This is my full copy of my dissertation reflecting an early review on social media and its impact on brand perception. Happy to share as after all these years the theory is still true, in fact the impact of social media on brand perception is now more prominent.

1. Does online consumer generated media
influence attitudes towards brands?
A study of the credibility of recipe blogs and their effect on
consumers’ attitudes towards food brands in Turkey
This dissertation is submitted in part of the fulfilment of the MA
Interactive Marketing in Bournemouth University
I, Sevil Özer, declare that this dissertation is the result of my own independent
investigation and that all sources are duly acknowledged
………………………..
Sevil Özer Supervisor:
(September, 2005) Mr. Mike Molesworth

2. THE TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 5
1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY.................................................................................................................. 5
1.2. STUDY FOCUS: W HY BLOGS? ................................................................................................................ 6
1.3. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY ........................................................................................................................ 7
1.4. STATE OF THE BLOGOSPHERE ................................................................................................................ 8
1.5. MORE ON GENERATING CONTENT .......................................................................................................... 9
1.6. FOCUS OF THE STUDY ........................................................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................... 12
2.1 OVERVIEW .............................................................................................................................................. 12
THE MODEL FOR PROCESSING INFORMAL BRAND INFORMATION ONLINE: FRAMEWORK FOR BLOG’S
EFFECTS ON BRAND ATTITUDE CHANGE ...................................................................................................... 12
2.2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................................. 14
2.2.1. Persuasion and the Online Consumer ...................................................................................... 14
General View: Persuasion .................................................................................................................................. 14
Low-Involvement Processing Model of Heath ................................................................................................. 16
Product Categories and Involvement ............................................................................................................... 16
2.2.2. Blog’s Effects on Brand Attitude Change .................................................................................. 17
Attitude towards brand ........................................................................................................................................ 17
Online Word of Mouth Communication ............................................................................................................ 18
2.2.3. Credibility of a Blog ...................................................................................................................... 21
General View: What is Credibility?.................................................................................................................... 21
A General View on Web Credibility ................................................................................................................... 23
Blog Credibility ..................................................................................................................................................... 24
PATH MODEL OF PREDICTORS OF BLOG CREDIBILITY ................................................................................... 24
The Blog Author’s Credibility ......................................................................................................................... 25
Visitor Related Factors ................................................................................................................................... 26
Design and Content Related Factors ........................................................................................................... 28
2.3. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 29
CHAPTER 3- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 30
3.1. OBJECTIVES AND MAIN RESEARCH QUESTIONS .................................................................................... 30
3.2. OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH PROCESS ............................................................................................ 30
3.3. THE SIMPLIFIED FRAMEWORK FOR BLOG’S EFFECTS ON BRAND ATTITUDE CHANGE ........................ 31
Hypothesis to be tested ......................................................................................................................... 31
3.4. PRIMARY RESEARCH.............................................................................................................................. 32
3.4.1. The methodology and methods adopted .................................................................................. 32
3.5. EVALUATION OF RESEARCH DESIGN..................................................................................................... 33
3.5.1. Sample definition and rationale.................................................................................................. 33
3.5.2. Method of sampling and rationale ............................................................................................. 34
3.5.3. Method of data collection and rationale .................................................................................... 35
3.5.4. The Questionnaire Design .......................................................................................................... 36
3.5.5. Research Process ....................................................................................................................... 39
3.6. LIMITATIONS FOR THE STUDY ................................................................................................................ 40
3.6.1 Methods used to achieve reliability and validity in the findings. ............................................. 42
3.6.2 Post Research Findings ............................................................................................................... 43
3.7. SECONDARY RESEARCH ....................................................................................................................... 43
CHAPTER 4 - FINDINGS .............................................................................................................................. 44
4.1 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................................................... 44
4.1.1. Descriptive Statistics ................................................................................................................... 44
Motivation * Have you visited this site before? Crosstabulation .............................................................. 45
Site and Visitors ............................................................................................................................................... 46
Previous Purchase Reports ........................................................................................................................... 48
Overall Perceptions of Credibility .................................................................................................................. 48
–2–

3. 4.1.2. Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 49
4.2. BLOG CREDIBILITY FACTOR ANALYSIS .................................................................................................. 50
4.2.1. Dependent Measures .................................................................................................................. 50
4.2.2. Independent Measures ............................................................................................................... 51
Visitor related factors .......................................................................................................................................... 51
Source reliance ................................................................................................................................................ 51
Internet experience ......................................................................................................................................... 51
Convenience .................................................................................................................................................... 52
Site Familiarity ................................................................................................................................................. 52
Design and Content Related Factors ............................................................................................................... 53
Usability and Design ....................................................................................................................................... 53
Content ............................................................................................................................................................. 53
Additional Factor - Interactivity ...................................................................................................................... 53
Author Related Factors ....................................................................................................................................... 53
4.2.3 Measurement Results for Blog Credibility Factor Analysis ..................................................... 54
Primary Results .................................................................................................................................................... 54
Visitor Related Factors and Blog Credibility ................................................................................................ 54
Experience level of the visitor and Blog Credibility .................................................................................... 55
Convenience Perception of Visitor and Blog Credibility ............................................................................ 55
Site Familiarity and Blog Credibility .............................................................................................................. 56
Site Design and Content and Blog Credibility ............................................................................................. 56
Interactivity Factor and Blog Credibility ....................................................................................................... 56
Perception of Author Characteristics and Blog Credibility ........................................................................ 56
4.2.4. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 57
Limitations for factor analysis ............................................................................................................................ 58
4.3. BLOG’S EFFECTS ON BRAND ATTITUDE CHANGE ANALYSIS ................................................................ 58
4.3.1. Dependent Measures .................................................................................................................. 58
4.3.2. Independent Measures ............................................................................................................... 59
Blog Credibility: Definition of “Is the Source Credible?” ............................................................................ 59
Motivation: Browse or Search ....................................................................................................................... 60
4.3.4. Hypothesis Test Results ............................................................................................................. 61
Overview ............................................................................................................................................................... 61
Results .................................................................................................................................................................. 62
4.3.4. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 65
CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSIONS................................................................................................................... 66
5.1. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 66
5.2. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE INDUSTRY.............................................................................................. 66
5.3. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ...................................................................................... 67
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................ 68
APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................................. 71
APPENDIX 1 – THE QUESTIONNAIRE ............................................................................................................ 71
APPENDIX 2 – THE SCREENSHOTS OF ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE ........................................................ 72
APPENDIX 3 – SOME SCREENSHOTS OF THE BLOGS WHO SUPPORTED THE SURVEY STUDY74
APPENDİX 4 – BLOG CREDİBİLİTY FACTOR ANALYSİS .................................................................................. 77
APPENDİX 5 – BLOG CREDİBİLİTY FACTOR ANALYSİS .................................................................................. 81
APPENDIX 6 – BLOG CREDİBİLİTY FACTOR ANALYSİS CORRELATİON MATRİXES ...................................... 1
APPENDİX 7 – BLOG CREDİBİLİTY FACTOR ANALYSİS CONTRİBUTİON FROM COMPONENTS ....................... 1
APPENDİX 8 – HYPOTHESİS TEST SPSS OUTPUTS ...................................................................................... 1
CASE 1 – Credible Blog * Search (High-involvement) ........................................................................ 1
CASE 2 – Credible Blog * Browse (Low-involvement) ........................................................................ 3
CASE 3 – Non-Credible Blog * Search (High-involvement)................................................................ 5
CASE 4 – Non-Credible Blog * Browse (Low-involvement) ................................................................ 7
–3–

4. LIST OF TABLES
Chart 1- Framework for Blog’s Effects on Brand Attitude Change, Pg 11
Table 1 - Examples of factors influencing credibility (print and interpersonal media), Pg21
Table 2 - Factors influencing credibility (specific to computer-based media) Pg22
Chart 2 - Path model of predictors of blog credibility, Pg.23
Chart 3 - The research process, Pg.29
Chart 4 - The simplified model for Blog’s Effects on Brand Attitude Change, Pg.30
Table 3 - Rotated component matrix for significant blog credibility variables, Pg.56
Chart 5 - Simplified Framework for Blog’s Effects on Brand Attitude Change and respondents, Pg.60
–4–

5. C HAPTER 1 – I NTRODUCTION
Consumers search online, entertain online and increasingly create and contribute online.
In the year 2005, the Internet users themselves became the main source of online
content. Consumer generated media (CGM) online is available in forms of discussion
forums, newsgroups, message boards, collaborative hypertext dictionaries (known also as
wikis), personal home pages, podcasts and last but not least blogs (known also as web
logs). The Pew Internet and American Life Project has revealed that nearly half of adult
Internet users have submitted some sort of creative content to the World Wide Web
(2004). 44% of the respondents of the study reported that they have built or submitted
content online in the forms of personal web site, or contribution to another site as
photographs, artwork, written material or comments on newsgroups/discussion
forums/blogs or posting video/audio files through Peer-to-peer file sharing programs (Pew
Report, 2004; Research Alert 2004 cited in, Mintel-a 2004).
1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
People seem to be demanding more involvement and interaction, and culture and the
media have contributed to the growing desire for involvement in decision-making through
programmes such as Pop Idol, The Big read and Restoration (Mattinson and Trayner,
2004). “Consumers are tired of being told what to do and served up a diet of what the
advertisers and programmers and media owners think they should get. So, consumers are
exercising their choices and taking back control of their lives” (Lyon, 2005 p.2). Popularity
of new media and communication formats such as blogs, discussion boards and
personalized TV formats are based on greater involvement or interaction and more
importantly the empowerment of the consumer (Mattinson and Trayner, 2004). As a result
of this entire media power shift to consumers, the relationship between advertisers, media
and the consumers about to change fundamentally (Mandase, 2005).
The Internet is an enabler for individuals to have the power to publish and distribute
content. Today anyone can publish his or her personal feelings, experience and
perceptions about any brand or product. ‘Water cooler talks’, ‘grape wines’, ‘chit chats’ and
‘rumors’ are now available online and just a click away to anyone who has Internet access.
As a result online word-of-mouth (WOM) became one of the main sources of information.
–5–

6. Increasing amount of CGM (also known as micro media) means increasing amount of
online informal content about any business. Consumers are no more the passive
recipients of media content (Mandese, 2005-b; Mandase 2005). The amount of new
information posted online is so high that traditional search engines are struggling to keep
up with the rate at which people update their blogs (Branscombe, 2005). Search engines
like Google treat blogs like any other web site while new generation blog tracking sites
such as Technorati, Blogpulse, Feedster and Bloglines are specialized just on blog search
(Branscombe, 2005). A recent study states that when users search for companies, 26% of
the results are content generated by consumers, 22% by experts, 18% by corporate
sources, 12% by media, and 22% by other sources (Stein reported by Jarboe, 2005).
(Which) This means that ‘informal sources’ are main resources for corporate and brand
information. As Mandase summarizes
“This could mean a complete role-reversal of the classic advertising model; instead
of marketers underwriting media content in exchange for consumers paying
attention to their ads, marketers may need to find a way of underwriting consumer
content” (2005).
1.2. STUDY FOCUS: WHY BLOGS?
Blog is defined as a “Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections,
comments and often hyperlinks,” and has selected as the word of the year in 2004 for U.S.
dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster Inc (Reuters 2004 cited in Mintel-a, 2004). In this
study the term ‘blog’ will refer to personal blogs only; excluding all newly mushroomed
company blogs (or c-level blogs), paid blogs, sponsored blogs, spoof and spam blogs
(Branscombe, 2005; Sifry, 2005).
Blogging is a growing phenomenon for the last 4 years mainly as a result of free, user
friendly services. According to latest figures a blog is created about every second, and
over 80.000 blogs are created daily (Sifry, 2005). According to Pew Report, 7% of Internet
users in the United States have created a blog or web-based diary (2005). More
importantly blogs encourage readers to contribute. “The interactive features of many blogs
are also catching on: 12% of Internet users have posted comments and material on
blogs.” (Pew, 2005).
–6–

7. Posts to blogs constitute the major part of online CGM, as of June 2005 about 900,000
posts created each day (Sifry, 2005-b). Thus while analyzing the effects of consumer
generated content online, this study focuses on the blogs. Blogs are good representatives
of CGM while they are popular sources of ‘informal content’. In addition it can be argued
that blogs have main characteristics of personal home pages and forums. Blog softwares
are enabling authors (bloggers) to create the web site and post content faster and easier,
so that (there are) no technical knowledge is necessary to run a blog. Other than
technology, blogs are almost similar to personal web sites. On the other hand blog
softwares enable visitors to comment on author’s postings and also having multiple
authors to post entries on the same blog. This activity is very similar with observed
consumer behavior for forums where a moderator or limited number of active users post
majority of new topics, answers to questions and comments. So that blogs might be
accepted as an extension of discussion forums that is more likely to have a one-to-many
than many-to-many relationship. Because of these characteristics a study on blogs has
potential to enlighten relationship between CGM and brand attitudes.
1.3. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Blogging is surely a popular topic for the day and has a big potential to grow. But is there
any consumer knowledge value to blogs that can be exploited by marketers? Do blogs
have any influence on consumer’s decision making process? Or they are just the new toys
of Internet users; or an online entertainment form inherited the popular reality show trend
and enables the writer to show and the reader to observe other people’s private lives?
When it comes to blogs can we argue they are centers of attention, blog authors are
opinion leaders thus content on blogs are capable of changing consumer’s attitudes
towards a brand? Previous research on online content showed that credibility became
main problem in an authorless environment (Warnick, 2004). Thus the first aim of this
research is to evaluate credibility of blogs.
Can a blog influence consumer to make a brand choice? If yes why and how? Which
factors of a blog are more important to increase the credibility of a blog? In order to
answer these questions the second aim of this study is to find out relationships between
visual and contextual and visitor related factors of a blog and their possible effects on the
receiver’s attitudes towards a brand or product.
–7–

8. In summary, the investigation of the consumer’s perception of the credibility and credibility
factors of blogs is expected to enlighten the question of if blogs are capable of changing
attitudes towards brands. At the end of this study it is expected to identify clues in order to
understand and explain the possible implications of blogs as an informal source.
1.4. STATE OF THE BLOGOSPHERE
Currently there are over 31 million blogs in the blogosphere (blog universe); 10 million of
these blogs were created in the first quarter of 2005 (Bir, 2005, Johnson and Kaye, 2004).
Considering blogging services attached to a social network service like Microsoft’s MSN
Myspace and other local blogging services -especially in South America and Asia
especially in China, Korea and Japan- estimations for number of blogs goes up to 50
million as of April 2005 (Riley). On the other hand, the total identified active number of
blogs reported in the top two blog search engines Blogpulse and Technorati is 16 million
as of August 2005 (Blogpulse.com, Technorati.com).
Google’s Blogger.com is now one of top 10 most influential websites in the UK (Mintel,
2004). As much as Blogger, other free blogging services Microsoft MSN Spaces,
LiveJournal and AOL Journals are growing quickly, and use of software like WordPress
and Movable Type to provide blogs continue to grow significantly (Sifry, 2005). As blogging
becomes a craze one of the top three players in the market Yahoo! launched its blogging
tool called Yahoo 360 in March 2005, which combines a new blogging tool along with other
tools instant messaging, photo storage and sharing, and Internet radio. Yahoo takes CGM
one step forward and “offers tools for sharing recommendations about places to eat,
favorite movies, music and so on” (Hansen, 2005).
As blogging becomes much easier and convenient through the launch of new tools, the
number of blogs continues to double every 5.5 months (Sifry, 2005). As of the end of
August 2005, the leading search engine for blogs Technorati was tracking over 16 million
weblogs, and over 1.4 billion links (Technorati, 2005). According to Technorati cumulative
blog figures, it has been stated that the blogosphere has just about doubled between
March 2005 and June 2005 (Sifry, 2005). On the other hand readership of blogs are also
increasing. Top blog hosting domains like blogspot.com, livejournal.com and typepad.com
now reaches more visitors than many mainstream media sites like NYTimes.com,
USAToday.com (ComScore, 2005). 27% of Internet users say they read blogs while 5% of
–8–

9. users state that they use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) aggregators or XML (Extensible
Markup Language) readers to get the updated posts on the blogs (2005).
So who are the bloggers? According to Pew Internet report they are young; 48% of
authors are under age 30 (Pew, 2005). Supporting that, a recent survey for MIT Media
Labs shows that an estimated 46.3% of blogs are started by people between the ages of
21 and 30, with 28.2% authored by people in the 31- to 40-year-old demographic (Viegas,
2004). Majority of bloggers are Internet veterans; 82% have been online for six years or
more and they are well educated; 39% have college or graduate degrees (Pew, 2005).
Universal McCann Media in Mind study revealed that bloggers are far from the average
media consumer while they are spending 62% more time on the Internet and 38% more
on Email; they are slightly greater users of TV and magazines (+1.4% and +2.8%
respectively) and significantly lower users of radio and newspapers (-12.8% and -7.4%)
(Mandase, 2005).
It can be seen from the following figures that blog visitors have similar demographics with
the blog authors. According to a survey done by ComScore and MediaMetrix, 32% of blog
visitors are aged between 18-34 while 49% of them are aged between 35-54 (ComScore,
2005). This study reveals that blog visitors are demographically attractive audience to
advertisers while “Blog visitors are disproportionately likely to be affluent, young and
broadband-enabled” (ComScore, 2005). ComScore study also shows that blog visitors are
spending more time and money online. The average blog visitor viewed nearly 77 percent
more than the average Web user. Thus blog users also spend substantially more time
online, about 23 hours per week (ComScore, 2005). The study also found that blog visitors
are 30 percent more likely to buy products or services online, while 51% of blog visitors
made an online purchase in Q1 2005 (ComScore, 2005). In summary, it can be stated that
both blog authors and visitors are valuable consumers or prospects for a brand.
1.5. MORE ON GENERATING CONTENT
Massive amount of content posted online over blogs. AskJeeve’s blog search engine
Bloglines.com reported nearly 700 million articles indexed (Bloglines, 2005). It has been
reported that every second around 10 new postings are added into the blogosphere (Sifry,
2005-b).
–9–

10. According to Technorati, about 55% of all blogs are considered active which means they
had at least one posting in the last 3 months (Sifry, 2005-b). In addition, 13% of all blogs
(currently 1.8 million blogs) update at least weekly. “The average rate of postings has
grown steadily such that at the end of July 2005, there were about 900,000 posts created
each day. That's about 37,500 posts every hour, or 10.4 posts per second” (Sifry, 2005-b).
Blog postings are reported to increase after event milestones like Tsunami or Live8
concert (Sifry, 2005-b).
The influence (or authority) of a blog is measured by the number of people who are linking
to it. So instead of counting hits or page views, given links to a site by other sites are
counted. Technorati data reveals, “The most influential media sites on the web are still
well-funded mainstream media sites, like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and
CNN. However, a lot of bloggers are achieving a significant amount of attention and
influence” and in the top 40 influential online information source list there were 11 blogs
present (Sifry, 2005-c).
In spite all the blog boom, they are still not that well known. Pew Internet’s study on blogs
showed that 62% of Internet users had no idea what ‘blog’ means (2005). Which means
the potential for growth of blogosphere is high in the short term. As both (all) blog authors
and readers are consumers and studies shows that they are talking about brands and
products, it has been believed that this study might generate an added value to the
marketing on the blogs theory.
1.6. FOCUS OF THE STUDY
In today’s highly developed economies it is hard to differentiate a product from its
competitors while most reputable brands perform similarly and tangible competitive
advantages are rare (Heath, 2001). As a result, consumers are rarely able to base their
brand choices on rational performance (Heath, 2001). Especially daily routine purchases
such as water, chocolate bar or cereals, are accepted as low involvement processes which
do not entail a high level of involvement and commitment. On the other hand “Television
advertising does not usually create strong pre-purchase attitudes towards brands but at
the most small –possibly undetectable- changes in perception” (Foxall et all., 1998). This
is a challenge for marketers while consumers are hard to be influenced by advertising to
buy fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) immediately (Brown, 1991). Thus usage of
alternative methods like price promotions and product trials, and lately usage of alternative
– 10 –

11. communication channels like consumer loyalty programmes, direct marketing
programmes and Internet are used to increase brand awareness and manipulate
consumer’s attitudes toward the brand.
In order to evaluate the implications of CGM -for this study blogs-, low involvement
products FMCG category are selected as the general focus to this study. It is essential to
point out that advertising in FMCG category in today’s market conditions means a
challenge for brands. Therefore it has been believed that as a new and alternative media
focusing on blogs’ effects on FMCG brands constitute a valuable research area. Previous
studies reveal that consumers often resort to word-of-mouth or personal
recommendations, and rely on these informal communication sources in making purchase
decisions, because unlike formal sources, the sender is perceived as having nothing to
gain from receiver’s subsequent actions (Heath, 2001; Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004 p.293).
In summary this study aims to evaluate the credibility of blogs and therefore their potential
to persuade consumers to change their attitudes towards low involvement products –for
this study food-. Can blogs become a remedy to overcome the above stated marketing
challenges for the low involvement products’ marketing?
While designing the research study in order to represent the reported changes in a
particular consumer behavior and achieve a valid data set, food as a low involvement
decision making product category has been chosen. Several Turkish recipe blogs and
their readers are invited to join the research study to obtain a reliable and representative
group of participants for this study. However, as this study proposes a framework to
answer the relationship between blogs, their usage and attitude changes towards brands
the result of the study is expected to have universal values and not to be valid only for the
Turkish market.
– 11 –

12. C HAPTER 2 - L ITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 OVERVIEW
In this chapter, first of all the model for processing informal brand information online will be
presented. Following the model which constitutes the base for this research study, the
background for the model will be explained. In order to place this study in appropriate
context, persuasion and web credibility literature has been reviewed. Therefore, the review
of the basic communication model and Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) literature in
consumer behavior will be presented firstly. Following that as food products are accepted
as expressive low-involvement products the decision making process and message
evaluation via peripheral route will be analyzed. The low involvement processing model,
and source credibility as a peripheral cue as a part of low-involvement processing will be
reviewed and factors for blog credibility will be analyzed based on previous research
studies. As this study aims to investigate changes in attitudes towards brand, the concept
will be elaborated following the impacts of Word-of-mouth (WOM) communication. Online
decision making process and credibility of online information sources and factors of
credibility for blogs would be the final highlights for the theoretical framework for this study.
Following the literature review, the model for processing informal brand information online
the “Framework for Blog’s Effects on Brand Attitude Change” will be presented.
THE MODEL FOR PROCESSING INFORMAL BRAND INFORMATION ONLINE:
FRAMEWORK FOR BLOG’S EFFECTS ON BRAND ATTITUDE CHANGE
To begin with I want to present a summary of my model for processing informal brand
information online: “Framework for Blog’s Effects on Brand Attitude Change” (See Chart
1). This model tries to approach a working model in order to explain “How might
consumer’s process informal brand information online?”. It is important to note that this
study does not try to provide a formal model but rather provide a framework to guide
discussion of how might CGM effect consumers’ attitudes towards brands.
According to the model motivation of the user, “search or browse state” determines the
involvement of the consumer. Depending on previous research studies which will be
presented in the following section, this model suggests that consumers who are searching
for particular product information online are likely to be open to the processing of that
information with high attention (Adopted from Heath, 2001). As the model suggests,
highly involved visitors who are searching for a particular information likely to learn from
– 12 –

13. the blog and this might lead to shallow processing and a passive learning even in the case
of the perceived credibility of the blog is low (Adopted from Heath, 2001). But in case
consumer perceives the source credible, active learning takes place and this might drive
rational attitude changes.
On the other hand, with low involvement motivation factor which is the browse case,
source credibility suggested to have more critical influence on the processing of informal
brand information. When the consumer is just browsing, such as a regular visitor of the
blog, and if the blog perceived as a credible source, the information received goes through
an automatic processing which results with an implicit learning. Consumer gains new
associations to the brand and this might drive intuitive brand attitude changes at the end
(Adopted from Heath, 2001). However, if the perceived credibility of the blog is low; it has
been suggested that no learning will take place.
Brand/Product
related message
received from a Blog
Did consumer No No Pre-attentive
Is source
Search for that Processing
Credible?
information? No learning
Yes
Yes Automatic processing
Implicit Learning
Associations + Meanings
Shallow processing No Is source
Passive learning Credible?
Might drive intuitive
brand attitude changes
Yes
Might drive intuitive
brand attitude changes
Explicit processing
Active learning
Framework for Blog’s Effects on Brand Attitude Change,
Might drive rational the model for processing informal brand information
brand attitude changes onlinebased on low-involvement processing model of
Heath (2001)
Chart 1- Framework for Blog’s Effects on Brand Attitude Change
– 13 –

14. Please note that factors of credibility for a blog assumed to be as in “Path model of
predictors of blog credibility” (Chart 2) which is also presented in this paper.
2.2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.2.1. Persuasion and the Online Consumer
In order to understand how online consumers make decisions about any brand, this
section of the literature review will elaborate the ELM model, low-involvement processing,
role of peripheral cues in low-involvement decision making and influences of product
category for information processing.
GENERAL VIEW : PERSUASION
Today’s busy life style leaves a little time for consumer to make a selection from endless
alternatives in the market. Payne, Bettman and Johnson (1988) demonstrated that
consumers who are faced with making a choice under time pressure will accelerate
information processing, ignore certain pieces of information, or shift to simpler heuristics
(Cited in Hawkins & Hoch, 1992). When a consumer has lost the opportunity to engage in
an effortful decision strategy, simpler low-involvement decision takes place with the
retrieval of previously informed affect associated with the product; so that memory for
product information or evaluations may play an important role in decision making in such
situations (Adopted from Peter & Nord, 1982 cited in Hawkins & Hoch, 1992). This means
that every little detail that collected in consumers’ memory has an important role in building
attitudes toward a product thus the purchase decision making.
The basic communication model implies that “communication is the transmission of a
message from a sender to a receiver via a medium (or channel)” (Schiffman and Kanuk,
2004 p.293). Persuasion is the use of communication to change attitudes in order to
change behaviour (Foxall, Goldsmith & Brown, 1998). “Basically, the persuasion process
consists of a sequence of two broad factors that determine the impact of the
communication: the message source and its channel, and the message itself and its
receiver” (Foxall, Goldsmith & Brown, 1998 p.117).
When analyzing persuasion process of the consumer, many researchers use ELM –the
Elaboration Likelihood Model of Petty and Cacioppo (Flanagin and Metzger, 2000; Wanten
and Burkell, 2002; Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). According to the ELM, there are two
– 14 –

15. different persuasion routes that consumers follow in case of decision making: the central
route and the peripheral routes (Petty, Cacioppo & Schuman, 1983; Cho, 1997).
The level of personal relevance or importance of the product to the consumer, determines
the level of involvement (Park & Young, 1986 cited in Gotlieb, Schlacter & Louis, 1992). If
consumers display high enduring involvement in a product area, they are likely to pay
more attention to a message and more likely to experience cognitive responses to the
message; this process of persuasion is termed in the ELM as the central route (Foxall,
Goldsmith & Brown, 1998). Obviously, if consumers are less involved in the product
category, the decision process has been done using less cognitive effort, but with the
support of heuristic such as familiarity, spokes person; this form of persuasion is called
peripheral route to persuasion (Foxall, Goldsmith & Brown, 1998).
According to Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann (1983)
Attitude changes that occur via the peripheral route do not occur because an
individual personally considered the pros and cons of the issue, but because the
attitude issue is associated with positive or negative cues – or because the person
makes simple inference about the merits of the advocated position based on
various simple cues in the persuasion context.
Therefore, a person may accept an advocacy simply because the source is an expert or it
was presented in a pleasant lunch (Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann, 1983). Details for
credibility factors will be presented in following paragraphs however it is good to signpost
at this point that, the simple cues concept implies that -especially for low involvement
products- blogs are likely to be effective in persuasion as they are informal sources of
information and mainly owned by expert authors.
Everyday we are exposed to thousands of many different types of brand related messages
mostly unconsciously (Heath, 2001). The link between memory and persuasion is
complicated while there are many information resources influencing belief, such as
advertising message, experience, the consumer’s own thoughts and WOM (Hawkins &
Hoch, 1993). Heath (2001) categorizes processing of brand messages into three main
types: Active, automatic and shallow. The type of mental processing we use depends on
our levels of involvement. Active processing requires high level of involvement and is
rarely used while it requires much use of working memory to think about and interpret the
learning outcome (Heath, 2001). However, a subconscious mental process takes place
– 15 –

16. and contributes to our learning and store of knowledge since the beginning of humankind:
Automatic processing (Heath, 2001). While most mental processing goes either automatic
and active, there is a semi-conscious level of learning process that takes place when
circumstances are not important for active process but nor completely unimportant for
automatic process which called shallow processing (Heath, 2001).
Supporting Heath’s (2001) arguments, Krugman’s early study on low-involvement (1965
cited in Hawkins & Hoch, 1992) highlights that low-involvement learning occurs when
consumers attend to marketing communications without explicitly intending to evaluate
and learn from the message. Or, “without an explicit intention to evaluate the message,
the consumer does not link the message to personal needs, brand beliefs, or past
experiences” (Hawkins & Hoch, 1992). On this basis it can be argued that the learning
from blogs might likely be dependent on the attention level and current motivation of the
consumer.
LOW -INVOLVEMENT PROCESSING MODEL OF HEATH
Heath developed ELM model one step further and proposed ‘The model of low
involvement processing of advertising messages’ (Heath, 2001). He proposes 4 different
types of processing for a marketing stimulus, according to consumer’s attention level. Low
involvement processing model argues that high attention leads to explicit processing of
the message which means message would be kept in analytical memories and persuasive
messages would lead to rational brand choice. On the other hand low attention might lead
to shallow, automatic or pre-attentive processing, might be kept in perceptual or
conceptual memories and learned associations and meanings of the brand might drive to
intuitive brand choice (Heath, 2001 p.79).
PRODUCT CATEGORIES AND INVOLVEMENT
Product category is accepted as a factor influencing consumers’ motivation for information
processing. Most FMCG are accepted as low involvement products. As Kotler states “in
low involvement consumers do not search extensively for information about brands,
evaluate their characteristics, and make a weighty decision on which brand to buy” (1996,
p.225 cited in Silayoi & Speece, 2004). Silayoi and Speece (2004) also state that food
products often chosen without prior planning and representing a form of impulse buying;
such as one-third of women shoppers buy food products through habits.
– 16 –

17. Another approach for grouping products is according to consumers’ motivations. Dahlen
(2002) states that “Products can generally be categorized as either functional or
expressive based on the motives that consumers have for buying and consuming them”.
Functional products are subject to cognitive motives while expressive products are to
affective motives (Ratchford, 1987 cited in Dahlen, 2002). Therefore, there are differences
how consumers’ seek and evaluate information for the two product types.
Functional products likely to require logical and objective purchase decision process
based on functional facts (Vaugh, 1980, 1986 cited in Dahlen, 2002). Functional products
are characterized by thinking while expressive products are more to feeling (Vaugh, 1980,
1986 cited in Dahlen, 2002). “The customer may ‘care’ a lot about the product but still
manifests little cognitive activity” (Mittal, 1989 cited in Dahlen, 2002). The information
seeking is also different for the two types of products, whereas consumers seem more
inclined to search for and process information for functional products, but less initiative
when it comes to expressive products (Dahlen, 2002). For expressive products the
information search does not necessarily take place before purchase (Ehrenberg, 1974;
Rossiter and Percy, 1992; Dahlén and Bergendahl, 2000 cited in Dahlen, 2002).
Therefore, automatic and shallow processing for low-involvement expressive products is
likely to take place more commonly than active processing. Regular visits to a recipe blog
suggest a continuous reception about food brands and products.
2.2.2. Blog’s Effects on Brand Attitude Change
In order to place this study in an appropriate context, a theoretical framework to
understand the processing of the online CGM and its possible effects on brand attitude
change is developed based on previous studies. As a result of this review study, in this
section the literature for brand attitude, online Word-of-mouth (WOM) and finally the goal
orientation factor online -in other words the user’s motivation- will be presented.
ATTITUDE TOWARDS BRAND
Hughes defines an attitude as an “individual’s favorable or unfavorable inclination towards
and attribute of and object” (Cited in Foxall, Goldsmith & Brown, 1998). According to
Fishbein and Ajzen (1975 cited in Mitchell & Olson, 1981) a person’s attitude is a function
of his salient beliefs at a given point in time. Attitudes -toward brands, products,
companies or advertisements- are learned or acquired rather than inborn; “they are
formed as a result of personal experience, reasoning or information, the communicated
– 17 –

18. experience of others” (Fishbein, 1975; Lutz, 1991 all cited in Foxall, Goldsmith & Brown,
1998).
Actually, marketing researchers have been mainly concerned with consumer’s beliefs
about attributes of a brand (Mitchell & Olson, 1981). Beliefs are the subjective
associations and salient beliefs are activated from memory and considered by the person
in given situation (Fishbein & Ajzen 1975 cited in Mitchell & Olson, 1981).
Change in attitude is facilitated by acquisition of new information (Ginter, 1974). In both
central and peripheral route processing, attitudes toward the brand are formed (Droge,
1989). Droge also states that “Cognitions about the brand, though perhaps vague and
impoverished in peripheral processing, always precede attitude formation. In each route,
attitude formation precedes intention and behavior” (Droge, 1989). On the other hand
Foxall, Goldsmith and Brown argue that “not only do attitudes influence behavior but
behavior influences the formation of attitudes as consumers learn through personal
experience which brands best meet their needs and expectations” (1998). This means that
the relation between attitudes and purchasing behaviour is not linear.
ONLINE W ORD OF MOUTH COMMUNICATION
“The concept of personal influence refers to any change in individual’s beliefs, attitudes, or
behavior that occurs as a consequence of interpersonal communication and WOM is one
of the most important means which personal influence can occur” (Newman, 2003). As an
online WOM medium blogs are likely to change attitudes towards brands.
Word-of-mouth communication (WOM) plays an important role on shaping consumers’
attitudes and behaviors (Brown & Reingen, 1987). In one of the first studies on WOM,
Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) found that WOM was the most important source of influence in
the purchase of household goods and food products (Cited in Brown & Reingen, 1987).
Many studies on WOM stated that informal resources such as friends, co-workers and
even strangers, impact the consumer purchase decision process (Arndt, 1968; Day &
London, 1976; Silverman 1997; Whyte, 1954; McGrath & Otnes, 1995 all cited in
Newman, 2003). Consumers prefer to do this because unlike formal information resources
such as advertising, “the sender of informal communications is perceived as having
nothing to gain from the receiver’s subsequent actions”, therefore informal WOM
communications tend to be highly persuasive (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004; Newman,
2003).
– 18 –

19. WOM is defined as “informal communication about the characteristic of a business or a
product which occurs between consumers” (Westbrook, 1987 cited in Ha 2004 p.331).
WOM allows consumers to receive both informational and normative influences on the
product evaluations and purchase intentions of fellow consumers (Bone, 1995; Ward and
Reingen 1990 cited in Ha 2004). As Ha states WOM is claimed to be more influential on
behavior than other marketer-controlled sources as “WOM has been shown to influence
awareness, expectations, perceptions, attitudes, behavioral intentions and behavior” (Ha
2004, p.331).
“Why WOM is more accessible in memory and exerts a relatively greater impact on
consumers? (Herr, Kardes & Kim, 1991 cited in Newman, 2003)
 WOM has personal relevance, which increases receivers’ involvement levels and
consequently the information’s impact.
 WOM is concrete, containing detailed facts about specific people, actions, and
outcomes.
 WOM testimony occurs in close temporal, spatial, and sensory proximity to
receivers. The story is fresh and new, its setting and context are local and
recognizable, and the account describes the narrator’s firsthand experience, which
listeners can likely relate.”
(Newman, 2003)
WOM is no more a strong tie social network issue; in the Internet era opinion leaders are
no more restricted to communicate only with friends and family members (Brown &
Reingen, 1987; Newman, 2003). “The exponential growth of the Internet has rendered the
WOM process as one of the most powerful interpersonal communication means in our
society today-capable of reaching unlimited number of internet users” (Newman, 2003).
Ries states that with the evolution of the Internet, now "Word of mouth is the real secret
weapon in building a brand" (Cited in Angeld, 2004). Today blogs became a powerful
channel for online WOM with increasing popularity. So that buzz metrics – tracking
“naturally occurring conversations” on blogs (as far as message boards, review sites and
group sites) is an important issue for brands managers (Angeld, 2004). Buzz, is the term
used mainly for Online WOM and “it is the modern variant of gossip and a combination of
marketing communication (which is all about telling our commercial stories) and public
– 19 –

20. relations (used to narrate particular angles of a story) in a highly networked world”
(Angeld, 2004). These changes in marketing dynamics also suggest that blogs are
accepted as effective information sources for informal brand talk.
In summary, it can be argued that, depending on the previous studies, persuasion power
of WOM communication is likely to appear as an important aspect of blog’s
characteristics. While research studies have demonstrated that WOM may affect product
purchase intensions positive or negatively (Arndt, 1968; Richins, 1983 cited in Newman,
2003) a blog might influence the attitudes of the consumer towards a brand.
Motivation Factor: Search or Browse
Web based behaviour is categorized into two distinct styles of navigation: goal directed
and experiential (Chen, Houston and Schatz, 1998; Li& Bukovac, 1999 all cited in Dutta-
Bergman, 2004). For this study, goal directed behaviour defined under the term ‘search’
and experiential behaviour is ‘browsing’.
Although browsing is characterized by its exploratory nature and absence of
planning, goals, or objectives (Marchionini, 1987; Marchionini & Shneiderman,
1988 all cited in Dutta-Bergman, 2004), searching is goal-directed and the user
looks for specific information to solve a problem or to fulfill specific information
needs (Chen et al., 1998 cited in Dutta-Bergman, 2004).
The searcher is driven by his or her very specific interest in the search topic, has a goal in
mind thus is highly involved. Searching involves planned information seeking marked by
goal-directed processing of relevant information and uses the central route (Dutta-
Bergman, 2004). As the central route involves deeper and more effort-intensive
processing (Petty, Cacioppo & Schuman, 1983) the searcher pays attention to the strength
of the arguments presented in the blog (Adopted from Petty, Cacioppo & Schuman, 1983;
Dutta-Bergman, 2004).
On the other hand, surfing with its unplanned, experimental and exploratory information
processing strategy that heavily depends upon serendipity, involves peripheral processing
(Carmel, Crawford & Chen, 1992; Marchionini, 1987; Marchionini & Shneiderman, 1988;
Murphy, 1998 all cited in Dutta-Bergman, 2004). Dutta-Bergman suggests that, based on
ELM analogy, message-based criteria are used under searching (high-involvement) and
source-based criteria are used under surfing (low-involvement) for consumer decision
– 20 –

21. making (2004). Li and Bucovac point out that “information seekers in searching situations
selectively orient their attention to information based on its relevance and surfers
experientially oriented and are drawn toward whatever is interesting in their information
environment“(1999 cited in Dutta-Bergman, 2004).
In summary, searching or browsing situation of the consumer is likely to influence the
attention level, thus the consumer-generated-information processing.
2.2.3. Credibility of a Blog
GENERAL VIEW : W HAT IS CREDIBILITY?
Credibility is one of the most studied message source characteristics, and includes
expertise, objectivity and trustworthiness. “Although scholars disagree about the exact
number of dimensions that underlie source credibility, trustworthiness and expertise of the
source are the most widely used dimensions in the operationalization of source credibility”
(Dutta-Bergman, 2004). There is a “direct connection between the credibility of a
message’s source and the amount of attitude change the message produces may appear
to be a common-sense proposition” (Foxall, Goldsmith & Brown, 1998). In summary, it can
be stated that when the source is credible, the message is much more likely to be
believed.
As stated above, consumers process information in stages and may alter the form of
received information in the process of encoding (Gotlieb, Schlacter & Louis, 1992).
Especially under low involvement conditions there is a little motivation to deeply process a
message, and an attitude is formed primarily by associating the message position with an
easy-to-access, peripheral cue (Sengupta, Goodstein & Boninger, 1997).
Peripheral cues, like the credibility and attractiveness of the source, have a much bigger
impact on persuasion under low-involvement conditions. (Chaiken, 1980 and Petty,
Cacioppo & Schuman, 1983 cited in Hawkins & Hoch, 1992). According to Gotlieb,
Schlacter and Louis, “credibility of the information source mediates how consumers
perceive and interpret the stimuli“and they state that “ELM view source credibility as a
significant variable that affects consumers’ responses to persuasive messages” (1992).
Petty and Cacioppo argue that the “credibility of the information source can affect the
development of behavioral intentions by serving as peripheral cue” (1979 cited in Gotlieb,
– 21 –

22. Schlacter & Louis, 1992), which means that as the credibility of the resource increases,
the possibility of persuasion of the consumer increases.
As source credibility can serve as a strong positive peripheral cue, the consumer can be
persuaded through it rather than by a thoughtful evaluation of the message (Gotlieb,
Schlacter & Louis, 1992).
“The directional effect of source credibility is the same for high and low
involvement products, but the reason for the effect is different. For low-involvement
products it serves as a peripheral cue; for high-involvement products, it suppresses
the generation of negative cognitive responses. It appears that source credibility
may be a central cue in consumer decision-making process for selecting a provider
for a product” (Gotlieb, Schlacter & Louis, 1992).
Credibility depends on a number of factors. Dholakia and Sternthal states that “Source
credibility is believed to be comprised of two underlying dimensions: Expertise and
trustworthiness” (1977 cited in Gotlieb, Schlacter & Louis, 1992). According to Schiffman
and Kanuk the most important credibility factors are the perceived intentions of the source
(2004 p.297). On their study for web credibility, Wanten and Burkell analyzed all factors
that influence credibility for traditional media as seen in Table 1 (2002). According to their
study, credibility is dependent on several variables regarding on all aspects of
communication: Source, receiver, message, medium and context (Wanten & Burkell,
2002). Expertise and trustworthiness of the author and motivation, issue relevance and
involvement of the receiver are some of the credibility factors that found to be influencing
credibility (Wanten & Burkell, 2002). This assumption constitutes a basis for the author
credibility factor for predicting blog credibility model developed for this study.
Source Receiver Message Medium Context
Expertise/Knowledge Issue relevance Topic/content Organization Distraction "noise"
Trustworthiness Motivation (i.e. Need for Internal Usability Time since message
the information) validity/consistency encountered
Credentials Prior knowledge of the Plausibility of arguments Presentation
issue
Attractiveness Issue involvement Supported by data or Vividness
examples
Similarity to receivers Values/Beliefs/ Situation Framing (loss or gain)
beliefs / context
Likeability/Goodwill/Dyna Steriotypes about the Repetition/familiarity
mism topic or source
Social location Ordering
Table 1 – Examples of factors influencing credibility (print and interpersonal media), (Wanten and
Burkell, 2002).
– 22 –

23. As stated by Olaisen “Personal information sources are most trusted in spite they are not
necessarily the experts. Social location will influence quality factors like credibility,
relevance, and perceived value of information” (1990 cited in Wanten and Burkell, 2002).
As the Internet completely changed our social location and the types of social networks we
inhabit, virtual communities became as one of the most influential reference groups for
today’s consumer (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). Given with these studies’ validity, it is
assumed that personal information sources and word-of-mouth communication is likely to
be a critical issue which is influencing persuasion capability of blogs positively.
A GENERAL VIEW ON W EB CREDIBILITY
Flanagin and Metzger found out that “information obtained via the Internet is perceived to
be as credible as that found through magazines, the radio and television” (2000 p.529).
However, different than traditional media, online media readership requires the consumer
to be an Internet user. Therefore the Internet channel itself brings the technical
requirements for both on source and the receiver sides in credibility perception. Wanten
and Burkell’s (2002) study on web credibility suggests that for an online information source
there are two types of elements effect the credibility: Cognitive and Technical (See Table
2).
Cognitive qualities are suggested as source expertise, trustworthiness, credentials and
message relevance (Wanten & Burkell, 2002). Different than traditional media, computer-
based media credibility also dependent on technical qualities, mainly based on site design
and usability factors such as surface attractiveness, speed of loading, usability and
interactivity (Wanten & Burkell, 2002). Parallel to printed and mass media credibility,
receiver’s motivation, expertise to the Internet and relevance to issue and personal
assumptions about the source appears to be influential on the credibility of a web site
(Wanten & Burkell, 2002).
Source/Medium/Message Receiver
Source expertise/knowledge/competence Assumptions about source or topic
Cognitive
Qualities
Source trustworthiness Motivation (i.e. Need for the information)
Source credentials/influence
Message context/relevance/currency/accuracy Knowledge/expertise re: issue
Institutional Quality Knowledge/expertise re: technology
Surface attractiveness/format
Design of interface Social location
Technical
Qualities
Speed of loading
Usability/accesibility
Interactivity/flexibility
Table 2 - Factors influencing credibility (specific to computer-based media) Wanten & Burkell (2002)
– 23 –

24. BLOG CREDIBILITY
Blog’s which are created by consumers have a special media characteristics. For blogs
both the message and the medium are independent of the manufacturer, retailer or the
service provider (Bone, 1992 cited in Newman, 2003). Therefore, blogs are likely to be
perceived as honest and objective information resources. Supporting this argument, as
stated above, previous studies on WOM prove that credibility of informal sources is high.
Perception of having nothing to gain from any published information is likely to make a
blog be perceived as a credible source (Adopted from Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004).
Several studies on credibility of blogs proved that distrust and dislike of traditional media is
growing (Reynolds 2003 cited in Johnson and Kaye, 2004). Flanagin and Metzger support
this argument as “commercial information online seems to be quite distinct in its low level
of perceived credibility” while manipulative intent on the part of source negatively impacts
trustworthiness” (2000, p.531). The decrease in the trust to commercial information
sources fosters the credibility perception of blogs.
On the other hand as Crumlish states, blogs are just the best current tool that supports
freer personal expression which allows disintermediation of mass-broadcast middleman
and supplementing a people-to-people communication channel (2004). Using the
advantage of being independent, blogs’ credibility perception increases in today’s
marketing environment. Supporting this argument, Johnson and Kaye found out that blog
users are likely to consider blogs a highly credible source of information because “they are
independent rather than controlled by corporate interests; bloggers may discuss issues
traditional media shy away because they might hurt corporations” (Cristol cited in Johnson
and Kaye, 2004).
PATH MODEL OF PREDICTORS OF BLOG CREDIBILITY
Credibility of a blog is dependent on a complex web of factors. In order to explain these
factors, a model for the predictors of Blog credibility (See chart 2) is developed based on
previous research. According to this model, factors influencing a blog’s credibility are
grouped under 3 main aspects of blog communication: Author, visitor and site design -
content. In following sections the theoretical background for each factor group will be
presented. As can be seen in Chapter 4 the first aim of this study is to analyze these
factors’ contribution to blog credibility.
– 24 –

25. Expert
Independent Personal Neutral/Fair
In depth, accurate info
Author credibility
Visitor Related Factors Design+Content
Related Factors
Web reliance
Related with
Site content Usability/Design
Blog
credibility
Demographic Content
Related with
variables Author credibility
Contribution
Convenience From
Blog visitors
Chart 2-Path model of predictors of Blog credibility
The Blog Author’s Credibility
Now we know that the sender and his or her perceived honesty and objectivity have an
enormous influence on how the communication is accepted by the receiver(s) (Schiffman
and Kanuk, 2004). On the other hand, peripheral cues such as the expertise of the
message source have had a greater impact on persuasion under conditions of low
involvement (Cacioppo & Schuman, 1983). These basic rules of marketing communication
suggest that author characteristics are important factors influencing the credibility of a
blog.
Wright (1974 cited in Cacioppo & Schuman, 1983) argues that involvement would
increase both source comments and message comments; however more source
comments made under low involvement conditions and message comments were more
common under high involvement. This makes blog author’s characteristics more important
especially in low involvement conditions. The expertise of the author suggested as a factor
to affect the level of credibility of a blog and tested for this study.
Previous studies on blog credibility suggest that consumers prefer fair comments of
another consumer even if they know the information on a blog might be opinionated, while
– 25 –

26. it is independent and personal (Johnson and Kaye, 2004). Based on Johnson and Kaye
(2004) study, perceived level of the information being personal and independency and
fairness of the blog author are suggested as other factors which have an impact on the
level of credibility of a blog author therefore the blog itself.
Informal communications sources often become opinion leaders, and they often profit
psychologically by being in an ‘expert’ position. “This ego gratification may actually
improve the quality of the information provided, because the opinion leader often
deliberately seeks for latest detailed information in order to enhance his/her position”
(Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004, p.297).
Based on assumptions stated above author characteristics expert, independent,
neutral/fair and the perception of messages being personal combined to build author
credibility factor for predicting a blog’s credibility.
Visitor Related Factors
According to ELM, personal relevance is thought to be the only one determinant of the
route to persuasion (Cacioppo, Petty & Schumann, 1983). Consumer’s perception of
relevance and convenience of a blog is likely to increase his/her motivation for processing
product relevant information (Adopted from Cacioppo, Petty & Schumann, 1983). On the
other hand, personal characteristics of the consumer may induce different motivations to
think, different people may typically employ different styles of information processing, and
some people might enjoy thinking more than others (Cacioppo and Petty, 1982).
Therefore, situational variables and individual difference variables such as prior
knowledge, online experience and web reliance may also be important moderators of the
route to persuasion (Adopted from Cacioppo, Petty & Schumann, 1983).
Receiver’s online experience is one of the most influential factors to online source’s
credibility. Greer discovered that the amount of time online was the strongest predictor of
whether an online medium would be judged as credible (Cited in Johnson and Kaye,
2004). On the other hand, Johnson and Kaye discovered that this is not true for all types
of information online and the amount of Web use failed to predict online credibility for
sport and political news (Johnson and Kaye, 2000). However in another research they
stated that “Past studies suggest that credibility of a medium is strongly linked how often
one uses it.” (Austin and Dong 1994, Wanta and Hu 1994 cited in Johnson and Kaye,
2002). This aspect of credibility defined as experience credibility by Wanten and Burkell
– 26 –

27. (2002) also argued by Johnson and Kaye in their latest study on blogs (2004). They
predict that Internet use predicts blog credibility and the results of the study showed that
blog reliance was the strongest predictor of credibility: “As in traditional media that the
more one uses a medium, the more credible one judges it” (Johnson and Kaye, 2004
p.634). Similarly, people judge their preferred medium as the most credible (Rimmer &
Weaver, 1987 cited in Johnson & Kaye, 2004b).They also state that “amount of reliance
may also be a strong predictor of the credibility of a source by using various cues such as
reputation of the medium and style of delivery” (Tewksbury and Althaus cited in Johnson &
Kaye, 2004 p.634).
According to Ferguson & Perse (2000), one’s level of perceived expertise can influence
how of the Internet is used (cited in Johnson & Kaye, 2004b). Who have been online
longer believe that they have greater expertise (UCLA Internet Report, 2003 cited in
Johnson & Kaye, 2004b). Supporting these studies, Flanagin and Metzger (2001 cited in
Johnson & Kaye, 2004b) also discovered that Internet experience predicted online
credibility. However, rather than relying on objective measures such as number of years
online and number of Internet activities, they used five subjective measures: Internet and
web use, experience, expertise, familiarity and access (Johnson & Kaye, 2004b). So, that
the numbers of years spend online has been considered as a visitor related factor
influencing the credibility perception of a blog.
On the other hand, number of years online found to be indicative for online user behavior.
Johnson & Kaye (2004b) states that “Experienced users are more likely to go online for
research and work while new users go for pleasure”. The Stanford Institute study (Nie &
Ebring, 2000 cited in Johnson & Kaye, 2004b) found that the more years a person had
been online, the more hours per week they surf the Internet and the more activities they
engage. Another study from Rosales (2001 cited in Johnson & Kaye, 2004b) “combined
years online and number of online activities into a single Internet experience measure and
examined its influence on the Internet use”.
The amount of time spend online is another user related factor that affects credibility
perception. Past studies suggest that credibility of a medium is strongly linked to how
often one uses it (Austing & Dong, 1994; Johnson & Kaye, 1998; 2000; Wanta & Hu, 1994
all cited in Johnson & Kaye, 2004b). However, the amount of time spent with the Internet
seems to have little influence on judgments of media credibility (Johnson & Kaye, 1998;
– 27 –

28. Kiousis, 2001 all cited in Johnson & Kaye, 2004b). Based on the assumption that previous
studies’ outcomes are valid and reliable, visitor’s perception about the convenience of the
Internet medium, visitor’s web reliance and specific web reliance on the topic – the
Internet as a brand information source and the Internet as a recipe source- determined to
be the main factors influencing the credibility perception of a blog. Therefore it has been
included in the model as a multidimensional visitor related factor.
Demographics of the visitor are another aspect that might effect the blog’s credibility
perception. As Internet users have become increasingly mainstream, demographics
accepted to have less influence on media credibility (Johnson & Kaye, 2004b). Johnson
and Kaye (2000) found that “the Internet population resembles the population at large;
demographics have less impact on Web reliance”. However, as the Internet penetration is
around 10% in Turkey (Source: www.internetworldstats.com, 2005), the Internet is still far
from accepted as mainstream media. Therefore, the demographics factor has been
included in the model in order to test the influence of demographics to the credibility
perception of a blog.
Design and Content Related Factors
In spite under the low involvement conditions, attitudes appear to be affected by simple
acceptance and rejection cues in the persuasion context and are less affected by
argument quality (Cacioppo, Petty & Schumann, 1983). Poh and Adam state that “if a Web
site is well-liked, some visitors to the Web site may be more receptive to the Web site's
contents, including its advertisements” (2002).
Researchers Johnson and Kaye analyzed differences in credibility perceptions of the
Internet and traditional channels. They argue that criteria affect credibility of Web
information are source, content, format, presentation, currency, accuracy and speed of
loading (2000, 2002). Supporting this argument, Wanten and Burkell’s (2002) proposed
model for the judgment of online information, implies that appearance, usability and
interface design and organization of the information are the main aspects that influence
surface credibility perception of a web site.
Content is also accepted as important as design and usability factors (Wanten & Burkell,
2002). Content’s relevance, currency, accuracy are appear to be important factors
influencing the credibility perception as far as source credibility aspects already explained
in previous sections (Olaisen 1990 cited in Wanten & Burkell, 2002).
– 28 –

29. For blog’s, the only content source is not the authors. Collaborative content on blogs
constitutes an important part of the CGM online. Therefore, the relation between the blog
author and visitors is likely to be an important factor influencing blog credibility. Supporting
this argument, Wanten and Burkell state that Internet has the persuasion characteristics of
interpersonal channels by allowing give and take between the message source and
receiver. Therefore the Internet may have “a greater ability than other mass media to
make use of principles of consumer behavior to enhance information provision and
uptake” (Cassell, Jackson & Cheuvront, 1998 cited in Wanten & Burkell, 2002).
Based on the assumption that the above stated studies are valid and reliable, blog’s
usability and design, the content of the blog as author as a source and visitors as a source
combined to build a multidimensional site related factor for predicting a blog’s credibility.
2.3. CONCLUSION
Since the year 2004, marketers are talking about blogs. Whittle states that “Blogs can
deliver advertorial without costing anything. A great product and just one fanatical client
with a popular blog can result in some effective marketing — like wise, an unhappy vocal
customer can spell disaster.” (Cited in Arun, 2005). Maybe 62% percent of Internet users
have not heard about the blog word yet (PewInternet, 2005) and “The average blog has
an average audience of five. But there are celebrity bloggers being created.” (Neff, 2005).
Zwiren states that “The real power lies in bloggers' influence. Bloggers are "catalysts" of
public opinion. They are individuals who have a passionate opinion about a product, and
instead of talking over the fence to a neighbor, they are talking to a neighbor online who
may be in another state or another country” (Cited in Oser, 2004).
In these circumstances, this study proposes a new approach to understand how might
blogs have an effect on consumer’s attitudes towards brands. Based on previous studies
on persuasion models, ELM, source credibility and web credibility, the proposed model for
factors of blog credibility and the framework for informal brand information processing are
expected to answer this question.
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30. C HAPTER 3- R ESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1. OBJECTIVES AND MAIN RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This research aims to answer the following questions:
 How credible is the content on blogs?
 What are the contributions of author related; site design and usability related and
visitor related factors on a blog’s credibility perception?
 Are attitudes towards a brand likely to change as a result of blog use?
 Does searching for particular information online makes a difference on information
processing on a blog therefore brand attitude change as a result of blog use?
As a summary, this study basically aims to provide the empirical support for proposed
models: “Blog’s Effects on Brand Attitude Change” and “Predictors of blog credibility”
(Please see Chart 1 and Chart 2) and test the below stated hypothesis in order to explore
the universal truth about the influences of online consumer generated content.
3.2. OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH PROCESS
Literature
Review
Development of
the framework
Proposing
hypothesis
to test
Design the Test Runs
Launch survey
Survey (English)
Data Data
Collection Collection
Feedback from Findings and Test the theory Conclusion
Participans Analysis Hypothesis Recommendations
Updates
Chart 3 – The research process
– 30 –

31. 3.3. THE SIMPLIFIED FRAMEWORK FOR BLOG’S EFFECTS ON BRAND ATTITUDE
CHANGE
This study aims to test the blog’s effects on brand attitude change model as reported
attitude change for purchase intentions and brand information learning level. There are
multiple reasons for the usage of a simplified method in the research design. First of all,
usage of the real framework necessitates a long term study on visitor’s previous and post
attitudes towards a brand depending on a blog readership. Possibility of pre and post tests
and applying complex quantitative and qualitative researches was out of scope of this MA
dissertation study. The second reason was the problem of collecting reliable empirical
data. The study designed using quantitative research methodology, self reporting online
survey method whereas reporting memory processing differences expected to be harder
for the respondents. Therefore, the model is simplified to provide empirical support on
credibility and motivation factors and their possible impact on brand attitude change (See
chart 4).
Brand/Product
related message
received from a Blog
No Was consumer H4
Is source credible? Searching for No change
information? No
H3 Yes
Yes Attitude Change
No
Was consumer H2
Searching for Attitude Change
information? No
H1 Yes
Simplified Framework for Blog’s Effects on Brand Attitude Change,
Attitude Change the model for processing informal brand information online,
based on low-involvement processing model of Heath (2001)
Chart 4 – Simplified Framework for Blog’s Effects on Brand Attitude Change
Hypothesis to be tested
There are four different cases an attitude change likely to happen as a result of blog
readership. It has been suggested that there is a hierarchical relationship between the
– 31 –

32. levels of attitude change among these four cases depended on the credibility perception
of the blog and motivation –involvement level- of the visitor. The hypotheses to be tested
for this study are as bellows:
H1 – If the respondents were searching for information (high-involvement), they more
likely to report that their attitudes toward the brand mentioned on the “credible blog” likely
to change.
H2 – If the respondents were browsing (low-involvement), they more likely to report that
their attitudes toward the brand mentioned on the “credible blog” likely to change.
However, the reported change in the attitude expected to be lower than high-involvement
credible source case.
H3 - If the respondents were searching for information (high-involvement), they more likely
to report that their attitudes toward the brand mentioned on the “non-credible blog” likely to
change. However, the reported change in the attitude expected to be lower than high-
involvement credible source case and low-involvement credible source case.
H4 – If the respondents were browsing (low-involvement), they more likely to report no
change in their attitudes towards the brand mentioned on the “non-credible blog”.
3.4. PRIMARY RESEARCH
3.4.1. The methodology and methods adopted
This study was designed using a positivist approach for epistemological considerations
while it utilizes scientific methods to analyze the social world (Grix, 2004). Positivists argue
that “There are patterns and regularities, causes and consequences, in the social world as
there are in the natural world” (Denscombe 2002 cited in Grix 2004). The collected data
and the outcomes of the study are in quantitative terms in order to identify mathematical
relationships between blog readership and change in a specific attitude towards a brand.
In other words, the purpose of collecting the data is to find out main factors that make a
blog credible enough to change the consumer’s attitudes towards a brand.
This study does not aim to understand individual, subjective ideas but explain this
contemporary phenomenon in society independent from actors (Grix, 2004; Bryman,
2001). This means that the objective approach had been used while developing this
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33. research strategy. Bryman states that objectivism is “an ontological position that asserts
social phenomena and their meanings has an existence that is independent of social
actors” (2001 p.16). It can be concluded that there is a logical compatibility between
epistemological and ontological components in this research (Grix, 2004 p.67).
As can be seen in research process (Chart 3), this research has been developed and
applied using a deductive approach. Hyde states, “deductive reasoning is a theory testing
process, which commences with an established theory or generalization, and seeks if the
theory applies to specific instances” (2000, p.83). The first stage was the development of
new framework for blog credibility and its effects on brand attitude change. Testing the
theory developed is the main purpose of the research design.
This study utilizes quantitative research methodology while it aims to emphasize
quantification in the collection and analysis of data (Bryman, 2001). As stated by Hyde “the
role of quantitative research is to describe the general and ignore the particular” (2000
p.84) and this study would present “a view of social reality as an external, objective reality”
in order to achieve this target (Bryman, 2001 p.19). Thus, quantitative research expected
to be the appropriate methodology to reach specific targets of this research. Supporting
this argument, Johnson and Kaye used quantitative methodology in all their studies while
researching online credibility (2004, 2003, 2000). Their studies were based on quantitative
methodology utilizing online survey technique.
3.5. EVALUATION OF RESEARCH DESIGN
3.5.1. Sample definition and rationale
The sample frame for this study is defined as “the visitors of recipe blogs in Turkish” while
our research questions the effects of blog readership. Inclusion criterion for this study is
only being a reader of a recipe blog. Visitor might be a regular visitor or a first time visitor.
Recipe blogs are one of the popular topics on the blogosphere. According to BlogPulse
trend report 0.45% of all posts on blogs on July 2005 was containing keyword recipe. As
low involvement products and mainly food are selected as a focus research area, recipe
blogs are selected as the source to research sampling. While majority of posts and
comments on pure recipe blogs have references to food products. Recipe blogs represent
an exact interest area and they are mainly center of attention for women.
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34. With over 73million citizens and 10% Internet penetration, Turkey has larger online
population than many European countries (Internetworldstats, 2005). Turkey has a
growing Internet population with 263% growth rate in the last 5 years that also suggests a
large potential to grow in the near future (Internetworldstats, 2005). Culturally decision
making on food purchases are done by women while they do the majority of household
shopping. Majority of recipe blog visitors are also women in Turkey, while cooking is the
duty of women in the house. Parallel to developing urban city culture, young men are also
interested in cooking and trying new recipes.
It has been expected that the results of this study to be valuable in terms of analyzing a
brand new market: Turkey. As a contemporary topic, a research on blog usage in Turkey
has never been done before. Benefiting from being the first in the market this study has
been welcomed and received blog authors’ kind supports and even visitors of blogs’ have
showed a high interest for this academic study.
Finally, the personal engagement of the researcher to the topic blogs must be stated. The
knowledge on blogs and online marketing dynamics expected to increase the efficiency of
the research process. With leveraging the knowledge of market dynamics, contacting with
several blog owners with the right method and recruiting more demographics became
possible. Technical abilities resulting from researcher’s computer programming
background allowed the researcher generate server pages scripting and the database
design for the online survey without a need of extra resources.
3.5.2. Method of sampling and rationale
This study facilitates a non-probability sampling methodology: self-selection convenience
sampling. This method also defined as volunteer sampling as an Internet sampling
technique (Hewson et.al, 2003). Announcements are posted on target recipe blogs and
visitors are invited to join the study. All of the participants are informed that the survey was
a part of academic study. As stated by Hewson et.al, this method expected to give the
researcher more control over the type of users who is likely to see the announcement as
well as restrict distribution to a particular country (2003).
In favour of self-selecting convenience sampling, the method run in partnership with one
(more) popular web site(s) is proved to be an effective method (Johnson and Kaye, 2004-
2002). Several studies on blogs and web site credibility by Johnson and Kaye also utilized
– 34 –

35. self-selection convenience sampling (2004, 2003, 2000). There are several limitations to
the study resulting from self selecting convenience sampling. Please see section 3.5.6 for
explanation of these limitations.
While designing this study several blogs have been audited by the researcher. It has been
known that there is a huge range of blogs according to their regular visitor figures. And
obviously there is little value researching on the dead blogs. Therefore, active blogs with
high contribution of consumers targeted for this study. In order to reach target population
mini banners and invitations to survey has been placed on selected recipe blogs in Turkey.
There are over 40 Turkish recipe blogs and 15 of them are selected according to following
criteria:
 Active: At least 1 post in last 7 days.
 Collaborative: At least 10 comments for each post.
 Independent: None of the authors are working for an FMCG company or
advertising agency.
 Popular: Linked or referenced by other blogs.
 Advertising free: None of these blogs are placing google ads or banners.
 Exclusively on recipes: All of the blogs selected contains only posts related with
recipes. Other blogs containing recipe posts as far as other topics such as DIY,
jewellery design or child care have not been included in the study.
Please note that these criteria are defined by the researcher, depending on (the) personal
experience.
(Please see Attachment 10 for Screenshots of selected blogs)
3.5.3. Method of data collection and rationale
In order to reach a large population that reads blogs regularly the most effective method
was running an online survey and invite the visitors of these particular interest groups to fill
out the form. This was a ‘self-administered questionnaire’ consisting of questions that
individual respondents completed by themselves (Fink, 2003). The questionnaire was
selected as a research tool, while it is “the most obvious, easily adaptable tool for use in
Internet-mediated research and certainly the most widely used to date” (Hewson et.al,
2003).
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36. For this study an online survey has been designed, coded, placed on a web site and
administered by the researcher. The questionnaire has been coded using ASP (Active
Server Pages). Data has been accumulated in a MS Access database. Since a high
number of participants (over 300) were aimed, the collection of data on an electronic
platform made the research process shorter and transferring data into analysis tools
(SPSS and Excel) easier.
“Survey design is a way of arranging the environment which survey takes place” (Fink,
2003). Since this was an online survey and the questionnaire was filled by the participant
himself or herself in front of a computer, the only administration possibility was managing
the page design, content and interactive controls (Please see Attachment 2 for Screen
shots of online survey). User friendly, simple and clear interactive form functionality aimed
when designing HTML pages for the questionnaire. Visitors were informed about the
content and the length of the questionnaire at the beginning. The questionnaire was
divided into 3 pages in order to increase download speed of pages and make fill out
process easier. Since the majority of participants expected to be less tech-savvy, form
controls and buttons were named clearly, every next step has been defined and on every
step participant informed.
In summary, this method enabled this study to collect data from a high number of
participants in short term. In addition to that because this study related to blog usage,
using an online questionnaire and inviting only blog users to answer the questionnaire
would enable this study to reach right consumer groups as participants. There are some
limitations as a result of the usage of self reporting online survey and they will be
explained in section 3.5.6.
3.5.4. The Questionnaire Design
Punch states, “that a quantitative survey related variables begins with its objectives and
research questions” (2003, p.22). Three methods have been advised for the analysis of
source credibility by Wanten and Burkell (2002): Check direct measures: Ask respondents
to indicate if information source believable and check proxy measures: Knowledge change
check or attitude or behavior change. This advice has been taken into consideration while
designing the questionnaire.
– 36 –

37. In this study reported consumer attitudes were measured by means of self-reports as
suggested by Foxall, Goldsmith & Brown (1998). Likert scales used to collect the attitudes,
beliefs and intentions of the consumer.
The main question areas covered by the questionnaire were based on proposed
framework and hypothesis to be tested were as follows:
 Variables for factor analysis for the credibility of a blog
o Visitor related factors
The reliance factor related variables were: “I use the Internet as an information
resource (news, email, search engines)”, “I use the Internet only for work
purposes “, “I use the Internet regularly to decide what to cook, learn new
recipes”, “I use the Internet to learn about new products/developments in food
category”.
Internet experience of the visitor questioned in means of the following
variables: “How long have you been an Internet user”, “How frequent do you
use the Internet”, “Do you have your own web site or blog”.
The convenience factor related variables were: “I cook recipes using this site”,
“I prepare my shopping list exactly on what the author recommends”, “I believe
the Internet is a convenient and reliable source which I can easily access to
information about food products”. Personal relevance to the topic questioned
by following questions: “I am interested in cooking as a hobby. I learn new
recipes because I enjoy cooking” and “I am a new cook - learning how to cook
from the Internet”.
Demographics variables were: Sex, occupation, marital status, having children,
education level, city and country.
o Design and content related factors
Usability related variables were: “Visit this site in the future”, “I can recommend
this site”, “Site rating”, “feel comfortable surfing” and “Good way of spending
my time”.
– 37 –