Posttypography

What Marketers

Misunderstand About

Online

Reviews

Johnny Shih decided to develop and sell laptops under its own brand name.

It was a successful manufacturer of other companies’ computers and video game consoles. But it had virtually no name recognition among consumers.

This is a brand that was new to India, alien to most India-based buyers, had not spent a penny on advertising, and had only announced its entry via a press conference and its social network presences

REVIEWS

Favorable product reviews by Bloggers and news websites and thousands of Xiaomi fans and users completed the job.

Eee PC, got stellar reviews and became a hit.

With the growing availability of opinions from experts and users, the importance of a brand name had diminished.

Vertical responses.com

Buyers In the Past

Buyers Today

Why Reviews are important?

Managers must analyze what’s

really driving buying decisions and

adjust their strategies accordingly.

Two tools to help managers to

shift their marketing strategies :

O continuum

and

Influence Mix

Understand Your Influence MixCustomers’ purchase decisions are typically affected by a combination of three things:

In recent years O has taken on increasing

weight in many categories, but plenty of

exceptions remain…

“How Much Does Opinion Matter?”

Companies need to ask:

How Much Does Opinion Matter?

Once firms understand where a product falls on the O continuum, They can consider the strategic implications in four realms:

Communication Market researchCompetitive

Position

Product

Segmentation

Competitive position.In domains where customers depend mainly on O, branding takes on less importance, and newcomers find relatively low barriers to entry.

Companies in O-dependent markets can also diversify more easily than others, because new peer-to-peer information can overcome long-held conceptions about what a company is (and isn’t) good at

Greater market-share volatility in domains where customers depend mainly on O

Brands influenced primarily by P and M, enjoy relative stability

Communication.

• O-dependent domains must focus on generating user interest in particular products and promoting an ongoing flow of authentic (and positive) content from O on internet retail sites.

• marketers trying to reach O independent consumers can still benefit from traditional marketing

Market Research

• Market research usually aims to measure P—it tries to predict the kinds of products consumers will like by assessing their preferences in the past.

• Instead of measuring individual consumers’ preferences, satisfaction, and loyalty, marketers should redirect resources to the systematic tracking, coding, and quantifying of information from review sites, user forums, and other social media.

Product Segmentation

A product’s location on the O continuum often varies across customer segments and from country to country.

Companies should analyze different consumer segments and tailor their marketing strategies accordingly.

www.greenbookblog.org

Brick-and-mortar stores are often more susceptible to M

Online shoppers primarily rely on O

Situational Factors

some of the people who take full advantage of O while shopping for electronics online may come under M’s influence on Black Friday

Will consumer reliance on O decline as

online reviews are subject to

manipulation and fraud?

Aside from these tools, nearly everyone also relies heavily on the users themselves to ensure that reviews are real.

“We look at the metadata and a various other parameters as well," he says, "like the IP address, timings [at which posts come in], the city, velocity [or frequency at which posts come in], potential for astroturfing, and many other things.” -Mouthshut's CEO and Founder, Faisal Farooqui

”To ensure authenticity we have corrective measures in place, such as IP tracking, user credibility scores as well as manual moderation of reviews.” -Zomato's CEO Deepinder Goyal

Consumers used to the richness of online

reviews will never return to relying on

traditional M

• 30% of U.S. consumers say they begin their online purchase research by going to Amazon for product information and reviews

• Studies commissioned by Google have found that shoppers consult 10.4 sources of information, on average, before making a purchase

A pan India offline study conducted by

Nielsen on behalf of Google India

The study exhibited that 7 out of 10 of these buyers know the exact brand and model they want to buy with the help of online research before entering the store

46% respondents said they used mobile internet for research and 22% of tier II consumers used mobile as the sole device for accessing internet for research.

over 57% respondents changing their mind about the brand/model they wanted to purchase when they look for information online.

Conclusi nAs the influence mix evolves, success will come to companies that can closely track the sources of information their customers turn to and find the combination of marketing channels and tools best suited to the ways those consumers decide.

Use a reviews provider

Email customers post-purchase

Make the process as simple as possible

Use Online reviews for in store customers

Created by Rahee Hardaha,IIT Delhi, during an internship by Prof. Sameer Mathur, IIM Lucknow.

www.IIMInternship.com