From Virality to Validity: Reimagining Viral Marketing through Permission-Based Strategies

Ravneet Kaur

Pages: 10-15

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Abstract:

Viral marketing has become a trend in a fast-paced digital environment and one of the most popular ways to attract consumers and raise the profile of the brand. It is stronger because it involves social sharing and emotional contagion and allows sharing of messages to become natural across large networks. Nevertheless, virality is usually pursued without paying much attention to the essential issues of consumer privacy, consent, and ethical interactions. The paper attempts to explain how incorporation of the principles of permission marketing can help to make viral marketing more transparent, trustworthy and sustainable as a model of communication. Based on the theoretical framework of permission marketing as it was introduced by Seth Godin, the study creates a hybrid concept, Permission-Based Viral Marketing (PBVM), which deals with respect, consent, and mutual value exchange between brands and consumers. They surveyed 200 participants including students and working adults to measure their attitude toward viral advertisements, their attitude to data privacy, and their attitude to permission-based engagement. The results indicate that 87 per cent of the participants choose brands that always seek their permission to provide them with customized content, and 71 per cent tend to share viral content of a brand that is transparent and ethical. These lessons underscore the definite shift in paradigm of attention-grabbing expectations to the realms of authenticity and validity in marketing practice. This research finds that the future of digital promotion is not only in creating viral reach but developing meaningful and permission-based relationships. By ensuring that virality and validity coincide, marketers will be able to establish ethical conformance as well as long-term consumer trust in the data-conscious generation.

Keywords:

Viral Marketing, Permission Marketing, Digital Ethics, Consumer Trust, Data Privacy, social media, PBVM Model

DOI URL:- https://doi.org/10.55524/irmss.2025.1.1.2