Article: Monday, 10 February 2014
Without actually knowing what drives and shapes consumers sharing information, companies invest huge amounts of time and money to make sure consumers talk favourably about their products, share their viral advertisements or make their slogans catch on. Watch PhD candidate Ezgi Akpinar of RSM reveal three surprising psychological drivers that boost word of mouth.
She has found that first, consumers are reluctant to share relevant but negative news about a product if it's personally relevant to them or if it makes them feel threatened; second, that ads that go viral do not necessarily guarantee favourable outcomes for the company; and third, that including one of the five human senses in a phrase makes people more likely to remember them and makes those phrases more popular over time.
Negative news reports about food and other consumer goods or products being found defective, contaminated or harmful – news which can hit the headlines for days – can cause dramatic effects for companies, causing lost sales, product recalls or even a damaged reputation which can never be repaired.
In today's 'flat world' of social media, product-harm crises are often global and widespread, which results in profound consequences for consumers and companies. While one could expect frequent users of the product – to whom this news is highly relevant – would be more likely to share this content with others, Akpinar’s PhD dissertation Consumer Information Sharing: Understanding Psychological Drivers of Social Transmission, exposes the complete opposite. Consumers who feel a personal relevance to certain news, because of regular use, feel threatened and thus are reluctant to share the information with others.
Akpinar demonstrates that people who feel at risk from some news facts are less likely to share their concerns with others. This group shies away from spreading the news, especially if they tend to focus on themselves. This pattern could be reversed by manipulating their self-view in relation to others and reminding them to think about others in their social environment, says Akpinar.
In conducting damage control, companies tend to focus on their own consumers in order to stop them from spreading negative news. But they should extend their damage control tactics to a larger audience, says Akpinar. On the other hand, health organisations should remind consumers that they’re not alone. They should be reminded to think of others; this will make them more likely to share negative news.
Secondly, Akpinar found that ads going viral don’t always help their brands in terms of boosting brand evaluations or purchase intentions. The majority of the audience do not even notice or remember what the ad was for – even if they share it online – she says. Given the rise of social media, many marketers now create funny and engaging ads in which brands are less prominent. The study shows having the brand as an integral part of the advertisement story line is crucial in making viral content valuable for the brands.
Finally, the research shows that phrases which relate to one of the five senses in metaphoric ways leads to higher recall among consumers, and contributes to the cultural success of the slogans over time. These findings have important implications for creating advertising slogans that catches on.
Consumers often share experiences, opinions or certain content with others. For example, they suggest restaurants, recommend article posts, share online videos, pass along rumours and complain about customer services. Such word of mouth determines what catches on and become popular among consumers. While research has shown that word of mouth is frequent and important, there has been limited work on understanding what makes certain content more shared than others. This dissertation fills this gap, and explores the psychological drivers that shape consumer information sharing and more broadly cultural success. It integrates various research perspectives and illustrates certain characteristics that make people share some content more than others.
First, Akpinar studies how self-relevance (i.e., high vs. low) impact sharing behaviour of product harm information, and this process is moderated by consumer self-construal (independent vs. interdependent). Second, she examines how advertising content can get viral, and how and when this benefits the brand. Finally, she explores how phrases that relate to senses in metaphoric ways (e.g., cold person) lead to higher recall, which contributes their cultural success over time.
The practical implications of this dissertation are of interest for professionals in the area of marketing, advertising, and public policy making. From a theoretical point of view, this dissertation has a cross-disciplinary contribution, and relates to the fields of health psychology, advertising, persuasion knowledge, linguistics, embodied cognition and foundations of culture.
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
Science Communication and Media Officer
Corporate Communications & PR Manager
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools. RSM provides ground-breaking research and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management and is based in the international port city of Rotterdam – a vital nexus of business, logistics and trade. RSM’s primary focus is on developing business leaders with international careers who can become a force for positive change by carrying their innovative mindset into a sustainable future. Our first-class range of bachelor, master, MBA, PhD and executive programmes encourage them to become to become critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinkers and doers.
