off the wall: a content analysis of word-of-mouth
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OFF THEWALL: A content analysis of word-of-mouth on Vans’ Facebook community
Chris Huebner
DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE UNDERSTANDING OF WHY CONSUMERS PERFORM WORD-OF-MOUTH
“Informal communication directed at other consumers about the ownership, usage,
or characteristics of particular goods and services or their
sellers”
Electronic Word-of-mouth:“Any positive or negative
statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product company,
which is made available to a multitude of people and
institutions via the Internet” (Hennig-Thurau et al. 2004).
“Given the pervasiveness of social media and the
dynamic interplay between various social
media platforms, the time has come for marketers to
stop treating online and offline WOM as if they were separate distinct
entities”
Word-of-mouth generates 3.3 billion brand
impressions each day.
Mckinsey and Company estimates that word-of-
mouth drives two-thirds of the U.S. economy.
$$$
Stronger long-term effect than traditional media
More trustworthy than traditional advertising
Referral-
mechanism
Highly-targeted
Consumer Perceptions.
Attitudes. PurchaseIntentions.
Behavior.
The Social Media Effect
Created the need to harness and capture the power of word-of-mouth
Motivations?
EMOTIONAL
SOCIAL
FUNCTIONAL
Social media platforms provide a rich opportunity to observe word-of-mouth in context and as it occurs.
Social media and online environments strengthen our understanding of WOM in that:
Allows for open, anonymous and dexcontextualized participation
Participation is digitally archived
Researchers can directly quote and record references made within specific content or conversations
Purpose statement: Begin to develop an understanding of why consumers share their experiences with products and services by systematically observing what consumers are posting.
RQ1: What are the key themes found in the performance of eWOM?
Performed a systematic, observational content analysis of Vans’ Facebook page from May 1 – July 17. 2014
Screen captured 892 posts
VANS INCFounded in 19661,885 employees
“has stood for authenticity in youth lifestyle, music and action sports since day one”.
$1 billion in sales (2012)
Over 13 million fans151,000 interactions
10%
59%
6%
1%
24%
Post (n=892)
Service Related PostsVender PromotionsSponsored AthletesBots/UnreadableWord-of-mouth
205 screen captures of word-of-mouth
Clarke and Braun’s (2006) six-step thematic approach to content analysis
Familiarization
Coding system
Identifythemes
Namethemes
Reviewthemes
Report
Brand (61)
Product (106)
General (38)
Initial coding scheme:
• Brand Affect (27)• Experience (5)• Relation to Family (13)• Brand Art (16)
Brand (61)
• Product Affect (38)• Customization (13)• History (9)• Post-purchase (36)• Collection (10)
Product (106)
• Document (14)• Experience (24)
General (38)
Categories and themes:
Brand: Relation to family
Product: Customization
General: Experience
This project supported research that suggests eWOM on social media sites is primarily driven by social driver
Signal shared or unique identity
DISCUSSION
Supported Cheema and Kaikati (2010) and Wien and Olsen’s (2014) findings.
Signaled uniqueness through customization and historical references
‘Post-purchase’ often documented limited edition Vans
Signal shared or unique identity
This project supported research that suggests eWOM on social media sites is primarily driven by social driver
(or) to self-enhance
DISCUSSION
(or) to self-enhance
Brand identification positively influences eWOM intention by way of brand loyalty and community identification (Yeh and Choi, 2014)
Supported Yeh and Choi’s research that suggest fan self-enhance by expressing brand loyalty and identification
Found across all three broad categories
Majority of posts were user-generated photographs
Suggests eWOM was not spontaneous, but calculated (Smith, Fischer and Yongjian, 2012).
Alleviate brand/self centrality concerns
DISCUSSION
Supported the findings of East, Hammond and Wright (2007)
Majority of eWOM was positive
According to De Angelis et al. (2012) result of self-enhancement
DISCUSSION
IMPLICATIONS
(1) Powerful effect on traditional marketing activities
(2) Endogenous effect on brand identity
IMPLICATIONS
(1) Powerful effect on traditional marketing activities
Online WOM can lead to more promotion and stimulate other components of marketing mix
IMPLICATIONS
(1) Powerful effect on traditional marketing activities
Fans document personal narratives, ideal for marketing messages
IMPLICATIONS(2) Endogenous effect on brand identity
Brands have both functional value and emotional value
On Facebook fans are co-creating brand identity
When managed correctly, user-generated content can strength brand identity (Shachar and Kuksov, 2010)
CONCLUSION:
First step: Categorize the performance of WOM
Provided coding strategy to categories themes of WOM
Found that product affect, post-purchase and brand affect were the dominate themes
Develop a comprehensive understanding of why people are motivated to share their experiences with products and services
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