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Fundamentals of Marketing Student Resources is no longer available and it was replaced by Fundamentals of Marketing 2e.
Research Insight 11.1
Research Insight 11.1
Throughout the textbook reference is made to seminal academic papers (as part of the Research Insights features) that can assist you in the further development of your understanding of a particular concept or theory that has been introduced. Organized by chapter, this resource provides links to these seminal papers.
Please note that your institution will require a subscription to the relevant journal for you to access the full text of the articles. If you are unsure how to do this, please contact your university librarian. Often professional bodies, such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing, also offer access to journals via their library services. Alternatively, you can purchase the articles directly from the source website.
Source: Kozinets, R.V., de Valck, K., Wojnicki, A.C., and Wilner, S.J.S (2010),‘Networked narratives: understanding word-of-mouth marketing in online communities’, Journal of Marketing, 74(2), 71-89.
Abstract: Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing—firms' intentional influencing of consumer-to-consumer communications—is an increasingly important technique. Reviewing and synthesizing extant WOM theory, this article shows how marketers employing social media marketing methods face a situation of networked coproduction of narratives. It then presents a study of a marketing campaign in which mobile phones were seeded with prominent bloggers. Eighty-three blogs were followed for six months. The findings indicate that this network of communications offers four social media communication strategies—evaluation, embracing, endorsement, and explanation. Each is influenced by character narrative, communications forum, communal norms, and the nature of the marketing promotion. This new narrative model shows that communal WOM does not simply increase or amplify marketing messages; rather, marketing messages and meanings are systematically altered in the process of embedding them. The theory has definite, pragmatic implications for how marketers should plan, target, and leverage WOM and how scholars should understand WOM in a networked world.
Insight: This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding conversations around brands in social media. Through a qualitative study of social media marketing using bloggers and an extensive review of extant word-of-mouth theory, the article gives insights into how marketers employing social media marketing should plan, target, and leverage social media conversations.