Determinants of Passing on Viral Messages Empirical Analysis of a Viral Marketing Campaign on Facebook

Internet has evolved into a dynamic network where people can easily and constantly interconnect. Social-media-platforms allow consumers to interact and inform each other, likewise on products and services. Under pressure of increasing customer-resistance toward traditional advertising-forms marketers have to find new, effective forms. Viral-marketing on social-media therefore plays an important role, evoking the question which factors really have an impact on the success of viral-marketing-strategies. Therefore, we undertake an empirical study to analyze and compare factors influencing the behavior of forwarders and non-forwarders of viral messages, examining the effect of brand-attitude, brand-experience and self-congruity on recipients’ forwarding behavior on the basis of a real viral-marketingcampaign on Facebook about Tiger Balm. Generally, the paper provides evidence that there are significant differences between people who pass-on a viral message and those who don’t. Accordingly, it is vitally important to select adequate consumers who should be first recipients of a viral marketing message.