"And they told two friends...and so on'': RJ Reynolds' viral marketing of Eclipse and its potential to mislead the public
"And they told two friends...and so on'': RJ Reynolds' viral marketing of Eclipse and its potential to mislead the public
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DOI：
10.1136/tc.2007.024273
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发表时间：
2008-08-01
期刊：
影响因子：
5.2
通讯作者：
Ling, P. M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Anderson, S. J.;Ling, P. M.
目的：探讨RJ雷诺公司(美国北卡罗来纳州温斯顿-塞勒姆)卷烟的病毒式营销策略。方法：对烟草行业以前的秘密文件和多媒体资料进行分析。结果：RJ雷诺兹(RJR)1988“无烟”香烟的失败部分是由于人们普遍对该产品的味道、质量和使用难度口碑不佳。1994年，RJ雷诺公司推出了Premier的更新版，表面上是“降低风险”的月食香烟。RJR开发了病毒式营销渠道来推广Eclipse，使用(1)探索性采访，以激励消费者在市场发布前传播关于Eclipse的消息，(2)以测试组参与者的积极反馈为特色的宣传视频，以描绘试用者之间的大多数共识，(3)类似于特百惠(Tupperware)的Eclipse派对，参与者收到样品，在他们的社交圈中传播，(4)Eclipse网站的公告栏，作为潜在用户用自己的语言讨论品牌的论坛。这些策略瞄准了最有可能采用该品牌的人，招募了与RJR无关的产品的非正式和可信的代表，并控制了有关该产品的信息传播。结论：病毒营销技术可能对推广新的烟草产品特别有用，这些产品吸引力有限，需要高积极性的早期采用者和接受者受众。这些技术有助于避免大规模促销后可能出现的大规模拒绝，规避营销限制，并允许烟草公司从消费者的健康声明中受益。卷烟制造商必须对包括病毒式营销在内的所有促销活动所鼓励的健康益处负责。
Objective: To explore viral marketing strategies for Eclipse cigarettes used by the RJ Reynolds Company (Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA).Methods: Analysis of previously secret tobacco industry documents and multimedia materials.Results: The failure of RJ Reynolds' (RJR) 1988 "smokeless'' cigarette, Premier, was in part due to widespread bad word of mouth about the product's flavour, quality and difficulty of use. In 1994 RJR introduced an updated version of Premier, the ostensibly "reduced risk'' Eclipse cigarette. RJR developed viral marketing channels to promote Eclipse using (1) exploratory interviews to motivate consumers to spread the word about Eclipse prior to market release, (2) promotional videos featuring positive feedback from test group participants to portray majority consensus among triers, (3) "Tupperware''-like parties for Eclipse where participants received samples to pass around in their social circles and (4) the Eclipse website's bulletin board as a forum for potential users to discuss the brand in their own words. These strategies targeted the brand's likeliest adopters, recruited informal and credible representatives of the product unaffiliated with RJR, and controlled the information spread about the product.Conclusions: Viral marketing techniques may be particularly useful to promote new tobacco products such as Eclipse that have limited appeal and need a highly motivated audience of early adopters and acceptors. Such techniques help evade the mass rejection that could follow mass promotion, circumvent marketing restrictions, and allow tobacco companies to benefit from health claims made by consumers. Cigarette manufacturers must be held accountable for perceived health benefits encouraged by all promotional activities including viral marketing.