Int. J. Internet Marketing and Advertising, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2010
Identifying, segmenting and profiling online communicators in an internet music context Gianfranco Walsh* Institute for Management University of Koblenz-Landau Universitätsstrasse 1 56070 Koblenz, Germany Fax: (+49) 261 287 2851 E-mail:
[email protected] *Corresponding author
Vincent-Wayne Mitchell Faculty of Management Cass Business School City University 106 Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8TZ, UK Fax: (+44) 20 7040 8328 E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract: The internet increases the importance of information dissemination, which can enhance the success of online and offline products. Indeed, in certain markets, online communicators can play a central role in influencing others’ purchase decisions. Previous research has identified e-Mavens as one such group, but has not profiled them and has treated them as a homogenous group. From an online sample of some 2500 consumers, we identify e-Mavens and systematically examine their demographic, socio-economic and psychographic characteristics as well as their motives for visiting websites and disseminating information in a music context. In addition, cluster analysis identified four meaningful and distinct e-Mavens groups, which have implications for e-marketing research, e-practitioners targeting online music communities and the market maven concept. Keywords: electronic word-of-mouth; internet; market mavens; music industry; segmentation; survey. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Walsh, G. and Mitchell, V-W. (2010) ‘Identifying, segmenting and profiling online communicators in an internet music context’, Int. J. Internet Marketing and Advertising, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.41–64. Biographical notes: Gianfranco Walsh is a Professor of Marketing and Electronic Retailing in the Institute for Management at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany and a Visiting Professor in Marketing at the University of Strathclyde Business School, UK. His research focuses on consumer behaviour, corporate reputation, strategy and e-commerce. His
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G. Walsh and V-W. Mitchell work has been published in, amongst others, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Journal of Business Research and Journal of Interactive Marketing. Vincent-Wayne Mitchell is a Professor of Consumer Marketing at Cass Business School, City University, London, UK. He has done extensive research into marketing and consumer behaviour, with particular focus on consumer decision making, complaining behaviour and risk taking. He has won eight Best Paper Awards and has published over 200 academic and practitioner papers in journals such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Business Research, British Journal of Management, Journal of Economic Psychology, Journal of Consumer Affairs and Journal of Business Ethics, as well as numerous conference papers. He has worked with companies such as Coca-Cola, Safeway, Tesco and the Cooperative Bank, as well as completing a major study on consumer usage of quantity indicators for the DTI. He sits on the editorial boards of six international journals, is an Expert Adviser for the Office of Fair Trading and is Head of Marketing at Cass.
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Introduction
Although internet information, such as ‘electronic word-of-mouse’, has an impact on the way consumers acquire and use product information (Stauss, 2000; Szymanski and Hise, 2000; Ratchford et al., 2001; Gwinner et al., 2003; Hennig-Thurau and Walsh, 2004; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Norman and Russell, 2006), online consumer communicators have received scant attention. Opinion leaders and market mavens (Feick and Price, 1987), which have also been identified on the internet (Belch et al., 2005), are knowledgeable online information gatherers and disseminators who provide a personal recommendation service for family, friends and colleagues as well as other net users. Indeed, recent findings suggest that affinity for technology is positively related to market mavens (Geissler and Edison, 2005). For an example of their power, one only needs to consider online music file sharing on the internet which has become one of the fastest growing internet activities in the past few years (RIAA, 2002) and has cut US revenues from music sales by more than $1 billion from 1999 to 2002 (Anonymous, 2003). As Lemon (2002, p.3) points out “many technology companies, especially start-ups, have been notoriously lacking in effective marketing communications”. One example is how to communicate with users interested in online music who are now used to visiting illegal file sharing sites when legal online music download sites such as iTunes are eager to win over customers. In 2005 worldwide online music sales were $1.5 billion. However, in 2007 revenues from downloaded music outpaced revenues from physical media bought and by 2010 are projected to exceed $10 billion (In-Stat, 2006). A way of gaining new customers is to enlist the help of online communicators who are already passing on important e-information to a network of people. But before the marketers can enlist their help, they need to be identified and profiled. These ideas fit with the broader concepts of marketplace influencers popularised in Gladwell’s (2002) The Tipping Point.
172 consumers
USA
Elliott and Warfield (1993)
152 shoppers
306 couples
USA
Lichtenstein and Burton (1990)
174 consumers
USA
USA
Price et al. (1988)
303 consumers
Slama et al. (1992)
USA
Higie et al. (1987)
303 consumers
306 couples
USA
Feick and Price (1987)
Sample
Market mavenism and brand categorisation
Relationship between smart buying and information provision
Market mavens’ value consciousness
Couponing behaviours of market mavens
Word-of-mouth communication about retail image dimensions
Identifying general (non-product specific) personal influencers with general marketplace expertise and diffusion characteristics
Topic
No differences
More likely to be female
More likely to be female
Gender
No differences
No differences
No differences
Age
No differences
No differences
Slightly less educated
Education
Larger awareness sets (i.e., process more brands across a range of products) and propensity to buy more brands.
Market mavenism and information provision overlap conceptually.
Strong information provision tendency as to new and food products.
Higher levels of price-quality perceptions.
Are more likely to be ‘smart shoppers’; i.e., they budget their grocery expenditures, use advertisements in preparation of their shopping and look for sales.
Are more likely to read direct mails; female market mavens read more homemaking magazines. Provide retailer information more frequently (e.g., on prices, sales); no difference between groups in household size or number of children
