Making Sense of IWOM: How IWOM is generated and disseminated

Making Sense of IWOM
Topic 2: How IWOM is generated and disseminated
Sep 2009
© 2009 CIC

2
Overview
Do consumers proactively generate and
disseminate IWOM?
Why do consumers generate and disseminate
IWOM?
How to segment the consumers who actively
generate and disseminate IWOM?
About IWOM White Paper
About CIC
Contents
© 2009 CIC
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© 2009 CIC
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For the past 5 years, CIC has been studying Chinese consumers through systematic
observation and analysis of social internet platforms such as blogs, BBS and social
networks. CIC uses a unique methodology that combines quantitative and qualitative
approaches, including online ethnography, as well as cutting edge text mining technology.
Through systematic observation and analysis of online platforms, their users and other
essential elements, we have come to understand consumers’ online behavior and culture.
In Topic1 of CIC’s “Making Sense of IWOM” white paper series, we discussed “the role of
internet word of mouth (IWOM) in purchase decisions” and found that consumers pay
attention to and search IWOM to reduce purchasing risk. Furthermore, IWOM has the ability
to change consumers’ attitude towards brands. IWOM is playing an increasingly important
role in the consumer purchase decision-making process especially when it comes to brand
awareness, purchase decision and post-purchase behavior. In addition to searching for and
paying attention to IWOM, will consumers then take initiative to generate and disseminate
IWOM? What motivates consumers to generate and disseminate IWOM? How do we
segment the consumers that are actively expressing and disseminating IWOM? These are
the subjects we will dissect in Topic 2: “How IWOM is generated and disseminated” .
We found that consumers in online communities not only passively listen to and receive
messages, but also proactively post and disseminate comments about brands and products.
This behavioral pattern builds the process of IWOM circulation and user interaction.
According to our research findings, 54.1% of BBS and blog users will initiate conversations
or post comments related to brands and products. In terms of gender, females are more
active in brand related online discussions. Regarding age, over half of the respondents
between the ages of 18 to 24, 25 to 30 and 31 to 35 proactively post their comments about
brands and products online. These age groups are more active in expressing their opinions
or advice towards brands and products than other age groups.
Through further study on the BBS/blog users who post brand/product related comments, we
identified key situations that drive consumers to post and share comments. We found that
32.4% of respondents’ comments were “triggered by others’ comments” which means they
express opinions in response to others’ comments about brands or products. This not only
shows the wide reach and circulation of IWOM, but emphasizes the strong influence of
IWOM and the interaction between community users. Meanwhile, respondents mentioned
they will generate comments about product user experience, especially after overly positive
or negative experiences. When it comes to age, respondents between the ages of 15 and 24
tend to express fine product experiences and they are prone to be affected by others’
comments and join the discussion, while respondents between 25 and 35 are more likely to
post comments about extremely positive or negative product experience. Respondents over
the age of 35 care more about expression itself. They tend to express comments more freely
and independently whatever the product experience and are less influenced by others’
comments.
Overview

© 2009 CIC
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As these are naturally occurring consumer comments, in general IWOM authentically reflects
the consumers’ impression of brands and products directly or indirectly. According to our
research findings, 70% of respondents indicated that almost all the messages they posted
are from real personal experience. In addition to sharing personal experiences, consumers
will also disseminate credible comments in online communities about brands and products
they have not tried yet, which also promotes the dissemination of IWOM.
The 3 most important motivations for consumers to generate and disseminate IWOM are
interpersonal communication, self expression and experience sharing. In terms of
gender, females focus on interpersonal communication and experience sharing; while males
focus on self expression. In terms of age, young consumers between 18 and 24 show a
stronger motivation to express themselves online across all categories of motivation. This
group of consumers is the key group for brands to understand and form long-lasting
relationships with for the future. Additionally, BBS serves as an organized gathering platform
of information and topics. BBS users are motivated to generate posts to help others or seek
solutions to problems; while blog users are motivated by self expression. Blog users pay
more attention to express personal opinions and share individual experiences. Active users
are more motivated to participate in conversations and are enthusiastic about expressing
their preferences and passions for brands and communicating with friends about shared
interests. They are the key group to target to generate and disseminate IWOM.
To gain better insight into the characteristics and culture of online community users, we
segmented the active users into disseminators and opinion leaders and conducted further
research on these specific groups. Disseminators’ motivation for expressing opinions actively
can be summarized into five categories: meet more friends and communicate with them
online; share knowledge and experience; defend the truth of brands or products; help their
growth in the online community; help their work. As for opinion leaders, they are core
members of the online community who have authority and influence over other users. They
are segmented into 4 categories: professional writer, experienced writer, normal writer and
work related writer.
This report is a general analysis of the online community and its members. The real online
community is more complicated and diverse; however, this analysis should provide a useful
framework for marketers and market researchers to better understand the online
environment and its users. With the innovation and development of the internet, online
community members are also evolving and growing. Therefore, brands need to participate in
the online community to understand consumers’ insights and communicate with them on an
equal level. Accordingly, we will discuss how brands can participate in online communities in
topic 3 of CIC’s “Making Sense of IWOM” white paper series.
Overview

© 2009 CIC
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We mentioned in Topic 1 that Chinese consumers are forming a habit of searching IWOM
before purchasing. Will consumers only search and listen to IWOM or will they also
actively express or disseminate comments related to brands or products in the online
community?
Based on our previous IWOM research experience, we found that although every online
community member has the ability to express, disseminate and receive information, each
netizens has a different level of passion for and role in generating and disseminating
IWOM. Therefore, we have segmented the online community users into different
categories according to their level of involvement.
disseminate IWOM?
The active online community members who often express opinions online.
They can be further segmented into the following 2 categories:
 Disseminators: The active users who express their own opinions and
comments via posting or disseminating messages, articles etc.
 Opinion leaders: They are core members in online community who are
prestigious and powerful participants with most activities and posts.
General participants
Active users
Less active members in the online community. They often view others’
posts and opinions while rarely create content to express their own
comparatively.
The BBS/Blog general participants and active users (including disseminators and opinion leaders)
are defined by a set of criteria. The indicators for segmenting community users includes the
number of posts they created per month, status and level in the community, the proportion of
original post and copy paste post as well as their online movement in the community recently etc.

© 2009 CIC
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Data source: CIC, 640 BBS/Blog users
By researching 640 BBS
users and bloggers, we
found the following points:
• 54.1% of respondents
generate comments
online related to
brands/products.
• Female (59.5%) behave
more actively than male
(49.6%).
• Regarding age, over half
of the respondents
between the ages of 18
to 24, 25 to 30 and 31 to
35 proactively post their
comments about brands
and products online.
These age groups are
more active in expressing
their opinions or advice
towards brands and
products than other age
groups.
Figure 1 Whether consumers proactively comment
on brands/products
disseminate IWOM?

© 2009 CIC
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Data source: CIC, 346 BBS/Blog users that post comments on
brands/products online
We conducted further analysis of 346 respondents who express opinions on brands/products
online
• The findings show that there were 4 types of situations in which these users express
comments. 32.4% of respondents’ comments are “triggered by others’ comments”, 28%
“comment after an extremely positive product experience”, 20.2% are “willing to comment
whatever they experienced” and 19.4% “comment when the experience is terrible.”
• Regarding gender, females prefer to express their negative experiences, while males are
more frequently express their opinions in the following three situations.
• When it comes to age, young respondents between the ages of 15 and 24 tend to express
fine product experiences, They are prone to be affected by others comments and join the
discussion. while respondents between 25 and 35 are more likely to post comments about
extremely positive or negative product experience. Respondents over the age of 35 care
more about expression itself. They tend to express comments more freely and
independently whatever the product experience is and are less influenced by others’
comments.
Figure 2 Situations that motivate consumer comments about brands/products I
disseminate IWOM?

© 2009 CIC
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We also found that consumers’ post behavior is influenced greatly by different online
community platforms and their level of activity online.
• Blog users prefer to initiate their own posts to share their experiences or opinions
while BBS users’ comments are more driven by others’ comments.
• Additionally, the behavior of active users drastically differs from general participants.
Active users will take initiative to start conversations to express their opinions while
general participants more often reply to others’ comments.
With the development of the internet, more consumers are not merely searching for
IWOM about brands or products, but are also sharing their product and brand
experiences. In addition, they are actively disseminating IWOM throughout the online
community, promoting the circulation of information and interaction between consumers
online.
Figure 3 Situations that motivate consumer comments about brands/products II
disseminate IWOM?

© 2009 CIC
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We have analyzed the different situations that drive consumers to express comments. But
are those online comments all from their personal experiences? Will they only comment on
products and brands from their own personal experience?
Almost 70% of the 346 BBS/blog users who post brand/product comments stated that all or
at least most of the IWOM messages about brands and products were from their real
experience, while only 3.8% of respondents engaging in conversation have no product
experience. Therefore, generally speaking, IWOM reflects the consumers’ authentic
impression of brands. However, what about the active users that comment but have little or
no experience with brands? Actually, based on the qualitative interviews we found that
some consumers will act as online information disseminators and will spread credible posts
by others. In some cases they will just copy and paste the original post into multiple forums
and at other times they will add their own opinions even though they have no direct
experience with the product or brand. This behavior helps promote the dissemination of
IWOM across communities.
Respondents mentioned that this habit of disseminating information happens for the
following reasons: First, other users’ comments accurately represent their own opinions;
Second, they would like to share and help other users because they found the post
interesting or useful; and finally, some of them want to acquire more friends by interacting
and communicating with other users. Of course, we cannot exclude the possibility of the
small group of seeders.
Figure 4 Whether online comments are based on real experience
disseminate IWOM?

© 2009 CIC
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Throughout our research, We found many consumers expressed
opinions, as well as participated in discussion and disseminate
posts actively in online communities. What are the motivations
behind this? Based on our research, we summarized the following 8
types of motivations for generating and disseminating IWOM:
interpersonal communication, self expression, experience
sharing, community status, helping others, upholding justice, work
related and seeking help*.
In terms of gender, males were more motivated by self expression
and are more active than females in generating IWOM to improve
their work. Females are more motivated by interpersonal
communication and experience sharing. They also show more
passion in defending the reputation of their favorite brands or
disclose some bad products. In terms of age, the respondents
between18 and 24 showed stronger motivation in most aspects
over other age groups. These young consumers have strong online
personalities and are full of energy. They are a key target group for
brand to understand and cultivate relationships with in the future.
Figure 5 Motivation behind consumer participation in
online communities I
*Note:
Interpersonal
communication:
Communicating with friends
and senior members in online
communities in real life and
online.
Self expression: Expressing
opinions, experiences and
feelings.
Experience sharing: Sharing
personal product
experiences, usage
experiences and learned
lessons.
Community status:
Maintaining prestige and
popularity in an online
community.
Helping others: Replying to
others’ questions, transferring
useful and insightful posts for
other users’ reference .
Upholding justice: Exposing
seeded or fake
messages, defending good
brands/products or disclosing
bad ones to urge them to
improve products or services.
Work related: Further
discussing and
communicating with
clients, strengthening
relationships with current
customers and seek potential
business cooperation to
improve work.
Seeking help: Asking for
others’ advice, seek for
solution when having difficulty.
IWOM?

© 2009 CIC
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The motivations behind consumer participation in online communities also differ across
various platforms. Users in BBS are more frequently motivated by the desire to help others, to
uphold justice or to ask for help. Consumer posting behavior in BBS is mainly driven by the
following: posting replies to help others; researching IWOM before purchasing; looking for
solutions post-purchase; defending good brands/products or disclosing bad ones . Compared
with BBS, blogs is a better platform for self expression. Consumers are more motivated to
publish blog articles on brands or products for the following reasons: to record personal life
experiences; to express opinions and preferences including his/her passion towards different
brands and product experience.
These findings also coincide with our findings for BBS and blog in our “Internet is THE
Community- Topic 1: The Chinese IWOM Landscape” released in 2008 which stated: “BBS is
the platform that aggregates information and topics and helps users find friends with shared
interests to communicate with, while most blogs are diaries or very personal expressions .“
For user segmentation, active BBS and blog users are motivated by all of the aspects
mentioned above. This is further explained in Topic 1 of “Making Sense of IWOM” where we
found that: ”compared with general participants who pay attention to IWOM to reduce
purchasing risk, active users prefer to find friends with shared interests to communicate their
preferences. In other words, they pay attention to IWOM even with no clear purchasing
intention. They are willing to express their passion and preferences towards brands and share
with friends with same interests”
Figure 6 Motivation behind consumer participation in online communities II
IWOM?

© 2009 CIC
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We mentioned in the previous section that active users and general participants had different
motivations for generating and disseminating IWOM in online communities. During the
research interviews, we also found that the active BBS and blog users were willing to spend
time and energy in online communities, express and disseminate various information and
personal opinions. In the following section we will try to describe these active users’ vibrant
online life and personality characteristics.
As mentioned in the summary, we segmented active users into disseminators and opinion
leaders according to their different level of involvement in generating and disseminating
IWOM.
To communicate with friends with shared interests in real life and online community.
Disseminators emphasize "people" and interaction in online community. Blogs function as
a private platform which is more convenient for communication with intimate friends. BBS is
an open platform for chatting with friends and others about common topics. These users
engage in many online and offline events with their online friends shortening the
relationship distance from both a mental and physical perspective .
Example:
Made friends in online communities first, and then bought a car:
" I joined this QQ Car club and made a lot of friends, I discovered the QQ car suits me, so I
bought it. "
Posted messages is a good way to interact with friends:
“After you participate in a BBS for a while, you will naturally develop close friends. Replying
to a post is a kind of way to communicate with them.“
Actively participated in off-line activities:
“I always take part in all the activities held by the Car club and which usually involve
traveling. Someone also shared a good recommendation for a cheap gas station."
Communicating with friends
Disseminator actively express themselves and share personal opinions on the internet.
They are willing to disseminate information and feelings both related and unrelated to
products and brands. The factors that motivate them to devote their time and energy to
participating in online communities generally include the following:
How to segment the consumers who
actively generate and disseminate IWOM?

© 2009 CIC
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They hope online user comments are based on real experiences with products or brands. If
they see some brands or products are slandered, they will definitely defend the truth by
expressing their personal experiences. They also will expose seeding posts using evidence
if they come across a post where a brand or product is overly praised. They will defend
brands or products they think are attacked unfairly and will criticize brands that they believe
are bad or harmful.
Example:
Hope each product and brand is treated equally:
“It is unfair to some brands when people just echo other’s complaints without having their
own views. I wrote a review of a headphone which was attacked by others on BBS.”
Obtain happiness from revealing the seeders:
"It is fun to disclose the seeders in the community."
They have rich knowledge and experience and are willing to share this information
with online friends to help others. They value "content sharing" in online community
and are willing to share their experiences regarding brands and products. They enjoy
knowing that their information, answers and solutions are helping other users.
Example:
Getting a lot of fun out of content sharing:
“I enjoy the process of sharing and I also benefit from it. In many cases I go from
knowing nothing to knowing something and in turn am able to teach others.”
“After buying Excelle , I posted many pictures of it on BBS ."
Defending the truth
Sharing knowledge and experience

© 2009 CIC
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They want to do something meaningful because the online community has become a part
of their life. At the beginning they just lurk, then they will become more active and post a
few useful articles to enrich the online community. As their experiences online develop
further, their activity level and comments quality upgrade, and their influence within
communities becomes stronger.
Example:
If you stay in a community for a long time, you will start to present your own ideas:
"You have to reply to something, since just lurking or spamming is not good. Once you
realize it is meaningless, you will start to share something useful. Therefore, you should
start a conversation and share your feelings with others.”
To strengthen their relationships with current customers and seek potential business
opportunities and cooperation. They update their blogs or start new conversations in order
to enhance the communication with clients or sell products.
Example:
In-depth communication with customers:
“Sometimes I will invite some of my customers to visit my blog and if I find some good
articles, I will put them on my blog. Blogs are a good platform for communication.”
Post or update blogs to sell products part-time:
“I also write articles about badminton, and sometimes organize badminton competitions. My
blog is a good channel to find and invite others.”
Growing in online community
Helping them with their work

© 2009 CIC
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Opinion leaders are the most active and influential groups in online communities.
They show unique power in their respective skilled area. We conducted in-depth
interviews with BBS/Blog opinion leaders to explore the IWOM behavior of this
demographic. Through research, we found that different opinion leaders vary in terms of
motivation, experience and professional level. Based on this, we segmented them into 4
categories as below:
These contributors are passionate about particular products or brands.
Most of their articles are written in a professional manner and are
based on real experience. They keep their platforms and profiles well
maintained and are creative with them.
“At the beginning, I set up my blog to tell people that Lining is a really good
domestic brand. I did this to both support the domestic brand and also to
increase the popularity of my blog. I update my blog every day and also visit
BBS frequently, so I have a deep understanding of these two platforms."
These contributors are experts of their favorite brands and
product categories. Their articles are mainly from their own
experiences and personal perspectives . They enjoy the fun and
creativity of expressing themselves online.
“I pay more attention to notebook computers, because I often change my
notebook, and frequently help my friends to choose an appropriate
notebook computer. I am honest and I tell them the advantages and
disadvantages of the products. ”
They are not professional or particularly experienced in online
community. However, they are willing to share their thoughts
about the product experiences and other information. They care
about their status in the community and other users’ feedback.
“Every weekend, my mailbox is filled with flyers and advertisements. I
share any useful information that I come across with others in BBS.”
“Within BBS, I am able to make friends with many mothers. Although we
have never met in person, we still could make a phone when I got
problems."
Their articles are in-depth and systematic and cover a wide range of
topics. Most topics are deliberately chose and are not based on
experience. They upload blog posts and BBS conversations regularly to
make their platforms attractive to other users. They consider BBS or
blog as their main or part-time career.
“I am always online except meal time. I search for information and write articles in
the morning ,communicate with friends and have a rest in the afternoon.”

© 2009 CIC
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Our analysis provides an overview of the online community and its user groups.
The real online community is more sophisticated and dynamic and the role of a
netizen is diverse and changeable rather than stable and fixed. One user may be
an opinion leader or disseminator in one area, and a general participant in
another. Also, one user may be an opinion leader in one community while is
disseminator or general participant in another. Moreover, with the innovation and
development of the internet, online communities are always evolving and netizens
are consistently growing and changing within the online community. The “general
participant” today may grow to be the “disseminator” or even the “opinion leader”
in the future. Therefore, brands should not simply listen to the IWOM, understand
the group’s characteristics and culture, but more importantly, brands need to
participate and become involved in the online community to benefit from
consumers’ insight and communicate with them on an equal level. Furthermore, in
Topic 3 “how brands can participate in online communities” ,we will elaborate on
ways brands can motivate and trigger netizen’s passion and creativity to bring
more value to the brand as well as online community via meaningful interaction.

© 2009 CIC
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About IWOM White Paper
About CIC IWOM White Paper
In the past five years, CIC led by our Intelligence Center has continued to share
our latest research and findings about IWOM in China with industry clients and
friends. Based on our insights and experiences from working in the Chinese
IWOM research industry for almost 5 years, our CIC IWOM Whitepapers also
incorporate thinking from areas such as marketing communications, IT, sociology
and statistics. In publishing these whitepapers we aim to create a resource which
monitors and catalogues the developments in the IWOM industry and in doing so
helps to move the whole industry forward as a result.
From last year’s IWOM Whitepaper series titled the “Internet is the Community” to
this year’s series titled “Making Sense of IWOM,” we have shown how powerful
the Internet and IWOM is in reshaping the relationships between brands and
consumers and that consumer comments have now become the key factor in
influencing purchase decisions.
For more information about the Chinese Internet and the rapid development of
IWOM in China please visit iwommaster.com or our blog seeisee.com, or to see all
our previous whitepapers please visit our slideshare site.
About “Making Sense of IWOM” White Paper series
This research, conducted by CIC, is the first of its kind in China and is based on
comprehensive qualitative and quantitative offline research in
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, whose survey results include
feedback from 640 BBS/blog users, 8 focus groups discussion and 32 in-depth
interviews with efluencers.
CIC will leverage these results and combined with its unique and leading
perspectives on Chinese IWOM development, to create a total of 3 in-depth
installments including “the Role of IWOM in Purchase Decisions”, "How IWOM is
generated and disseminated" and "How brands can participate in online
communities."

18
About CIC
CIC is the thought leader in Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) with over 4 years
experience in China working with cutting edge clients across multiple industries
on a retainer basis. With a proven approach and case studies, CIC is the first
and best option in China to help clients make sense of the buzz. CIC coined the
term IWOM and has pioneered the concept of IWOM, redefining the relationship
between brands and consumers. CIC is committed to both providing objective
third party strategic advice to clients and promoting the healthy development of
the Internet Community in China. CIC's research and discussion of IWOM's
impact and best practices can be found on its company blogs, in its IWOM white
papers and IWOM watch reports and through its IWOM roundtable events such
as IWOM summit and IWOM classroom.
CIC offers customized and syndicated reports as well as an industry leading
IWOM analytics dashboard which is supported by proprietary Chinese language
based text mining technology (patent pending), data processing technology and
data visualization technology. CIC's retainer relationships stretch over multiple
years with multinational clients from Fortune 500 companies.
CIC's continual development and evolution is driven by an unique, powerful and
open mindset and learning culture which at its foundation continually seeks to
understand how the Internet, and IWOM, is redefining the relationships between
brands and consumers.
For more information, please visit
• www.iwommaster.com (CIC IWOM master intelligence service platform)
• www.ciccorporate.com (CIC website),
• www.seeisee.com (CIC Company blog in Chinese)
• www.seeisee.com/sam (Founder's company blog in English).

Address:
Room 108, Building A, UDC Innovative Plaza
No.125, North Jiangsu Road
Shanghai, 200042, China
Phone: 021-52373860 / 61 / 62 / 63
Fax: 021-52373632
Email: info@cicdata.com
© 2009 CIC
This report is copyrighted material owned by CIC. Any improper use of this
document or its content will be considered a violation of CIC IP copyright
and CIC has the right to take legal action.

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