OFF THEWALL: A content analysis of word-of-mouth on Vans’ Facebook community

Chris Huebner

DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE UNDERSTANDING OF WHY CONSUMERS PERFORM WORD-OF-MOUTH

“Informal communication directed at other consumers about the ownership, usage,

or characteristics of particular goods and services or their

sellers”

Electronic Word-of-mouth:“Any positive or negative

statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product company,

which is made available to a multitude of people and

institutions via the Internet” (Hennig-Thurau et al. 2004).

“Given the pervasiveness of social media and the

dynamic interplay between various social

media platforms, the time has come for marketers to

stop treating online and offline WOM as if they were separate distinct

entities”

Word-of-mouth generates 3.3 billion brand

impressions each day.

Mckinsey and Company estimates that word-of-

mouth drives two-thirds of the U.S. economy.

$$$

Stronger long-term effect than traditional media

More trustworthy than traditional advertising

Referral-

mechanism

Highly-targeted

Consumer Perceptions.

Attitudes. PurchaseIntentions.

Behavior.

The Social Media Effect

Created the need to harness and capture the power of word-of-mouth

Motivations?

EMOTIONAL

SOCIAL

FUNCTIONAL

Social media platforms provide a rich opportunity to observe word-of-mouth in context and as it occurs.

Social media and online environments strengthen our understanding of WOM in that:

Allows for open, anonymous and dexcontextualized participation

Participation is digitally archived

Researchers can directly quote and record references made within specific content or conversations

Purpose statement: Begin to develop an understanding of why consumers share their experiences with products and services by systematically observing what consumers are posting.

RQ1: What are the key themes found in the performance of eWOM?

Performed a systematic, observational content analysis of Vans’ Facebook page from May 1 – July 17. 2014

Screen captured 892 posts

VANS INCFounded in 19661,885 employees

“has stood for authenticity in youth lifestyle, music and action sports since day one”.

$1 billion in sales (2012)

Over 13 million fans151,000 interactions

10%

59%

6%

1%

24%

Post (n=892)

Service Related PostsVender PromotionsSponsored AthletesBots/UnreadableWord-of-mouth

205 screen captures of word-of-mouth

Clarke and Braun’s (2006) six-step thematic approach to content analysis

Familiarization

Coding system

Identifythemes

Namethemes

Reviewthemes

Report

Brand (61)

Product (106)

General (38)

Initial coding scheme:

• Brand Affect (27)• Experience (5)• Relation to Family (13)• Brand Art (16)

Brand (61)

• Product Affect (38)• Customization (13)• History (9)• Post-purchase (36)• Collection (10)

Product (106)

• Document (14)• Experience (24)

General (38)

Categories and themes:

Brand: Relation to family

Product: Customization

General: Experience

This project supported research that suggests eWOM on social media sites is primarily driven by social driver

Signal shared or unique identity

DISCUSSION

Supported Cheema and Kaikati (2010) and Wien and Olsen’s (2014) findings.

Signaled uniqueness through customization and historical references

‘Post-purchase’ often documented limited edition Vans

Signal shared or unique identity

This project supported research that suggests eWOM on social media sites is primarily driven by social driver

(or) to self-enhance

DISCUSSION

(or) to self-enhance

Brand identification positively influences eWOM intention by way of brand loyalty and community identification (Yeh and Choi, 2014)

Supported Yeh and Choi’s research that suggest fan self-enhance by expressing brand loyalty and identification

Found across all three broad categories

Majority of posts were user-generated photographs

Suggests eWOM was not spontaneous, but calculated (Smith, Fischer and Yongjian, 2012).

Alleviate brand/self centrality concerns

DISCUSSION

Supported the findings of East, Hammond and Wright (2007)

Majority of eWOM was positive

According to De Angelis et al. (2012) result of self-enhancement

DISCUSSION

IMPLICATIONS

(1) Powerful effect on traditional marketing activities

(2) Endogenous effect on brand identity

IMPLICATIONS

(1) Powerful effect on traditional marketing activities

Online WOM can lead to more promotion and stimulate other components of marketing mix

IMPLICATIONS

(1) Powerful effect on traditional marketing activities

Fans document personal narratives, ideal for marketing messages

IMPLICATIONS(2) Endogenous effect on brand identity

Brands have both functional value and emotional value

On Facebook fans are co-creating brand identity

When managed correctly, user-generated content can strength brand identity (Shachar and Kuksov, 2010)

CONCLUSION:

First step: Categorize the performance of WOM

Provided coding strategy to categories themes of WOM

Found that product affect, post-purchase and brand affect were the dominate themes

Develop a comprehensive understanding of why people are motivated to share their experiences with products and services