Old Spice cleverly used a handsome actor to play the Old Spice Man character for a Super Bowl commercial in 2010. After the game, this Old Spice commercial was viewed more than 13 million times on YouTube, a social media video-sharing site. This viral marketing campaign, also known as electronic word-of-mouth (E-WOM), propelled the Old Spice brand into the forefront of consumers’ minds, increased brand awareness, and inspired people to share the video links with their family, friends, and co-workers. The rapid growth of E-WOM is an indication of consumers’ increased willingness to convey marketing messages to others. However, despite this development, marketing academics and practitioners do not fully understand this powerful form of marketing. This dissertation enriches our understanding of E-WOM and how e-servicescape may lead to E-WOM. To that end, stimulus-organism-response theory and the network co-production model of E-WOM are applied to investigate the relationships between e-servicescape, trust, E-WOM intentions, customer loyalty, and purchase intentions. Two forms of E-WOM were examined, namely emails and social network postings. E-servicescape is defined as the online environmental factors of a marketer’s website. E-servicescape is composed of three main dimensions, including aesthetic appeal, financial security, and layout and functionality. This study used cross-sectional customer data from a single e-tailer. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the responses. Customer reviews was added as an additional sub-dimension of e-servicescape. The findings suggest e-servicescape positively impacts trust, which in turn positively influences E-WOM and customer loyalty. Moreover, two groups of customers were compared using multi-group analysis, where one group of users received emails and the other group received social network postings from the same e-tailer. Overall, the results indicated emails had a stronger impact on e-servicescape, E-WOM, and customer loyalty. Social networking site postings had slightly greater influence on trust, and two sub-dimensions of e-servicescape, i.e., interactivity and ease of payment. These findings contribute to the marketing research on E-WOM theory and electronic commerce shopping behavior. In particular, the sub-dimension of customer reviews is added to e-servicescape. This study yields practical implications for marketers in understanding consumers’ perceptions of websites and how to better design sites. In addition, these findings add to knowledge on how to engender consumers’ trust and customer loyalty online. Finally, this research provides suggestions for firms wanting to create marketing campaigns that will lead to E-WOM.

In recent years, craft fairs, shows and markets where crafters sell their handmade goods such as pottery, jewelry, handmade clothes and needlework have grown in popularity across the United States. A common intent among individuals in this community echo political statements made by the turn of the century Arts and Crafts movement, while there are political aspects of the community that can also be seen as an extension of the third wave feminist do-it-yourself (DIY) ethic of the late 1990s. This newly enlarged community of crafters that congregates in person also has a strong online presence. Etsy.com plays a large role in this community. The introduction of websites such as Etsy.com to the communities they serve has widespread impacts. The aim of this study is to analyze how Etsy.com impacts the lives of women who use the website to earn income. Following ethnographic traditions, the researcher interviewed five community members. The focus was on thick description of the DIY community and thematization of interview narratives. To meet participant observation criteria, the researcher also volunteered at the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC) in Portland, Oregon for 4 months. Additionally, the researcher conducted a textual analysis of blogs, websites, artwork, and other sources of data collected from the online hand crafting community. The study presents and discusses the themes that emerged from the data, including women's work, feminism and technology, the crafters' political statements, the crafters as owners of legitimate businesses, and Etsy.com's impact on local economy. The results paint a picture of the community (both on and offline) and how Etsy.com helps to shape this. The researcher then discusses how to assess the impacts tools such as community websites will have on the communities they serve.

Dissertation submitted in compliance with requirements for the Master Degree in Technology: Marketing, Durban University of Technology, 2010. / Hip-Hop culture has created a lot of interest and controversy around the world. Most people have used and engaged in debates without having a clear understanding of it. Although there are numerous articles to be found on Hip-Hop culture, very little research has been done on this particular topic. The confusion that surrounds Hip-Hop culture highlights the need for marketers to conduct more research on this particular area. This particular study was conducted within the South African marketplace, in four Durban areas using a quantitative research method. The sample for the study was supposed to consist of 400 hundred respondents, but only 350 respondents were selected using a convenience sampling. Respondents were required to complete a six paged questionnaire with the interviewer's assistance. The main objective of the research was to identify and analyze the marketing implications of Hip-Hop culture in the greater Durban area. The results revealed that 60% of the respondents are strongly committed to Hip-Hop culture and they are brand fanatics. Therefore, this seeks to say, that marketers need concentrate on promoting Hip-Hop products and services. And is the high time to know the Hip-Hop culture's needs and wants. / Lesotho Government (National Man-Power) ; Pebble Bed Modular Reactors ; National Research Foundation

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study uses a rhetorical visual analysis to investigate supplement advertisements within the top three fitness magazines, according to circulation, to provide a richer understanding of the message construction within the visual images the advertisements contain. The advertisements were selected at random over a time span of a year and a half within each of the magazines, totaling nine separate advertisements for analysis. The purpose of this study is to determine to what extent, if any, the construction of advertisements in men's fitness magazines operates as ideographic images establishing legitimacy as determined through application of Sonja Foss' rhetorical visual analysis methodology. Previous research has identified various analyses of visual images within the fitness culture, however, rhetorical visual analysis of supplement advertisement does not appear to have been investigated prior to this project which is the primary concern for the initiation of the current research. Employing rhetorical analysis in order to understand visual images provides a perspective that is imperative to identification of elements and functions of visual images. The current findings indicate that images in advertisements in men's fitness magazines do not establish rhetorical legitimacy, as understood from a rhetorical perspective. However, when examined through a traditional aesthetic intentionalist perspective, the construction of the advertisements operates as ideographic images, establishing legitimacy through the image. This information provides us with the understanding that advertisements within current muscle magazines are operating under a traditional viewpoint, and as such, produce traditional perspectives. The advertisement industry within this genre is reliant upon the consumer first knowing what the product is and then realizing how the image fits into that function. The limitation within this perspective of the advertisement industry is the consumer's knowledge base concerning the product, the product being explained through text and the time the consumer is willing to spend on correlating the intent or function with the images presented.

Social media is an important part of the everyday lives of young and old alike. Consumers today turn to online sources more and more to help them make decisions. They ask for advice online on purchases they want to make and read extensive reviews that help them to make a purchase decision. With a broad literature review conducted, it was noted that in the past traditional media was mainly used by students as information sources in their decision-making process. The purpose of this study was to determine what role social media as an information source has in the decision making of students when selecting a university. Data was collected from University of South Africa students by means of an online questionnaire. The sample was selected using probability sampling in the form of simple random sampling. The results of this study indicated that students use social media as an information source to some extent when making a decision about a university. Social media was found to be a credible source of information albeit it only has a slight influence on their decision-making process. Students are present online and use social media mostly on their cell phones for entertainment purposes. Universities should take note of the role that social media plays in the lives of students. It can enable them to better market their institutions to potential students. / Business Management / MCOM (Business Management)

Social media is an important part of the everyday lives of young and old alike. Consumers today turn to online sources more and more to help them make decisions. They ask for advice online on purchases they want to make and read extensive reviews that help them to make a purchase decision. With a broad literature review conducted, it was noted that in the past traditional media was mainly used by students as information sources in their decision-making process. The purpose of this study was to determine what role social media as an information source has in the decision making of students when selecting a university. Data was collected from University of South Africa students by means of an online questionnaire. The sample was selected using probability sampling in the form of simple random sampling. The results of this study indicated that students use social media as an information source to some extent when making a decision about a university. Social media was found to be a credible source of information albeit it only has a slight influence on their decision-making process. Students are present online and use social media mostly on their cell phones for entertainment purposes. Universities should take note of the role that social media plays in the lives of students. It can enable them to better market their institutions to potential students. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)