An Exploration of Cross-border E-commerce Consumer Feedbacks: An LDA Approach

Cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) has become an important channel to help a firm to go into the international market in China. The recent influx in development of CEBC has caused a simultaneous influx in accumulation of text data such as consumer feedback. To better understand consumer feedback, we collected data from a leading CBEC firm in China to explore the topics of feedback posted directly by their customers. We employed the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model to explore the potential topics focused on most by consumers. We found 35 primary topics are mentioned by both sellers and buyers. For the seller’s perspective, we found that the topics such as commission, product audit, communication between seller and buyer, order management and traffic are most important. On the buyer’s side, we found that return and refund, product tracking, product description, shipping time, and seller performance are the most mentioned topics. This study will help contribute to the understanding of how consumer feedback will help firms in many ways, including but not limited to recovering service and product failures, audit internal functions, and improve product quality

Sensory stimuli to influence customer engagement in digital contexts

[EN] Sensory marketing is an opportunity to influence the perception, judgment and behavior of consumers and maximize the profitability of the product. Different brands use stimuli in digital contexts to boost customer engagement. For example, emojis, gifs, stickers, and images that are visually appealing. As auditory stimuli, there are voices, music, playlist, etc. and the rest of the senses, they can integrate digital interfaces that help them better experience the products, such as screens, zoom, or simpler elements such as images or sensory descriptions. This thesis studies sensory stimuli in digital contexts and the influence they have on customer engagement. Moderating variables are integrated into the analysis to better understand how these stimuli influence customers. The results obtained through the different experiments carried out in digital contexts with a sample of consumers and students suggest that the presence of sensory stimuli increases customer engagement in digital contexts and there are different variables that moderate their effectiveness. In the case of visual stimuli (emojis), the type and repetition moderate the relationship, for auditory stimuli, the type of product and the involvement are important variables to consider, while for sensory words related to touch, the consumer's need-for-touch is relevant to understanding how sensory words influence customer response. This thesis contributes to the previous sensory marketing literature by integrating the five senses in digital marketing and three, difficult to replicate on the internet (smell, touch, and taste), in addition to integrating less studied sensory stimuli (for example, emojis, sounds associated with the product, voice-over and sensory words) and integrating less explored digital channels such as emails and blogs. Other contributions are the inclusion of moderating variables when predicting the effects of sensory stimuli, as well as a consistent and complete metric of customer engagement. Finally, the results obtained in this thesis have important practical implications for marketing professionals specialized in digital contexts, brands, software, social networks, websites, and search engines. [ES] El marketing sensorial es una oportunidad para influir en la percepción, juicio y comportamiento de los consumidores y maximizar la rentabilidad del producto. Diferentes marcas utilizan estímulos en contextos digitales para impulsar el compromiso del consumidor. Por ejemplo, emojis, gifs, stickers e imágenes que son atractivos visuales. Como estímulos auditivos hay voces, música, playlist, etc. y para el resto de sentidos pueden integrar interfaces digitales que los ayuden a experimentar mejor los productos, como pueden ser pantallas, zoom o elementos más simples como imágenes o descripciones sensoriales. Esta tesis estudia los estímulos sensoriales en contextos digitales y la influencia que tienen en el compromiso del consumidor. Se integran al análisis variables moderadoras que ayudan a comprender mejor cómo influyen estos estímulos en el consumidor. Los resultados obtenidos a través de los diferentes experimentos realizados en contextos digitales con muestra de consumidores y estudiantes, sugieren que la presencia de estímulos sensoriales incrementa el compromiso del consumidor en contextos digitales y hay diferentes variables que moderan la relación. En el caso de los estímulos visuales (emojis), el tipo y la repetición moderan la relación, para los estímulos auditivos, el tipo de producto y la implicación son variables importantes a considerar, mientras que para las palabras sensoriales relacionadas con el tacto, la necesidad de tocar del consumidor es relevante para entender cómo influyen las palabras sensoriales en la respuesta de los consumidores. Esta tesis contribuye a la literatura previa del marketing sensorial al integrar los cinco sentidos en marketing digital y tres, difíciles de replicar en internet (olfato, tacto y gusto), además de integrar estímulos sensoriales menos estudiados (por ejemplo, emojis, sonidos asociados al producto, voz en off y palabras sensoriales) e integrando canales digitales menos explorados, como correos electrónicos y blogs. Otras aportaciones son la inclusión de variables moderadoras a la hora de predecir los efectos de los estímulos sensoriales, así como una métrica congruente y completa del compromiso del cliente. Finalmente, los resultados obtenidos en esta tesis tienen imporantes implicaciones prácticas para los profesionales de marketing especializados en contextos digitales, marcas, softwares, redes sociales, websites y motores de búsqueda

Don't be so emotional! How tone of voice and service type affect the relationship between message valence and consumer responses to WOM in social media

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the boundary conditions of the effect of the valence of word-of-mouth on social networking sites (sWOM) on consumer responses (attitude toward the service provider, purchase intention and positive word-of-mouth intention). Specifically, the authors examine two moderators: the tone of voice (factual vs emotional) of the sWOM and service type (utilitarian vs hedonic) of the service that the sWOM is about.,A 2 (message valence: positive vs negative) × 2 (tone of voice: factual vs emotional) × 2 (service type: utilitarian vs hedonic) full-factorial between-subjects online experiment with 400 respondents was conducted and the data were analyzed using Hayes' PROCESS macro.,The results show that message valence exerts a greater impact on consumer responses with factual sWOM messages compared to emotional ones. Furthermore, the impact of message valence is stronger for hedonic services compared to utilitarian services. In contrast to the authors' expectations, there is no significant impact of matching the tone of voice to the service type.,First, for sWOM senders, factual messages are found to be more influential: backing an sWOM up with arguments and specific details increases the chance of it affecting consumers' responses. As a result, marketers, especially of predominantly hedonic services, should encourage their followers and customers to spread positive factual sWOM about their service.,The study tests two previously unstudied moderating variables that affect the relationship between message valence and consumer responses to sWOM messages. Moreover, this study provides interesting insights for marketers and bloggers or reviewers

”Muista pitää tonari mielessä”: Tone of voice käsitteenä ja käytäntönä yrityksen markkinoinnissa, case kauppakeskukset Arabia ja Duo

Tässä tutkielmassa tarkastelen tone of voicen – eli yrityksen äänensävyn – käyttötapoja yrityksen markkinoinnissa. Tone of voice ei ole vain markkinoinnin termi vaan laajempi ilmiö, jonka merkitys ulottuu myös esimerkiksi viestinnän ja journalistiikan aloille. Tone of voice tarkoittaa suunniteltua ja strategista tapaa ja sävyä, jolla puhutellaan esimerkiksi tiettyjä yleisöjä tai yrityksen asiakkaita. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen ja case-esimerkin avulla selvitän, mitä tone of voice tarkoittaa, miten sitä voi käytännössä hyödyntää sekä millainen merkitys sillä on markkinoinnissa. Empiirisen tutkimuksen kohteena on tapaustutkimus, jossa tarkastelen Kauppakeskus Arabian ja Kauppakeskus Duon brändiuudistuksia ja sitä kautta tuotettuja tone of voice -määritelmiä. Tapaustutkimus mahdollistaa yksittäisen esimerkin yksityiskohtaisen ja kattavan tarkastelun tone of voicen näkökulmasta. Case-esimerkkinä tässä tutkielmassa toimivat Kauppakeskus Arabian ja Kauppakeskus Duon brändiuudistukset, joihin lukeutuvat myös tone of voicen määrittely ja tone of voicen käytännön soveltaminen. Kyseiset brändiuudistukset on toteuttanut Markkinointitoimisto Bermuda, jossa olen toiminut copywriterina vuoden 2019 syksystä alkaen. Toimin myös kyseisten brändiuudistuksien copywriterina ja siten pääasiallisena tone of voice -määritelmien tekijänä. Empiirinen aineisto koostuu brändiuudistuksien eri vaiheissa tuotettuista materiaaleista, kuten työpajojen sisällöistä, asiakkaan kanssa käydyistä keskusteluista sekä tone of voicen -suunnittelun eri versioista ja sen lopputuloksista. Tone of voicea on tutkittu aiemmin lähinnä keskittyen siihen, kannattaako yrityksen valita äänensävykseen epämuodollinen vai muodollinen sävy, vaikka käytännössä tone of voicen määritteleminen ja käyttö on paljon moniulotteisempaa. Yksi tone of voicen haasteista on sen mittaaminen. Vaikka esimerkiksi markkinointitoimenpiteitä voidaan tarkastella monilla eri tavoilla, tone of voicen erottelu analytiikasta on monimutkaista. Siten tone of voicen vaikuttavuuden konkreettinen arviointi on haastavaa

eWOM communications on consumer attitude and behaviour

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonSocial Media (SM) applications allow users to communicate with various types of information about goods and services in the form of electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube are currently ranked as the most accessed and adopted websites in the world that provide eWOM communication. Most importantly, these SM applications may have a significant impact on the opinions and attitudes of users with regard to the product information being shared. The aim of this research is to examine how different combinations of interactive attributes and features of eWOM being shared over SM applications effect consumers’ attitudes and behaviours of intangible services in the healthcare industry. Relevant attributes derived from the literature, which include source credibility, trustworthiness and argument quality within SM eWOM messages are explored. These are examined in line with factors of Electronic Window Dressing (EWD) features, such as SM capabilities of simultaneous video, picture and web link sharing within the SM environment. This determines what types of different characteristics of eWOM alone or in combination with multimedia communications, can positively or negatively influence consumer’s attitude that can have an effect on actual behaviour. A conceptual framework is augmented and developed based on existing theories in relation to persuasion and attitude change. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) models are combined and adapted as a foundation of a new conceptual approach, noted as ‘Social Media Communications Model’ (SMCM), with additional components specifically related to SM communications in an attempt to form a predictive explanation of consumers’ attitudes. The research is designed as a comparative study by adopting an inductive interpretivist approach. A Qualitative method is used in the data collection process by performing in-depth interviews with 34 senior level managers with regard to SM communications in healthcare industry from both the United Kingdom and the United States. All of the primary data was transcribed, coded and thematically analysed. The key findings revealed the most preferred SM platforms used in the UK and US, how source credibly, expertise and trustworthiness are effective, and why videos, pictures and the timing of post were significant in changing consumer attitude. Practically, the research provides businesses and organisation in similar service goods industries with a SM model that explains how to create successful marketing campaigns. The research likewise contributes theoretically by identifying the relationships of important constructs relevant to SM communications from a qualitative perspective, forming a new extended theoretical framework that can be a predicator of consumer behaviour. The research further provides a better understanding towards the key factors of eWOM in SM that influence consumers to think and behave in certain ways, additionally contributing to the existing SM marketing literature by determining how and why certain SM messages are more persuasive than others and what attributes and factors lead to those changes. Finally, this research expands on the subject of SM eWOM by adapting the existing persuasions and consumer behaviour theories with relevant factors and constructs to SM, enabling business and marketing managers to create more effective SM content