Viral Marketing and its effects on consumer behaviour

The impact of digital technology and social media growth is global. Nowadays messages can easily circulate among social media users; as a result, firms are trying to use this viral spread of the messages for their own purposes. It has led to the increased interest among marketers in the potential of viral marketing. If firms want to use viral marketing communication efficiently, it is important for them to consider issues and challenges which might occur during this communication due to generational differences of their audience. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the effects of viral marketing communication on the perception, intentions and attitudes of consumers. With the use of questionnaire this study analyses similarities and differences of the consumer reactions of generations X (born in 1965 -1980) and Y (born in 1981-1994) towards five different Internet aspects (e-mails, social networks, video websites, forums and blogs).