Evaluating Social Media Marketing

Social Proof and Online Buyer Behaviour

Katarzyna Sanak-Kosmowska

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000480412
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Business
• Categoría: Marketing Research

This book is an innovative attempt to identify and analyse the processes related to social influence in online buying behaviour, with special attention given to the phenomenon of social proof, which is the basis of social media, recommendation marketing, and word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing. It empirically verifies the factors which influence the effectiveness of social proof, and identifies relevant impact factors.

Opening with a literature review of this concept from the perspective of social psychology, sociology, and marketing, this interdisciplinary approach to the issue allows for an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms of the effective use of social proof in contemporary online marketing. Following this, in the context of theoretical considerations, the author analyses the social role and significance of social proof in the buying behaviours of online consumers. The second half of the book presents the results of the author's quantitative and qualitative research into the effectiveness of social proof. The quantitative research verifies the hypotheses concerning the social role and significance of social proof in buying decisions and identifies the level of confidence in the opinions expressed by other web users. The qualitative research focuses on the empirical verification of the effectiveness of social proof mechanisms. Additionally, attention is given to sensitivity to social proof, i.e. the factors that increase the effectiveness of such messages, from both the sender's and the recipient's perspective, as well as the forms and channels of communication.

Written for scholars and researchers interested in the debate on the transparency of activities carried out by companies in the area of online marketing, the book's detailed analysis of influence utilizing both quantitative and qualitative studies may be of interest to a wider group of academics including economists, psychologists and sociologists.

1 Introduction

DOI: 10.4324/9781003128052-1

In his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde famously stated, ‘There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about’. When he published this work in 1890 he definitely could not have expected that those words would provide such an accurate diagnosis of the direction taken by modern marketing – especially the nature and forms of marketing communication (Mruk 2012). Now, in the twenty-first century, emo sapiens, guided by emotions and by likings, and susceptible to social influence, has replaced the paradigm of the rational consumer: homo oeconomicus (Ohme 2017). In their attempts to adjust their offers to consumer requirements, modern firms are using ever more advanced marketing research methods and algorithms to implement their marketing communication strategies. One of the tools they use is social influence marketing and the management of online reviews and recommendations.

The aim of this book is to assess the role of that specific form of social influence known as social proof in e-consumers’ decision-making processes and to understand what determines susceptibility to it. There are two important reasons for formulating the aim in this way. The first concerns the dynamic advances in the field of technology, which are influencing changes in e-consumers’ purchasing models. The virtual environment, and the Internet in particular, has become not only the place to search for information about products and services, but also increasingly the place to purchase them. The second refers to the cognitive processes that underpin e-consumers’ purchasing decisions, about which little academic research has been done. The book’s specific aims are formulated in three dimensions: cognitive, empirical, and practical.

The objective at the cognitive level is to identify the degree to which social proof – as expressed by Internet users in the form of opinions, reviews, and recommendations concerning brand advertising – influences e-consumers’ purchasing decisions, and to identify the determinants of their susceptibility to it. Accomplishing the book’s central objective involves verifying the influence of e-consumers’ behavioural, demographic, and psychographic features. The nature of the message itself – particularly the type of product or brand, the form of exposure, and the nature of the content based on social proof – is assumed to be a significant determinant of susceptibility.

Formulating the book’s central objective involves diagnosing certain premises, two of which are highlighted here.

First, the majority of research in this area has been – and continues to be – conducted in the field of social psychology. Its primary focus is on individual differences and not on the nature of marketing communications containing content based on social proof (cf. Jacquet et al. 2018; Phares 1965; Walters & Parke 1964). For its part, marketing-centred research in most cases limits the measurement of susceptibility to social influence to a particular context, such as the category of products studied or the marketing tool used (cf. Hoffmann & Broekhuizen 2009; Khare & Rakesh 2011).

Second, comparatively little research has produced multi-level and multidimensional analyses of e-consumer behaviour. This book posits that interdisciplinarity in the study of e-consumer behaviour, which is the approach taken by the research presented in Chapters 7 and 8, offers a richer understanding of people’s natures (Mruk 2017). The results of that research made it possible to accomplish the empirical and practical objectives set out in this monograph.

At the empirical level, the specific objective was to conduct empirical research enabling the formulated hypotheses to be verified. The following research-design assumptions were adopted. First, reflecting the book’s title, the scope of the research was narrowed to marketing communications based on social proof and containing Internet users’ reviews, recommendations, and evaluations. Second, attention was focused exclusively on social proof in the virtual environment and, in particular, in the social media space. The research model is set out in detail in Chapter 6, while the results are discussed in Chapters 7 and 8.

In addition to their contribution to the science of marketing, the research results and the conclusions that flow from them will also help to achieve the practical objectives in two ways. First, for firms, the research results can serve as an important resource for shaping effective online marketing communication strategies – especially where social media are concerned. Second, for Internet users, they can offer a platform for acquiring market knowledge so that they can become familiar with online advertisers’ communication mechanisms, educate themselves by acquiring or honing digital and social competences, and develop an awareness that will permit them to detect hidden persuasion and manipulation in advertising messages. Marketing and advertising ethics form an integral part of this study of social proof and online buyer behaviour.

The book is divided into two parts. The first – on the phenomenon of social impact and influence in online marketing – lays out the theoretical framework for the book’s subject. It consists of four chapters.

Chapter 1 comprises this introduction. Chapter 2 considers the determinants of the process of the digitization of marketing. Further, it describes the changes under way in marketing communication and presents new models of the way consumers behave when making decisions to purchase online. With the subject of social proof and online buyer behaviour in mind, special attention is paid to the function and importance of online marketing, including social media marketing. A review of the literature devoted to the phenomenon of persuasion and manipulation in online marketing forms an important part of the discussion.

Chapter 3 builds on the themes addressed in Chapter 2 and explores them in greater depth. It begins with a classification of e-marketing tools, with particular emphasis on those whose functioning is based on social influence. They include influencer marketing, electronic word-of-mouth, buzz marketing, viral marketing, celebrity endorsement, and relationship marketing. The chapter presents a detailed description of these tools that is closely linked to the subject of the book.

Chapter 4 sets out a selection of core themes concerning social impact and social influence. Their analysis is prefaced by a specification of the role and importance of social impact and social influence in contemporary advertising. The chapter then presents the history of research into social impact and social influence and looks at selected models of influence drawn from sociology and psychology. Three issues are given particular attention. The first concerns the phenomenon of social influence in the online environment. The second refers to the forms and manifestations of social influence, to possible strategies of influence, and to the social influence principles proposed by Robert Cialdini. The third examines the research into the individual differences – personality traits, self-esteem, self-evaluation – that determine susceptibility to social influence.

In Chapter 5, the theoretical analysis focuses on social proof and online buyer behaviour, in particular the category of social proof in the digital environment, the definition and characteristics of social proof as a concept, types of marketing messages based on social proof, and marketing tools that enable control of reviews and recommendations. Chapter 5 also outlines the problem of fake reviews as one example of unfair practice on the part of firms. The theme of social commerce, which refers to Internet purchases made in the social media environment, is then taken up. The chapter concludes with definitions of social shopping and a description of its most salient features – features that are significant from the point of view of the book’s objectives.

Part 2, entitled Social Proof in Marketing: Effectiveness and Impact Awareness (Chapters 6–9), contains an analysis and evaluation of the empirical research carried out. Chapter 6 sets out the assumptions of the author’s research model and offers a theoretical justification of the formulated research hypotheses. Chapters 7 and 8 discuss the research results, which were obtained by two methods: quantitative surveys of Polish e-consumers (N = 1,004) using computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) and three Internet experiments conducted in a Polish and in an international setting. The following are analysed: (1) the role of social proof in the process by which e-consumers make purchasing decisions and (2) the determinants of susceptibility to social proof.

Chapter 9 summarizes the research results and discusses the limitations of the research. Emphasizing that it is important and necessary to conduct research in an international environment and to include cultural factors in research models, it concludes by suggesting avenues for further research into the role of social proof in modern marketing.

References

• Hoffmann, A. O. I., & Broekhuizen, T. L. J. (2009). Susceptibility to and impact of interpersonal influence in an investment context. Journal of the Academic Marketing Science, 37, pp. 488–503, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-008-0128-7.
• Jacquet, P. O., Wyart, V., & Desantis, A. (2018). Human susceptibility to social influence and its neural correlates are related to perceived vulnerability to extrinsic morbidity risks. Scientific Reports, 8, pp. 133–147, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-31619-8.
• Khare, A., & Rakesh, S. (2011). Antecedents of online shopping behavior in India: An examination. Journal of Internet Commerce, 10(4), pp. 227–244, doi:10.1080/15332861.2011.622691.
• Mruk, H. (2012). Marketing. Satysfakcja klienta i rozwój przedsiębiorstwa. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
• Mruk, H. (2017). Zachowania konsumentów w świetle ekonomii behawioralnej, Studia Ekonomiczne. Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego w Katowicach, 317, pp. 82–95.
• Ohme, R. (2017). Emo Sapiens. Harmonia emocji i rozumu. Ożarów Mazowiecki: Bukowy Las.
• Phares, E. J. (1965). Internal-external control as a determinant of amount of social influence exerted. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2(5), pp. 642–647. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0022710.
• Walters, R. H., & Parke, R. D. (1964). Social motivation, dependency, and susceptibility to social influence advances in experimental social psychology. Academic Press, 1, pp. 231–276.
• Wilde, O. (1890). The picture of Dorian Gray. London: Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine.

Part I The phenomenon of social impact in online marketing

2 Theoretical framework – online marketing Between persuasion and manipulation

DOI: 10.4324/9781003128052-3

Introduction

The starting point for considering social influence in online advertising is to attempt to identify and organize the concepts that refer to this phenomenon and that find their expression in the various tools now used by marketing professionals. The forms and tools of advertising that firms use to communicate with the environment are evolving in conjunction with the dynamic development of information an...