eWOM Marketing Research Articles

Faktor yang Memengaruhi Purchase Intention melalui Brand Image pada Skincare Lokal di Kota Batam

Background – During the COVID-19 epidemic, increased consumer interest in skincare is generating commercial potential for local skincare products in Batam City. Attractive and trustworthy brand ambassadors play an important role in influencing consumers' purchase intentions for products by enhancing brand image and increasing awareness of product quality, which will ultimately motivate purchases. Aim – The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between various factors (attractiveness, expertise, trustworthiness of brand ambassadors, E-WOM, and social media marketing) on purchase intention of local skincare products in Batam City. Design / methodology / approach – The purposive sampling method was used to collect data from 386 individuals who have used local skincare products in Batam City. The questionnaire was distributed using Google Form in April 2023. Findings – The results of the Structural Equation Modeling - Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) analysis show a positive and significant influence of attractiveness, expertise, trustworthiness, E-WOM, social media marketing variables on purchase intention through brand image. Conclusion - The brand image of skin care products will increase if you use a brand ambassador, where this brand ambassador has a strong influence in increasing the desire to buy skin care products. Research implication – These findings provide insight that social media marketing approaches are efficient, brand ambassadors are influential, and E-WOM is effective in improving brand image and purchase intention of local skincare customers. Limitations – The limitation of this study is that the brand image variable can only be explained by 46.5% by variables such as attractiveness, knowledge, trustworthiness, E-WOM, and social media marketing. Other variables not studied, such as respect and similarity, can explain the remaining 53.5%. Similarly, the purchase intention variable can only be explained by 39.6% by the factors considered, with the remaining 60.4% possibly influenced by other variables such as sales promotion and product quality.

The Influence of E-Word of Mouth Marketing on Students’ Selection of Management Degrees

This study aims to examine the influence of electronic word-of-mouth marketing on students’ selection of management degrees. A structured questionnaire was employed to gather data. The target population consisted of management undergraduates during the period from 2016 to 2022 in Sri Lanka, as well as potential students interested in pursuing a management degree program. A sample size of 384 respondents was initially selected, and 312 responses were collected from the management undergraduates of the Open University of Sri Lanka and five other private universities in Sri Lanka. After removing outliers, a total of 283 responses were considered for analysis. Due to the unknown size of the total population, a convenience sampling technique was utilized to select the responses from the undergraduates. The regression analysis results revealed significant and positive effects of e-word of mouth (eWOM) quality, eWOM quantity, and eWOM credibility on students' intention to select management degree programs. Notably, it was found that eWOM credibility exerted the strongest influence on students' intentions in this regard. These findings highlight the importance of considering the quality, quantity, and credibility of eWOM when assessing its impact on students' decision-making process of degree selection. The findings of this study contribute to the existing body of knowledge on e-word-of-mouth marketing in the context of higher education. The results provide insights into the extent to which eWOM marketing influences students' decision-making process and their intention to choose management degree programs. Educational institutions and marketers can leverage these insights to design effective marketing strategies and enhance their online reputation to attract and retain prospective students in Sri Lanka.

Promotion and experiential marketing on purchasing decisions mediated by e-WOM in coffee SMEs

This study aimed to determine the effect of promotion and experiential marketing on buying decisions mediated by electronic Word-of-Mouth (e-WOM) in coffee SMEs. This research is quantitative research by distributing questionnaires. The research sample is 100 respondents with the Cochran formula. Data collection in this study used an ordinal and was measured using a Likert scale. Data analysis was carried out using SEM-PLS with the help of smart PLS. The results of the study indicate that purchasing decisions are significantly impacted by experiential marketing. It demonstrates how experiential marketing's sense, feeling, thinking, acting, and relating components are frequently used by marketers to influence consumer decisions. e-WOM marketing is significantly impacted by experiential marketing. It demonstrates that experience marketing impacts coffee SMEs' use of e-WOM marketing.

Pengaruh Lifestyle Electronic Word Of Mouth dan Brand Image Terhadap Keputusan Pembelian

This study examines the simultaneous and partial effects of Lifestyle, Electronic Word of Mouth, and Brand Image on purchasing decisions. Primary data was collected using the survey method by distributing questionnaires to respondents who subscribe to and watch Netflix. Questionnaires were collected as many as 130 respondents using purposive sampling method. Furthermore, the data is processed using multiple linear regression analysis. Based on the results of the research analysis, it shows that Lifestyle, EWOM and Brand Image together influence purchasing decisions. These results also show that lifestyle and electronic word of mouth have an effect on purchasing decisions, but brand image has no effect on purchasing decisions and EWOM has the most dominant influence on purchasing decisions. The results of this research are expected to be input for Netflix to be able to improve the EWOM marketing strategy so that consumers can be more convincing in making purchasing decisions.

The dissemination and impacts of deceptive eWOM: a dynamic process perspective

ABSTRACT To minimise risk, consumers seek out eWOM, recommendations, and reviews from others before making purchasing decisions. However, it is not uncommon to see companies masterminding deceptive eWOM, disguising promotional messages as user-generated product reviews to attract and retain consumers. The extant literature is extremely limited regarding deceptive eWOM and its long-term effects. Ours is the first longitudinal study to examine consumers’ belief and attitude changes in the context of deceptive eWOM. This study found that, in a herding situation, deceptive eWOM can strongly influence changes in consumers’ beliefs and attitudes, whether in the early phase or mainstream phase, at the pre-adoption stage. If deceptive eWOM emerges earlier, it has a more powerful influence later. At the post-adoption stage, once they have used it, consumers may change their evaluations of a new product. However, this new evaluation is still subject to the initial anchoring effect brought by deceptive eWOM. If consumers sense deceptive eWOM and attribute it to a certain responsible party, the anchoring effect will be weakened. These findings provide further knowledge and understanding of the effects of deceptive eWOM, with implications for firms seeking to develop more effective eWOM marketing strategies.

Effects of message framing and consumers' regulatory focus on perceived credibility of electronic word-of-mouth and purchase intention

We adopted a two-way analysis of variance to evaluate the effect of positive and negative message framing and consumers' regulatory focus (promotion- and prevention-focused) on the perceived credibility of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and purchase intention. Participants were 344 adults in Taiwan aged between 20 and 60 years. Results show that (a) prevention-focused (vs. promotion-focused) consumers perceived eWOM had greater credibility when they were presented with a negatively framed message, (b) negative (vs. positive) message framing increased the perceived credibility of eWOM for prevention-focused consumers, (c) promotion-focused (vs. preventionfocused) consumers had a stronger purchase intention when presented with a positively framed message, and (d) both prevention- and promotion-focused consumers had stronger purchase intention when exposed to a positively (vs. negatively) framed message. Our findings may provide a reference for companies to establish a set of eWOM marketing strategies.

A dynamic evolutionary game model of web celebrity brand eWOM marketing control strategy

PurposeThis paper aims to recognize whether government policy supervision or social network platform supervision can effectively promote the control of misconducts of web celebrity brand eWOM marketing and to identify the key factors influencing the unhealthy web celebrity marketing environment.Design/methodology/approachTheoretical research was employed to develop a practical approach for applying evolutionary game theory to eWOM marketing controlling strategies modeling via dynamic visualization, systematic simulation experiments.FindingsEvolutionary game theory combined with dynamic simulation modeling can provide a formal approach to understanding web celebrity brand eWOM marketing decision-making in social media, which can thus support the control of unhealthy web celebrity marketing environment. The results demonstrate that the reasonable control of social platform control costs may be more effective than the government policy on web celebrity fake brand eWOM marketing behaviors.Originality/valueThe study enriches the research on the management and control of eWOM marketing as well as provides guidance for the sustainable development of the web celebrity economy in social media.

Pengaruh E-WOM Facebook dan Brand Trust terhadap Pembentukan Brand Attachment Produk Online di Kota Bima

Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah konsumen di Kota Bima yang memiliki Facebook dan pernah melakukan pembelian online di Facebook yang jumlahnya tidak dapat diukur dengan pasti (populasi tidak diketahui). Sampel dalam penelitian ini berjumlah 100 responden dengan menggunakan teknik purposive sampling. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan angket dengan skala likert yang masing-masing telah teruji dan telah memenuhi syarat validitas dan reliabilitas. Hasil analisis regresi linier berganda dengan SPSS versi 20 menunjukkan bahwa E- WOM tidak berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap keterikatan merek produk online di Kota Bima, dan kepercayaan merek berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap keterikatan merek produk online di Kota Bima.

Analysis of the impact of social network sites and eWOM marketing, considering the\xa0reinforcing dimensions of the concept of luxury, on tendency toward luxury brand

This study, with regard to new ways of marketing in today’s digital world, has tried to analyze and evaluate the impact of marketing through social network sites as the most effective electronic word-of-mouth marketing strategy on tendency toward luxury brand or in other words, on purchase intent trigger toward this type of brand. It also outlines that “communication” policy plays a significant role on establishment of strong relationship with customers among luxury marketing mix strategies. The research has been done among users of social network sites that live in the north of Tehran (district nos. 1, 2 and 3). They are considered as social classes A and B, and there is high demand of purchasing luxury brands among them. The impact of structural factors of these sites, as well as demographic factors, with regard to the dimensions that reinforce the concept of “luxury” was studied on the tendency of people toward luxury brands. This study is considered as applied research, and the data collection method is survey-descriptive. The validity of the questionnaire was investigated by exploratory factor analysis through performing principal component analysis. Then the data analysis was conducted by structural equations modeling technique and also Spearman correlation test. At last, most of the hypotheses were confirmed and the results showed a significant impact of social network sites marketing on tendency to luxury brand. The research offers implications for developing effective marketing strategy through social network sites and helps luxury brand managers to build strong customer–brand relationship.

A new framework of electronic word-of-mouth in social networking sites: the system-based approach

With the advent of social media and online communities, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) marketing has gained increasing importance as an effective strategy in reducing the customers' uncertainty, increasing their confidence, knowledge acquisition of social customers as well as increasing their purchase intention. Many businesses have become aware of potential advantages of using WOM marketing approach in social networks. However, despite the appeal of the concept, few studies have been conducted to identify the phenomenon and its driving forces and consequences. Hence, the main aim of the current study is to provide a novel framework for eWOM marketing in social networking sites (SNSs) via a system-based approach which simultaneously identifies social WOM antecedents, its dimensions, and consequences. To answer the main research questions, comprehensive literature was reviewed along with focus group method, and then the extracted factors and related measures were evaluated and prioritised by experts. The proposed framework consists of antecedents of WOM marketing in social networking (including individual, organisational and environmental), the dimensions of WOM marketing behaviour (the type of eWOM, eWOM components, and its activities) in social networks as well as its consequences (consequences for customers and for organisations).

A new framework of electronic word-of-mouth in social networking sites: the system-based approach

With the advent of social media and online communities, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) marketing has gained increasing importance as an effective strategy in reducing the customers' uncertainty, increasing their confidence, knowledge acquisition of social customers as well as increasing their purchase intention. Many businesses have become aware of potential advantages of using WOM marketing approach in social networks. However, despite the appeal of the concept, few studies have been conducted to identify the phenomenon and its driving forces and consequences. Hence, the main aim of the current study is to provide a novel framework for eWOM marketing in social networking sites (SNSs) via a system-based approach which simultaneously identifies social WOM antecedents, its dimensions, and consequences. To answer the main research questions, comprehensive literature was reviewed along with focus group method, and then the extracted factors and related measures were evaluated and prioritised by experts. The proposed framework consists of antecedents of WOM marketing in social networking (including individual, organisational and environmental), the dimensions of WOM marketing behaviour (the type of eWOM, eWOM components, and its activities) in social networks as well as its consequences (consequences for customers and for organisations).

Effectiveness of online consumer reviews

PurposeExtant research addressing how consumers respond to electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) remains limited. Even less attention has been devoted to examining the trustworthiness of consumer reviewers with different ethnic backgrounds. The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of reviewer ethnicity, review valence and social distance (to three different ethnic groups) on perceived reviewer trustworthiness, brand attitude and purchase intention toward a product evaluated by reviewers of three ethnic backgrounds.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a 2 (review valence)×3 (reviewer ethnicity) design; 398 participants were randomly assigned to one of the six conditions. A mock product-review web page for each study condition was created to manipulate review valence and reviewer ethnicity.FindingsResults show that while review valence, reviewer ethnicity and social distance each had a significant effect on perceived reviewer trustworthiness, only review valence had an influence on brand attitude and purchase intention. The interaction between reviewer ethnicity and review valence also had a significant effect on perceived reviewer trustworthiness, brand attitude and purchase intention.Originality/valueThe current study is the first to apply social distance theory to explain cross-cultural perception of trust, as it extends and updates the original social distance scale to broaden its empirical relevance to contemporary society via an eWOM marketing context. As social distance is a fluid and timely concept to study the diverse ethnic cultural environment, the current findings carry strong implications to future research in a wide variety of digital communication and marketing contexts, among others.

Generation Y’s positive and negative eWOM: use of social media and mobile technology

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the factors that influence Generation Y’s positive or negative electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) behavior via social media and mobile technology in the foodservice sector. Three types of dining experiences were examined: positive and negative customer experiences and negative customer service followed by a satisfactory recovery package.Design/methodology/approachA survey was adopted to test the factors posited to influence Generation Y consumers in these service contexts. Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk , and multi-group structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the data.FindingsActive use of social media and peer influence had a sweeping influence on Generation Y’s intentions to engage in eWOM about their service experiences. Technological sophistication with mobile technology influenced Generation Y to spread positive or negative service experiences, rather than satisfactory recovery experiences. Family influence had a mixed influence on Generation Y subgroups (21-24 years old vs 25-35 years old) to engage in eWOM about their satisfactory or poor service experiences. In satisfactory recovery experiences, family influence showed no significant influence on Generation Y’s eWOM behaviors.Research limitations/implicationsThis study enriches online reviews and eWOM marketing theories, adds to service failure and recovery literature and enhances understanding of consumer behavior expressed by Generation Y through the empirical investigation of Generation Y consumers’ behavioral motivations to engage in eWOM through social media and mobile technology.Practical implicationsEngaging Generation Y consumers with social media campaigns and mobile technology development is not merely sufficient in eWOM marketing strategies. Instead, it is essential to create integrative peer communities to motivate Generation Y consumers to engage in eWOM marketing. Marketers need to pay attention to the mixed effects of family influences on the eWOM behaviors of subgroups of Generation Y in positive or negative service experiences.Originality/valueGiven the scarcity of consumer behavior research into Generation Y as an emerging market segment, this paper makes an incremental contribution by developing and validating a model of factors that influence Generation Y consumers’ eWOM intentions through social networking and mobile technologies in three major service contexts: positive, negative and recovery following a service failure.

Altruistic eWOM marketing: More than an alternative to monetary incentives

As a form of word of mouth, online reviews are used to reduce uncertainty about service quality and direct consumer attitudes and behavior. As a consequence of the high persuasiveness and the broad accessibility of electronic word of mouth (eWOM), companies are very interested to proactively managing this form of customer-to-customer communication. Compared with traditional advertising provides, eWOM marketing is a more credible and low-cost alternative. So far marketers have commonly used monetary incentives to influence customer-to-customer communication. However, this form also includes potential negative consequences such as credibility loss through consumer skepticism and crowding-out effects. This study analyzed two new incentive programs for increasing recommendation likelihood that considered the activation of an altruistic form of motivation to overcome these drawbacks. Therefore, an experiment was designed with three experimental groups (incentive programs) vs. a control group (no incentive). Finally, the results are discussed while taking into account the advantages and drawbacks of the particular incentive program to deduce practical implications.

An Intelligent Embedded Marketing Service System based on TV apps: Design and implementation through product placement in idol dramas

Due to the increase in advertising requirements for various multi-media services, two studies were conducted to first propose an Intelligent Embedded Marketing Service System (IEMSS) and then to use this IEMSS to implement product placement strategies for idol dramas using interactive television. In study 1, the IEMSS combines TV apps, multiple agents, and multi-document summarization technologies to retrieve and store information and comments about merchandise from search engines, blogs, and forums. The IEMSS involves a multi-document summarization technique that uses the TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency), the position and an artificial neural network (ANN) to automatically generate and transmit key positive comments to the user via TV apps. The experimental results show that the IEMSS has 100% accuracy, indicating that the IEMSS is capable of helping users understand the merchandise and improving purchase intentions.In study 2, a 2 (product description messages: shown vs. not shown)×2 (online reviews: shown vs. not shown) between-subjects design was conducted to examine the effectiveness of the IEMSS in an actual application. The results of this empirical research reveal that the display of reviews of the embedded products obtained from the Internet using the IEMSS functionality provides the viewing audience of idol dramas with the opinions of others who have used the embedded product, thereby improving attitudes toward the brand and product placement and stimulating purchase intentions.In sum, the IEMSS can be successfully applied to automatic summarization for advertising. Furthermore, this approach can be considered an extension of eWOM marketing and an application of Media Richness Theory that increases the effectiveness of product placement.

The effects of visual information in eWOM communication

PurposeElectronic word of mouth (eWOM) is a considerably influential factor for consumers to search for product information. Nowadays, consumers can easily post visual information (e.g. pictures or videos) to convey product information and consumption‐related experiences. Yet, prior eWOM studies focused primarily on the verbal information of eWOM. Few studies have paid sufficient attention to the effects of visual information in eWOM communication. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to employ blogs to investigate the effects of visual information on consumers' perception of eWOM message quality, credibility, product interest, and purchase intention.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted two empirical studies in the field of different product categories. Data were collected from subjects ranged in age from 16 to 50 (n=155 for study 1, n=309 for study 2), and analyzed using independent‐samples t test and univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA).FindingsResults show that subjects rated eWOM articles in blogs with visual information significantly higher in four areas than identical articles without visual information. Furthermore, there is an interaction effect between product category and visual information on product interest and purchase intention. Compared with experience products, when subjects read the eWOM information of search products with pictures (versus without pictures), they would generate greater product interest and purchase intention. In addition, the effect of visual information is stronger not only for search products (no matter whether utilitarian or hedonic products) but also for experience‐hedonic products than for experience‐utilitarian products.Originality/valueThe findings of this study provide useful knowledge for internet marketers to develop effective eWOM marketing and thus increase consumer trust in eWOM and intention to purchase products. Although visual information is found to be important, different product categories should take advantage of visual information in different degrees.

Exploring the disseminating behaviors of eWOM marketing: persuasion in online video

The effectiveness of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication has attracted increasing attention from marketing practitioners, but relatively few studies focus on the dissemination of eWOM communication from a message perspective. Online video is a prominent form of marketing promotion, yet again, little is known about which factors make online video engaging or how they influence recipients' forwarding intentions. This study adopts Lasswell's communication model to investigate the persuasiveness of online video and uses the source, content, and channel dimensions to examine three potentially influential factors: awareness of persuasive intent, perceived humor, and multimedia effect. Awareness of persuasive intent exerts a negative influence, whereas the humor and multimedia effects have positive influences on both attitude toward a received online video and forwarding intentions. Therefore, e-marketers should reshape video clips to be humorous, use multimedia effects, and disguise their commercial intent to attract recipients' attention and persuade them to disseminate an online video.