Spillover Effects in Seeded Word-of-Mouth Marketing Campaigns

Abstract

Seeded marketing campaigns (SMCs) involve firms sending product samples to selected customers and encouraging them to spread word of mouth (WOM). Prior research has examined certain aspects of this increasingly popular form of marketing communication, such as seeding strategies and their immediate efficacy. Building on prior research, this study investigates the effects of SMCs that extend beyond the generation of WOM for a campaign's focal product by considering how seeding can affect WOM spillover effects at the brand and category levels. The authors introduce a framework of SMC-related spillover effects, and then empirically estimate these with a unique dataset covering 390 SMCs for products from 192 different cosmetics brands.Multiple spillover effects are found, suggesting that while SMCs can indeed be used primarily to stimulate WOM for a focal product, marketers must also account for brand-and category-level WOM spillover effects. Specifically, product seeding increases conversations about that product among non-seed consumers, and, interestingly, decreases WOM about other products from the same brand and about competitors' products in the same category as the focal product. These findings indicate that marketers can use SMCs to focus online WOM on a particular product by drawing consumers away from talking about other related, but off-topic, products.

How online word‐of‐mouth impacts receivers

“…Sellers can change the impact of WOM via influencer marketing, where they offer price discounts or other benefits to senders to create positive WOM and thus increase demand (Ajorlou, Jadbabaie, & Kakhbod, ; Chae, Stephen, Bart, & Yao, ; Kuksov & Xie, ; Libai et al, ). The effect of paid WOM on receivers is mixed because the possibility of paid WOM can lead receivers to become suspicious of senders’ motivations (e.g., Packard et al, ; Tuk, Verlegh, Smidts, & Wigboldus, ; Verlegh, Ryu, Tuk, & Feick, ).…”

Opportunities for Innovation in Social Media Analytics

“…For these organizations, social media is monitored and data are collected and analyzed for the purposes of marketing research and the crowdsourcing of ideas. The academic research in this field can likewise be dichotomized into research that focuses on social media as a promotional tool (Berger and Milkman, ; Chae, Stephen, Bart, and Yao, ; Fossen and Schweidel, ; Hinz, Skiera, Barrot, and Becker, ; Kumar, Bhaskaran, Mirchandani, and Shah, ; Srinivasan, Rutz, and Pauwels, ; Stephen and Galak, ; Trusov, Bodapati, and Bucklin, ; Trusov, Bucklin, and Pauwels, ; Zhang, Moe, and Schweidel, ) and research that focuses on social media data as a source of marketing research (e.g., Büschken and Allenby, ; Lee and Bradlow, ; Moe and Schweidel, ; Netzer, Feldman, Goldenberg, and Fresko, ; Schweidel and Moe, ; Tirunillai and Tellis, ).…”

Marketing viral: Aplicación y tendencias

“…Las campañas de marketing que utilizan la estrategia de siembra (SMC) alientan a difundir el boca a boca. Chae et al (2017) investigan los efectos indirectos relacionados con SMC y los estiman de manera empírica con datos que cubren 390 SMC para productos de 192 marcas de cosméticos diferentes, encontrando efectos de desbordamiento en el boca a boca a nivel de marca y categoría; es decir, aumenta el boca a boca del producto focal, pero lo aleja de otros productos (incluso de la misma marca). Ewing et al (2014) aportan al tema del MV dos componentes importantes en las campañas, aduciendo que las mismas no son puramente virales, sino que tienen componente viral (trasmisión entre iguales) y no viral (transmisión iniciada por la empresa).…”