Chapter V Conclusions
5.3 Contribution of the Study
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
83
5.2 Recommendations
The suggestion for beauty bloggers is to secure their credibility, which is recognized as the most valuable asset of a blogger. From this study, it is observed that readers’
acceptance toward Sample Trial Blog Post is fairly high, and the WOM credibility is only a little lower than Pure Sharing Blog Post. This is to say, it is not unacceptable for beauty bloggers to receive incentives or be recruited to operate buzz marketing to recommend, or even advertise a product. The most crucial key is to keep open and transparent about it as well as to keep integrity and be honest about what to say.
Likewise, for marketing or advertising professionals, it is also suggested to keep buzz marketing through blogs as transparent as possible. As mentioned, readers/consumers
perception of Product Placement Blog Post is relatively low. Keeping readers or potential consumers informed about commercialized content will be more accepted and appreciated by blog readers. Moreover, since readers/consumers agree more on the negative WOM and tend to be more influenced by negative WOM when purchasing, to maintain quality control and always try to offer consumers best products/services that allow no room for criticism is suggested.
5.3 Contribution of the Study
Word-of-mouth has always been one of the most significant discussion topics in both marketing and communication fields. The new form of WOM, eWOM, has broken old boundaries and has been prospering on the internet, generating great influence that attracts researchers to study its diversified application and effectiveness. Recruiting bloggers has become more common and prominent in buzz marketing.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
84
This paper covers the emerging market dynamics of buzz marketing among beauty blogs and consumer research on attitudes and purchasing behaviors. The findings of this paper may help marketing practitioners to discover consumers’ attitudes, purchasing behavior, and follow-up WOM referrals. Through understanding consumers’ insights on buzz
marketing in blogs, marketers or practitioners may find information that is useful for enhancing their planning efforts for interactive marketing strategies.
Many have predicted that the trend of recruiting beauty bloggers to spread positive WOM and generate actual profit will be less feverish, that blog buzz marketing is already at its peak. With readers/consumers become smarter and more sensitive about the content they consume, they may just filter out the unwanted commercialized messages. However, as mentioned previously, the Taiwanese new law regulating bloggers’ endorsement or product placement should be open and notifying. In the future, bloggers will be like bloggers in North America or Europe that write about products under the regulation. All contents concerning any commercialization will be transparent. Eventually, rewarded/paid blog post will become another form of paid advertising on a 24/7 channel. Yet the viewing right is in readers’ own hands; readers can choose what they want to read and evaluate what to believe.
Hence, this trend of blog buzz marketing might not fade, but develop more under the supply-demand paradigm, just as TV commercials are still viewed as one of the most
effective media as well as marketing tools. How to properly employ beauty blogs as effective buzz marketing tool will be an important issue.
5.4 Future Research
Due to time and other constraint, the scope of work of this study only focuses on domestic blog readers. However, the phenomenon of bloggers being recruited to do buzz
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
85
marketing is very common in other North American and European countries. In Taiwan, dilemma such as the controversy on explicitness of marketing messages as well as undefined code of ethics, have been discussed vigorously. Yet in some other countries, buzz marketing through bloggers and advertising on blogs have grown transparent and been well-regulated by the government. Hence, for future researchers, it is suggested to apply cross-cultural studies as well as bigger scope of work, in order to further compare this phenomenon among different countries and readers/consumers’ purchasing behavior.
Furthermore, in this study, attitudes toward blog buzz marketing are evaluated
subjectively by the participants, in other words, consumers themselves. Nevertheless, it is still insufficient to test actual reactions from consumers toward pseudo buzz, as well as
consumers/readers’ ability to tell whether a blog post has product placement or any other form of advertising content. In this case, experimental research is suggested for further study to test consumers’ awareness of the implicit marketing messages in blog posts as well as their attitudes and purchasing intention.
‧
ACNielsen. (2007). Word-of-mouth the most powerful selling tool: Nielsen Global Survey.
Retrieved February 24, 2010, from http://asiapacific.acnielsen.com/news/20071002.shtml Anderson, C. (2006). The long tail: why the future of business is selling less of more. New York: Hyperion.
Arndt, J. (1967). The role of product-related conversations in the diffusion of a new product.
Journal of Marketing Research, 4(3), 291–295.
Baker, S., & Green, H. (2008, February 20). Social Media Will Change Your Business.
Business Week. Retrieved January 24, 2010, from
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2008/db20080219_908252.htm Banning, S. A., & Sweetser, K. D. (2007). How much do they think it affects them and whom do they believe?: comparing the third-person effect and credibility of blogs and traditional media. Communication Quarterly, 55(4), 451-466.
Barletta, M. (2003). Marketing to women: how to understand, reach, and increase your share of the world’s largest market segment. Chicago: Dearborn Trade Publishing.
Baumgarten, S. A. (1975). The innovative communicator in the diffusion process. Journal of Marketing Research, 12(1), 12-18.
Berkley, H. (2005). Low-budget online marketing for small business (2nd ed.). North Vancouver: International Self-Counsel Press Ltd.
Blood, R. (2000, September 7). Weblogs: A history and perspective. Message posted to http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html
Blood, R. (2002).The Weblog handbook: practical advice on creating and maintaining your blog. Cambridge: Perseus Publishing.
Bone, P. F. (1992). Determinants of word-of-mouth communications during product consumption. Advances in Consumer Research, 19(1), 579-583
Breazeale, M. (2009). Word of mouse: An assessment of electronic word –of-mouth research.
International Journal of Market Research, 51(3), 297-318.
Brown, B.C. (2007). The secret power of blogging: how to promoteand market your business, organization, or cause with free blogs. Ocala: Atlantic Publishing Group.
Brown, J. J., & Reingen, P. H. (1987). Social ties and word-of-mouth referral behavior.
Journal of Consumer Research, 14(3), 350-362.
Brown, T. J., Barry, T. E., Dacin, P. A., & Gunst, R. F. (2005). Spreading the word:
investigating antecedents of consumers’ positive word-of-mouth intentions and behaviors in a retailing context. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 33(2), 123–138.
‧
Buttle, F.A. (1998). Word of mouth: understanding and managing referral marketing. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 6(3), 241-254.
Claxton, L. & Woo, A. (2008). How to say it: marketing with new media: a guide to promoting your small business using websites, e-zines, blogs, and podcasts. New York:
Prentice Hall Press.
Christiansen, T., & Tax, S. S. (2000). Measuring word of mouth: the questions of who and when? Journal of Marketing Communications, 6(3), 185–199.
Day, G. S. (1971). Attitude change, media and word of mouth. Journal of Advertising Research, 11(6), 31–40.
Dearstyne, B. W. (2005). Blogs: the new information revolution?. Information Management Journal, 39(3), 38-44.
Dellarocas, C. (2003). The digitization of word of mouth: promise and challenges of online feedback mechanisms. Management Science, 49(10), 1407-1424.
Dentsu. (2006). Digitization Changing the Consumer Purchasing Process: From AIDMA to AISAS® . Retrieved April 2, 2010, from
http://www.dentsu.com/ir/marketing/pdf/AR2006_E6.pdf
Dichter, E. (1966). How word-of-mouth advertising works. Harvard Business Review. 44, 147-66.
Engel, J. F., Blackwell, R. D., & Kegerreis, R. G. (1969) How information is used to adopt an innovation. Journal of Advertising Research, 9(4), 3–8.
Feick, L., & Price, L.. L. (1987). The Market Maven: A Diffuser of Marketplace Information.
Journal of Marketing, 51(1), 83-97.
Gelb, B. D., & Sundaram, S. (2002). Adapting to “word of mouse”. Business Horizons, 45(4), 21-25.
Gremler, D. D., & Gwinner, K. P. (2008). Rapport-building behaviors used by retail employees. Journal of Retailing, 84(3), 308–324.
Godes, D., & Mayzlin, D. (2004). Using online conversations to study word-of-mouth communication. Marketing Science 23(4), 545–560.
Goldsmith, R. E., & Horowitz, D. (2006) Measuring motivations for online opinion seeking.
Journal of Interactive Advertising, 6(2), 1-16.
Hall, R. S. (2006). The blog ahead: how citizen-generated media is radically tilting the communications balance. New York: Morgan James Publishing.
Hewitt, H. (2005). Blog: understanding the information reformation that’s changing your world. Nashville: Nelson Books.
‧
Hennig-Thurau, T., Gwinner, K. P., Walsh, G., & Gremler, D. D. (2004). Electronic Word-of-Mouth via Consumer-Opinion Platforms: What Motivates Consumers to Articulate Themselves on the Internet?. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18(1), 38–52.
Herr, P. M., Kardes, F. R., & Kim, J. (1991). Effects of word-of-mouth and product-attribute information on persuasion: An accessibility-diagnosticity perspective. Journal of Consumer Research, 17(3), 454-462.
Herring, S. C., Scheidt, L. A., Wright, E., & Bonus, S. (2005). Weblogs as a bridging genre.
Information Technology & People, 18(2), 142-171.
Hong, S. Y., & Yang, S. (2009). Effects of reputation, relational satisfaction, and customer-company identification on positive word-of-mouth intentions. Journal of Public Relations Research, 21(4), 381–403.
Huang, C. Y., Shen, Y. Z., Lin, H. X., & Chang, S. S. (2007). Bloggers’ motivations and behaviors: a model. Journal of Advertising Research, 47(4), 472-485.
Hughes, M. (2005), Buzzmarketing: get people to talk about your stuff. New York: Portfolio.
Hung. K. H., & Li, S. Y. (2007). The influence of eWOM on virtual consumer communities:
social capital, consumer learning and behavioral outcomes. Journal of Advertising Research, 47(4), 485-495.
Jacoby, J., & Hoyer, W. D. (1981). What if opinion leaders didn't know more? A question of nomological validity, in Kent B. Monroe, ed., Advances Consumer Research, 8(1), 299-303.
Jones, M. A.., & Reynolds, K. E. (2006). The role of retailer interest in shopping behavior.
Journal of Retailing, 82(2),115–126.
Johnson, T. J., & Kaye, B. K. (2004). Wag the blog: how reliance on traditional media and the Internet influence credibility perceptions of Weblogs among blog users. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 81(3) 622–642.
Katz, E. & Lazarsfeld, P. F. (1955). Personal Influence. New York: The Free Press.
King, C. W., & Summers, J. O. (1970). Overlap of opinion leadership across product categories. Journal of Marketing Research, 7(1), 43-50.
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2004). Marketing Management (12th ed.). Prentice Hall Krishnamurthy, S. (2002).The multidimensionality of blog conversations: the virtual enactment of September 11, paper presented at Internet Research 3.0, Maastricht, October.
Kumar, V., & Krishnan, T. V. (2002). Multinational diffusion models: an alternative framework. Marketing Science, 21(3), 318–330.
Laemer, R., & Simmons, M. (2007). Punk Marketing: Get off Your Ass and Join the Revolution. New York: Harper Collins
‧
Levinson, J. C. (2003). Guerrilla marketing for free: 100 no-cost tactics to promote your business and energize your profits. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Lindolf, T. R. & Taylor B. C. (2002). Qualitative Communication Research Methods (2nd ed.).
London: SAGE Publications.
Luo, X., & Homburg, C. (2007). Neglected outcomes of customer satisfaction. Journal of Marketing, 71(2), 133–149.
Maxham, J. G. III., & Netemeyer, R. G. (2003). Firms reap what they sow: the effects of shared values and perceived organizational justice on customers’ evaluations of complaint handling. Journal of Marketing, 67(1), 46–62.
Montague-Jones, G. (2009, June 8). The internet provides a route out of recession for cosmetics companies. Cosmetic design.com. Retrieved March 6, 2010, from
http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/Products-Markets/The-internet-provides-a-route-out-of-recession-for-cosmetics-companies
Murray, K. B. (1991). A test of services marketing theory: consumer information acquisition activities. Journal of Marketing, 55(1), 10-25.
Nardi, B. A., Schiano, D. J., Gumbrecht, M., & Swartz L. (2004). Why we blog.
Communications of the ACM, 47(12), 41-46.
Okada, I., & Yamamoto, H. (2009). Effect of online word-of-mouth communication on buying behavior in agent-based simulation. Retrieved Mar 19, 2010, from
http://www.isslab.org/study_work/essa2009proc.pdf
Pack, T. (2004 November). Through the blogosphere. Information Today. Retrieved November 26, 2009, from http://www.infotoday.com/linkup
Petty R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1982). Central and peripheral routes of persuasion:
Application to advertising. Retrieved December 29, 2009, from
http://www.ciadvertising.org/studies/course/syllabi_grad/theory_readings/petcac.pdf.
Pew Internet and American Life Project. (2006). Blogging Is Brining New Voices to the Online World. Retrieved August 20, 2009, from
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/130/press_release.asp
Price, L. L., Feick, L., & Guskey, A. (1995). Everyday market helping behavior. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 14(2), 255-66.
Richins, M. L. (1983). Negative word-of-mouth by dissatisfied customers: a pilot study.
Journal of Marketing, 47(1), 68–78.
Rogers, E. R. (1983). The Diffusion of Innovations (3rd ed.). New York, NY: The Free Press.
Rosen, E. (2000). The anatomy of buzz: how to create word-of-mouth marketing. New York:
Doubleday.
‧
Schramm, W. (1954). How communication works. In Schramm, W. (Ed.), The process and effects of mass communication (3-26). Urbana: University of Illinois press.
Sernovitz, A. (2006/2009). Word of mouth marketing: how smart companies get people talking (Rev. ed.). New York: Kaplan Publishing.
Sheth, J. N. (1971). Word-of-mouth in low-risk innovations. Journal of Advertising Research, 11(3), 15–18.
Singh, A., & Pandya, S. (1991). Exploring the effect of consumers’ dissatisfaction level on complaint behaviors. European Journal of Marketing, 25(9), 7- 21.
Sirfy, D. (2006, August). State of the Blogsphere. Retrieved January 18, 2009, from http://www.sifry.com/alerts/
Solomon M. R. (1999). Consumer Behavior (4th ed.)., Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall Thomas, G. M. (2004). Building the buzz in the hive mind. Journal of Consumer Behavior, 4(1), 64-72.
Thorson, K. S., & Rodgers, S. (2006). Relationships between blogs as eWOM and interactivity, perceived interactivity, and parasocial interaction. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 6(2), 39-50.
Trusov, M., Bucklin, R. E., & Pauwels, K. (2009). Effects of word-of-mouth versus
traditional marketing: findings from an internet social networking site. Journal of Marketing, 73(5), 90-102.
Vaughn, R. (1980). How advertising works: a planning model. Journal of Advertising Research, 20(5), 27-33.
Venkatraman, M. P. (1989). Opinion leaders, adopters, and communicative adopters: a role analysis. Psychology & Marketing. 6(1) 51-68
Villanueva, J., Yoo, S., & Hanssens, D. M. (2008) The impact of marketing-induced versus word-of-mouth customer acquisition on customer equity growth. Journal of Marketing Research, 45(1), 48–59.
Wallace, D. (2008). One Nation under BLOG. Dallas: Brown Books Publishing Group.
Walter, J. C. (2006). What's all the buzz about?. Management Communication Quarterly, 19(4), 601-634.
Wang, D. (2009, July 29) .AISAS Online Consumer Behavior Model. Buzzmedia Online Marketing. Retrieved April 5, 2010, from http://buzzmedia.com.my/resources/aisas Watts, D. J., & Dodds, P. S. (2007). Influentials, networks and public opinion formation.
Journal of Consumer Research, 34(4), 441-458.
White, A. (2005). Asian Women Ready to Spend More on Selves. Media Asia, 8.
‧
Wibbels, A. (2006). BlOGWILD: A Guide for SMALL BUSINESS BLOGGING. New York:
Portfolio.
Wojnicki, A. C., & Godes, D. B. (2006). Word-of-mouth as self-enhancement. SSRN working paper. Retrieved February 20, 2010, from
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=908999##
Wojnicki, A. C., & Jia, N. (2007). Balance and Word-of-Mouth Communication: A Signed Digraph Analysis of Consumers’ Cognitive Networks. Retrieved March 15, 2010, from http://ssrn.com/abstract=959535
Yaccato, J. T., & Yaeger, J. (2003). The 80% minority: reaching the real world of women consumers. Toronto: Viking Canada.
Yanik, S., & Olic, R. (2008). Moonlight on the Internet. Entrepreneur Press.
Zeelenberg, M., & Pieters, R. (2004). Beyond valence in customer dissatisfaction: A review and new findings on behavioral responses to regret and disappointment in failed services.
Journal of Business Research, 57(4), 445–455.
Zhao, X., Fang, F., & Whinston A. B. (2006). Designing on-line mediation services for C2C markets. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 10(3), 71-93.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
92
謝易修、謝寶泰 (2008)。從廣告行銷角度探討部落格之口碑傳播策略。商業設計學 報，12 ：53-62。
創市際市場研究顧問 (2009)。網路口碑行銷夯 左右八成網友的消費決策。 2009年12 月8日擷取自http://www.insightxplorer.com/news/news_10_30_09.html
何英煒 (2007)。當部落格越來越「商業化」。工商時報，A7。
Buzz Lab (2007) 。A.I.D.E.E.S理論 看圖說故事篇。口碑行銷學苑。 2010年4月8日擷取 自http://buzz.itrue.com.tw/blog/?p=36
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
93
Appendix 1.
In-depth Interview Outline (Chinese Version) 中文深度訪談大綱
1. 請問美妝部落客如何和讀者分享 (內容呈現方式/語氣) 2. 請問美妝部落客的自我角色定位為？
3. 請問美妝部落格為什麼會這麼紅？
4. 請談談美妝部落客及信用？
5. 美妝部落客會使用別的消費者產生媒體平台嗎？
6. 美妝部落客寫美妝文的動機
7. 形容一下廠商與部落客合作的美妝部落格生態
8. 請問有什麼不同的合作方式 (免費試用品/現金/免費體驗/出席活動) 9. 如果是現金的話，有所謂的行情價嗎?
10. 請談談公開試用文 vs 隱性置入性行銷文 11. 請談談網友對於這兩種類型文的態度
12. 和自己購買的產品相比，分享心得有否不同？
13. 有酬是否會影響美妝部落客撰寫心得時的態度 (口碑/內容呈現/轉載)？
14. 有酬是否為促使美妝部落客發文的動力之一？
15. 請談談廣告商/廠商的要求為何？(內容/語氣/出現名稱/產品功效/成分/品牌露出) 16. 若寫出來的文達不到廣告商或廠商的要求呢？
17. 請詳細討論美妝部落客的正面口碑 (稱讚/鼓勵 直接/間接) 18. 請詳細討論美妝部落客的負面口碑 (批評/勸阻 直接/間接)
19. 請問您對網羅部落客來達到口碑行銷的行為有何看法？態度為何？
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
94
Appendix 2.
Questionnaire (Chinese Version)
探討女性部落客讀者對美妝部落格中電子口碑及口碑行銷的態度
親愛的受訪者，您好：
感謝您撥冗填寫本問卷。本問卷為探討女性讀者對美妝產品／服務的態度或購買慾是 否會受到部落格口碑的影響，更進一步探討讀者對試用文或產品置入文對讀者的態 度，您的每一個回答對此研究都相當重要，本問卷調查不記名，您的任何資料將不會 引用於研究以外的用途。所有題目皆無正確答案，請放心誠實填答。本問卷費時約 10 分鐘。您提供的意見將幫助我們更進一步了解台灣的美妝部落格口碑行銷效應。再次 感謝您撥冗完成此份問卷，謝謝。
國立政治大學 指導老師：賴建都
研究生：賈德欣
第一部分：基本資料
1 請問您的年齡是
未滿 18 歲 18~24 歲 25~29 歲 30~34 歲
35~39 歲 40~44 歲 45-49 歲 50 歲以上
2 請問您的性別是
男性 女性
3 請問您教育程度為
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
95
國小及國小以下 國中
高中/職 大專／大學
碩士 博士
其它 請 註 明:
4 請為您的婚姻狀況為 未婚
已婚
分居／離婚／鰥寡(喪妻、夫)
5 請問您的職業為
電子資訊 傳統製造 批發零售 金融保險 教育服務 一般服
務 政治社福 政治社福 大眾傳播 物流倉儲 農林漁牧 旅遊
務 政治社福 政治社福 大眾傳播 物流倉儲 農林漁牧 旅遊