E-WOM: The New Consumer Megaphone – Underlying Reasons and Related Factors

E-WOM: The New Consumer Megaphone – Underlying Reasons and Related Factors

Esra Güven, Özlem Işık
Copyright: © 2019 |Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-7344-9.ch015
OnDemand:
(Individual Chapters)
Available
$37.50
Current Special Offers
No Current Special Offers
TOTAL SAVINGS: $37.50

Abstract

Together with the internet, social networking sites provide the consumers and the companies with a new marketing channel. In these online platforms, people make groups and come together for specific purposes. This new vivid and productive environment attracts the consumers seeking for product information and the companies trying to be in close contact with the customers. So the traditional WOM (word of mouth) has gained a new momentum and transformed into a new form in this online environment, called e-WOM (electronic word of mouth). Setting out from this recent fact, the chapter aims to give a general review of word of mouth communication starting with the traditional word of mouth and then elaborating e-WOM. It tries to tell about what e-WOM is and how it functions in online environments. As well as the definitions and the explanations of e-WOM, the chapter also aims to give the underlying reasons and the related factors during the process of e-WOM communication, thus putting a general framework for the companies and brands about this new marketing communication.
Chapter Preview
Top

Wom And E-Wom

In our increasingly competitive environment, though it is possible to reach each individual through electronic communication devices, the significance WOM, known as word of mouth, has remained the same over the years and it has gained a new importance together with the introduction of internet and Web 2.0 technology. Today businesses need to know and benefit from the potential of word of mouth communications and prepare strategical plans in accordance with this new version of word of mouth communication.

The concept WOM is a far older concept than the marketing itself. From the beginning of civilization on, people have taken advice from other people as regards many different things in their daily lives. Even, it is known that early people took advice from each other about foods and commodities informally (Arora, 2007:52).

In the early 1950s, B.E Asch mentioned ‘crowd physchology’ in his work, and then in 1957 Jr.Brooks and C.Roberts published an article in the Journal of Marketing. This article is regarded as the first study emphasizing the significance of WOM in the introduction of new products (Kanning, 2008:62).

Complete Chapter List

Search this Book:
Reset