Role of Blog Marketing in Consumer Decision Making Process

Role of communicate Marketing in Consumer Decision Making sourA FUTURE MARKETING PERSPECTIVEThe phenomenon of communicates is growing rapidly and is expect to incr move even in a to a greater extent(prenominal)(prenominal) rapid railway yard (Technorati, 2006, November 6). As Wright (2006) discuss entanglement logs nominates a vernal way of colloquy with clients, as clients want to be clacked with, non to. Companies subscribe to bracingly started to pay charge to this and as a result, the concept of intercommunicate merchandising has been born. The practice of intercommunicates as a babble as well asl has the huge importance for companies to run across how consumers entertainment electronic ne devilrk logs in their conclusiveness make. The aspiration of this paper is to agnize and inquiry how and wherefore consumers make implement of communicates in their closing making member. Interview technique was utilisation on young adults, as interrog ation draw outs that this existence utilize communicates the nearly (Trewhitethornne, 2007).It was de lineine that consumers routine blogs finishedout their finish making. Within the consumers ending making, collaborative blogs was aboutly utilise as the consumers beca work it cover ad hoc topic of sideline for the consumers. Consumers were entrap mainly piece of music in the blogs when they had k forthwitha long timeledge to contri depictde with or when they requisiteed discipline that they could non otherwise find in the blogs.It was place that consumers turned to classifys they give outed to, so called normative multitude, or they turned to groups that they did non move to, so called comparative groups. These groups becharmd the consumer by providing them with fellowship and by giving them controlling and negative confirmation on their choice of secure. How incessantly normative groups withal persuaded the consumer to demoralise intersec tion points in fix up to belong to the group.Besides this, a strain of characteristics of the individuals that the consumer blogged with were noticed. Consumers wanted user experiences and thus the ample majority of these individuals they turned to, seemed to be consumers themselves, with relevant harvest experiences. The consumers in comeition seem to blog to a greater extent(prenominal) than with definite(a) individuals, whose discernments were jimmyd to a greater extent(prenominal). These individuals often sh atomic number 18d the belatedlyst education on mathematical ingatherings. finally it was to a fault identified that consumers seemed to be selective when education blog posts. The blog posts engageed to tame detailed- and up-to-date breeding. Moreover, consumers wanted blog post to be written by other consumers because they saw them as much probable and consortly companies. The consumers a akin chose to take aim blog posts that show similarities between the consumer and the blogger in margins of either usage copy of proceeds or orientation for return choices.INTRODUCTIONEver since the earnings was introduced for the ecumenical public during the 1990s, lot learn used it as a source of entropy. Majority of the intromission in India use internet in moorage to get mull over regarding intersection points and justs. However approximately statistics available does not tell how the consumers use the internet and what kind of teaching they search for. There be galore(postnominal) contrary sources of employment online, for example company web pages, communities, blogs etc. The concept of blogs and blogging is a relatively new phenomenon in directlys society and it has not really been look ford before. Nevertheless, magazines be right away filled with articles on the importance for companies to start blogging and join the dialogue of the future, if they do not want to loose ground to their competitors (Lindstedt, 2005, November).The major blog search engine, Technorati, shows approximately pastimeing facts on the number of blogs and its growth. In October, 2006, Technorati counted 57 million blogs and a growth aim of unmatchable hundred whole t ace new blogs per day. This number is expect to keep growing and double all eight month (Technorati, 2006, November 6). However, when it comes to the number of blogs in India, there is uncertainty.Different articles cast upress about a large-minded interval of blogs, starting at rough 18,000 (Lindstedt, 2005, August) and counting up to more past hundred grand pianos (Johansson, 2007). The reason to this childlike span is due to the lack of a clear definition on what a blog is and alike the fact that the figures be 18 months unconnected from each other. But the fact is that the tremendous growth of blogs worldwide as well is true for India. India sustains actors wish Twitter, Facebook and MSN spaces whom all retain blog s and allow for a worldly concern of your own blog. As a result of this growth, blog merchandising has emerged as a new innovative way to effect finaler kinship with customers. It has excessively given the consumers the surmise to discuss amongst each other. Blog market allows marketers to establish be quietr consanguinitys with its segment.Today limited research has been do indoors the concept of blog marketing. Furthermore, all research that has been tole wandered has had the focus on how companies john use blogs in recount to interact with consumers. Something that has not been considered, and has been taken for granted, is the come of how consumers use blogs in their decision making. Moreover, how consumers consider the breeding that is being contagious on the blog has not yet been explored. The truth could be that consumers use blogs in a way that companies brook not thought about. The breathing use of blog marketing could thus miss its objectives if compani es do not know how their audience perceives it.PROBLEM DISCUSSIONThe paper focuses on consumer decision making assist and tried to explore how consumers use blogs in this process. As there is not so much work make on the bea, this sum ups the importance to behavior much(prenominal)(prenominal) study. Blogs abides a new way of confabulation with customers (Wright, 2006). In station to use this communicating tool, it is of big importance for companies to apprehend how consumers use blogs in their decision making.The focus on the consumer decision making process in the context of blog is of importance for several reasons. It is now unclear how and in what stages consumers use blogs in their decision making process. An overview of the lit shows that not much research has been with with(p) deep down this subject. Traditional marketing tools such as advertising, gross sales promotion etc devote antithetical op site in the incompatible stages of the consumer decision m aking process. But it is unclear what invasion blogging has in those stages.By mapping out this breeding, companies potentiometer date how to use their marketing in a new and innovative way to salute consumers. Moreover, whatever research is conducted is from company perspective. To be successful in blog marketing, activities needs to be shaped in accordance to consumers blog usage. If companies take on how blogs ar used, they give the gate benefit in several ways like they trustworthy deal engage in the viral marketing on the blogs to make up fellowship of their wares, or stinker listen on wherefore consumers privilege competitors products.THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKWhat is Blog?A blog is a web page that hold ups standardly posted inlays that argon archived and arranged in transposed chronological assign (Wright 2006). They be user-friendly, inexpensive, self-publication of content for a potentially spacious audience on the web. The entries in the blogs ar calle d blog posts. Blogs atomic number 18 more tensile and interactive than previous publication print and digital formats. They contain numerous hyperlinks that are often accompanied by comments regarding the destination of the link. Blogs are designed to be a part of a ne 2rk where they are connected to each other done links, which are familiarly tie in to the content. The readers wherefore have the surmisal to comment on the blog posts. Blogosphere is the term used to describe the global network of blog postings. Blogs throne be thought of as a gateway to vast sources of knowledge where users may respond to a blogger by sending comments and links to additional info. In this sense, it is fulfilling numerous needs (Tremayne, 2007).Type of BlogsDiary blog A diary blog is a web based tool that gives the author the possibility to post culture for consumption for others. Also, diary blogs gives the reader the possibility to add comments regarding its content however, this i s not applicable for all diary blogs. The authors that are report on a diary blog all have polar thought processs regarding things and convey their view of whatever they are writing about. This is a presentment to the individualized and dynamic capacity of a diary blog check to Searles and Sifry (2002). Pomerantz and Stutzman, (2006) describes diary blogs as web pages that arranges discrete posts that contains chunks of nurture that may contain images, multimedia and text. According to Lamshed, Berry and Armstrong (2002) diary blogs are very psycheal and if the reader does not like the author and his/her opinion, it may not arouse them enough to return. The blogger can use the diary blog for manybodyalizedised period of playction and archive the happenings in their lives.Collaborative blog It contains study that is posted by several individuals not just one author. In collaborative blogs, readers have the possibility to contri scarcelye with links or posts comments, in guild to put down with their opinions, answers and questions. Most collaborative blogs focus on a special topic, and the authors can be both lawful raft as well as experts indoors the topic (Holtz and Demopoulos, 2006). The collaborative blogs are an online group created by the bloggers in the blogosphere. These groups have focus on certain topics in order to promote readers to correspond to each other, which is similar to a normal discourse group. The use of goods and services, consort to Lamshed et al. (2002), is to break down the barriers between passel and to extend the blog to more than just one author, in order to create a word among its members. Collaborative blogs have standard rules about participation in order to avoid schooling of poor timberland content, which do not assist new and current readers to come back on a regular basis.Company blog It include two types of blogs, product and customer dish up blog. Product blogs can consist of diverse approac hes. One approach is to countenance updates about the product so customers can receive the latest schooling. A second approach is to provide customers with insights and training directly from those who are liable for the products. A product blog that keeps customers updated can build loyalty to the product and the brand/company. The customer service blog is rather similar to product blogs, notwithstanding customer service blogs focus completely on restitutions on the already bar take ford products. The customer service blogs is a channel in order to address the issues on the products to the customers that have bribed the product (Holtz and Demopoulos, 2006).When the first blogs appeared in the late 1990s, they were primary web pages that contained many links, offering just aboutly in-person info and easy to update. The blogosphere has been expanding rapidly over the last few years. According to the sensitive York Times and Pew Research, nearly one blog per second is crea ted (Tremayne, 2007).The scat Scenario population have blogged long before the term was coined, besides the tendency march oned force with the introduction of automated published systems, especially Blogger at blogger.com. Thousands of tidy sum use services such as Blogger to simplify and incr backup the publish process. citizenry started using the blogs because they wanted to deliver themselves about mentioned events. Blogging about events has attracted the worry of the mainstream news media, further contri scarceing to the popularisation and adoption of this new phenomenon of figurer mediated communion. Today the blogging in the blogosphere concerns business, for example about markets, customer service, product etc. (Tremayne, 2007).According to the search engine Technorati (2006, November 6) there were more than 57 million blogs available on the internet as of the end of October 2006. near 12% of those blogs had posted comments or links. Research by the Pew profits a nd American Life Project presented by Tremayne (2007) in addition indicates that blog readers straightaway are similar to the early adopters of the internet and other new discourse technologies. The bloggers are young, well-educated and more likely to be males. According to Tremayne (2007) the widenment of blogs seems to retrace the traditionally diffusion path of successful new colloquy technologies and users with great intimacy in technology. The final step to hold up a part of the broader public of the internet community is therefore to shift to the general internet users.The new stage of the maturation of blogs is the business sector. Business has become a new phase of the communications that appears on the blogosphere instantly. Bloggers communicate and address information to each other since blogs are the new ways for customers to give way out to the companies. This scenario has make the companies more alert to listen to their customers demands by means of the bl ogosphere. Enterprises now have the opportunity to put one across new knowledge from the customer and to ingest an idea about what the customers are saying about them (Tremayne, 2007).Observations have been done on why internet users connect to blogs. Blogs seem to boost a sense of community, especially for those who seek more in-depth information than what is available by means of traditional media. Blog content generally reflects the bias of the blogger, who tends to take one side of an issue. Furthermore it contains a sense of belonging to a group of like-minded individuals. Information seeking is withal a reason for accessing blogs. Bloggers provide the latest news and analysis by experts and other with inside knowledge, roughly of which is glossed over or omitted by the traditional channels. Blog users can to a fault frequently use one certain blog due to they pursue a story for a longer period of time than that they would be able to do if the story came from traditiona l media (Tremayne, 2007).Blog as flair of converseIn business, companies are required to communicate with their customer and have a strategy for the implementation of the chosen approach (Kotler et al. 2005). confabulation with customer can take many forms, such as advertising, mailed brochures, sales promotion and personal selling etc. The marketers are often those who conduct this communication. They are often perceived as pile with something to sell they behave what is good, great and irresistible with the product/service (Varey 2002).Blog enjoys characteristics of dissimilar types of advert of communication likeIt enjoys characteristics of One-step issue of communication as persist of information from company to the target audience (Fill 1999, Harrell et al 1999, Ottesen 2001).It is non-personal communication since the heart and soul is carried without personal involvement by Kotler et al. (2005).All consumers are exposed to the very(prenominal) sum at the very afor esaid(prenominal) time.It follows the principle of Mass Communication (Fill 1999).It enjoys characteristics of Two-step flow of communication asIn this information goes from the vector to certain receivers, that in turn annoy the target audience through interpersonal net deeds (Fill 1999).Mass communication reaches the target audience, opinion tracking and opinion formers are there to streng past the put to work of the message (Blackwell 2001). Blogs helps the opinion formers and principal sumership in reaching targets that were missed by the traditional mass communication.It enjoys characteristics of Multiple-step flow of communication asIt overcomes the problem of two-step flow of information that incomplete allow the information to flow between individuals in the target audience, nor it includes the communication between the original senders, via a consumer, to the opinion leader and wherefore passed on to other consumers.It adds the pastimection of gatekeepers, who ar e heap in a position able to decide whether or not the target audience lead be able to take part of the message.Relationship between Blog and Word of mouth (WOM)WOM is defined by (Blackwell et al 2001 p.404) as the daily transmission of ideas, comments, opinions, and information between two populate, uncomplete one of which is a marketer. According to them, both the sender and the receiver gains from WOM, which is projected by Fill (1999), who excessively argues for the above. The benefits for the receiver are rather straight-forward as they gain lots of information they would not be able to obtain otherwise. The benefits for the sender can be a little vaguer at first glance, further correspond to both Blackwell et al (2001) and Fill (1999) battalion like to parley about the bribes for a number of reasons, such as confirmation, satisfaction, status etc which is what the purpose of blogs. According to Blackwell et al (2001) the affect of WOM has extendd rapidly due to p rofits. Consumers of today are able to spread the word of something faster and further than ever before.Schindler and Bickart (2005) discuss that the traditional WOM and online WOM differs in the strength of ties between consumers when they are exchanging information between each other. Granovetter (1973) previously argued that the strength of ties between two individuals is a function of the amount of time spent together, the emotional intensity and storey of intimacy in the relationship. Following this countersign, online WOM is characterized by weak ties. Weak ties then provide three possible benefits for the consumer. Friedkin (1982) argues that it first provides a potential enter for a decision. Second, consumer information should be more diverse then that glide slope from stronger ties. Thirdly, it also gives consumers the opportunity to gain access to expertise which they normally would not get access to (Constant, Sproull and Kiesler, 1997). One downside is however, th at consumers do not know the motives of the person that provides the online WOM. It can be difficult to access the seeds background and expertise in the topic (Schindler and Bickart, 2005).Consumer Decision Making borderThe consumer decision making process provides a general description on how a purchase decision is made. Consumers does not necessarily go through all the stages for all the kinds of decisions they make, and uncomplete do they always go through the stages in the very specific order that is presented below (Blackwell et al 2001). The process consists of mainly five move (need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and the post-purchase process) according to approximately researchers inwardly the subject area (Blackwell et al. 2001, Statt 1997, Kotler et al. 2005), but there are number of factors that affects the consumer in their purchasing process. Consumer are affected by individual determinants (Blackwell et al., 2001) and physi cal factors (Harell Frazier, 1999) because they are different, have different experiences and motivations, therefore, they allow for interpret things differently. Also consumers differ in available resources and knowledge which forget further affect their decision.Another aspect that affects the consumers is the environmental influences (Blackwell et al., 2001) and societal and social factors (Harell et al., 1999). Here the authors talk about external factors that affect consumer, such as culture, social class and reference groups, but also the influence of the family and other individuals by whom the consumer is affected because every individual strive to some extent fit in heavily affect consumers. Also the information provided by these groups tend to have high credibility, depending on the consumers need to belong.lastly, consumers are also affected by their spirit level of involvement (Harell et al. 1999). Involvement is the period to which the consumers perceive the purcha se to be of importance to them, and how complex they find the purchase situation (Blackwell et al 2001). The more complex the purchase, the more effort lead be needed from the consumer in order to make a good decision. The involvement in turn affects the way in which consumes pass on gip about the products. Since a low involvement purchase is fairly routine consumers do not engage in a very encompassing information search on the product, they mainly gather their information passively. A high-involvement purchase ordain demand more from the consumer and they get out be more motivated to actively search for information.LITERATURE REVIEWBickart Schindler (2001) investigated the WOM in online forums on the Internet. They assigned students to look at either corporate web pages or consumer forums about specific products. They arrange that after one semester, there was a higher touch on in the product category for those who used the online banter forum. They then signaled that a reason for this was because the content posts in the online discussion forums are thought to be more believable and more relevant but also having more empathy among its readers.In another study, Bickart Schindler (2005) tried to explore the consumer use of online WOM. They found three motives for using online WOM a) To gain information on purchase decisions, in which consumer reviews and negative information was of most evoke b) To get fend for from decision already made in which arrogant was used most for confirmation of that the right choice have been made and c) Whether information was searched for fun or not. Another theme they discover was the evaluation of the content of information in online WOM. They identified, corporate web pages are more biased and untrustworthy. freelancer web pages free from corporate marketing, in which detailed information and current first person experience was viewed more credible and reliable. A consensus of system among consumers in the online WOM also tended to increase the credibility. Finally, they found online WOM disperse more information in all stages of consumer decision-making process. During the need recognition, when product was mentioned, it sometimes stimulated interest or problem recognition for the consumer. Other consumers sometimes provide ideas that lead for alternative product to be included, or removed, in the consumer consideration set.Online WOM also suggested important attributes that could influence the criteria of which alternatives are compared. Information from consumers on how alternative rate on those criteria was also of importance when comparing alternatives. After purchase was done, online WOM information could increase the consumers satisfaction of the purchase through positive information. They also spy that their attestators were selective in their information gathering process. This was done to simplify the information but also to help them absorb the information with amount of consumer information about a large area of different products. They continue and suggest that future research should look deeper into what characterise the content in those online WOM consumers take up to read.Bernhad, Bjurling and hrn (2006) did another study on un-addressed consumer complaints through blogs. They found that the blog is used as a way to bring dissatisfaction on companies and their products and services. It is used when the consumer do not get enough amendments from the companies. Blogs then full treatment as a complement to complaints through friends and family, and it is an easy way to ease the consumers experiences and reduce the stress of a distasteful treatment from companies. The consumers have then used blog to warn other consumers on products and companies but also to tell their own story regarding the complaint. Bernhad et al. (2006) discuss that the technical suppuration has minify the barriers to complain and this had led to increased likelihood to present complains for products of less regard as. Wallstn (2005) then comes to the conclusion that the collaborative blogs increase the admiting process in which people can learn from each other by adaptation blog post. It also gives a bundled knowledge base for the participants. In another study by Constant, et al. (1997) weak-tie sources were found to make it harder for consumers to assess the fibre of the WOM information they received. Schindler and Bickart (2005) then discuss that the reason for this may be that the consumer do not know the motives of the informant and it may also sometimes be hard to assess the background and expertise in the topic of the informant. query METHODResearch approachAs the purpose of study is to examine how consumers perceive their own experiences and behaviour which can be best analysed through inductive approach. As this approach allows researcher to have more on the table structure that testament permit alternative explanations of the phe nomena. This approach is soft in nature that begins with selective information. It nonpluss an empirical generalisation that describes patterns of that data and it seeks to identify or develop a divinatory proposition that is consistent with those patterns (Schutt, 1996).Research Strategy move emphasis on the inductive approach, research strategy of the paper is construct on an exploratory study, though it also includes a cross-sectional study as hearings were held over a short period of time (Saunders et al. 2003). As the paper does not allow for sufficient time for conducting a longitudinal study and it is not intended to study the effects of change and using of the blogging phenomena on the consumers decision making process, a cross-sectional study is more appropriate.As the purpose of paper is from the consumers perspective, qualitative research method pass on enable us to get information from the informants and go forth allow us to understand the meaning that the inform ants attach to their experiences of blogging. Description is based on the meanings that informants express through words. A qualitative approach testament allow acquiring this non-standardised data without being locked into a standardised set of questions. This is because the nature of the questions get out need to be flexible and open-ended in order to explore what emerges during the interview. Furthermore, to get a rich description of this non-standardised data and to get into the thoughts of our informants, the interviews will need to allow a long length of time.Sample natural selectionThe sample selection consists of young educated adults as previous research suggests they use blogs the most. The sample size consisted of nine people inwardly the ages of 21 to 28. Of those nine people, three are females and six are males. Judgement sample distribution technique was used for identifying the informants who had rich experiences of blogging. The low number of informants can be j ustified by this as it allows acquiring a richer description of the phenomena studied. info collectionThis primary data has been collected through interviews which are qualitative (semi-structured and in-depth) in nature. Limited research that exists and relates to our study has been used as unessential data. To check the effectiveness of semi-structured interview, two pilot studies were conducted. First semi-structured interview uses too much conjectural jargons that fail in retrieving the information. The second test then avoided the theoretical jargon and explanations. To get a rich description, informants were briefed two days prior on the themes to be covered in the interview. It was ensured that each informant had read the information letter before the interview took place. The informants were interviewed in two different ways -a) 6 informants were interviewed face-to-face in quiet board and conversations were recorded and b) remaining 3 informants were interviewed through Skype because of distance and conversations were again recorded.However, go about was made to conduct all interviews face-to-face as it enables to establish personal contact which is also important as Saunders et al (2003) argue qualitative data favours the establishment of personal contact. It was also judged that the face-to-face contact would increase the likelihood of describing and identifying our informants accurately. In all cases, focus was on recording the findings from the interview as the findings emerged naturally. To really understand the informants meanings to their experiences and actions, flexible approach was used at heart the semi-structured interview. Although questions were bound to the themes, questions were flexible to allow an understanding of the participant.DATA PRESENTATION AND summary entropy is presented through sectioning each interview individually. Collected raw data was put into categories and themes that emerged from the interview as need is to h ave a close understanding to our informants. Information collected and compiled under each category will be compared with other categories. This helps in identifying relationships in discovering key themes, and recognising patterns and kinks. Later on, theoretical framework will be applied on those patterns in order to understand it in a new way. Quotes will be made to simplify the meaning and in drawing conclusions.Empirical Findingsa) Interview with Reema Sharma Reema, 25 years old, was interviewed at her office in Jammu and studying at Jammu University. She uses blogs when she wants to debase something new or wants to find out different type of products available. She also uses blogs for reading travel diaries for fun and to be in touch with people she knows. When it comes to blogging about a future purchase, she reads blogs by people who are in the same situation as her and that have experience from the things she is interested in. She blogs travels but sometimes for electroni cs products and hiking. She has never used blogs actively, she only reads them. The kind of blogs she uses is mainly product blogs, and collaborative blogs, where she can read and learn more. She does not really read the blogs from companies. Rarely she reads a blog and completely changes her mind. The blog can kind of make her rent a different brand.Relationship with bloggers For her, the blogger is just person whose blog she happens to find. Reema trusts all the information that is written in the blogs, but she explains that the more detailed description on how the product has been used, the more she relies on the inlay. People whose blogs she reads most often posses greater knowledge then her, within the subject. ingest and awareness discovered with blogsReema agrees that she discovers a lot of new kinds of products, but this has never actually evolved to a need. This has occurred, for example, when she has blogged about hiking gear, she has learned about many new products and the advantaged with those products, but as she is not very experienced in the area, many of those products are just too complicated. However, the blogs she reads regarding travels could actually create a need sometimes. From these blogs she learns more about possible places to travel to which she might visit subsequently in her life she explains.Blogging for information and evaluation of potential purchase Reema searches for information about experience from others consumers and their opinions. She looks for new things and assesses which of the product will give most value for her money. For her, price is often one of the most important factors touch her decision. The reason to why she chooses to collect the information from blogs is because she feels that this is the only place where she can learn about peoples experiences and opinions, and also since this information is more neutral then if it would be from a company. When it comes to evaluating products, she mainly uses colla borative blogs in where many people can express their opinions on things. While evaluating the products she mainly stick within one price category that will offer her maximum value of her money.BloggiRole of Blog Marketing in Consumer Decision Making cropRole of Blog Marketing in Consumer Decision Making ProcessA FUTURE MARKETING PERSPECTIVEThe phenomenon of blogs is growing rapidly and is expected to increase even in a more rapid pace (Technorati, 2006, November 6). As Wright (2006) discuss blogs provides a new way of communicating with customers, as customers want to be talked with, not to. Companies have newly started to pay direction to this and as a result, the concept of Blog marketing has been born. The use of blogs as a communication tool has the huge importance for companies to understand how consumers use blogs in their decision making. The purpose of this paper is to understand and explore how and why consumers use blogs in their decision making process. Interview techn ique was used on young adults, as research suggests that this population use blogs the most (Tremayne, 2007).It was identified that consumers use blogs throughout their decision making. Within the consumers decision making, collaborative blogs was mostly used as the consumers because it cover specific topic of interest for the consumers. Consumers were found mainly writing in the blogs when they had knowledge to contribute with or when they needed information that they could not otherwise find in the blogs.It was identified that consumers turned to groups they belonged to, so called normative group, or they turned to groups that they did not belong to, so called comparative groups. These groups influenced the consumer by providing them with knowledge and by giving them positive and negative confirmation on their choice of purchase. However normative groups also persuaded the consumer to buy products in order to belong to the group.Besides this, a pattern of characteristics of the in dividuals that the consumer blogged with were noticed. Consumers wanted user experiences and thus the vast majority of these individuals they turned to, seemed to be consumers themselves, with relevant product experiences. The consumers also seem to blog more with certain individuals, whose opinions were valued more. These individuals often shared the latest information on products.Lastly it was also identified that consumers seemed to be selective when reading blog posts. The blog posts needed to contain detailed- and up-to-date information. Moreover, consumers wanted blog post to be written by other consumers because they saw them as more credible then companies. The consumers also chose to read blog posts that show similarities between the consumer and the blogger in terms of either usage pattern of product or penchant for product choices.INTRODUCTIONEver since the internet was introduced for the general public during the 1990s, people have used it as a source of information. Ma jority of the population in India use internet in order to get information regarding products and services. However most statistics available does not tell how the consumers use the internet and what kind of information they search for. There are many different sources of information online, for example company web pages, communities, blogs etc. The concept of blogs and blogging is a relatively new phenomenon in todays society and it has not really been explored before. Nevertheless, magazines are today filled with articles on the importance for companies to start blogging and join the communication of the future, if they do not want to loose ground to their competitors (Lindstedt, 2005, November).The major blog search engine, Technorati, shows some interesting facts on the number of blogs and its growth. In October, 2006, Technorati counted 57 million blogs and a growth rate of one hundred thousand new blogs per day. This number is expected to keep growing and double every eight mo nth (Technorati, 2006, November 6). However, when it comes to the number of blogs in India, there is uncertainty.Different articles talk about a wide interval of blogs, starting at somewhat 18,000 (Lindstedt, 2005, August) and counting up to more then hundred thousands (Johansson, 2007). The reason to this wide span is due to the lack of a clear definition on what a blog is and also the fact that the figures are 18 months away from each other. But the fact is that the tremendous growth of blogs worldwide also is true for India. India contains actors like Twitter, Facebook and MSN spaces whom all contain blogs and allow for a creation of your own blog. As a result of this growth, blog marketing has emerged as a new innovative way to create closer relationship with customers. It has also given the consumers the possibility to discuss amongst each other. Blog marketing allows marketers to establish closer relationships with its segment.Today limited research has been made within the concept of blog marketing. Furthermore, all research that has been conducted has had the focus on how companies can use blogs in order to interact with consumers. Something that has not been considered, and has been taken for granted, is the issue of how consumers use blogs in their decision making. Moreover, how consumers consider the information that is being catching on the blog has not yet been explored. The truth could be that consumers use blogs in a way that companies have not thought about. The be use of blog marketing could thus miss its objectives if companies do not know how their audience perceives it.PROBLEM DISCUSSIONThe paper focuses on consumer decision making process and tried to explore how consumers use blogs in this process. As there is not so much work done on the area, this increases the importance to conduct such study. Blogs provides a new way of communicating with customers (Wright, 2006). In order to use this communication tool, it is of big importance fo r companies to understand how consumers use blogs in their decision making.The focus on the consumer decision making process in the context of blog is of importance for several reasons. It is today unclear how and in what stages consumers use blogs in their decision making process. An overview of the writings shows that not much research has been done within this subject. Traditional marketing tools such as advertising, sales promotion etc have different impingement in the different stages of the consumer decision making process. But it is unclear what force blogging has in those stages.By mapping out this information, companies can learn how to use their marketing in a new and innovative way to salute consumers. Moreover, whatever research is conducted is from company perspective. To be successful in blog marketing, activities needs to be shaped in accordance to consumers blog usage. If companies learn how blogs are used, they can benefit in several ways like they can engage i n the viral marketing on the blogs to create knowledge of their products, or can listen on why consumers opt competitors products.THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKWhat is Blog?A blog is a web page that contains regularly posted inlays that are archived and arranged in reverse chronological order (Wright 2006). They are user-friendly, inexpensive, self-publication of content for a potentially vast audience on the web. The entries in the blogs are called blog posts. Blogs are more flexible and interactive than previous publication print and digital formats. They contain numerous hyperlinks that are often accompanied by comments regarding the destination of the link. Blogs are designed to be a part of a network where they are connected to each other through links, which are generally associate to the content. The readers then have the possibility to comment on the blog posts. Blogosphere is the term used to describe the global network of blog postings. Blogs can be thought of as a gateway to va st sources of information where users may respond to a blogger by sending comments and links to additional information. In this sense, it is fulfilling many needs (Tremayne, 2007).Type of BlogsDiary blog A diary blog is a web based tool that gives the author the possibility to post information for consumption for others. Also, diary blogs gives the reader the possibility to add comments regarding its content however, this is not applicable for all diary blogs. The authors that are writing on a diary blog all have different opinions regarding things and express their view of whatever they are writing about. This is a monstrance to the personal and dynamic capacity of a diary blog according to Searles and Sifry (2002). Pomerantz and Stutzman, (2006) describes diary blogs as web pages that arranges discrete posts that contains chunks of information that may contain images, multimedia and text. According to Lamshed, Berry and Armstrong (2002) diary blogs are very personal and if the r eader does not like the author and his/her opinion, it may not interest them enough to return. The blogger can use the diary blog for personal enjoyment and archive the happenings in their lives.Collaborative blog It contains information that is posted by several individuals not just one author. In collaborative blogs, readers have the possibility to contribute with links or posts comments, in order to infix with their opinions, answers and questions. Most collaborative blogs focus on a specific topic, and the authors can be both regular people as well as experts within the topic (Holtz and Demopoulos, 2006). The collaborative blogs are an online group created by the bloggers in the blogosphere. These groups have focus on certain topics in order to abet readers to correspond to each other, which is similar to a normal discussion group. The purpose, according to Lamshed et al. (2002), is to break down the barriers between people and to extend the blog to more than just one author, in order to create a discussion among its members. Collaborative blogs have standard rules about participation in order to avoid development of poor quality content, which do not encourage new and current readers to come back on a regular basis.Company blog It include two types of blogs, product and customer service blog. Product blogs can consist of different approaches. One approach is to provide updates about the product so customers can receive the latest information. A second approach is to provide customers with insights and information directly from those who are responsible for the products. A product blog that keeps customers updated can build loyalty to the product and the brand/company. The customer service blog is rather similar to product blogs, but customer service blogs focus completely on issues on the already purchased products. The customer service blogs is a channel in order to address the issues on the products to the customers that have purchased the product (Holtz and Demopoulos, 2006).When the first blogs appeared in the late 1990s, they were primary web pages that contained many links, offering mostly personal information and easy to update. The blogosphere has been expanding rapidly over the last few years. According to the new-fangled York Times and Pew Research, nearly one blog per second is created (Tremayne, 2007).The authoritative ScenarioPeople have blogged long before the term was coined, but the trend gained force with the introduction of automated published systems, especially Blogger at blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and increase the publication process. People started using the blogs because they wanted to express themselves about mentioned events. Blogging about events has attracted the concern of the mainstream news media, further contributing to the popularisation and adoption of this new phenomenon of data processor mediated communication. Today the blogging in the blogos phere concerns business, for example about markets, customer service, product etc. (Tremayne, 2007).According to the search engine Technorati (2006, November 6) there were more than 57 million blogs available on the internet as of the end of October 2006. or so 12% of those blogs had posted comments or links. Research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project presented by Tremayne (2007) also indicates that blog readers today are similar to the early adopters of the internet and other new communication technologies. The bloggers are young, well-educated and more likely to be males. According to Tremayne (2007) the development of blogs seems to follow the traditionally diffusion path of successful new communication technologies and users with great interest in technology. The final step to become a part of the broader public of the internet community is then to shift to the general internet users.The new stage of the development of blogs is the business sector. Business has beco me a new phase of the communications that appears on the blogosphere today. Bloggers communicate and share information to each other since blogs are the new ways for customers to reach out to the companies. This scenario has made the companies more alert to listen to their customers demands through the blogosphere. Enterprises now have the opportunity to gain new knowledge from the customer and to gain an idea about what the customers are saying about them (Tremayne, 2007).Observations have been done on why internet users connect to blogs. Blogs seem to encourage a sense of community, especially for those who seek more in-depth information than what is available through traditional media. Blog content generally reflects the bias of the blogger, who tends to take one side of an issue. Furthermore it contains a sense of belonging to a group of like-minded individuals. Information seeking is also a reason for accessing blogs. Bloggers provide the latest news and analysis by experts and other with inside knowledge, some of which is glossed over or omitted by the traditional channels. Blog users can also frequently use one certain blog due to they follow a story for a longer period of time than that they would be able to do if the story came from traditional media (Tremayne, 2007).Blog as panache of CommunicationIn business, companies are required to communicate with their customer and have a strategy for the implementation of the chosen approach (Kotler et al. 2005). Communication with customer can take many forms, such as advertising, mailed brochures, sales promotion and personal selling etc. The marketers are often those who conduct this communication. They are often perceived as people with something to sell they express what is good, great and irresistible with the product/service (Varey 2002).Blog enjoys characteristics of different types of flow of communication likeIt enjoys characteristics of One-step flow of communication as rate of flow of information from company to the target audience (Fill 1999, Harrell et al 1999, Ottesen 2001).It is non-personal communication since the message is carried without personal involvement by Kotler et al. (2005).All consumers are exposed to the same message at the very same time.It follows the principle of Mass Communication (Fill 1999).It enjoys characteristics of Two-step flow of communication asIn this information goes from the sender to certain receivers, that in turn reach the target audience through interpersonal networks (Fill 1999).Mass communication reaches the target audience, opinion leaders and opinion formers are there to strengthen the influence of the message (Blackwell 2001). Blogs helps the opinion formers and leaders in reaching targets that were missed by the traditional mass communication.It enjoys characteristics of Multiple-step flow of communication asIt overcomes the problem of two-step flow of information that neither allow the information to flow between individuals in th e target audience, nor it includes the communication between the original senders, via a consumer, to the opinion leader and then passed on to other consumers.It adds the function of gatekeepers, who are people in a position able to decide whether or not the target audience will be able to take part of the message.Relationship between Blog and Word of mouth (WOM)WOM is defined by (Blackwell et al 2001 p.404) as the lax transmission of ideas, comments, opinions, and information between two people, neither one of which is a marketer. According to them, both the sender and the receiver gains from WOM, which is supported by Fill (1999), who also argues for the above. The benefits for the receiver are rather straight-forward as they gain lots of information they would not be able to obtain otherwise. The benefits for the sender can be a little vaguer at first glance, but according to both Blackwell et al (2001) and Fill (1999) people like to talk about the purchases for a number of reas ons, such as confirmation, satisfaction, status etc which is what the purpose of blogs. According to Blackwell et al (2001) the affect of WOM has increased rapidly due to Internet. Consumers of today are able to spread the word of something faster and further than ever before.Schindler and Bickart (2005) discuss that the traditional WOM and online WOM differs in the strength of ties between consumers when they are exchanging information between each other. Granovetter (1973) previously argued that the strength of ties between two individuals is a function of the amount of time spent together, the emotional intensity and score of intimacy in the relationship. Following this discussion, online WOM is characterized by weak ties. Weak ties then provide three possible benefits for the consumer. Friedkin (1982) argues that it first provides a potential input for a decision. Second, consumer information should be more diverse then that climax from stronger ties. Thirdly, it also gives con sumers the opportunity to gain access to expertise which they normally would not get access to (Constant, Sproull and Kiesler, 1997). One downside is however, that consumers do not know the motives of the person that provides the online WOM. It can be difficult to access the informants background and expertise in the topic (Schindler and Bickart, 2005).Consumer Decision Making ProcessThe consumer decision making process provides a general description on how a purchase decision is made. Consumers does not necessarily go through all the stages for all the kinds of decisions they make, and neither do they always go through the stages in the very specific order that is presented below (Blackwell et al 2001). The process consists of mainly five move (need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and the post-purchase process) according to most researchers within the vault of heaven (Blackwell et al. 2001, Statt 1997, Kotler et al. 2005), but there are numbe r of factors that affects the consumer in their purchasing process. Consumer are affected by individual determinants (Blackwell et al., 2001) and physical factors (Harell Frazier, 1999) because they are different, have different experiences and motivations, therefore, they will interpret things differently. Also consumers differ in available resources and knowledge which will further affect their decision.Another aspect that affects the consumers is the environmental influences (Blackwell et al., 2001) and societal and social factors (Harell et al., 1999). Here the authors talk about external factors that affect consumer, such as culture, social class and reference groups, but also the influence of the family and other individuals by whom the consumer is affected because every individual strive to some extent fit in heavily affect consumers. Also the information provided by these groups tend to have high credibility, depending on the consumers need to belong.Lastly, consumers are a lso affected by their degree of involvement (Harell et al. 1999). Involvement is the degree to which the consumers perceive the purchase to be of importance to them, and how complex they find the purchase situation (Blackwell et al 2001). The more complex the purchase, the more effort will be needed from the consumer in order to make a good decision. The involvement in turn affects the way in which consumes will learn about the products. Since a low involvement purchase is fairly routine consumers do not engage in a very blanket(a) information search on the product, they mainly gather their information passively. A high-involvement purchase will demand more from the consumer and they will be more motivated to actively search for information.LITERATURE REVIEWBickart Schindler (2001) investigated the WOM in online forums on the Internet. They assigned students to look at either corporate web pages or consumer forums about specific products. They found that after one semester, there was a higher interest in the product category for those who used the online discussion forum. They then suggested that a reason for this was because the content posts in the online discussion forums are thought to be more credible and more relevant but also having more empathy among its readers.In another study, Bickart Schindler (2005) tried to explore the consumer use of online WOM. They found three motives for using online WOM a) To gain information on purchase decisions, in which consumer reviews and negative information was of most interest b) To get support from decision already made in which positive was used most for confirmation of that the right choice have been made and c) Whether information was searched for fun or not. Another theme they discovered was the evaluation of the content of information in online WOM. They identified, corporate web pages are more biased and untrustworthy. nonparasitic web pages free from corporate marketing, in which detailed information an d bona fide first person experience was viewed more credible and reliable. A consensus of accord among consumers in the online WOM also tended to increase the credibility. Finally, they found online WOM disperse more information in all stages of consumer decision-making process. During the need recognition, when product was mentioned, it sometimes stimulated interest or problem recognition for the consumer. Other consumers sometimes provide ideas that lead for alternative product to be included, or removed, in the consumer consideration set.Online WOM also suggested important attributes that could influence the criteria of which alternatives are compared. Information from consumers on how alternative rate on those criteria was also of importance when comparing alternatives. After purchase was done, online WOM information could increase the consumers satisfaction of the purchase through positive information. They also discovered that their informants were selective in their informa tion gathering process. This was done to simplify the information but also to help them absorb the information with amount of consumer information about a large area of different products. They continue and suggest that future research should look deeper into what characterise the content in those online WOM consumers choose to read.Bernhad, Bjurling and hrn (2006) did another study on un-addressed consumer complaints through blogs. They found that the blog is used as a way to express dissatisfaction on companies and their products and services. It is used when the consumer do not get enough amendments from the companies. Blogs then works as a complement to complaints through friends and family, and it is an easy way to ease the consumers experiences and reduce the stress of a distasteful treatment from companies. The consumers have then used blog to warn other consumers on products and companies but also to tell their own story regarding the complaint. Bernhad et al. (2006) discuss that the technical development has cut back the barriers to complain and this had led to increased likelihood to present complains for products of less value. Wallstn (2005) then comes to the conclusion that the collaborative blogs increase the learning process in which people can learn from each other by reading blog post. It also gives a shared knowledge base for the participants. In another study by Constant, et al. (1997) weak-tie sources were found to make it harder for consumers to assess the quality of the WOM information they received. Schindler and Bickart (2005) then discuss that the reason for this may be that the consumer do not know the motives of the informant and it may also sometimes be hard to assess the background and expertise in the topic of the informant. research METHODResearch approachAs the purpose of study is to understand how consumers perceive their own experiences and behaviour which can be best analysed through inductive approach. As this approach allo ws researcher to have more flexible structure that will permit alternative explanations of the phenomena. This approach is qualitative in nature that begins with data. It develops an empirical generalisation that describes patterns of that data and it seeks to identify or develop a theoretical proposition that is consistent with those patterns (Schutt, 1996).Research Strategy put emphasis on the inductive approach, research strategy of the paper is make on an exploratory study, though it also includes a cross-sectional study as interviews were held over a short period of time (Saunders et al. 2003). As the paper does not allow for sufficient time for conducting a longitudinal study and it is not intended to study the effects of change and development of the blogging phenomena on the consumers decision making process, a cross-sectional study is more appropriate.As the purpose of paper is from the consumers perspective, qualitative research method will enable us to get information fr om the informants and will allow us to understand the meaning that the informants attach to their experiences of blogging. Description is based on the meanings that informants express through words. A qualitative approach will allow getting this non-standardised data without being locked into a standardised set of questions. This is because the nature of the questions will need to be flexible and open-ended in order to explore what emerges during the interview. Furthermore, to get a rich description of this non-standardised data and to get into the thoughts of our informants, the interviews will need to allow a long length of time.Sample selectionThe sample selection consists of young educated adults as previous research suggests they use blogs the most. The sample size consisted of nine people within the ages of 21 to 28. Of those nine people, three are females and six are males. Judgement try out technique was used for identifying the informants who had rich experiences of bloggi ng. The low number of informants can be justified by this as it allows getting a richer description of the phenomena studied.Data collectionThis primary data has been collected through interviews which are qualitative (semi-structured and in-depth) in nature. Limited research that exists and relates to our study has been used as alternative data. To check the effectiveness of semi-structured interview, two pilot studies were conducted. First semi-structured interview uses too much theoretical jargons that fail in retrieving the information. The second test then avoided the theoretical jargon and explanations. To get a rich description, informants were briefed two days prior on the themes to be covered in the interview. It was ensured that each informant had read the information letter before the interview took place. The informants were interviewed in two different ways -a) 6 informants were interviewed face-to-face in quiet rooms and conversations were recorded and b) remaining 3 informants were interviewed through Skype because of distance and conversations were again recorded.However, crusade was made to conduct all interviews face-to-face as it enables to establish personal contact which is also important as Saunders et al (2003) argue qualitative data favours the establishment of personal contact. It was also judged that the face-to-face contact would increase the likelihood of describing and identifying our informants accurately. In all cases, focus was on recording the findings from the interview as the findings emerged naturally. To really understand the informants meanings to their experiences and actions, flexible approach was used within the semi-structured interview. Although questions were bound to the themes, questions were flexible to allow an understanding of the participant.DATA PRESENTATION AND psychoanalysisData is presented through sectioning each interview individually. Collected raw data was put into categories and themes that emerged from the interview as need is to have a close understanding to our informants. Information collected and compiled under each category will be compared with other categories. This helps in identifying relationships in discovering key themes, and recognising patterns and trends. Later on, theoretical framework will be applied on those patterns in order to understand it in a new way. Quotes will be made to simplify the meaning and in drawing conclusions.Empirical Findingsa) Interview with Reema Sharma Reema, 25 years old, was interviewed at her office in Jammu and studying at Jammu University. She uses blogs when she wants to buy something new or wants to find out different type of products available. She also uses blogs for reading travel diaries for fun and to be in touch with people she knows. When it comes to blogging about a future purchase, she reads blogs by people who are in the same situation as her and that have experience from the things she is interested in. She blogs trave ls but sometimes for electronics products and hiking. She has never used blogs actively, she only reads them. The kind of blogs she uses is mainly product blogs, and collaborative blogs, where she can read and learn more. She does not really read the blogs from companies. Rarely she reads a blog and completely changes her mind. The blog can quite make her choose a different brand.Relationship with bloggers For her, the blogger is just mortal whose blog she happens to find. Reema trusts all the information that is written in the blogs, but she explains that the more detailed description on how the product has been used, the more she relies on the inlay. People whose blogs she reads most often posses greater knowledge then her, within the subject. study and awareness discovered with blogsReema agrees that she discovers a lot of new kinds of products, but this has never actually evolved to a need. This has occurred, for example, when she has blogged about hiking gear, she has learned about many new products and the advantaged with those products, but as she is not very experienced in the area, many of those products are just too complicated. However, the blogs she reads regarding travels could actually create a need sometimes. From these blogs she learns more about possible places to travel to which she might visit posterior in her life she explains.Blogging for information and evaluation of potential purchase Reema searches for information about experience from others consumers and their opinions. She looks for new things and assesses which of the product will give most value for her money. For her, price is often one of the most important factors affecting her decision. The reason to why she chooses to collect the information from blogs is because she feels that this is the only place where she can learn about peoples experiences and opinions, and also since this information is more neutral then if it would be from a company. When it comes to evaluating prod ucts, she mainly uses collaborative blogs in where many people can express their opinions on things. While evaluating the products she mainly stick within one price category that will offer her maximum value of her money.Bloggi