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Journal of International Consumer Marketing

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Electronic Word-of-Mouth Impacts on Consumer

Behavior: Exploratory and Experimental Studies
a a
Fabio Shimabukuro Sandes & Andre Torres Urdan
a
Fundação Getulio Vargas, FGV/SP – Marketing Strategy , São Paulo , Brazil
Published online: 28 Apr 2013.

To cite this article: Fabio Shimabukuro Sandes & Andre Torres Urdan (2013) Electronic Word-of-Mouth Impacts on Consumer
Behavior: Exploratory and Experimental Studies, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 25:3, 181-197, DOI:
10.1080/08961530.2013.780850

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 Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 25:181–197, 2013
Copyright c Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0896-1530 print / 1528-7068 online
DOI: 10.1080/08961530.2013.780850

Electronic Word-of-Mouth Impacts on Consumer Behavior:

Exploratory and Experimental Studies
Fabio Shimabukuro Sandes
Andre Torres Urdan
Downloaded by [American Public University System] at 08:51 20 December 2013

ABSTRACT. Due to the growth of the Internet as a social media and channel of communication
among consumers, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has gained strength and attention from marketing
researchers. This article aims to verify if eWOM affects consumer behavior and the possibility
companies may have of managing eWOM by actively responding to comments posted by consumers.
An exploratory and experimental study showed that exposure to comment (both negative and positive)
impacts brand image. Negative-feedback management reduces the impact on brand image but did not
change the impact on purchase intention.

KEYWORDS. Electronic word of mouth, Internet, consumer behavior, consumer feedback, brand
image, purchase intention

Word of mouth, or WOM, is the influence of
someone’s informal opinion about products and
brands derived from consumption experiences
(Sen and Lerman 2007) in which there is an
information provider and receptor (WOMMA
2009). WOM may have positive or negative
content and is a form of communication among
groups, independent specialists, family, friends,
and/or customers (current or potential) of a
product (Ennew, Banerjee, and Li 2000).
The communication among consumers may
occur physically or by distance, and its impor-
tance in marketing has long been known by
researchers as an alternative to traditional com-
munication tools, as well as a highly persuasive
resource (Trusov, Bucklin, and Pouwels 2009).
It works based on an unpaid endorsement of
products, which is “used by companies almost
as a form of advertisement and has a great deal
of credibility” (Sen and Lerman 2007, 77).
With the population’s growing use of the
Internet as a means of communication and sales
broadcast on a daily basis, WOM marketing
has gained even more credibility. The range
and the diffusion velocity of information on
the Internet has provided consumers with eas-
ier access to other consumer comments about
products, brands, or companies, and these com-
ments have become a reference for more and
more people (Duana, Bin, and Whinston 2008).
A comment that would previously have been
limited to the consumer’s personal contacts is
now able to achieve much wider dissemina-
tion via the Internet, making it available to
millions of consumers. However, Lima (2004)
warns that WOM is not even considered by

Fabio Shimabukuro Sandes and Andre Torres Urdan are affiliated with Fundação Getulio Vargas,
FGV/SP – Marketing Strategy, São Paulo, Brazil.
Address correspondence to Fabio Shimabukuro Sandes, Fundação Getulio Vargas, FGV/SP – Marketing
Strategy, Rua Dr Plinio Barreto, 173 apt. 253A, 01313-020 São Paulo, SP, Brazil. E-mail: fsandes@gmail.com

181
 182 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER MARKETING
many marketing authors as a communication
tool.
Aspects of electronic word of mouth (eWOM)
are already managed by some companies, but
there are accentuated doubts about its impact
on consumer behavior. This article investigates
the impact of comments (about companies,
products, or brands) posted by consumers on
social networks, blogs, or websites, and the
perception and behavior of other consumers
who read them. Here, specifically, we aim to
investigate: (1) if eWOM influences consumers;
and (2) if it is possible to manage eWOM in
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favor of a company’s image, its products, and its
brand before it reaches other consumers.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The following literature review addresses four
areas: traditional WOM, its consequences and
reasons for its use; Internet 2.0 and the consumer
in virtual communities; Internet 2.0, eWOM, and
its consequences; and attitudes and behaviors of
and regulatory focus on the consumer.
Traditional WOM, Its Consequences,
and Reasons for Its Use
Several surveys consider traditional WOM
effects in purchasing behavior. Ennew and
colleagues (2000), for example, investigated
the effect of WOM on the attractiveness of
financial services for potential consumers. As
a result, three relationships were examined:
(1) between the effectiveness of WOM and the
importance given to it by consumers, consider-
ing their experience and perception of a product;
(2) between executive perceptions at the level
of competition and the importance of WOM as
a marketing tool; and (3) between a strategy
oriented toward the market and the consideration
of WOM as a strategic tool. In a sample of Indian
companies for financial services, only the last
relation has been confirmed (Ennew et al., 2000).
Other researchers have investigated the im-
pact of WOM on specific sectors. In the services-
related sectors, for example, the perception of
risk when buying (Gianesi and Correa 1994) is
bigger, which makes the exchange of informa-
tion about experiences more useful among users.
For decades, Engel, Blackwell, and Kegerreis
(1969) purported that consumers frequently
trust WOM when selecting automotive services,
while Feldman and Merlin (1965) detected the
same effect when consumers were choosing a
doctor.
A survey by Dichter (1966) addressed reasons
that might lead the consumer to engage in WOM
action and indicated four reasons behind the ex-
pression to third parties of opinions about com-
panies and products: (1) involvement with the
product that triggers the necessity of expression,
(2) involvement of the person with the product
itself (importance of the product for meeting
the relevant requirements), (3) involvement with
third parties and WOM meeting their needs by
offering them something, and (4) involvement
with the product’s message. In addition, Engel,
Blackwell, and Miniard (1993) indicated a fifth
reason: the reduction of dissonance by the un-
certainties associated with a relevant purchase.
Sundaram, Mitra, and Webster (1998) revised
these reasons as: (1) altruism, (2) involvement
with the product, (3) projection by the consumer
of a better image of himself/herself to others,
(4) desire to help the company, (5) anxiety
reduction on consumption, (6) revenge feelings,
and (7) search for counseling in order to solve
the problems.
Internet 2.0 and the Consumer in Virtual
Communities
In December 2011,1 approximately 2.3 billion
people had access to the Internet around the
world (penetration around 29%). In December
2007,2 349 million people had broadband access
with a superior connection speed to that of
a telephone connection (dial-up), enabling the
availability of content in many engaging formats
(such as pictures, videos, and music).
With the number of people able to access the
Internet increasing, so too follows a growth in the
utility of applications that enable the production
of user-generated content, along with the inter-
action among those users. Internet 2.03 allows
consumers to distribute and access text and
videos in many different formats and improves
the social means of communication among these
 Fabio Shimabukuro Sandes and Andre Torres Urdan
consumers in five different ways (Mayfield,
2008): (1) by promoting users’ participation,
with a close relationship between publisher and
audience by comments posted on the website;
(2) opening up and promoting the partic-
ipation of users, with information sharing;
(3) conversation between publishers and public,
in opposition to the traditional broadcasting of
press information to the spectator; (4) mutual-
interest communities that easily communicate
among themselves; and (5) connectivity with
other publishers, resources, and people.
It has become simple for a layperson to act in
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virtual communities through social networking
websites. Facebook, currently the largest social
networking site available, registers around 900
million people using the site globally.4 In 2009,
the E-Life Institute approached 1,277 Internet
users (E-Life and Porter Novelli 2009). A
high level of activities connected to the social
networking site and blogs (a form of electronic
notebook that enables the easy addition of
text, or “posts”) were identified: (1) 93% had
already read blogs at least once; (2) 89.1%
were managing at least one profile on social
networking sites; and (3) 73.7% were writing
their own blog. Furthermore, 90.1% were re-
searching purchase options through the Internet,
88.3% were searching for specific information in
blogs, 42.9% recommended products, and 34%
were sending suggestions to other Internet users
based on their own product experiences.
As noted by Socialbakers,5 a company fo-
cused on social media research, Brazil had
in December 2012 over 64 million users on
Facebook, ranking as the second-largest country
on the website. This means that approximately
80% of Brazilian Internet users have a Facebook
account, showing that social networking is very
common in Brazil. Other statistics also support
this: 94 Brazilian brand pages, 17 celebrities
pages, and 31 media pages have over 1 million
people connected on Facebook. Brazil also ranks
as the second-largest country on Twitter, with
over 33 million users.
In 2011, Blogs Research Institute used
the Technorati’s database (www.technorati.com)
and conducted a survey of 4,114 blog owners
from 45 countries and found that 68% of them
had posted information about products and
183
brands, of which 38% were doing so on a regular
basis. When examining information relating to
blogs about music and film, this percentage
increased to 90%. Around 39% of the bloggers
had already been approached by the company to
become “advocates” of its brand. Of these, 55%
received some kind of payment or compensation
by the company to play this role (Technorati
2011).
Internet 2.0, eWOM, and Its
Consequences
The Internet’s expansion has occurred in a
very distinct way compared with other means
of communication, which makes it difficult to
know how it will impact communication in
general (Bowman and Wills 2003). While there
are a “vast number of computers connected
to the Internet, the majority use a low-speed
connection” (Bowman and Wills, 2003, 47),
implying that their users can’t access more
complex digital content. According to Internet
World Stats,6 there were 79.3 million Internet
users (about of 39% of the population) in Brazil
in December 2011, but only about 7 million
access the Internet via a broadband connection
(10% of total users).
However, Internet-wide freedom of speech
(whereby, in theory, anyone can say anything)
combined with the few obstacles for its use
make information circulated on it potentially
damaging for companies (Bowman and Wills
2003). In recent years, bloggers (natural users),
who have gained popularity on the Internet,
have won a similar, and in some cases superior,
audience size compared with websites and other
communication vehicles of a business nature.
For example, blogger Perez Hilton’s blog be-
came one of the most-visited and commented-on
blogs in the world. The volume of content spread
among its readers is impressive (Dellarocas
2003).
Lee and Cude (2012) analyzed the complaint
behavior and found out that consumers are
more likely to spread their satisfaction to other
consumers, and they also discovered that if they
used the internet to purchase, they are very likely
to use it as a mean to express their dissatisfaction
as these “consumers who experienced strong
 184 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER MARKETING
dissatisfaction were more likely to choose online
channels for their complaints” (p. 94).
In a study conducted by the Forrester Re-
search Group, Charron, Favier, and Li (2006)
showed that the reliance of the North American
consumer on more traditional means of com-
munication is significantly decreasing. Between
2002 and 2004, reliance on television decreased
from 51% to 41%; on newspapers, from 46%
to 42%; and on printed magazines, from 38%
to 27%. The only format on which reliance
was shown to have increased was the Internet,
from 14% to 21% (which is still small, but
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is increasing). Reliance on printed media or
television advertisements dropped significantly,
from 78% to 47%. The Pew Research Institute,7
revealed that in 2009, 42% of U.S. consumers
relied upon the Internet for updates on national
or international information, behind only tele-
vision, with 71%; this measure increased 52
percentage points in five years (it was only 19%
in 2004).
According to Nielsen, 92% of Latin American
consumers trust recommendations they receive
on the Internet from people they know, 58%
trust consumers’ opinions posted online, and
73% trust branded websites. They also showed
that Latin American consumers are more open
to accept online advertisements than other con-
sumers, as 53% of Latin Americans believe in
online ads (global is 42%) and 45% in social me-
dia advertisements (global, 36%), showing that
Latin American consumers are more receptive
to online messages brands may send (Nielsen
2012).
With good reason, eWOM has become an
object of constant survey in the field of mar-
keting. Hennig-Thurau and colleagues (2004)
have defined eWOM as “phrases or comments
(positive or negative) launched on the Internet by
potential, current, or old consumers on a product
or company.” They also mapped four main
reasons for engaging in eWOM: (1) seeking
self-help, for economic reasons or own gain;
(2) concern about others and searching for social
promotion; (3) altruism, seeking only to help
others and companies; and (4) multiple reasons
relating to self-expression.
Trusov and colleagues (2009) compared the
inclusion rate of new users in social networking
websites attracted by (1) WOM (indicated by
users) and (2) traditional communication tools
(such as advertisements). WOM was found to
have brought more people, who also stayed
there longer. Another study revealed that eWOM
directly influences the sales of a company
(Forman, Ghose, and Wiesenfeld 2008) and
can perform an expressive role in consumers’
decisions (Liu 2006). Bickart and Schindler
(2001) designated groups of students to research
five categories of products and commercial
sources (from companies or intermediaries) or
online discussions (forums, blogs, or virtual
communities) for 12 weeks. Those who went af-
ter information online showed greater interest in
the category. In terms of assimilated knowledge
about products, however, a difference between
the groups was not observed.
Another aspect that has been considered is
attached to the consequences negative and/or
positive comments posted online by consumers.
Chevalier and Mayzlin (2006) tested the impact
of consumer comments on the purchase intention
of third parties at America’s two largest online
book vendors (Amazon and Barnes & Noble).
Enhancements of opinion about a book would
improve the quantity purchased through the
website. However, negative evaluations had a
stronger effect than positive ones. With indi-
viduals who changed their service provider,
Wangenheim (2005) also confirmed a stronger
effect from negative comments than positive
ones. Kahneman and Tversky’s (1979) classic
prospective theory underlies that people perceive
loss in a stronger magnitude than they perceive
gain, and Liu (2006) tried to test this theory but
encountered a different result, when her studies
reported that a negative comment may not have
any effect on the sales of a product for some
consumers, and can, in some cases, even end up
promoting it. This exemplified the complexity of
people’s reaction toward gain or loss involved in
a commercial transaction.
Beyond this is a broader convergence of
these attempts of theoretical elaboration. While
Duana and colleagues (2008) found a direct
relationship between positive WOM regarding
a movie released and its performance in the
following weeks, Chen, Wu, and Yoon (2004)
found no relationship between positive feedback
 Fabio Shimabukuro Sandes and Andre Torres Urdan
and product sales. In an experiment conducted
by Herr, Kardes, and Kim (1991), negative
comments exerted a stronger effect than positive
ones. However, when the consumer had prior
knowledge of the brand or where reviews were
extremely negative, the influence of WOM
disappeared. Arising from this analysis, then,
are two hypotheses to empirically test the claim.
H1: Exposure to negative comments about
a brand, posted on the Internet by con-
sumers, worsens the image of the brand
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as perceived by other consumers.
H2: Exposure to negative comments about a
brand, posted on the Internet by consumers,
reduces the intention of other consumers to
purchase it.
In the opposite direction, it is expected that
positive feedback will positively affect purchase
intent of other consumers and brand image of
those providing the feedback. Thus:
H3: Exposure to positive comments about a
brand, posted by consumers on the Internet,
increases the intention of other consumers
to purchase it.
H4: Exposure to positive comments about
a brand, posted by consumers on the
Internet, improves the image of the brand
as perceived by other consumers.
The management of negative comments in-
cludes the monitoring and treatment, by the com-
pany, of any negative comments posted about it
or its products. This management includes the
detection of (by capture or receipt) WOM issued
by consumers on the Internet, and the issuance
of a response that satisfies the customer—or at
least clarifies the issue.
Fornell and Wernerfeldt (1987) pointed out
that effective management of complaints sub-
stantively affects the company’s long-term sales
and profits. Tax, Brown, and Chandrasherakan
(1998), in their study of four major U.S. ser-
vice companies, saw that consumers evaluated
positively the way companies treated their com-
plaints, and their perceptions of the company
even improved after they realized the company
185
efforts to respond or justify their complaints.
This demonstrated that competent complaints
management positively affects the consumer’s
trust of and commitment to the provider, present-
ing the company with an opportunity to avoid
negative WOM.
Going beyond spontaneously expressed com-
plaints, Blodgett and Anderson (2000) describe
as successful intermediaries those who encour-
age dissatisfied customers to seek compensation,
providing a chance for them to target and solve
the problem. In an experiment with university
students in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul, Von
der Heyde Fernandes and Pizzutti dos Santos
(2008) analyzed the backgrounds of consumer
complaints. They found that dissatisfaction
significantly contributes to generate negative
WOM, but a consumer’s self-confidence has
a negligible effect on the intention to produce
negative WOM.
Consequently, it is expected that affirmative
negative-comments management reduces the
impact of WOM on a brand or product image
and also on the purchase intention of other
consumers exposed to a comment. Two other
hypotheses are thus presented:
H5: Positively managing the negative com-
ments about a brand, posted by consumers
on the Internet, reduces the negative impact
on the trademark image as perceived by
other consumers.
H6: Managing the negative comments about
a trademark, posted by consumers on the
Internet, reduces the negative impact on
other consumers’ intention to purchase.
Consumers’ Attitudes, Behavior
and Regulatory Focus
It makes sense to correlate attitudes and be-
havior (Ajzen and Fishbein 2005), as “behavior
involves an action directed towards an objective,
that takes place in a context and a period of
time” (p. 181). The example is the registration
of a complaint (action) about the price paid for
a service, with the aim of restitution (objective)
in the next purchase (period of time). When the
behavior is analyzed in such a way—isolated
 186 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER MARKETING
and specifically—it is possible to correlate the
attitude with it. But for these authors, the
difference lies between the moments when the
attitude is formed and when the behavior takes
place. In the model of Rationalized Action, the
attitude influences the intention which, in turn,
influences the behavior; the effect of intention
is mediated by consumer control (Ajzen and
Fishbein 2005).
The behavior among various types of people
differs, of course. Higgins (1997) identifies two
specific types of people: those motivated by
promotion and those motivated by prevention.
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Regulatory focus is the term given to the way
in which people seek pleasure to avoid pain and
therefore may focus their attitudes in prevention
(to avoid pain) or promotion (to get pleasure).
Those who are focused on promotion aim more
toward a goal that is to be achieved, highlighting
the possible gains, while those who are focused
on prevention seek to avoid losses/damages and
value safety. Regulatory focus influences the
definition of a person’s expectations, as well as
the determination of his or her goals and strate-
gies. Someone with a focus on promotion seeks
to maximize gains in a situation. If the focus is
on prevention, he or she tends to prevent losses.
The effectiveness of comment management is
likely to increase if the message conveyed by a
company to the consumer is consistent with his
or her regulatory focus. It is expected, therefore,
that the content of the reply message to con-
sumers’ negative comments on the Internet will
have different effects according to the regulatory
focus (promotion or prevention) of the receptor.
In this way, two more hypotheses follow:
H7: A response of promotional content from
a company further reduces the impact of
negative comments, posted by consumers
on the Internet, on the brand image as per-
ceived by those other consumers (exposed
to both comments and responses) who are
focused on promotion, as opposed to those
who are focused on prevention.
H8: A response of promotional content from
a company further reduces the impact of
negative comments, posted by consumers
on the Internet, on the purchase intention
of other consumers (exposed to both com-
ments and responses) who are focused on
promotion, as opposed to those who are
focused on prevention.
EXPLORATORY AND EXPERIMENTAL
RESEARCH
An exploratory study was conducted in order
to glean some information from the perspective
of a cross section of consumers about the
issues herein. For this, we used thorough inter-
views and questionnaires. Those consulted were:
(1) consumers, (2) experts on the issue, and
(3) managers of companies in the fields of
communications and marketing dedicated to the
end consumer (B2C).
The consumers were subdivided between
those with experience (having already posted
some comments on the products and received
replies from the suppliers) and those with no ex-
perience of Internet 2.0. The sample was drawn
from the customer base of a Brazilian cosmetics
company that already monitors and replies to
comments posted on the Internet. From an initial
list of 52 people, 9 replied to all the questions of
the open questionnaire sent. Out of the remaining
customers (classified as nonexperienced), 29
filled out the open questionnaire via the Internet,
and 2 were personally interviewed. The opinion
of both groups was very similar, and in both
the majority reported to having accessed social
networking websites daily and commented on
products. These customers revealed that they
consult the opinion of other consumers on goods
and services that they consider purchasing. They
see it as natural that companies monitor and
respond to comments posted on the Internet.
For the second cross section of consumers,
five experts were interviewed by phone or
e-mail. This group consisted of journalists ded-
icated to reporting on business communication
and the Internet, and CEOs of service companies
linked to Internet 2.0. All of these consider
that the Internet may, in a short period of time,
become the main means of communication
with the market. Therefore, companies should
monitor everything that is written/spoken about
them and their products and always reply
 Fabio Shimabukuro Sandes and Andre Torres Urdan
when consumers’ comments concern them.
Some experts even suggest that they anticipate
problems themselves and create points of contact
on social networking websites, as an alternative
channel for customer approach and in order to
open an effective service channel. Many of those
interviewed foresee, in the coming decades, the
end of traditional face-to-face or phone service.
They point out that, in order to cause impact, a
company’s blog must have a relevant audience,
which can often be hard to achieve. In this case,
then, the traditional communication vehicles
remain ahead of the power of the company blog,
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as they have already an established audience
and confidence among them.
The communications and marketing business
managers interviewed came from five compa-
nies in distinct fields: real estate, cosmetics,
appliance sales, traditional retail, and print me-
dia. The cosmetics company was more active on
Internet 2.0, monitoring and responding to cus-
tomers’ comments and fostering relationships
with blog owners. The real estate company had
a specific department to monitor and generate
content about its products and services on the
Internet and already sold in 2009 27% of their
products via the Internet. When it came to the
appliance-sales company, the biggest part of its
marketing funding was invested in events, and
each event had a specific website. Its institutional
website already simulated a social networking
website, with more than 10,000 customers reg-
istered. There was, however, no specialized team
or even a process in place to monitor customers’
comments. The traditional retailer had created
a communication area via the Internet, which
aimed to monitor comments and disseminate in-
formation about products and events at its stores.
The department was still being created but had
already launched some relationship actions with
blog owners. The traditional media company had
a team that disseminated the company’s website
content via Internet 2.0. It had elaborate tools
that allowed website users to read news and share
it on social networking websites.
Communication professionals, marketing
professionals, and experts all pointed out that
business investment in online media and social
networks may greatly increase in the coming
years. An e-marketer consulting study8 has
shown that marketing investment in social media
187
increased about 740% from 2006 to 2010, going
from US$480 million to US$3.6 billion. The
same report has shown that, in 2010, 37%
of adult users and 70% of those aged under
18 accessed social media websites at least
once a month, corroborating the results of the
questionnaires conducted with customers in the
exploratory study of this article.
Of this small sample, it has been found
that, generally, it is not only customers who
use the Internet as an expressive means of
communication with the market, but also experts
and company managers. Increasingly, compa-
nies launch interaction initiatives with customers
on the Internet. However, among professionals
in the field, no consistent understanding was
found about how customer behavior is affected
and how it can be influenced by Internet 2.0 (in
general) and on social networking websites (in
particular). These indications, however, have an
explanatory feature. Table 1 summarizes the key
findings in this exploratory study:
METHODS
In a second study, the hypotheses proposed
were tested with an experiment. However, the
image of the brand and the consumer’s purchase
intention were entered as dependent variables,
measured in comparison to the competitor. The
independent variable was the comment posted
by the customer on the Internet about a brand
(company or product), with five categories:
1. No comments about the brand (control
category);
2. Positive comment about the brand;
3. Negative comment about the brand;
4. Negative comment about the brand and,
below, response to the complaint signed
by the company representative;
5. Negative comment about the brand and,
below, response to the complaint with pro-
motional content signed by the company
representative.
Three kinds of products/channels were
considered: (1) clothing, (2) cosmetics, and
(3) online store. For each channel, a company
brand was adopted as a target for comments
 Downloaded by [American Public University System] at 08:51 20 December 2013

188
TABLE 1. Key Findings from Exploratory Study

Group Sample Method Key findings Relation to hypothesis

Consumers 9 experienced and 31 nonexperienced
consumers (Experienced consumers
are those who had already posted
comments online and received answers
from firms.)
Experts 5 experts (journalists or CEOs of firms
related to the subject)
Online questionnaire Majority of the consumers report that they:
or personal • access social networking sites on a daily basis;
interviews • comment about products on the Internet;
• consult and consider opinions from other consumers
before buying products or services;
• consider natural that firms monitor and respond to
comments consumers post online.
E-mail or telephone Experts expect that:
interview • Internet must become the main means of
communication with the market;
• Firms should always monitor and respond to comments
that concern them;
• Firms should create a point of contact to consumers on
social networking sites;
• Traditional face-to-face or phone service to contact
consumers may end in the next decades;
• Traditional communication vehicles are still more reliable
to consumers than companies’ blogs.
• Consistent with H1, 2, 3, and 4 as consumers
access social networking sites regularly, consult
and consider other consumers’ opinion prior to
buying products;
• Consistent with H5 and 6 as they consider natural
that a firm monitors and responds to consumers’
posts online.
• Consistent with H1, 2, 3, and 4 as experts
showcased the importance of online
communication on consumers’ behavior;
• Consistent with H5 and 6 as experts suggest
firms should be proactive in communicating with
consumers online;

Marketing 5 Marketing professionals from different
professionals sectors: real estate, cosmetics,
appliance sales, traditional retail, and
print media
Personal interviews • The cosmetics firm monitors and responds to comments • Consistent with H5 and 6 as all professionals
posted by consumers and considers bloggers as media interviewed confirmed their firms’ actions or
communication channel; intentions to consistently and constantly
• The real estate and print media firms have a dedicated monitors and responds to comments online;
team to monitor and publish content on social • Implicitly consistent with H1, 2, 3, and 4 as firms
networking sites; consider the online environment as a key area
• The appliance firm dedicates the biggest part of their to invest their Marketing efforts.
marketing budget to online actions;
• The traditional retail company had some actions online
but did not have a dedicated team to the subject.
• All professionals pointed out that business investment in
online media and social networks may greatly increase
in the coming years.

Source: Author.
 Fabio Shimabukuro Sandes and Andre Torres Urdan
and responses. As the domestic brands are very
strong in the Brazilian market, most of the brands
chosen for this study are Brazilian. There were
only two exceptions: American company Avon,
which is an important player in the Brazilian
cosmetics market, and French firm Fnac, one of
the leaders of the online-store market in Brazil.
For clothing, the chosen brand was Ellus, a
company with more than 20 years’ experience in
the clothing market. Competitors Forum, Colcci,
and Osklen were chosen because they work with
similar prices and product lines. For cosmetics,
Natura, the biggest manufacturer of the cate-
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gory, was chosen. Its main national competitor,
Boticário, and international, Avon, were chosen.
In order to have the same quantity of companies
in the three categories, Onofre, a drugstore
chain active in cosmetics sales, was chosen.
For the online-store category, Submarino, one of
Brazil’s best-known companies, was the chosen
brand, along with competitors Livraria Cultura,
Fnac, and Americanas.
FIGURE 1. Part of the Layout with Negative Comment and Response of the Company. Source:
Author (Color Figure Available Online).
189
The website layouts used in the experiment
followed the concept of news publishing paired
with the product sales from different brands
related to those news items. If, for instance, the
main issue of a news item was jeans, next to
it would be showed three or four different pair
of jeans that were sold by the company. The
websites in the experiment were blogs that allow
readers to post comments.
Similar to previous studies, like the one
conducted by Kozar (2010) in which she used
pictures of models with different ages to analyze
consumer’s purchase intention toward a prod-
uct, the layout of the experiment had images
to explore consumers’ perceptions about the
brand and their purchase intention toward their
products.
For each kind of product/channel, a layout of
a website was created, and each one had five
variations, each corresponding to the aforemen-
tioned five categories of comment, totaling 15
layouts. Figure 1 reproduces part of the layout
 190 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER MARKETING
of one of the channels, and Table 2 organizes the
five tested categories, given that each individual
was submitted to one of them.
In order to conceal the experiment’s objective,
the individuals taking part were told that this
was a study about layouts (each layout with a
type of theme) for a new type of website that
would publish notices and sell related products.
The layouts presented very small differences
among them, and the individuals were instructed
to pay attention to all of their content. In order
to encourage participation and attention, it was
anticipated that, at the end of each layout, there
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would be some questions about its content. After
the data were collected, each participant was
awarded points based on the number of correct
answers they gave, and the top three were to
receive gift certificates from a given selection
of brands. The individuals were able to choose
the brands they received gift certificates for (at
the beginning and at the end of the experiment),
as a measure of purchase intention (before and
after the category simulations). Therefore, the
purchase intention was measured by offering a
real consequence (i.e., the gift certificate).
Aaker’s Scale was used to measure the
brand image. Altogether, this scale employs 56
items with adjective terms (Aaker 1997). The
individuals would pass through three categories,
so the use of the complete Aaker’s Scale would
demand the assessment of 168 items (56 ×
3), which was deemed to be impracticable.
As the comments published on the experiment
were related to the company’s competence, only
the competence items of Aaker’s Scale were
considered. This way, 24 items about the brand
image were included (eight items from Aaker’s
Scale multiplied by three categories). This scale
was submitted to each individual after they had
passed through the website layout tested.
The regulatory focus was measured using the
Regulatory Focus Scale (RFS) posited by Fellner
and colleagues (2007), which uses 10 items and 4
dimensions: openness to new things, autonomy,
orientation to the expectations of others, and
sense of obligation. The first two dimensions
refer to individuals with a promotional focus;
the others are concerned with individuals with a
preventive focus. At the end of the experiment,
the individuals answered these 10 items in order
to define their regulatory focus.
The experiment was carried out between
November and December of 2009, involving
168 students from an undergraduate course in
business administration, located in a capital
city of the Brazilian Southeast. In a classroom
containing computers, the individuals were ran-
domly distributed among the five categories, via
three procedures: (1) 100 individuals raffled off
the test category number for which they would
be submitting answers, typing it at the beginning
of the test; (2) 37 chose and typed a number
between 1 and 5, defining its category; and
(3) the computers were previously prepared
with one of the categories, and 31 individuals
freely chose the machine with which they
would participate in the experiment. When
the room could be previously prepared, the
computers were beforehand prepared (procedure
3). Otherwise, the category was raffled off by
the participant (procedure 1), and when there
were no more papers available to do this, the
choice of category was made by the respondent
(procedure 2).
The random distribution of the participants
and the test conditions reduced the experiment’s
obliquity risk. There was balance between the
amount of individuals allocated to the test
conditions, which ranged between 32 and 36.
Conditions 1 and 2 both had 33 participants
allocated to them. Condition 3 had 34 partic-
ipants allocated to it, while condition 4 had
36. Condition 5 had the smallest number of
participants at 32.
RESULTS
The experiment results are listed below, sep-
arated by dependent variable (brand image and
purchase intention), and followed by regulatory
focus.
Brand-Image Dependent Variable
In order to check the differences between the
five test categories in terms of the averages of
the brand image dependent variable, analysis of
variance (ANOVA) was used. To a significance
level of 10%, table 3 reveals the differences for
clothing (p = .08) and online store (p = .002),
but not for cosmetics (p = .92).
 Downloaded by [American Public University System] at 08:51 20 December 2013

TABLE 2. Schematic Representation of the Five Experimental Conditions

Condition 1 Condition 2 Condition 3 Condition 4 Condition 5

Clothing and comment Clothing and comment Clothing and comment Clothing and comment Clothing and comment
category 1 category 2 category 3 category 4 category 5
Cosmetics and Cosmetics and Cosmetics and Cosmetics and Cosmetics and
comment category 2 comment category 3 comment category 4 comment category 5 comment category 1
Online Store and Online Store and Online Store and Online Store and Online Store and
comment category 3 comment category 4 comment category 5 comment category 1 comment category 2

Source: Author.

191
 192 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER MARKETING

TABLE 3. Analysis of Variance of Brand Image comments and (3) negative comments (p =
for the Three Types of Product/Channel .006), confirming Hypothesis 1; (3) negative
comments and (2) positive comments (p = .002);
Type F Sig. (3) negative comments and (4) negative com-
ments with responses, confirming Hypothesis 2
Clothing 2.121 .080∗ (p = .069).
Cosmetics 0.232 .920
Online Store 4.424 .002∗∗
Dependent Variable Purchase Intention
∗
Note. Significant values, p < .1; extremely significant values,
∗∗
p < .01. In order to detect differences in the purchase
Source: Author. intention dependent variable, the MacNemar
Nonparametric Test was used. This is appropri-
Figure 2 displays the Ellus brand’s image for ate to verify if the initial response rate (before
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clothing, at the intersection with the comment
variable. Figure 3 is relevant to Submarino
brand, from the online-store category. In both
cases, the different levels of dependent variables
stand out.
The above procedure was applied to each
of the two types of product/channel above,
with differences between the comment variable
identified using Tukey’s Multiple Comparison
Test, in order to discover the specific categories
and their differences.
For clothing, table 4 shows the differences
between the categories (1) no comments and
(2) positive comments (p = .037), confirming
Hypothesis 4.
For the online store, table 5 highlights
the differences between the categories: (1) no
the event) is equal to the final response rate
(after the event) due to experimental manipu-
lation. Judging by the test results, there is no
difference between purchase intention before
and after the manipulations in the three types
of product/channel and the five categories (p =
1.000). In order to enhance the previous analysis,
a chi-squared test was used. However, as can
be seen in table 6, there is some kind of
association between purchase intention and the
test conditions. This refutes Hypotheses 2, 3, 6,
and 8.
Regulatory Focus
No differences appeared among the cate-
gories (4) negative comment with response and

FIGURE 2. Intersection between the Brand-Image Dependent Variable of Ellus Clothing and the
Comment Variable
 Fabio Shimabukuro Sandes and Andre Torres Urdan 193

FIGURE 3. Intersection between the Brand-Image Dependent Variable of Submarino Online Store
and the Comment Variable
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(5) negative comment with promotional re-
sponse, both in clothing (table 4, I = 1.00) and
online store (table 5, p = .967). This results in
the rejection of Hypotheses 7 and 8, relating to
regulatory focus.
DISCUSSION
The online store category stands out, with
exposure of negative comments on the Inter-
net negatively affecting the brand image as
perceived by other consumers (Hypothesis 1,
table 5). The impact of WOM has been repeat-
edly identified in the literature, although doubts
remain about the eWOM version of this, due
to a lack of research to date. Related to this is
Kahneman and Tversky’s (1979) principle of
prospect theory: People perceive losses more
severely than gains. Thus, it is the companies’
duty to articulate proper treatment of consumers
who present criticisms about them. Confirmation
of this hypothesis shows the credibility that
consumers give to negative comments on the

TABLE 4. Values of Tukey’s Multiple Comparison Test for Differences between Categories of
Clothing in Ellus’ Brand Image

5. Negative
4. Negative comment with
1. No 2. Positive 3. Negative comment with promotional
comments comments comments response response

1. No comments — 0.037∗ 0.672 0.823 0.797

2. Positive comments 0.037(∗ ) — 0.527 0.342 0.420
3. Negative comments 0.672 0.527 — 0.999 1.000
4. Negative comment with 0.823 0.342 0.999 — 1.000
response
5. Negative comment with 0.797 0.420 1.000 1.000 —
promotional response

Note. Very significant values, ∗ p < .05.

Source: Author.
 194 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER MARKETING

TABLE 5. Values of Tukey Multiple Comparisons for Differences between Categories of Online
Stores, in the Image of Submarino Trademark

5. Negative
4. Negative comment with
2. Positive 3. Negative comment with promotional
1. No comments comments comments response response

1. No comments — 0.996 0.006∗∗ 0.937 0.601

2. Positive comments 0.996 — 0.002∗∗ 0.795 0.393
3. Negative comments 0.006∗∗ 0.002∗∗ — 0.069∗ 0.269
4. Negative comment with 0.937 0.795 0.069∗ — 0.967
response
5. Negative comment with 0.601 0.393 0.269 0.967 —
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promotional response

Note. Significant values, ∗ p < .1; extremely significant values, ∗∗ p < .01.
Source: Author.

Internet, in line with the growing credibility of
this channel as an information source (Charron
et al. 2006). It is also relevant to consider that
Brazilian consumers are very active on social
networking sites, as noted before, and tend to
consider other people’s opinion more relevant
than in other cultures, which may restrict the
globalization of this finding.
In clothing, there were differences in the
effects on brand image of negative comments
and negative comments with a response (Hy-
pothesis 2). Fornell and Wernerfelt’s (1987)
suggestion is pertinent here, that the effective
management of customer complaints increases
a company’s long-term sales and profits. The
response, consistent with Tax and colleagues
(1998), has the potential to foster consumer
reliability and commitment to the supplier,
repressing the continued emission of negative
WOM. Considering that negative comments
impact the brand image, and management of
these by a company is able to reduce this effect,
it is necessary for companies to implement
systematic procedures to monitor and reply
consumers’ opinions about their products and
services. One way is through contact points on
social media channels, as previously suggested
by experts in the exploratory study.
Also in the clothing category, despite little
strength in the brand image difference among
the categories with positive comments and no
comment (Hypothesis 4), it seems advisable that
the company encourage its satisfied and loyal
customers to register their positive experiences.
Nonmonetary incentives (such as letters of
thanks), and even monetary (a premium, free
gift) should be considered.
The inequality in outcomes among online
store, clothing, and cosmetics suggests that the
product/channel type moderates the effect of
negative comments on the brand image. It makes
sense that an online store (being that there is
a perceived higher risk, due to its virtuality)
is more affected by negative comments than
a company that works with cosmetics (assets,
tangible).

TABLE 6. Purchase Intention Chi-Squared Test, Before and After, in the Test Scenarios

Purchase Intention
Ellus Ellus Natura Natura Submarino Submarino
before after before after before after

Chi-squared 0.919 0.785 0.311 0.264 0.681 0.498

Source: Own elaboration.

 Fabio Shimabukuro Sandes and Andre Torres Urdan
The refutation of hypotheses about purchase
intention has two possible explanations. Each
person submitted only one negative comment in
this experiment. They used well-known brands,
for which they may have already held firmly
established positions. In these circumstances, the
stimuli may have been insufficient to change the
purchase intention.
For the marketing professional, a general
implication of this survey is that they should
contemplate using Internet 2.0 in their communi-
cations with customers as a bidirectional channel
and also for customer comments. Impressions
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captured in the exploratory study (with con-
sumers, experts, and managers) qualify social
media as a powerful interaction channel between
company and consumers.
In addition, the effects of consumer comments
on the Internet, given the limitations imposed on
the experiment and outlined subsequently, are
perhaps even stronger and broader than those
detected (in contrast with the absence here of
effects on purchase intention).
Experiment Limitations and
Future Studies
Some experiment limitations may have af-
fected the results, and it is therefore necessary to
recognize them.
Use of brands previously known by con-
sumers could have restricted the comments’
impact used in the manipulation as consumers
could have accumulated consuming references
over time, and these references could have the
impact of negative comments on the brand image
and purchase intention of these consumers.
No pretests were conducted to find out
whether any of the competing brands used in the
experiment would have similar preference in the
neutral scenario, and some results showed that
this did not hold true for all segments used, as,
for example, it occurred in the clothing segment
where most of the consumers chose Osklen
as the one they would like to receive the gift
vouchers from, showing a purchase intention far
superior to that of Ellus (the central brand in the
experiment with the clothing segment).
Every person was exposed to only one nega-
tive comment, which is perhaps a smaller volume
195
than necessary to modify the brand image and
purchase intention. In addition, the participants’
choices made before and after the test were
made merely in the duration of the experiment
and may not be suitable for realization of the
hypothesized effects. Moreover, the duration of
the impacts on brand image—regarding online
store and clothing—were not measured.
Another limitation resulted from the fact
that people were allocated to an artificial test
environment (a college computer room) and not
a real Internet 2.0 social networking website.
This could have resulted in the experiment
having caused unrealistic attention (adding or
detracting) and consideration being given to the
displayed comments.
In the need to overcome these limitations,
suggestions for future studies include experi-
mentation with exposing people to a greater
amount of negative comments, for longer, as
well as to sites that accurately simulate, or
actually are, made on social networking sites
on the Internet. People could then be real users
of that website, and the test would therefore
be conducted in a true environment. Also,
it would be interesting to check the impact
of consumers’ comments in unknown, versus
known, brands. Finally, it is worth examining
the possible moderation that the influence of
the person who issues the comment may have
on other consumers, considering the size of the
network of third-party contacts. Implementing
such surveys is certain to advance the scientific
knowledge base about this intriguing subject.
NOTES
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2. Wikipedia (n.d.). List of countries by number of
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3. Wikipedia (n.d.). Web 2.0. http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Web 2.0 (accessed November 4, 2010).
4. Facebook (n.d.). http://www.facebook.com/press/
info.php?statistics (accessed May 2, 2012).
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5. Socialbakers (n.d.). Facebook pages statistics &
number of fans. http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-
pages/brands/brazil/.
6. Internet World Stats. (n.d.). Internet usage statistics:
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