Advertising: Stimulant or Suppressant of Online Word of Mouth?

Word of mouth by consumers is attracting increased attention from marketing scholars because of findings that it can affect brand perceptions and sales. There is limited empirical research, however, on the stimulants of consumer word of mouth. An assumption in the literature has been that increased advertising can also stimulate consumer word of mouth and, hence, complement the effects of advertising. We present arguments for why increased advertising may be associated with reductions in online word of mouth. We empirically test this possibility on online word of mouth in the auto industry. Our results suggest that increased advertising can, indeed, be associated with reductions in online consumer word of mouth.

Research Highlights► Our proposition: increased advertising can suppress consumer word of mouth. ► Our analysis: test whether advertising suppresses online consumer word of mouth. ► Our research category: auto industry. ► Our model: simultaneous equation system of sales, advertising and word of mouth. ► Our finding: increased advertising does suppress online word of mouth. ► Our implications: we also provide the managerial implications of our findings.