Recent advances in social media have profound technical and economic implications for innovative design. This research is motivated to investigate social network effects on product design with a focus on the interface of engineering design, viral marketing, and social computing. This dissertation envisions a new paradigm of design, called viral product design for social network effects. The research problem is formulated as identification of both an optimal set of product configurations and an optimal set of seed customers so as to maximize product adoption via online social networks through equilibrium solutions to marketing-engineering coordination. Fundamental issues are investigated and a technical framework is proposed with integrated decision-based design methods. Results of case studies demonstrate that the proposed research is able to bridge the gaps between the domains of engineering design and viral marketing by incorporating social network effects. The proposed work is geared towards new design theory and decision models by integrating peer influence of social networks, which shed light on understanding the social aspect of design. The dissertation reveals the fundamental issues underlying viral product design, including the identification of viral attributes, customer preference modeling incorporating subjective experiences, the dynamics of the diffusion mechanism of online social networks, formulation of adoption maximization, and coordination between the marketing and engineering domains. In order to tackle the fundamental issues, a technical framework of viral product design for social network effects is proposed. Accordingly, mathematical and computational models are developed within the framework to support 1) latent customer needs elicitation for viral product attributes extraction, 2) customer preference modeling and quantification for product choice decision making, 3) social network modeling for product adoption prediction, and 4) viral product design evaluation by adoption maximization. These coherent models along the technical framework lay the theoretical foundation of this research, as described below. First, in order to extract potential viral product attributes, latent customer needs elicitation is emphasized. This is because latent customer needs can delight customers unexpectedly, and thus lead to potential product adoption to a large extent. We propose to elicit latent customer needs by use case analogical reasoning from sentiment analysis of online product reviews. A case study of Kindle Fire HD tablets shows the potential and feasibility of the proposed method. The extracted product attributes and attribute levels provide the choice set of viral product attributes. Second, based on the extracted product attributes, a customer preference model based on cumulative prospect theory is presented, accommodating subjective experiences in the product choice decision making process. Moreover, a hierarchical Bayesian model with Markov chain Monte Carlo is used to estimate parameters involved in the model. Based on the case study of aircraft cabin interior design, the model parameters under different experimental conditions show systematic influence of subjective experiences in choice decision making. Furthermore, a copula structure is used to construct a holistic product utility, showing customers' overall preferences to a product. This measure is crucial to product choice decision making in the context of social networks. Third, in order to predict product adoption incorporating peer influence of social networks, a linear threshold-hurdle model is proposed. It overcomes multiple drawbacks of traditional diffusion models by modeling activation thresholds, influence probability, adoption spread, holistic utility of the product, and hurdle utility of a customer in a holistic fashion. A case study of Kindle Fire HD tablets demonstrates both the predictive power of the proposed model and interesting results about customers' adoption behavior. This model paves the way for product adoption maximization in large social networks. Fourth, in order to coordinate between marketing-engineering concerns, I formulate a bi-level game theoretic optimization model for viral product design evaluation, in which the leader maximizes product adoption, while the follower optimizes product line performance. Through social network effects in terms of viral product attributes and viral influence attributes, the expected number of product adopters and the expected shared surplus, resulting from the identified product configurations and seed customers, are proved to be larger than those obtained from existing practice of viral marketing and product line design respectively, based on the case study of Kindle Fire HD tablets. Thus, the proposed paradigm of design extends the traditional boundaries among domains of engineering design, viral marketing, and social computing.

The rapid penetration of the Internet and the prevalence of various social media facilitated by new technologies provide new opportunities for how marketing techniques are developed and refined. The creation of viral marketing has been driven by technological innovations and cultural changes. Responding to marketing trends and catering to consumers’ psychological demands and behavioral changes, viral marketing represents the latest online customer-centric marketing (Shukla, 2010). Extending the advertising effects of word-of-mouth (WOM) communication and Internet marketing, viral marketing has demonstrated considerable success and utility in a promotional phase and development process of a product and/or service. This study intends to illustrate the benefits and challenges of viral marketing. The effects and concerns with the adoption of viral marketing are reinforced by previous research and findings from marketer and consumer focus groups. This thesis will contribute to building a theoretical and empirical foundation for viral marketing research and professional practice.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of Information Systems, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [253]-266).

Zugl.: Bamberg, Universiẗat, Dipl.-Arb., 2008.

St. Gallen, Univ., Diss., 2009.

Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2007.

Background:               Thanks to digitalization, the current generation Y is constantly exposed to advertising and information, blurring boundaries that can lead to a “buzz”, process more and more common online due to the possibility to publicly respond.   Purpose:          The aim is to understand the processes leading to a possible influence of consumer perception via negative online word-of-mouth and advertisements deemed controversial.   Method:          As an exploratory study, this paper conducted qualitative interviews with a group of students in which they will react to two cases of viral, controversial advertisement.    Conclusion:                The results show that there is indeed a relation between being exposed to negative online word-of-mouth: controversy and interpretation of the content influence the customer’s opinion.

What makes some marketing campaigns so immensely big and well known when they are marketed through social media or with a viral approach? How can a company reach out to customers through viral marketing and how can they make use of today’s social media to achieve it? In this article we will try to understand and further explore what a campaign have to accomplish in order to achieve a viral spread, using a descriptive model which uses a number of factors and terms necessary in order to properly analyze viral marketing campaigns. This model as it stands today is at its first steps towards being a tool for producers to incorporate in their analytic research and design process when creating viral campaigns.

Le marketing sur les réseaux sociaux en ligne se caractérise par une perte de contrôle par rapport au marketing traditionnel (Mangold & Faulds, 2009) et ceci, pour deux raisons principales. La première étant que l'équilibre des forces est complètement inversé sur les réseaux sociaux en ligne au profit du consommateur. La deuxième étant que les plateformes, particulièrement Facebook, rendent l'accès aux informations propres à l'entreprise, comme par exemple la liste de ses fans, limité, compliqué, et dans certains cas impossible. Cette thèse s'inscrit à un moment où le besoin d'une base marketing stratégique pour l'utilisation des réseaux sociaux en ligne se fait sentir (Hoffman et Novak 2012). Pour cela, elle essaie de réfléchir et d'augmenter les recherches théoriques sur le marketing viral sur les réseaux sociaux en ligne et, en particulier la question de l'optimisation de la population initiale de diffusion. Elle essaie aussi de suggérer des stratégies permettant de rétablir un certain équilibre au profit du stratège marketing en lui montrant quels sont les moyens mis à sa disposition pour qu'il puisse jouir d'une certaine liberté de manœuvre entre une plateforme avare d'informations comme Facebook et un public qui considère les entreprises comme des envahisseurs sur son propre terrain (Fournier & Avery, 2011). Nous choisissons l'approche critique d'Habermas (1985). Dans ce paradigme, la connaissance est basée sur des expériences empiriques et la modification de l'environnement est acceptée comme un moyen d'atteindre la connaissance. Les analyses et expérimentations tentent de suivre un chemin théorique et expérimental pour aboutir à une réflexion théorique et pratique qui définirait des stratégies, des moyens et des méthodes d'optimisation du marketing viral sur Facebook à partir du contrôle des éléments du marketing viral et, principalement, la sélection ou la création de populations initiales de diffusion utilisables à cet effet. Le développement de cette thèse est composé de plusieurs chapitres rédigés en anglais, dont l'un est en troisième révision au Journal of Advertising Research (JAR) et dont quatre ont fait l'objet de communications à des conférences internationales (Euras, 2012; INSNA, 2014; ISMS, 2015) et au workshop stratégie Paris-Dauphine (2014). Dans cette thèse, nous avons posé plusieurs questions concernant le contrôle des éléments du marketing viral sur Facebook et, en particulier, l'optimisation des populations de diffusion initiale et nous pensons avoir trouvé des réponses innovantes et pertinentes à ces questions. Nous commençons par une réflexion générale sur la recherche sur les réseaux sociaux et, en particulier, l'éthique de la recherche sur Internet et les réseaux sociaux en ligne. Abordons ensuite la question de la reconstitution des graphes sociaux des fans, et analysons l'efficience et l'inefficacité des faux profils dans le cadre du marketing sur Facebook. Nous nous attaquons aussi au bouche-à-oreille négatif dans le cadre d'une population initiale de diffusion optimisée, et à la découverte de ponts surplombant les trous structurels entre deux camps politiques opposés comme population d'ensemencement théoriquement influente. Les expériences effectuées mènent sur une réflexion sur la question des supports disponibles sur Facebook (Pages, Groupes ou Profils) dans le cas des stratégies marketing en général et des stratégies de marketing viral en particulier. Le dernier chapitre met en application les résultats obtenus en prenant en charge une campagne de marketing viral du temps zéro jusqu'au succès. Cette expérience de Personal Branding, documentée et analysée, et sans biais puisqu'elle ne se passe que sur Facebook sans aucune publicité, montre concrètement l'efficacité de la stratégie de marketing viral définie à partir des résultats, réflexions et analyses théoriques de cette thèse. / Online marketing is characterized by a loss of control when compared to traditional offline marketing (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). This is mainly due to two reasons. The first is that, on online social networks, communities took control over brands. The second is that online social network (OSN) platforms, mainly Facebook, limit access to information in a way they do not even have access to their list of fans.This dissertation comes at a time where more research and more investigations are needed in the field of strategic marketing on online social networks (Hoffman & Novak, 2012). This is why it attempts to add to theory and practice of viral marketing strategies on OSN and, in particular, initial seeding population. It is an attempt to reestablish equilibrium to the advantage of practitioners in marketing on OSN and increase their margin of manoeuver between a platform that builds barriers to information and a public who considers brands on OSN as intruders of its own space (Fournier & Avery, 2011). We chose the critical approach of Habermas (1985). In this paradigm, knowledge is based on empirical experiments where environment tweaking is allowed.The analysis and experiments in this dissertation follow a theoretical and experimental path that leads to a theoretical and practical thinking that defines strategies and viral marketing optimization methods through the control of viral marketing elements, especially the selection and creation of initial seeding populations.This dissertation consists of several chapters, amongst which a paper currently under third revision at the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR) and four experiments that have been presented at international conferences (Euras, 2012; INSNA, 2014; ISMS, 2015) and the workshop stratégie Paris-Dauphine (2014).This dissertation attempts to answer several questions about the control of viral marketing elements, especially the optimization of initial seeding population, and we think we have found relevant and innovation answers to these questions. We start with a meditation on research on online social networks and, in particular, the ethics of research on the internet and OSN. We then move to the question of uncovering and building social graphs of fans and analyze the efficiency and inefficiency of fake profiles in Facebook marketing. We also consider word-of-mouth in the context of an optimized seeding population, and the discovery of social bridges over structural holes rallying antagonistic political groups, a theoretically optimized seeding population. Those experiments lead to a thinking about the importance of the Facebook channel (pages, groups or personal timelines) and the role it plays with different marketing strategies: mass, relational, niche and, especially, viral.The last chapter puts into practice our findings and results by creating a strategy from zero to success of a personal branding campaign using viral marketing. This experiment is document, analyzed and without bias because it only happens on Facebook and does not use any advertising sources inside or outside this channel. This last experiment shows the efficiency of the viral marketing strategy based on our results, finding and theoretical analysis in this dissertation.

The rapid penetration of the Internet and the prevalence of various social media facilitated by new technologies provide new opportunities for how marketing techniques are developed and refined. The creation of viral marketing has been driven by technological innovations and cultural changes. Responding to marketing trends and catering to consumers’ psychological demands and behavioral changes, viral marketing represents the latest online customer-centric marketing (Shukla, 2010). Extending the advertising effects of word-of-mouth (WOM) communication and Internet marketing, viral marketing has demonstrated considerable success and utility in a promotional phase and development process of a product and/or service. This study intends to illustrate the benefits and challenges of viral marketing. The effects and concerns with the adoption of viral marketing are reinforced by previous research and findings from marketer and consumer focus groups. This thesis will contribute to building a theoretical and empirical foundation for viral marketing research and professional practice.