Article 1 – Valuable Virality (Akpinar & Berger)
- Attention to Earned Media Importance of sharing liking and interaction
- Not all “viral” ads are valuable for firm if they don’t boost brand evaluation or purchase.
Two types of advertising appeal:
1. Emotional appeals: Emotions and arousal like surprise and etc. More likely to be shared
2. Informational appeals: boost brand evaluation and purchase intent. Perceived as less manipulative
*Making brand an integral part of emotional appeal boost brand evaluation and purchase
- Emotional non-integral ads: the advertised product is not relevant with narrative. Perceived as usage of emotional
tactics for manipulation. Not reliable.
- Emotional integral ads: the advertised product is relevant with narrative. Perceived less manipulative, more
persuasive. Boost brand knowledge
- Informative ad: provides more information about product and brand. Increases brand evaluation and purchase.
Results:
- Emotional ads boost sharing regardless of being integral or non-integral more than informational ads.
- Informational ads and emotional integral ads increase brand evaluation and purchase intent.
- Persuasive attempt and brand knowledge mediates the effect of brand related outcomes.
Article 2 – Reviews Without a Purchase: Low ratings, Loyal Customers and Deception
(Anderson & Simester)
- Some reviews are deceptive (without transaction) and results bad business outcomes.
More negative reviews
Lack of expression of fit & feel in the reviews (since these can only be evaluated by physically
owning the item)
Contains linguistic cues (word count is higher compared to reviews by transaction, use of
exclamation point and more mention of reviewer’s family)
- The negative impact of lower ratings is higher than positive impact of high ratings (asymmetric)
- People who self-identify themselves as “purchased the item” but didn’t also example of deception.
*No low ratings effect as alternative explanations for the result
Who writes deceptive reviews? Younger people, less educated people, families with more than one child, less likely to
be married, have less income, higher volume purchasers, average price they pay is the discounted price, write more than
one reviews.
Why they write deceptive reviews?
- Upset customer: experienced a failure of product and want to take revenge from the brand
- Self-appointed brand managers: loyal customers who criticize the brand to encourage them to be better.
- Social status: for “self-enhancement” purposes customers are motivated.
, Article 3: WOM and Interpersonal Communication (Berger)
- WOM and Interpersonal communications increase product awareness and persuade people to try new things.
- Why people share WOM or contribute interpersonal communications?
WOM can be understood with 5 Key Mentions:
1) Impression Management: People share to control others’ impressions on them. Interpersonal communication
facilitated impression management in three ways;
- Self-enhancement
- Identity Signaling
- Filling Conversational Space: Rate of speech, avoidance of pauses, taking too long to respond
How impression management drives people? entertaining content, useful content, self-concept, luxury, unique
things (limited edition), accessibility, incidental arousals, valence of the content, common ground.
2) Emotion Regulation: the way how people manage their emotions by experiencing and expressing them. Sharing
with others facilitate emotion regulation in six ways;
- Generating social support: sharing personal experiences with others can provide comfort after a negative
experience.
- Venting: sharing an experience with anger is relieving
- Sense-making: sharing helps people to attain a better sense making
- Reducing Dissonance: in extreme situations, sharing with others decrease the uncertainty of a choice
- Taking vengeance
- Encouraging rehearsal: re-accessing past emotional experiences should revive related feelings and people prefer
to talk about it since it generates pleased feeling.
How emotional regulation drives people valence, arousal
3) Information Acquisition: Sharing enable information acquisition in two ways:
- Seeking advice
- Resolving Problems
How information acquisition drives people? When a choice is risky, uncertain or important and there is a lack of
info.
4) Social Bonding: interpersonal communications help people to connect with others. It serves as a bonding
function through:
- Reinforcing shared views
- Reducing loneliness and self-exclusion
How social bonding drives people? Common ground content, emotionality
5) Persuasion: people use interpersonal communication to persuade others. Persuading others facilitates
persuasion.
How persuasion drives people?
- Emotionally polarized content: when goal is to convince someone sharing extremely rather than moderately.
- Arousing in nature: people may use arousing content to activate others.
There are also situational factors which can affect WOM and interpersonal communication:
- Attention to Earned Media Importance of sharing liking and interaction
- Not all “viral” ads are valuable for firm if they don’t boost brand evaluation or purchase.
Two types of advertising appeal:
1. Emotional appeals: Emotions and arousal like surprise and etc. More likely to be shared
2. Informational appeals: boost brand evaluation and purchase intent. Perceived as less manipulative
*Making brand an integral part of emotional appeal boost brand evaluation and purchase
- Emotional non-integral ads: the advertised product is not relevant with narrative. Perceived as usage of emotional
tactics for manipulation. Not reliable.
- Emotional integral ads: the advertised product is relevant with narrative. Perceived less manipulative, more
persuasive. Boost brand knowledge
- Informative ad: provides more information about product and brand. Increases brand evaluation and purchase.
Results:
- Emotional ads boost sharing regardless of being integral or non-integral more than informational ads.
- Informational ads and emotional integral ads increase brand evaluation and purchase intent.
- Persuasive attempt and brand knowledge mediates the effect of brand related outcomes.
Article 2 – Reviews Without a Purchase: Low ratings, Loyal Customers and Deception
(Anderson & Simester)
- Some reviews are deceptive (without transaction) and results bad business outcomes.
More negative reviews
Lack of expression of fit & feel in the reviews (since these can only be evaluated by physically
owning the item)
Contains linguistic cues (word count is higher compared to reviews by transaction, use of
exclamation point and more mention of reviewer’s family)
- The negative impact of lower ratings is higher than positive impact of high ratings (asymmetric)
- People who self-identify themselves as “purchased the item” but didn’t also example of deception.
*No low ratings effect as alternative explanations for the result
Who writes deceptive reviews? Younger people, less educated people, families with more than one child, less likely to
be married, have less income, higher volume purchasers, average price they pay is the discounted price, write more than
one reviews.
Why they write deceptive reviews?
- Upset customer: experienced a failure of product and want to take revenge from the brand
- Self-appointed brand managers: loyal customers who criticize the brand to encourage them to be better.
- Social status: for “self-enhancement” purposes customers are motivated.
, Article 3: WOM and Interpersonal Communication (Berger)
- WOM and Interpersonal communications increase product awareness and persuade people to try new things.
- Why people share WOM or contribute interpersonal communications?
WOM can be understood with 5 Key Mentions:
1) Impression Management: People share to control others’ impressions on them. Interpersonal communication
facilitated impression management in three ways;
- Self-enhancement
- Identity Signaling
- Filling Conversational Space: Rate of speech, avoidance of pauses, taking too long to respond
How impression management drives people? entertaining content, useful content, self-concept, luxury, unique
things (limited edition), accessibility, incidental arousals, valence of the content, common ground.
2) Emotion Regulation: the way how people manage their emotions by experiencing and expressing them. Sharing
with others facilitate emotion regulation in six ways;
- Generating social support: sharing personal experiences with others can provide comfort after a negative
experience.
- Venting: sharing an experience with anger is relieving
- Sense-making: sharing helps people to attain a better sense making
- Reducing Dissonance: in extreme situations, sharing with others decrease the uncertainty of a choice
- Taking vengeance
- Encouraging rehearsal: re-accessing past emotional experiences should revive related feelings and people prefer
to talk about it since it generates pleased feeling.
How emotional regulation drives people valence, arousal
3) Information Acquisition: Sharing enable information acquisition in two ways:
- Seeking advice
- Resolving Problems
How information acquisition drives people? When a choice is risky, uncertain or important and there is a lack of
info.
4) Social Bonding: interpersonal communications help people to connect with others. It serves as a bonding
function through:
- Reinforcing shared views
- Reducing loneliness and self-exclusion
How social bonding drives people? Common ground content, emotionality
5) Persuasion: people use interpersonal communication to persuade others. Persuading others facilitates
persuasion.
How persuasion drives people?
- Emotionally polarized content: when goal is to convince someone sharing extremely rather than moderately.
- Arousing in nature: people may use arousing content to activate others.
There are also situational factors which can affect WOM and interpersonal communication:
