Allan J. Kimmel

WOM and social media: Presaging future directions for research and practice

Word of mouth (WOM) has become the focus of growing interest among marketing practitioners and consumers. However, the promises of WOM marketing are often oversold, and various assertions about the nature of WOM, its dynamics, antecedents, and consequences at times have been misstated in mass-mediated articles and books on the topic. In this introductory paper for the special issue on WOM and social media, we survey the current state of WOM knowledge and the role of WOM in contemporary marketing, reconsider common beliefs about the WOM process in an effort to separate WOM facts from fallacies, and presage some future directions and best practices in light of evolving online channels of WOM generation and transmission.

Analysis of commercial rumors from the perspective of marketing managers: Rumor prevalence, effects, and control tactics

This study examines commercial rumors from the perspective of marketing managers. American and French respondents (N = 133) completed a rumor questionnaire intended to assess the prevalence and types of commercial rumors that reach their ear, the severity of rumor effects, the effectiveness of rumor control tactics, and the psychological and situational variables associated with rumor onset and spread. Based on a variation of the critical incidents technique involving recalled commercial rumors, the results conform to rumor theory in terms of the psychological and situational factors (i.e. anxiety, importance, credulity, and uncertainty) underlying rumor transmission, and offer support for our proposed rumor model. The findings also highlight the prevalence and potentially negative impact of rumors in marketing sectors. As an initial attempt to discern cross-cultural differences in commercial rumor activity, preliminary findings suggest differences in effectiveness of marketing communication tactics for rumor control across the two country samples studied. Overall, the provision of requested information and attempts to increase trust emerged as the most effective rumor control tactics.

Ethical Trends in Marketing and Psychological Research

In contrast to the behavioral sciences, the nature and impact of ethical procedures such as informed consent and constraints on the use of deception have been addressed infrequently in the marketing discipline. This article describes an initial investigation into the methodological and ethical practices reported in published marketing research articles since the mid-1970s. Empirical articles appearing in the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Consumer Research between 1975 and 1976, 1989 and 1990, and 1996 and 1997 were coded according to methodological and ethical practices employed and compared with recent trends in the social psychological research literature. The marketing findings revealed an increase over time in laboratory experimentation, the utilization of active deception and debriefing, and the use of university student samples. Although the results suggest that marketing researchers use deception with less frequency and intensity overall than social psychologists, the observed rise in deception procedures in marketing investigations stands in stark contrast to the situation in social psychology, where deception rates have been declining along with a corresponding increase in nonexperimental methodologies and nonstudent samples. The article concludes with a call for greater attention to the ethical, methodological, and disciplinary consequences of the increasing use of deception in marketing research and emphasizes the need for more complete reporting of ethical procedures in published research.

Ethical Decision Making and Research Deception in the Behavioral Sciences: An Application of Social Contract Theory

Despite significant ethical advances in recent years, including professional developments in ethical review and codification, research deception continues to be a pervasive practice and contentious focus of debate in the behavioral sciences. Given the disciplines’ generally-stated ethical standards regarding the use of deceptive procedures, researchers have little practical guidance as to their ethical acceptability in specific research contexts. We use social contract theory to identify the conditions under which deception may or may not be morally permissible, and formulate practical recommendations to guide researchers on the ethical employment of deception in behavioral science research.

Connecting with Consumers Via Live Buzz Marketing: Public Perceptions and the Role of Ethical Ideology

Buzz marketing has emerged as a popular, viable adjunct to traditional marketing communication, yet has received little critical scrutiny from an ethical perspective. This investigation represents an initial excursion into the public mind regarding the acceptability of buzz marketing techniques. One hundred thirty‐one participants evaluated scenarios descriptive of actual live buzz campaigns varying in degree of transparency and deception. More negative perceptions were associated with deceptive approaches (disclosed and secret) than overt ones, and participants were less accepting of peer‐to‐peer campaigns than performance‐to‐peer campaigns. Respondents classified as moral idealists evaluated live buzz campaigns more negatively than moral relativists. The author discusses the implications of these findings for connected marketing strategies and public policy and offers recommendations for connected marketing practitioners.

Neuromarketing Research Practices: Attitudes, Ethics, and Behavioral Intentions

As a new addition to the marketing research toolbox, neuromarketing science has given rise to a variety of questions relevant to consumer perceptions of this nascent area of investigation. Neuromarketing researchers are dependent on consumer involvement as research participants, and finding means to educate the public about neuromarketing is a priority for professionals working in the field. This article describes the results of two online questionnaire studies focused on the role of personal constructs presumed to underlie perceptions of neuromarketing research. The findings point to neuromarketing research knowledge, attitudes toward science, attitudes toward technology, and ethical ideology as important factors linked to neuromarketing research attitudes, perceptions of the ethicality of neuromarketing research, and willingness to participate in neuromarketing studies. We discuss the implications of our findings for educating the public about neuromarketing research and encouraging research participation, and we conclude by suggesting directions for future research.