奖励顾客推荐：奖励类型对推荐可能性的影响

【作者】 王如意；

【导师】 蒋青云；

【作者基本信息】 复旦大学 ， 市场营销， 2010， 硕士

【摘要】 消费者的口碑价值正日益受到企业的重视,有学者提出将口碑营销作为一种新的营销组合。近年来,企业界已经引进了一些正式的客户推荐计划,通过对现有顾客进行奖励的方式来鼓励他们向其他消费者做出推荐,从而一定程度上影响和控制消费者的口碑。越来越多的企业通过这种方式来利用现有顾客的人际网络来推广企业的产品和服务,吸引新顾客。包括宝洁、荷兰银行、德意志银行、宝马、佳能、中国联通在内的知名企业都引进了类似推荐计划。然而,尽管营销人员对推荐奖励计划广为认可,但关于这类计划的学术研究却较为缺乏。本文的研究目的正是在于探讨不同的奖励物类型(金钱刺激vs.礼物刺激)对社会成本、社会收益以及推荐可能性的影响,并考察品牌强度(强品牌vs.弱品牌)和关系强度(强关系vs.弱关系)的调节作用。通过设计一个2×2×2组间因子实验,我们发现：1)尽管我们没有发现奖励类型对推荐可能性的直接作用,但奖励类型对社会成本具有显著影响。当奖励为金钱的情况下,消费者的社会成本显著高于奖励为礼物的情况。2)品牌强度对消费者的推荐有重大的影响,消费者对强品牌的推荐可能性更高,在推荐强品牌后,人们的社会成本更低,社会收益更高。3)关系强度对社会成本和推荐可能性具有显著影响。消费者向强关系的推荐可能性更高,同时在向强关系推荐后,人们的社会成本更低。本研究还发现,推荐可能性会受到奖励类型和品牌强度的调节作用的影响。对强品牌而言,奖励为礼物或金钱带来的推荐可能性的变化不显著,而对于弱品牌而言,与奖励为金钱时相比,奖励为礼物时消费者的推荐可能性得到显著提高。同时,奖励类型对社会成本的影响受到关系强度的调节。对于推荐者和被推荐者为强关系的情况,相对于礼物奖励而言,金钱奖励带来的社会成本显著较高。最后,我们对研究意义及其在管理实践上的应用进行了讨论,并提出了本文的研究局限以及未来的研究方向。更多还原

【Abstract】 The value of word of mouth (WOM) is increasingly recognized by firms, and some scholars have proposed it as a new marketing mix. In recent years, some firms have introduced formal client referral programs and provide rewards to existing customers to encourage them to make recommendations to others. As reward programs allow firms to influence and control consumers’word of mouth, more and more firms try to use this method to leverage existing customers’network to promote firms’products and services and attract new customers. Many well established companies, including P & G, ABN AMRO, DBS, BMW, Canon and ChinaUnicom, and some small and medium enterprises have already introduced such programs.However, although marketers strongly promoted referral reward programs, academic research seems comparatively scarce in this arena. The purpose of this research is to explore how different reward types influences customers’ referral likelihood and their psychological effect after recommendation. At the same time, we examine the moderating effect of brand strength (strong vs. weak) and tie strength (strong tie vs. weak tie).Through a 2×2×2 between subjects experimental design, we found that: first, reward type has significant influence toward social cost although we did not find its direct effect toward referral likelihood. Customers’perceived social cost is significantly higher when reward is money rather than gift. Second, brand strength is an extremely important variable that would impact consumers’referral. Consumers are more likely to recommend a strong brand, and after recommending a strong brand versus a weak brand, consumers’social cost is lower and social benefit is higher. Third, tie strength has significant effect toward social cost and referral likelihood. Consumers are more likely to recommend strong tie and perceive lower social cost. Moreover, there exists an interactive effect of reward type and brand strength toward referral likelihood. For weak brands versus strong brands, referral likelihood will be significantly higher when the reward is gift rather than money. At the same time, the effect of reward type toward social cost is moderated by tie strength. Money reward leads to higher social cost compared with gift reward.This paper discusses theoretical contributions and managerial implications in the end and concludes with research limitations and future research directions.更多还原