Social Media as e-Word of Mouth & its Impact on Online Consumer Behaviour

Human Interaction has been increasing over the past decade, a phenomenon that has been synchronous with the advent of Social Media. Social Media (SM) is a term constructed out of two words. “Media” means to advertise and communicate information and ideas through channels or publications, while the word “Social” means interaction among a group of people or a community.

The rapid growth of online SM platforms has shifted the crux of real-world social interactions to the virtual world. This shift in preference of interaction modes has led to the creation of a vast online community that brings people together from all across the globe. With the ever increasing penetration of SM, a different form of word-of-mouth has sprouted into significance, i.e. electronic Word of Mouth (e-WOM).

E-WOM has emerged as one of the major forms of marketing communication among consumers. The online community of millions of people ensures that there is a constant flow of opinions, information and feedback on products, services, and/or organizations. E-WOM is defined by Hennig-Thurau et al (2004) as “any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet”.

E-WOM is of particular significance in the purview of e-commerce and online shopping sites. In most cases, a potential online shopper will have their own set of beliefs and preconceived notions of a product or service he intends to purchase. However, owing to the perceived risk involved in online shopping, they tend to observe and survey experiences of others, preferably within their immediate SM network.  A study conducted by Archak, Ghose and Ipeirotis showed that though the reviews generated through e-WOM by SM users are subjective and unverifiable, consumers often consider them as more believable and trustworthy than official descriptions or propositions.

 A study by Park, Lee and Han discussed the role that reviews played in online shopping decisions. According to them, a product or service will usually have either a positive or a negative review. Each of these can be further segregated into an Attribute-based (Informative) or Simple Recommendation review. Another factor for a consumer to consider is the number of reviews for a product / service.  For a low-involvement consumer, a higher number of reviews give them an inkling of the perceived popularity of the product, positive or negative. Irrespective of the quality or quantity of the information, the overall sentiment of the reviews is usually echoed by the consumer, i.e. recommendation is of a bigger significance than information.

For a high-involvement consumer, informativeness of a review holds greater significance than its overall perceived popularity. Fewer attribute-based reviews that detail the elements of the product / service have a higher chance of influencing the purchase, relative to a high number of simple recommendation reviews. This may hold true for both positive, as well as negative reviews.

Given the connectivity of Internet, increasing penetration of online shopping websites, and the ever evolving SM ecology, consumers have the platform to easily discuss and exchange online shopping experiences and information with each other. This holds the power to influence not just the brand, but also the website of choice for a potential consumer to make his/her purchase. Such peer communication through SM is a developing form of Consumer Socialization, and has profound impacts on consumer behaviour.

Further research is warranted to understand the impact of information overload caused by the plethora of reviews. Another key issue for research in the future could be how consumers view reviews, with respect to its credibility. Organizations are known to remove or hide negative reviews, hence increasing the possibility of a consumer potentially doubting the excess of positive reviews. E-Word of Mouth on Social Media and reviews on e-commerce websites have truly recreated and evolved the shopping experience of consumers.   

  Jegannath Ramanathan

Why Malaysia Became Truly Asia

“Paris is always a good idea” - Audrey Hepburn

It was Hepburn’s quote that got me agitated about the difference between what tourist destinations are, and what they are made out to be. “Paris isn’t a good idea for the bold and fun-loving”, I thought. Paris was quaint, and romantic, and idyllic. But why would Hepburn pick Paris, and I pick Rome? What would you prefer? Are the destinations you like sophisticated or are they exciting, are they intelligent or are they charming? Much as you and I (and Hepburn, for that matter) would like to believe the answer to be something deeply personal about ourselves, it more often merely reflects a booming industry capitalizing on something called destination personality, and creating a destination brand.

“Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.”- Truman Capote

A destination brand is the consequence of the media-driven hype around a location. Think relaxing backwaters for Kerala, rave parties for Goa, and royalty for Rajasthan. This is what is sold to you, this is who they say they are, and it is what you eventually sign up for. A destination brand is, very simply, a concept that is supposed to summarize what a place is. A destination personality, on the other hand, represents a more emotional, personal aspect of a tourist destination. It encapsulates the human characteristics associated with the brand and is a culmination of the thoughts and feelings a location is said to embody. A destination personality, thus, is what makes a destination brand.

“Travel is impossible, but daydreaming about travel is easy.” - B. J. Novak

A destination personality is what ‘hooks’ a traveller into selecting a location. Stripping traveling of its romanticism, travel is simply a consumer market. And like any consumer market, buyers turn to characteristics of goods to determine how useful they are. In this case, destination personality becomes especially indicative when it comes to tourism. Most often, one has never visited the intended destination earlier, and is suddenly confronted with a host of novel experiences – new tastes, people, languages, directions, thoughts and ideas; layers of complexity making up the location. A brand personality therefore becomes a translator of these layers.

“Travel is very subjective. What one person loves, another loathes.” -Robin Leach

Destination personalities, by virtue of being a ‘personality’, do not have the same influence on each of us. The congruity between the tourist’s desires and the destination personality is what determines satisfaction with a trip. In other words, if you’re a Tokyo kind of person, the backwaters of Allepey might not cut it for you.

“Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.” – Francis Bacon

Another factor influencing the affinity to a destination personality is the individual’s social group. Younger, international travellers navigate towards exotic locations, and place an emphasis on ‘experiencing’ locations. Preferring exciting or rugged options, this group is aptly named ‘Novel Travellers’ by a recent study. Older travellers who rely on clear-cut information from official sources are called ‘Escapers’, as they tended to frequent places that they had previously visited. A jolt back to earth at this point - for both groups of travellers, even if there was a match between the brand personality and their needs, the decision to visit depended on other resources – such as money, distance etc. Traveling, therefore, is not all desire and personality, but is equally determined by the financial capacity of the traveller/s.

“Never go on trips with anyone you do not love” - Ernest Hemingway

Next, the relationship you share with the people you are traveling affects how you feel towards a place. The greater the quality of intimacy with your partner, the more the destination is enjoyed. This also guides the way destination personality is marketed – some places are marketed to be more intimate, and thus attract those kinds of travellers, Paris being a prime example.

“Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.” - Nikos Kazantzakis

Finally, the way a destination personality is humanized is important, as destination personalities are very much a manmade concept. What creates a brand personality are 3 broad dimensions – sincerity (a place as being trustworthy and dependable), excitement (a place that evokes daring, spirit and is original) and conviviality (a place that is friendly, family-oriented and charming). With more places being ‘discovered’ and shown into the limelight, looking at how we create destination personalities is helpful in comprehending how we further the mass consumption of destinations.

“People don’t take trips . . . trips take people.” – John Steinbeck

If the boom of destination personalities has taught us anything, it is that tourist destinations ultimately have to sell an experience to the customer – travel has stopped being about ‘places and things’, and more about ‘who’ the place is. So, before you book your next tickets to ‘escape into undiscovered areas’, ask yourself what you really know of the place, without its personality.

Sneha Mani

The Fear of Being Happy

Leo Tolstoy once said, ‘If you want to be happy, be.’

On being asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, John Lennon simply replied, ‘Happy’.

It is often taken for granted that happiness is one of the most vital guiding values in people’s lives. After all, who does not want to be happy? It is perceived as a universal need. The United Nations celebrates this with the International Day of Happiness on 20th March, stating that ‘the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal.’

It may then be unsettling, shocking even, to think that people can be afraid of happiness. The feeling of happiness can stir feelings of fear in some, something not conventionally anticipated. What does it mean then, to be afraid of happiness? How can this fear be explained?

In a pioneering study to understand this phenomenon, Joshanloo and Weijers found three primary reasons why people experience this. First, individuals come to associate their feelings of joy with a sense of a something bad about to follow. Second, there exists a belief that happiness can make one a worse person. And finally, expressing as well as pursuing happiness is perceived as hurtful and harmful to both themselves and others.  

Where do these ideas and beliefs come from? Surely experience plays a major role but a primary factor is the cultural context. Every culture across the world holds different cardinal values, ones that colour every experience of individuals.

The study found that given the importance placed by Western society on happiness, fewer individuals within these societies displayed such a fear. Conversely, non-Western societies, which do not place equal value on personal happiness, showed a greater prevalence. These societies, particularly East Asian ones, emphasis more on communal harmony and togetherness, which can be at conflict with personal happiness.

Another important factor within this reasoning is the varying definition of happiness across societies. Uchida, Norasakkunkit, and Kitayama found that American culture defines happiness in terms of personal achievement while East Asian cultures define it in terms of interpersonal connectedness. Here, personal happiness is not given primary importance, to the extent that the Japanese often believe that expressing happiness is harmful because it might make others envious. Given such a cultural climate, being wary of being happy may not seem so surprising, after all.

Yet, in spite of Western societies’ acceptance and emphasis on personal happiness, individuals living in those parts of the world experience this fear as well, which points towards the important role played by individual experiences and differences. Irrespective of cultural background, Joshanloo’s study found that one major cause for this fear is the notion that happiness will be followed by something bad. Imagine an event in your life when you were perfectly happy but it was followed by something bad. Certain individuals perceive this pattern to be persistent in their lives and consequently develop this fear. Sometimes, traumatic experiences follow the same pattern. Individual accounts throw light on how traumatic experiences have made them sceptical about feeling happy.

Individual differences in self-esteem have also been found to play an important role. Wood et al. (2003) found that individuals with high self-esteem were more likely to savour a positive, happy moment whereas those low in self-esteem were more likely to dampen their mood following a happy moment.

Given how important happiness can be, how does this fear affect the lives of the individuals? Gilbert et al. (2013) found that the fear of happiness correlates highly with depression. Individuals with depression will often avoid activities that could make them happy, fearing that it would be taken away from them and would lead to further disappointment.

On a more general level, a study found this fear to significantly impact overall life satisfaction. This fear significantly biased individual responses on the Life Satisfaction Scale, implying that even if two individuals were leading a similar lifestyle, the person with the fear of happiness would indicate lower life satisfaction.

This brings an important issue to the fore. Countries are increasingly adopting the Gross National Happiness Index as a measure of national progress, with the U.N. even releasing a World Happiness Report. Within India, Goa has pioneered in adopting this model. But can it be perceived as a true measure, if a part of the population is simply afraid of it? The fear of happiness can be an overwhelming experience for the individual, one that deprives them of perhaps the best of human emotions. It is important to recognise this fear and help those in need. After all, happiness is a fundamental human goal. 

Chinmayee Kantak