Integrated E-WOM Marketing

The dramatic advance in internet technology,especially in social networks,has fueled the progress of electronic word of mouth(e-WOM)marketing.Through various social networking platforms,not only do consumers receive messages but also generate and spread them,which enables them to wield their power over goods and brands and induces a marketing paradigm shift.Thus not surprisingly,the emerging e-WOM marketing has seen huge popularity in academia as well as in industry.Articles on the topic abound in top business journals.However,most of the extant literature seems to follow a silo approach and covers such areas as seeding programs,social media as channels and/or viral messages,respectively.Furthermore,whatever the perspective,it boils down to the traditional thinking of manipulation and is obsessed with firm-created content(or seed messages),which runs counter to the democratic Web 2.0 tide.To address the afore-mentioned research gaps,this study adopts an exploratory theory-building single-case study research method,with a holistic perspective to examine how firms develop e-WOM campaigns effectively.As Yin(2014)recommends,the following procedure is hence designed: identifying the problem or question to study,selecting the unit of analysis & analyzing it,making propositions and developing new theories.DJI has profitably brought the once military-associated drones to the mass market worldwide and thereby created a new consumer electronic category and its innovative use of e-WOM for branding is quite revelatory.Therefore,according to Eisenhardt's theoretical sampling principle,it suits the research well.Following the Interactive Communication Model,this dissertation conducts an in-depth analysis on the case from three dimensions of source,media and messages,and makes 6 propositions,based on which develops Integrated e-WOM Marketing theory.The results indicate that through comprehensive use of traditional marketing mix such as product strategy,celebrity and event marketing etc.,marketers can spawn exogenous creative source messages that may go viral.Those messages(or rather e-WOM)will then spread through integrative vehicles including famous web media and social networking platforms,the choices of which are largely at the discretion of the sources,so as to promote product/brand awareness and reputation.The originality and value of this dissertation lies in the three aspects as follows:(1)The big-picture perspective for e-WOM research.(2)Methodologically,the exploratory single case study and the use of internet data are novel.(3)The Integrated e-WOM Marketing framework renovates the present marketing communication theory.The notion presented herein can help managers get the big picture of e-WOM marketing.It well echoes the pronounced autonomy of consumers in marketing communication and managers should delegate,not dictate the words.