Abstract

Managed word-of-mouth and viral marketing have emerged as one of the biggest trends of the decade. Every brand, big or small, wants its content to go viral. The backbone of successful campaigns is not limited to content or influencers who can make the message go viral. Marketers need to think of value creation at every stage. 

Jiten Gajaria, the convener of the social media cell of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Maharashtra, implemented a marketing transformation program for his political party while campaigning for the 13^th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Election. He gained consumer insights, calibrated market segments, devised communication strategy, recruited and managed human resources, designed campaign implementation process and developed capabilities to execute it. The case details how Gajaria rolled out a successful influencer marketing program to create WOM communication on WhatsApp. It can serve as a classic example of devising a cost-effective customer outreach program where total marketing expense was reduced by about 199%.

Learning Objective  

The case is appropriate in a core marketing course in MBA or executive MBA programs. This case can also be used in an elective on digital marketing, integrated marketing communication, marketing strategy, business intelligence, socio-politics industry or any course that covers topics such as influencer marketing, WOM marketing, viral marketing, buzz marketing, WhatsApp marketing, mobile marketing, marketing in emerging markets and competitive marketing strategy.