Hotmails approach kept the power of the brand and

meaning. Hotmail’s approach kept the power of the brand and therefore its meaning, equity, and
potential for building preference in its message and provided a way, through a hotlink, in which
consumers could immediately subscribe and get more information on Hotmail and its brand.
With Ray-Ban, if one reads the comments posted on sites like YouTube concerning their viral
videos, very few even know what they are really watching. Most think only they are good videos
with the discussion centering around how the videos were made not about Ray-Ban, its “Never
Hide” campaign, or even sunglasses. So what is Ray-Ban trying to do?
BRAND Must Retain Control
What marketers must remember is that for any brand to be successful, the BRAND must
control the flow, content, and meaning of the message it conveys if it wants to increase market
share and all-important preference. The power of any good brand lies in its ability to connect

with the target audience on a highly-charged emotional level. This connection and meaning,
however, can only be molded and derived from the brand itself, NOT from individual consumers.
Rather than a single cohesive and comprehensive brand meaning, the brand would have as many
meanings as there are current and potential customers, a marketing model that is inefficient and
prohibitively expensive. Ray-Ban is not alone in jumping on the viral marketing bandwagon.
While the promise still exists to exploit this kind of marketing in a way that is truly brand-centric
and can unleash the true power of brand, marketers have yet to uncover the formula. For most
brands, viral marketing is a virus brands can still do without.