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The different members of a CPS may not necessarily be aware of or appreciate the roles played by other members, yet many diverse agents work together to create popular culture (Hirschman, 1990)⁷. The same principle holds true in Buzz or Stealth
Marketing where third-party agents are employed to create and influence consumers. It is, therefore, a misnomer that stealth marketing is a ploy created by marketers to attempt to deceive the consumer. Research has shown that while consumers may be lured into purchasing the product once, it is difficult to retain customers on the strength of marketing campaigns alone. Customers need to be offered a clear value proposition and association with the product or service to generate repeat purchases. Stealth marketing, therefore, only provides a tool for marketers to communicate with consumers. On the other hand, it also leverages the consumer (through customer engagement) to communicate value propositions by word-of-mouth marketing to deliver much richer information content. Essentially, it creates a positive word-of-mouth environment whereby selected consumers become spontaneous carriers of the messages, and is diffused in con-centric circles, from the trend-setters to the mainstream consumers (Kaikati & Kaikati, 2004).

Reasons for Adopting Stealth Marketing

The past few years have witnessed the evolution of stealth marketing from the fringe to the Fortune 500. Companies are adopting a more disciplined approach in the designing and execution of various forms of stealth marketing such as Buzz, Viral, Bait-and-Tease, Brand Pushing, etc. Again, traditional advertising has lost most of its credibility. "Anything you say about yourself is now automatically suspect," says Al Ries, a veteran marketing strategist and co-author of the book, "The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR". The theory is that marketing is most effective when you don't know that it's marketing (Eisenberg et al, 2002).

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7 Hirschman, E.C, "Resource Ex-change in the Production and Distribution of a Motion Picture", Empirical Study of the Arts 8, No. 1 (1990).

* Contributed by: -
Ramkishan Rajan has completed his Bachelor's (Mechanical Engineering) from College of Engineering, Trivandrum, and is a marketing enthusiast with specific areas of interest in Marketing of high technology products and consumer behaviour.
M. S. Diana has done her Bachelor's (Computer Science) from IIT Chennai, and has a strong analytical approach to marketing. Her specific areas of interest include marketing strategy and brand management. She is also majors in operations.
Both are currently students of the PGDM Programme (Batch 2006-08) at IIM Kozhikode.