Wolfgang Weitzl introduces a novel perspective for measuring consumer trust in eWOM by applying a rigid scale development process. In doing so, the research aims to set new methodical standards for developing reliable, valid and practicable research instruments. Most importantly, however, the research offers valuable insights into the nature and role of consumer-initiated vs. marketer-initiated online communication in an intercultural context by conducting a series of qualitative and quantitative surveys using samples from three countries.
Recent years have seen digital advertising grow to the point where it will soon overtake television as the no. 1 advertising medium. In the online environment, consumers interact and share their thoughts on brands and their experiences using them. These electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communications have become a very important to the success of products. In today’s cluttered environment, it is especially important to study how the practice of eWOM advertising operates, and how marketers can influence eWOM in social media and other online sites. This volume starts with a chapter on the current state of knowledge on eWOM and then turns its attention to current research articles on a variety of eWOM formats. These include the posting of selfies on social media, the influence of review types on consumer perception and purchase intention, the effects of preannouncement messages, and how user-generated content can be used to induce effectiveness of eWOM on social media. The relationship of eWOM to brand building is emphasized in several of the chapters. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Advertising.
This SpringerBrief offers a state of the art analysis of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communications and its role in marketing. The book begins with an overview of traditional word-of-mouth (WOM) and its evolution to eWOM. It discusses the differences between traditional and online WOM. The book examines why people engage in eWOM communications, but also how consumers evaluate its persuasiveness. It also looks at the effects of eWOM. The book identifies current gaps in the eWOM research, but also highlights future directions for this growing field. eWOM is an important marketing technique in brand communications, and it plays an important role in modern e-commerce. Marketers become extremely interested in enhancing the power of eWOM developing loyalty programs and building brands. Studying the effect of eWOM can be beneficial for companies. This book should be a good resource for scholars and practitioners that need to understand the pervasive effects of eWOM.
Social media has provided endless opportunities for marketers, fuelling their desire to learn more about their consumers through this dynamic online environment. Yet many organisations are finding it difficult to create effective marketing strategies, making decisions that are based on research that is highly focused on the nature and boundaries of social media. The changing behaviour of consumers, variety of platforms and changing culture indicates that much of the research around this topic is still highly fragmented. Social Media in the Marketing Context: A State of the Art Analysis and Future Directions provides a comprehensive overview of the current literature surrounding social media and the marketing discipline, highlighting future development opportunities in both knowledge and practice. - includes extensive literature search on social media in the context of the marketing discipline - provides key areas for future research and recommendations for practitioners - shows the importance for marketers of understanding individual behaviour on social media
The core of business activity - the process of creating and extracting value - is increasingly shifting from the traditional realm of the physically defined or reality-based, marketplaces to another quite different realm. It is different because it is defined by information. We call it the "marketspace."
This book examines issues and implications of digital and social media marketing for emerging markets. These markets necessitate substantial adaptations of developed theories and approaches employed in the Western world. The book investigates problems specific to emerging markets, while identifying new theoretical constructs and practical applications of digital marketing. It addresses topics such as electronic word of mouth (eWOM), demographic differences in digital marketing, mobile marketing, search engine advertising, among others. A radical increase in both temporal and geographical reach is empowering consumers to exert influence on brands, products, and services. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and digital media are having a significant impact on the way people communicate and fulfil their socio-economic, emotional and material needs. These technologies are also being harnessed by businesses for various purposes including distribution and selling of goods, retailing of consumer services, customer relationship management, and influencing consumer behaviour by employing digital marketing practices. This book considers this, as it examines the practice and research related to digital and social media marketing.
"This book examines the importance and the effective utilization of eWOM content for the positioning of products and services that illustrate the value of user generated content for influencing customer decision making in diverse business sectors"--
Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has increasingly become an important topic in marketing and consumer research. However, theory construction and methodology development in this area are still in their infancy. This leaves some basic and important questions unanswered including whether eWOM communication is effective, what roles are played by different communication cues, and how valuable information from text reviews can be generated. This study intends to answer these fundamental questions. Based on the Brunswik's Len Model, this study developed the Process Model of eWOM Communication. It extends the Brunswik's Lens Model in several important ways and provides a systematic tool to examine the effectiveness of eWOM communication processes. Furthermore, a simplified model of eWOM communication was developed to test the validity of automatic text analysis as a promising tool in studying eWOM communication. Two focus group interviews and a throughout literature review were conducted first to identify the communication cues employed by eWOM partners. Then, two web-based self-administered surveys were carried out to collect data from both eWOM senders and readers. Last, the data from both eWOM senders and readers were matched, forming a final dataset with 90 reviews. Correlations, regressions, and path analyses were employed to evaluate the models and test the hypotheses. Results showed that eWOM communication is effective, and the relative strength of information flow varies in different eWOM communication links when communicating different types of information. This study identified a list of eWOM communication cues and found that consumers employ different cues in communicating different types of information. EWOM readers' inference structure in decoding may not exactly mirror eWOM senders' encoding structure. Moreover, communication cues especially verbal cues play an important role in eWOM communication and explain additional variance in eWOM partners' intentions and perceptions beyond and above the star ratings. In general, negative emotion words are the most important cues across various situations. In addition, this study provides initial evidence for the validity of automatic text analysis in studying eWOM. Linguistic indicators such as Negations, Negative Emotions, and Money can explain additional variance in eWOM partners' attitudes and emotions beyond and above the star ratings.
This collection examines a key new development in the contemporary marketing landscape, the relationship between the informal exchange of information and advice among consumers – known as word of mouth (WOM) – and emerging social media. Whereas WOM has been around since as long as people have engaged in conversations, its transmission is no longer limited to face-to-face interactions over the clothesline and across backyard fences. Today, the dissemination of WOM through online channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube channels, blogs, and consumer forums has significantly altered the alacrity by which product and service messages are spread across a dramatically expanded consumer audience. As marketing practitioners have come to recognize the power of online WOM in terms of its impact on consumer beliefs, attitudes, and purchasing behavior, effective strategies for leveraging the consumer conversation require greater insight and understanding of WOM and social media. Towards that end, this book offers ground-breaking research from an impressive array of internationally renowned marketing researchers on the nature and dynamics of WOM transmitted through social media channels, advancing our understanding of consumer influence, which to date has largely focused on offline WOM. Among the topical issues covered are best practices for marketing practitioners, the conversational nature of online WOM, the dynamic interplay between online and offline WOM, WOM measurement and monitoring, and cross-cultural influences on WOM. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Marketing Communications.
