Several successes exemplify the use of this strategy. For instance, Adobe Corp. benefited
considerably by users implicitly endorsing their proprietary document format
(PDF) by emailing attachments in this format. Recipients could download the free readonly
version of Adobe Acrobat to view the PDF files they received. The legitimation of
the proprietary format by lead-users helped establish the PDF format and has spurred
the sales of Adobe Acrobat, the package used to create PDF files. This strategy of gaining
widespread currency by being associated with lead-users and influencers is typical of
viral marketing initiatives in the SGM quadrant. The strategies of Winzip Computing
and Real Media, firms trying to make their proprietary data compression format and
music encoding format indispensable to users, also fall into this quadrant.
Motivated Evangelism (ME). This quadrant comprises contexts where recommenders
play an active role in influencing connected others and there are significant
network externalities accruing to both influencers and recipients.
ICQ—an instant messaging application—and Dialpad—an application to place
telephone calls over the Internet—are instances of motivated evangelism. In these
instances, the influencer as well as the recipient need to use the product for either of
them to benefit. The structure of benefits motivates early adopters to actively persuade
connected others to also try the product so that they can both use the product. And as
the base of adopters grows, benefits to the entire user base are enhanced as the product
can be used to send messages or initiate calls to a wider audience. It is feasible, and this
indeed is the marketer’s dream, that each new user turns into an evangelist for the product
or service in their social network and, as a result, the user base for the product grows
exponentially. ICQ currently has over 150 million users worldwide and the user base was
estimated at one point to be growing at the rate of 100,000 new users every day. Similarly,
the rapid spread of the use of Dialpad—that gained seven million users in the first
seven months—is a success story exemplifying the potential of ME to create a bandwagon
effect [10] and accelerate adoption.
Yet another service falling into this quadrant is membership in buying groups at sites
such as letsbuyit.com and the now defunct firm—mobshop.com [6]. In a buying group,
the price to be paid for items, such as PDAs and TVs, is a sliding scale with the price
decreasing in proportion to the size of the buying group created for the product. Early
members of the buying group are therefore highly motivated to spread the word to members
of their social network to participate. Further, each member joining the group is motivated
to spread the word, a feature that can result in a snowballing effect on the number
of users of the service.
Discussion
The proposed framework presents insights into the nature of influence when current
users are sources of product information to connected others and highlights contexts
characterized by varying levels of persuasiveness of influencers, and varying pressures to
conform to recommendations by recipients. Behavior in response to referrals results from
two alternative models of influence [9]: normative influence—where recipient behavior is
based on interpreting the information provided by the influencer as an implied expectation to conform, or informational influence—where recipient behavior is based on a personal
evaluation of the information provided by the influencer.