Research On The Advertising Response Strategies For Electronic Word-of-Mouth

With the development of society,electronic Word-of-Mouth(eWOM)is becoming more and more important in enterprise competition.It can not only reflect the performance of enterprises and provide valuable reference for the development of enterprises,but also affect the purchase behavior of users,playing a key role in the subsequent marketing mix decisions.Therefore,companies must take eWOM seriously and respond accordingly.An appropriate response can help enterprises improve their performance.The eWOM response strategy refers to "Targeted marketing response strategies formulated by enterprises on the eWOM effect(that is,the positive or negative impact of eWOM on corporate performance),these strategies are designed to enhance corporate value such as product sales and brand image".In the existing research on eWOM response strategies,scholars have explored strategies such as consumer education;labelling;function management;customized content;channel management;fake reviews monitor tool;management response strategies to respond to eWOM.However,existing works pay little attention to whether advertising can be used to respond to eWOM.When responding to eWOM,advertising can exert a significant influence.Advertising has the characteristics of high authority,wide audience and high communication efficiency.Most enterprises have regular advertising budget and rich experience in advertising.In addition,the use of word-of-mouth monitoring tools provides managers and scholars with a large number of opportunities to analyze eWOM,so that managers can formulate advertising strategies based on different eWOM issues.In general,the current research explores the suitable advertising response strategies towards different eWOM issues: "pre-released WOM issue","polarized WOM issue" and "fermented negativeWOM issue".For the advertisement response strategies,we focus on the advertising content strategies and explore three aspects—language style,targeting and information format—of the advertising content.This work aims at providing a guidebook for marketers about how to formulate advertising response strategies to address different eWOM issues.The first research examines whether a user-generated eWOM of a product in a lead market(i.e.,earlier market)should be a prerequisite of boastful communication strategy(BCS)in a lag market(i.e.,subsequent market)in the context of sequential launching of products.To test the effect of a pre-released eWOM(PWOM),this investigation examines the interactive effects between PWOM ratings and BCS on initial sales performance through two sets of real data and two experiments.The main results reveal interesting relations.First,PWOM can be an effective approach for boast.A high rating of PWOM enables a high extent of boasting and increases initial sales more than a low level of boasting.Second,a reversal effect occurs with low-rated products by exerting low-level BCS.Third,the combination of PWOM-BCS functions by creating consumer expectation congruity.Fourth,market similarity moderates the effect of PWOM.The second research focuses on the eWOM polarization phenomenon encountered by the consumers usually.This research examines the effects of different advertising approaches(advertising that highlights information about target customer groups vs.advertising that highlights information about product advantages)in response to the dissimilar polarized eWOM(high polarization vs.low polarization).We also discuss the moderating role of the eWOM volume.Through five experiments,we find that when consumers are faced with high polarized eWOM,using advertising strategies that highlighted information about target customer group can increase the purchase intention of target consumers regardless of the product valence.When consumers are faced with a low polarization eWOM,the effects of different advertising strategies depend on the product valence.When the product valence is positive,using an advertising strategy that highlights product advantages can effectively increase the purchase intention of target consumers;when the product valence is negative,using an advertising strategy that highlights the target customer group is more effective.In addition,the eWOM volume moderates the matching effects mentioned above.When the eWOM volume is low,it will enhance the matching effects of "high polarization eWOM — target customer advertising" and "low polarization positive eWOM — product advertising".However,it weakens the matching effect of "low polarization negative eWOM — target customer advertising".The third research is based on the fermented issues of negative reviews.It examines the efficacy of different advertising approaches(core product attribute advertising vs.non-core product attribute advertising vs.CSR advertising)in helping dilute the negative effect of dissimilar negative product attribute reviews(negative core product attribute reviews vs.negative non-core product attribute reviews).Through four experiments,we find that when the non-core attributes of a product have negative reviews,a core attribute advertising approach weakens the effect of negative reviews.However,CSR advertising is less effective.Furthermore,when the core attributes of a product have negative reviews,a non-core attribute advertising effort does not weaken,but actually augments the impact of negative reviews.In addition,when the core attributes of a product receive negative reviews,CSR advertising decrease the influence of negative reviews.This paper has several important theoretical and managerial contributions.First,from the perspective of the response strategies to eWOM,the current research explores a new response strategy—advertising for enterprises to respond to eWOM.Secondly,this paper explores three kinds of eWOM issues that haven’t been noticed and investigates how different advertising content strategies(language style,positioning,message form)can address these eWOM issues.This paper also explores the boundary conditions for implementing these advertising strategies successfully.Finally,this paper explores the underlying mechanisms of using dissimilar advertising strategies to address different eWOM issues successfully.