"Viral Marketing" as Cop Out to good planning?

Seth Godin makes a good distinction in his blog between viral marketing and word of mouth. In essence, viral marketing gains momentum while word of mouth tends to fade.

I believe he is missing a point that in too many marketing plans "viral marketing" is a euphemism for "we lack a sufficient marketing budget". In many of these cases the reference to viral marketing is wishful thinking without any real plans or insights for why customers will enlist their friends and colleagues to join in.

It reminds are of the military book title "Hope is Not an Option".

There is a place for viral marketing. Yes, it sometimes just happens to good companies. In many other cases though it is either inappropriate or needs to be designed into the product concept.