超市供应商
幼儿园健康教育活动教案Word-of-mouth
The u of source experti in the evaluation of familiar and unfamiliar brands
Boon Chong Lim
Division of Marketing and International Business,
Nanyang Business School,Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore,and Cindy M.Y.Chung
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration,
Marketing Department Goethe-Universita
¨t,Frankfurt,Germany Abstract
Purpo –This rearch 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 the 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 1and 2support the prediction that consumers are more likely to u the perceived experti of the WOM nder to evaluate an unfamiliar brand vs a familiar brand.Experiment 2also 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.
Rearch limitations/implications –This manipulation method of prenting 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 rearch.
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 (perti of WOM nder)are important to consider for effective u 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 subquent malleability of attitude toward new information about the brand in the marketplace.Hence,marketers and rearchers who are interested in changing brand attitude should take meta-attitude factors into consideration.
我多想作文
Keywords Consumer behaviour,Word of mouth marketing
Paper type Rearch paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
The authors thank Ringo Ho,Shun Yin Lam,and Sharon Ng,and participants in the 2010GFA Marketing Conference for their valuable feedback on this rearch.
Received 10February 2013Revid 29August 2013Accepted 20September
2013
Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and河南高考录取率
Logistics
Vol.26No.1,2014
pp.39-53
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1355-5855
DOI 10.1108/APJML-02-2013-0027Word-of-mouth 39
1.Introduction Word-of-mouth (WOM)is an informal mode of communication about the evaluation of goods and rvices between consumers who are independent of the marketers (Anderson,1998;Arndt,1967;Dichter,1966;Wee et al.,1995).In the marketplace,WOM plays an import
ant role in shaping consumers’attitudes and behaviors (Brown and Reingen,1987).Consumers arch for information from other consumers to make
more informed decisions (Berger,1988;Jolson and Bushman,1978).Relevant others (e.g.friends and relatives)can provide information that supports and/or adds to what the consumers already know about the products and rvices (Deutsch and Gerard,1955;Lim and Chung,2011).
The extent to which information from others affects the individual’s evaluation of objects depends on whether the individual perceives information about the product or rvice from others to be credible or not (Burnkrant and Cousineau,1975).The experti of the source is one of the more important and enduring components of source credibility (Yoon et al.,1998).Since the impact of WOM is contingent on whether consumers view WOM messages as credible,the perceived experti of WOM nder is likely to be an important factor in the study of WOM.Even though the WOM nder is likely to be trustworthy and does not have any ulterior motive to provide the WOM (Bansal and Voyer,2000;Smith et al.,2005),he/she may not have the experti to provide valid information about the object in question.Thus,how the perceived experti of WOM nder can influence the impact of the WOM on the evaluation of brands is an important consideration.However,the motivation to u the additional information from the WOM nder (including the nder’s characteristics)may be depe
ndent on the characteristics of the focal brand.The impact of brand information on subquent information processing is expected to be moderated by the consumers’familiarity with the brand.Past rearch has extensively looked into how product familiarity (i.e.prior knowledge of the product category)(Rao and Monroe,1988)can influence cue utilization due to the consumers’ability to process additional information.However,brand familiarity does not necessarily lead to better-developed knowledge structures (i.e.schemas)about a product category.Today,many marketers u brand extensions across numerous product categories to leverage on their strong brands leading to greater awareness.Brand familiarity can also ari from marketing communication that focus on raising brand awareness and reasons for buying the focal brand,but consumers may not gain much product knowledge from commercial messages.Therefore,brand familiarity,as oppod to product familiarity,may affect the processing of additional information in a different way.
This rearch examines how brand familiarity can affect the motivation of the consumers to u the experti heuristic (sumers who are experts can be trusted to give an accurate reflection of brand quality)in a WOM exchange context.This paper examines this expected moderation by delineating the meta-attitude factors (e.g.attitude certainty)of consumers in this context.This paper highlights the importance of considering attitude certainty and the subquent malleability of attitude
toward familiar or unfamiliar brand to new information in the marketplace.The results of the two experiments in this rearch support this prediction.Experiment 2also provides some preliminary evidence that the moderation effect of brand familiarity on the u of the source experti as cue may be driven by the certainty the study participants have about their pre-WOM evaluation of a familiar
APJML 26,140
brand versus an unfamiliar brand.The conceptual and marketing implications of the results are discusd in the concluding ction of this paper.
2.Conceptual background and hypothesis development
2.1Attitude certainty and brand familiarity
Brand name information can be considered a knowledge structure that can operate as a judgment heuristic.The knowledge structure may include associations between a brand name and the quality of the product and therefore provide a basis for a judgment or a decision without the need for extensive processing of internal specific information about product attributes)(Campbell et al.
,2003;Maheswaran et al.,1992). In contrast to heuristics that provide information about message validity,brand name provides information about the attitude object quality of the product)rather than the position that the persuasive message advocates.Consumers often u price or brand information in making judgments about products,and this attention to brand and price information may inhibit the u of later(potentially more diagnostic) information in judging a product’s quality(Oxoby and Finnigan,2007).However, attitude certainty is likely to affect the u of brand name as a judgment heuristic by the consumers.
Recent rearch on persuasion and resistance of persuasion has looked beyond just attitude and focud on the impact of attitude strength,such as attitude certainty (Barden and Petty,2008;Pullig et al.,2006;Tormala et al.,2006).Attitude certainty is one of the most studied indicators of attitude strength(Barden and Petty,2008). Attitude certainty reflects the consumers’subjective n of confidence in their attitude or the extent to which the consumers believe that their attitude is correct(Gross et al., 1995;Tormala and Petty,2002).Attitudes that consumers are certain about tend to be stronger than attitudes about which they have doubts.Attitude certainty can affect the resistance to subquent persuasive attacks(Tormala and Petty,2002;Visr and Mirabile,2004),persistence of attitudes over time(Barden and Petty,2008;Gross et al., 1995),and attit
ude-behavioral correspondence(Fazio and Zanna,1978;Haddock et al., 1999;Tormala et al.,2006).
Brand familiarity is a factor that may affect brand attitude certainty.Brand familiarity can be defined as the reflection of the direct and indirect brand-related experiences that a consumer has accumulated over time(Alba and Hutchinson,1987). Most real product categories contain well-established familiar brands and new unfamiliar brands(Coates et al.,2006).Even though consumers may evaluate familiar brands better against unfamiliar brands(Arora and Stoner,1996;Sundaram and Webter,1999),it may be due to the fact that better known brands(usually brand leaders in the category)have a higher brand appeal in thefirst place(Coates et al., 2006).Familiar brands tend to be the big brands in the arket leaders)that survived the competitive market by providing good value to the consumers.Unfamiliar brands are typical new brands that are unproven yet.Hence,brand familiarity is often confounded with brand appeal.
The main contention of this rearch is that brand familiarity can influence brand evaluation beyond just having a higher brand appeal.DeCarlo et al.(2007)examined how brand familiarity can interact with brand image/appeal to influence the kind of attributions consumers may make about negative the WOM nder or to the brand)and in turn influence brand evaluation(in the context of a retail store).Word-of-mouth
41
有意义的词This current rearch aims to examine how brand familiarity can interact with the characteristics of the WOM nder (perti of WOM nder)to influence the consumer’s brand evaluation.The impact of brand familiarity is expected to be mediated by the consumers’attitude certainty (instead of attribution).For familiar brands,consumers may have had prior experience using the brands,en the advertising or marketing communications for the brands,gotten WOM from双圈
friends and family who have ud the brands before,and received information from the news media.Hence,consumers are likely to be highly certain of their evaluation of the familiar brands.In contrast,consumers lack certainty about their evaluation of unfamiliar brands due to the lack of information on and experience with the brands.Moreover,this higher uncertainty for unfamiliar (versus familiar)brands is likely to lead to higher motivation to process information beyond the brand name (Friestad and Wright,1994;Wei et al.,2008).
2.2Experti of WOM source
People tend to be economy-minded who engaged in effortful information processing only when they deem it necessary (Eagly and Chaiken,1993).Priester and Petty (1995)found that attitudes of cogniti
ve mirs are more dependent on message scrutiny when a knowledgeable source is of questionable honesty than when the honesty of the source is clear.Given that the WOM recipient generally perceives the WOM nder to be independent of the marketers,the manipulative intent of the WOM nder is most likely less accessible and salient as compared to sources that are not independent of the marketers (lebrity spokesperson,salesperson)(Bansal and Voyer,2000;Smith et al.,2005).Therefore,the WOM recipient is likely to rely on heuristic processing (e.g.u of source experti)when evaluating the WOM message.
Trustworthiness and experti are two of the more important and enduring components of source credibility (Yoon et al.,1998).Trustworthiness refers to the perceived willingness of the source to make valid asrtions (Yoon et al.,1998).In general,the WOM recipient perceives the WOM nder to be trustworthy,becau the WOM nder is usually independent of the ller and is not trying to persuade the WOM recipient to act in some way that is detrimental to his or her interests (Bansal and Voyer,2000;Smith et al.,2005).Thus,the WOM recipient is unlikely to be too concerned about the trustworthiness of the WOM nder.
Source experti refers to the perceived ability of a source to make valid asrtions about the issues at hand by the virtue of having relevant skills or knowledge (Homer and Kahle,1990;Yoon et al.,1998)
.The perceived experti level of the WOM nder can asrt a substantial influence on the perceived credibility of the WOM nder (Swartz,1984;Yoon et al.,1998).As judgments bad on the experti of the source are generally perceived to be appropriate (Bohner et al.,2002),consumers are likely to u the source experti to evaluate the validity of the product evaluations that other consumers provide (Friestad and Wright,1994;Maheswaran et al.,1992).
2.3Hypothes
In general,a message from an expert (as oppod to a non-expert)tends to be more persuasive for the consumers becau a high level of perceived experti indicates that the message being delivered is a valid one (Homer and Kahle,1990).When using source experti as an evaluation basis,a consumer may choo to agree with the advocated
APJML 26,142
position of the expert without considering the merits of the persuasive argument. As experts are perceived to posss knowledge about the product being evaluated and capable of making correct asrtions about the product,the level of perceived experti of the source provides evidence of the message validity(Homer and Kahle,1990). However,past rearch has shown that the impact of the
experti of the source on persuasion can be moderated by various factors(Bohner et al.,2002;Petty et al.,1981). An individual will attempt to strike a balance between minimizing cognitive effort expended and maximizing his or her confidence about a judgment(Chaiken et al., 1989).Hence,a consumer is more likely to process additional information when his or her confidence in judgment is low(Zuckerman and Chaiken,1998).
For unfamiliar brands,the consumers’brand attitude certainty is low and the consumers are more inclined to process additional information including the source experti.Hence,the consumers may rely on the source experti as a basis of evaluation for an unfamiliar brand.Converly,consumers are more certain about their brand attitude toward familiar brands and are less inclined to process any additional information about the brand.Therefore,the u of source experti is expected to be limited for a familiar brand.In the context of positive WOM communication,the following relationship is expected:
H1.Perceived high(versus low)experti of WOM nder will lead to a more positive brand attitude.
H2.Brand familiarity moderates the impact of WOM nder’s experti on brand attitude.Specifically,perceived high(versus low)experti of WOM nder
will lead to a more positive attitude toward an unfamiliar brand.However,
perceived experti of WOM nder has little or no impact on attitude toward
爵迹预告片a familiar brand.
3.The prent rearch惬意怎么读音
3.1Overview of design and participants
Brand familiarity(familiar versus unfamiliar),and experti of WOM nder(high versus low)were manipulated between-subjects to test the hypothes in two experiments.The study participants were undergraduate students from a major university in Singapore.Experiment1had50study participants and Experiment2had 78study participants.In both experiments,study participants were given cour credits for their participation.The printer product category was pretested to be relevant to the undergraduates and the brand extension of two brands to the printer product category was chon as the context of both experiments.
3.2Experiment1
3.2.1Procedure and measurements.Two pretests were conducted.Thefirst pretest identified a familiar brand and an unfamiliar brand,confirmed the effectiveness of the experti manipulation,and identified important product attributes to u in the WOM message.The cond pretest confirmed that the argument strength and/or comprehension of the WOM message did not affect the experti manipulation.
In thefirst pretest,brand names from a single product category were rated on two dimensions:brand familiarity and brand appeal(Coates et al.,2006).The two chon brand names should differ only on brand familiarity.The context of the pretest and Word-of-mouth
43
subquent experiment is the brand extension of the familiar and unfamiliar brand into a new but related product category (i.e.printer product category).Twenty-one participants did the pretest.In this pretest,the participants rated 17brands of personal computer (PC)that are available in the Singapore market.Bad on the comparison of the ratings across the different brands,two brands were chon.On a ven-point scale of very unfamiliar (1)to very familiar (7),they rated Acer (M ¼5.9)to be significantly
more familiar than BenQ (M ¼4.6)(p ,0.01).On the other hand,Acer (M ¼4.6)is not significantly different (p .0.50)from that of BenQ (M ¼4.4)on a ven-point scale of very unappealing (1)to very appealing (7).Hence,Acer (i.e.familiar brand)and BenQ (i.e.unfamiliar brand)were chon.Both brands are PC manufacturers that are already in veral related product categories.
Perceived experti of the WOM nder was manipulated by varying the WOM nder’s experience with the product category (i.e.number of purchas made)and the WOM nder’s formal training and occupation (lated or unrelated to the product category)(Alba and Hutchinson,1987;Feick and Higie,1992)in the WOM scenario for the subquent experiment.It was then measured using two items (i.e.ability of WOM nder to evaluate the quality of the printer,and ability of WOM nder to give accurate information about the various attributes of printers)from very low (1)to very high (7)on a ven-point scale.
The top three most important attributes (lor printing,price of printer,price of replacement toner and cartridge)were also identified.On a ven-point scale from very unimportant (1)to very important (7),the mean importance scores range from 6.3to 6.5for the three most important attributes.The three attributes were ud in the WOM message for the experiment.
As comprehension of the message can moderate the impact of source cues (Ratneshwar and Chaiken,1991),technical details/jargons were limited to a minimum to ensure the study participants would be able to understand the message.Moreover,consumers who u the expert heuristic may expect an expert’s message (as oppod to a novice’s message)to consist of convincing arguments (Bohner et al.,2002).Consumers may also expect experts to deliver messages with strong arguments (e.g.detailed and quantitative information)and non-experts to deliver messages with weak arguments (e.g.own verbal evaluations)(Artz and Tybout,1999).The manipulation for WOM nder’s experti worked as expected (p ,0.01),suggesting that the wording of the arguments prented in the WOM message were suitable.
In the main experiment,the study participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions in a laboratory tting.The study participants were asked to rate the brand assigned to them (Acer or BenQ)using three ven-point mantic differential scales with the following anchors:very negative (1)–very positive (7),very unfavorable (1)–very favorable (7),and very bad (1)–very good (7)(a ¼0.94).The three items were averaged to form the pre-WOM attitude rating.The simple rating task was followed by two short filler tasks to clear short-term memory.After the filler tasks,the study participants were asked to imagine that they were considering buying a printer (from either of the ass
igned brands)and decided to ask a friend,Chris,for a recommendation.This WOM scenario included the manipulation of WOM nder’s experti (i.e.stated how many printers Chris had bought before and Chris’background in terms of formal training and occupation).The following is an example of the WOM message ud (brand name depended on condition assigned):APJML 26,144
