Marketing buzz: towards a framework for entrepreneurs

Word of mouth marketing, viral marketing, guerilla marketing are terms becoming popular in the marketing literature as marketing and promotional methods to increase the likelihood of a venture being successful in the marketplace. However, pick up any entrepreneurship textbook and chances are that the section on the marketing strategy only outlines a traditional marketing approach based around a standard marketing mix. This is surprising, given that case studies have outlined how many recent successful ventures have used innovative marketing methods other than traditional techniques to achieve success in the marketplace. Take for example, the case of Hotmail, where the company's advertisements on highly trafficked websites during its early stages offering 'free email' resulted in dismal response rates (Dye, 2000), and it was only after the company actively messaged potential customers using messages at the end of emails that the venture's explosive growth resulted. The use of innovative marketing techniques is important from an entrepreneurship perspective given the need to leverage limited marketing resources in new ventures. Many of these techniques are low cost activities which may result in better returns than those obtained from more traditional techniques. Despite this, one of the major reasons for omission of information related to these marketing techniques is the lack of suitable guidelines for entrepreneurs who wish to pursue innovative marketing techniques (Gruber, 2004). This paper attempts to rectify this situation by providing a framework for entrepreneurial individuals to systematically consider their product or service and develop strategies to leverage scarce marketing resources more effectively.