INSIDE THE REVIEWERS’ MIND. MOTIVES OF ENGAGEMENT IN ELECTRONIC WORD OF MOUTH AND HOW TO TURN ONLINE REVIEWS INTO A MARKETING TOOL

Abstract

Helping people to connect with each other where they buy, and buy where they connect, provides a strategic advantage to businesses. Such connection has been offline for centuries, leading to the development and spread of word-of-mouth (WOM), one of the most influential form of communication in regard to consumer behaviour and attitude persuasion. The advent of the Internet has dictated a significant milestone between the past and the present days in terms of communication, changing the landscape of WOM by increasing it in depth, distribution and time. This electronic-WOM (eWOM) is characterized by a variety of social tools – comments, rates, liking buttons – and sites – social networks, review and e-commerce sites. Consumers are then able to make informative decisions and, at the same time, to share their positive/negative experiences and thoughts after purchase, becoming reviewers. Understanding and knowing what drives consumers to contribute eWOM can help businesses with their intentions of increasing awareness and sales, as user generated contents are considered more influential than messages coming from the company and are becoming a form of earned media, a valid alternative to advertising. This topic has not been much covered by past literature, mostly concentrated on why consumers are influenced by other individuals, both in the offline and online world. The focus of this research is to provide a different point of view in the literature of user generated content, this time on the active side. We found out that reviewers can be moved by various positive or negative feelings – such as gratitude, advice seeking, product experience or even revenge – helping establish eWOM valence, crucial on influencing the behaviour of future consumers. We then investigated on each one of them, with the use of secondary data and surveys to an Italian and American public. This research will help understand how to exploit online reviews and consumers’ behaviour related to the purchase experience, clarifying which marketing strategies are worth pursuing nowadays on the digital media in the area of user-generated contents.