An examination into the extent that word of mouth impacts on the buying decisions of
consumers with disabilities.
Leon Donegan
1267614
Kingston University Business School
MA Marketing Communication and Advertising
An examination into the extent that word of mouth impacts on the buying decisions of
consumers with disabilities
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Abstract Page
In the United Kingdom there are approximately 11.9 million people who are
categorised as having disabilities. Also, there is an established market of companies who
specialise in producing products and offering services to meet the needs of people with
disabilities. Despite of such an establish market and a sizeable potential customer base it is
still difficult for marketing practitioners to know how to reach this target audience more
effectively. Word of mouth (WOM hereafter) is known to be important when it comes to
marketing because when it is generated it can have an effect upon consumer behaviour and
purchasing decisions, therefore, is WOM influential enough to persuade people with
disabilities to purchase specialist product and services or not.
The purpose of this paper is to attempt to understand how WOM affects upon people
with disabilities in regards to their purchasing decisions of specialist products and services. In
order to achieve this there will be an attempt to discover the importance of WOM when
people with disabilities are purchasing specialist products and services, and also discovers the
different ways the people who different impairments receive WOM information. The main
methods employed to generate the results were: a chosen research approach of qualitative, the
population in the study was selected by the non-probability sampling method called
purposive sampling technique which is homogeneous sampling. The chosen data collection
method was to use Facebook for asynchronous communication by e-mailing participates the
interview over the platform. The chosen analytical approach was thematic analysis and then
axial coding which was followed by a deductive reasoning approach was used in order to
develop a hypothesis. The main themes to emerge from the data collected were: NWOM has
twice the impact on consumers’ decision making process, the respondents still would
possibly react negative to PWOM, WOM would have more effect than advertising, higher
trust placed in friends and the existing users of products/services over experts and
salespeople, respondents preferred to obtain WOM in the pre-purchasing phase of buying
products and services in order to reduce the risk of buying products or signing up to services,
high prices can evoke NWOM, market mavens with disabilities could spread WOM, the best
to access WOM was via electronic forms. The overall conclusion was that WOM was very
influential when people with disabilities are purchasing products and services.
An examination into the extent that word of mouth impacts on the buying decisions of
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Acknowledgements
I would, first of all, like to show my gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Eva Kasperova, who has
been a great mentor and have given me so much inspiration during my research.
I would also like to thank my family who have given me endless support and have always
shown belief in my abilities.
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Declaration
I declare that this dissertation is all my own work and the sources of information and material
I have used (including the internet) have been fully identified and properly acknowledged as
required.
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consumers with disabilities
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Statement of Word Count
This dissertation consists of 15973 words.
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consumers with disabilities
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Contents Page
Abstract Page ………………………………………………………………………………...1
Acknowledges ………………………………………………………………………………..2
Declaration ……………………………………………………………………………….......3
Statement of word count …………………………………………………………………….4
Chapter 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 10
1.1 Aims of the study ........................................................................................................... 13
1.2 Aim & Objectives........................................................................................................... 13
1.3 Research Question .......................................................................................................... 14
Chapter 2. Literature Review ............................................................................................... 15
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 155
Content ............................................................................................................................... 155
WOM on buying decisions ............................................................................................. 155
NWOM on buying decisions .......................................................................................... 233
PWOM on buying decisions ........................................................................................... 266
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 31
Chapter 3. Methodology ...................................................................................................... 333
Research Approach ......................................................................................................... 333
Data collection method ................................................................................................... 355
Analytical Approach ....................................................................................................... 377
Ethical Issues ...................................................................................................................... 388
Research Plan ..................................................................................................................... 399
Chapter 4. Analysis and Results ........................................................................................... 40
The results from the data - the themes… ........................................................................... 440
Chapter 5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 644
The summary of the conclusion ......................................................................................... 644
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An explanation of what was researched and how it was carried out .................................. 645
The main findings of the research ...................................................................................... 655
The original contribution and significance of this piece of research to the field ............... 688
Chapter 6. Limitations and further research .................................................................... 699
Limitations ......................................................................................................................... 699
Lack of prior research studies on the topic ..................................................................... 699
Self-reported data ........................................................................................................... 699
Further Research ................................................................................................................ 699
The unanticipated findings ............................................................................................. 699
The remaining unanswered questions and suggested research strategy ........................... 70
References:.............................................................................................................................. 72
Bibliography: ........................................................................................................................ 844
Appendices: ............................................................................................................................ 91
Appendix A -Sub-themes and Outliers ................................................................................ 91
Appendix B -The invitational letter to invite candidates to take part in the study and the
interview topic guide. ......................................................................................................... 971
Appendix C ...................................................................................................................... 1017
Management Report ......................................................................................................... 1017
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List of Figures
Figure 1. (Sweeney et al.2008: p. 358) gives an overall example of the way that WOM works
including all of the different aspects that can contribute to WOM activity. ………...............16
Figure 2. depicts Maslow’s adapted hierarchy of needs which includes the eighth level
“transcendence needs” i.e. “helping others to self-actualise” (Maslow, 1970). ………..........18
Figure 3. (Vazquez-Casielles et al. 2013) is a depiction of how interpersonal factors and non-
interpersonal impacts on the shift in receiver’s purchase probability. ………........................20
Figure 4. (Nielsen Newswire 2012) is a graph from the Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising
Survey that shows WOM to be the most trusted form of advertising globally by consumers.
.……….................……….................……….................……….... .……….................……...22
Figure 5. The Customer’s Loyalty Ladder by (Managing Service Quality 2000).
.……….................……….................……….................……….... .……….................……...24
Figure 6. (Mazzarol et al. 2007) depicts how triggers and conditions of the giver of WOM
can have an effect on the message, which inevitably has an effect on the receiver and the
outcome of the message. ................……….................……….................………...................28
Figure 7. (Lazarsfeld et al. 1948) is a depiction of Lazarsfeld et al.’s two-step hypothesis.
.……….................……….................……….................……….... .……….................……...30
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List of Tables
Table 1. This table shows the characteristics of the participants’ who contributed to the
primary data that was gathered. ..........……….................……….................………...............34
Table 2. This table shows how the literature from the review links to the questions in the
interview guide. ..........……….................……….................……….......................................40
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List of Abbreviations
ALT Assisted Living Technology
eALT Electronic Assisted Living Technology
NWOM Negative word-of-mouth
PPP pre-WOM probability of purchase
PWOM Positive word-of-mouth
WOM Word-of-mouth
WOMM Word-of-mouth marketing
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Chapter 1. Introduction, Aim & Objectives, and Research Question
___________________________________________________________________________
According to the inventor and also manufacturer of innovative healthcare and
disability products and living aids, Chris Buckingham, there are approximately 11.9 million
people living in the United Kingdom who are classed as having a limiting long-term illness,
impairment or disability. Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the
communication industry in the United Kingdom have the responsibility to provide
information on the experiences of consumers with disabilities to stakeholders under the
Communications Act 2003. The figure of people with disabilities living in the United
Kingdom is confirmed by the Government in the United Kingdom which states that “there are
over 11 million people with a limiting long term illness, impairment or disability” Family
Resources Survey (2013, no pagination).
It is noted that the market for disability aids in the United Kingdom is experiencing a
growth at a rapid rate in spite of the poor state of the economy. It was stated by Chris
Buckingham, who is also an Occupational Therapist and the founder and Managing Director
of Buckingham Healthcare, that there is still a high demand for products such as “mobility
scooters, stair lifts and other disability equipment” Buckingham (n.d. no pagination). One of
the reasons that Buckingham offers for the previous statement is that the disability aids
market is generally improving and there is a constant emergence of products that are more
sophisticated entering the market. It is predicted that the disability aids market will further
expand over the next decade, this has been helped by the government and the Office of Fair
Trading with the development of stricter regulations for this market (Buckingham n.d. no
pagination).
There are some key drivers within the disability marketing industry. Naidex is the
largest independent living exhibition in the United Kingdom that showcases all the latest
products on the market for people with disabilities and seminars are also held there. The
Naidex exhibition has been running for 40 years (Naidex 2014). Another key driver in the
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disability marketing industry is a flagship magazine in the United Kingdom (Able Magazine
2014).
Further research was conducted by Simon Fielding, who is Director of the Health
Design and Technology Institute at Coventry University, and was formerly a Consultant
Clinical Scientist specialising in the application of assistive technology at South Birmingham
Primary Care Trust. Fielding (n.d.) stated that there has been a strengthening in the consumer
market for assisted living technology, he says this stems from the late 1980s as consecutive
governments have been in support of people with health and social care needs to keep their
independence and remain living in their own homes for as long as they are able to do so.
Fielding (n.d.) suggests that this is achievable with the use of Assisted Living Technology
(ALT) and services that are designed to have a key role in supporting these people to realise
this goal. Moreover, Electronic Assisted Living Technology (eALT) offers even more new
opportunities as products and services have digital features that proves to be a great help to
people with health, well-being and social care needs (Fielding n.d.).
The purpose of this research project is to look at the marketing practice of word-of-
mouth (WOM hereafter), consumer behaviour and consumers with disabilities. To define the
meaning of disability, the Equality Act (2010, p. 4) states that “you’re disabled under the
Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and
‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities”.
According to Deet et al. (2007), WOM is a component that is important in a complex
and dynamic marketplace environment. Much research has illustrated that WOM is a highly
influential communication channel that is in the marketplace. Also word-of-mouth marketing
(WOMM hereafter) is viewed as a kind of marketing that promotes interpersonal
communication which is natural in highly diverse ways (Meiners et al. 2010). WOM was
clearly defined by Arndt (1967, 291) who says that it was “face-to-face communication about
a brand, product or service between people who are perceived as not having connections to a
commercial entity”, Womma (2008), who provide a communication management certificate
program to students, describes WOMM as providing people with a reason to talk about
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products and services, also developing platforms for people to converse with others with
more ease. They continue to say that “it is the art and science of building active, mutually
beneficial consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer communication” (Womma,
2008. no pagination).
Consumers are central to the practice of marketing, particularly in the way that the
consumers behave towards brands, products and services. Consumer behaviour enables
market practitioners develop an understanding in the way in which consumers make
decisions, understand their thought processes regarding how they think, feel and choose
products, brands and services over other competitors in the market. Also consumer behaviour
can be influenced by other factors such as the environment, family and friends, particular
reference groups, and salespeople etc. Engel et al. (1986, p. 5) defined consumer behaviour
as “those acts of individuals directly involved in obtaining, using, and disposing of economic
goods and services, including the decision processes that precede and determine these acts”.
There are many factors with the ability to influence consumers buying behaviour which are
“cultural, social, personal and psychological factors” (Brosekhan et al. n.d., p. 8). Marketers
cannot obtain control over these factors, however, they are still considered when attempting
to understand the complexity of the behaviours of consumers. Solomon (1995) defines
consumer behaviour as the study of the stages and these are involved when people or groups
chooses, buys, makes use of, or throws away products, services, notions or involvement to
gratify needs and desires.
Despite this large market for specialist products, there is a dearth of research in the
field of marketing on consumer behaviour of people with disabilities. The purpose of this
dissertation is to fill this gap.
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1.1 Aims of the study
The purpose of this study is to undertake research into the impact that WOM has on
the buying decisions of people with disabilities. There is a good amount of research on the
effects of WOM and also on the buying decision-making process of regular consumers,
however, there is very little research currently to be conducted on the effects of WOM on the
buying decisions of people with disabilities when it comes to purchasing specialist products
and using services that are designed specifically for that target audience.
Carrying out this piece of research would enable marketing practitioners to gain an
understanding of their target audience and specifically how they interact with and use WOM
techniques. As WOM techniques have evolved over the years with the introduction of the
internet and more recently social-networking websites, research is currently needed to
examine to what extent WOM has on the buying decisions of people with disabilities when
purchasing specialist products and using specialist services, as there is very little that is
published at the present moment in time. This dissertation project will endeavour to use the
existing research in WOM and consumers’ buying decisions as a platform, to ultimately gain
an understanding of consumers with disabilities and also understand how market practitioners
can encourage the likelihood of WOM spreading amongst this target audience.
1.2 Aim
To determine how word-of-mouth impacts upon people with disabilities regarding their
decision to buy a specialized product or service?
Objectives
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1. To examine how important WOM is when making a purchasing decision of specialist
products for consumers with disabilities?
2. To examine how people with different types of impairment receive WOM about specialist
products and services?
1.3 Research Question
To what extent does WOM impact on the purchasing decisions of people with disabilities?
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Chapter 2. Literature Review
___________________________________________________________________________
Introduction
The literature in this review will investigate the theory on the impact that WOM has on
consumer behaviour as a whole. Then the theory will be used to critically evaluate how
WOM can impact consumers with disabilities and their purchasing decisions. This topic is
important because it is unique and yet to be explored thoroughly. I have an interest in this
topic because I have a disability and therefore I use products and services that are marketed to
people with disabilities, and it is the reason why I am interested how people with disabilities
obtain information about the availability of products and services. The literature review
theory from a broad range of academic journals, including seminal papers, books and
websites. The information focuses on the different ways that consumers can use WOM in
order to obtain information about products and services with the view of making purchases.
This section will not cover any practical implications of WOM. The content will be set out in
three parts which are: WOM on buying decisions, negative word-of-mouth (NWOM
hereafter) on buying decisions, positive word-of-mouth (PWOM hereafter) on buying
decisions, finally it will end with a conclusion.
Content
WOM on buying decisions
In this first section of the literature review there will be a detailed description of what
WOM and the dynamics of how it works. Here will also include information on a number of
different aspects which contributes to how messages are passed from person to person. Also
an explanation will be made of what can be added to WOM messages, in order to make them
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more vivid and what adds to the credibility of WOM. What causes people to pass on
messages, within this the notions of market mavenism and also Maslow’s adapted hierarchy
of needs will be discussed. Some consideration will be made to investigate how WOM
happens online. A detailed look into the different relationships in terms of WOM and the
mechanics of them.
WOM has a snowball effect in that it can be given to one person and then it is passed
on to one other person or many people, alternatively many people can receive WOM and then
they could each pass it onto people that they have contact with which causes WOM to spread
further (Mazzarol et al. 2007). Nisbett and Ross, (1980, p. 45) made the point that
suggestions had been made that WOM was vivid because the information was strong as in
“emotionally interesting” and “imagery provoking” and “proximate in a sensory, temporal or
spatial way”. This description is rather technological which makes WOM sounds
complicated. However, Anderson (1998, pp. 5-17) described WOM as “vivid” and “novel”
experiences which can be pleasant and unfairly criticized when positive, and complaining
when it is negative. There are additional dimensions to WOM which are the notions of
PWOM and NWOM which will be discussed in great detail later on in the thesis.
Figure 1 (Sweeney et al. 2008: p. 358) gives an overall example of the way that WOM works,
including all of the different aspects that can contribute to WOM activity.
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Fig. 1 A suggested model of WOM from Sweeney et al. 2008: p. 358
According to East et al. (2007) the adoption of new categories of products or brand
choice can be determined by the amount of WOM activity that is generated. WOM activity
happens between a person to another person about a business’ or a service’s products.
Vazquez-Casielles et al. (2013) believed that for WOM messages to have credibility, it has to
have no connections with any commercial organisations. They go on to explain that the
activity of WOM is a conversation which has derived naturally between two people, “the
giver” who has knowledge of a product, and “the receiver” who requires the knowledge of
the product. It was found that one of the most triggers that causes WOM activity to happen is
the need for information from the receivers. Whether it is PWOM or NWOM, it is given to
address a query or a prompt that comes from givers in an attempt to help others. This was
essentially known as market mavenism which will be discussed in more depth later on
(Walsh et al. 2004). Maslow’s adapted hierarchy of needs supports this theory as the eighth
level is “transcendence needs” which is the need to help others achieve self-actualization.
The figure 2 depicts Maslow’s adapted hierarchy of needs which includes the eighth level
“transcendence needs” i.e. “helping others to self-actualise” (Maslow, 1970).
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Fig. 2 Maslow’s Adapted Hierarchy of Needs from (Maslow 1970)
Research conducted by Bickart and Schindler (2001) found that electronic word-of-
mouth (eWOM), related to consumers’ personal experiences and stories, is deemed to be
more credible and relevant compared to the information that businesses and organisations
generate themselves. Certain statistics of places where people attained advice showed that
“8% of the advice was Web mediated, 70% was face-to-face, and 19% was by telephone”
(Keller and Fay, 2006, pp. 31-41). However, these figures are only representative of the
population in general, research is needed to determine how specifically people with
disabilities attain advice because it has not been taken into account here. Disabled people are
bound to obtain WOM information differently to able-bodied people because of certain
impairments i.e. mobility, speech, deafness, blindness etc.
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It was noted by Engel et al. (1969) that WOM usually is passed between friends and
family because of the closeness of the relationship and the theory of “homophily” (Lazarsfeld
and Merton, 1954, pp. 18–66.) which means “love of the same”, this theory was confirmed by
(Gilly et al. 1998) who says that communication of information between a seeker and another
person have a great opportunity of taking place when they both are similar in aspects of
demographic characteristics (age, sex and education degree, etc.), values, preference, life
style etc. This theory can relate to the theory by Granovetter (1973, pp. 1360 – 1380) who
believed that the closer the relationship, i.e. family and friends to the consumer was classed
as “strong social ties” and the further and more distant people to the consumer i.e. associates
was classed as “weak social ties”. It could be argued that Granovetter’s theory does not take
into account experiences people with disabilities because close friends and family (strong
social ties) may not be knowledgeable about specialist products for people with disabilities
and therefore it may be best to seek advice from experts (weak social ties). As a result, they
are less likely to convey NWOM to people who they do not feel close to (Kowalski 1996;
Richins1984). This may be true for some disabled people, but there could be an argument that
other disabled people would want to let others know about the products and services that
have not worked for them to prevent other people from making the same purchasing mistakes
as they did.
Figure 3 (Vazquez-Casielles et al. 2013) is a depiction of how interpersonal factors and non-
interpersonal impacts on the shift in receiver’s purchase probability.
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Fig. 3 Factors Associated with Impact of Positive and Negative WOM on Shift in Receiver’s
Purchase Probability from Vazquez-Casielles et al. 2013: p. 46
One of the reasons that customers may engage in WOM activity is because of their
experiences with a product or service, if positive, then customers give praise, but if negative
then customers offer condemnation, very rarely do customers spread WOM that is neutral.
Harrison-Walker (2001) developed the two-construct model that could be used to measure
organisations’ WOM activity, specifically the frequency, number of people told and detail,
and also WOM praise which specifically looks at favourability and pride. It is said that
“praise” is very much like the concept of “valence”, however WOM valence can be positive,
neutral or negative (Mazzarol et al., 2006, p. 2). This piece of research showed that the most
common examples were extremely positive or extremely negative WOM. This was consistent
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with Anderson’s (1998) research. What is not addressed here is if the consumers are happy
with the products and services received, but do not spread any WOM. Sometimes people with
disabilities purchase products that assist them in doing mundane tasks which may not be a
cause for them to spread any kind of WOM, the prior research does not consider that there
may be a need for more research to determine the value of products and services for disabled
people, which do not generate any WOM activity.
Consumers are likely to consider WOM from fellow consumers as there is normally
nothing to be gained by these people. Murray (1991) says that consumers think about others’
opinions and experiences prior to making purchasing decisions and use it as a form of
protection from the unknown; this is thought to reduce the risk of making wrong or bad
purchasing decisions. Furthermore, over time there has been a growing distrust in advertising
communications which has caused consumers to seek information from other resources i.e.
WOM (Allsop, et al. 2007). Certain researchers (e.g. Bansal and Voyer, 2000; East, 2003;
Gremler, 1994), agree that when the receiver is actively seeking WOM then the information
attained is more effective. Murray (1991) says that consumers consider their personal sources
as more trustworthy. This behaviour is a result of how consumers evaluate their relationship
with people who they know, compared to their relationship with marketers and they conclude
that whilst the people they know are likely to consider their best interest, marketers are
seeking financial gain (Dichter, 1966). Consumers are not seen as having any financial
interest to give recommendations about products and services and this adds persuasion which
will have a positive influence on the receivers because communication from customer to
customer is more meaningful (Herr et al., 1991; Murray, 1991; Silverman, 2001). It could be
argued that it is a total different experience for people with disabilities in terms of the way
that products and services are advertised to them. Unlike for the able-bodied people who have
adverts coming at them from every different direction, people with disabilities do not and
therefore it would be difficult to say that disabled people have the same distrust in advertising
as able-bodied people do because the evidence does not support this claim.
Figure 4 (Nielsen Newswire 2012) is a graph from the Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising
Survey that shows WOM to be the most trusted form of advertising globally by consumers.
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Fig. 4 Nielsen Global Trust In Advertising Survey. Q3 2011 (Nielsen Newswire 2012)
As people with disabilities are heterogeneous, there are no guarantees that WOM activity will
happen because each person has a different need from products and services therefore the
research by Gilly et al. (1998) about there being a greater opportunity of WOM activity
taking place when consumers are similar in demographic characteristics and Granovetter’s
(1973, pp. 1360 – 1380) “strong social ties”, “weak social ties” theory show that these
theories can only be applied to consumers who are homogenous, however, this is not correct
because this theory could be applied to disabled people as their friends and family could be
classed as the “strong social ties” and the experts of the products and services could be
classed as the “weak social ties”.
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NWOM on buying decisions
In this second section of the literature review a reiteration of what NWOM will be
made and how it differs from PWOM with both able-bodied consumers and consumers with
disabilities. Some considerations will be made to determine whether NWOM has more
impact on able-bodied consumers and also consumers with disabilities compared to PWOM,
and why this might be the case. Some consideration will be made about what increases
customer loyalty and how this can contribute to PWOM to influence consumers’ friends,
family and peers. A discussion will happen on how consumers’ satisfaction levels may have
an influence on PWOM. Also, it will entail a detailed examination of the theory behind how
consumers form relationships with each other in order to pass on WOM. Then it will be
conversed how damaging NWOM is for businesses and services in general and how
damaging it could be for businesses and services for people with disabilities. Finally, in this
section the notion of risk will be debated in that the ways it can be reduced in order to limit
NWOM activity and also how this can be put in practiced by businesses and services for
people with disabilities.
It is thought that PWOM is a result of satisfaction and NWOM is a result of
dissatisfaction (e.g., Goldenberg, Libai, Moldovan, & Muller, 2007; Richins, 1983). In fact, it
was found that NWOM had twice as much impact on purchase decision-making than PWOM
(Arndt 1967). However, Fiske (1980) discovered that there was more availability of negative
information than positive information as it was found that positive information is assumed,
therefore negative information is deemed to be more useful (or diagnostic) and have a bigger
impact (Feldman and Lynch, 1988; Lynch, Marmorstein and Weigold, 1988). According to
East et al (2007), consumers that passed on less PWOM also passed on less NWOM and also
those who gave NWOM were mostly on smaller brands rather than the big main brands. It
could be argued that there is little evidence that has determined whether NWOM is more
impactful than PWOM with people with disabilities, though, considering that this market
relies heavily on WOM, the businesses and services have to maintain a good reputation to be
successful, as it is a good reputation that will drive the business.
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According to Christopher et al., (1991) it is important that businesses seek to satisfy
customers, as these customers have the potential to ultimately become loyal as they progress
up the loyalty ladder as depicted in the figure below.
Figure 5 The Customer’s Loyalty Ladder.
Fig. 5 The Customer’s Loyalty Ladder (Managing Service Quality 2000)
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(Westbrook 1987; Swan and Oliver 1989) reported that WOM came from satisfaction
levels and there was a correlation between the level PWOM and the consumers’ satisfaction
levels when they both increased. According to Buttle (1998) WOM has a higher importance
to the decision-making process when consumers are seeking to use a service compared to
buying products. It is regarded that consumers like to seek information from family, friends
and their peers rather than promotional material which is paid for by companies (Murray
1991). It could be argued that information is shared about the satisfaction and dissatisfaction
of products and services for people with disabilities which can be linked to three basic
components which are “cognitive”, “conative antecedents” or “affective reaction” according
to (Rust and Oliver. 1994; Giese and Cote, 2000), this means that consumers' reactions can
derive from a particular or a set of service encounters that are lengthy, which may lead to
intentions to repurchase making WOM distinct to loyalty (Dick and Basu, 1994, pp. 99-113;
Gremler and Brown, 1999, pp. 271-91).
In terms of the effects of NWOM Kroloff (1988) believed that written marketing
messages which are negative are four times as persuasive as messages which are positive.
East et al. (2007) found evidence that NWOM is more adjustable than PWOM when it comes
to market share. According to Atkins Limited (2010) the consumer market in the United
Kingdom consists of 10.6 million people, which is a customer base of 20% amounting to an
estimated combined annual spend of £80 billion. These figures support the notion that
businesses can be highly financially successful when marketing products and services to
people with disabilities. However, there does not appear to be much evidence that reveals
how damaging NWOM can be for these businesses and services, research needs to be
conducted into the evaluation stage of the purchase procedure.
To extend on risk, there are some key forms of risk that WOM is believed to reduce
which include “functional, time, financial, psychological and social” (Roselius, 1971, pp. 56 -
61; Settle and Alreck, 1989, pp. 34 - 40). Von Wangenheim and Bayo’n (2004) declared that
risk can be classed as functional or financial risk, which centres on products and
performance, financial loss and social or psychological risk, which focuses on the consumer
and considers results in the social environment which the consumers interact in. Consumers,
in general, may decide to trial a product at the pre-purchase stage as another measurement to
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reduce the risk, but this is not possible when consumers are going to use a service, unless
they offer a trial period (Berry, 1980; Zeithaml, 1981; Zeithaml et al., 1985).
PWOM on buying decisions
In this final section of the literature review the difficulties in measuring WOM will be
discussed and how this was overcome by researchers measuring the probability of purchase
as a result of WOM. Then a detailed examination into how researchers actually perform the
technique will be accessed. A number of theories will be looked at to try to determine what
makes consumers convey NWOM. It will also be debated how the price of products or
service can generate both PWOM and NWOM. A detailed look into what can trigger PWOM
and NWOM among consumers. Finally, research which supports the effectiveness of market
mavenism will be discussed and then some suggestion how this technique may affect
consumers with disabilities.
Hovland (1948) established that it was most difficult to study the receiver of WOM
and their responses, later Hovland and Weiss (1951) discovered that this was because there
was a difficulty in measuring and controlling such activity. It concerns the expectations of the
receiver, if they do not receive the advice expected because it is not the same as the values of
the giver, the receiver will dislike and in turn, dismiss the WOM. The same will occur if the
receiver gets a lukewarm recommendation when they were expecting a strong one, this
relates to “damning with faint praise”, the WOM is still positive but it is communicated in a
manner which evokes the uncertainty from the receiver. However, much later it was found
that to successfully measure the probability of purchase as a result of WOM, researchers had
to measure the impact of WOM as a shift in the stated probability of purchase. The way that
this was achieved was if the PPP (pre-WOM probability of purchase) is below 0.5 there is
room to change in response to NWOM. If the PPP is 0.4, PWOM can have maximum effect
of 0.6 (up to unity), compare to NWOM that has the maximum effect of 0.4 (down to zero)
(East et al. 2008). According to Laczniak et al. (2001) consumers occasionally reacted
negatively towards received advice, and some did the total opposite and went as far as
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becoming even more committed to a particular brand after they received the NWOM. These
findings can be linked to Brehm (1966) reactance theory which implies that reactance is a
state of arousal that has a positive effect on the up keeping of self-determination when it is
what the consumers want to do. Therefore PWOM can arouse caution if it is not received
from a trusted source. As it can be seen here the later research from East et al. (2008) built
upon the research from Hovland (1948) and also Hovland and Weiss (1951) however, when it
comes to people with disabilities, there could be other factors which may affect whether or
not WOM activity affects their buying decisions which may include whether or not the
products and services is suitable for them amongst others.
The price of products has a major impact on whether the WOM generated is positive
or negative. Research showed that the higher the price, the more chance that NWOM would
spread if the products fail to satisfy customers (Richins 1983, 1987). This is because
consumers are seeking to receive a return on the money. Moreover, Engel et al (1969) found
that there were emotional responses from consumers towards products and service
performance which generated WOM. From this evidence it can be seen that it is the
combination of price and emotion which encourages WOM activity, however this research
does not take into account people with disabilities. For the market for people with disabilities
the prices are higher for products and services in comparison to products and services for
able-bodied people, therefore more research needs to be carried out to determine the extent
that the prices of products and services has on disabled people and whether this generates
NWOM.
NWOM also derives from experiences that are outstanding, however, these
experiences are bad ones. Gremler and Brown (1999) found evidence which indicates that
there are a series of motivations (triggers), personal and situational conditions which has the
potential to lead to WOM activity. These findings can be used as mediators of the service
evaluation, which was that WOM encouraged consumers to convey their views of high or
low levels of satisfaction or evaluation of service. Promotional activity can be classed as a
WOM trigger, though studies show that this is greatly associated with negative advertising
that is however highly memorable (Mazzarol 2007). It could be argued that it would be more
likely that product and service quality would be more of a trigger for people with disabilities
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to spread WOM rather than promotional activity even though more research is needed to
confirm this. With a market which has such specialised products, it could be to argue the case
that businesses have to keep customers’ service levels high to encourage consumers to
repurchase and spread PWOM.
Figure 6 (Mazzarol et al. 2007) depicts how triggers and conditions of the giver of WOM can
have an effect on the message, which inevitably has an effect on the receiver and the outcome
of the message.
Fig. 6 A suggested word of mouth model from Mazzarol et al. 2007: p. 1489
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Lazarsfeld et al.’s (1948) two-step hypothesis is used by marketers which use opinion
leaders to communicate with their peers to influence their attitudes and behaviour. Katz and
Lazarsfeld (1955) research found that interpersonal communication has a role in the influence
of opinions and this is in agreement with other sociologists that note the importance of
“opinion leaders” in such a process. In the 1980s, this concept developed and the opinion
leaders were known by the term “market mavens” who are people who advise others of new
products, services and places to shop (Feick and Price, 1987; Higie et al., 1987). These pieces
of research does not access whether or not it would be beneficial for marketers to use market
mavens to market products and services to people with disabilities, these potential findings
could see a new avenue which marketers can explore when marketing products and services
to people with disabilities.
Figure 7 (Lazarsfeld et al. 1948) is a depiction of Lazarsfeld et al.’s two-step hypothesis.
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Fig. 7 Two Step Flow Model from Lazarsfeld et al.’s 1948 (University of Twente 2014).
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Conclusion
This comprehensive review of the literature has outlined the components of WOM
including a detailed examination of PWOM and also NWOM. The data in this review should
be taken with caution as there are limitations which will be addressed in the methodology
section of the dissertation. A criticism of the literature is that it focuses on able-bodied people
and does not take into account how different the decision making process is for people with
disabilities and the major role that WOM plays in this. Gremler and Brown’s (1999),
findings on the series of motivations (triggers), personal and situational conditions would be
key areas of research to do a further assessment, in order to discover the impact of WOM on
buying decisions for people with disabilities. Therefore, many questions remain that still need
to be addressed. Questions such as: how do people with disabilities attain and use WOM also
how effective is it, do people with disabilities seek information from experts, what source do
people with disabilities most trust etc. Granovetter’s (1973), “strong social ties” and “weak
social ties” theory can be applied to this target audience, however it needs to be determined
whether people with disabilities mostly trust the advice of their friends and family or do they
mostly trust more distant consumers or experts who may be more knowledgeable in this area.
Another unanswered question is whether the research by (Kowalski 1996; Leary and
Kowalski 1990; Richins 1984) about image-impairment concerns affects people with
disabilities opinions of products that are designed for this target market and whether this
affects the WOM activity. Also do these image-impairment concerns have any effect on the
adoption of new categories of products or brand choice for people with disabilities as the
WOM received may be different to what was expected (East et al. 2007). As social
networking have become a part of many people’s daily lives further research is needed to
understand how marketers can use this to generate WOM amongst people with disabilities.
More research is required in order to determine whether NWOM has twice as much effect on
people with disabilities as it was found to have on able-bodied people (Arndt 1967). Also,
further research should happen to establish what the sources are that are relied upon by
people with disabilities for WOM information, is it family, friends and their peers rather than
promotional material (Murray 1991). It would be worth investigating if poor service
performances encourages consumers with disabilities, who have long-term contracts, to
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spread NWOM to other people with disabilities when their satisfaction levels are low and
whether this changes to PWOM when satisfaction levels are high (Westbrook 1987; Swan
and Oliver 1989). It was established that consumers seek information from people with
similarities to themselves, however it also need to be established whether this applies to
people with disabilities (Glaister 1974). An investigation is required to seek whether three
basic components being “cognitive”, “conative antecedents” and “affective reaction” causes
people with disabilities to make repurchases of products and services causing them to become
loyal customers, and this would encourage them to spread WOM to others (Dick and Basu,
1994, pp. 99-113; Rust and Oliver. 1994; Gremler and Brown, 1999, pp. 271-91; Giese and
Cote, 2000). Lastly, further research should be performed into what occurs when people with
disabilities receive WOM that is lukewarm, also referred to as “damming with faint praise”, it
needs to be determine whether or not this has any effects on them passing it onto other
disabled people.
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Chapter 3. Methodology
___________________________________________________________________________
In this chapter there will be an explanation of the stages that have been undertaken to
obtain the primary research which was needed in order to answer the research question. There
will be a full and detailed rationale of the chosen research approach, sampling plan,
population, sampling method, sample size and data acquisition which will be used for this
study. A consideration of which analytical approach will be taken, the advantages and
disadvantages of choosing one approach over another and reasons why the chosen one is the
best for this particular study.
Research Approach
The chosen research approach to study this subject was qualitative as there was a need
to learn more about how people with disabilities experience with WOM. A qualitative
approach is widely used when not much is known about a topic or phenomenon and is used
when researchers want to explore and understand more about them. On the other hand, a
quantitative approach is widely used by researchers, the confirmatory scientific method,
meaning the focus of this method is to test hypotheses with empirical data in an effort to see
if they are supported. In my opinion a qualitative approach obtained an insight from the
unique perspective from the consumers with disabilities and their viewpoint of the extent that
WOM affects their buying decisions, as Weber (1968) mentioned that qualitative research is
an idea of understanding something from another person’s viewpoint. Also, as the subject of
the study was about people interacting with other people in actual situations, there was a
feeling that a qualitative approach was right for this study. This statement is aligned with the
beliefs of Guba and Lincoln (1989) which was that reality is socially constructed.
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Selection of Participants
Below is a table of the participants’ characteristics.
Participant Age Gender Disability
1 24 Female Cerebral Palsy
2 30 Male Cerebral Palsy
3 29 Female Generalised
Muscular Dystonia
and associated
conditions
4 24 Female Cerebral Palsy
5 35 Male Multiple Sclerosis
6 29 Male Cerebral Palsy
7 30 Male Cerebral Palsy
8 30 Male Cerebral Palsy
9 25 Female Dyslexia
10 27 Male Cerebral Palsy
(with epilepsy)
11 26 – 30 Male Cerebral Palsy,
dyslexia learning
difficulties, a mental
health condition
12 29 Male Cerebral Palsy
13 27 Male Muscular Dystrophy
The selection of participants had consisted of people with disabilities aged 18 to 35
from the United Kingdom. As the core subject of the study was disability and the respondents
from the interviews all had physical disabilities, the population has been selected by a
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purposive sampling technique called homogenous sampling which is non-probability
sampling method. Patton (1990, p. 169) explains that the key component that makes
purposeful sampling both logical and powerful is the selection of “formation-rich cases” to
perform in-depth studies on. Customers with disabilities are a heterogeneous audience as
each customer processes different needs from products and services. Also, customers with
disabilities fall into different marketing demographic categories, i.e. age, gender, income
level, race and ethnicity. This is confirmed by Franke and von Hippel (2003, p. 2) who said
that “customers for a given type of product and service can have needs that quite
heterogeneous”.
As the required respondents are from a niche audience, the sampling method that has
been used was to initially identify the participants and then contact the via the social network
website Facebook using asynchronous communication by e-mailing the interview to them on
this platform, the participants were my friends and acquaintances who have disabilities. The
plan was to email as many participants until enough responses received. The number of
participants in this study consisted of thirteen respondents who would contribute data by
taking part in e-mail interviews. The rationale behind the number of respondents was that it
would be sufficient enough to create a large amount of data which is required in order to
arrive at a definitive conclusion.
Data collection method
E-mail Interviewing
Coomber (1997) states that one of the advantages of e-mail interviewing is the
asynchronous communications of place, which was beneficial to this study as the participants
was selected from all over the United Kingdom and therefore e-mail interviews eliminated
the issue of having to meet up with them which would have been rather time consuming and
very expensive.
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I have a disability called Cerebral Palsy and affects me as I have involuntary
movements which in turn affects the control that I have over my body when attempting to
complete tasks. My disability also affects the quality of my speech. Due to my disability, it
would take a longer period of time to complete an e-mail interview because of the
involuntary movements and also because I have poor speech and therefore I am unable to
dictate to another person what I would like to type thus it takes longer to complete typing
tasks. I also have specialist adapted equipment which includes a mini keyboard with a
keyguard and a joystick; these pieces of equipment enable me to use a standard PC. As there
may be issues with communication between some of the participants and myself due to our
disabilities, e-mail interviewing would eradicate any difficulties which may have arisen. A
major benefit in the use of e-mail interviews for this particular research was that due to the
participants’ disabilities they may have required a longer amount of time to respond to the
questions and also they were able to use any specialist equipment needed to take part in the
interview therefore it was best to allow the participants to do the interview at a place and time
that is the most convenient for them. Also, as they typed the responses to the interview
questions themselves it saved me a lot of time as there was not any need to type out what the
respondents had said.
Conducting e-mail interviews were much cheaper than doing face-to-face interviews
as there were no travel costs and no travelling which save on time as well. However, there
was a danger with this because the respondents were unsupervised thus they may have had
some difficulties in answering the questions or may have taken a long time to answer the
questions and also there is a chance that the respondents may have failed to answer the
questions at all (Kivits 2005). These issues were overcome by suggesting that the participants
got help to participate in the interview and it was imperative that there was enough time for
the participants to answer the questions so they did not feel under pressure. This reduced the
risk of the participants being hesitant to provide answers that they felt required instead of
what they truly believed. The option to use the e-mail interviewing technique reduced the
chance for the respondents to complete the interviews quickly as they had more time to
consider how they would answer the questions. However, for this study, it may be beneficial
that the respondents did have a long time to give their answers because they needed time to
reflect upon their previous buying decisions. An e-mail interview had the advantage over
face-to-face interviews in the fact that a dialogue could be developed to get more
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information, butt the respondents did not have the pressures of providing immediate answers
(Bampton and Cowton, 2002; Kivits, 2005). When receiving back the e-mail interviews from
some of the respondents the opportunities were taken to ask further questions to obtain even
deeper information by creating a dialogue with them.
Even though there was a disadvantage of not having the social cues in e-mail
interviews, this was somewhat overcome by the use of emoticons (Opdenakker 2006). It was
beneficial to ask the respondents in this study to use emoticons because it was direct evidence
from them on what emotions they had behind the responses which they gave.
Analytical Approach
The chosen analytical approach was thematic analysis, which, in the field of research,
is thought to be the simplest and common way of analysing qualitative data. The approach
enables researchers to transfer their analysis from reading the data broadly and then to move
towards the discovery of patterns and the development of themes. This approach is
commonly used in order for researchers to get close to the data in order to develop a deeper
appreciation of the information which is within the data, the data can then be sorted, as Braun
and Clarke (2006, p. 82) explains “a theme captures something important about the data in
relation to the research question and represents some level of patterned response or meaning
within the data set.”
In order to determine the themes of the research, first researchers must sort the items
into proto-themes by organising items from the emerging themes and relate them to similar
topics transforming them into categories. Next an examination was performed to determine
how information was assigned to each proto-theme in an attempt to evaluate the current
meaning of the proto-theme. Then a name, which is provisional, and also a flexible definition
can be created and assigned to each emerging theme, as Boyatzis (1998 p. vii) explains, “this
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may be a list of themes, a complex model with themes, indicators, and qualifications that are
causally related; or something in between these two forms”
The next stage is to do axial coding which, entails looking back over the data to re-examine
each theme separately to see if they relate to the original data and to ensure that the data is
not contradictory, thus the researcher develops "codes," words or phrases that serve as labels
for sections of data.
A deductive reasoning approach was used in order to develop a hypothesis. This
approach enabled me to find the most common links between the theory and the research.
Bryman and Bell (2011, p. 11) says that this approach works …”on the basis of what is
known about a particular domain and of theoretical considerations in relation to that domain,
deduces a hypothesis (or hypotheses) that must then be subjected to empirical scrutiny”. The
secondary research which I am enabling me to produce hypotheses to be tested on the
participants in my study. Bryman and Bell (2011, p. 11) also explain that “theory and the
hypothesis deduced from it come first and drive the process of gathering data”. The overall
goal was to generate a theory that answered the research question by finding a relationship
between various constructs or emergent ideas. This generated information about the types of
products in question which improves people with disabilities lives and that able-bodied
people do not need to buy. For instance products such as wheelchairs, adapted vehicles,
specialist software and hardware, etc. The data was analysed with the use of the computer
software program Nvivo.
Ethical Issues
The ethical issues which were apparent were with the use of Facebook to collect data
for research purposes and also the benefits of the research. The key thing to do was to make it
clear to all participants that by taking part in the email interviews, they were giving their
consent to the data received to be used for research purposes. Attaining the participants
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consent was done by asking for it at the beginning of the interviews. A major consideration
was to make sure that the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants were upheld. This
was achieved by the participants by having direct conversations with me over Facebook then
the raw data was saved onto my external hard drive. The participants were not asked to put
their names on the interview forms which made sure that they remained anonymous.
Research Plan
May/June
Start writing the research proposal including introduction and background, literature
review, research aim and objectives and also methodology. Send a draft to my supervisor
for feedback.
July/August
Complete the research proposal and then conduct a pilot study. Send a draft to my
supervisor for feedback.
August/September
Make the necessary changes to the data collecting instrument and send a draft to my
supervisor for feedback. Commence with data collecting when I receive approval from my
supervisor.
September/October
Commerce with data analysing and recording the results.
October/November
Write the dissertation conclusion and management report.
November/December/January
Assemble dissertation, proofing/checking and submission.
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Chapter 4. Analysis and Results
___________________________________________________________________________
This table shows how the literature links to the questions in the interview guide.
Propositions Questions Related Sources
What causes people with
disabilities to spread WOM?
Can you tell me what would
make you tell other people
about products or services?
(Mazzarol et al. 2007)
Gremler and Brown (1999)
How effective is eWOM
with consumers with
disabilities?
In what ways do you engage
with and share electronic
word-of-mouth?
(Keller and Fay, 2006)
What is the most trusted
source for people with
disabilities regarding WOM,
friends and family (strong
ties) or experts (weak ties)?
When it comes to word-of-
mouth whose information do
you trust the most, your
friends or family, or the
experts who is selling the
products? Please explain
why?
(Gilly et al. 1998)
Granovetter (1973)
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What are the effects of high
prices of products regarding
WOM activity amongst
consumers with disabilities?
Does the high prices of
products which are
specifically made for people
with disabilities affect
whether you pass the
information onto other
people? Please explain why?
(Richins 1983, 1987)
To what extent does risk
influence WOM activity for
consumers with disabilities?
Do you use word-of-mouth
to reduce the risk when
purchasing these specific
products? Please explain
why you do or do not use
WOM to reduce risk?
(Roselius, 1971; Settle and
Alreck, 1989)
von Wangenheim and
Bayo’n (2004)
Roselius, (1971)
(Bone 1995)
(Dichter, 1966)
Which has the higher impact
on consumers with
disabilities, PWOM or
NWOM?
When purchasing specialist
products do you tend to
react more to positive word-
of-mouth or negative word-
of-mouth? Please explain
why?
Arndt (1967)
Fiske (1980)
(Feldman & Lynch, 1988;
Lynch, Marmorstein, &
Weigold, 1988)
(East et al. 2007)
Kroloff (1988)
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Does WOM have a higher
effect on people’s with
disabilities than what
advertising does?
When purchasing specialist
products do you tend to
react to word-of-mouth or
advertising? Explain your
reasoning?
Sheth (1971)
Day (1971)
(Hogan et al. 2004)
Does WOM have a bigger
importance for consumers
with disabilities when they
are seeking to use a service
rather than when buying a
product?
Do you tend to seek word-
of-mouth more when you
are seeking a service to use
than when you are buying a
product? Please explain
why?
(Litvin et al., 2008; Trusov,
Bucklin, and Pauwels, 2009)
Would consumers with
disabilities benefit from trial
periods when purchasing
specialist equipment?
Would you like an
automatic option to trial
products for a period of time
before making a purchase?
How would this be a benefit
to you?
(Berry, 1980; Zeithaml,
1981; Zeithaml et al., 1985)
Which aspect of WOM is
most engaging for people
with disabilities: “the
message’s depth, intensity,
and vividness“, “highly
evocative words or phrases”,
“pleasurable, social and
humorous experiences for
both the giver and
receiver”?
What aspect of word-of-
mouth most makes you want
to engage with it: if the
message is deep, strong, and
attractive; if there is a lot of
suggestive words or phrases;
or if the experience between
you and the giver is
pleasurable, social,
humorous etc? Please
comment:
(Mazzarol, et al. 2006)
Anderson (1998)
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Does WOM have a strong
influence on “value ratings”
and does this leads to the
“likelihood of purchase” for
consumers with disabilities?
Do you give value ratings to
brands and services? Please
explain how value ratings
affect the decision to buy a
product of use a service?
Arndt (1967)
Is WOM most important for
consumers with disabilities
in the final stages of
purchase?
Please explain when you
would consider word-of-
mouth to be most important
when making a purchase?
Martilla (1971)
Kotler and Armstrong
(2012)
Khalid et al. (2013)
(Schiffman and Kanuk,
2010)
Does NWOM prevent
people with disabilities from
purchasing products?
Please explain how negative
word-of-mouth affects you
when making a purchase?
Hovland (1948)
Hovland and Weiss (1951)
To what extent do emotions
generate WOM activity
towards products and
services performance
between consumers with
disabilities?
Would you agree that your
emotions would drive you to
generate word-of-mouth
activity in regards to
products and service
performance? Please explain
why?
Engel et al. (1969)
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Would people with
disabilities benefit from
“market mavens”?
How would you benefit
from people with disabilities
who are in the media
spotlight relying information
about the availability and
quality of products and
services that are on the
market?
Lazarsfeld et al. (1948)
Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955)
(Feick and Price, 1987;
Higie et al., 1987)
Walsh et al. (2004)
The results from the data - the themes and sub-themes
The themes of significance in the responses:
Advantages of WOM:
WOM is more effective than advertising:
Seven respondents thought that WOM was more effective than advertising when it
came to specialised equipment and services. Some of the things mentioned was that WOM is
more engaging than advertising because WOM results from conversations between people,
whereas advertising is just a one-way process which is easier to avoid and not pay any
attention to which is in agreement with the research by Allsop et al. who found that
consumers began to distrust advertising over a period of time, causing them to seek
information via WOM. Engaging with WOM was also focal to the research of (Bansal and
Voyer, 2000; East, 2003; Gremler, 1994) who found that when WOM was sought for and
engaged in then the information was attained was more effective. Results showed that
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because advertising is just everywhere these days the trust of the consumers has gone in
advertising as consumers are wising up to the practice that companies pay for advertising and
therefore these respondents put a higher trust into WOM than advertising. Promotions and
deals have become highly frequent in recent times and the novelty of having them has worn
thin according to some of the respondents, this is another reason that WOM has become more
effective than advertising and can be linked to the research by (Mazzarol 2007).
It could be a good estimation that advertising is more effective on able-bodied people
than people with disabilities. This is because the products and services as are specifically
designed for people with disabilities need to be advertised in a way that promotes their
practical uses, whereas advertising products and services for an able-bodied target audience
can focus on their desires.
WOM obtained before purchase to reduce risk:
Thirteen respondents indicated that they obtained WOM prior to making purchases of
products and services for people with disabilities to reduce risk. Some believed that it was
vital to do this in order to discover whether or not products or services would be suitable for
them. Some said they look at reviews about products and services in the pre-purchase phase
to determine whether they should invest in a product or service. Some admitted to asking
other consumers who they knew used similar products and services about their positive or
negative experiences and whether or not they would recommend them. All of the prior
information was in agreement with the research by Murray (1991) who found that consumers
sought the opinions of other consumers before making the decision to make a purchase or not
to protect themselves from the unknown. Many of the respondents mentioned that they are
making a substantial investment when they purchase products and services which are
designed for people with disabilities and therefore they could not want to make purchasing
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mistakes. One respondent in particular gave a detailed account of when they purchased a stair
lift mentioning that they asked many questions about safety.
Based on the findings, it could be argued that when it comes to obtaining WOM
information prior to making purchases, there was no difference between consumers with
disabilities and able-bodied people. The results from both pieces of research echoed each
other which goes some way to confirming that both sets of consumers generally seek WOM
in the pre-purchasing phase of buying products or services in order to reduce risk.
PWOM:
The benefits of PWOM:
The data indicate that PWOM has an effect on people with disabilities as six
respondents said that it had an effect upon them. Some said that PWOM was most helpful to
them when purchasing products or services for people with disabilities because it usually
came from somebody they trusted. Some said that hearing PWOM would make them feel
more positive about the products and services which matches up with Brehm’s (1966)
reactance that as the PWOM information seems to arouse these respondents which gives
them the self-determination to purchase products and services. This encourages consumers’
satisfaction levels to increase (Westbrook 1987; Swan and Oliver 1989).
As the same was found amongst able-bodied consumers, consumers with disabilities
did not consider PWOM to be beneficial at a universal level. This could be because
consumers are heterogeneous whether they have a disability or not therefore some consumers
may react favourably to PWOM whereas others may become sceptical about the information
in which they are receiving.
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Market Mavens:
The benefits of market mavens with disabilities:
There was a fairly high response to this questions with seven responses in favour that
people with disabilities would find having market mavens with disabilities beneficial. The
overall comments were that it would be useful to obtain information from people and
celebrities with disabilities as it would give consumers opinions from people who would have
had first-hand experience with the products and services, it would enable these people to
relay messages to the consumers which would inform them whether or not a product or
service is worth purchasing. This was summed up by one of the respondents who said that “I
would benefit a lot from that, as those people understand the problems and understand which
things are important, I would value their opinion a lot”. This finding is in agreement with the
research about market mavenism by (Lazarsfeld et al. 1948: Kats and Lazarsfeld 1955) in
that it would benefit people with disabilities if celebrities with disabilities gave their opinions
about the products and services which are on the market.
It was also mentioned by one respondent that having market mavens for specialised
products for people with disabilities would improve the knowledge of their availability as the
existence of these products and services are not always well-known. Also it was discussed
that this would improve the trust between them and the companies because they would trust
that the market mavens were being truthful. A couple of the respondents mentioned that they
would benefit from the existence of market mavens with disabilities because the market
mavens would have a unique understanding of their problems, situation and which things are
important which may not be noticed by able-bodied market mavens, therefore they would
highly value the opinions of the market mavens. Many marketers use market mavens to
market products and services because it has proved to be a success over many years. With the
high response in this study of respondents indicating that they would like to see more market
mavens with disabilities, there would be a good chance that this marketing technique would
be successful in putting the spotlight on the market for products and services for people with
disabilities.
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Would not benefit from market maven
On the other hand, there were six respondents who thought that they would not have
any benefit from the existence of market mavens with disabilities. Three of the respondents
mentioned that it would be difficult to trust the messages, with one saying that “I would be
suspicious of whether that individual is being sponsored the company involved and may not
give the views the same value, as I would with others”. Two respondents commented that the
mere fact that a market maven happened to have a disability would not have a big influence
whether or not they brought a product or used a service as further explained by this
respondent “I don’t think this would have a massive influence on me, I would just treat it as if
a non-celebrity had reviewed the product or service”.
As in any heterogeneous group of people some disabled people have opposing opinions of
other disabled people. This can be seen here with the almost equal amount of opposing views
over whether market mavens would be beneficial to them. This would be the same as an able-
bodied group of people in that not all of them would have the same point of view.
NWOM:
NWOM is more effective than PWOM:
Again the response was high towards this question with seven of the respondents
indicating that that they thought it to be true that NWOM is more effective than PWOM
which is in agreement with the research by Arndt (1967) who found that there was twice as
much impact which NWOM had on consumers compared to PWOM. One of the respondents
mentioned that they tended to be overly cautious thus that contributed to the way that they
reacted to NWOM. Another respondent alluded to that they believed it to be human nature to
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remember bad things more than good things this may be because of what Fiske (1980) found
that negative information is my available as positive information is assumed thus NWOM
may just be natural for humans to share and it has a bigger impact on consumers as was also
found by (Feldman and Lynch, 1988; Lynch, Marmorstein and Weigold, 1988). Somebody
else thought that negative views tended to be more realistic and unbiased. Many of the
respondents said that they used NWOM as a form of protection or warning sign against
purchasing products or services which are not suited to them. All of the previous thoughts
and beliefs are probably the sorts of issues which contributed to the Kroloff (1988) principle
which is that written marketing messages which are negative are four times as persuasive as
messages which are positive because consumers are inclined to protect themselves from bad
situations such as making poor purchases. As it can be seen that the majority of the
participates were in agreement with the prior research on able-bodied people in that NWOM
has more of an effect on them than what PWOM does.
The effects of NWOM:
There was generally an agreement amongst a very high percentage of the respondents
that the effects of NWOM puts them off buying products or services. Most of the respondents
said that receiving NWOM would either cause them to re-evaluate their purchasing decisions
by looking at the competing products or services which are in the market or it would put them
off purchasing a product and service altogether which matches the finding by Laczniak et al.
(2001) as they found this to be the case in their studies.
Results showed that the source is important which the NWOM has derived from as
many of the respondents mentioned, if they was receiving NWOM from many sources, this
would then be a turn-off for them, also one respondent said that they receive their NWOM
specifically from their parents and therefore they go along with what they hear unless they try
the products or services themselves. This relates to Granovetter’s theory as this respondent
said receive NWOM from their parents and then they relay the NWOM information to other
people with disabilities that they feel close to (Kowalski 1996; Richins1984). One respondent
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said that NWOM would make them investigate about the products and services further by
obtaining information from experts, researching online reviews, etc.
These results would replicate findings from research involving able-bodied people as
was seen in the literature review because the evidence shows that NWOM serves to put off
people from purchasing products and services no matter if they have disabilities or not.
Obtaining Information:
How information is obtained about services:
Some of the responses were quite varied in this theme, although ten out of the thirteen
respondents mentioned other online sources or social media such as Facebook or Twitter. The
high number of respondents shows that consumers with disabilities actively seek information
which they do presumably be proactive which accordingly to a number of researchers makes
the information that is attained more effective (e.g. Bansal and Voyer, 2000; East, 2003;
Gremler, 1994). Eight of the respondents said that they would have a face-to-face
conversation with a mixture of friends, experts (Occupational Therapists, Social Workers,
specialists, remedial teachers) about services that are available to them. Other ways of
obtaining information which was mentioned by some respondents, five said that they did it
over the phone one said that they visited Naidex the exhibition show. From these findings, it
was evident that the respondents found information more creditable from people without any
commercial connections such as friends rather than experts which is in correlation with the
research by Vazquez-Casielles et al. (2013) which confirms this.
Nowadays most people have become increasingly proactive in terms of seeking
information for products and services thanks to the internet. It could be said that the internet
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actually helps to put disabled and able-bodied consumers level with each other because
everybody has the opportunity to search for and buy products and services when they wish.
Information about specialist products on the market:
The majority of the respondents said that they sought information about wheelchairs
with eleven out of the thirteen respondents mentioning this, whether it was purchasing them
or repairing them at wheelchair services and dealerships. Five respondents mentioned that
they sought information about independent living and mobility products or assistive living
aids such as feeding equipment, scooters, armchairs, grab railings, environmental control
systems, intercoms and specialised kitchen appliances. Three of the respondents mentioned
specialised hardware and software for their computers, one said that they ask others about
accessible iPads amongst other specialist computer equipment from companies who provide
them, another respondent mentioned that they have enquired about computer assistive
software and hardware, the last respondent mentioned that they sought information about
technology products to help with their dyslexia during studies.
Generally people with disabilities have to go to specialist companies and agencies to
purchase suitable products and services which meet their required needs. This is not normally
a problem for able-bodied people who usually have a wide range of products and services to
choose from. This is why the internet along with WOM is so important to people with
disabilities in order to obtain information about specialist products and services.
The best way for WOM to be obtained:
There was a high response to this question with ten out of the thirteen people
responding however opinions were split. Five of the respondents said that the best way for
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them to obtain WOM was through electronic forms, i.e. over the telephone, via email or
social media, it was said that this way allowed for speed, convenience, independence and it is
more targeted. This was also found by Mazzarol et al. (2007) as they found that when a
person receives WOM, they then pass it on to one other person or many other people and this
allows the process of WOM to have speed, convenience, independence and to be more
targeted because of its “snowball effect”. On the other hand, four of the respondents said
through the people who they know whether that was their friends or when they met up with
people who have similar difficulties, it was said it is easier to trust the source this way
because they can be questioned more directly and it is quicker to get the answers required,
one of the respondents mentioned that they had difficulties with reading thus obtaining
information about products and services face-to-face eliminates this problem. When people
with disabilities meet up with other people with disabilities it increases the chances of “the
hypothesis of homogeneous mixing” happening because the chances of those people passing
on WOM information to other people with disabilities are heightened because of their wider
social relationships with the broader community of people with disabilities. (Glaister, 1974,
pp. 139-156.)
On the whole people with disabilities communicate with each other in the same manner as
able-bodied people. As it can be seen in the results it comes down to the choice of the
individual person in how they receive WOM rather than whether or not or not they have a
disability.
The times when WOM is sought for:
When WOM is considered the most important in the buying process:
Again, there was a very high percentage of respondents who supplied data to this
question, out of the thirteen there was twelve. Nine out of eleven said that WOM is most
important to them in the pre-purchase phase when deciding on which products to buy or
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services to use. Research shows that WOM is considered more in the pre-purchase stage of
the buying process because there is more scope to respond to NWOM (East et al. 2008). A
couple of the respondents mentioned quite significant products, for example, one said that
they considered WOM to be most important when buying a car or a house and the other one
said when buying a wheelchair, seating or a car.
In general WOM is sought for in the pre-purchase phase of the buying process and
this is a universal practice amongst both people with disabilities and also able-bodied people
because the buying procedure is the same amongst both of the sets consumers WOM is used
in the same way.
WOM is sought for more when using services than when buying products:
There was a fairly high response to this question with seven responses out of the
thirteen. The general consensus was that because when signing up with a service they are
entering into a long-term contract, this finding is backed up by research by Buttle (1998) who
found that WOM was more important when consumers were seeking to use services than
buying products. Therefore, it is more important to seek WOM when seeking to use a service
in order evaluate a service as was also found by (Litvin et al., 2008; Trusov, Bucklin, and
Pauwels, 2009). Three people mentioned that as products are tangible objects it is a more
personal opinion but to use a service what they offer is more generalised WOM is more
effective and easier to come by. Giving that the primary research echoed the secondary
research suggests that both disabled and able-bodied people think that it is more important to
seek WOM when buying services than when buying products.
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The participates’ preferred tone of message by experts and salespeople which may
generate WOM:
There was a very mixed reaction to the consumers’ preferred tone of message by
experts and salespeople which may generate WOM with eight out of the thirteen respondents.
The main consensus was that a lot of the respondents said that they like when the message is
confident, serious and liable. These findings could be measured by the two-construct model
by Harrison-Walker (2001) which is used to measure organisations’ WOM activity,
specifically the frequency, number of people told and detail, and also WOM praise which
specifically looks at favourability and pride. If the experts and salespeople approach
consumers with disabilities messages which are considered to be confident, serious and liable
then this would encourage the consumers pass on WOM “praise” and “valence” which is
positive (Mazzarol et al. 2006, p. 2).
It could be argued that some people may prefer to receive WOM messages differently
compared to others. Ultimately, experts and salespeople are trying to get to potential
consumers to spend their money, thus if the experts and salespeople approach to the
consumers is confident, serious and liable this will undoubtedly reassure consumers, whether
they have disabilities or are able-bodied, that they can trust them, which in term is more
likely to spread PWOM.
Online:
This question generated a high response with ten out of the thirteen respondents. Two
respondents mentioned about their mobility problems and expressed that the internet is an aid
which assists them to access information. One of the quotes reads as follows: “I would say
online, due to my disability which is Cerebral Palsy, I have difficulties with my mobility and
speech so it is easier to communicate with people on the internet.”
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The ways that eWOM is shared:
There were ten responses out of the thirteen which is again very high, who discussed
the ways that they shared eWOM. All of the respondents mentioned some sort of
communication online, whether it was social media networking, blogs, e-mailing, Skyping,
text messaging or via Google. Five of the respondents mentioned that they shared eWOM
over the telephone. This piece of research differs from the research which was conducted by
Keller and Fay (2006, pp. 31-41.) who found back then only 8% of people (not specifically
people with disabilities) obtained eWOM that was Web mediated.
The effects of consumers' disabilities to receive WOM:
As all thirteen respondents in the study had disabilities, all thirteen of them were able
to contribute data on how their disabilities affected the way that they received WOM about
products and services for people with disabilities. Six of the respondents mentioned that they
relied on electronic devices in order to receive WOM whether this was in the form of the
internet in general, i.e. online reviews or forums, Facebook, video chat or voice over IP. As
one of the respondents explains “having Cerebral Palsy affects my mobility and speech. I
don’t receive word-of-mouth over the phone because I don’t use the phone unless I have to. I
don’t meet up with other people with disabilities much as it is hard to do this due to my
mobility problems and the amount of effort that it takes to arrange to meet up with them, e.g.
organising care, transport etc. It is much easier to go on Facebook and blogging websites and
receive word-of-mouth information in that way”.
It is clear that people’s disabilities can affect the way that they receive WOM. As it
was found that many people with disabilities engage with WOM via some sort of electronic
form it is important that this is enabled to happen more by creating more portals online and
offline in order for people with disabilities to receive WOM information, as it is already done
by mainstream and some businesses and services for people with disabilities. This is what
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Khalid et al. (2013) and Schiffman and Kanuk (2010) is getting at that marketers need to
continually perform market research to monitor the factors which influence consumers’
buying decisions which can also identify whether a marketing plan is working.
Social Media:
Nine out of the thirteen respondents mentioned that they used social media to obtain
information about products and services for people with disabilities. One of the respondents
said that “as I said previously I use Facebook a lot, I also look at blogs on the internet as it
can be useful to get a wider view on products and services from other people that I don’t
know.” This respondent’s opinion is in alignment with the research by Bickart and Schindler
(2001) because there is an agreement that information which is found on social networking
websites about products and services is more credible as a wider view as there are comments
from many other people available who have had experience with the products and services.
Thanks to the internet, and especially social networking websites, it has become very easy for
people to receive and share information about products and services. Both disabled and able-
bodied people can find out information about specific products and services which may not
be as easy to obtain without the internet and social networks, thus it could be argued that both
disabled and able-bodied people benefit from the communication about products and services
which takes place online.
Price:
Not affected by price:
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Six respondents articulated that the high prices of products and services for people
with disabilities does not discourage them from passing on information if they think that the
recipients would benefit from the products or services. As one respondent explains “no it
does not. If I think other people could benefit from the information and products, then I
would tell them. Such as telling my friend about the Blue Badge Parking Scheme of the UK.
He is almost entirely blind and not physically disabled, but even so. I would tell people the
cost of such products of course, but what they do with the information is their business. It is
however my belief that it’s of people’s right to know.”
As it can be seen around half of the respondents were not affected by the high prices
of the products and services for people with disabilities. This finding shows that it is an
individual choice whether one chooses to share WOM information about products or services
which is universal no matter if the person that disabled or not.
The negative effects that high prices has on WOM:
The response was quite good to this question about the negative effects of the high
prices of the products and services for people with disabilities sparking six respondents out of
the thirteen responding to it. All of these respondents were in agreement that the high prices
of the products and services for people with disabilities would cause them to think hard
whether or not they should pass on WOM information to other people with disabilities but
half of the respondents said that they would pass on WOM information regardless of the high
prices. One of the respondents said “yes, when prices are too high, it is more difficult to use
the product or service and therefore becomes less accessible.” By this quote from the
interviewee it is evident that NWOM could derive from their feelings which was also the
findings from some research by Richins (1983, 1987) who found that there is a higher chance
that NWOM would spread if high priced products fail to meet customers’ satisfaction.
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It is evident that if products and services are highly priced and do not meet the consumers’
needs then more than likely this would cause the consumers to spread NWOM. This would be
the same whether or not the consumers have disabilities because it is human nature for people
to want to express their feelings when they believe that they have been done a wrong.
The external factors that affect WOM:
The effects of consumers' emotions on WOM activity:
There was a very good response to this question with thirteen respondents
commenting. Four respondents mentioned that a bad experience with a product or service
would make them have negative emotions and be a cause for them to spread NWOM. On the
other hand, four respondents mentioned that products and services which prove to be good
would make them generate PWOM. The previous two findings confirms the research by
Engel et al. (1969) when they found that consumers’ emotional responses towards products
and services generated WOM activity. The following statement from one of the respondents
gives a good explanation “most definitely, especially with me, my emotions are powerful and
can really affect the way I feel and what I say to people. If I am angry with a product or
service I will tell people not to use it or them .if I am pleased this can sometimes work in the
opposite way. However, I am more likely to remember and generate negative feedback as
appose to positive if I’m being honest. I think this is because it is far easier to remember bad
experiences than good experiences I think this is because for some reason people tend to
remember bad experiences far more than they do good ones”. As it can been seen in the
response by this respondent negative feedback is more memorable than positive to them
which matches what was found by Kroloff (1988) that written marketing messages which are
negative are four times as persuasive as messages which are positive.
It is clear to see that the purchases of products and services has an effect on
consumers’ emotions no matter whether they have a disability or not. Buying new products
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and services are usually exciting times for consumers thus if things are successful some
people may want to tell others, but on the other hand if products and services fail to meet
consumers’ needs and desires usually emotions heighten and people tell others about their
bad experiences to regain some control over the situation.
Trial periods:
Option of trial periods when purchasing products:
Most of the respondents indicated that they would want an option of a trial period
when purchasing products for people with disabilities. The response was strong with ten out
of the thirteen respondents in favour of this proposal. Five of the respondents mentioned that
this notion would be a protection for them against wasting money on products that turn out to
not be suitable for them. This is summed up by one of the respondents as they said “yes
because if the product does not meet my requirements it will save me money. If I get a
chance to try the product it will reduce the risk of wasting money”. This is confirmed by the
studies by Roselius, (1971, pp. 56 – 61) and Settle and Alreck, (1989, pp. 34 – 40) who
discovered that finances was one of the key aspects that form the risks of making a purchase
which was also confirmed by von Wangenheim and Bayo’n (2004). From the respondents’
high reaction in favour of having trial periods for products which are in the market backs up
the research by Berry, (1980); Zeithaml, (1981); Zeithaml et al., (1985) and shows that
consumers are wanting to have trial periods when purchasing products.
It can be quite easy for able-bodied people trial products or services, whether it is in a shop,
through friends or family or on a longer term basis. However it is not this easy for people
with disabilities to trial products and services because many have particular needs which have
to be met. This could be the reason that there was such a positive response from the
participants to this question.
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Trust:
Trust friends and existing users:
It is clear that the majority of the respondents in the study trust their friends’ and
existing users of products or services WOM information over other people’s as eleven
respondents out of the thirteen indicated this to be the case. The general consensus was that
this is because their friends and the existing users also have disabilities and therefore are
more likely to have experienced using the products and services which qualifies them to have
more worthy opinions. One of the respondents said that “I have high trust in my friends who
have disabilities because they go through the same experiences that I do so they would know
which products have worked well for them and which has not so I would trust their first-hand
experiences of the products”. These findings are confirmed by previous research by Litvin et
al., (2008); Trusov, Bucklin, and Pauwels, (2009) who argued of there being a possibility that
consumers could extensively rely on PWOM or NWOM messages in order to evaluate a
service brand. Also it is likely that WOM activity would take place between friends and also
existing users of products and services as they are likely to have similar demographic
characteristics which was also found by Gilly et al. (1998).
Trust family:
On the other hand six respondents from the thirteen mentioned that they trusted their
family members’ WOM advice over other people’s when it came to advice about the
purchasing products and services for consumers with disabilities. Most of the six respondents
mentioned that this is because family members are the people who know them the best and
therefore are most likely to pass on WOM information which would benefit them the best.
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This is summed up very well by one of the respondents who said that “my family without a
doubt as they are the people who know me best and have my wellbeing at heart also they are
with me in different environments where the product may be used as opposed to the place
where it is demonstrated by the salesperson”.
There was a significant number of respondents which indicated that consumers with
disabilities had higher trust in their friends and family over experts. This confirms the
research which highlights the importance of the closeness of the relationship which was
central to the studies by Engel et al. (1969) and their theory of “homophily” findings.
Therefore with these findings it can be seen that both disabled and able-bodied people have
more trust in their friends and family over the experts of products and services.
Words and phrases:
From the reaction to this question it is evident that it is important to the target
audience how information about products and services for people with disabilities is
delivered to them and that this may affect whether or not they pass on the information. The
consensus was that if messages are reliable, clear, descriptive and not too suggestive then it
would be more likely that the information would be trusted and passed on. One of the
respondent said that “no I wouldn’t be because using a lot of suggestive words and phrases
would make me feel like I was being advertised to and just being encouraged to buy
something rather than being given information about products and services to help address
my needs”. These findings adds to the existing findings by Anderson (1998, pp. 5-17)
described WOM as “vivid” and “novel” experiences and also the research from Nisbett and
Ross, (1980, p. 45) who commented that WOM was vivid because its information was strong
as in “emotionally interesting” and “imagery provoking” and “proximate in a sensory,
temporal or spatial way”.
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Normally, it could be said that some sort of buzz is needed for WOM to spread. However
from the feedback received from the study’s respondents it is not really about the buzz, rather
it is about the qualities in the message i.e. whether it is reliable, clear, descriptive and not too
suggestive, this is more likely to encourage people with disabilities to pass on WOM.
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This chart represents the responses to the interviews:
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Chapter 5. Conclusion
___________________________________________________________________________
The summary of the conclusion
This dissertation has a combination of secondary and primary research which are the
sources that the information derived from. Throughout this paper, research has taken place to
evaluate the subject of disability and also the broad subject of WOM including PWOM and
NWOM to answer the research question “to what extent does WOM have on the purchasing
decisions of people with disabilities?” The contribution to the field is the new found
knowledge which is in this paper of the how people with disabilities engage with WOM when
seeking information to purchase a product or a service.
An explanation of what was researched and how it was carried out
In the introduction to the dissertation research took place in order to provide a
background for the dissertation. To achieve this research was carried out on the internet
firstly to seek the definition of “disability” and also to find out what the communication
industry was. Some of the key drivers were identified which are used as platforms to enable
products and services to be marketed to people with disabilities. To finish the introduction
some definitions were provided which was taken from scholars in order to define WOM and
consumer behaviour.
In the literature review and the methodology chapters there were a broad range of
academic journals including seminal papers, books and websites which were used. The
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sections in this paper are quite focused and therefore it was possible to zone into specific
areas of theory after doing a wider research.
Actual data was collected for the primary research. To do these friends and
acquaintances were relied upon to provide the data which were required, i.e. how WOM
affected their purchasing decisions. This was carried out by developing a writing interview
and conducting it over the social media website Facebook.
The main findings of the research
The chapter contained data of the existing market of products for people with
disabilities and also the number of its market size, also it contained clear definitions of the
two main subjects in the paper which was WOM and consumer behaviour.
The second chapter was the literature review where there was a detailed examination
of WOM. In this part it was found that WOM conversations derives naturally between a giver
and a receiver and also consumers of products and services generally conversed with each
other and naturally pass on WOM messages about available products and services.
Conversations can develop socially and nowadays it is common to use social networking
websites, these social networking websites are likely to be more credible because they are
coming from the consumers themselves rather than the businesses and services. Evidence was
found in the literature that showed that there are a series of motivations (triggers), and
personal, and situational conditions which has the potential to lead to WOM activity. It was
also found that these conditions could be used as mediators of the service evaluation which,
in turn, could encourage consumers to convey their views of high or low levels of satisfaction
or evaluation of service.
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The findings in the NWOM part were that there is limited research in this area, but the
main findings were that NWOM has twice the impact on consumers’ decision making
process than what PWOM has and the reason for this is because it is more available and
therefore more useful. A correlation was found in the literature that showed consumers that
spread less PWOM also spread less NWOM and this was on smaller brands. Research
showed that consumers like to seek information from family, friends and their peers rather
than promotional material which is paid for by companies compared to people who they do
not know. Also, there was evidence found that when existing customers' levels are high, then
PWOM will be passed on. In this chapter there in many theories discussed, including “the
hypothesis of homogeneous mixing” when consumers may seek advice from another
consumer with similar needs and also discussed was the impact of “conative antecedents” on
purchasing decisions.
The third and final part of the literature review looked at PWOM. The main findings
were that it was still possible for consumers to have a negative reaction to PWOM especially
if the particular product or service receives a “damming with faint praise” which is a
lukewarm recommendation. However, on the other end of the scale, it was found that PWOM
can cause a state of arousal when received from a trusted source which fuels the receiver’s
self-determination. A detailed examination was performed to look into what causes WOM to
be passed on.
The main findings were: WOM was more effective than advertising when it came to
specialised equipment and services. There was a high indication that consumers with
disabilities had higher trust in their friends and family over experts. However, it was
important how the WOM information was delivered especially from the experts themselves,
there was a preference for the message to be reliable, clear, descriptive and not too
suggestive, this will increase the consumers’ trust in the WOM message and thus it would
increase the likeliness of the consumers passing messages on. In regards to when consumers
make purchases, the data demonstrated that the preferred tone of message that experts and
salespeople delivered to the consumers would be confident, serious and liable, this would
encourage the consumers to spread PWOM. It was found that NWOM was thought to be
more effective than PWOM which resulted in NWOM putting consumers off from buying
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67
products or services. It was learnt that NWOM from many sources, this would then be a
turn-off for them.
There was a preference of receiving WOM information through conversations face-to-
face with their friends or some experts, the most common product which the respondents
sought information for were wheelchairs, whether it was information about purchasing them
or repairing them. However, the majority of the respondents showed higher trust in friends
and existing users of products and services over the experts and salespeople because their
friends and the existing users have experience in using the products and services which puts
them in a position to have worthy and unbiased opinions. The participants also indicated that
WOM was sought for online to search for WOM information about specialist products and
services for people with disabilities. Also, it was that social media was used to get
information about products and services for people with disabilities. Further investigations
revealed that people with disabilities received eWOM through different avenues online i.e.
online reviews or forums, Facebook, video chat or voice over IP.
It was discovered that people with disabilities preferred to obtain WOM in the pre-
purchasing phase of buying products and services in order to reduce the risk of buying
products or signing up to services that are not suited to them. High prices of products and
services has a negative effect on people with disabilities, however it was learnt that the
information would still be passed on via WOM to other people. Another marketing practice
would have the potential to spread WOM is market mavenism.
The best way for them to obtain WOM was via electronic, i.e. over the telephone or
via e-mail or forms of social media. The online resources include social media such as
Facebook or Twitter this makes information which is obtained more effective. The online
sources which are used are social media networking, blogs, e-mailing, Skyping, text
messaging or via Google. Five of the respondents mentioned that they shared eWOM over
the telephone.
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The original contribution and significance of this piece of research to the field
The research in this dissertation is an original contribution to knowledge. There was a
gap in the knowledge of the extent that WOM had on the purchasing decisions of people with
disabilities. This piece of research has unearthed many examples of how the practice of
marketing could be improved to encourage PWOM amongst people with disabilities and
minimise NWOM. This would increase the chances of people with disabilities seeking and
sharing WOM information amongst each other which may have a positive affect their
purchasing decisions of specialist products and services.
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consumers with disabilities
69
Chapter 6. Limitations and further research
___________________________________________________________________________
Limitations
Lack of prior research studies on the topic
There was a limited amount of information about the extent that WOM had on people with
disabilities when purchasing products and services and therefore the secondary research
which was gathered from the literature review was based upon consumers in general and not
specifically consumers with disabilities.
Self-reported data
As the data collected was self-reported it is limited because it was not independently verified.
The e-mail interviews were sent out to the participants via the social networking website
Facebook thus the participants were unsupervised while taking part in the interviews and
therefore a certain level of trust had to place in the participants to trust that the data they were
supplying was accurate. There are several potential sources of biases which could have
limited the quality of the data and these are: if the participants have selective memories,
telescoping which means that the participants could have got confused and recalled events
that may have occurred one time, but believing that it occurred again at a different time, and
finally another factor of the limitation to the study could be caused by the participants
exaggerating that events were more significant than what they really was in reality
Further Research
The unanticipated findings
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There were a number of unanticipated findings in the results of the data. In the literature, it
was found that the majority of consumers trusted WOM information from friends and family
members over the experts and salespeople of the products and services. However, five out of
thirteen of the participants in the study mentioned that they most trusted the experts and
salespeople which was unanticipated because of the number is quite high thus there could be
a cause for further research to be performed here.
The second unanticipated finding to come out of the data was that there were five
participants who mentioned that they would put their trust into experts on the products and
services over everybody else when it came to listening to WOM information, further research
may be worth performing to determine how significant this finding is and if anything can be
done to increase the trust in experts in order to encourage higher levels of WOM activity
amongst people with disabilities.
Another avenue of possible further research is to assess the usefulness of value ratings of
products and services for people with disabilities and what affect that they have on WOM
activity as just three of the respondents said that they used them.
The final unanticipated finding to come out of this research was that six of the respondents
were not put off of sharing information even if the products and services were highly priced,
further research should be performed to determine how effective this WOM information is in
terms of whether it leads to purchases being made.
The remaining unanswered questions and suggested research strategy
In terms of the research question further research could be performed to examine how much
does the post-purchasing stage of the buying process have on the WOM activity of people
with disabilities and whether or not it affects them passing on information to other people. To
do this the suggested research strategy would be to perform some observation research in
An examination into the extent that word of mouth impacts on the buying decisions of
consumers with disabilities
71
order to explore what events occur during the purchasing phase in order for WOM activity to
be generated and shared in the post-purchase phase. The suggested analytical approach could
be a qualitative or a quantitative one. This approach would allow researchers to observe
people with disabilities, making purchases and then assess what encourages them to pass on
WOM.
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consumers with disabilities
72
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Appendices
Appendix A
Sub-themes and Outliers
Sub-themes:
For findings with a low percentage of agreement from respondents.
Theme one:
Advertising is more effective than WOM
Five respondents mentioned positive things about advertising. Two of the respondents
mentioned that they used advertising to make cross references in order to make a judgement
and to make a purchasing decision on products and services for people with disabilities. The
three other respondents were more in favour for adverts for products and services with one
commenting that “adverts are rare but can be powerful”.
In the mainstream world advertising is everywhere and it general works on people’s
desires and wants which has a great potential to spread WOM. With advertising products and
services for people with disabilities, there have to be a need for the product or service present
or else the desire would not be generated for them.
Theme two:
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Trust experts:
Five respondents mentioned that they would put their trust into the experts over
everybody else when it came to listening to WOM information. The general consensus was
that this is because they feel that the experts know everything about the products and
therefore trust that they would provide them with good knowledge. One of the comments
from a respondent was “I would choose the experts because they know more about the
product”. Some result from three of the respondents went towards explaining was what the
expected experiences between the consumer and the salesperson, the words that were
generated were “polite”, “informative”, “social”, “functional”, “humorous”, and
“pleasurable”.
It is very much a personal choice whether to put trust in experts, it is clear that these five
respondents benefit from the expertise of salespeople even though they are not particularly
personally close to them which Granovetter (1973) called “weak social ties” theory.
Theme three:
Ratings:
In terms of using value ratings as a form of WOM, three questions were asked to the
respondents. Firstly, it needed to be found out whether the respondents looked at value
ratings from other consumers on products and services for people with disabilities and then it
needed to be known whether or not the respondents passed on their own value ratings to other
people with disabilities to obtain an understanding of the extent that information from value
ratings has on the influence of people with disabilities buying products or services. Just three
out of the thirteen respondents said that they consulted value ratings to compare products and
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services, one of the respondents said that “they help massively particularly if you are
comparing similar products each person has different priorities and needs so they can be very
useful”.
Four out of the thirteen respondents said that they gave value ratings. The general
consensus was illustrated by a comment made by one of the respondents who said that value
ratings can be “very helpful to get an actual perspective on other people’s views on products
and services”. On the other hand, six out of the thirteen respondents reported that they did not
give value ratings for products and services and this seemed to be because they placed more
confidence in WOM, advertising and previous experiences as explained further by one of the
respondents “I don’t, really. I would attach value based on WOM, advertising and my
previous experience of similar products, as well as the advice of sales people (this might be
WOM) and try to make an informed decision this way. I don’t know of, for instance, disabled
consumer websites or magazines that I would trust or value”.
As it can be seen the responses were low when it came to the subject of value ratings. There
was some positivity around the fact that they can help consumers compare similar products
and services against one and another. Respondents were not so keen on giving value ratings
on products and services either with six out of the thirteen indicating that they did not give
value ratings. This could be because value ratings can be extremely negative and according to
Arndt (1967) NWOM has twice as much impact on purchase decision-making than what
PWOM does.
The Outliers
Obtaining WOM information from “other people”:
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There were two respondents that mentioned something about obtaining information
from other people. One of them mentioned that they obtained WOM information about
services for people with disabilities from existing users. The other respondent explained that
they received WOM information about a “through floor lift” from a social worker.
Pleasurable experience between the giver and receiver:
Only one respondent had the opinion that it was important that the interaction
between them and the giver of the WOM is pleasurable because this would cause them to
trust them more as they said “it is important that the interaction between the giver of the
word-of-mouth information is pleasurable as I need to be able to trust them”.
Seeking services and products the use of WOM is equal:
Only one respondent they used WOM to seek for products and services equally.
Other aspects that make consumers engage with WOM messages:
There were responses from two people in the study. One of the respondents said that
mentioned that it was crucial to them that the messages are well informative and the other
respondent preferred the messages to be in a serious tone.
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The strength of the WOM message is most important:
There was one respondent who thought that the strength of the argument within the
WOM message is the most important aspect which helps to purchase products, they said “I
think it is the strength of the augment that is being put forward, people would have to tell me
why the product or service is good to persuade me to buy it”.
Deciding to buy a product based upon the amount of PWOM from the existing users:
Just one respondent said that they decided on a product on the basis of the amount of
PWOM received from the existing users, they said that “if a number of people liked a
product, I’d be more inclined to give it a go”.
The option of a trial of products and services not wanted:
There were just three respondents that indicated that they would not benefit from a
trial period for products of services for people with disabilities.
The most important thing when making a purchase:
One of the respondents commented that the most important thing to them when
making a purchase of products and services was the trust between them and the other person.
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WOM is sought for more when buying a product than a service:
There were two respondents who indicated that they sought WOM more when buying
a product than what they did when seeking for a service. One of the respondents mentioned
that they were able to adapt to able-bodied services and the other respondent believed that
there were more variables when it came to using services.
Consumers not affected by emotions:
One of the respondents mentioned that they was not affected by their emotions when
making purchasing decisions.
Do not trust the experts:
Just one respondent mentioned that they did not trust the experts as they said that “I
don’t trust the experts as I think they have an agenda in selling their product and are therefore
biased”.
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Appendix B
The invitational letter to invite candidates to take part in the study and the interview
topic guide.
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is Leon Donegan and I am a Master’s student of Marketing Communications and
Advertising at Kingston University. I am currently conducting a dissertation research project
that looks at the impact of word-of-mouth on the buying decisions of people with disabilities.
I am specifically interested in specialist products and services used by people with
disabilities, for example, assistive technology or devices, independent mobility products, e.g.
wheelchairs, and services such as care agencies, adapted transport services, etc. If you are a
user of such products or services, I wonder if you might be interested in taking part in the
study?
The study involves an online interview with a set of questions included in this document.
Please use emoticons to illustrate your emotions when answering the questions. Kindly send
your answers as a reply to this message to me via Facebook. There are 22 questions in this
interview, which should take up to 30 minutes to complete. If you have any questions please
do not hesitate to contact me via Facebook or my supervisor Ms. Eva Kasperova via e-mail
[email protected]. The data collected will be used for academic purposes only
and will remain anonymous and confidential.
Thank you in anticipation of your help.
Kind regards,
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Leon
Please declare that you are happy to participate in this study:
Please give your age:
Please state your gender:
Please state your disability:
Questions
1. Please explain how you obtain word-of-mouth information about products and
services that are designed specifically for people with disabilities. For example,
electronic word-of-mouth, face-to-face, or other ways?
2. Do you ask others for information about services which are on the market? If so
which particular services?
3. If you do not ask others information about products or services that are for people
with disabilities how do you hear about them?
4. In what ways do you engage with and share electronic word-of-mouth e.g. internet,
telephone, social media, blogs etc?
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5. Please explain the best way for you to obtain word-of-mouth information and why
this might be?
6. Do you ask others for information about products that are on the market for people
with disabilities? If so which particular products?
7. When it comes to word-of-mouth whose information do you trust the most, your
friends or family, or the experts who is selling the products? Please explain why?
8. Does the high prices of products which are specifically made for people with
disabilities affect whether you pass the information on to other people? Please explain
why?
9. Do you use word-of-mouth to reduce the risk when purchasing these specific products
when you have not previously brought them in the past? Please explain why you do or
do not use word-of-mouth to reduce risk?
10. When purchasing specialist products do you tend to react more to positive word-of-
mouth or negative word-of-mouth? Please explain why?
11. When purchasing specialist and adapted equipment do you tend to react to word-of-
mouth or advertising? Explain your reasoning?
12. Do you tend to seek word-of-mouth more when you are seeking a service to use than
when you are buying a product? Please explain why?
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13. Would you like an automatic option to trial products for a period of time before
making a purchase? If yes, how would this be a benefit to you?
14. Please comment on what aspects of word-of-mouth most makes you want to engage
with it: for example, if the message is deep, strong, or attractive?
15. Please explain if you would be more affected by word-of-mouth information if there
is a lot of suggestive words or phrases?
16. Please comment on whether it is important that the experience between you and the
giver of the word-of-mouth information is pleasurable, social, humorous etc.?
17. Do you give value ratings to brands and services? Please explain how value ratings
affects the decision to buy a product of use a service?
18. Please explain when you would consider word-of-mouth to be most important when
making a purchase?
19. Please explain how negative word-of-mouth affects you when making a purchase?
20. Would you agree that your emotions would drive you to generate word-of-mouth
activity in regards to products and service performance? Please explain why?
21. Please explain how your disability may have influence over the ways that you receive
word-of-mouth?
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22. How would you benefit from people with disabilities who are in the media spotlight
relaying information about the availability and quality of products and services that
are on the market?
Appendix C
Management Report
Introduction
This Management Report derives from a piece of research was conducted in order to
determine the extent in which WOM had on the purchasing decisions of people with
disabilities. Secondary research was performed to obtain an overall aspect of WOM and
consumer behaviour when it comes to making buying decisions. The primary research was
performed by conducting email interviews via the social networking websites Facebook to
obtain information from people with disabilities about how WOM affects their buying
decisions. This information was then analysed qualitatively using a deductive approach. The
overall implications of this research are for marketing managers to improve the level of word-
of-mouth (WOM) that is generated amongst their target audience about products and
services.
Key implications/recommendations
The key implication for marketing managers is to reduce the risk that consumers with
disabilities face when they are purchasing products and services designed for disabled people.
To achieve this there are a number of recommendations for business and marketing managers
in order to utilise WOM more effectively. There will be some suggestions for business and
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marketing managers on how to minimise the consumers’ perspective of risk by limiting their
perceiving risk of purchasing products and services and to endeavour to maximise the
PWOM activity.
Specific implications/recommendations
To reduce risk
The reduction of risk would allow the consumers to make purchases of products and
services with more confidence. This is because when consumers are in the pre-
purchasing stage there is the risk of the unknown, whether that is about the products
or services, the suitability of them and whether or not then would be successful etc.
To utilise the techniques of WOM in order to maximise the success rates
It is recommended that marketing managers make use of the techniques to generate
WOM as this would help to promote their products and services. In order to
encourage WOM marketing managers should make sure that their marketing
campaigns are engaging and highly trusted through the perspective of their target
audience.
To develop and maintain good and strong relationships with consumers
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The maintenance of a good and strong relationship with consumers is highly
important because this encourages existing consumers to pass on PWOM to other
potential consumers. This could be done by creating a database of the existing
consumers and occasionally offering them special promotions.
To offer organisations and events
To ensure that the consumers stay interested in the products and services marketing
managers could set up organisations that the existing consumers could join up to.
These organisations could put on special events to promote the products and services
that the existing consumers get invited to in the hope that it generates PWOM.
To offer trial periods
As purchasing products and services can be very expensive for people with
disabilities and as these people can have very specific needs and requirements from
products and services it is recommended that businesses could offer trial periods to
ensure that the products and services are suitable for consumers prior to the purchase.
Also offering trial periods have the potential to generate WOM which could help to
promote the products and services.
To remember that the target audience is heterogeneous
It is important for marketing managers to remember that people with disabilities are a
heterogeneous group of people and therefore it is vital that marketing managers do not
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attempt to target this audience in the same manner. This target audience should be
segmented in terms of demographic characteristics, e.g. age, sex and education
degree, etc. values, preference, life style etc. rather than target them by their
disabilities. If this is not applied to marketing campaigns, then there is a danger for
NWOM to be generated and shared, this is because it could be perceived as being
disrespectful by the target audience as it could seem to them like they are being
judged as not being individual people.
To do not underestimate the levels of emotions that the consumers link to the
products and services
It is important that marketing managers do not underestimate the levels of emotions
that the consumers link to the products and services. Consumers attach high levels of
emotions onto products and services which they have brought because there is a
possibility that their lives can be dramatically improved by these purchases, whether it
is assisting them to complete certain tasks or even enabling them to have total
independence. If products or services are successful then there is a very good chance
that PWOM could be shared, however, if the products or services prove to be failures,
then marketing managers need to be wary of the generating and spreading of NWOM
which could put off other potential consumers doing business with them.
To beware that high prices of products and services may generate NWOM
It is recommended that marketing managers take notice that the high prices of
products and services for people with disabilities could generate NWOM which may
spread amongst their target audience. In order to overcome this issue, marketing
managers could develop campaigns that highlights the benefits that is there to be
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gained from investing in the certain products and services and how they would
improve their quality of life of people with disabilities on a long term basis.
To use Market Mavenism
Market Mavenism is already used when marketing to people with disabilities. There
are already some “market mavens” in this area in the United Kingdom, for example
TV presenter and veteran Great Britain’s wheelchair basketball player Ade Adepitan
MBE, was the ambassador for the wheelchair company, Invacare, for their Top End
product range during 2012. Also in 2012 the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) used
veteran Paralympic Athletics wheelchair racer and television commentator, Baroness
Tanni Grey-Thompson, to promote the access features of the Olympic Park. This
technique has the potential of generating buzz around products and services which
could create WOM therefore it is recommended that marketing managers use it more.
To focus marketing activity on WOM rather than advertising
It is recommended that marketing practitioners should focus their attentions on WOM
rather than advertising. As products and services for people with disabilities have to
be customized to meet the consumers’ needs, in many cases, they cannot be treated as
a homogenous target audience. With this in mind, it would be more beneficial for
marketing practitioners to try to generate WOM amongst their target audience rather
than producing generic adverts that are not targeted at people’s specific demographic
characteristics.
To utilise social media to interact with the target audience more effectively
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The final recommendation to marketing practitioners is to make use of the
opportunities to reach potential consumers by the means of social media. It is evident
that many people with disabilities obtain information about specialist products and
services via social media. By the use of this strategy marketers could send specific
marketing messages to individual about products and services that would be adequate
to suit their particular needs.