expertise in viral marketing. Participants in the consumer focus group were 18-30
year-old university students who represent Generation Y. The subjects in the focus
groups illustrated advertising effects and concerns with the adoption of viral
marketing.
This research has been targeted to build a theoretical and empirical base for
the enquiry of electronic word-of-mouth communication (eWOM) or viral marketing.
The study will further contribute to understanding the very nature of this new and
unique online marketing strategy which is fit to target the market of Generation Y. By
exploring the advertising strengths of viral marketing, this research also examined
viral marketing as a marketing alternative that can be adopted in the professional
practice of ecommerce marketers, small business owners, or grassroots groups.
Consequently, marketers and researchers can focus on the feasibility of viral
marketing for future research possibilities and its practical implications for marketing
campaigns.
Following this introduction, chapter two, Literature Review, synthesizes a
critical review of academic research to provide the definition, context, advertising
effects and challenges of viral marketing. Chapter three, Research Design and
Methodology, illustrates how qualitative focus groups were employed to collect data
and how the data was analyzed. Relying on the themes of research questions, chapter
four, Results, reveals the findings obtained from the focus group data as well as an
in-depth analysis of the findings. In addition, this section illustrates the principal