Marketing Communications

166 CHAPTER 5 OBJECTIVES

In a Belgian study, prospective customers’ perceived trust, attitudes and intentions were measured following

organisational responses to consumer review sets varying in their degree of negativity.^21 Using a 3 (positive, neutral,

negative online review set) × 6 (online managerial response to reviews: no reaction, refutation, apology, apology

and promise that it will not happen again, apology and compensation, apology and promise of compensation) full

factorial, between-subjects design, the study investigates how a company (in this case, a restaurant) should react

to counter different degrees of negative online WOM, and what kind of response is advisable to regain the trust and

business of prospective customers.

When the number of positive reviews outweighs the number of negative reviews, the results showed that there

are no significant differences in terms of perceived trust, attitude and purchase intention between the different

response strategies. Due to the fact that the negative WOM is outnumbered by positive comments, the readers

believe that the service failure would not reoccur, thus offering an apology or even compensation to the dissatisfied

customer would not enhance the purchase intention of the reader. Based on the social validation theory,^22 the reader

may attribute the accountability to the complaining customers, instead of the service provider: ‘some people are

just naggers’. When the numbers of positive and negative reviews are equal, it is more difficult to assign accountability

and thus to evaluate whether justice is served. The results revealed that both the apology and promise strategy and

the apology, promise and compensation response result in a significantly higher perception of trust than refutation.

The combination of an apology and a promise also results in the most positive attitude and purchase intention

score. These results indicate that the apology–promise response significantly enhances trust, attitude and purchase

intention. However, offering compensation on top of an apology and a promise does not significantly improve attitude

and purchase intention. According to the justice theory, perceived distributional justice will be optimal when there

is a balance between the input and the output. When the outcome of the recovery is more substantial than the

damage experienced, people may feel guilty and less comfortable about accepting compensation. As the opinion of

the customers is divided, it is possible that the reader is not sure who is accountable and perceives the failure as less

severe. Assurance of a fair service in the future is enough to enhance the perceived trust, attitude and purchase

intention of the prospective customer. When the number of dissatisfied customers is higher than the number of

satisfied ones, it is easy to blame the service provider for the failure. The findings showed that, compared with the

refutation strategy, the apology and compensation strategy and the apology, promise and compensation strategy

significantly enhance the perceived trust in the manager. The apology, promise and compensation strategy results

in significantly more positive attitude and intention scores than no reaction, refutation and even the apology

responses.

Overall, the findings suggest that different response strategies are needed depending on the ratio of the positive

and negative reviews, to increase the perceived trust, attitude and purchase intention of readers of online reviews.

When the reviews are mostly positive, no reaction is needed to counter the few negative comments. When the

balance is neutral, an apology combined with a promise that the failure will not happen again appears to be the

appropriate thing to do. Offering compensation in this situation is found to be unnecessary (from the bystander’s

perspective). Finally, when the majority of reviews are negative, not only an apology, but also a promise and com-

pensation are desirable to convince the readers that the service is actually worth considering.

Instead of focusing solely on higher market penetration rates, many high-penetration

brands are now using advertising campaigns to encourage their loyal consumers to use the

brand more frequently, as well as suggesting new ways to use the brand or new situations in

which it can be consumed. Th e more frequent use of a brand may be a much more cost-

eff ective way to build sales. Recent publications have therefore argued that when dealing with

brands with a high degree of market penetration, consumption intentions are more likely to

capture consumption-related responses (and success of a campaign) than attitudes towards

the brand or purchase intentions. Volume estimates would then best approximate the actual

consumption of heavy users and likelihood estimates are best used with light users or with

infrequently consumed brands.^23

Of course, not all communications objectives should be present in a communications plan

or campaign. A marketer should choose which of the above goals is most appropriate in the

market and communications situation. Marketers will therefore need a clear view based on

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