What’s the difference between Word of Mouth Marketing and Viral Marketing?
I often hear people using “word of mouth marketing” and “viral marketing” interchangeably, when in fact, they have two completely different meanings. To illustrate these meanings, let’s throw our imaginations into cruise control and head back to high school.
If the wicked popular chick, Jacqueline Beantree, decides to sleep with the wicked popular dude, Joe Margolis, then both Jacqueline and Joe’s friends will soon start spreading the word – in bathrooms, during gym class, after the school day has ended. This spread will take place through several generations, through several demographics, before it eventually dies. Herein lies word of mouth marketing.
On the flip side, if the wicked popular chick, Jacqueline Beantree, decides to sleep with the wicked overweight dude, Trevor Tubblesome, then word will somehow leak out (it always does…), and everybody and their grandmother will soon be talking about the unexpected affair – at home, at the supermarket, even on the Internet. Word will spread at an exponential rate, through manifold generations, through limitless demographics, regardless of Trevor Tubblesome’s involvement, who most likely prodded the spread in the first place. Herein lies viral marketing.
To sum up, the distinction between word of mouth and viral marketing is the manner and speed in which the content is spread. Word of mouth marketing spreads like a common cold, and viral marketing spreads like a virus. Obviously, viral is the preferred mode, but let’s be honest with ourselves: how often does the popular chick sleep with the overweight dude?
(If the answer was “often,” high school would’ve been a happier time for me.)
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