HW READING - COB1

Họ và tên: Trần Lê Tú Nhi

Lớp: C3 - STT: 31

VIRAL MARKETING
1 Viral marketing involves choosing a small group of well-connected
2 individuals to launch a product or service via the internet or their mobile
3 phones. The idea is that their approval will spread rapidly via their online
4 network of connections, create a buzz around the product being marketed and
5 result in millions of sales. The most desirable individuals for viral marketing
6 are those with what is known as high social networking potential (SNP).
7 People's SNP is a combination of the size of their online social network and
8 their power to influence that network.
9 Viral marketing is meant to work like the spread of an epidemic. If every
10 infected person infects, in turn, more than one other, the epidemic spreads
11 rapidly. If every prospect reaches more than one other, sales rise rapidly. At
12 the height of the dotcom boom there were few business plans that did not
13 include viral marketing as a central part of their strategy.

14 Viral marketing moved into a new phase with the growth of online social
15 networks such as YouTube and Facebook. On such networks information gets
16 sucked out by the participants instead of being pushed out via e-mail. It gives
17 the virus greater potential to multiply. But as the internet grows more diffuse
18 and more commonplace, most people's SNP seems bound to decline.
19 Few marketing viruses are known to have succeeded on anything like the
20 scale of Hotmail, commonly considered to be the father of viral marketing.
21 Hotmail's success was based partly on the fact that it was free—viral
22 marketing seems to work well when there is a free element to what is being
23 marketed (as there often is with online services). Whenever someone sent a
24 Hotmail e-mail message, for example, there was a note at the bottom saying,
25 “Get your private, free e-mail at www.hotmail.com”.
26 Viral marketing also works well with products and services that peer groups
27 want to be associated with. That was the case, for example, with “The Blair
28 Witch Project”, a film that became a box-office success in America largely
29 through viral marketing among university students. And it worked well for
30 the launch of a British pop group called the Arctic Monkeys, whose first
31 record went to the top of the British charts in 2005 largely thanks to being
32 marketed by fans on the internet.
33 The term viral marketing is said to have been first coined by Jeffrey Rayport,
34 a Harvard Business School academic, in a 1996 article for the magazine Fast
35 Company. The idea really took off with the growth of the internet and e-
36 commerce. Word-of-mouth has long been recognised as a powerful marketing
 37 tool; e-word of mouth seemed to have the potential to be so much more so.

38 But word-of-mouth marketing works a lot better among young chatterboxes

39 than it does among middle-aged recluses. Likewise, if web surfers don't pass
40 on information, weary perhaps from too many messages that threaten all sorts
41 of awfulness if they are not passed to at least ten people in less than ten
42 minutes, or just web-weary in general, then the effect of viral marketing soon
43 fizzles out. The virus can quickly lose its power to infect.

Adapted from: https://www.economist.com/news/2008/12/01/viral-marketing

Read the text and choose the best answer for each question.

1. What does “SNP” mean?

A. Social Networking Potential
B. Saigon Newport Corporation
C. Scottish National Party
D. Specail Needs Plans
Answer: A
L.6: is known as high social networking potential (SNP)

2. What is viral marketing by authors?

A. PHENOMENON
B. Informational Social Influence
C. The spread of an epidemic
D. Time-bomb
Answer: C
L.9: Viral marketing is meant to work like the spread of an epidemic.

3. Which information below says that “Viral marketing” is wrong?

A. Whenever each prospect contacts over one more person, sales drop dramatically.
B. People's SNP is a mix of the size of their online social network and their ability to
affect it.
C. The SNP of the majority of people appears destined to decrease as the internet
becomes more widespread and everyday.
D. Viral marketing entered a new phase with the expansion of online social networks.

Answer: A
L.11: If every prospect reaches more than one other, sales rise rapidly

4. Whoseis widely acknowledged as the progenitor of viral marketing

campaigns?

A. SNP
B. Hotmail
C. Arctic Monkeys
D. Jeffrey Rayport
Answer: B
L.19- 20: Few marketing viruses are known to have succeeded on anything like the
scale of Hotmail, commonly considered to be the father of viral marketing.

Decide if each of the following statements is True (T), False (F), or Not Given
(NG).

5. At the peak of the dotcom boom, few business strategies did not incorporate
viral marketing as a key component of their strategy.
Answer: TRUE
L12 - 13: At the height of the dotcom boom there were few business plans that did not
include viral marketing as a central part of their strategy.

6. Hotmail's success was due in part to its high cost; viral marketing seemed to
perform successfully.
Answer: FALSE
L21: Hotmail's success was based partly on the fact that it was free—viral marketing
seems to work well

7. Viral marketing became a genuine hit phrase as e-business and the internet
grew.
Answer: FALSE
L.35-36: The idea really took off with the growth of the internet and e-commerce.

8. Word-of-mouth marketing works best for teenagers.

Answer: NOT GIVEN

Find an appropriate word from the text to complete the following sentences.

9. "The
Blair Witch Project" is a movie that gained popularity at the box office in
America, mostly thanks to student viral marketing....................
Answer: viral marketing (L.28-29)

10. If web surfers don't pass on information, too many messages that threaten all sorts
of awfulness make them...........
Answer: web-weary (L.42)

THIS IS THE END OF THE READING HW.