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Picture this: you’re walking along your favourite High Steet
and a lady rushes over to you, asking if you’d mind taking a picture
of her. Being a helpful soul, you agree and quickly scan the camera
to find its main features—ON button, zoom and flash. But before you
are even done, your new acquaintance assures you that you don’t need
to worry about using the camera because it is oh so easy to
operate.It practically operates itself and it wasn’t even that
expensive to buy. Unbeknownst to you, that new acquaintance is a
promoter for the camera manufacturer. You’ve just been hit by viral
marketing.
Viral marketing basically entails building and strengthening a brand
through non-traditional means. The method enhances awareness in the
marketplace without consumers always knowing that they’re being
marketed to. The technique has prompted many ethics debates in every
corner of the globe. But while people on the street and newsmakers
view it as trickery that shouldn’t be allowed, marketers are
increasingly drawn to viral marketing because it can offer much more
direct and interactive exposure to target consumers than traditional
media vehicles without running the risk of of the brand being lost
in the advertising clutter.
While viral marketing is currently being used most aggressively by
consumer goods companies, shopping centre marketers shouldn’t
discard it as another industry’s issue. If your property has never
considered viral marketing to promote itself, it may have to deal
with it soon.
Shopping centres looking to stretch their marketing budgets often
rely on corporate partners to generate income, turning over their
common area s to corporate promoters desperate to come in direct
contact with shoppers. This means viral marketing might just be
coming to a shopping centre near you sooner than later, if it
doesn’t land right on your doorstep.
It might be time for the shopping centre marketing industry to begin
pondering the whole concept of viral marketing to figure out if it
is a method it can live with and control. At the very least, ground
rules should be set well before your shoppers are hit by a viral
marketing scheme.
Myriam Beaugé
Editor in Chief