Because of the popularity of the internet, consumers make purchase decision based on online word-of-mouth recommendation. However, this is risky. Many consumer find that what they buy is not quite the same as the online word-of-mouth recommends. Consumers may therefore generate Cognitive dissonance. Despite the bad experience, Internet users still make purchase decision based on word-of-mouth recommendation afterward. This study investigates the relationships among cognitive dissonance of online word-of-mouth users, the risk relieve strategies, and trust. The results find that consumers with inertia prefer store image as risk relieve strategy the most, consumers with over-confidence prefer shopping the most. It is found that inertia and over-confidence positively affect trust. This research contributes to theory by applying the theory of cognitive dissonance in the finance management field to consumer online word-of-mouth behavior and by designing the questionnaire, this paper also provides empirical evidence to support the validity and credibility of the construct items. It makes acaedemic contribution by examining effects of cognitive dissonance on risk strategy and trust.

This research investigates how different types of electronic word-of-mouth affect consumer¡¦s attitude and purchase intention. Using the product types drafted by Ratchford (1987¡^as the moderating variable, this research explores the relation between different types of electronic word-of-mouth and consumers¡¦ product attitude and purchase intention. Ratchford (1987) divided the products into four categories along two dimensions, the consumer ¡§involvement¡¨ and ¡§rational vs affective¡¨ attitude. An experimental study was conducted using electronic word-of-mouth collected from Internet group discussion forums to find how different types of electronic word-of-mouth (product introduction, positive reviews and negative reviews) affected consumer¡¦s attitude and behavior. The results indicate that the nature of electronic word-of-mouth did affect consumer attitude toward the product and purchase intention. Major observations include the following: 1. Negative electronic word-of-mouth has resulted in lower attitude and purchase intention for ¡§Low involvement¡¨ product. 2. No significant difference exists between different types of electronic word-of-mouth for ¡§High involvement¡¨ product. 3. For ¡§Rational product¡¨, neutral message that only provided product description¡¨ turned out to create higher satisfaction, while positive and negative word-of-mouth had no significant effect on consumer attitude and purchase intention. 4. For ¡§Affective product¡¨, positive electronic word-of-mouth has more satisfaction on the consumer¡¦s attitude and purchase intention.

It grows rapidly the global men ¡¦s skin care market in developed country. There are 1 billion market size which represent s 40% to 60 % growth in the men¡¦s skin care market in Taiwan since year of 2005 . It also motivates the Word-of -Mouth market ing when the commercial advertisement has been skipped by end consumers times and times again . There are all kinds of updated word-of-mouth marketing develop ed such as: @WOM, Viral marketing, Blog marketing. It is a case to leverage the word -of-mouth marketing in brand building for a pure Men¡¦s skin care brand . This study is to explore the key successful factors for appling the Word-Of-Mouth marketing within a new market, especialy for an independent men¡¦s skin care brand. There are interview s for brand-owner and on-line ¡Vretailer, and questionary for consumers in this project. The first finding is that men ¡¦s skin care concept is more acceptable than before . It becomes more popular to purchase the products by men¡¦s their own. Further more, men start to try the suncare and anti -oil products in the ir daily regimen. However, female is still playing the key roll in decision making for her boy friend or families. We also found, the female rarely know n the difference between men¡¦s and women¡¦s skin care regimen. Even she might be an expertise in her own skin care needs. As a result, we should provide the free sample with ¡§You must know information¡¨ to the key person, SHE, then influent her boy friend and families. It is how we differentiate the independent men¡¦s skin care brand. The second finding is most of the heavy internet users are the followers; they are not interested in the men¡¦s skin care information. Therefore, it is hardly to trigger off the tipping point if we target the male as early adaptor via @WOM. In another words, we can not exect a big boom if the @WOM didn¡¦t reach women. In summary, the word-of-mouth marketing for men¡¦s skin care brand, first thing is to create the truly words via the early users, the men who already experienced the oil-control product and/or suncare products. The secondary is to broadcast the words from early users thru @WOM, PR exposures, free samples to reach women as sneezers. The last, to roll out a new topic ensure the on going spreading for brands every 12 weeks.

Word of mouth has been playing an essential role while consumers make their purchase decision since ever, and its diffusion is becoming much faster via the internet nowadays. Surfing the internet gathering information before making the purchase, the so-called ¡uWisdom of Crowds¡vshopping pattern is taking its shape and possibly going to become the main trend in the future. Thus, electronic word of mouth does play an important part during the process of consumers¡¦ decision making, and more and more consumers start to ponder what to believe on the internet. As a result, trust is becoming the key factor if the consumers can take electronic word of mouth into their consideration or not. This research discusses how message sideness appeal and emotion in electronic word of mouth affect consumers¡¦ trust under a positively framed message and a negative framed message. This research adopts experimental method, distributes questionnaire and analyze the data with SPSS12.0. The results present message sideness appeal and emotion have impacts on consumers¡¦ trust. Two-sided appeal can cause higher consumers¡¦ trust than one-sided appeal whether under a positively framed message or a negative framed message. Emotion also plays an important part between message sideness and consumers¡¦ trust during the process of diffusion of electronic word of mouth. The results can not only help the word-of-mouth senders to develop an appropriate writing pattern to make electronic word of mouth more credible and effective, but also provide the business a brand-new point of view and some practical suggestions to develop a new marketing strategy.

Traditionally speaking, some firms believe that great brand awareness will affect consumers¡¦ purchasing intention and bring much more profit in returns. Hence, a large number of entrepreneurs are spending a tremendous amount of capital on enhancing their brands and brand awareness but they often ignore the importance of word-of-mouth communication on internet. Recently, the internet has become much more popular and common than decades ago and such channel has changed consumers¡¦ purchasing habits. In fact, there are more consumers who share their experience on those products and services that they have used through internet. Furthermore, there are also more consumers who use internet to receive the information that they need for specific products and services. Thus, the importance and effectiveness of ¡§word-of-month of communication¡¨ on internet are much more important than the traditional ¡§word-of-mouth communication¡¨. This research study will be focused on hotels in Kenting area to discuss the effectiveness of purchasing intentions based on the brand awareness of that hotel and messages from the word-of-mouth communication on internet. More importantly, this research study will use customers¡¦ involvement as moderators to further understand the relationships between brand awareness & purchasing intentions, and word-of-mouth communication on internet & purchasing intentions. This research study has chosen two hotels in Kenting area. One hotel has high brand awareness while the other one has low brand awareness. This dissertation has also conducted on-line research based on their word-of-mouth communication on internet and the questionnaire participants are customers who have been to Kenting hotels. After collecting all data, this research has discovered that a hotel¡¦s brand awareness will affect customers¡¦ purchasing intentions. In other words, higher the brand awareness, more purchasing intentions from consumers. In addition, messages from word-of-mouth communication on internet will also affect customers¡¦ purchasing intentions. When the word-of-mouth communication on internet is negative, there will be fewer customers with lower purchasing intentions. Yet, the messages from word-of-mouth communication on internet will have higher effectiveness than the brand awareness of that specific hotel. Nevertheless, consumers¡¦ involvement will not affect the brand awareness, word-of-mouth communication on internet, and purchasing intentions. Last, the conclusion of this research study will provide some practical recommendations for hotel owners. Key words: brand awareness, word-of-mouth on internet, customers¡¦ involvement, and purchasing intentions.

The primary objective of this study was to determine the role of the host community in the marketing of arts festivals with reference to the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. This goal was achieved firstly by analysing the relationship between the events industry and the community. Secondly, a literature study was conducted to explore the role of the community in tourism marketing. Thirdly, a survey was done to determine the perceptions of the community in terms of the marketing of the Festival as well as the social impact thereof. From previous studies it was found that the local community can be seen as a group of people of different gender, race, age and different race and social groups living together in a certain geographic area. The local community is the main suppliers of an event; they provide many of the businesses, public places and hospitality services used by tourists and visitors at an event. Staff, volunteers and many other resources come from the local community. The attitude of the local community towards the Festival is proven to be important. Positive attitudes are associated with economic and social benefits gained from the event. The attitude of the local community can influence their behaviour towards tourists as well as their message spread concerning the event, through word-of-mouth communication. They can influence the buying behaviour of tourists and visitors. Research was undertaking at Grahamstown National Arts Festival to determine the perceptions and attitudes of the local community towards the Festival and the marketing thereof. This was determined by means of a questionnaire as adopted from Fredline, Jago and Deery. It was distributed among the local community according to a stratified random sampling procedure. A total of 265 questionnaires were completed by residents. Firstly, the data was used to compile tables and graphs with a view to interpret the descriptive data: demographic information as well as perceptions and attitudes of the local community towards the Festival and the marketing thereof. It was found that the Festival has a positive impact on their personal lives as well as on the community as a whole. Positive and negative social impacts were identified, which indicates that the community is aware of the impacts: positive, including the range of things to do in Grahamstown has improved (80%), the number of people in the area has increased (80%) and there are more opportunities to meet new people (80%). The highest rated negative social impacts include the fact that the availability of parking has decreased (79%), that the public money spent on the Festival would be better spent on other things (43%) and that ordinary residents get no say in the planning and management of the Festival (50%). In terms of the marketing, the local community markets the Festival verbally by telling friends and family about it and also by attending the Festival themselves. However, the local community feels that they should be more involved in the planning and marketing of the Festival. Secondly, a factor analysis was performed with a view to synthesise the large amount of data concerning the perceptions and marketing of the Festival in smaller, more descriptive factors. These factors were used to determine the role of the community in the marketing of the Festival. The factor analysis yielded a 2-factor solution and the factors were labelled: Factor 1: Verbal marketing of the Festival; Factor 2: Action marketing of the Festival. Thirdly, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to explore the impact of the variables: age, gender, race, income, level of education, attitudes towards continuation of the Festival, attendance of the current festival, attendance of previous festivals, level of interest in the Festival, length of stay in Grahamstown, attitudes towards living in Grahamstown on the dimensions Verbal and Active marketing, as determined in the factor analysis. It was found that a medium effect exists between the middle-aged group and the older-age group on the Verbal marketing dimension. A medium effect also exists between the black and Asian respondents on the dimension Verbal marketing. There is a large effect between attendance of the Festival and Verbal marketing but a medium effect on the dimension Action marketing. A large effect was determined between avid fans and those that are not interested but attend occasionally, between avid fans and those who have no interest in the Festival, between those that are interested and attend some aspects of the Festival and those that are not interested but attend, those that are interested and attend and those that are not interested, on the Verbal marketing dimension. A medium effect was discovered between avid fans of the Festival and those that attended some of the aspects of the Festival, and those that are not interested but attend some aspects, and those that are not interested at all, on the Verbal marketing dimension. On the Verbal marketing dimension a medium effect was determined between the following: A medium effect was determined between avid fans of the Festival and those that attended some of the aspects of the Festival, avid fans and those that are not interested but attend occasionally, those that are interested and attend and those that are not interested, on the Action marketing dimension. This study contributes to the information that already exists concerning the role of the community in the marketing of arts festivals and on marketing communication research / Thesis (M.Com. (Tourism)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Sammanfattning Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera hur marknadsföring via social media på olika sätt är viktigt för researrangörer, samt vilka faktorer som kan påverka kommunikationen mellan researrangör och kund. Jag har valt att göra en fallstudie på Fritidsresors användning av sociala medier. För att uppå syftet har jag valt att besvara följande forskningsfrågor: - Hur bevakar och nyttjar Fritidsresor sociala medier i sin kommunikation med kunderna? - Hur hanterar Fritidsresor negativ spridning via de sociala plattformarna? - Hur ser Fritidsresor på marknadsföring via sociala medier ur ett framtidsperspektiv?   Marknadsföringen har ändrats mycket de senaste decennierna. Från att ha varit produktfokuserade till kundfokuserade. En dialog mellan företag och kund är idag mycket viktigt och relationsmarknadsföring har kommit att tas på större allvar än tidigare. Kunderna har allt mer makt på marknaden och genom internet kan de själva söka information och ta del av olika tjänster och produkters marknadsföring. Marknadsförarens största utmaning idag är att förstå och använda sig av internet på rätt sätt, samt att lära sig läsa kunder och deras behov. Det är inte längre möjligt för turismorganisationer att enbart se sociala medier som en del av marknadsföringen, utan istället som en central del av företaget vilket kommer att spela en avgörande roll i framtiden. Idag har företag inte ett val om de skall använda sig av sociala medier, utan det handlar om hur bra det gör det. Under studien har det framkommit att sociala medier främst bör användas som ett kommunikationsverktyg och en plattform där relationer kan skapas mellan företag och kund. Idag är det dock inte en självklarhet att researrangörer besitter kunskap om sociala medier och användandet av dem. Undersökningens resultat visar på att låta kunder diskutera och återkoppla med varandra är en viktig del av relationsbyggandet mellan företag och kund, då det skapar engagemang och lojalitet. För företag är det viktigt att inkludera kunden i verksamheten och se dem som medaktörer. Genom att bevaka de sociala plattformarna och bemöta negativ kritik på ett korrekt sätt kan företag minska risken för negativ spridning vilket är A och O i användningen av sociala medier.

Under de senaste åren har den globala kosmetikaindustrin genomgått en enorm ekonomisk tillväxt. Sminkföretagen lägger stora summor på marknadsföringsinsatser för att upprätthålla konsumtionsmönstret bland konsumenter. Då människors förtroende för traditionell marknadsföring sinar och alternativa kanaler samt personliga rekommendationer genom Word of Mouth värderas högre, blir detta allt viktigare för företag att beakta i utformningen av marknadsföring. Detta utgör mycket viktiga implikationer för sminkföretag. Då sminkföretag årligen lanserar stora mängder smink och då marknadsföring är avgörande för en ny produkts framgång på marknaden, innebär det att alternativa marknadsföringskanaler måste nyttjas och Word of Mouth måste uppmuntras för att därigenom stimulera köp bland konsumenter och uppnå en marknadsacceptans av nya produkter. Historiskt sett har ingen forskning bedrivits som utforskar samband och relationer mellan områdena sminkföretag, sociala medier som marknadsföringskanal samt produktlanseringar. Detta leder oss till vår problemformulering som lyder: ”Hur påverkas konsumenter i Sverige vid en lansering av en ny sminkprodukt att sprida positiv Word of Mouth?” Studien främsta syfte är att agera en brygga mellan samhällsutvecklingen inom de berörda studieområdena och akademisk forskning. Dessutom vill vi skapa en förståelse för konsumenters beteende med avseende på spridning av Word of Mouth på sociala medier för att därigenom formulera praktiska rekommendationer för ledningen i sminkföretag i Sverige. I studien har vi valt att anta ett företagsperspektiv och nyttja en kvalitativ insamlingsmetod med en hermeneutisk kunskapssyn och en konstruktionistisk verklighetssyn. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna som utgör grunden i denna studie har delats in i två huvudsakliga sektioner. Den första sektionen består av teorier och forskning kring produktlanseringar och den andra sektionen av teorier och forskning inom fenomen på sociala medier. Vi har med hjälp av tre fokusgrupper motsvarande 13 respondenter insamlat det empiriska materialet. Samtliga respondenter i studien är kvinnliga användare av såväl smink som sociala medier. Valet av dessa respondenter gjordes genom ett icke-sannolikhetsurval med inslag av en så kallad snöbollseffekt. Vid analysen av det empiriska materialet framkom att konsumenter, trots en stark negativitet mot flera av de alternativa marknadsföringskanaler som nyttjas av sminkföretag, påverkas inför köp. Emellertid har vissa kanaler och marknadsföringsinsatser en större positiv inverkan på såväl konsumenters köpbeteende som benägenhet att sprida Word of Mouth. En av de viktigaste slutsatserna utifrån analysen är det samband som återfunnits mellan konsumenters spridningstendens av marknadsföringsbudskap och förtroende, ärlighet, transparens, humor, genuinitet och igenkänningsfaktorer.

Hype är inte ett nytt fenomen. Historiskt sett kan man identifiera flera produktlanseringar som lyckats skapa en hype bland människor. Vare sig det handlar om en spontan reaktion eller skicklig marknadsföring återstår det faktum att vissa produkter sprids betydligt mer än andra. Detta tycks leda till ett speciellt beteende hos konsumenterna.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att studera hur mindre företag i resebranschen kan använda sociala medier som en framstående marknadsföringskanal för att öka kännedomen om företagets varumärke, samt skapa ett gemensamt värde för både kund och företag. De huvudsakliga teorier som ligger till grund för den här studien är sociala medier, sociala medier som marknadsföringskanal, varumärket, segmentering, strategi, krishantering, marknadsföring och kundservice, kundrelationer och värdeskapande, word of mouth, samt framtid. / The purpose with this thesis is to study how smaller companies within the travel industry can use social media as a prominent marketing channel, in order to create increased awareness of the corporate brand and create joint value for both the customer and the company. The major theories that form the basis for this study are; social media, social media as a marketing channel, the brand, segmentation, strategy, crisis management, marketing and customer service, customer relationship and value creation, word of mouth and the future.