Abstract
The purpose of the study was to validate the implications of Word of Mouth in Pakistani cultural setup. This study replicates a previous study by Charlett, D., Garland, R. and Marr, N. (1995) testing the two hypotheses “that both positive and negative WOM will affect consumers' probability of purchase and attitudes towards a product” and “that negative WOM will have a stronger effect than positive WOM on consumers' probability of purchase and attitudes towards a product”. Data was collected from a convenience sample of university students divided into three groups, two of which were exposed to positive and negative WOM respectively and third taken as the control group. Results of data analysis supported both the hypotheses, contrary to the findings of previous study for the second hypothesis. A number of variables, including the small sample and variations in realistic cultural settings, however, impose limitations on the study that can be removed through future studies. The research supports the significance of WOM and stronger effect of negative WOM in Pakistani cultural setup and impresses upon the value of WOM for any marketable product.
Keywords: Word of Mouth, Purchase Probabilities, Customer Satisfaction, Attitude Measurement.
1. Introduction
Call it advice, suggestion, consultation or gossip and even grapevine the importance of opinion passed on as word of mouth has never diminished since the history of human society. Whatever the promotional effort or how convincing the advertising message devised, almost everything gets debated amongst people and either gets a nod of approval and thus the legitimacy for adoption or fades away like many other ideas in the pages of history. Therefore, it is natural for a...
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Sports Inc. has become a major player in the basketball shoe market. Our products are second to none; with ultra lightweight footwear designed to ensure player safety -- our athletes are just as happy as their loved ones. However, our profits have been stymied by our lack of product diversity, we’ve reached the mature stage in the basketball shoe PLC , and therefore, need to look into extending our product line into other sports. I propose we use our state-of-the-art shoe technology to breach the football cleat market. Football cleats may not be the exciting “new-to-the-world” product that makes a big splash, but I think it can be a source of great value to the company.The environment surrounding football is an interesting one and one that
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"Nike." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition 1. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 6, 2009).
Lahdesmaki (2005) argued that marketing can be an ethical contract between businesses and their customers. Therefore businesses are morally obliged to inform their customers about the products in store and provide all the information necessary via marketing strategy so the customer can make informed decisions about their purchase.
Since its creation, Nike has proven itself as a popular brand and it has created niches by selling products such as footwear, apparels and various types of sports equipment. This paper will attempt to trace the product development of Nike shoes from its origins in conception and design to the manufacturing and production process located in contract factories in developing countries to advertising and marketing of Nike as a cultural commodity and finally, the retailing of the footwear around the world.
In conclusion, Old Spice uses classical conditioning to influence consumers’ attitude by having conditioned and unconditioned responses and stimulus. They campaign their products really well and get outstanding response and comments from all over the world. Old Spice also use many type of communication source that are involved in influencing the growth of the product. Social Media plays a huge role in advertising the product and putting on a campaign. Consumer’s attitude towards Old Spice was reflected on the comments they post. The elaboration likelihood model also proposes the more global view that consumer attitudes are changed by the central and peripheral. People who are up for trying the product are most likely central route.
In order to get insights into the consumer perception about the role of advertising we have reviewed a number of articles and conducted four in-depth interviews. A number of research papers reach opposed conclusions. These vary from the ones stating that "the ethicality of a firm's behavior is an important consideration during the purchase decision" and that consumers "will reward ethical behavior by a willingness to pay higher prices for that firm's product" (Creyer and Ross Jr.
In article “The influence of e-word-of-mouth on travel decision-making: Consumer profiles”, it says that the presence of e-WOM brings more choices and information to tourism from a wide range of users (Hernández-Méndez, Sánchez-Fernández & Muñoz-Leiva 2015). Another advantage is social media tools are considered a more credible source of information because those who generate the content have no vested interest in the companies. According to Wu and Wang, “if users trust the comments and opinions of others in the online environment, it will positively affect their trust and attitude towards the brand and their purchase intent.” (as cited in The influence of e-word-of-mouth on travel decision-making: Consumer profiles
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Main drivers for US profitability has been within women shoes, broken down in sub categories of casual (17%), dress (13%), and athletic (10%) shoes, composing roughly a 40% demand of the market. However, domestically men’s athletic shoes represent 20% of the market and show signs of increase, globally men’s athletic shoes make up 30% of the market. This increase in sales within the athletic sub-category can be lead by the increase in demand for shoes that allow easy, fast movement. Studies show that ages within 18 and 45 in the U.S. have increased physical fitness by 17% since 2006. According to the Outdoor Industry Association, outdoor footwear grew...
Businesses use the media to convince consumers to buy their products. Since the start of mass media, companies have used communication to broadcast to large numbers of people about their product (Shah). Companies spend a great amount of money to encourage people to buy their product, by winning them over (Shah). The media provides information, rates, and suggests new products and services such as movies, computers, restaurants, books, fashion items, and more (Rinallo and Basuroy). Back in the days where brands had to buy advertising or secure media placements are gone. Today it is becoming really hard to know the difference between the role of marketer and publisher. This gives the chance for companies to become satisfied conservators, making their own items on their websites for their businesses (“Media Influence”). More and more people are considering traditional advertisements as untrustworthy; in fact, 75% of people do not think traditional advertisements are true. Companies uses online advertisements to influence people to buy their product. People today are trying to make more informed buying choices, using all the information they can find online. A person’s online experience can influence them to shop at a particular store; in fact, 91% of people shop at stores because of reviews online (Peneycad). People spend a large amount of time researching products before they decide to buy them. 86% of people use search engines to research products. 62% of people who research products online buy products in the store. People who research services and products online are more likely to make a buying decision (Peneycad). 78% of people are influenced by post from companies on social media websites. 72% of people are trusting of online recommendations of products. Peneycad mentions,“This means 72% of people trust complete strangers just as [much] as people they know when it comes to making a purchase decision (Peneycad 2).
Most people in the world gratefully have the chance to make their own choices and decisions every day. One of those choices and decisions that they make is what they are going to put on their feet for the day. Unknowingly the decision of what type of shoe a person wears for a specific day will affect their entire day. There are also many factors that contribute to what type or style of shoes a person buys or wears such as economic status, design, usefulness, and popularity. As of today, there are various types of shoes which are sandals, heels, boots and athletic and casual shoes.
In 1994, a new form of advertising and getting products and services into the world was discovered: the internet. Online advertising has been growing rapidly. We can see advertisements on almost any webpage we go to. Even if you try to avoid ads, you are bound to find some. This leads us to a crucial part of advertising which is ethics.
Businesses are in game in order to earn money and advertising is the strongest weapon that helps to sell a particular product . An advertisement can be harmful and misleading as well as helpful and beneficial . Advertising in ethics is an unclear concept , but truly the main goals of corporations should be avoid misleading their customers by setting up wrong expectations and to keep their current clients .The major problem with advertising is that most of them are misleading . Advertisements create an unrealistic and sometimes irrelevant impression of an any particular product. Unfortunately, often , consumers become the victims of their tricks .