Every day, and even hourly, new ideas are going viral. Whether it’s the cat who sounds like he can say his owners name, the newest Flash website, or even the coolest internet trend, new things pop up every day that go capture the attention of the internet community. Businesses spend millions of dollars trying to create the next viral campaign while individuals become more and more likely to share their most personal things because they are inspired by another viral idea. When trying to generate an idea that will spread like wildfire, a meme is an integral part in ensuring low costs, low efforts, and high results.
The Marketing Machine
In learning about marketing, students are often taught about the need to divide and conquer to achieve success. When choosing a target group, a marketer should not focus on the message they want to send, but instead they should focus on how the message can be received. This segmentation of the whole market involves distinguishing demographic data, psychographic data, socioeconomic status, and any other differential characteristic. While attempting to learn and set apart these characteristics, marketers often attempt to create buzz for a product. In so doing, they often forget that the public is not always predictable.
Meme vs. Marketing Platform
In trying to generate user adoption and acceptance, marketers look for ways to communicate with the largest audience possible. Marketers sometimes forget that their audience has choice, and can assume that any form of creativity guarantees adoption and acceptance. Neither the cleverness or creativity of an idea correlates to an idea’s success; often, increasingly constructed ideas generate less of a response from the public.
When marketing a product, you have to choose the characteristics of the message in addition to the appeal of the message. You might choose to market a product to appeal to the ambition of your audience, but the message might actually come off as demeaning or boring. Memes are generally simple and can easily be adopted and understood by your audience. The best memes are often very vague, which allows the audience to assign their own meanings to what they are exposed to. In contrast, a marketing platform might focus on the way the message is communicated. For example, you might decide to focus your efforts through the Internet or television. Common marketing platforms are defined by their range and scope of influence, while memes are overly simple messages that can be communicated via the Internet in various ways. The way the idea is communicated is the platform, while the concept and idea are the meme. This means that the simplest memes are often the most effective ones as well.
Perception is Everything
Something going viral has nothing to do with the message being sent out by the community and everything to do with what the community does with your message once it shows up on your web page. Often a meme is perceived as an inside joke by those that contribute to the spread of the idea’s popularity. The actual term “meme” is not used by the public at large, but rather is used predominantly by advertising and marketing businesses to categorize and define the viral nature of ideas and concepts. Often, memes are labels given to items that strike an accord with a vein of the public. The main problem with memes is that they are largely unpredictable, however their potential benefits far outweigh any potential drawbacks.
Common Characteristics
Although individuals can rarely predict how well or poorly something will do in the mass market, some commonalities can be extracted from a large group of viral items when analyzed in retrospect. As mentioned before, memes are different from marketing platforms in that memes are often singular concepts rather than structured messages. Focusing on a singular message and concept ensures that there isn’t any feedback or noise to reduce the potential impact of the message.
Many memes have funny or comical tones, which create an attachment among the target audience. Classic memes often include modifications and remixes of old, tacky, and unpopular items. Lastly, memes can achieve a cultural status by carrying a once culturally relevant reference that may be deemed as no longer relevant. Catchy phrases are very common memes that develop into expanded messages and more culturally appealing forms. Critiquing a once popular cultural symbol or trend in your blog or Flash website is a great way to begin a meme.
