Word-Of-Mouth and Consumer Choice Behavior: More on Message and Dispatcher Effects

We examine how Word-of-Mouth (WOM) affects consumers’ choice between brands in a study containing two scenario experiments. WOM has a significant impact on choice outcome in a situation where consumers prefer one brand but WOM communication recommends another. We then introduce an expert/novice distinction on the WOM dispatcher along with a varying degree of diagnosticity of the WOM message. The results show that both expertise and diagnosticity influence the effect of WOM recommendations. Most interesting is that diagnostic information from a novice is more effective than non-diagnostic information from an expert, leading us to conclude that the type of information provided is more influential than who is giving it.

Citation:

Håvard Hansen and Sangeeta Singh (2009) ,"Word-Of-Mouth and Consumer Choice Behavior: More on Message and Dispatcher Effects", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Sridhar Samu, Rajiv Vaidyanathan, and Dipankar Chakravarti, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 171-174.