Walking on the street, you can see many young people using their smartphones, checking out different social media platforms. They not only want to catch up with their friends, but also want to read some hilarious post. Therefore, Memes become more popular on the Internet. Memes are usually some short texts, pictures or videos for humorous purpose. If Memes are used in a right way, it can be a special promotion scheme of your company.

Basically, there are 2 types of memes, one is using the existing materials and one is to create by yourself.

There are many memes materials available for all Internet users online. Many people are familiar with these memes and they understand those memes well which using these memes may make the viewers share the same thought with the brands. As different memes have different meanings behind, some imply the failure in understanding certains actions, some imply ridicule. Thus, marketers should have an in-depth under understanding of the memes before they start using those memes for promotion, otherwise, it will backfired the scheme. One thing that has to be mentioned is that, there may be some copyright issues if companies are using those public sources for promotional purpose. It would be better if companies get permission from the creators before using the memes for derivative work.

If the brand choose to create memes by themselves, it can avoid copyright issues but there will be a higher difficulty in creation. Apart from considering problems of visual elements, designers also have to consider if the memes are easy to understand from viewers’ perspective and if the meaning behind the memes can be understood by the readers in a few seconds.

Meme marketing is suitable for brands who are targeting teenagers and young adults. Compare with directly promoting the products, young people prefer this kind of indirect advertisements. At the same time, since young people always read memes online, it is easier for them to understand the messages of the memes. If they find the memes interesting and meaningful, it is likely for them to like, share, comment and tag their friends which greatly boost the exposure of the fan pages or accounts and attract those Internet users to follow the brands. The memes can come as a breath of fresh air to customers that grab people’s attention.

What worth noting while using meme marketing is the brand image. Products like food and daily necessities targeting the mass will have a higher freedom in creativity and be more flexible in using memes. Yet, some products like luxuries would be quite risky to use meme marketing, though it may be surprising and amusing to some customers, it may also seem out of tune with the brand image.

Even though meme marketing brings new idea to marketers in promotion, with high entertaining value to Internet users, this promotion method must be used carefully, to avoid running counter to companies’ desire.