(Press-News.org) Companies that empower consumers by involving them in important processes such as product development shouldn't also try to influence them through social media, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
"Peer-to-peer marketing and consumer empowerment may not be compatible. Empowered consumers resist social influence by either discounting the opinions of others or deliberately expressing opinions that diverge from those of other consumers," write authors Mehdi Mourali (University of Calgary) and Zhiyong Yang (University of Texas, Arlington).
Empowering the consumer has become a popular business practice. For example, M&M's, Mountain Dew, and other brands seek to empower consumers by giving them some control over product development (customers are allowed to vote on new colors, flavors, or products). At the same time, companies are increasing their attempts to influence consumers through social media.
Previous research has assumed that empowered consumers either pay no attention to the opinions of other consumers or dismiss them entirely when judging a product. However, the authors found that consumers who were made to feel empowered didn't always just ignore the opinions of others. In fact, some empowered consumers deliberately expressed opposing views and rebelled against attempts to influence them.
Companies that succeed in empowering their customers may find it difficult to implement a successful social media campaign. Empowered consumers will either ignore or rebel against any perceived attempt to influence them.
"Many companies have embraced the concept of consumer empowerment. However, they should consider whether attempts to integrate social influence (word-of-mouth marketing, social network marketing, buzz marketing) might backfire with empowered consumers," the authors conclude.
###
Mehdi Mourali and Zhiyong Yang. "The Dual Role of Power in Resisting Social Influence." Journal of Consumer Research: October 2013. For more information, contact Mehdi Mourali (mehdi.mourali@haskayne.ucalgary.ca) or visit http://ejcr.org/.
Empowering your customers? Think twice about social media campaigns
2013-07-26
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Buying a used car? Be sure to flatter the seller
2013-07-26
Consumers set high prices when selling their possessions because they feel threatened, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
"When consumers consider selling a product they own, they feel threatened by the impending loss. In order to counter this threat, they increase the product's value," write authors Promothesh Chatterjee (University of Kansas), Caglar Irmak (University of Georgia), and Randall L. Rose (University of South Carolina).
Due to a phenomenon called the "endowment effect," consumers seek much higher prices when selling a product ...
Legendary brands: Why are consumers still fascinated by the Titanic?
2013-07-26
Brands do not necessarily need to present a clear, well-defined image in order to appeal to consumers, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. Consider the case of the Titanic.
"Titanic. More than a century later, the name of the ill-fated steamship still strikes a chord with millions of consumers worldwide. Consumer fixation with the Titanic is not simply due to the scale of the calamity, since the death toll has been far exceeded on many occasions. Nor is it entirely attributable to humankind's appetite for the macabre or merely a case of being ...
Is Facebook actually making communication about products and brands more interesting?
2013-07-26
Communication channels such as Facebook may be leading consumers to discuss more interesting products, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
"Whereas oral communication tends to be instantaneous (one person says something and then another responds almost immediately), written conversations tend to have longer gaps (consumers respond to e-mails, texts, or Facebook messages hours or days later). Rather than saying whatever comes to mind, consumers can take the time to think about what to say or edit their communication until it is polished," write ...
NASA sees heaviest rain north of Tropical Storm Flossie's center
2013-07-26
As Eastern Pacific Ocean's Tropical Storm Flossie continues to move further west toward Hawaii, NASA's TRMM satellite analyzed its rainfall.
When NASA and the Japan Space Agency's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite passed over Tropical Storm Flossie, it measured rainfall rates occurring throughout the storm. TRMM noticed that the heaviest rainfall was occurring at a rate of 1.2 inches per hour north of the center. The heavy rain wrapped around the storm from the north to the east. Most of the remaining rainfall was light to moderate. Microwave satellite ...
NASA's various views of Tropical Storm Dorian
2013-07-26
NASA satellites analyzed Tropical Storm Dorian in infrared light, giving scientists an idea of the storm's structure, cloud heights and cloud temperatures.
A Suomi-NPP Satellite View
NASA-NOAA's Suomi-NPP satellite flew over Tropical Storm Dorian on July 25 at 03:52 UTC (July 24 at 11:52 p.m. EDT). At that time the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS instrument that flies aboard the satellite captured a night-time, infrared image of Tropical Storm Dorian. VIIRS data showed that the thunderstorms that surround the center of circulation were as cold as 195 ...
Frequent and longer patient-doctor contact key to dialysis patients' health
2013-07-26
The frequency and duration of patient-doctor contact during dialysis care vary appreciably across countries.
More frequent and longer contact with physicians is linked to fewer deaths and hospitalizations of dialysis patients.
Approximately 2 million patients in the world receive some sort of dialysis treatment.
Washington, DC (July 25, 2013) — Both the frequency and duration of patient-doctor contact during dialysis care vary appreciably across countries, and facilities with more frequent and longer contact had fewer patient deaths and hospitalizations, according ...
Cancer researchers PTEN discovery provides knowledge to individualize treatment
2013-07-26
TORONTO, Canada -- Scientists at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have discovered a function of the tumor suppressor gene PTEN that helps explain why certain promising therapies fail in many cancer patients, a finding that could aid in delivering tailored, personalized cancer medicine based on an individual's genetics.
The research, published online today in Science, "increases understanding of the molecular mechanisms of action of PTEN, which is known to be defective in as many as half of all advanced cancers" says principal investigator Vuk Stambolic, Senior Scientist ...
False memories incepted into mouse brain shed light on neural basis of human phenomenon
2013-07-26
Researchers at the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics and MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have implanted false memories into mice, potentially illuminating the mechanisms underlying the human phenomenon of "recalling" experiences that never occurred.
In previous work, the researchers had detected a single memory in the brain, genetically tagged the brain cells housing that memory with a light-sensitive protein, and flickered pulses of light to "turn on" the memory at any given moment. The latest work, to be reported in the journal Science, tinkers ...
Women's height linked to cancer risk
2013-07-26
PHILADELPHIA — The taller a postmenopausal woman is, the greater her risk for developing cancer, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Height was linked to cancers of the breast, colon, endometrium, kidney, ovary, rectum, and thyroid, as well as to multiple myeloma and melanoma, and these associations did not change even after adjusting for factors known to influence these cancers, in this study of 20,928 postmenopausal women, identified from a large cohort of 144,701 ...
Delay in seeking stroke care costs women best treatment
2013-07-26
Women with clot-caused strokes are less likely than men to arrive at the hospital in time to receive the best treatment, according to a European study reported in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.
In the study, 11 percent of women with acute ischemic strokes were treated with the clot-dissolving medication alteplase, compared with 14 percent of men. Study participants included 5,515 patients at 12 hospitals in the Netherlands.
Researchers found no gender gap when they looked only at patients who arrived at the hospital within four hours of the onset of symptoms ...