The document discusses empowering consumer involvement in marketing to stimulate word-of-mouth advocacy. It presents a theoretical framework of "empowered involvement" adapted from theories of employee empowerment. Early experiments found that giving consumers control over advertising content increased word-of-mouth and brand promotion more than a control group. An ongoing study examines how empowering consumers through a brand blog impacts levels of empowerment and word-of-mouth behavior versus other community members. The conclusion is that actively involving and empowering consumers through marketing can support word-of-mouth by creating useful insights and a dialogue that reaches beyond directly engaged consumers.

1. Empowered Involvement, Word of Mouth and Brand Advocacy A Theoretical Framework and Case Studies

8. Focus of study Why do people listen, what makes them seek out WOM? The power of Word of Mouth – what it leads to when people receive it What makes people talk and spread WOM? What happens to the sender after spreading WOM? Nyilasy, 2005 main focus of study antecedents of WOM (causes) consequences of WOM (effects) unit of analysis receiver of communi- cation communicator (sender)

13. Stimulating involvement: “empowerment“

17. Theory: Empowered Involvement Psychological Empowerment: Meaning Competence Self-Determination Impact Locus of Control Self-esteem Access to Information Rewards Word of Mouth

19. Vote Locus of Control Self-esteem Access to Information Rewards

20. Before launch Did you talk to friends about Hubba Bubba in past 4 weeks? (yes/no) Paderborn: 5,0% (5 out of 101) Berlin: 5,1% (4 out of 78) Siegen: 8,4% (6 out of 72)

21. Post: Online questionnaire

23. Generating WOM: vs. Control Group Vote: Chi 2 emp (df=1) =63,48; p<0,001 Caution: slightly different questions!

24. Mean Promoter Score general: t (76) =-4,352; p<0,001 Max: t (76) =-4,086; p<0,001 2,58 3,26 3,35

25. Experiment vs. Control Group (post) Vote: t (149,9) =4,323; p<0,001

26. Promoter Score: pro vs. contra Ad? t (75) =0,078; p=0,938 3,26 3,20

27. Empirical testing: currently on-going Psychological Empowerment: Meaning Competence Self-Determination Impact Locus of Control Self-esteem Access to Information Rewards Word of Mouth

29. Blog launch project

30. PaybackBlog

34. Social Software reaches beyond the people it directly touches: We should also consider the Word of Mouth Effects of Empowered Involvement