<p>The Dark Side of the Word-of-Mouse Effect</p><p><em>- An experimental study of how negative information in today’s social media can influence consumer perception</em></p><p> As a result of the electronic revolution of information dissemination, social media as a phenomenon has come to play an important part, both in society at large but also when it comes to business and marketing. Nowadays, knowledge and opinions about brands and products are spread by reputation through a wide range of social media platforms, a phenomenon which in the literature is referred to as word-of-mouse or electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM).</p><p>The purpose of this paper is to investigate how people’s opinions towards a company and its product are affected by negative information in terms of eWOM. Or more precisely, whether or not there is a difference in this effect depending on information content, concerning company values on the one hand and product attributes on the other.</p><p>This was done in an experimental setting where two groups of respondents were subjected to fictitious information of different types using established social media platforms. Thereby, the impact on attitude, credibility and buying intention towards the company and its product was measured as well as the diagnosticity of the information and accordingly the eWOM effect could be determined.</p><p>The result of the study indicates that negative eWOM does indeed induce changes in the receiver’s opinion and more importantly it shows a discrepancy in the impact of different kinds of information. That is, the receiver’s opinion in terms of attitude and credibility is, by the eWOM, affected to a larger extent by the exposure of negative information concerning company values as compared to product attributes. However, regarding the impact on the receiver’s ultimate behavior this discrepancy does not seem to exist as buying intention is affected equally.</p>

The Dark Side of the Word-of-Mouse Effect - An experimental study of how negative information in today’s social media can influence consumer perception  As a result of the electronic revolution of information dissemination, social media as a phenomenon has come to play an important part, both in society at large but also when it comes to business and marketing. Nowadays, knowledge and opinions about brands and products are spread by reputation through a wide range of social media platforms, a phenomenon which in the literature is referred to as word-of-mouse or electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). The purpose of this paper is to investigate how people’s opinions towards a company and its product are affected by negative information in terms of eWOM. Or more precisely, whether or not there is a difference in this effect depending on information content, concerning company values on the one hand and product attributes on the other. This was done in an experimental setting where two groups of respondents were subjected to fictitious information of different types using established social media platforms. Thereby, the impact on attitude, credibility and buying intention towards the company and its product was measured as well as the diagnosticity of the information and accordingly the eWOM effect could be determined. The result of the study indicates that negative eWOM does indeed induce changes in the receiver’s opinion and more importantly it shows a discrepancy in the impact of different kinds of information. That is, the receiver’s opinion in terms of attitude and credibility is, by the eWOM, affected to a larger extent by the exposure of negative information concerning company values as compared to product attributes. However, regarding the impact on the receiver’s ultimate behavior this discrepancy does not seem to exist as buying intention is affected equally.

Consumers are increasingly engaging with brands on social networking sites (SNS) through activities such as sharing, commenting, liking and recommending products or brands to other consumers. These types of recommendations are referred to as electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) and are proven to have a significant influence on consumers’ purchasing decisions. Previous research has investigated motives for traditional WOM and motives for eWOM on opinion platforms. This study proposes that eWOM on SNSs is a combination of traditional WOM and eWOM on opinion platforms. By using a sample of 154 Swedish Facebook users, this study explores why consumers engage in positive eWOM communication on SNSs. This is done by testing 6 validated motives that are identified in previous research in the new context. The resulting analysis suggests that consumers’ need for social interaction and desire to express positive emotions are the primary drivers behind engagement in positive eWOM communication on SNSs. The findings confirm that eWOM on SNSs contains elements of both traditional WOM and eWOM on opinion platforms and should thus be considered as a unique context where eWOM takes place.

The goal of this study was to explore the customer journey of an online purchase of clothes and to identify potential opinion leaders in the decision-taking phase before the purchase. Important questions to be analyzed were through which channels might customers get influenced and by whom. A special focus was put on the role of Facebook and Twitter during this process. In a later part of the study, the communication strategies of three clothes brands (H&amp;M, Nelly and Halens) were studied with respect to their Facebook and Twitter channels, in order to understand how and with what kind of content they approach their customers. In this study a mixed-methods approach was used (survey, qualitative interviews, content analysis), in order to get an as complete picture as possible from the customers’ behavior. To explore the customer’s perspective, an online survey was used as well as qualitative interviews. The content analysis was applied to investigate the company side. The results of this study show that the respondents are mainly influenced in their decisions by their friends in an offline channel (face-to-face), and not through social networks. Facebook and Twitter do not influence the customers (or maybe only to a minimal extent). Thus, one conclusion of the study is that social media like Facebook and Twitter do not have a major influence on the online purchase of clothes, at least not on a conscious level. Instead other factors can have more influence, like face-to-fact contact with friends, as mentioned in the study. These findings are important for companies and should make them consider the important aspect of the offline-impact in future marketing strategies.

SammanfattningSociala medier växer som marknadsföringsverktyg och det är enligt forskare ett utmärkt sätt för företag att skapa dialog och bygga relationer med sina kunder. Flera tidigare studier som behandlar sociala medier och dess effekter har genomförts de senaste åren och det finns fortfarande ett stort intresse inom ämnet. Det vi har valt att undersöka är hur företag idag använder sig av sociala medier i sitt marknadsföringsarbete, vi har även valt att jämföra två olika branscher för att utöka kunskapen inom det redan utforskade området. Vi har därför valt att se på modebranschen och teknik- och industribranschen för att utreda om det finns skillnader mellan dessa när det kommer till arbetet med sociala medier. För att undersöka detta så har vi använt oss av kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra företag inom modebranschen och fyra företag inom teknik- och industribranschen. Vi har använt oss av primärkällor och sekundärkällor, där våra primära källor utgörs av våra kvalitativa intervjuer och våra sekundära källor är hämtade ur tryckta källor och elektroniska källor. Resultatet vi fick har lett oss fram till slutsatsen att modebranschen kan dra större nytta av att använda sig av sociala medier då de fyra företag vi intervjuat säljer en produkt, till skillnad från de fyra företag vi intervjuat inom teknik- och industribranschen som är tjänsteföretag. Modebranschen ser sociala medier som en mer naturlig del av marknadsföringen, medan teknik- och industribranschen är mer traditionell och använder sociala medier mer för att utveckla sin relationsmarknadsföring och även som en kundtjänstkanal. Modebranschen arbetar mycket med bloggar, kampanjer och tävlingar medan teknik- och industribranschen arbetar mycket med rekrytering via sociala medier. Båda branscher ser sociala medier som en ökande trend och förstår vikten av att synas i de forum där deras kunder verkar.

For companies, the cost of acquiring a new customer is several times the cost of retaining an existing customer. Furthermore, the purchasing power of an existing customer is usually more predominant than a new one. Therefore, more and more companies attempt to establish long-term relationships with customers in order to make them patronize again or do other useful behaviors. The concept of consumer-company identification (C-C identification) has been used to qualify the deep, meaningful, and long-term relationships between consumers and companies. This research analyzes the antecedents and consequences of C-C identification. We suggest that high identity distinctiveness and identity prestige may lead to high C-C identification. Also, high C-C identification should enhance consumers¡¦ repurchase intention and word-of-mouth (WOM). Our survey with questionnaire conducted to investigate and collect data is sent to the consumers who have shopping experience recently in department stores of Taiwan. The valid sample with questionnaire returned is 294. We analyze the results by using structural equation modeling (SEM) and find that identity distinctiveness and identity prestige have a positive relationship with C-C identification separately. Moreover, C-C identification also has a positive effect to repurchase intention and WOM. Eventually, the managerial implications of this study may help corporate managers to ponder their marketing strategies or even improve their firms¡¦ performance.

With the common adoption of the Internet and Web in the recent years, the WOM has been changed to electronic WOM (e- WOM). E-WOM is the positive or negative statements made about a product, company, or media personality that are made widely available via the Internet. It has become an important source of information for the consumer to make decisions including purchase and more and more people have noticed the importance of its applications. The goal of this research is to investigate ¡§message passing along behavior intention¡¨ (MPBI) by using Social Cognitive Theory and Social Capital Theory from the viewpoints of people and environment. We use survey method to collect the data and use PLS to analyze it. And the results reveal that when people passing message along to others, they care about how close these messages are with them instead of how correct these messages are. It implies that MPBI has the nature of daily life, and therefore, people will be more willing to pass daily life messages. Besides, individuals tend to pass along messages to people who have substantial relationship with him/her. We also found people pass message along to people not for reputation but for expressing their affections to others. In addition, message passing Self-efficacy is also important to MPBI. We also classified MPBI into two types ¡X the one is hedonic and the other is utilitarian. The results indicate that people have different behavioral pattern when they deal with different kind of MPBI. In sum, MPBI is a channel for people to maintain the relationship with others and the findings of this study provides some suggestions for the e-WOM research.

Due to the popularity of social media and an increase in the engagement of social care, traditional word-of-mouth communications has been replaced by electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). Facebook, the most popular website in the United States, is home to nearly 18 million brand or business pages and may be accessed by social media-users aiming to engage in social care, which is customer service via social media. Extending existing research, this study employed in-depth interviews to determine whether or not social media-users are affected by the feedback of other users on restaurants' Facebook pages. The results of this study suggest that Facebook is being used as a tool to attain user feedback regarding restaurants and is perceived as a credible tool. The results also suggest that social media-users are mainly affected by others' user feedback when they are researching a restaurant they have not yet experienced. Finally, the findings of this study suggest that restaurants using Facebook should respond to all types of user feedback, since this practice may result in providing social media-users with a more positive perception of the restaurant.

Musikmarknaden har genomgått stora förändringar där fysiska inköp av CD-skivor fasas ut till förmån för molnbaserade tjänster med strömmande media. Konsumenternas vanor förändras i takt med denna utveckling där sociala medier och andra Internetbaserade tjänster får en allt större roll. Syftet med denna uppsats är att identifiera Uppsalastudenters konsumentbeteende med avseende på musik. Mer precist undersöks vilka sociala faktorer som påverkar studenterna för att de ska upptäcka ny musik. De teorier som används härstammar från den övergripande teorin Konsumentbeteende, med inriktningarna Word-of-mouth (WOM) och referensgrupper. Fyra attribut som tillsammans utgör en lyckad WOM-process identifierades, där samtliga attribut har inverkan på hur musik upptäcks. Varje attribut tilldelades därefter ett påstående som med hjälp av statistiska resultat antingen stärktes eller förkastades genom analys. En kvantitativ metod användes där en enkätundersökning utgjorde det empiriska materialet. Resultatet av studien visar att de två främsta sociala faktorerna som påverkar upptäckten av musik är styrkan hos de sociala banden samt referensgruppers acceptans. Mer konkret visar resultatet att nära vänner/familj är den vanligaste källan för musiktips samtidigt som Spotify är den i särklass vanligaste kanalen att motta dessa tips igenom. När studenter ger musiktips sker det främst till nära vänner med intentionen att mottagaren ska uppskatta tipset.

Abstract Title: If it doesn’t spread it’s dead - a qualitative study on how young entrepreneurs are positioning themselves in the marketplace and with the help of social media spreading their brand. (If it doesn’t spread it’s dead ­- en kvalitativ studie om hur unga entreprenörer positionerar sig på marknaden, med hjälp av sociala medier sprider sitt varumärke).   Number of pages: 48   Author: Sandra Ahlinder, Anna Hoffman   Tutor: Peder Hård af Segerstad Course: Media and Communications Studies C   Period: Fall 2013 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information   Purpose/Aim: The aim with this study is to investigate how companies use social media as a marketing tool. The study will investigate possible differences between two groups of newly started companies. The first group is companies that has recieved a relatively large amount of media attention and the second group is companies that has received less attention in media. The study will examine the usage of social media in the two groups.   Material/Method: A qualitative method has been used in this study in the the collection of data and in the analysis of the collected material. The collection of data is based on semi-structed interwievs as a qualitative method.  In the analysis of the data a content analysis was applied.   Main results: The study's main results shows that there is a difference between the two groups of companies use of social media as a marketing tool. The difference is evident in the respective phases the companies are subject to. The group of companies that receives a significant larger amount of media attention has a developed structure in their marketing strategies. In contrast, the group with less media attention are still in a startup-phase and do not have the same means to reach that level of awareness and development in their marketing.               Keywords: Sociala medier, Entreprenör, Traditionell marknadsföring, Icke-traditionell markandsföring, Word-of mouth (WOM), Relationship Marketing (RM), Storytelling, Relationsmarknadsföring.