When do customers speak on behalf of a brand?

A few years ago, I had conducted a research study. The study aggregated the findings of 66 rigorous surveys carried out by renowned marketing professors and researchers across the world. My aim was to find out the factors that cause the customers of a brand to engage in online recommendation behaviors.

I made use of a research software called Comprehensive Meta-Analysis(CMA) to carry out this analysis. For each relationship, four statistics were calculated. These included- reliability adjusted correlation coefficient (ρ), 95% confidence interval of the computed effect size, Cochran’s Q statistic, and fail safe-N.

The study was later published in the Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Emerald Group Publishing, UK.

Here is a link to the study-

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JRIM-12-2018-0165/full/html?skipTracking=true

(Cannot share the complete paper here because of copyright agreements.)

A few of the findings of the study are outlined below.

1. When the performance of a brand surpasses its customers’ expectations, they get motivated to share this positive experience with others.
2. When people trust a company, they often proactively tell others about it.
3. Brand recommendations are often used by opinion leaders as a way to exert their influence.
4. Sometimes, the value-expressiveness aspects of normative influence also lead to brand recommendations in online communities.

The success of a customer review-based marketing program depends on the management’s perspective. The relationship between the customer and the brand needs routine evaluation. The brands that are based on the foundation of dialogue, trust, and relationship building become successful in the long run.