Social media users are now become the targeted market by companies to campaign their products and services. Companies use many strategies to attract attention of social media users. They sometimes hire influencers to boost the popularity of the products and services. One of the strategies in social media campaign is using meme.
A meme (/miːm/ MEEM) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
There are some pros and cons of meme marketing. Unexpected feedback can destroy a brand image if a company use inapropriate meme marketing.
Here are some benefits of meme marketing
- Gone viral
Viral meme is a great advantage to make a quick popularity in social media. Viral meme will spread among social media groups, communication channels and person to person. A brand will be popular in short time.
Pic ; https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/1/3/18167278/bird-box-memes-netflix-bots-marketing - Build emotional connection
Using perfect quote and image will build emotional audience. Meme will be shared by audience voluntarily. - Simple creation
It is very simple to create meme. However, using copy right image and quote can be problem of legality. Meme creators should avoid using racism and sarcastic quote that hurts some audience. Because creating meme is simple, some meme creators forget about the bad effect after that. - Attract new likes and followers
Funny meme will attract new like and followers in social media. This will benefit to the popularity of a social media account of a brand. - Cheap campaign
Meme is cheap marketing campaign when it is gone viral, the company earn free promotion from large audience. However, if your company hire a profesional meme marketing consultant ,the cost will be different.
Though meme marketing has some benefits, it also has some disadvantages. Using inapropriate meme a promotional stratgy will not be effective even can be boomerang.
- Negative feedback
Unexpected negative feedback can take place when a company use inapropriate quotes that hurt a commnunity or a person. Using racism words will be dangerous campaign. - Legalilty
Using ilegal image is also can harm company with legal action. - Lost in stream
Meme campaign is temporal. When a popularity of meme has spread out the meme will fade away. Using too many memes will also indicated as spamming.
CONCLUSION
Meme marketing has been used by big companies. The effectiveness of meme to go viral is very possible. The popularity of products and services will increase fast with meme marketing. Things that should be remember that using meme to promote products should research the targeted audience, trend, quotes and images. False campaign with meme can harm the products and services of a company.