소셜네트워크 마케팅 : 하버드 MBA Sunil Gupta교수 인터뷰
하버드에서 Social Network를 연구하고 있는 Sunil Gupta 교수와의 인터뷰 내용입니다.
최근 와튼스쿨의 Raghuram Iyengar이라는 분과 성균관대의 "한상만"(와~한국인 +.+) 이란분이 같이 쓴 보고서 "Do friends Influence Purcharses In A Social Network"이 있습니다.(이 보고서는 3~5부작으로 나누어 곧 포스팅 할 예정입니다.)
인터뷰라 가볍게 읽어 내려갔는데 역시 예리하게 정곡을 찌르는 내용이 있습니다.
좋았던 내용을 간단하게 정리하자면
우리나라의 싸이월드를 예로 들었네요,
멤버를 Low, Middle, High Status로 구분하였습니다.
- Low Status 멤버는 전체의 약 48%로 사이트에 잘 접속하지도 않고 타인의 구매에 영향을 받지도 주지도 않는 negligible(있으나 마나한, 사소한, 무시해도 좋은..)한 집단.
- Middle Status 멤버는 전체의 약 40%로 적당한 접속횟수와 사이트 내에서 타인에 의해 강하게 구매의 영향을 받는 집단. "Keep up with the Joneses" behavior(재산, 사회적 성취등에 있어서 남에게 뒤지지 않으려 애쓰는 행위)가 강하게 나타남.
- High Status 멤버는 전체의 약 12%로 매우 높은 접속률을 보이지만 타인에 의해 구매의사결정의 영향을 거의 받지 않는으며 오히려 자기만의컨텐츠를 만들어 올리는데 열중하는 집단.
두번째 토픽으로 수익모델로 애드센스와 같은 Advertise Based Business Model과 Viral Marketing을 비교 하였습니다.
Sunil Gupta교수는 여기서 SNS(Social Network Service)사이트에 User가 제품정보에 관심이 있어 방문하는 것이 아니므로 SNS에서 배너광고 클릭률은 현저히 떨어진다고 주장하고 있습니다.
예를 들어 Sony의 새로운 디지털 카메라를 홍보하기 위해 SNS사이트에 배너광고를 넣는것과 Sony가 직접 SNS사이트에서 친구를 만들어 Give Away 하는 것을 비교한다면 후자가 훨씬 효과적이라고 합니다.
그러고 보니 수 많은 SNS사이트에서 본 기억에 남는 광고라고는 다른 SNS사이트나 미팅관련(국가별별 결혼정보?)광고로 제품을 직접적으로 광고하는 경우는 적었던것 같습니다.
그렇지만 Sunil Gupta교수가 이야기했던 디지털 카메라를 나눠주는것도 본적이 없네요^^
마지막으로 글의 초반부에 "brick and mortar" 라는 말이 나오는데 처음 보는 용어라 검색해 봤습니다.
- brick and mortar : 원래 뜻은 종이와 연필이며 온라인 책 판매회사인 아마존에 비해 자체매장을 갖고 있는 기존의 오프라인 서점을 뜻합니다.
Social Network Marketing: What Works?
| Q&A with: | Sunil Gupta |
| Published: | July 27, 2009 |
| Author: | Sarah Jane Gilbert |
Executive Summary:
Purchase decisions are influenced differently in social networks than in the brick-and-mortar world, says Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta. The key: Marketers should tap into the networking aspect of sites such as Facebook. Key concepts include:
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About Faculty in this Article:
- Some social network users are influenced by the purchases of their friends.
- Of these users, 40 percent show a strong "keeping up with the Joneses" behavior, increasing sales by 5 percent.
- "High-status" users are more likely to not purchase something that others have bought.
- On social networks, viral campaigns may work better than advertising.
Sunil Gupta is the Edward W. Carter Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.
- More Working Knowledge from Sunil Gupta
- Sunil Gupta - Faculty Research Page
- E-mail Sunil Gupta: sgupta@hbs.edu
When marketers want to reach users of social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, or Cyworld, they have two choices: buy advertising or start a viral campaign.
New research by Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta suggests that viral may be the way to go in these connected worlds. But first it's important to understand both who influences purchase decisions in online communities and which groups of users can be influenced.
"Viral campaigns truly leverage the network aspect of these social networking sites."
"By understanding the social network of users, firms can better understand and influence consumers' behavior," says Gupta, who coauthored the working paper "Do Friends Influence Purchases in a Social Network?" [PDF] with Raghuram Iyengar, of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and Sangman Han, of Sung Kyun Kwan University in South Korea.
Gupta recently discussed the research with HBS Working Knowledge.
Sarah Jane Gilbert: Your research attempted to answer this question: Do friends within a social network influence online buying behaviors of others in the group? What did you discover?
Sunil Gupta: To answer this question we used data from Cyworld, an online social networking site in South Korea with almost 21 million members. Cyworld users buy virtual items to decorate their home pages. Our research shows that some users are influenced by the purchases of their friends while others are not.
Q: One of your findings was that certain types of group members are more influenced by social pressure than others. Can you discuss the distinctions among user groups and how they influence buying?
A: We found three distinct groups. Low-status members (48 percent of the users in our sample), who are not well connected to others, are generally unaffected by the purchases of other members. Middle-status members (40 percent of the users) are moderately connected and show a strong and positive effect due to friends' purchases. In other words, this group shows strong "keeping up with the Joneses" behavior.
Members of the high-status group (12 percent of the users) are well connected and are very active on the site. However, these users show a negative effect due to friends' purchases because they want to remain distinct. Instead of buying items like the other members, this group tends to pursue non-purchase-related activities (e.g., uploading their own content).
Q: Were you able to quantify social influence in terms of how it increased or decreased the percentage in sales revenue?
A: The impact of the low-status group on revenue is negligible. Social influence increases revenue from the middle-status group by 5 percent. In contrast, social influence leads to almost a 14 percent drop in revenue from the high-status group.
Q: Despite the ability to gather millions of users, the business viability of social networking sites seems uncertain. Is there any good news in your findings for the Facebooks and Twitters of the world?
A: Following the success of Google, social networking sites such as Facebook have been trying an advertising-based business model. However, studies show that the click-through rate of ads on social networking sites is extremely low—simply because people don't go to these sites to seek information about specific products. Therefore, the advertising-based business model has had only limited success on social networking sites.
If the purpose of advertising is to influence consumers' purchases, our research shows that there is another way to influence their behavior. Imagine that Sony wants to promote its new digital camera. Sony can either advertise on Facebook and accept a very low click-through rate, or give away free cameras to several Facebook members (potentially at a lower cost than advertising) and generate a viral campaign. Our research shows that this viral campaign is possible. We further show what type of users are more likely to be influenced by such a campaign.
Interestingly, Sheryl Sandberg [HBS MBA '95], the new COO of Facebook, recently talked about such a campaign. On Valentine's Day, Honda offered 750,000 Facebook members a heart-shaped virtual gift complete with the Honda logo that could then be passed on to other members. It is exactly this type of viral campaign that has the potential to be an enormous source of revenue. Unlike banner ads, these viral campaigns truly leverage the network aspect of these social networking sites.
Q: What are some key takeaways from your work for retail and other online sites in general hoping to influence online purchasing decisions?
A: The fact that people are influenced by their friends is not new. We all know it at some level or the other. However, by understanding the social network of users, firms can better understand and influence consumers' behavior.
Consider a cosmetic company such as Mary Kay. Its Web site currently allows consumers to upload their picture and try different cosmetics virtually to see how they may look before making a purchase. However, if users (especially young consumers) really value the opinion of their friends, Mary Kay may benefit from linking its online site to a social networking site such as Facebook where users may even get instant feedback from their friends before making a purchase.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am continuing my research to better understand how information and influence spreads in social networks. I am also working on understanding the relative role of offline and online advertising to determine how firms should optimally allocate their resources across different media. 
