Dave Morin

What is viral marketing? I hear the phrase almost every day. I spend a lot of time thinking about this as a global concept, and I think a lot of people get confused as to what viral marketing exactly is.

Some will say it refers directly to getting people to “sneeze” it to each other, or tell each other about a great experience or product. Some believe it’s on the product side. Building “amazing”, “solid”, and “insanely great” products.

I believe it’s a combination of everything. Culture is evolving, the web is evolving, perceptions are evolving. The experience matters. Thank you’s matter. Reminding your customer every day how much you care matters.

I did a wine tour in Napa Valley a couple weeks ago at an amazing little vineyard called Frog’s Leap. Their wine was terriffic, they had great people, and their corks said “RIBBIT” on them. I was so convinced that it was the best Napa vineyard that I had been to so far, that I even started calling it my “favorite” vineyard.

Then, I got a hand written thank you note from the guy that I bought some wine from to send to my mother for mother’s day.

They’ve got a customer for life. A customer that will take people on tours of Napa when they come visit San Francisco, and be sure that Frog’s Leap is on the agenda. A customer that will also tell everyone about it on his blog.

(That’s viral marketing)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 14th, 2005 at 7:41 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.