Special Issue on the Theme Alternative Forms of Communication in Marketing

8/11/2019 Special Issue on the Theme Alternative Forms of Communication in Marketing

1/5

http://rme.sagepub.com/(English Edition)

Recherche et Applications en Marketing

http://rme.sagepub.com/content/22/3/1The online version of this article can be found at:

DOI: 10.1177/205157070702200301

2007 22: 1Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition)Marie-Laure Gavard-Perret

Special Issue on the Theme: Alternative Forms of Communication in Marketing

Published by:

http://www.sagepublications.com

On behalf of:

Association Franaise du Marketing

can be found at:Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition)Additional services and information for

http://rme.sagepub.com/cgi/alertsEmail Alerts:

http://rme.sagepub.com/subscriptionsSubscriptions:

http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navReprints:

http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navPermissions:

http://rme.sagepub.com/content/22/3/1.refs.htmlCitations:

What is This?

- Sep 1, 2007Version of Record>>

by slaheddine dardouri on October 19, 2013rme.sagepub.comDownloaded from by slaheddine dardouri on October 19, 2013rme.sagepub.comDownloaded from by slaheddine dardouri on October 19, 2013rme.sagepub.comDownloaded from by slaheddine dardouri on October 19, 2013rme.sagepub.comDownloaded from by slaheddine dardouri on October 19, 2013rme.sagepub.comDownloaded from
http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/content/22/3/1http://rme.sagepub.com/content/22/3/1http://www.sagepublications.com/http://www.sagepublications.com/http://-/?-http://rme.sagepub.com/cgi/alertshttp://rme.sagepub.com/cgi/alertshttp://rme.sagepub.com/subscriptionshttp://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navhttp://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navhttp://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navhttp://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navhttp://rme.sagepub.com/content/22/3/1.refs.htmlhttp://rme.sagepub.com/content/22/3/1.refs.htmlhttp://online.sagepub.com/site/sphelp/vorhelp.xhtmlhttp://online.sagepub.com/site/sphelp/vorhelp.xhtmlhttp://rme.sagepub.com/content/22/3/1.full.pdfhttp://rme.sagepub.com/content/22/3/1.full.pdfhttp://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/http://online.sagepub.com/site/sphelp/vorhelp.xhtmlhttp://rme.sagepub.com/content/22/3/1.full.pdfhttp://rme.sagepub.com/content/22/3/1.refs.htmlhttp://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navhttp://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navhttp://rme.sagepub.com/subscriptionshttp://rme.sagepub.com/cgi/alertshttp://-/?-http://www.sagepublications.com/http://rme.sagepub.com/content/22/3/1http://rme.sagepub.com/


2/5


3/5

changes in the media landscape, along with the poor results obtained using traditional communication strategies,

have forced advertising professionals to be creative and to use less cluttered media and/or those capable of creating

a surprise effect or of imposing the message or product (as is the case, for example, of certain product placements in

video games).

However, it would be premature to announce the death of advertising or the decline of traditional mass media,

and especially television, which is regularly blamed, because they are far from being abandoned by sponsors in favor

of alternative means of communication. They still represent the cornerstone of communication strategies. Their

shortcomings should not blind us to their numerous qualities and the deficiencies and weaknesses of eventual

alternative solutions. One of the more promising ideas that some advertisers have started to explore, but that has not

yet attracted the attention of many marketing researchers, is the combination of major media and new forms of

communication.

Moreover, if the changes and modifications described above are undeniably used in companies, advertising

consultancies and the media, they are much less present in research. Only buzz, or viral marketing, has interested a

large number of researchers in our field. Defining the concept, but above all, understanding the models of disse-

mination of this new form of word-of-mouth and measuring its impact are the common aims of many recent mar-

keting articles, and this special edition is no exception. At the heart of this new desire to better explain and/or mode-

lize the dynamics of buzz, one field of application seems to attract everyones attention: the cinema, which,because of its box-office imperatives and the increase ion the number of websites devoted to the sector, lends itself

more easily to collecting data. The article by Liu, published in 2006 in theJournal of Marketing is truly represen-

tative of this trend in research. The subject, in itself, is not radically new since, already in 1977, Burzynski and Bayer

studied the way word-of-mouth communication about new movies could influence public opinion of them.

However, the increase in the number of websites, chat groups and systems of user reviews, etc., has rekindled

interest in this type of research, notably by providing easy access to abundant data. Dellarocas, Awad and Zhang are

among those who reopened the path in this line of research in 2004. In this special edition ofRAM, the authors of

three articles have followed their example. Belvaux and Marteaux compare the influence, on the commercial suc-

cess of a movie, of recommendations by professional critics and those made by consumers in view of social

broadcasting, but also compare the effects of these horizontal communications with traditional media communica-

tions. Larceneux, with a similar research goal, tries to examine buzz generated by critics and buzz generated by sur-

fers and their predictive nature or influence on box-office revenues. He also tries to define the concept of buzz and

the aspects that need to be taken into account to improve box-office forecasts. Finally, Steyer, Garcia-Bardidia and

Quester propose, once again in the field of viral marketing, a modelization of interactions within online discussion

groups that calls into question certain functional rules of traditional forecasting models as well as certain hypotheses

concerning choice targets for viral marketing, i.e., opinion leaders.

As far as new forms of marketing communication are concerned, this field of research is undeniably the most

prolific, and many articles submitted for our 2007 special edition confirmed this trend since more than 40% of these

articles dealt with a subject related to viral marketing. The variety of alternative forms of communication is there-

fore, for the moment, poorly represented, both from a general point of view in scientific marketing publications and

in this special edition. In fact, certain subjects such as street marketing or stealth communication are not often, if at

all, covered by national and international scientific marketing literature. It is interesting to emphasize that these

themes have not been the subject of any articles submitted for this current issue. However, these notions are regularlymentioned in literature on management and a few studies have been carried out, for example, on the question of

stealth communication, including the work of Pfau et al. (2007), who examined the particular case of interest

groups trying to influence public opinion via hijacked campaigns and stealth communication, especially in the field

of politics, but also, more recently, in sales.

In the same way, blogs, that are the subject of countless articles today, or advergaming, which is currently in

vogue, have not attracted the attention of marketing researchers for the moment. Similarly, some work has started in

an effort to shed light on the use of new media/advertising means such as cell phones (Muk, 2007) but these have not

reached the top of the hit parade in our scientific marketing magazines. Furthermore, the article by Grant and

ODonohoe (2007) is rather circumspect concerning these new practices. This article urges us not to pin our

Editorial2


4/5

hopes on marketing campaigns via cell phones because young people are not really predisposed, except for

offers of content which are in keeping with the maintenance and development of their circle of friends using this

communication tool.

And yet, certain studies raise major questions concerning advertising practices founded on permission. For this

special edition, Yildiz has set out to understand the effects of permission on communications deployed, but in the

context of e-mail, and not cell phones. Yildiz approaches permission marketing from the angle of psychosocial

theory concerning commitment. Through her research, she observes the influence of the act of permission

granted by filling out an authorization form on ulterior requests. It is apparently in the interest of the company

to hand over minimal control to the consumer through permission, since this will ultimately have a beneficial effect

on the commitment of the consumer to the person who requested permission.

The aim of compensating for the limited variety of subjects in the present edition by adding an International

Selection dealing with a form of communication that was not studied in the four articles selected soon ran into the

same problem observed in the existing research literature. The article that was finally selected does, however, deal

with a means of communication that has been rarely approached, up until now, by researchers in the field: instant

messaging groups, or chat groups, in a commercial context. This article, by Van Dolen, Dabholkar and de Ruyter

(2007), is a report on instant messaging groups belonging to a specific category of chat groups, in this case, chat

groups initiated by a company, but through which consumers can exchange and share their experiences whiletaking advantage of advice from an expert representing the company in question.

Through chat groups, blogs, and online communities, communications made by the consumer himself are

multiplied and disseminated through social and informational networks. Yet, one of the main objectives of compa-

nies today is to identify the information transmitted that attracts the most attention, and the source of this infor-

mation. The article by Dwyer (2007) highlights this aspect. At the center of these different avenues of research is the

idea of marketing based on networks that are more or less controlled, more or less stimulated, varying more or less

in size and membership (amateurs, experts, etc.).

In relation to these questions, two preoccupations become essential:

identification of the most suitable statistical measurements for online word-of-mouth;

understanding the relationship between these different forms of word-of-mouth and consumer behavior,

as in the research carried out by Dellarocas and Narayan (2006).

New methodological and measurement issues have developed in the light of recent communication practices andthese emerging avenues of research, notably concerning databases linked to online recommendation systems, as

pointed out by Ying, Feinberg and Wedel in their 2006 article.

Needless to say, these new forms of communication, whether they be viral or surreptitious, whether they

concern permission or ambush marketing, raise many ethical and deontological questions. Marketing researchers

cannot ignore these questions.

I hope, therefore, that the five articles that make up this special edition will be a source of inspiration for all those

who read them and that the lack of attention in certain areas that I have pointed out will rapidly be compensated for

by new directions in research announced by our community in the coming months.

To conclude, I would like to sincerely thank all the readers who have taken the time to provide valuable

advice and suggestions to the authors of these articles, but also the authors whose articles were unfortunately not

selected (often due to the tight deadline involved in publishing a special edition). I would also like to thank the

authors who reacted quickly to improve their articles after a series of revisions. My final words of thanks are for

Christian Pinson for the confidence he has placed in me and for his unfailing support, to Georgette Duprat for her

meticulous attention to detail and her indulgence for unexpected changes in the initial schedule, to Cindy Caldara

and Marion Garnier who provided me, with a smile, the logistic assistance required for a special edition.

Editorial 3


5/5

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

Burzynski M.H. and Bayer D.J. (1977), The effect of positive and negative prior information on motion picture appreciation, TheJournal of Social Psychology, 101, 2, 215-218.Dellarocas C., Awad N. and Zhang X. (2004), Exploring the value of online reviews to organizations: implications for revenue

forecasting and planning, Proceedings of the 24thInternational Conference on Information Systems, Washington D.C.Dellarocas C. and Narayan R. (2006), A statistical measure of a populations propensity to engage in post-purchase online word-

of-mouth, Statistical Science, 21, 2, 277-285.Dwyer P. (2007), Measuring the value of electronic word of mouth and its impact in consumer communities, Journal of

Interactive Marketing, 21, 2, 63-79.Grant I. and ODonohoe S. (2007), Why young consumers are not open to mobile marketing communication,International

Journal of Advertising, 26, 2, 223-246.Liu Y. (2006), Word of mouth for movies: its dynamics and impact on box office revenue,Journal of Marketing, 70, 3, 74-89.Muk A. (2007), Consumers intentions to opt in to SMS advertising. A cross-national study of young Americans and Koreans,

International Journal of Advertising, 26, 2, 177-198.Pfau M., Haigh M.M., Sims J. and Wigley S. (2007), The influence of corporate front-group stealth campaigns, Communication

Research, 34, 1, 73-99.Van Dolen W.M., Dabholkar P.A. and de Ruyter K. (2007), Satisfaction with online commercial group chat: the influence of

perceived technology attributes, chat group characteristics, and advisor communication style,Journal of Retailing, 83, 3,339-358.

Ying Y., Feinberg F. and Wedel M. (2006), Leveraging missing ratings to improve online recommendation systems,Journal ofMarketing Research, 43, 3, 355-365.

Marie-Laure Gavard-Perret

Professor at Pierre-Mends-France University, Grenoble

Editorial4

Special Issue on the Theme Alternative Forms of Communication in Marketing

Documents

Transcript of Special Issue on the Theme Alternative Forms of Communication in Marketing