Taking control of word of mouth marketing: the case of an entrepreneurial hotelier

Emerald - Tập 9 Số 4 - Trang 349-357 - 2002
DavidStokes1, WendyLomax2
1David Stokes is Assistant Director, SBRC at Kingston Business School, Kingston‐upon‐Thames, UK.
2Wendy Lomax is Head of the School of Marketing, at Kingston Business School, Kingston‐upon‐Thames, UK.

Tóm tắt

Marketing in entrepreneurial contexts, such as small business, relies heavily on word of mouth (WOM) recommendations for customer acquisition. However, we know little about how WOM processes work for small firms, or how owner‐managers can influence them. This case study of an entrepreneurial owner of an independent hotel is used to illustrate the problems associated with WOM, and potential strategies to overcome them. The owner‐manager researched existing hotel customers through face‐to‐face interviews and a questionnaire. The results confirmed the importance of WOM, but found two sets of dissonance. One was between input WOM types and sources, the other between output WOM content and targets. The owner‐manager improved the effectiveness of WOM communications through a variety of interventions, thus demonstrating that WOM can be an effective part of a marketing strategy for a small firm.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Arndt, J. (1967), “Word‐of‐mouth advertising and informal communication”, in Cox, D. (Ed.), Risk Taking and Information Handling in Consumer Behaviour, Havard University, Boston, MA.

Barclays Review (1997), “Marketing and the small firm”, May, Barclays Bank Plc, London.

Bayus, B.L. (1985), “Word of mouth: the indirect effects of marketing efforts”, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 24 No. 3, June/July.

Bone, P.F. (1995), “Word‐of‐mouth effects on short‐term and long‐term product judgements”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 213‐23.

Buttle, F.A. (1998), “Word‐of‐mouth: understanding and managing referral marketing”, Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Annual Conference, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, pp. 100‐06.

Carson, D., Cromie, S., McGowan, P. and Hill, J. (1995), Marketing and Entrepreneurship in SMEs, Prentice‐Hall, London.

Culligan, C. (1995), “Word‐of‐mouth becomes the true measure of ads”, Marketing, 9 February, p. 7.

Day, J. (1998), “Defining the interface: a useful framework”, in Hulbert, Day and Shaw, (Eds), Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Symposia on the Marketing and Entrepreneurship Interface 1996‐1998, Nene University College, Northampton.

Engel, J.F., Kegerris, R.J. and Blackwell, R.D. (1969), “Word‐of‐mouth communication by the innovator”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 33, July, pp. 15‐19.

File, K.M., Judd, B.B. and Prince, R.A. (1992), “Interactive marketing: the influence of participation on positive word‐of‐mouth and referrals”, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 6 No. 4, Fall, pp. 5‐14.

Fornell, C. and Wernerfelt, B. (1988), “A model of customer complaint management”, Marketing Science, Vol. 7 No. 3, Summer, pp. 287‐98.

Haywood, M.K. (1989), “Managing word of mouth communications”, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 3 No. 2, Spring, pp. 55‐67.

Heath, C. (1996), “Do people prefer to pass along good or bad news? Valence and relevance of news as predictors of transmission propensity”, Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 68 No 2, pp. 79‐94.

Herr, P.M., Kardes, F.R. and Kim, J. (1991), “Effects of word‐of‐mouth and product attribute Information on persuasion: an accessibility‐diagnosticity perspective”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 17, March, pp. 454‐62.

Hulbert, B., Day, J. and Shaw, E. (1998), Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing and UIC/MEIG‐AMA Symposia on the Marketing and Entrepreneurship Interface, Nene University College, Northampton.

Misner, I.R. (1994), The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret, Bard & Stephen, New York, NY.

Payne, A., Christopher, M., Clark, M. and Peck, H. (1995), Relationship Marketing for Competitive Advantage: Winning and Keeping Customers, Butterworth‐Heinemann, Oxford.

Richins, M.L. (1983), “Negative word‐of‐mouth by dissatisfied consumers: a pilot study”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 47, Winter, pp. 68‐78.

Shaw, E. (1997), “The real networks of small business”, in Deakins et al. (Eds), Small Firms and Entrepreneurship in the Nineties, Paul Chapman, London.

Sheth, J.N. (1971), “Word‐of‐mouth in low‐risk innovations”, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 11 No. 3, June, pp. 15‐18.

Stokes, D.R. (1997), “A lesson in entrepreneurial marketing from the public sector”, Marketing Education Review, Vol. 7 No. 3, Fall, pp. 47‐55.

Stokes, D.R., Fitchew, S. and Blackburn, R.A. (1997), “Marketing in small firms: a conceptual approach”, Report to the Royal Mail, Small Business Research Centre, Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames.

TARP (1989), Measuring the Grapevine – Consumer Response and Word‐of‐Mouth, Technical Assistance Research Programs Inc., Office of Consumer Affairs, Washington, DC.

Wilson, J.R. (1996), Word of Mouth Marketing, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.

Zeithaml V.A. (1992), “How consumer evaluation processes differ between goods and services”, in Donelly and George (Eds), Marketing Services, American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL, pp. 186‐90.

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Emerald

Tập 9 Số 4

349-357

Thông tin tác giả