Research Proposal- Woolworths Retailers

Introduction and rationale

Social media’s rise has changed how organizations interact with their stakeholders. In this digital age, one of the most significant communication media is WOM (word-of-mouth), the informal sharing of people’s opinions, recommendations, and experiences between individuals. This behavioral trend significantly affects consumers, so businesses should know how to understand and manage it properly. Woolworths, as one of the biggest retailers in Australia, is well aware of this power of WOM and actively interacts with the public on social media (Wang, 2022). On the other hand, backlash on social media is happening, and the company is questioning the effectiveness of its current engagement techniques. Consequently, this study focuses on applying the word-of-mouth theory in Woolworths. Although this study aims to analyze the patterns, motivations, and influence of public social media communications about the company, it will also offer ideas on how Woolworths can use word-of-mouth theory to increase engagement.

Theoretical Rationale 

The theoretical background for this research is strongly tied to the word-of-mouth theory, which suggests that people tend to accept the recommendations and opinions of their friends in preference to the traditional forms of marketing and advertising. WOM, directly attributed to consumer behavior and the decision to purchase, is now the sole factor governing a company’s reputation and image in the market (Ma et al., 2021). After understanding the theories behind WOM and their application in the Woolworths context, the company can develop measures that will foster the strength of these publics. The subject of my study is the theory of word of mouth and its usage by Woolworths. I will explore the incentives behind the public’s oral communication on social media, the essence of this communication, and the effect of it on the brand name recognition and image of the company. The research seeks to bring the relevant learnings for Woolworths to leverage and effectively harness the power of word of mouth to their advantage.

This research also incorporates other theories, such as network theory and ELM. Social network theory focuses on the interconnectivity of people and how each of them can affect the other through word-of-mouth. It is especially true in the example of Woolworths considering that a massive number of ardent customers are available to the company to affect the company’s reputation and success. Moreover, ELM offers the means for grasping how messages and information are processed by a group of individuals, which helps delve into the efficiency of Woolworths’ word-of-mouth techniques. Through the accommodation of these theories, the research intends to provide a holistic view of word-of-mouth in the case of Woolworths and its social media.

In addition, social media’s evolution has amplified word-of-mouth’s power, bringing in a broader audience and granting a long-lasting impression (Mittal et al., 2022). Hence, Woolworths must be aware of people’s conversations and sentiments on social media to interact well with the public and manage their reputation effectively. Accordingly, Berger’s word of mouth is appropriate in this study because its framework helps to explain how the various influences create the spread of information through WOM. Examples include social proof, triggers, emotions, public recognition, utility, and stories (Berger, 2013). Through this investigation, the research will explain why and how people use social media to talk about Woolworths, and, perhaps, help the company to optimize their engagement strategies.

In addition, knowing what drives negative sentiments can aid Woolworths in spotting potential issues or negative comments on social media and acting fast to address them. This is a perfect framework that not only explains the concept of word-of-mouth but also provides examples of practical solutions for businesses such as Woolworths. The study will try to discover the causes that contribute to the public talking about Woolworths on social media, the characteristics of their discussion, and the response/ reaction they have to the company’s social media posts.

Research objectives

According to Woolworths’ current need to enhance its market scope and improve its customer relations, several research objectives will aid in attaining the specified goal:

1. To understand how Woolworths’ social media followers communicate on the pages.
2. Aim to check the public’s attitude and behavior towards Woolworths and its products/services by doing promotions on social media platforms.
3. To increase the power of public communications on Woolworths’ reputation and its brand picture is to be studied.
4. Woolworths nowadays has a rather well-built social media engagement strategy.
5. To recommend Woolworths to be involved even more with WOM on social media (Anastasia et al., 2023).

These objectives aim to recognize the history of word of mouth and the consequences of communication with the public. This article presents research to find out why people use social media to express opinions on Woolworths. It would be a tool for the company to know what parts/aspects to work on to give their customers an effective engagement. Also, the assessment will measure the success of the approaches Woolworths is presently taking and give feedback on possible improvements, leading to bettering the company’s reputation management and image.

Research questions

1. What are the primary triggers for using social media platforms for public communication about Woolworths?
2. This study tackles the aspect of audience communication regarding Woolworths and its goods/services through social media platforms, which is the main target.
3. What impacts can the use of social media for public communication have on Woolworths’s reputation and brand image?
4. Is Woolworths

‘Is current involvement on social networks the best strategy to engage with the audience?

5. How can Woolworths restructure their engagement strategies and utilize social media to create buzz and positive word of mouth among their customers?

Hypothesis 

Hypothesis 1: Audiences posting on social networks are mainly motivated by the need to disclose favorable experiences with the Woolworths brand and advise others to buy its products.

Hypothesis 2: The context of the public’s discussion about Woolworths on social media is mainly positive, and the sentiment mirrors their experience with Woolworths’ products and services.

Hypothesis 3: A great post on social networks will play a significant role in Woolworths’ brand image and reputation.

Hypothesis 4: Woolworths’ digitized strategy in social media networks needs to be funded to employ more potential of word-of-mouth power.

Hypothesis 5: Developing tailored engagement strategies drawn from the research outcomes will bring a stronger publics-Woolworths relationship, leading to a growth in customer loyalty and positive word of mouth in social media.

Data Analysis Method: Content Analysis

Content analysis is a research method that requires the detailed analysis and discrimination of messages or content in a particular context (Kleinheksel et al., 2020). The research paper will employ content analysis to study the popular conversations about Woolworths in social networks. The first step of content analysis is to pick the most appropriate social media platform concerning the company and its public. It could come from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or just a mix of several other platforms. The second stage of this study is the collection of posts, comments, and reviews about Woolworths on the chosen social media platforms (or platforms). This data will then be coded and categorized according to the research objectives and questions the research intends to contribute to.

The classifications can be related to the post types (review, complaint, recommendation, and others), sentiment (positive, negative, neutral), and the topics that may be featured in the posts. The findings will, first of all, be analyzed quantitatively by determining the number of different post types and then qualitatively by observing the content of the post and its underlying theme. From this measure, I get answers for why the public speaks about Woolworths on social media and for what reasons. Data analysis will also include a contrast between Woolworths’ social media posts and its popularity with its community regarding how effective the company’s reach out is. Ultimately, content analysis will allow a thorough and organized study of public communication on social media platforms and pass to answering research questions and proving hypotheses (Vears & Gillam, 2022).

Expected Outcomes

Given the research objectives and the hypotheses supporting this study, it is anticipated that it will provide new information about word-of-mouth theory and how it can be applied in the case of Woolworths as a multi-brand retailer. The expected outcomes of this research project are as follows:

1. In-depth knowledge of why people communicate about Woolworths on social media platforms has become necessary.
2. Analyze the nature of the public on Woolworths products on social media platforms.
3. The assessment of the influence of public communication on Woolworth’s image and reputation.
4. Evaluation of the present social media engagement tactics and their efficacy at Woolworths.
5. Educating Woolworths on enhancing their engagement strategies and making social media a powerful tool via customer word of mouth (Srivastava et al., 2021).
6. Add to the existing ideas about the impact of word of mouth on businesses in this digital age.
7. Social media is an essential medium for framing the reputation of Woolworths and other corporations in their relationships with their stakeholders.
8. Asking for advice for future studies on word of mouth and its role in communication and marketing strategies.

Challenges and Limitations of WOM

One of the major difficulties with the spread of information in today’s digital economy is that it can easily lead to the spread of negative campaigns. WOM can become a really effective marketing tool, especially in the era of social media, but it may be harmful if it needs to be managed better. The spread of social media can shift the positive perception of a certain brand to the negative one almost instantly, as it is with the popularity of the cancel culture (Haskell, 2021). When this happens, a brand may face serious reputational damage, a hard task to compensate and fix.

This contagious nature of WOM makes the prediction and control of WOM complicated. In the past, a company’s reputation was usually primarily affected by the traditional methods of marketing and advertising, which the advertiser had more control over. Even with respect to WOM’s impact, it is difficult to foresee or regulate what people will say about a specific brand on social media; hence, it is very crucial for a business to possibly monitor and manage its online presence actively as just a single negative comment or experience can cause a massive backlash.

Ethical Considerations

Furthermore, with the significance of WOM rise, there are ethical issues as well that businesses must consider when developing their strategies. As it goes with influencer marketing, on the one hand, there exists an extremely thin line between two operations, such as true, word of mouth, promotion, and paid endorsements, which may mislead consumers. On the other hand, firms should develop and implement ethical and transparent WOM strategies that can promote trust among customers to avoid negative consequences on their reputation (Cheung & To, 2021). Also, companies have to deal with a digital arena that is moving fast and constantly evolving, and they thus have to follow the latest tendencies and adjust their word-of-mouth strategies to this end. Therefore, this is a disadvantage for companies, especially small ones, who need more resources and better skills in social media communications. Still, in the dynamic market of this century, being static or applying ineffective WOM may result in a loss of reality and a negative influence on the bottom line of the company.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this research aims to study communication patterns, motivations, and impacts of mass social media on Woolworths through word-of-mouth theory. The primary goal of this research is also to provide some insights on how Woolworths can take advantage of the word-of-mouth power to strengthen its bond with customers. The study will follow the content analysis approach which will give further insights into consumer behavior and communication patterns on social media networks. The anticipated outcomes of this research can give Woolworths a deeper understanding of social media strategy and return a lot more for their word-of-mouth marketing. This paper will add to the existing literature on the effect of word-of-mouth marketing on the digital environment and offer a space for future research in this area.

References

Anastasiei, B., Dospinescu, N., & Dospinescu, O. (2023). Word-of-mouth engagement in online social networks: Influence of network centrality and density. Electronics, 12(13), 2857. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12132857

Berger, J. (2013). Contagious: How to build word of mouth in the digital age. Simon and Schuster.

Cheung, M. F., & To, W. M. (2021). The effect of consumer perceptions of the ethics of retailers on purchase behavior and word-of-mouth: The moderating role of ethical beliefs. Journal of Business Ethics, 171(4), 771-788. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-020-04431-6

Haskell, S. (2021). Cancel culture: A qualitative analysis of the social media practice of canceling. Boise State University. https://www.proquest.com/openview/c06453462fb8cd69c401cced66598d4b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Kleinheksel, A. J., Rockich-Winston, N., Tawfik, H., & Wyatt, T. R. (2020). Demystifying content analysis. American journal of pharmaceutical education, 84(1), 7113.https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe7113

Ma, R., Cherian, J., Tsai, W. H., Sial, M. S., Hou, L., & Álvarez-Otero, S. (2021). The relationship of corporate social responsibility on digital platforms, electronic word-of-mouth, and consumer-company identification: An application of social identity theory. Sustainability, 13(9), 4700. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094700

Mittal, S., Gupta, V., & Motiani, M. (2022). Examining the linkages between employee brand love, affective commitment, positive word-of-mouth, and turnover intentions: A social identity theory perspective. IIMB Management Review, 34(1), 7–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iimb.2022.04.002

Srivastava, M., Sivaramakrishnan, S., & Saini, G. K. (2021). The relationship between electronic word-of-mouth and consumer engagement: An exploratory study. IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, 10(1), 66-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/2277975220965075

Vears, D. F., & Gillam, L. (2022). Inductive content analysis: A guide for beginning qualitative researchers. Focus on Health Professional Education: A Multi-Professional Journal, 23(1), 111-127. https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.455663644555599

Wang, Y. (2022). A Survey and Research on Woolworths Customer Satisfaction. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 12(5), 1006–1011.https://doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2022.125052