Blogs and their Role in Decision Making Process

Required to write an essay on the topic “Blogs and Customer  Reviews” and their influence on the purchase decision process.  

The past one decade has witnessed major changes in the factors that drive decision making process of consumers, and marketing professionals are focusing on research to gain updated knowledge of this evolution. Since marketing efforts are to be aligned with the multidimensional aspect of consumer behaviour, attempts are being made to understand the novice ideas and concepts arising in this context. With the advent of technology, and wide use of the internet, blog writing has become a trend in the recent past, and it has been found that marketing professionals are emphasising on this aspect extensively. Online blogging and reviews provided by customers in these blogs regarding diverse products are now known to be an important indicator of the decision making process of the consumers. The amount of time spent by a consumer in reading these blogs and the customer reviews has been found to increase greatly in recent times (Solomon 2014). The present essay discusses blogs and customer reviews, and the influence of these on the purchase decision making the process of the customers. The paper also highlights how the perceptions of the blog readers can have an influence on his or her attitude and purchasing decision.

With the emergence of technology has emerged the different ways of expressing ideas and sharing opinions between individuals with different tastes and choices. The term ‘blog’ is much heard in the contemporary era which is an updated online personal diary or journal reflecting a certain topic of discussion. Blogs or web blogs are the new way of keeping others abreast of the incidents occurring in the present world. Individuals are engaging in writing blogs, commonly known as bloggers, are known to share a collection of informal, informative pieces which harness the fast-evolving world around us. Recent research indicates that the role of blogs in aiding consumers make a proper purchase decision is significant. It is to be noted that in place of the social media platforms, blogs have more power to influence consumer behaviour since blogs are garnering a loyal readership recently. As the emotional connection between the readers and the bloggers gets stronger, readers are led to a point where they rest their purchasing decisions on the recommendations provided in the blog (Schütte and Ciarlante 2016).

The Importance of Customer Reviews

East et al. (2016) in this regard highlight that a rich pool of studies from the field of marketing and consumer behaviour have pointed out the power of blogging to become the platform where products and their usability are discussed extensively among the consumers. The reviews that consumers find on such blogs guide the decision making process and enhance customer loyalty towards certain products and companies. Bloggers usually write reviews on products and mention the reasons for liking or dislinking the product and the features that can be included in the product in future. Comparisons are also made between products of the same category, and this is highly advantageous for consumers to gain information on the options they have before purchasing the preferred product. Nevertheless, whether a blogger can be successful in motivating the consumer to purchase a service or product depends to a considerable degree on the personal connection between them.

Noel (2017) pinpointed that the new generation of online tools and approaches such as social networking sites, blogs and customer review sites are commonly referred to as Web 2.0. These have transformed the internet from being a ‘broadcasting’ medium to an ‘interactive’ medium and has allowed the wide technology-mediated participation of individuals. Through blogs, a large scale word of mouth networks is formed that enables consumers to make their opinions accessible to global communities in an easy manner. It must be remembered that such easy and free access to information has made the power of marketing communication weak. As an increasing trend, consumers are keen on replacing the traditional way of information search by the internet search. Blogging as a network is known to reach to a wider community and audience and build on the multiple communication strategies. Bloggers see themselves as experts with knowledge of certain products, and the intension of private blogs is to share experiences. As the recommendations of the bloggers are useful marketing communication tool, a number of boggers have become opinion leaders. The review content is displayed with the help of open-ended customer texts and supported by videos and photos. The content of the blogs on certain products are more detailed as a comparison to independent reviewing sites and contains more self-disclosure. This is the key reason why consumers depend on these blogs more than other websites. Nevertheless, only one review of an authors might be present per product, and therefore the consumer might rely on one particular experience. Comparing similar services is crucial as consumers can get a comparative review between products such as electronics and gadgets, and services such as hotels, restuarents and more.

The Impact of Recommendations on Purchase Decisions

Starting from discovering newly products and deciding on which product to buy, to seeking advice from experts and actually buying the product, professional bloggers play a pivotal role in the lives of modern-day consumers. Post-purchase also has a key role in the decision making process of the consumer. In case the consumer is satisfied, the chances are high that he would prefer using the same brand in future. A customer writes his reviews and comments in the blogs that act as a source of information and create perception and sensation about the product. Potential customers can get opinions about future purchases and in due course develop a relationship with the brands. Individuals providing information through blogs enable the brands to hit different consumer needs as outlined by the Malsow’s hierarchy of needs. Consumers can be therefore better placed to fulfil the needs, whether for self-development or necessity. Blogs, a external review sites, are a highly trusted source of information sine they generate reviews on business as a whole. Through blogs, the aspects of the businesses that make them stand out from the rest can also be highlighted. The personality of the brand can also be understood from the blogs. For example, blog reviews of iPhones are very much influential in consumer purchasing behaviour. Since iPhones are unsual devices, consumers look forward to online reviews and rely on them for deciding whether to buy the product or not (Frank 2014).

Blogging has now become an integral part of the decision making the process of the consumer. Thus, understanding of the effect of reviews and recommendations on purchase decision should not remain vague (Park and Nicolau 2015). Studies on consumer behaviour indicate that reference groups make a key impact on purchasing behaviour and recommendations provided are particularly useful when the potential customer is about to buy an expensive product. For reducing uncertainty and risk in buying, the tendency of customers to depend on suggestions and opinions is prominent. Moreover, as per the theory of reasoned action, a person might be developing beliefs by referring to information from normative groups. In comparison to a formal marketing channel that is commercial, such as an advertisement, blogging provides an informal communication channel. Consumers often relate to the reviews provided in blogs as they are non-commercial. Empirically, the studies have verified that endorsements made by satisfied consumers affect potential consumers thought process. E-commerce sites such as Alibaba and Amazon have pointed out that blog reviews on their products are driven the sales figures of their products. In addition, there are more chances of immediate responses and interactions occurring between consumers and readers since the blogs are a two-way communication channel, unlike commercial advertisements that promote one-way communication. Thus, reviews in blogs are more valuable and reliable as compared to commercial information.

Trust and Reputation of Bloggers

King, Racherla and Bush (2014) brought into limelight the fact that trust plays an important role in how blogs affect purchase decisions. When looking from the viewpoint of the customers, information about different products from personal media like blogs reduces the uncertainty associated with the online transaction. Blogs are to be considered as a source which is highly credible among other media sources. Trust is built by the repetitive interaction between blog readers and bloggers. Blog readers can become familiar with the blogger, and the trust that is built is dependent on past interactions. Subsequently, the positive recommendations provided by the blogger might be readily believed by the reader and recommendations might be adhered to. Research has verified that trust affects the attitude of consumers in a positive manner. This is aligned with the theory of planned behaviour that states that attitude towards behaviour and perceived behavioural control shape the behavioural intensions and actual behaviour of the individuals.

The reputation of the blogger also influences the process of decision making of a consumer based on a review since reputation is an antecedent of behavioural intension. As the blog is a form of user-generated content, the impact of a credible blogger is drastically different from that which is not credible. Bloggers are having different reputation influence perceptions of blog content in a different manner. For instance, a reputable blogger would exert a normative effect and influence others to act in a certain manner. On the basis of the recommendation, a message that is persuasive would have an impact on the confidence of the reader on a certain service.

Simanjuntak, Nguyen and Situmeang (2017) discussed that perceptions of the blog readers could have an influence on his or her attitude and purchasing decision. Personal characteristics like a stage in the life cycle, age, economic circumstances and occupation, lifestyle, values, personality and self-concept influence the buyer’s decision to a great extent. The personality characteristics that are most important in this regard are self-confidence, defensiveness, and adaptability to provide response to stimuli in buying behaviour. It is obvious that an individual who is in the later stages of life would have more maturity to decide on whether the reviews are to be believed or not. Likewise, a person who can afford a certain product can only buy it after referring to a positive review in contrast to a person who cannot afford it. For example, a person who can afford an iPhone would only be considering the reviews on the same product. Economic circumstances thus play a key role in the decision making process of a consumer in spite of the influence of blog reviews. Individuals tend to buy products after analysing whether the same would fit into their lifestyle and personality.

Personal Characteristics and Perception of Blog Readers

Personality has also been indicated to play an important role in the analysis of brand choices. Impulsive buying, or the tendency of the consumer to buy in an unreflective and spontaneous manner also influence purchase decisions. Psychological processes of consumers have also been discussed in this regard that mainly focuses on perception, motivation, memory and learning. For buying a certain product, one needs to be motivated, and this motivation increases engagement with a certain product or brand after getting recommendations from blog reviews. When a person is motivated, they act as per their perception. Perception refers to the process of organising and interpreting information for creating a meaningful understanding of the world around. When a person is motivated, his perceptions are more focused towards referring to the suggestion provided on the blog. After making a purchase, a person would learn from the experience and change their behaviour accordingly. When a consumer buys a good product on the recommendation of a blog, there is an increased tendency to follow the suggestion of the blogger. All experiences gathered by the individual subsequently becomes long-term memory, and this drives future practices (Schütte and Ciarlante 2016).

Coming to the end of this paper it can be concluded that in an era where customer loyalty is important, consumers are to be empowered with increased knowledge about products and services so that their purchases are justified. Blogs play a key role in this regard that acts as a chief strategy to make the consumers informed and connected. Interactions between individuals from across communities and exchange of ideas and viewpoints drive the purchasing power of consumers. It has been found that if blogs are written about a certain product, then there are potential customers interested in buying the same. In addition, customers do not only look for reviews written in blogs, but also the specific information embedded. This mainly includes the experience of the review after using the product or service, and the challenges or problems faced. The irony is that absence of reviews in the form of a blog is worse than having negative reviews for modern consumers. In short, for crafting a consumer decision making process in favour of a particular product or service the importance of blogs has been felt immensely. Marketing professionals aiming at changing the sales figure of their products must focus on social conversations taking place between actual consumers and potential consumers in the near future

References

East, R., Singh, J., Wright, M. and Vanhuele, M., 2016. Consumer behaviour: applications in marketing. Sage.

Frank, R., 2014. Microeconomics and behavior. McGraw-Hill Higher Education

King, R.A., Racherla, P. and Bush, V.D., 2014. What we know and don’t know about online word-of-mouth: A review and synthesis of the literature. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 28(3), pp.167-183.

Noel, H., 2017. Basics marketing 01: Consumer behaviour. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Park, S. and Nicolau, J.L., 2015. Asymmetric effects of online consumer reviews. Annals of Tourism Research, 50, pp.67-83.

Schütte, H. and Ciarlante, D., 2016. Consumer behaviour in Asia. Springer.

Simanjuntak, M., Nguyen, M. and Situmeang, F., 2017. To What Extent Do Beauty Bloggers Influence the Purchase Behavior of Their Audience? Exploring the Links Between Consumer Personality and Blog Preferences. Advanced Science Letters, 23(1), pp.623-627.

Solomon, M.R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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