Age and stage life cycle duncan and olshavsky

Chapter structure:

1. DIGITAL VERSUS TRADITIONAL MEDIA

Chaffey (2010) states that digital technologies had an irreversible impact on marketing practices including the areas of: consumer behaviour and attitudes, but also: integrated communications, customer relationship and data management, branding, multichannel marketing, marketing governance and marketing optimisation. Peterson et al. (2010) explain that marketers are shifting their focus from traditional media to digital media channels: the Internet, electronic messaging, online search, the social web, blogs, podcasts, mobile communications and gaming platforms. They claim that online and mobile advertising segments show the potential for growing and offer ‘individualised consumer targeting’ at lower cost, a process that requires a new set of marketing strategies and skills.

the multichannel communication of the online environment, is significant for marketing theory and the marketing industry and will be explored in this thesis.

2. INTERNET MARKETING

3. TRADITIONAL VERSUS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

According to McKenna (2002) the marketing model is a derivate of “twentieth- century mass-production mentality, and it has become something of a pseudopsychological propaganda machine” (p.5) being very static and completely reliant on the broadcasting model. Technological innovations are, according to McKenna, the “agent of economic and social change” (p.7), powerful tools in the hands of consumers, allowing them to manage broadcasted commercial messages. The ‘awakening’ process among marketing professionals changed the paradigm of advertising, which assumed that broadcasted messages were ‘absorbed’ and responded to accordingly by consumers.

Rodgers and Thorson (2000) presented a model of Interactive Advertising that described the advertiser-controlled and consumer-controlled functions of online advertising, confirming that “the responses that people make to traditional advertising remain relevant to the interactive world” (p.53). Moving traditional advertising formats online added interactivity as a new function of advertising content, while content remained under the control of advertisers (Peltier and Schibrowsky, 2003). A decade later, with the proliferation of UGC, online advertising still remained the most prominent type of Internet marketing (Lunden, 2013). However, consumer participation in generating UGC was on the rise, creating new avenues for novel types of product related information exchange, such as WOM (Chen et al., 2011).

Admittedly, social media delivers opportunities and challenges, while at the same time being a fast evolving and tentative environment for businesses (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2011; IBM, 2011; De Vries et al., 2012). Social media’s integration into marketing strategies has introduced new rules for marketing professionals. For example Hoffman and Fodor (2010) advised that the conventional ROI approach

As a communication platform the Internet gives companies the opportunity to “provide access to information, extending sales opportunities, and building better customer and value-chain relationships” (Coleman and Levine, 2008, p.61). However, marketing generated content and advertising messages may not necessarily find attentive audiences among online users. Consumers tend to disregard online

advertising messages to an extent that this is leading to a kind of ‘advertising blindness’ among consumers (Cho and Cheon, 2004; Grant, 2005; Gritten, 2007; Kelly et al., 2010). The amplified presence and effects of promotional messages in the online marketplace are the research issues in this study.

1. JUSTIFICATION FOR THE STUDY

The reasons for conducting the study were:

5. Digital technology products or consumer electronics are a very popular product category among consumers; consumers spend a lot of time researching these products, reading product reviews and ratings. These are a

type of user created content that was, at the time the research was conducted, predominantly generated through social media websites.

The choice of digital technology products (DTP) is based on a marketing theory that categorises purchases to be of low-involvement and high-involvement in regards to the information searching activities of consumers (Zaichowsky, 1985; Mittal and Lee, 1989; Goldsmith and Emmert, 1991; Lockshin et al., 1997). Digital technology products are considered to be a high-involvement type of product, where search strategies last longer and are more comprehensive than for impulse purchases (Day

and Ash, 1978). Consumer behaviour patterns are very visible in this product category (Zaichowsky, 1986; Lockshin et al., 1997), revealing current shopping styles and trends, while also being applicable to other high-involvement categories that adopt these new practices at slower rates. Prices for CE range from affordable to very expensive, and therefore some assurance is required that the purchase has value for money. Everyday use of DTP makes them necessary for functioning in the digital environment (Aoki and Downes, 2003; Yang, 2005). The life-cycle of these products is short, so upgrades to improve technical capabilities or switching to new technological platforms is often the reason for the purchase (Rijnsoever et al., 2009). Lastly, and perhaps the most important factor for choosing this product category, is that the consumer electronics industry uses innovative and intensive marketing practices in both traditional and social media to reach its consumer base.

This is an interpretivist study using a mixed methods approach (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998), and has combined a qualitative technique of in-depth interviewing and a quantitative method of data collection using a structured questionnaire. The qualitative phase was used to pilot questions and test research concepts. These were then explored on a larger scale in the quantitative study which aimed to measure these aspects of consumer behaviour. Because social media has introduced new channels for communication processes, has altered information searching styles of some consumers, and consequently also altered their purchasing behaviour, it was valuable to gain an understanding and impact of those changes.

4. DEFINITION OF TERMS

User recommendations are brief customer testimonials about their experience with products or services. They usually provide personalised views free of in-depth analysis.

Automated recommendations are provided by retail websites and are based on previous inquiries or purchasing patterns of consumers. These recommendations are not product evaluations, but may be linked to, or offer, product reviews (professional or user created). This category is not a type of user created content.

• Transactional websites. These sites provide automated financial transaction services, at the same time profiting from cuts in overhead costs within the organisation.

However the above division of websites by Romm and Oliver is oversimplified, and, for the purpose of this thesis, requires further extension. In addition to informational and transactional websites some may provide product reviews and ratings and will be defined by their function:

• • Technology blogs (e.g., Gizmodo, Engadget, Mashable, Techcrunch)

  • Consumer reviews (e.g., Epinions, Consumerreview, Powerreviews)

While purchasing a product, every consumer goes through several stages of decision making process (Einhorn and Hogart, 1981; Engel et al., 1986; Huber, 1980; Humphreys and Berkley, 1983; Carroll and Johnson, 1990). This thesis utilises a five stage model: recognition of a physical need, or a desire to own a product (Payne et al., 1978;); information search about the availability, price, warranty, technical features, etc (Bettman, 1979; Bettman et al., 1998); evaluation of alternatives through comparison of brands, models or product attributes; purchase decision to finalise the financial transaction (Johnson and Payne, 1985); post-purchase behaviour in which the evaluation of the purchase results in satisfaction or dissatisfaction with product’s performance (Green and Wind, 1975; Nisbett and Wilson, 1977). All five stages are not necessarily present in every purchase. Consumers tend to express different levels of participation in the purchasing process: low-involvement (Leavitt et al., 1981) is customarily associated with impulse purchases and high-involvement with expensive products, such as consumer durables, or costly services (Day and Ash, 1979; Oliver and Bearden, 1983; Barber and Venkatraman, 1986).

In a high-involvement purchase a person usually dedicates longer time to the information search process. The phase includes an internal search, or search of previous experiences stored in the consumer’s memory (Celsi and Olson, 1988), and an external search using a variety of sources (Lehto, 1997). These sources may be

In this thesis the focus is on the second stage of this process – information search. Figure 1 illustrates the purchasing decision-making model and the use of information sources in the second phase of the process.

1. RESEARCH PROBLEM

Research question 1

How, and at what point of the info-search phase, do consumers utilise user created content in the form of product reviews and ratings as information sources?

Research question 2

What are consumers’ attitudes toward user created product reviews and ratings?

Research question 3

Research question 4

2. THESIS OUTLINE

This chapter introduced the background and justification for the research. The next chapter will present an overview of the academic literature and current research in regards to the research topic. Chapter 3 will present the research methodology and

Chapter structure:

communication”. Their research about consumer reviews and posting behaviour discovered that good product quality prompts the creation of positive word of mouth, hence reducing the cost of promotion and advertising through enhanced brand or product awareness.

Similarly the relationship between customers’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction and word of mouth was established in previous studies (Richins, 1983; Yi, 1991; Anderson, 1998; Bailey, 2004). For example, Anderson (1998) claimed that “extremely dissatisfied customers engage in greater word of mouth than high-satisfaction customers” (p.15) and proposed an asymmetric U-shape model which explains the customer satisfaction and WOM relationship. The display of satisfaction or dissatisfaction is specific for those products whose quality is difficult to assess or requires extensive research in order to establish its quality; such as in the case of electronic goods that are utilised as the product category for this study.

FIGURE 2 THE COMMUNICATION BASED MARKETING MODEL (SOURCE: ADOPTED FROM DUNCAN AND MORIARTY, 1998)

The models of communication have been evolving through time along with available technologies, those most relevant to this thesis are briefly described here. Shannon- Weaver’s model that suggested a noise may affect the messages’ quality and distort its meaning (Shannon, 1948). Schramm (1948, 1971) proposed that for the message to be clearly understood a message’s sender and receiver must have a common ‘field of experience’ or a ‘common language’. Deetz’s (1992) model of corporate

(SOURCE: DEVELOPED FOR THIS THESIS)

The market place has become crowded by marketing generated messages, and accessibility to the Internet for consumers has increased the possibility of being distracted (Hopkins et al., 2004; Plummer, 2007). The social media environment has delivered a new communication model where messages come to consumers from many information sources, and eventually may be delivered to numerous receivers, whose number is multiplied with every re-post or link to the original content. This paradigm has changed the way consumers search for and disperse information, allowing them access to online ‘repositories’ of tacit knowledge that consumers are willing to create and share. The concept of electronic WOM creation, dissemination, usage and influence is the focus of this research.

An abundance of information published online can disorient consumers in regards to where to look for product evaluations, and which information sources to rely upon. Davenport and Beck (2001), in their book The Attention Economy, present the case that a modern daily newspaper contains more factual information than was available, from all sources, to a reader in the fifteenth century. This suggests that for modern consumers it may be difficult to consume such quantities of published information, at the same time struggling to select relevant content that provides answers to their queries, and this may affect their attentiveness to information. Walsh and Mitchell (2008), in their study about consumers’ proneness to get confused by marketplace information, explained that this is mainly due to information similarity, overload and ambiguity. With an abundance of information sources, WOM is becoming even more crucial as it reduces search time. It indicates how other customers perceive the attributes of products and gives a reference point for comparing several options. Consumers seek product related information both online and offline, but the availability and ease of access to online product reviews make this type of online content an ideal starting point. Hence, possibly influencing their opinion at the very beginning of the info-search process.

4. NEGATIVE WOM

Exploring consumer involvement in electronic WOM opinion platforms, Hennig- Thurau and Walsh (2003) discovered that better and faster purchasing decision- making was the reason for reading consumer articulations about products posted online. The motives for visiting consumer opinion platforms were (p.63):

• obtaining buying-related information,

Their following study (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004, p.49) revealed that consumers are motivated to participate in the exchange of electronic word of mouth because of:

• a desire for social interaction,

These studies were conducted at the time when consumer opinion platforms and online forums were the preferred destination for social interactions with fellow consumers. However, in the constantly changing landscape of social media websites, the proliferation of commercial product reviewing sites and the popularity of social networking sites, these findings seem out-dated. New research within the area of electronic WOM is needed to update our understanding of what continues to drive consumers to post online product reviews.

6. TRUST AND REPUTATION IN WOM EXCHANGE

influence as it stems from their customer base; consumers appreciate advice and assistance especially when considering a purchase provided that it is a legitimate and not remunerated activity. The component of trust is needed in both business-to- consumer and consumer-to-consumer information exchange, as both parties may influence shoppers via WOM with more or less success, as it will be researched here.

Although information about products is increasingly available the issue of reliability and reputation of sources that provide information is important (Massum et al, 2011; Massa, 2011). Dellarocas (2011, p.4) suggests that “the concept of reputation is most often associated with the notion of trust”, in order to develop trust it is necessary to create reputable systems where users are able to build on their previous actions “within the context of a specific community”. He proposes that for building trust the behaviour of users is crucial, and that the reputation of users is only valid within a single community or Web system. Eisenegger (2009) describes three different types of reputation: functional, based on previous achievements and goals, social; whether an entity acts according to expected social norms; and expressive, based on a subjective perception of personal traits. Further, Massa (2011) explains that trust is differently defined by systems and that ‘trust context’ rests on “the characteristic of the target user that is evaluated by the user who emits the trust statement” (p.153). Undeniably, consumers face difficulties when deciding to use, adopt and rely on a stranger’s opinion during the purchasing decision-making process. It is important to understand how consumers deal with this issue and how reliable they perceive electronic WOM from virtual stranger to be, and this will be examined in this study.

information sources. Though there was an obvious absence of ties among users of the forum, electronic WOM was found to have the same relevance and impact as face-to- face communication. Although these findings suggest that non-existing social relationships may produce a similar exchange of WOM that is fairly influential, this study tested only one source of WOM.

Within the context of social ties the exchange of WOM through online and offline environments becomes a more complex issue. Granovetter (1973) suggests that social connections act as bridges in the diffusion of information. He depicts ties between close friends as strong ties, and links between acquaintances as weak ties. He suggests that links between groups, or weak ties, have a significant role as they can facilitate the exchange of information between networks. While Granovetter’s theory is based on face-to-face communication, we witness obvious changes in regards to online communication where social ties are lacking. Online WOM is posted, searched for and used, whether or not social ties exist. For example, there are hardly any social ties between consumers on commercial product reviewing sites. Online forums may foster the creation of social ties between vigilant participants, while occasional visitors do not have any intention to engage in the creation of ties. Social networking sites on the other hand are based on existing social ties, but those websites were not created with product evaluations in mind. The complexity of the evolving social media landscape emphasises the importance of the research in the area of online social ties and the exchange of WOM. In cases where information about an identical topic comes from different sources or social connections, the perception of those sources and the influence of WOM will be significantly different, and this thesis is set to explore that subject.

2. PARTICIPATION IN UCC

While researching online communities and social networks, Jakob Nielsen (2006) came to the conclusion that participants don’t equally contribute in terms of content creation or activities. He proposed the rule of ‘90-9-1’ or ‘participation inequality’, explaining that 90 per cent of users are passive observers or ‘lurkers’, while 9 per cent contribute occasionally and to a very limited extent, and a mere 1 per cent are very active and account for 90 per cent of the content. Blogs, according to Nielsen, have an even lower ratio of 95-5-0.1; Amazon.com has less that 1 per cent active contributors and Wikipedia’s contribution rate is 99.8-0.2-0.003.

The proliferation of social media websites has led to new forms of WOM exchange and revealed new possibilities for researchers. The word of mouth phenomenon has been extensively explored for its frequency, context, impact, content and delivery (Davis and Khazanchi, 2008; Liu, 2006; Basuroy et al., 2003; Bailey, 2005; Allsop et al., 2007). However there is an evident lack of research in the area of word of mouth perception and reliability among consumers in the social media milieu.

Despite the extensive literature on WOM there is also a noticeable gap in regards to online consumer behaviour when searching for electronic WOM on retailing websites; WOM validity as information source when researching products, motives for posting (or not) product reviews, influence and impact of electronic WOM when coming from virtual strangers, and significance of social ties in WOM exchanges. A selection of relevant research studies that explore WOM and electronic WOM within

Duan et al. (2008) researched the effect of electronic WOM on movie sales, discovering that higher ratings did not lead to better sales, although the number of website posts directly influenced them. This is explained as the consequence of awareness, where a high number of posts induced a higher awareness of the movie title. Similarly, Uncles et al. (2010) recognised the connection between positive word of mouth and brands, discovering that brands with a larger market share generated more positive WOM. However, it is difficult to establish if WOM only yields enhanced brand awareness, such is the case with these two studies, or it also leads to higher purchasing intentions among consumers. That will be further explored in this study.

Collins and Lewison (2007) propose that “peer-to-peer promotions are becoming a pillar of multi-channel efforts to reach each market niche and individual consumer” (p.149). The most efficient way to disseminate marketing messages is to pass them on to members of “preexisting social groups and networks” (ibid). Additionally, Kambe et al. (2007) indicate the importance of word of mouth in online communities, since it has turned “interpersonal communication among acquaintances to online communication to general public” (p.3).

Furthermore, they explain the benefits of WOM. A positive WOM “will increase and reinforce customer loyalty” – a positive comment will attract a new customer while also strengthening feelings of a positive experience with the initial customer, thus creating a commitment to repeat a purchase (p.3). Circulation of positive WOM is very important for business as it brings back the old and attracts new customers by referrals, and it spreads easily in online communities and social networks. The effects of this process will be explored in this thesis.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA - NEW MARKETING PLATFORM

Spurgeon (2008) explains that it was the emergence of the concept of consumers’ creative participation that induced the changes in “social relations of media production, commercial communication and consumer markets” (p.2). She suggests that this process led to the emergence of ‘conversational media’, where the creation of content was driven by consumers. These consumers were no longer willing to comply with the rules of mass media, or to be passive receivers of marketing created content and advertising messages. This suggests a new question, whether consumers are still behaving the same way when purchasing products as they used to during the supremacy of mass media.

2. OPINION LEADERS

FIGURE 5 TWO-STEP FLOW THEORY

(SOURCE: ADOPTED FROM KATZ AND LAZARSFELD, 1955, AND EXPANDED BY KAVANAUGH ET AL., 2009)

Bulter and Butman (2006) explain the role of opinion leaders in marketing by claiming that “word of mouth is most effectively distributed by people who have expert knowledge and particular influence, or socialize within huge networks” (p.49). Clark and Goldsmith (2005) in their study about the psychological profile of market mavens describe them as “consumer who are highly involved in the market-place and represent an important source of marketplace information to other consumers” (p.289). They confirm the strong relationship between opinion leadership and market mavenism, explaining that market mavens use products and brands to “distinguish themselves from the crowd” (p.306) but act within ‘normative beliefs’ as consumers. They conclude that market mavens are generalised opinion leaders. Edison and Geissler (2011) found that market mavens were more frequently asked and provided information than non-mavens, liked to try new things, and were open minded to novel and different styles. Although the literature suggests that market mavens exist (Feick and Price, 1987; Eliot and Warfield, 1993; Schneider and Rodgers, 1993; Williams and Slama, 1995; Walsh and Mitchell, 2001) and use technology to operate in social media spaces (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2003; Dellarocass, 2003; Bailey, 2004; Geissler and Edison, 2005; Edison and Geissler, 2011) this concept requires more in-

depth application in regards to their influence on consumers when they are searching online for information about DTP and utilising electronic WOM.

Information searching, information seeking or information retrieval illustrate the processes of collecting and examining information pieces in order to become informed about the topic, in this thesis: digital technology products. The most relevant studies on the information search process examined information retrieval processes using library systems (Kuhlthau, 1988, 1991, 1993), information seeking behaviour among social scientists (Ellis, 1987, 1989; Meho and Tibbo, 2003), external searches (outside stores) of buyers of consumer electronics goods (Duncan and Olshavsky, 1982), and the evaluation of the helpfulness of online product reviews to e-commerce websites such as Amazon.com (Zhang and Tran, 2011). The info-search phase will now be described in more detail.

2. STAGES OF INFO-SEARCH

4. At the formulation stage, ideas and perspective emerge from the encountered information, and the searcher’s confidence is on the rise.

5. The collection phase describes the effective and efficient gathering of information on a focussed topic. At this stage, the interest in the topic increases, as does the researcher’s confidence.

1. ADVICE-GIVING AND ADVICE-TAKING

Research in the advice-giving and advice-taking literature (Bonaccio and Dalal, 2006) clearly indicates that “important decisions are not made by one person acting alone” (p.127). Apart from complex organisations where decision-making logically takes place on several levels and by more than a few decision-makers, on the individual level, decisions are based on information or advice from family, friends, colleagues and peers. Bonaccio and Dalal’s review of the literature revealed significant differences in measuring the utilisation of advice, such as the importance of advisors, the number of advisors, the amount of interaction between the advice- taker and advise-giver, the presence or absence of a pre-advice decision, accessibility of the advice, and the type of decision-making task.

4. PRICE

The literature recognises price as one of the factors in the purchasing decision- making process (Enis and Stafford, 1969; Levitt, 1983; Wolinski, 1983; Milgrom and Roberts, 1986; Brucks and Zeithaml, 1991; Dawar and Parker, 1994). Dawar and Parker (1994) revealed in their study about consumer electronics that for consumers the brand name had more significance than price, physical appearance and retailer’s reputation when evaluating the product’s quality. Branco, Sun and Villas-Boas (2012) explain that pre-purchase online searches are conducted between two price boundaries that are set in the consumer’s mind: the upper bound and lower bound of product value. When search results deliver informative content and the search becomes less costly, the purchase threshold will increase, resulting in purchases of a higher value. They propose a model which suggests that helpful and informative content induces price tolerance in consumer searches. Although the informativeness of content during the info-search is valuable, if not crucial, in influencing consumers, it is less probable that consumers will consider higher priced products to be the best alternative.

1. CONSUMER ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY SPECIFICS

In 2009, prospects for the consumer electronics industry were gloomy. The consequences of the global economic crisis were slowing down sales. Consumer electronics manufacturers were faced with the reduced purchasing power of consumers. According to a study (Alexander and Stone, 2009) conducted in the USA, 90 per cent of households had reduced their spending, while one third had large cuts to their budget. Whilst 45 per cent of households did so by necessity, 55 per cent reduced their spending by choice.

TABLE 2 TYPES OF CONSUMER ELECTRONICS PRODUCTS

(SOURCE: ADOPTED FROM EUROMONITOR INTERNATIONAL, 2009)

In 2009, Australian online audiences totalled almost 4 million unique visitors to computer hardware as a retail subcategory and 1.4 million in the CE category globally (ComScore, 2010a). The total worldwide search market had an increase of 46 per cent for the year. In 2009, there were 2.9 million searches per minute, or 4 billion searches conducted per day and 131 billion searches per annum (ComScore, 2010b). The leading search market is the US with 22.7 billion searches, followed by China 13.3 billion, Japan 9.2 billion, UK 6.2 billion, Germany 5.6 billion, France 5.4 billion, South Korea 4 billion, Brazil and Canada 3.7 billion and Russian Federation with 3.3 billion searches. The top search websites were Google, retaining 66.8 per cent of the global search market, followed by Yahoo! Sites and Chinese Baidu. The biggest change in market share was gained by Microsoft sites, showing a 70 per cent increase since 2008, after the introduction of the new search engine Bing, and the Russian Yandex with 91 per cent growth (ComScore, 2010b), but both continue to have only a fraction of Google’s share.

In December 2009, despite Google’s domination in online navigation as a search engine, 15 per cent of Web traffic to major portals came from social media sites (Evangelista, 2010). Not surprisingly the major share of that portion came from Facebook at 13 per cent, followed by eBay with 7.6 per cent, and Google 3rd with 7 per cent, then MySpace with under 2 per cent. This is explained by experts as a consequence of a huge growth rate in Facebook membership, equalling the number of users of the largest Web portals, and the Web experience it provides. According to Compete’s director of online media and search, Jessica Ong, the lesson to be learned for advertising industry is that “more serious attention needs to be paid to social- networking sites like Facebook, and advertisers need to figure out how to leverage this traffic” (cited in Evangelista, 2010). The rising significance of sites like Facebook and Twitter leads to the assumption that these websites are not only driving online traffic, but are also changing the way, where and how consumers communicate and post word of mouth information.

(SOURCE: ADOPTED FROM RAMSEY, 2008)

Consumer electronics goods are considered to be complex products with numerous variations and alternatives that require detailed analysis and evaluation. According to

(SOURCE: ADOPTED FROM NIELSEN, 2009)

In a study conducted by Forrester Research (cited in Ramsey, 2008, p.30) in North America, consumer opinions posted online (41 per cent) were the most trusted source of information, followed by e-mails that consumers had signed up for at 35 per cent, brand websites (30 per cent), magazine ads (26 per cent), TV ads (24 per cent), radio ads (21 per cent), search engine ads (12 per cent), mobile phone text ads (7 per cent), online banner ads (7 per cent), mobile phone banner ads (5 per cent). These results point at the fact that consumers rely on product reviews or ratings from fellow consumers and trust them more than they trust advertising. This emphasises the importance of research into how companies utilise this aspect of consumer-to- consumer communication on their websites and in social media; whether they have developed strategies to approach consumers and involve them in their word of mouth campaigns; whether they have aligned their marketing and advertising goals with the Web 2.0 environment; and how they utilise social media in their marketing campaigns.

There is a significant body of research about the Internet as a ‘new’ media form, however this topic requires an updated approach and strategies that can be implemented in the Web 2.0 environment (by format, channels of distribution, or target audience) when it comes to consumer behaviour on PRR websites and this thesis explores it. Hence, it is essential to explain how product assessments conducted through information search in online media, enriches consumer experience; how WOM may, or may not, influence consumers’ purchasing decision- making process; how reliable consumers find user created product reviews to be; and if consumers, and to what extent, contribute by posting product reviews online.

For the purposes of this project a mixed methods study was conducted, combining quantitative and qualitative research tools. The qualitative study will explain how consumers use UCC in the form of PRR, and what their attitudes toward types of this content are. The quantitative study will scale those findings and further explore consumer behaviour on social media websites and their word of mouth dissemination practices.