WOM Research #2.29
- Measuring WOM Vol. 3: Submit Your Topic Proposal Now!
- 42% Say Internet Will Inform Their 2008 Vote
- People Trust Those Who Share Their Loves, Not Hates
- From the Archives:
Awareness Prompts Visits to Corporate Complaint Sites
 Tell a friend: http://www.womma.org/tell/
1> Measuring WOM Vol. 3: Submit Your
Topic Proposal Now!
If you're planning to contribute to the third volume in WOMMA's growing research collection -- the only collection dedicated to word of mouth marketing research -- now is the time to submit your topic proposal. Monday, April 9 is the deadline to get your topic proposal in, and the clock is ticking.
Suggestions for the kind of papers we're looking for:
Follow-ups to papers that appeared in Vol. 1 or Vol. 2 with updated results and data
How-to case studies that demonstrate how word of mouth was measured and how metrics were used
Reviews and applications of existing word of mouth tools and metrics -- addressing challenges as well as opportunities
Papers that report results of research projects having to do with word of mouth measurement
Summaries of findings from academic research that detail practical implications for measuring word of mouth
Email topic proposals to WOMMA's Research Editor, Shannon Stairhime, at shannon@womma.org. Proposals are due April 9, 2007. Don't miss your chance to be part of this remarkable research collection!.
Learn more
2> 42% Say Internet Will
Inform Their 2008 Vote
Forty-two percent of Americans say they will get more pre-election information from the internet in 2008 than they did in 2004, according to a February survey conducted by WOMMA member company DoubleClick's Performics division. The survey indicates that while television news and local and national newspapers will remain voters' primary source of election information, 42% of Americans say the internet, too, will inform their decision.
Other findings:
67% of Americans "always," "often," or "sometimes" use the internet to search for more information about a candidate prior to voting.
Of Americans who use the internet to find election information, 48% also use family and friends as a source.
Learn more
3> People Trust Those Who Share
Their Loves, Not Hates
When seeking advice, consumers are more likely to turn to other consumers who love the same things they love, not those who hate the same things they hate, according to Andrew D. Gershoff, Ashesh Mukherjee, and Anirban Mukhopadhyay's article, "Few Ways to Love, But Many Ways to Hate: Attribute Ambiguity and the Positivity Effect in Agent Evaluation," which appeared in the March 2007 Journal of Consumer Research.
The researchers explain that while there are relatively few ways that products are loved, there are many ways that they are hated. For instance, when a person loves a product, they generally love all aspects of the product. On the other hand, when a person hates a product, they can hate everything about it, hate certain aspects of it and like others, or like all of the individual aspects of the product but hate the way they go together. This "attribute ambiguity," the researchers contend, influences trust and makes people more likely to seek the opinions of those who have product "likes" similar to their own.
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4> From the Archives:
Awareness Prompts Visits to
Corporate Complaint Sites
When consumers become aware of corporate complaint websites -- websites that are formed with the specific intent of fostering negative communication about a company -- they are likely to seek them out, according to Ainsworth Anthony Bailey's Journal of Marketing Communications article, titled "Thiscompanysucks.com: The Use of the Internet in Negative Consumer-to-Consumer Articulations." In September 2004, when the article was published, Bailey wrote that survey respondents were only moderately aware of the existence of corporate complaint websites -- which may or may not still be the case.
The article also notes that social influence plays a role in consumers' likelihood of awareness, as well as whether or not they are likely to visit the sites. Another influential factor is an individual's attitude towards complaining in general.
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