Impact of Price Promotion, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Social Media Marketing on Word-of- Mouth
Due to the increased competition among businesses in diverse markets, consumers have become more exposed to various product offerings, which would ultimately influence their decisions in selecting certain products or services for fulfilling their needs.
The purpose of this article was to test the effects of social media marketing, corporate social responsibility, and price promotion on word-of-mouth (WOM) In the fast-food industry. Only a few scholars tested the mutual effect of the selected factors on WOM for global fast-food brands, mainly in the Asian region. The data were gathered from several fast-food restaurants’ visitors at different spots in east coast Malaysia through a survey tool.
Among the key factors, which may enable consumers to rationally make purchase decisions is the WOM. Positive WOM has a powerful impact on determining brand choice, while unfavorable WOM impedes brand consideration. Prior research also documented that the spread of WOM communications among consumers leads to important implications for the growth of brands.
WOM represents an important marketing strategy for influencing consumer behavior and shaping purchase decision. Positive WOM leads to greater brand loyalty as customers tend to trust the information shared by others who had a real experience in buying and using the offerings of certain brands. Therefore, marketing practitioners have recently focused on WOM for the purpose of strengthening their brands and obtaining competitive advantages in target markets.
Past research described WOM as a powerful marketing technique that plays an essential role in affecting consumers’ choices and brand preference. Besides that, some organizations have utilized social media channels in the recent years for advertising their offerings to influence their consumers’ purchase decisions and stimulate them to develop positive WOM messages about them. Providing reliable products and services, which grant customers with valuable benefits could enable organizations to generate good brand images and competitive strengths.
As a result, consumers tend to voluntarily participate in developing positive word-of-mouth with others and recommend them to buy from brands with positive images. Additionally, word-of-mouth represents a strong marketing tool for communicating the brand at a lower cost and reaching a larger number of customers quickly. Word-of-mouth is a key mechanism for improving brand strength and value. These views are in line with those who acknowledge WOM as an important contributor to brand reputation.
Prior literature showed that to reinforce word-of-mouth communication among consumers, it is vital to use social media channels for reaching them. The emergence of social media channels has enabled the individuals to design their own contents with regards to their preferences granted them a space to express themselves on virtual communities.
Organizations employ social media for communicating and interacting with their potential and current customers for the purpose of obtaining fresh insights and building strong relationships with them. Furthermore, marketing communication through social media has largely become an indispensable element of the integrated marketing program in promoting their goods and services.
However, despite the efforts placed by brands on marketing their offerings on social media channels, the consequences of such efforts are still not sufficiently investigated. Previous studies, which were directed for examining the effect of social media marketing on the attachment to brands and consumers’ word-of-mouth are limited. Corporate social responsibility is among the foremost important factors in influencing consumers’ perception and WOM.
Nowadays, consumers have developed greater awareness about various environmental issues and ethical practice of businesses. They expect the firms to act in favor of the citizens through providing beneficial services for the community where they operate, rather than focusing solely at generating profit,
Existing literature indicated that socially responsible programs enable the service providers to create desirable positions for their companies in consumers’ minds in target markets, and such image tends to protect the brand from unexpected consequences that may occur during economic crises.
The analysis in this study revealed that corporate social responsibility and social media marketing have a significant positive impact on consumers’ word of mouth. The findings also established that price promotion has a significant positive impact on word of mouth. These results enrich our understandings with regards to the importance of these marketing strategies in shaping WOM for fast-food restaurants in Malaysia. Due to the increased competition among businesses in diverse markets, consumers have become more exposed to various product offerings, which would ultimately influence their decisions in selecting certain products or services for fulfilling their needs.
Article details:
Impact of Price Promotion, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Social Media Marketing on Word of Mouth
Jalal Rajeh Hanaysha
First Published March 8, 2021 Research Article
DOI: 10.1177/2278533721989839
Business Perspectives and Research