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Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the power of social media networks, namely Instagram, in building brand communities and co-creating value for brands. By analysing the 2015 campaign #withoutshoes by TOMS, the authors intend to demonstrate how the value creation process can be extended to involve all stakeholders and raise the effectiveness of a brand’s communication campaign.Design/methodology/approach– A qualitative approach was taken to enable an understanding of online consumer behaviour. A series of qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with retail and marketing professionals from the TOMS brand to explore brand strategy. The TOMS Instagram account was analysed for a specific marketing communications event and summative content analysis was applied to the brand’s Instagram profile in order to allow for an in-depth exploration of the co-creation process. Triangulation was used for the multiple sources of evidence in order to build the study and to establish the convergence of data results, to diminish bias and to increase accuracy of the research data (Saunderset al., 2009).Findings– Through a detailed overview of the campaign developed by TOMS, this paper explores how TOMS fosters the formation of consumer-brand-relationships as well as maps out the advantages of value co-creation. The research findings support the literature on co-creation, which argues that the way to achieve innovation and value creation in the changing and challenging marketing landscape is through co-creation. This study adds to the findings that co-creation strategies are a privileged manner of nurturing customer relationships and of lowering costs for marketing and research and development (Sawhneyet al., 2005; Prandelliet al., 2006).Originality/value– There are a relatively limited number of studies focusing on the Instagram platform, and of those carried out thus far most concentrate on how the platform interprets cultural issues, rather than how it can be used effectively as a marketing strategy and how it can leverage user’s preferences. Also, not a lot of studies have focused on the relationship between value co-creation and its relevance and impact on brands through engagement processes and the role of experience in brand building. Brand value co-creation through human experiences can provide considerable implications for brand management (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004a) as well as be a key component in the building process of customer experiences. This study suggests new approaches to getting useful insights about how brands can use social media to further engage with their target audience though an integrative framework of brand value co-creation with theoretical underpinning.

IntroductionNowadays, most people, especially young people, use the Internet or tend to use social networks. The newly created space has provided some threats and opportunities for companies. It has also caused marketers to revise their marketing methods and pay more attention to the impact of the Internet network on marketing methods. On the other hand, the word of mouth marketing refers to the transmission of information among users through language (Wu and Wang, 2011).Viral Marketing is generally a combination of word of mouth marketing and Internet networks. It means that consumers send brand messages of the company over the Internet network to each other. Two very important features of this type of marketing are high speed and low cost (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2011). In viral marketing, the message must be designed in a way that it can attract people and persuade them to send this message to their family and friends. These messages are sent by users to each other via the Internet (Bahrainizadeh and Zamani, 2011). Experts believe that many factors affect the success and effectiveness of viral marketing that these factors either relate to those consumers who are exposed to the message or relate to the message properties or situation, and the context in which the message is sent (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2011). Yang et al. (2012) indicated that when customers see themselves at the risk of buying, they seek the credible information and this information includes information sent through word of mouth or through other credible sources. If the receiver of the message believes that the message source is credible, the impact of this message on people's attitude toward the product and brand will be more than when a person feels that the message has lower credibility (Cheung et al., 2008).McKinney (2002) also states that based on the satisfaction of the Web model, understandability, reliability, and usefulness of the information are three basic dimensions of quality information in viral marketing affecting consumer attitude toward the brand (Cheung et al., 2008). Based on what has been said, companies might be aware of the type of relationship between message appeal and consumers' attitude in light of these studies. Unfortunately, a very limited number of studies has been conducted on viral marketing and on the investigation of variables that can be used while implementing viral marketing. Therefore, due to the increasing importance of viral marketing and the word of mouth marketing in the advertising strategies and methods of the companies, this study was conducted to examine the impact of emotional appeal and credibility of the message on consumers' attitude toward the brand.Literature review and background of studyWord of mouth marketing and viral marketingWhat lead to stories like Harry Potter to be popular and famous among young people? It can be said that the word of mouth marketing has played the main role in the popularity of these stories. Word of mouth marketing means that customers will transmit positive or negative experiences of a given product or anything else that they like to others and, in this manner, people become an advertising factor for a product (Proctor and Richard, 2002). Word of mouth marketing is a type of informal communication on evaluation of products and services among customers. In this type of marketing, customers themselves play the role of marketers for the company. Word of mouth marketing plays an important role in shaping the attitudes and behavior of consumers (Lim and Chung, 2014). A vital component in the marketing process for any organization is the use word of mouth marketing because consumers become an advertiser for the organization in this type of marketing (Dinh and Mai, 2016). Viral marketing means disseminating a message or content that contains advertising or information about a company's brand through social media. In other words, it can be stated that viral marketing is a strategy encouraging people to send the advertising messages to each other. …

Many companies have found that for their products to be successful in the market, they must first pay for word of mouth marketing and then utilize other types of ads. Previous studies have not paid enough attention to the value of target consumers. This study evaluates the roles of value congruity, brand love, and brand image in creating a consumer commitment that leads to positive word of mouth. The sample is comprised of makeup consumers in Rasht, Iran. At first, thirty stores were selected in the city center. Then, 384 questionnaires were distributed with sampling available in selected stores. Amos 22 was used to test the conceptual model. The results show that the value congruity of the brand consumer has a positive impact on the brand image and brand commitment. Moreover, brand love and brand commitment have a significant positive impact on positive word of mouth. But the impacts of brand image and brand love on brand commitment are rejected. Also, brand image has a significant positive impact on brand love.

Why ideas and practices spread an important topic for management scholars and practitioners. This paper presents the cascade capacity as an aspect of network structure as a measure of essentially how ‘choosy’ everyone in a social network can be and still allow an individual to cause something to spread completely through the network. Drawing on social contagion theory and network theory, we propose a research model about how network structure relates to diffusion and test it by simulation, using network data from the popular microblogging service Twitter. Results show the cascade capacity is an important determinant of diffusion, even when we model for homophily. We show how the concept could be used to select individuals to seed to encourage word of mouth marketing. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A field test similar to Godes and Mayzlin's (2009) conceptually replicates the sales effect of word-of-mouth campaigns and empirically confirms Haenlein and Libai's (2013) findings that seeds with high value to the brand are preferred among noncustomers of the product because they show the largest effect on incremental sales. Seeds with low value to the brand, as in Godes and Mayzlin's study, may be preferred if marketers are limited to work with product customers only. Additionally, those peers that are unaware of the campaign product, but have bought the brand in the past are mainly responsible for incremental sales.

WOS: 000373011200041, Objectives: This study aims to determine the word-of-mouth constructs related to physician choice and to investigate relationships between the constructs and satisfaction. Method: A questionnaire consisted of three parts was conducted on people (n= 1193) living in the province of Eskisehir, Turkey. The first part contained sixteen statements related to word-of-mouth messages about choosing a physician. A traditional approach to scale development was utilized. Items in the second part were concerned with satisfaction as the dependent variable. The final part included demographic variables. Results: The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed four valid WOM constructs (communication skill, expertise, reputation and success, and institutional facilities) and structural equation model (SEM) indicate that these constructs have both directly and indirectly effect on patient satisfaction. The results also showed that institutional facility mediated relationship between remaining factors and satisfaction. Conclusions: The relationships between physicians and patients have an indirect effect on potential patients. By understanding sources of patients' satisfaction and dissatisfaction, physicians can develop appropriate relationship strategies to minimize the adverse effects of negative word-of-mouth on costs, quality and patient turnover. The results of the current study provide suggestions for better health care management and further insight into the challenges of improving patient satisfaction.

Handicrafts and souvenirs have a long and glorious tradition behind them. They represent the culture of the people and from a great heritage of art. Souvenirs are a manifestation of the creative impulse of people. The specialty of the handicraft is that it reflects the craftsmanship of each and every part of the country. Souvenirs always remind a traveller of a particular place that it was purchased from. Souvenir trade improves the local economy and even serves as a brand image or icon of the destination visited by tourists while providing easy visibility. Souvenirs also help in the word of mouth marketing of a destination. The souvenir trade worldwide is part of a rich handicraft tradition that evolved over the years. India has a diversity of souvenirs, and so does Kerala. The uniqueness of Kerala isits abundance of plant or natural fibre-based souvenirs. But, little research has been done on the process of production or the potential it provides in promoting tourism. This study is an attempt to look into the problems and prospects of plant or natural fibre based - ‘green souvenirs’ of Kerala and to offer suggestions for improving its market.

Sail to Indonesia 2019 in Bawean Island is a program implemented by the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with yacht rally organizer from New Zealand. Sail to Indonesia has the purpose to develop tourism sector, especially maritime tourism in the area that is the path and center of Sail to Indonesia. Sail to Indonesia 2019, Yachters sailed in 10 places in Indonesia for three months, one of that in Bawean Island and Bawean Island became the only place in East Java which was visited by the Yachters. This research uses descriptive qualitative method that aims to analyze and determine the formation of the Sail to Indonesia 2019 image on Bawean Island as an effort to increase tourist visits. The results of this study concluded that the Department of Tourism & Culture of Gresik in forming the image of Bawean Island not only applied the theory of uniqueness of events according to Getz such as hospitality, symboliysm, authenticity, theming, and festive spirit, but also there is an element of convenience. Department of Tourism & Culture of Gresik did efforts to increasing tourist visits are by using wish images to maximize expectations of Bawean Island so as to provide the best service during activities. In addition, through the current image, tourists will tell all their best experiences and memories while on Bawean Island with word of mouth marketing.

With the globalization of the world economy, consumers’ awareness of rational purchases has increased, and the traditional marketing model has been unable to meet the needs of enterprise development. Word-of-mouth marketing has a great influence on consumers’ pre-purchase decisions and purchase evaluations. Enterprises should pay attention to this marketing method. Based on this, this article discusses the connotation and characteristics of word-of-mouth marketing. Compared with traditional marketing models, word-of-mouth marketing has advantages and accordingly proposes specific ways to build a communication model.

The purpose of this research is to find out and provide empirical evidence of the influence of promotional strategies through online marketing and word of mouth marketing partially and simultaneously on the decision to purchase Zeneos brand motorcycle tire products from PT Gajah Tunggal Tbk. at Pamulang University in 8 Semester Students, majoring in Management Study Program Faculty of Economics, Academic Year 2018/2019. The sampling method uses simple random sampling technique with the type of research used is associative quantitative. The sample used was 100 respondents namely Pamulang University Students 8 Semester, majoring in Management Study Program Faculty of Economics, Academic Year 2018/2019. While the data collection method uses the questionnaire (questionnaire) method. Data analysis methods are validity test, reliability test, classic assumption test, multiple linear regression, correlation, coefficient of determination, and hypothesis testing (partial and simultaneous).The results of this study indicate that there is a positive and significant effect both partially and simultaneously between promotional strategies through online marketing and word of mouth marketing on purchasing decisions for Zeneos motorcycle tire products from PT Gajah Tunggal Tbk. at Pamulang University Students Semester 8, S1 Management Study Program Faculty of Economics, Academic Year 2018/2019, this is indicated by the results of the t test and f test with a significance value below 0.05. Keywords: Online Marketing; Word of Mouth Marketing; Purchasing Decisions.

Penelitian dilakukan sebagai upaya mengetahui perbandingan antara metode pemasaran yang paling efektif dalam menarik minat mahasiswa bergabung dengan Universitas Pamulang. Pendekatan kuantitatif digunakan srebagai metode penelitian ini. Adapun jumlah sampel sebanyak 1557 responden yang tersebar ke dalam 50 kelas. Hasil penelitian menunjukan terdapat perbedaan antara metode word of mouth marketing dengan social media marketing dalam menarik minat mahasiswa bergabung dengan Universitas Pamulang. Metode word of mouth marketing 1,5 kali lebih efektif dibandingkan dengan social media marketing. Pada penggunaan metode word of mouth marketing, perantara yang paling dominan dalam mempengaruhi pilihan mahasiswa adalah teman, disusul oleh tetangga dan keluarga. Pada penggunaan media social, instagram, facebook dan website adalah tiga besar media sosial yang paling berperan dalam social media marketing. Pada pengujian statistik untuk menguji perbedaan antara kedua metode tersebut, terlihat bahwa ada perbedaan antara metode word of mouth marketing dengan metode social media marketing dalam menarik minat kuliah di Universitas Pamulang.

With the rapid development of "Internet plus", the number of Internet users in China has increased rapidly, and the number of active users of social media software ranks first in the world. Large Numbers of network users are also potential consumer groups. Social media influences other consumers through consumer interaction and social interaction, and consumers are transformed into active information acquisition rather than passive information reception. Word of mouth marketing on social media has become one of the hottest research fields. Based on the information adoption model, this study explores the impact of internet celebrity word-of-mouth communication on consumer information sharing from four dimensions: internet celebrity word-of-mouth communication, relationship quality, face consciousness, and consumer information sharing and establishes a research model to provide references and suggestions for subsequent researchers and enterprise management.

People tend to rely on the recommendations of people they know more than any other advertisement medium. Friend-recommendation and online reviews are the primary criteria considered before making most purchase decisions. Increase in the number of media channels, having too many product options to choose from and the massive amount of advertisement pieces lead the way to the success of word of mouth once again. With recent developments in technology and increase in the number of social media tools and users, word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) became more important than ever. There are many ways to empower positive word of mouth on behalf of corporate brands. The present chapter aims to summarise the key points of WOMM and provide the readers with a roadmap and tools for successful WOMM applications.

This research discusses how the independent Malaysian film KL24: Zombie uses the attention economy with a minimum budget to promote their film on internet. Attention has a value of real currency in business and individuals. It relates to the use of social media. Films promotion no longer needed to wait after their creation. For Malaysian films industry, attention is very crucial and it literally means to have the audience watch the film. A in depth interview with James Lee – independent film director in Malaysia been conducted in this research paper. The director only spent around RM500 on buying Facebook ads. The social media platform-YouTube allows him to keep track how long he manage to keep the audiences’ attention. Viral marketing is a strategy based on social media networks to increase awareness about a brand, product, or an event before the item it launched- basically word of mouth marketing, but through social media. Malaysian film makers should start opting on imitating the similar process of marketing and start promoting their movie earlier. Although they might not have enough budgets to produce a movie at that moment, making the public aware of their upcoming movie would grab the attention of not only the potential audience but also potential investors that would want to invest their money to the movie.

The number of tourism objects in Purbalingga that are worth to be known and to be visited by all of us. Therefore, the tourism objects are very necessary to be informed to attract as much as possible potential tourists. Spreading information of tourism objects for tourist can happen in various ways, one of them that now very popular is the usage of internet/digital media. Because it can reach audience more widely. Methodology of this research is descriptive qualitative. Determination of informants are using purposive sampling, which is representative. There are two types of data source: which are primary data source and secondary data. The techniques of collecting data are in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. The way of analyzing data are reduction, data presentation and integrated conclusion drawing. The results showed that the communication of tourism objects by using digital-based are very effective and efficient. Social media is also very helpful in disseminating tourist information in Purbalingga, and also Purbalingga tourism community that is intensively promoting Purbalingga tourism objects. Theoretically, Purbalingga tourism marketing strategy based on digital communication that is used is Kotler and Keller's theory. The elements are advertisement; sales promotion, events and experiences, public relations and publicity, direct marketing, interactive marketing, word of mouth marketing, sales personnel. Those elements of communication are supported by the internet.

Word of mouth (WOM) reflects informal communication between private individuals that evaluates goods and services (Anderson, 1998). It provides a highly credible means of persuasion because the communicator is not seen as having a vested interest in selling the recommended product or service. In this chapter, WOM is conceptualized as a type of advice between private parties (typically consumers), focused on goods or services, and not necessarily purposeful or directive. WOM is a very powerful tool, especially given the relatively new focus in marketing on customer engagement and the customer’s role in value co-creation in the context of market offerings. However, over the decades, a number of myths have developed surrounding the effects of WOM. These myths are challenged within a review of the research literature. Suggestions for future research directions, research methods to capture WOM, and some best practices are also discussed.

This chapter explains the emergence of modern-day influencer marketing—it has existed for decades in different forms (ex: word of mouth marketing, traditional celebrity endorsements). However, it is more relevant today due to the widespread adoption of new technologies (Internet/social media platforms) and the decline in effectiveness of traditional mass-media (ex: television advertisements). Influencer marketing in an Internet-enabled, global business environment, allows savvy marketers to connect with their target audiences in an authentic manner, and avoid using interruption marketing techniques of the past that have lost effectiveness due to ad blockers and other information filters.

WOS: 000437031100012, In terms of businesses in today's world, the most important way of sustainability is through a good sense of quality and a brand image. Especially when the uncertainties about the service to be offered in the service sector are excessive, people can postpone the decision stage as long as they are not confident. For a service that they do not already have experience, the customers choose the way to prefer perceived quality perception and businesses with high brand image with the help of word of mouth marketing. In this study, it is aimed to determine whether word of mouth marketing has effect on the purchasing behavior via brand image and perceived quality. In order to collect the data in the study, scales which consists of 23 items, 89 for Cronbach Alpha internal consistency coefficient word of mouth marketing, 80 for brand image, 92 for perceived quality, developed by Goyette vd (2010), Ural and Perk (2012) and Pappu, Quester ve Cooksey (2006) was used. As a result of the analyzes made, it has been found out that word of mouth marketing activities develop faster on the institutions which had high percieved quality and brand image before, and on the purchasing behaviors of the individuals.

Marketing-stimulated word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing has been poorly understood in health care, leading to it being underappreciated and underutilized by marketers. A study of new patients to a new runner's clinic was conducted to understand how they chose the program. The importance of marketing-stimulated WOM, both individual and organizational, is documented. Marketing-stimulated WOM is an often overlooked and rarely measured channel for increasing the impact of marketing programs.

Because effective influencers in an online social network (OSN) can significantly affect consumers' purchasing decisions via trust among users in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) marketing, identifying these influencers with respect to user trust relationships has become increasingly important. However, many existing studies overlook the domain attribute of trust and the time-varying nature of social networks and only analyze a static snapshot of a user trust network (UTN). To address these issues and investigate this topic in the e-commerce context, this study proposes a research framework that takes into account the dimensions of trust, domain, and time. A time-varying hypergraph is developed to model the OSN using the time-varying features of multi-type relationships, and an algorithm is developed to extract a domain-aware UTN based on the time-varying hypergraph and user trust relationships. Reinforced by the dimensions of trust, domain, and time, a novel product review domain-aware (PRDA) approach is conceived that identifies effective influencers and categorizes them into three types, i.e., emerging influencers, holding influencers, and vanishing influencers, based on their popularity status across the life cycle. The experimental results from the Epinions dataset show that the PRDA approach outperforms both the social network-based influence-evaluating approach and the "popular author" approach.

Patients have to wait in waiting rooms prior to seeing the physician. But there are few studies that demonstrate what they are actually doing in the waiting room. This exploratory study was designed to investigate the types of discussions that patients in the waiting room typically engage in with other patients and how the conversations affected their opinion on general reputation of the clinic, injections/blocks as treatment procedures, waiting time, time spent with the caregiver, overall patient satisfaction, and the pain medication usage policy. The study demonstrates that patient interaction in the waiting room has a positive effect on patient opinion of the pain clinic and the caregivers.

One of the crucial, if not the primary challenge facing enterprises today is sale of products offered. In the case of prevalence of supply over demand, marketing competences become the crucial source for competitive advantage. Word-of-mouth is one of the tools, when used sufficiently, which may produce numerous positive consequences for the enterprise, and so gains in its importance. Communication conducted in this way should occur alongside the use of classical promotion tools, and the key to its effectiveness is customer’s satisfaction with the use of the product. Such a situation should trigger recommendations for a product, which is the bedrock for word-of-mouth marketing. It seems that this tool, due to the specifics underlying its operations, may be tremendously effective solution for small enterprises operating on the medical market. First, instruments concerned with this form of promotion may be relatively cheap. Second, on the medical market trust proves to be critical for the patent’s choice, and its diffusion takes place remarkably potently through recommendations made by customers.

W ciągu ostatnich lat marketing, podobnie jak inne dziedziny nauki, znacząco sie rozwinąl. Nowe techniki, wciąz rozwijające sie style komponowania marketingu mix oraz stale przeprowadzane badania, staly sie przyczyną powstawania innowacyjnych nurtow marketingowych, ktore umozliwiają firmom coraz skuteczniejsze docieranie ze swoimi produktami do grup docelowych i sprawianie, ze ich przekaz jest odbierany w sposob zamierzony i skuteczny. Przedsiebiorcy, poszukując nowych rewolucyjnych sposobow dotarcia do odbiorcow, coraz cześciej w wypracowywaniu przewagi konkurencyjnej poslugują sie ambient marketingiem. Na podstawie wynikow badan pierwotnych stwierdzono, ze niekonwencjonalne, oryginalne formy oddzialywan na klienta mogą przynieśc pozytywne rezultaty w utrwalaniu pozycji marki na konkurencyjnym rynku.

Purpose- The aim of this study is to examine the effect of store image and word of mouth marketing on customer satisfaction. Methodology- For this purpose, a face-to-face questionnaire was conducted by the customers of a store operating in the province of Canakkale in September-October 2016 with easy sampling method. The obtained data were tested by t-test, ANOVA, Factor and Regression analysis. Findings- According to the results of the analysis, it was determined that the store image size was the most influenced by the "Personnel" in the oral marketing. However, the effect levels of store image sizes in oral marketing were respectively staff, price, product, store atmosphere and convenience. Conclusion- In this study, it is concluded that store image in terms of store atmosphere, attitude of staffs to costumers, product quality and reliability and it was reached results that these factors influence costumer satisfactory. Nonetheless, mouth to mouth marketing have also considerably effect on costumer satisfactory. It has determineted that influencing factors to costumer satisfactory are respectively attitude of staffs to costumers, mouth to mouth marketing, good quality and reliability.

Social networking sites (SNS) offer brands the ability to spread positive electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) for the purposes of building awareness and acquiring new customers. However, the credibility of eWOM is threatened of late as marketers increasingly try to manipulate eWOM practices on SNS. A greater understanding of eWOM credibility is necessary to better enable marketers to leverage true consumer engagement by generating credible peer-to-peer communications. Yet, to date, there is no one framework synthesising which factors constitute eWOM credibility in the online environment. This paper revisits the word of mouth credibility literature and proposes a new credibility framework – the 4Cs of eWOM Credibility: Community, Competence, Content, and Consensus.

The purpose of this research is to identify and determine the influence of halal factors on Purchase Intention through Subjective Norms. It also investigated which one factor among all variables that are investigated have the strongest influence. The study was taken from 139 respondents of Muslim consumers of halal culinary fast food, KFC. The collected data is measured by five-point Likert scale. Used Structural Equation Model (SEM) with IBM AMOS version 24 as analytical tool, this research was divided into 5 variables which are measured. The variables are Halal Awareness, Halal Certification, Halal Marketing Word of Mouth (WOM), Subjective Norms and Purchase Intention. The measurement is based on Theory Planned of Behavior by Ajzen (1991) with modification. Result shows that Subjective Norms has high connection with Purchase Intention. It caused by indirect effect from Halal Certification and Halal Marketing WOM. But direct effect from Halal Awareness and Halal Marketing WOM is not significant. Thereby, the study suggests that customers are influenced by Subjective Norms or Muslim consumers’ preference as they are being influenced by halal label or Halal Certification and also word of mouth marketing system. The study suggests KFC or food manufactures have to pay attention to halal marketing strategy. Based from the finding, it can be concluded that, consumer did not look for about halal by themselves, but pay attention to the halal label and WOM marketing strategy.

In accordance with the growing importance of the Internet and the Information and Communication Technologies required to exploit its full potential, a wide array of research has been focused on technology adoption models. Next to this, different forms of advertising like word of mouth marketing play an increasing role in targeting customers and sell products and services. Based on an interdisciplinary systematic literature review, this paper investigates whether there is theoretical or empirical research on the influence of advertising on the process of consumers’ technology adoption behavior. The findings uncover a gap in the current IS (Information Systems) and marketing literature by finding no paper that incorporates a concept of advertising in a technology adoption model. Following that interesting and surprising finding, we contribute to current research by synthesizing twelve articles related to our research question by providing a concept matrix that categorizes the identified articles by four advertising strategies and by the channels of influence through which advertising works on adoption behavior. Thus, we strongly encourage further research in this highly interesting and important research field.

Nowadays online social networks are used extensively for personal and commercial purposes. This widespread popularity makes them an ideal platform for advertisements. Social media can be used for both direct and word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing. Although WoM marketing is considered more effective and it requires less advertisement cost, it is currently being under-utilized. To do WoM marketing, we need to identify a set of people who can use their authoritative position in social network to promote a given product. In this paper, we show how to do WoM marketing in Facebook group, which is a question answer type of social network. We also present concept of reinforced WoM marketing, where multiple authorities can together promote a product to increase the effectiveness of marketing. We perform our experiments on Facebook group dataset consisting of 0.3 million messages and 10 million user reactions.

Purpose – The paper aims to provide a theoretically informed critique of current measurement practices for word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) campaigns. Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory field study is conducted on a real-life WOMM campaign. Data are collected from two generations of campaign participants using a custom-built Facebook app and subjected to social network analysis (SNA). We compare our theoretically informed measure of campaign reach with industry standard practice. Findings – Standard metrics for WOMM campaigns assume campaign reach equates to the number of campaign-related conversations. These metrics fail to allow for the possibility that some participants may be exposed multiple times to campaign-related messaging. In this exploratory field study, standard metrics overestimate campaign reach by 57.5 per cent. The campaign is also significantly less efficient in terms of cost-per-conversation. SNA shows that multiple exposures are associated with transitivity and tie strength. Multiple exposures mean that the total number of campaign-related conversations cannot be regarded as equivalent to the number of individuals reached. Research limitations/implications – SNA provides a sound theoretical foundation for the critique of current WOMM measurement practices. Two social-structural network attributes – transitivity and tie strength – inform our critique. A single WOMM campaign provides the field study context. Practical implications – The findings have significant implications for the development and deployment of WOMM effectiveness and efficiency metrics and are relevant to WOMM agencies, agency clients and the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association. Originality/value – This is the largest field study of its kind having collected data on >5,000 WOMM campaign-related conversations. Participants specified precisely whom they spoke to about the campaign and the strength of that social tie. This is the first SNA-informed critique of standard WOMM campaign measurement practices and first quantification of offline multiple exposures to a WOMM campaign. We demonstrate how standard campaign metrics are based on the false assumption that word-of-mouth flows exclusively along intransitive ties.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of virtual social networks (VSNs) and to determine their salient attributes, including those that influence flow experience, trust and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) behaviors affecting users’ purchase intentions, and to provide important strategic implications contributing to the Internet marketing literature. Design/methodology/approach – Using a self-administered questionnaire, the data (n = 167) are collected from two Iranian Internet social networking sites, namely, facenama.com and cloob.com . Using LISREL 8.5, hypothesized relationships are examined through structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. Findings – According to the results of the study, despite all assumptions and studies to the contrary, eWOM behaviors in VSNs are derived from neither users’ flow experience nor their trust in VSNs, but they are mostly caused by VSNs’ attributes, from which four are investigated in this study, namely, communication and social relationships, entertainment, information disclosure and ease of use. Nevertheless, according to the results, VSN attributes also influence trust and flow experience, trust in a VSN environment influences users’ flow experience and eWOM in VSNs has significant impact on users’ purchase intentions. The findings also revealed that the level of education of a user affects how much he trusts the VSN environment. Practical implications – The author examined flow experience, trust, eWOM behavior, purchase intentions and the VSNs’ attributes to verify their relationships, providing a better understanding of an effective indirect marketing in VSNs. The results also have important implications for researchers. Originality/value – While flow experience, trust, word-of-mouth (WOM) behaviors and purchase intentions have been separately studied in Web sites, e-shopping malls and blogs, little research has sought to identify the existence of these elements within VSNs, their correlations with one another and how they are affected by VSNs’ attributes.

Purpose – This research was designed to expand the understanding of how brand familiarity may affect the motivation to process word-of-mouth (WOM) information in brand evaluation. The pre-WOM brand attitude certainty is expected to explain the moderation effect. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Two experiments were conducted. The study participants were undergraduate students from a major university in Singapore. The main statistical analysis was done using a two-way analysis of covariance. Findings – The results of Experiments 1 and 2 support the prediction that consumers are more likely to use the perceived expertise of the WOM sender to evaluate an unfamiliar brand vs a familiar brand. Experiment 2 also provides some preliminary evidence that this interaction effect may be due to the difference in certainty of the study respondents in regards to the pre-WOM evaluation of unfamiliar and familiar brand. Research limitations/implications – This manipulation method of presenting WOM in a printed format may understate the impact of WOM. A more vivid manipulation of WOM that allows for a feedback loop may be considered for future research. Practical implications – The results highlight the importance of considering the strength dimensions of brand attitudes (e.g. attitude certainty) in the marketplace. For marketers of unfamiliar brands, source factors (e.g. expertise of WOM sender) are important to consider for effective use of WOM to market their products. For familiar brands, source factors are less relevant. Originality/value – This paper highlights the importance of considering attitude certainty and the subsequent malleability of attitude toward new information about the brand in the marketplace. Hence, marketers and researchers who are interested in changing brand attitude should take meta-attitude factors into consideration.

Aceh Singkil is one of the regencies in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Province that is rich in marine tourism, nature and culture. One of the popular tourism objects in this place is Banyak Island. Being well known by both local and international tourists, this tourist destination needs the right strategy. Through coordination done by government tourism office and youth and sports service of Aceh Singkil Regency, tourism communication strategy is arranged as an effort to improve the tourists’ visit in Banyak Island. This research was conducted by using descriptive-qualitative approach in which the data were collected by interview to the related parties. This research aims at : (1) knowing the maritime tourism marketing communication strategy done by government tourism office and youth and sports service of Aceh Singkil Regency in improving the tourists’ visit in Banyak Island, (2) knowing the supporting and inhibiting factors of the maritime tourism marketing communication strategy done by government tourism office and youth and sports service of Aceh Singkil Regency in improving the tourists’ visit in Banyak Island. Research findings show that the strategy of maritime tourism marketing communication done by government tourism office and youth and sports service of Aceh Singkil Regency in improving the tourists’ visit in Banyak Island are by advertising, event, publicity, and word of mouth marketing. The supporting factors of communication marketing are potential attractions for dance culture (Adok dance, Umbrella dance) and tomb of Makam syekh Abdurauf As-Singkily as national Islamic treasure. Meanwhile, the inhibiting factors, one of them, is lack of crossing transportation for tourists to visit Banyak Island

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between perceived brand orientation (PBO), satisfaction, loyalty, and post-enrolment communication behaviour in the Australian higher education sector. Design/methodology/approach – Two hundred and fifty-eight questionnaires were completed by undergraduate students of a particular university in Australia. Structural equation modeling was employed in this study to examine the associations between the constructs. Findings – This study provides empirical evidence that PBO has a positive and significant relationship with all dependent variables. The research reveals that students' perception of a university's brand orientation is significantly related to satisfaction, loyalty, and post-enrolment communication behaviour. Research limitations/implications – The findings may guide the key decision makers in higher education institutions to understand the importance of brand orientation in their corporate strategy to enhance satisfaction, loyalty, and positive WOM, which can be used to differentiate themselves from other institutions in the highly competitive education market. Originality/value – Past researchers have not looked into the dynamic relationships between PBO, satisfaction, loyalty, and post-enrolment communication behaviour, and hence research is to be called for in this area. The paper is the first to examine brand orientation from the perspective of the students and provide higher education institutions with recommendations to improve service quality through brand orientation.

This article investigates the ramifications of the epidemiological metaphor at the centre of viral marketing. In particular, it explores the tension that exists between the presentation of the viral marketing message as an independent, quasi-organic entity with a threatening, wild potential and the apparently contradictory assertion that it can also be ‘domesticated’ through careful management of its design parameters and infection vectors. The influence of both memetics and the tipping point motif on this depiction is discussed, and the article considers the persuasive advantages of implications of message agency in the marketing of viral marketing itself. This article is the first study of the root metaphors underlying the discourse of viral marketing and serves to contextualise that discourse within the historical influence of memetic theory and the early literature on word-of-mouth marketing, and the more general relationship that marketing continues to have with issues of control.

Due to the proliferation of information that global brands disseminate on social networking sites (SNS), how to induce SNS users to discuss such information is a topic deserving intensive research efforts. In recent years, scholars have begun to explore the topic from several perspectives. However, there is still a lack of conceptual theorization and empirical verification with more comprehensive probing into the psychological processes through which SNS users become motivated to engage in discussing brand information provided by brand marketers. The current study, based on integrative reconfiguration of relevant theories and a large-scale survey, develops and validates a theoretical model to explicate the key determinants in this regard. Data were obtained from 1518 respondents, who have been active SNS users for at least one year. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling facilitate validation of the model. According to the research findings, affective attitude is a stronger factor t...

Marketers increasingly provide incentives to everyday consumers in exchange for generating buzz about their brand. The problem is that incented agents do not always disclose this relationship, and marketers fear that disclosure will reduce the technique's effectiveness. This article examines how disclosure affects consumers' response to word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing. Compared to seemingly organic WOM, can disclosure of the agent–brand relationship benefit the brand if it occurs concurrently with the recommendation? What are the consequences if an agent fails to disclose and the consumer learns about the subterfuge later? Findings from two experiments suggest that honesty is indeed the best policy regardless of whether the agent is talking to a friend or a stranger.

This case study reports results from three research studies conducted over 12 weeks as part of a product seeding campaign. Partnering with a word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) agency for this research, studies 1 and 2 report agency-conducted surveys of campaign participants' online and offline word-of-mouth (WOM) behaviors. Study 3 deployed an innovative web-based methodology to map and visualize WOM communication patterns, to reveal how campaign-related conversations spread within and across offline friendship networks and the role played by tie strength in that process. We find that agency reports of WOMM campaign results overstate reach and understate frequency. Our results have implications for the measurement of reach and frequency of WOMM campaigns.

Word of mouth (WOM) has become the focus of growing interest among marketing practitioners and consumers. However, the promises of WOM marketing are often oversold, and various assertions about the nature of WOM, its dynamics, antecedents, and consequences at times have been misstated in mass-mediated articles and books on the topic. In this introductory paper for the special issue on WOM and social media, we survey the current state of WOM knowledge and the role of WOM in contemporary marketing, reconsider common beliefs about the WOM process in an effort to separate WOM facts from fallacies, and presage some future directions and best practices in light of evolving online channels of WOM generation and transmission.

A considerable number of studies assert that word of mouth marketing is effective on customer preferences. It is also regarded as a form of promotion especially in professional services, where confidence plays a pivotal role. This study aims to identify advice giving and receiving habits regarding healthcare services. In addition, we also intend to measure the reaction of healthcare service receivers in accordance with their satisfaction and dissatisfaction outcome and to associate it with their demographic characteristics. The empirical results suggest that word of mouth marketing affects customer preferences in healthcare services. We also detect a limited relationship between demographic characteristics and word of mouth marketing.

Developed countries set trends in types of tourism products and technologies that developing countries should incorporate in the tourism industry to allow their economies to grow. Typical types of such tourism products are the co-creation between tourism and technology, tourism and wellness and wellness and technology. Wellness involves sport participation, fitness and healthy living. This paper investigates the possibility of developing a country's tourism industry utilising wellness products and technology to market innovatively. The idea is to incorporate and share information generated from technology with tourists participating in wellness tourism. The result is a more holistic wellness experience and additional word of mouth marketing.

Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing is increasingly playing an important role in consumers’ purchase decision with the development of mobile Internet and various social media APP. We are particularly interested in such a problem as how to make decisions under effects of WOM campaigns? To answer this question, we develop a multi-agent model that emulates WOM or viral marketing process as spread of disease among people. Assume that each “infected” individual will purchase one unit of product. Then, the total “infected” people form the demand of the product, as an input of newsvendor problem. Besides finding the optimal order quantity of newsvendor problem, we also identify the most influential source node for kick off of the WOM marketing. The simulation results reveal that social network and WOM have a great influence on demand and profit of the firm. Even the source node has significant effect on output of WOM marketing. According to our simulation, the closeness centrality in social network analysis is the best measure to recognize the most influential source node, comparing to degree centrality, or betweenness centrality, etc. Finally, parameter analysis infers that profit of the firm will increase with higher the spreading probability or/and lower the resistant probability.

We use a general cellular automata model to study the consumer decision-making process. Within this general model we use three different rules governing word-of-mouth communication (w-o-m), one majority rule and two unanimity rules, and ask the question if differences between these three w-o-m rules, introduced on the microscopic level, will manifest on the macroscopic level. We show that in the model with the majority rule the neighborhood plays a significant role in terms of the market shares whereas movement (interpreted as seeking for information in other sources) is almost negligible. Exactly the opposite phenomena are observed for models in which unanimity, instead of majority, is needed to convince agents. We also introduce a modification of the unanimity rule, based on the Latane theory of the social influence, and show that on the macroscopic level this modification is indistinguishable from the simple unanimity rule. We conclude the paper with a recommendation which rules are more appropriate to model particular marketing phenomena.

This study has been developed to make a marketing tool for word-of-mouth marketing for "Low-Budget Movie". By developing an application program of Low-Budget Movie for 20millions of Smart-Phone user, it can find out the best environment of service, function, etc. Hereby, it could contribute the progress of Korean film industry with this marketing tool of Low-Budget movie. For the research, conjoint analysis has been done through conjoint survey and general survey.