TALES FROM THE LAND OF

(1)

1

Alexander Mafael alexander.mafael@hhs.se CFR Early Insights #20

TALES FROM THE LAND OF

CONSUMER REVIEWS

(2)

H O W IT A L L S TA R TE D …

(3)

. . . A N D W H E R E W E A R E N O W

3 Sources: Amazon.se (left), curamando.com (right), teliacompany.se (middle)

(4)

W H A T I S A M A Z O N ’ S S U C C E S S S TO R Y ?

• Friction-free e-commerce ecosystem

• Get every product, when you need it, for a low price, everywhere

• The “Amazon Effect”

• Amazon is a market place but it is also an ecosystem

• Consumers search for products because they know they will get more than just the product!

(5)

W H A T I S A M A Z O N ’ S S U C C E S S S TO R Y ?

5

(6)

A G E N D A

• Reviews – omnipresent and highly influential

• How consumers handle review overload

• How consumer goals impact review processing

• How and when reviewers compose their experiences

• Key questions for fine-tuning your review management

(7)

R E V IE W S – O M N IP R E S E N T A N D H IG H LY IN F LU E N TIA L

Source: Mafael & Gottschalk, 2020 7

• Reviews are information powerhouses

• Using reviews is a basis for commercial success

• Reviews have a strong influence on

• Sales

• Product diffusion

• Product lifecycle duration…

(8)

R E V IE W S – O M N IP R E S E N T A N D H IG H LY IN F LU E N TIA L

Why are reviews influential?

• Rich accounts of (supposedly) real experiences

• Tailored to audiences, tastes, and goals

• Multimedial and omnichannel

• Reduce search costs – even for experience goods

• Provide a sense of knowledge about quality

(9)

H O W CO N S U M E R S H A N D L E R E V I E W O V E R L O A D

9

• Rich information = high cognitive load

• An abundance of information = limited resources

• Accounting for heterogeneity

• One information source = different processing patterns

(10)

(11)

11

• 20 verbal search protocols reveal patterns of review processing

• A survey of over 2000 consumers confirms a stable set of processing segment

Sources: Gottschalk & Mafael, 2017

(12)

H O W CO N S U M E R G O A LS I M P A C T R E V I E W P R O C E S S I N G

Selectively reading information is one way of dealing with (too much) information…

(13)

H O W CO N S U M E R G O A LS I M P A C T R E V I E W P R O C E S S I N G

• Situative factors

• decision goals

• emotional state

• Product factors

• product characteristics

• usage context

• Individual factors

• attitudes

• preferences

• personality

13

(14)

H O W A N D W H E N R E V I E W E R S C O M P O S E TH E I R E X P E R I E N C E S

(15)

15

• Considerable imbalance in content contribution

• When people contribute they tend to act strategically

• Whether opinions fall into the minority or majority of previous ratings shape

reviewing

How writers compose their experience

(16)

(17)

K E Y Q U E S TI O N S F O R F I N E -TU N I N G Y O U R R E V I E W S TR A TE G Y

17

(18)

K E Y Q U E S TI O N S F O R F I N E -TU N I N G Y O U R R E V I E W S TR A TE G Y

(19)

K E Y C H A L L E N G E S F O R F I N E -TU N I N G Y O U R R E V I E W S TR A TE G Y

19

Understand the context of review processing

Leverage consumer heterogeneity

Monitor and moderate the review-generation process and its key actors

(20)

S O M E P E R S P E CTIV E S F O R TH E F U TU R E

• Leveraging the power of consumer opinions to drive success

• Product returns

• Co-created innovations

• (Qualitative) Customer feedback

• In-depth sentiment

• Competitor weaknesses

• Understanding how reviews accumulate to manage opinions

• Active and inactive reviewers

• Polarity and herding

(21)

I F Y O U TH I N K TH I S I S I N TE R E S TI N G

21

Many interesting articles around this topic, from industry experts and researchers

Available open access

https://www.nim.org/en/publications/gfk-marketing- intelligence-review/all-issues/reputation-economy