A Great Example of an Ideavirus

I just finished reading marketing guru Seth Godin's manifesto Unleashing the Ideavirus (you can download it here), probably one of the most relevant pieces on marketing ever written. While reading it, I thought of a great example of a successful Ideavirus.

I'm sure by now everybody on Facebook is familiar with the application Mafia Wars, an application created by Zynga. The growth of this application has made it one of the most popular on Facebook ever. After reading Seth's thoughts, I understand why.

First, Mafia Wars was without a doubt remarkable (worth remarking about). How many other things do you have going on in your life that allowed you to pretend you are a mafia kingpin- killing, maiming, and extorting money?

Second, the application was incredibly viral. Every time you log in to the application, it gives you a prompt to "invite people to your mafia." This turned its users into promiscuous sneezers spreading the ideavirus for their own personal gain. The more people you invite, the bigger your mafia got and thus the more powerful your mob became. This scalability of Mafia Wars made it so that the more people that joined Mafia Wars, the better the individual user experience became.

Third, it had a hive with a definite vector. It became big with college kids first who then gradually started running out of people to invite, so they started inviting family and friends who were out of college, bringing Mafia Wars across the early adopters chasm to the general public.

Fourth, it had a great amplifier, Facebook. 'Nuff said...

Fifth, it was incredible persistent. People logged on more than once a day (I was one of them) to use their points and check their bank account. Foolish yes, but persistent, definitely.

Sixth, and probably most importantly, Mafia Wars traveled through a virtual vacuum. There were other applications you could download on Facebook, but none that allowed you maim your friends and amass a fake fortune. Utter genius.

If You Plan on Making a Clothing Line, Don't Sell It Cheap.

Watching Cramer on CNBC talk to the CEO of Macy's and some designer named Rachel. She mentioned something about catering to the demographic that can't afford Prada or some expensive brand...I kinda tuned out a second, but it got me thinking about cheap clothes.

As a designer, why would you market your clothes to WalMart or Target? Has anybody remembered the clothing brand of anything they've bought from these places? It just seems self defeating, how do you expect do develop any sort of brand equity among consumers if the only thing you compete on is price? The next thing that comes along that's a dollar cheaper gets you ousted in the mind of the buyer...

If I had a clothing line, I'd use the finest quality materials, jack the prices and do a lower volume. The sales over time would be more predictable because the people who would be buying it would be repeat customers. I say this because if they're willing to pay the high price, they're going to rationalize the purchase to themselves as being worth it, generating repeat business and word of mouth. All this works to pump my brand equity and start the cycle all over again. Yahtzee...

The think a lot of designers have the post-hoc fallacy that selling cheaper clothes to frugal people would be an easier sale than expensive clothes to the affluent. Its not, and I think its just the opposite. If you want proof of this just go into a Bloomingdales and watch the numbers fly. Their clientele will drop a $1000 on one piece of clothing like they're buying bubble gum. Not to mention, if I want to make $1000 profit, what's easier, making one sale at $1000 or a hundred sales at $10?

Methinks we may be rethinking our pricing structures...