Referral Marketing Research Articles

A conceptual framework of hotel experience and customer‐based brand equity

PurposeThere is increasing discussion of the way in which quality of experience and brand equity are developed in the hotel industry. This study aims to review the hospitality and brand equity literature, thereby providing a conceptual framework for understanding hotel brand equity.Design/methodology/approachA comprehensive and extensive literature review helps develop a brand equity framework for the hotel industry.FindingsHotels often use advertising, referral marketing and services marketing to help guests acquire brand‐related information. Hotel guests, in turn, establish their brand knowledge through direct and indirect experiences. A better understanding of how these experiences contribute to brand equity has important implications for brand managers. Advertising and word of mouth (WoM) can be used to generate brand awareness and brand associations. Service performance should be nurtured to predominantly precipitate quality of experience, although WoM also has a strong effect on it.Originality/valueThe study attempts to fill the gaps in the discussion of the way in which hotel brand equity is developed. A research framework embedded with quality of experience is proposed. Critical research questions about hotel experience and brand equity are identified.

Referral Marketing Campaigns

SUMMARY Libraries' information consumer market share continues to freefall despite the opportunities that have emerged with the arrival of the Information Age. We've built digital libraries, offering access to immense digital collections of quality resources, and online service desks staffed by skilled experts, but the crowds are not coming. Marketing missteps are largely to blame for the declining role of libraries in people's lives. There is an awareness gap between the offering of digital libraries and the communities they serve. Word-of-mouth (WOM), or referral marketing, modeled on blogs like Slashdot <http://www.slashdot.org>, is the key to increasing traffic to licensed digital library resources. Face-to-face and electronically mediated WOM marketing can turn back the tide of falling market share, and regain lost positioning, in the communities a library serves.

Slashdotting Digital Library Resources

ABSTRACT Libraries' information consumer market share continues to freefall, despite the opportunities that have emerged with the arrival of the Information Age. We've built digital libraries, offering access to immense digital collections of quality resources, and online service desks staffed by skilled experts, and the crowds are not coming. Marketing missteps are largely to blame for the declining role of libraries in people's lives. There is an awareness gap between the offering of digital libraries and the communities they serve. Referral marketing, modeled on blogs like Slashdot, is the key to increasing traffic to licensed digital library resources. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology offers new opportunities to broadcast continually fresh digital library content to popular community websites.

Beyond advertising: why people are the new media

PurposeTo identify and explain the causative factors in the ongoing and chronic decline of general advertising effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachMethodology is Social Network Analysis. Specific tools used multiple regression analysis, AnCoVa, and various proprietary algorithms.FindingsTraditional media advertising has lost significant impact at an accelerating rate over the past 20 years and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Referrals are the primary viable alternative for reaching customers and can be used to reinvigorate traditional marketing.Research limitations/implicationsResearch was based primarily on author’s extensive work with clients in numerous industries, also on available advertising industry data. No controlled tests were possible.Practical implicationsOrganizations that ignore the importance of referral marketing will find markets increasingly expensive and difficult to access and will lose competitive advantage with organizations that do understand and manage the value of word‐of‐mouth marketing.Originality/valueIt explains why traditional marketing is failing and suggests an effective solution.

Referral Marketing—Having Others Work for You

You have accessThe ASHA LeaderMake it Work1 Apr 2003Referral Marketing—Having Others Work for You Doug Plesh Doug Plesh Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.MIW.08082003.3 SectionsAbout ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Today’s businesses approach potential customers and prospects in many different ways—the Internet, e-mail, direct mail, yellow pages, commercial advertisements, and more. Each day, consumers are bombarded with marketing and sales pitches, making them skeptical when it comes time to search for a desired product or service. What if there was a form of marketing that established credibility, eliminated barriers of distrust, and expanded business in a very cost-effective and time-efficient manner? Well, there is, and it’s called referral marketing. Referral marketing is an orderly process that you put in place to capture qualified prospects through partnerships forged with people in your community. Traditional marketing ventures, such as advertising, do not appeal to the masses. People tend to react unfavorably to overpowering marketing messages and techniques. So the tools you use and the messages you communicate have an impact on your chances of sustaining and building your referral base. Today, consumers choose nearly 50% of service-providing businesses because of a recommendation. Perhaps it’s time to rethink your marketing strategy and start interacting with clients—your best clients—to build revenue and achieve the greatest return on investment. A referral is powerful because it comes from a customer who has experienced your services firsthand. Colleagues are also good sources for referrals. The right colleague or business associate knows your respective deliverable so well that he’s willing to stake his own reputation by recommending your services within the circles in which he lives and works. More often than not, these referrals cost you nothing other than the time it took you to ask for the recommendation—yet many are afraid to ask. Don’t make the mistake many small business owners make by not instituting a referral program as part of your marketing effort. However, if you are having difficulty satisfying your existing customers, you can bet your referral business will suffer. Customer satisfaction is very necessary in today’s ultra-competitive market place. So to ensure that you will have enough paying customers for the foreseeable future—and that you can satisfy their needs consistently—plan your referral program properly. Formalize your program and start promoting to your sources. The rewards will come over time. Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Additional Resources FiguresSourcesRelatedDetails Volume 8Issue 8April 2003 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in print: Apr 1, 2003 Metrics Current downloads: 222 Topicsasha-topicsleader_do_tagasha-article-typesleader-topicsCopyright & Permissions© 2003 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationLoading ...

Word of mouth: understanding and managing referral marketing

Marketing practitioners and theorists routinely cite the power of the personal referral on customer behaviour. However, relatively few companies have tried to harness the power of word of mouth (WOM). Scholars have been pondering WOM over 2400 years, although modern marketing research into WOM started only relatively recently, in the post-war 1940s. WOM can be characterized by valence, focus, timing, solicitation and degree of management intervention. Most recent WOM research has been conducted from a customer-to-customer perspective, even though WOM is found in other contexts such as influence, employee and recruitment markets. Marketing research into WOM has attempted to answer two questions. What are the antecedents of WOM? What are the consequences of WOM? This paper integrates that research into a contingency model and attempts to identify researchable gaps in our knowledge.

Persuasion or Information? The Economics of Prescription Drug Advertising

THE economic and welfare effects of advertising have been extensively studied over the last half-century. However, these efforts have not led to a consensus either as to the effects or the value of advertising. Economists continue to reach polar conclusions that appear to be derived mainly from preconceptions of the social desirability of advertising. On the one hand is research that emphasizes promotion's ability to create "artificial" product differentiation and thereby produce informational confusion.1 This line of research stresses the empirical association of extensive advertising with high concentration and high accounting profits-evidence judged to support increased market power and entry barrier effects.2 A contrary body of research emphasizes the value of advertising in providing information and, hence, in promoting competition.3 The empirical findings most consistent with this view are that prices paid by consumers in (selected) markets are lower with advertising than without it.4