue generation of the organisation in a very positive manner. He added the organisation has to open more warehouses and factories for the processing of the drinks and the food in order to meet the demands of the consumers. The accounts manager of the PepsiCo agreed to the response and further stated that the viral marketing has also helped in cutting off the differences in the sales in between Coca Cola and Pepsi by providing a competitive advantage. He further stated that though PepsiCo is lagging behind the Coca Cola, with the introduction of more innovative strategies by PepsiCo it will soon surpass the organisation.

Q8). What are the constituents of the viral messages of the PepsiCo for the viral marketing?

According to the first manager of marketing department of PepsiCo, the organisation mainly focuses on the videos. To this he further added that PepsiCo designs the contents of the videos in such a way as not to hurt the sentiments of any of the consumers. To this the second manager agreed and further replied that the organisation creates the videos by not distinguishing or stressing on any particular caste creed or religion. In response to the question retired CEO of the PepsiCo stated that the organisation adds the information regarding the nutritional values of the products that can be consumed the customers who are health conscious. He added that the viral messages contain information regarding the ‘first week of sales’ of any new launch in order to grab the attention and the interest of the consumers.  In response to the question the retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency stated that the viral messages consists of creative articles and catchy lines to grab the customers and this forces them to further share the viral messages with their friends and family. According to the accounts manager of the PepsiCo, the content of the viral messages is purely based on the trend that is currently followed by the targeted consumers. He added that PepsiCo designs every detail in the content keeping in mind the requirement and interests of the consumers. 

Q9). In what ways PepsiCo is lagging behind other competitors with respect to brand recognition?

According to the first manager of marketing department of PepsiCo, the introduction of the viral marketing in the marketing strategies of the PepsiCo was very late. He added that, this gave a chance to the other competitors of the PepsiCo to grab more consumers through the online platform. The second manager agreed  to the response of the first manager and further stated that this has resulted in the capture of the market by the competitors before PepsiCo. According to the  retired CEO of the PepsiCo the use of the emotional appeal in the contents of the viral messages by the competitors of the PepsiCo results in grabbing the emotional factor of the consumers and makes them share and recommend the messages instantly. According to the retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency, the competitors of the PepsiCo such as Coca Cola offers discounts in the viral messages and sometimes provides giveaways to the consumers on certain number of shares and recommendations. He added this technique makes the consumers to further share the content within their social circle in order to grab more giveaways and discounts. In response to this question the accounts manager of the PepsiCo stated that the competitors of the PepsiCo posts the viral messages in the peak hours of internet usage by the consumers. This makes the more viewing, sharing and recommending of the brand by the consumers.

Q10). Is viral marketing effective in building strong relationship in between the consumers and the organisation?

According to the first manager of marketing department of PepsiCo, the amount of progress that the organisation has made after the introduction of the viral marketing truly demonstrates the building relationship in between the consumers and the PepsiCo. The second manager agreed to the first manager on this response. According to the retired CEO of the PepsiCo, viral marketing has made PepsiCo a trustworthy organisation among the consumers. He further added that trust is very important to develop a brand among the consumers. In response to the question the retired creative head of the Pepsi advertisement agency stated that viral marketing has given a chance to the consumers to efficiently discuss about the positive and negative aspects of the organisation on the online platform. This has given rise to feedbacks and their effective implementation resulting in building a strong bond in between the consumers and the organisation. The accounts manager of the PepsiCo agreed to the previous response and in addition stated viral marketing has developed a sense of loyalty among the consumers for the brand.

4.3 Summary

The finding through the qualitative method has identified the loopholes in the strategies followed by the PepsiCo in the process of viral marketing. The researcher has successfully discussed and analysed the impacts and the benefits of the viral marketing on the organisation. It can be concluded that there is a requirement of innovation in the viral marketing strategies of the PepsiCo.

 

 

Chapter 5: Conclusion, Recommendation and Future Scope

5.1 Conclusion:

The researcher, after completing the research has tried to focus on linking the recommendation with the objectives of the research. In the qualitative analysis the researcher has found out the loopholes in the strategies of the PepsiCo. The researcher has successfully derived necessary information that will help the researcher in efficiently providing recommendations for the organisation in the process of viral marketing.

5.2 Linking with the Objectives

Objective 1: To find out the importance of the viral marketing for the creation of a brand

Viral marketing has proven to be very important for the brand creation of an organisation. The literature review section shows that viral marketing has given rise to brand awareness and increase in the brand value. As discussed in the question numbers 2, 4 and 10 in the qualitative analysis, the researcher has successfully attained the first objective by citing out the importance of viral marketing for the creation of a brand.

Objective 2: To find out the factors of the viral marketing that influences the building of a positive brand reputation

Consideration of factors while developing a viral message in the process of viral marketing is very important. The literature review section shows that there are several factors that, the organisation needs to consider before making a message viral. The content of the viral message decides the fate of the viral marketing campaign. As discussed in the question numbers 6 and 8 in the qualitative analysis, the researcher has successfully attained the second objective by citing out the factors of the viral marketing that influences the building of a positive brand reputation.

Objective 3: To identify the advantages with the utilisation of Viral Marketing on PepsiCo

With the introduction of the viral marketing PepsiCo has experienced a number of benefits. The literature review section shows that the sales and the revenue generation of the PepsiCo have largely increased with the utilisation of the viral marketing.  As discussed in the question numbers 1 and 7 in the qualitative analysis, the researcher has successfully attained the third objective by citing out the advantages with the utilisation of Viral Marketing on PepsiCo.

Objective 4: To identify and evaluate the impacts of the viral marketing on PepsiCo

With the introduction of the viral marketing in the organisation the brand awareness and brand value of the PepsiCo has doubled. The literature review section shows that viral marketing has developed a strong bond formation within the PepsiCo and the consumer base. It has given rise to subtracting the difference with the sales of the competitors. As discussed in the question number 3 in the qualitative analysis, the researcher has successfully attained the fourth objective by identifying and evaluating the impacts of viral marketing on PepsiCo.

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