دانلود مقاله ISI انگلیسی شماره 1991
ترجمه فارسی عنوان مقاله

اجازه دهید آنها صحبت کنند ! مدیریت جوامع نام تجاری (برند) آنلاین وسیع و اولیه برای رسیدن به موفقیت

عنوان انگلیسی
Let them talk! Managing primary and extended online brand communities for success
کد مقاله سال انتشار تعداد صفحات مقاله انگلیسی
1991 2012 9 صفحه PDF
منبع

Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت)

Journal : Business Horizons, Volume 55, Issue 5, September–October 2012, Pages 475–483

ترجمه کلمات کلیدی
جوامع نام تجاری آنلاین - کلمه منفی دهان - بهبود خدمات - وبنوشتها - ارتباطات مشتری با مشتری - سایت های شبکه های اجتماعی - ایجاد رابطه - وفاداری - شبکه نگاری (نتنوگرافی) -
کلمات کلیدی انگلیسی
Online brand communities,Netnography,Negative word of mouth,Service recovery, Tweeting,Blogging,Customer-to-customer communication,Social networking sites, Relationship-building,Loyalty,
پیش نمایش مقاله
پیش نمایش مقاله  اجازه دهید آنها صحبت کنند ! مدیریت جوامع نام تجاری (برند) آنلاین وسیع و اولیه برای رسیدن به موفقیت

چکیده انگلیسی

It is clear that customer-to-customer contact through informal social networking and more formal company-sponsored platforms, such as discussion forums, is an increasingly integral element in building brand communities. There are many benefits to this interaction, such as nurturing brand champions and ‘super users,’ and reduced service costs through customer-to-customer solutions for product problems. However, there are also hazards inherent in these largely unregulated communities, such as the potential damage of widely spread negative information, which may be based on fact or on malicious intent. Herein, we summarize the results of several years of research examining these communities in an attempt to understand why they succeed, what benefits can be extracted from them, and—in particular—how negative information emerging in these environments can be strategically managed. Based on a series of quantitative and qualitative studies, we identified several key drivers of online brand community success (i.e., intervention, conversion, value creation, and harvesting) and the different combinations of community players who must collaborate to achieve such success. Delving more deeply into the issue of negative information management, we find that the topic being discussed (i.e., core versus augmented product) and the validity of the claim greatly influence a firm's appropriate strategic response. Throughout this article, we offer managerial guidance on the most effective ways to develop primary brand communities that encourage loyalty, purchases, and positive word of mouth.

مقدمه انگلیسی

Customers will talk, and they are at their most open, honest, and candid when they are talking to each other about their product opinions and consumption experiences. The classic notions of these conversations happening over a backyard fence or in a hair salon with opinions spreading to a circle of as many as a dozen (!) friends and acquaintances have been blown away by technology. Today, whether it is a ‘super user’ customer helping others solve technical problems or a celebrity tweeting about a bad airline experience, consumers are empowered to communicate like never before. There are many benefits to the right kinds of customer-to-customer (C2C) communications: reduced customer support costs, powerful marketing and promotion opportunities, new product ideas, enhanced loyalty, and incremental purchases (Algesheimer et al., 2005 and Williams and Cothrel, 2000). However, while this kind of C2C communication can have an enormous reach (e.g., tweets can now be retweeted!) and be incredibly cost effective for the company involved, these communities also introduce a dramatic loss of control for organizations carefully trying to craft a consistent brand message. This dynamic creates an extreme vulnerability to even one subversive customer intent on wreaking damage on a brand (Tripp and Gregoire, 2011 and Ward and Ostrom, 2006). The high stakes in these communities—both good and bad—suggest the importance of managing online communities or social networking sites in ways that leverage and amplify positive influences while mitigating or eliminating negative forces. Cultivated over several years, our research indicates there are three main issues managers face in managing online C2C interactions: (1) understanding the nature of the community, (2) identifying and implementing key drivers of online brand community (OBC) success, and (3) dealing with negative online commentary. To help managers understand the nature of the community, we first make an important distinction between a primary brand-specific community, such as a discussion forum, and the extended brand community consisting of all consumers coming in contact with brand information. We consider the fundamentally different forms C2C communications take in these two universes and how managerial goals and options are substantially different across these environments. Next, we briefly describe a series of qualitative and quantitative studies we conducted to examine consumer-to-consumer communication in primary brand communities. Most significantly, we review our study of more than 200 consumers in two different online communities within the same product category, examining both their online C2C interactions using a ‘netnography’ technique and the actual sales behavior resulting from those interactions. This information is then combined with a series of in-depth interviews with online community managers. From this work, we highlight four key drivers of online community success (i.e., value creation, harvesting, conversion, and intervention) and the combinations of important online community players (e.g., community managers, experts, moderators, super users) who must work together to achieve these goals. Finally, we narrow our focus to consider the most vexing form of C2C communications for managers: the negative commentary emerging in every online community and appropriate strategies for reacting to—or ignoring—such commentary. We offer an applied and managerially useful framework for handling these dissatisfied customers. Our work suggests that, far from being autonomous and unmanageable tribes, these communities can be leveraged in strategic ways to positively impact the bottom line.

نتیجه گیری انگلیسی

Brand managers, marketers, and senior management are conditioned to fiercely protect their brands. Millions of marketing dollars are spent to carefully craft brand messages, to articulate advantage points over competitors, and to offer overall positive messages to the world. When faced with negativity in a brand community, particularly when complaints are viewed as unfounded, managers’ first instinct is often to suppress or even aggressively counter such postings. Based on our study of the nature of negative commentary, we found two key characteristics of negative commentary that influence appropriate company responses: (1) whether the comment relates to the core product or supplementary factors and (2) whether or not the complaint has a basis in fact. As illustrated in Figure 3, the appropriate strategic response varies greatly based on these conditions. Importantly, our research also showed differences in performance outcomes if negative commentary goes unchecked.Not surprisingly, we found that comments about the core product (e.g., core functionality, value, overall durability) are most critical, and must be addressed in some fashion to avoid damage to firm sales and profitability. The social nature and visibility of OBCs amplifies worries about the core product; if deemed credible, these can scare off other potential customers. In dealing with core complaints about a product or service, moderators must first assess the credibility of the complaint. If the complaint is deemed legitimate and systematic—that is, not a unique defect in a particular unit—we recommend some form of ‘promotion.’ This approach involves recognizing that the product in question may not be best suited to that specific individual, and using the complaint as a possible upselling opportunity into a better-performing option. Satisfaction will be maximized here when this communication is combined with discounts, credits, and other incentives to make that switch. The interaction itself becomes a non-threatening marketing opportunity for the rest of the community. Core product complaints that are considered invalid, based on malicious intent more than legitimate concerns, often warrant aggressive action. In such cases, moderators should consider banning posters, making strong and public replies, and/or attempting to deal with the situation through private communications. Ideally, this sort of corrective action is handled unofficially by other community members who will correct fallacies and call out any troll-like behavior. However, if this does not happen promptly, company-driven corrective action is required to mitigate brand damage. Another interesting point we uncovered is that complaints regarding less central issues, such as product aesthetics and shipping matters, can often be publicly ignored and dealt with privately sans damage to the brand's public perception. Responses to complaints, no matter how well intentioned, are often viewed as holding some level of defensiveness by the broader community. So, deciding to avoid public response to all negative postings is an important option that firms should use when appropriate. In cases of legitimate complaints about supplementary factors, we recommend a passivity tactic whereby the firm continues to monitor the community for additional similar postings. Barring further complaints, the issue can probably be ignored in the public forum, though the input from these comments may be considered during future product development efforts. When false information or general malicious intent is used to complain about supplementary issues, we recommend a strategy of correction. Here, moderators can provide mild clarification and correction in the public forum if fellow posters have not already done so. Typically, more extreme measures, such as banning, are not required in this type of situation unless the complaining behavior escalates. This typology (Figure 3) provides a useful guide for moderators and community managers trying to address individual complaining behavior within the context of the broader brand community. OBCs can be both a blessing—in terms of building brand loyalty, reducing service costs, and getting closer to the customer base (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010 and Thompson and Sinha, 2008)—and a curse, as one maliciously minded subversive customer can undo millions of dollars of marketing spending (Tripp & Gregoire, 2011). Our work should help managers better understand the individual roles involved in making primary communities successful; this, in turn, will ultimately make extended communities successful, too. Herein, we outlined key drivers of community success and provided detailed guidance on how to handle the vexing problem of negative commentary. When managed effectively, OBCs can become an important managerial tool in brand building over the long term and in sales generation on a shorter horizon. We believe this article is not only insightful and thought provoking, but also filled with practical insights for the manager interested in leveraging Web 2.0 to its fullest.