Interpersonal Communication and Influence of Opinion Leader

Introduction
As consumers, we are exposed to two kinds of communication, namely marketing communication
and interpersonal communication.
Any form of communication that takes place between a marketer and a consumer is referred to as
marketing communication.
The marketer’s effort takes place through the communication mix or the promotional mix, whether
through advertising, sales promotion, publicity, public relations, personal selling, or direct
marketing.
Today, a huge role is being played by internet.
The other kind of communication is that take place within and between consumers operates
interpersonally with family, friends, peers and colleagues and opinion leaders who discuss goods
and service offerings, brands, prices and stores.
This is referred to as interpersonal communication, or WOM communication, and the effect of such
behavior is known as personal influence.
As a process, WOM communication is similar to any other communication process. It is a two-way
exchange of information between people. There is a source, a message, a medium, a receiver and
feedback. It is different from marketing communication in that while the former takes place
between marketer and consumers, interpersonal communication takes place amongst individual
consumers.
Word-of-Mouth Communication
Any kind of informal interpersonal communication or a two-way exchange of information
and influence that takes place between individuals as a members of reference groups, or as
a consumers (current and prospective) is known as WOM communication.
• People discuss about goods and service offerings that satisfy their needs and wants.
• They discuss products and brands, and their features, attributes and benefits, and the
pros and cons of the various alternative offerings.
• They also talk about the prices, payment terms, retail stores and outlets, advertisements,
sales promotion and all that could be relevant to them as consumers.
• Arndt (1967) has defined WOM communication as the ‘oral, person to person
communication between a perceived non-commercial communicator and receiver
concerning a brand, a good, or a service offered for sale’.
• This is regarded as relational concept, in the sense that it involves an informal
relationship amongst two or more consumers, or an actual and potential consumer.
• WOM communication generally relates to face-to-face informal communication between
people.
Cont.
• Online channels in WOM communication include emails, blogs, chats, and review posted
on social networks and user forums.
• The WOM communication is more persuasive and convincing.
• It helps create consumer awareness and interest, and builds confidence about
product/brands, and leads to purchase intention and final purchase.
• People influence each other when they indulge in conversation, seek product news and
advice from each other.
• WOM can be of two types: organic and amplified.
• Organic WOM occurs when consumer buy and use a product, and share their
experiences with others.
• Amplified WOM occurs when marketers launch and stimulate WOM communication
between consumer circles and networks, either through discussion forum or
electronically over the internet and web pages.
• If the company that manufactures initiates and encourage discussion amongst the users
and non-users on social media platforms and discussion forums, it is amplified WOM.
• WOM communication takes place both pre- and post-purchase.
Dynamics of word-of-mouth communication
• The importance of WOM arises from its effect on actual and potential buyers.
• Positive WOM leads to increase in purchases from existing customers and prospectives ones,
whereas a negative WOM can lead to reduction in sales.
• Through WOM, people inform and influence each other.
• Unlike advertisements through mass media, WOM is bi-directional and interactive.
• By sharing knowledge about the product category or brands, people inform and educate each
other, and by providing advice, opinion, and discussing experiences, they influence each other.
• This can also be related to the five stages of the adoption process; Information helps create
awareness and interest whereas advice, opinion, and experience sharing help in the stages of
evaluation, trial and adoption.
• The message or information may comprise three constituent, namely product news, advice, and
personal experience.
Product news:
• It is any information that a consumer gathers during his search for information.
• This information is often used to generate evaluative criteria and application of decision rules.
Cont.
Advice
• As people communicate informally with family, friends, peers, opinion leaders, and even strangers, they hear
of the personal experiences of others.
• They are also exposed to statements that reflects personal attitude, views and about alternative products or
brands.
• Putting together all these forms performs as advice component.
Personal experience
• Personal experience refers to experiences of good or service usage.
• While people gain information through product news (cognition) and advice (cognition and affect), they
often supplement their purchase decisions and purchase action (behavior) with personal experience of
others.
• Consumer seek information from marketer and non-marketer sources in the form of informal sources of
communication.
• They make purchase decisions based on personal experiences and hearsay of others.
• They talk to each other about their experiences with companies, products, services, brands and stores.
• Therefore, it is important to exceed the customer expectations, as a satisfied customer shows increased
likelihood of becoming brand loyal.
Electronic word of mouth
• The development of Web 2.0 has provided to us huge opportunities for obtaining and sharing
information.
• WOM no longer remains confined to a face-to-face interaction, but goes much beyond as digital
or e-WOM.
• People today seek information and advice online. They share information and advice through
(EMC) Electronically Mediated Channels.
• EMC differs from traditional face-to-face communication in several ways.
• Face-to-face conversations are personal, and people must be near each other to be seen and
heard. There are limits of distance, which is not the case in EMC.
• Face-to-face conversations are instant and synchronous, whereas EMC is asynchronous.
• In face-to-face conversations, there is no place for anonymity, but in EMC, particularly in the case
of emails, blogs and reviews, people can maintain anonymity.
• Face-to-face communication makes use of both verbal and non-verbal means. In EMC, non-verbal
cues may be absent.
• Electronic-WOM includes blogs, reviews, chats, and all forms of marketing including social media
marketing.
Cont.
• E-WOM is instantaneous and helps disseminate people’s perception about companies, goods and
services, and brands exponentially.
• In e-WOM communication, consumers share information instantly and simultaneously with
multiple recipients across the world.
• Through e-WOM, consumers spread worldwide are more connected to each other and sharing of
information advice, and experiences is easier and quicker, and can happen anytime.
• Information is more readily available and can be easily retrieved for people to read and share.
• Information on the internet is archived and always available.
• The impact of e-WOM can be analyzed through its volume, valence and variance.
• Volume refers to the number of posts and comments that something receives.
• Valence refers to the average rating of something and the number of different kinds of reviews
and comments that are posted.
• Variance is analysed in the form of the statistical variance of the reviews and the comments
through e-mails, instant messaging, blogs, newsgroups, discussion forums, product review sites
and neutral third-party websites.
• Online product reviews, recommendations and other user comments are regarded highly valuable.
Cont.
• There has been a rise in the growth of online communities. People use the internet to
gain and share information and interact with each other.
• Such online communities are also referred to as virtual communities and comprise
people who discuss areas of common interest using the internet as platform.
• Virtual communities comprise groups of people who are interested in a good or service
category, and love to read and discuss it over electronic platform.
• Virtual communities cut across physical locations and not constrained by time.
• Web communities such as e-WOM blogs and tweets are regarded as credible.
• People access e-WOM as it decreases their time and effort to search for information and
take decision.
• Positive comment posted on such platforms help them to reinforce their purchase
decision, generate more confidence, and reduce cognitive dissonance.
• Thus, web communities also influence consumer decision-making and buying and
consumption behavior.
Word-of-mouth communication, opinion leaders, and opinion leadership.

• When people communicate with each other in a purchase decision-making situation, one
of the person who indulge in informal product-related communication usually provides
information about a good or product category, in terms of what it is , whether it would
be useful to buy, how it would be used, and so on.
• He also offers advice as to which of several brands is the best.
• From where it should be bought.
• He would be able to directly or indirectly influence the attitude and purchase decision of
others.
• This person is known as the opinion leader and the process is known as opinion
leadership.
• Opinion leadership refers to the degree to which one person influences the behaviors of
others.
• Rogers (1961) defines opinion leaders as ‘those individuals to whom others turn for
advice and information’.
• He defines opinion leadership as ‘the degree to which an individual is able to influence
other individual’s attitude to overt behaviour informally in a desired way (Rogers, 2003).
Cont.
• Rogers has proposed that opinion leaders possess three characteristics, namely high
social participation, high social status, and high social responsibility.
• Opinion leaders exert direct or indirect influence over others.
• They influence other’s people attitude and behaviors either face-to- face as opinions,
and over the internet, as e-opinions or e pinions.
• The people who form the audience and listen to him are called opinion receivers.
• When opinion leaders provide advice and information only when asked by the people
such people are called opinion seekers. Individuals seek information on their own.
• The opinion leadership process is a two-way exchange of information, and both opinion
leaders and opinion receivers/seekers interact with each other.
• Opinion leaders provide the receivers/seekers with product information, advice, and
share with them their experiences. In return for this, they gather more information and
get to know the opinion and personal experiences from the receivers/seekers.
Motives Behind Opinion Leadership
• Both opinion leaders and opinion receivers/seekers have their own motives for providing
information and receiving/seeking product information and advice.
• Some of the reasons why opinion leaders provide information and why opinion
receivers/seekers receive or seek information and advice are:
Why do opinion leaders provide information?
i) This is because they are involved and interested in a good or service category, and
love to talk about it.
ii) They are also interested in sharing their satisfying and dissatisfying experiences and
influencing others.
iii) WOM communication gives to opinion leaders an opportunity to talk about their
interests to others.
iv) Opinion leaders may feel so positively and favorably, or negatively and unfavorably
about a product/brand that they feel like telling about it to others (product
involvement, self-involvement and social involvement).
v) It confers upon them a sense of superiority or special position and status over others.
Cont.
vi) It provides to them a feeling of being unique and distinctive and so they take pride in
providing information and advice (self-gratification, power and pride).
vii) Opinion leaders may have concern for others, and be genuinely benevolent and
generous.
Interestingly, opinion leaders may also provide information as they
a) May want to try out a new good or service offering after someone else buys and uses
it first;
b) May themselves be trying to reassure themselves of their own purchase decision by
recommending it to others, and thereby reducing their post-purchase cognitive
dissonance (dissonance reduction);
c) May be dissatisfied with a purchase and like to complain about the purchase of the
good and service/brand/company/store from where it has been purchased, and
spread negative WOM.