<p>The phenomenon of blogs is growing rapidly and is expected to increase even in a more rapid pace (Technorati, 2006, November 6). As Wright (2006) discuss; blogs provides a new way of communicating with customers, as customers want to be talked with, not to. Companies have newly started to pay attention to this and as a result, the concept of blog marketing has been born. The little research that has been done on blog marketing has been done from a company perspective. However, no or little research has yet considered how consumers use blogs. In order to use blogs as a communication tool, it is of huge importance for companies to understand how consumers use blogs in their decision making. Hence the purpose is;</p><p>“To explore how and why consumers use blogs in their decision making process“</p><p>In order to answer this purpose we conducted nine interviews on young adults, as previous research suggests that this population use blogs the most (Tremayne, 2007). From the collected data a qualitative analyze was made in which the empirical findings was analyzed with support of the theoretical framework.</p><p>From the analysis we found that consumers use blogs throughout their decision making. Within the consumers’ decision making, collaborative blogs was mostly used as the consumers could get more input from a larger audience and because this type of blog tended to cover a specific topic of interest for the consumers. Consumers were found mainly writing in the blogs when they had knowledge to contribute with or when they needed information that they could not otherwise find in the blogs.</p><p>We also noticed that consumers turned to groups they belonged to, so called normative group, or they turned to groups that they did not belong to, so called comparative groups. These groups influenced the consumer by providing them with knowledge and by giving them positive and negative confirmation on their choice of purchase. However normative groups also persuaded the consumer to buy products in order to belong to the group.</p><p>Besides this, a pattern of characteristics of the individuals that the consumer blogged with were noticed. Consumers wanted user experiences and thus the vast majority of these individuals they turned to, seemed to be consumers themselves, with relevant product experiences. The consumers also seem to blog more with certain individuals, whose opinions were valued more. These individuals often shared the latest information on products.</p><p>Lastly we found that consumers seemed to be selective when reading blog posts. The blog posts needed to contain detailed- and up-to-date information. Moreover, consumers wanted blog post to be written by other consumers because they saw them as more credible then companies. The consumers also chose to read blog posts that show similarities be-tween the consumer and the blogger in terms of either usage pattern of product or preference for product choices.</p>

The phenomenon of blogs is growing rapidly and is expected to increase even in a more rapid pace (Technorati, 2006, November 6). As Wright (2006) discuss; blogs provides a new way of communicating with customers, as customers want to be talked with, not to. Companies have newly started to pay attention to this and as a result, the concept of blog marketing has been born. The little research that has been done on blog marketing has been done from a company perspective. However, no or little research has yet considered how consumers use blogs. In order to use blogs as a communication tool, it is of huge importance for companies to understand how consumers use blogs in their decision making. Hence the purpose is; “To explore how and why consumers use blogs in their decision making process“ In order to answer this purpose we conducted nine interviews on young adults, as previous research suggests that this population use blogs the most (Tremayne, 2007). From the collected data a qualitative analyze was made in which the empirical findings was analyzed with support of the theoretical framework. From the analysis we found that consumers use blogs throughout their decision making. Within the consumers’ decision making, collaborative blogs was mostly used as the consumers could get more input from a larger audience and because this type of blog tended to cover a specific topic of interest for the consumers. Consumers were found mainly writing in the blogs when they had knowledge to contribute with or when they needed information that they could not otherwise find in the blogs. We also noticed that consumers turned to groups they belonged to, so called normative group, or they turned to groups that they did not belong to, so called comparative groups. These groups influenced the consumer by providing them with knowledge and by giving them positive and negative confirmation on their choice of purchase. However normative groups also persuaded the consumer to buy products in order to belong to the group. Besides this, a pattern of characteristics of the individuals that the consumer blogged with were noticed. Consumers wanted user experiences and thus the vast majority of these individuals they turned to, seemed to be consumers themselves, with relevant product experiences. The consumers also seem to blog more with certain individuals, whose opinions were valued more. These individuals often shared the latest information on products. Lastly we found that consumers seemed to be selective when reading blog posts. The blog posts needed to contain detailed- and up-to-date information. Moreover, consumers wanted blog post to be written by other consumers because they saw them as more credible then companies. The consumers also chose to read blog posts that show similarities be-tween the consumer and the blogger in terms of either usage pattern of product or preference for product choices.

The coming of the post-media times changes the method of interpersonal communication. The rise of blog means that the personal media comes. In our blogs, we can express private feelings and personal points of views. However, while the users of blog spread out to the celebrities, its function would not be merely a kind of the life diary, but be operated by the more and more implicit and complex purposes. This research focuses on the popular singers¡¦ blogs, and we found that their motives to establish their blogs finally originate from their records marketing. In other words, these singers use the characteristics of high interaction of blog conceal their real purposes for the marketing from their readers and then, make them be the whole marketing center unconsciously. Based on the usage of the record marketing, this research brings out three main issues. First, how dose a singer run his blog? Second, how do his fans or readers interact in his blog? Third, how are the marketing results, when blog is applied in the singers¡¦ record marketing? This research adopted the grounding theory of the quality research method and took deep interviews to collect data. The research interviewed seven main executive people, running the singers¡¦ blogs, to understand the management, the manpower programs, the resources organized in singers' blogs, and the interaction with the fans in the blogs. Moreover, this research discussed the marketing strategies for the promotion of the singers¡¦ records to know the business benefits of the application of blog. The research found that the management of singers¡¦ blogs is mainly on the two sides. One is the management of the singer¡¦s image and the other side is the management of his community. And these both sides complement perfectly. When the singer¡¦s image management is proper, the communities of his readers and fans establish probably increasingly. Then, the appearance of these communities would also provide singer some feedbacks on their image management. Therefore, this research suggests the marketing in blog should pay much more attention on the image management and the community management.

In recent years, Blog has been rising and inspired by its brand-new presentation on the Internet. All of its characteristics enable the computer users to use and browse on the Internet fascinatedly, therefore, the population of Blog user keeps growing rapidly. Doubtless, Blog has already become a conspicuous new star after other network media, for instance, BBS, electronic newspapers, individual news station and so on. Can enterprices make profit by using a new network medium as Blog? What is the possible model it will be? These issues are crucial to the future development of enterprises, also worth for us to pay attention to. Through observe Business Blog using now on the spot, this study has revealed that most of using models of Business Blog are still in the model of Blog Service Provider, and only focus on the commercial selling, ignore to deeper observation on exploring other business models. There are eight possible business models are proposed by this study by means of the literature studies and the interviewing with the experts. Hoped this study is being a pioneer to research, meanwhile benefits to future development of Blog commerce application.

Taiwan Island has magnificent resources, one of them is fishery industry, which happens to be one of Taiwan¡¦s major economical activities. Seafood is considered by the people general to be a health choice, primarily for its assortment, tenderness, high nutrition of values and low in both calories and cholesterols. Gallant Ocean International Inc. exports 66% of Taiwan¡¦s total annual seafood productions, indicating its industry leading status and capacity. To the current Taiwanese seafood industry, there is only focus in seafood processing and production, and commonly lacks the knowledge and experience of marketing, branding and distribution channels. It is the aim of the study to discuss and explore the operations and influences of corporate integrated purchasing, e-commerce, organic produce channels, marketing activities and Blog marketing; based on the case study of Gallant Ocean International Inc. In the research design perspective, this study employs Gallant Ocean International Inc. as the primary research target, by adapting exploratory analysis of single case study, qualitative case study research and in-depth interviews to acquire the necessary data for research purpose. The case study intends to provide a reference business model in the domestic traditional industries for the transition and development from B to B to B to C. This study has observed that the Taiwanese traditional industries¡¦ development of B to C possesses the following trends: 1.The establishment of ¡§Own-Brand¡¨ has an influential effect on market development: developing own-brand is a current trend and also an assurance to quality. Transforming product to brand does not only require product being ¡§consumer-focus¡¨, but also needs to take into consideration of the quality and competitiveness. This is particularly important in order to attain seafood ¡§quality¡¨, ¡§freshness¡¨ and ¡§safety¡¨ being the primary considerations. 2.¡§Integrated marketing¡¨ has concrete results in operational effectiveness: Effective utilization of actual and E-channels in integrated marketing have concrete operational results in developing B to C retailing market. 3.Adaptation of ¡§Blog marketing¡¨ to establish virtual communities: Blogs have become increasingly popular due to its easiness to use, with low technical barrier, free of charge provides direct of interaction between both parties. Blog, being a free community marketing channel have attracted many B to C corporate utilizing them for relationship marketing. Finally, this research will present an argument for ¡§people being the most critical factor for domestic traditional industries in developing B to C markets.¡¨ Consequently the decision markers¡¦ decision-making ability and adaptation of integrated marketing tools are the critical success factors for the traditional industries¡¦ B to C markets¡¦ development.

Background: Due to the rapid growth of social media usage, marketing has significantly moved from traditional ways towards digital marketing. In today’s society, people are exposed to an overload of information through various media channels. Due to the overexposing of marketing, traditional marketing has become less effective since the majority of the information through traditional media channels pass people by. Considering this, companies are seeking new ways to market their brand and products. A new attractive marketing tool is blogs and with the help of bloggers as influencers, companies see the potential of effectively reaching out to their desired target group.   Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to examine how advertising of brands, products and services are presented in the blog of Michaela Forni as well as the readers’ interpretation of the sponsored content.   Method: This thesis adopted an abductive philosophy, with an interpretive, qualitative methodological approach. The main techniques include content analysis, narrative analysis and semi-structured interviews.   Conclusion: A major finding and conclusion obtained from this study is the importance of what product or service that is promoted in the sponsored blog posts. This factor plays a crucial role whether the readers are susceptible to the sponsored message or not. Thus, sponsored posts are more appreciated than native advertising and ad-banners appearing on the blog as the latter two forms feature content not written by the blogger herself. Michaela Forni is using several presentations styles of her sponsored posts which leads to a bigger interest of the readers due to the variety. One of the most significant conclusion from this study is that branded storytelling is the most effective presentational style of sponsored content. The loyal relationship between the blogger and reader results in less ad skepticism and the reader having a positive association towards the sponsored content on the blog. The authors also identified correlations between the presentation styles of the sponsored content and readers’ interpretations.

Web 2.0 applications facilitate various adaptations of blogs on many different areas. Bloggers who have blog publications and financially depend on the blog are referred to as professional bloggers in this study. As blogging becomes a social trend, a phenomenon, and more – a profession, there should be a rule or a guideline, and relationship marketing is suggested by the author. Guided by relationship marketing, with the definition extracted from various literatures, the study is based on the structure of Christopher, Payne & Ballantyne (1991) – the relationship marketing ladder of customer loyalty. The purposes of the study are to examine the importance of interaction in the blogger-blog reader relationships, and most significantly, to test if relationship marketing can fit-into the blogosphere. Adopting a two-phase, sequential mixed method, this study applied both qualitative and qualitative research tools. In the first phase, a pretest survey was conducted to serve as the base for further research. In the second phase, focus group discussions were carried out to explore more insights of blogs, blogging, and the target bloggers, Wan Wan & Queen, from blog readers’ perspective. At last, a final-found survey was conducted to collect more data for testing the hypotheses and feasibility of the research framework. To conclude, interaction is indispensible in managing blogs. Interactions and blog readers’ expectations toward the blog influence their satisfaction with the blog, and further affect the development of loyalty to spread word-of-mouth. The suggestions for further research including studying from different perspective, adopting longer time span, collecting a larger sample, categorizing bloggers, and implementing behavioral research for business use. / Web 2.0 applications facilitate various adaptations of blogs on many different areas. Bloggers who have blog publications and financially depend on the blog are referred to as professional bloggers in this study. As blogging becomes a social trend, a phenomenon, and more – a profession, there should be a rule or a guideline, and relationship marketing is suggested by the author. Guided by relationship marketing, with the definition extracted from various literatures, the study is based on the structure of Christopher, Payne & Ballantyne (1991) – the relationship marketing ladder of customer loyalty. The purposes of the study are to examine the importance of interaction in the blogger-blog reader relationships, and most significantly, to test if relationship marketing can fit-into the blogosphere. Adopting a two-phase, sequential mixed method, this study applied both qualitative and qualitative research tools. In the first phase, a pretest survey was conducted to serve as the base for further research. In the second phase, focus group discussions were carried out to explore more insights of blogs, blogging, and the target bloggers, Wan Wan & Queen, from blog readers’ perspective. At last, a final-found survey was conducted to collect more data for testing the hypotheses and feasibility of the research framework. To conclude, interaction is indispensible in managing blogs. Interactions and blog readers’ expectations toward the blog influence their satisfaction with the blog, and further affect the development of loyalty to spread word-of-mouth. The suggestions for further research including studying from different perspective, adopting longer time span, collecting a larger sample, categorizing bloggers, and implementing behavioral research for business use.

Title: Blog Influence on Consumer Information Search Authors: Emma Hammer, Charlotta Hellström &amp; Emma Martin Tutor: Jonas Dahlqvist Date: 2015-05-11 Key Words: Blog marketing, information search, blog characteristics, blog influence, consumer behavior, online information, online communication Abstract Information search is crucial to consumers because it can potentially lead to better decision-making, therefor it is argued to be the most important aspect during the consumer decision process (Beatty &amp; Smith, 1987; Schmidt &amp; Spreng, 1996). The Internet has greatly impacted the way consumers search for information (Peterson &amp; Merino, 2003). The easy access of online information has made consumers to turn to blogs as an information source, to find inspiration and to be entertained. Moreover, the opportunity to interact with bloggers increases trust and thus consumers feel a stronger connection to the information being shared (Piscopo, 2015).   This thesis intends to analyze and describe what influences consumers to use blogs as an information source and why consumers continuously use blogs over traditional media. To be able to fully understand the use of blogs, the most influential characteristics of blogs affecting consumer behavior are investigated. This thesis discusses similarities and differences with existing literature concerning blogs and consumer behavior and intends to narrow the knowledge gap on the topic.   To fulfill the purpose of this thesis, existing literature was carefully studied to gain knowledge of the topic and qualitative primary data was collected through personal interviews to gain insights from consumers’ perspectives among experienced blog readers. The interview questions were developed based on the theory and previous literature addressed in this study.   The findings of our study indicated that all of the respondents were influenced to read blogs both internally and externally. Our study showed that consumers prefer using blogs as an information source over traditional media because it is easily accessible, free and more convenient. Finally, the continuous use of blogs was realized as a result of these blog characteristics explained by the respondents: familiarity, frequency, convenience, inspirational, humor and professionalism.

藉由部落格來經營線上社群的情形已久，但這幾年在部落格上出現一種新的敘事呈現方式，亦即藉由圖文形式，透過詼諧手法來分享生活瑣事或人生觀念，同時以版主(即部落格經營者與圖文創作者)所發起之創意、話題接龍來不斷擴展並豐富部落格上的內容。而藉由圖文角色的創造與自由免費下載，這些圖文流通在部分即時通訊軟體當中，提高了這些圖文角色的曝光度，同時也為版主帶來商機。版主透過哪些方式來經營線上社群，並將之導入商業運作，為本研究之動機。 因此本研究透過文獻整理，建立了線上品牌社群經營之探討層面，此層面包含了「部落格行銷特性」、「社群活動參與程度」、「活動實際認知與期待落差」等三個構面，同時納入「個人涉入度」與「購買意願」等構面，來探討這些構面之間的關係。然後針對回應於個案部落格上的各個成員進行問卷調查，再以因素分析進行構面修整等前測，之後正式發放問卷，回收有效問卷為364份，以SPSS套裝統計軟體進行典型相關分析，來探討構面之間的影響關係。 研究結果發現「部落格行銷特性」構面當中的「讀者針對性」為首要關鍵因素，而經由質化訪談資料分析指出，在此種類型部落格經營取向裡，「讀者針對性」為「資訊豐富性」、「互動性」的基礎。而「社群活動參與程度」亦為關鍵因素之一，尤其是活動的發起與舉辦手法，應透過詼諧趣味與簡單易懂的遊戲規則來進行，同時非實質商業性目的的活動佔大部分，此類活動的功能在於提高社群的參與感、認同與信任感；而商業性質的活動則應在部落格內容中佔較小篇幅，以避免社群成員的厭惡，畢竟此種圖文創作類型的部落格，是以非商業性質的圖文免費自由下載使用為基礎來經營的。而藉由上述的「部落格行銷特性」與「社群活動參與程度」來提升社群成員對於部落格的「個人涉入度」，進而提升社群成員對此品牌的產品之購買意願。 最後，社群成員的「活動實際認知與期待落差」沒有對於「個人涉入度」及「購買意願」造成影響。經由觀察個案部落格當中得知，因為目前所舉辦的活動相對來說較單純，並沒有營造出複雜且嚴謹的階級關係或制度，同時版主會以詼諧自嘲手法來降低社群成員對活動的期待，從而減少成員對於活動實際認知與期待之落差。 / There has been a new type of narration based on blog. That is, sharing trivial or thoughts of lives via interesting pictures with words, enriching content on the certain blog through sharing activities on gossips or ideas. The created characters expose through being used in certain instant message tool, which brought creator business. Based on literature review, the study built up an aspect to discuss managing on-line brand community, including blog marketing features, how much the community join activities. And we included personal involvement and purchase intention to discuss the relationships among these aspects. After processing questionnaires by factor analysis for pilot testing, then we retrieved 364 questionnaires for canonical correlation analysis to discuss the relationships among the aspects. In the outcome, it’s found that the relevancy on the blog for members is the most important one of the key success factors. Quantities’ data analysis indicated that the relevancy on the blog for members is the basis of information richness and interactivity. How much members join the activity is the key factor also, the way to announce the activity should be via interesting and easy rules; meanwhile, non-commercial determination activity takes major part. This kind of activity supposedly focuses on enhancing sense of joining, identification, and trust among members. By contrast, commercial determination activity should take minor part in content on the blog for fear of being excluded by given members since this kind of blog has been managed on the basis of non-commercially free downloading created characters. blogger could enhance the involvement by means of blog marketing features and how much members join the activity, then lift purchase intention of members toward the brand products. No effect has been made by gap of the awareness toward activity on personal involvement and purchase intention. Through observing the blog, it indicates that the activities held so far are relatively pure and easy, which means no complex and solid hierarchy has been set up in the activities; furthermore, blogger scales down members’ expectation of activities by using interesting and self-sarcastic approaches.

國內近年興起美感經濟以及手創商品的風潮，根據行政院青輔會在2006年的統計，文化創意產業首次擠身年輕人熱門創業行業的前三名，而這些投入創作的手創者也藉台灣各大小型的創意市集擺攤而有了讓自製作品顯露頭角的機會，並更進一步發展自創品牌並讓自製作品躍上創意市集的龍頭老大。 網路行銷工具部落格同時兼備｢通路｣與｢媒體｣功能，無論是從｢功能面｣、｢使用面｣、｢傳播面｣、｢行銷面｣或是｢需求面｣等不同面向探討部落格的特性，部落格的特性都可以化約為以下八大特性：｢交流/互動性｣、｢知識累積性｣、｢主觀性｣、｢易被搜尋性｣、｢多媒體性｣、｢時間性｣、｢低門檻性｣及｢分眾性｣，這些特性讓行銷資源不足的手創者可以藉由部落格作為整合行銷¬¬進行宣傳商品以及販賣商品的管道和平台，這些都是傳統行銷工具無法達到的行銷特性。 因此本研究從行銷與整合行銷的觀點探討最能代表Web 2.0精神之一的部落格，並以消費者焦點團體訪談與質化個案研究深度訪談方式初探部落格如何協助手創者進行行銷及推廣，並進行手創者運用部落格與社群交流互動、推廣宣傳品牌以及銷售販賣的描述性研究。 / Recently, aesthetics economy and hand-made products have became a trend in Taiwan society, and according to the survey of National Youth Commission, Executive Yuan in 2006, for the first time Creativity Industry became the most popular industry for youth to start their business. Moreover the Creativity Markets have provided creators both the chances and places to show their own talents, works, and established their own brands. Blog played both the place and media roles, from its function, usage, media, marketing or needs aspects to discuss the characteristics of blog, we found blog has the following eight characteristics: interaction and communication, knowledge - accumulation, subjectivity, easy for searching, multi-media, instantaneity, low-threshold and community divides. These characteristics can help hand-made creators who have inadequate marketing resources to promote and sell their products by applying these functions. Therefore, this study is based on marketing and IMC point of view and by FGD and Case study trying to find out and illustrate how blog help hand-made creators to communicate their consumers, to promote their brands and to sell their hand-made products.