Strong ties versus weak ties in word-of-mouth marketing

Abstract

It is widely accepted in word-of-mouth (WOM) research that weak ties have a greater macro-level impact than strong ties on the spread of WOM and that marketers should thus intentionally stimulate WOM between weak ties to optimize a given WOM campaign. Here, we challenge this idea based on the fact that, in practice, marketers often incorporate a WOM campaign into other forms of marketing activities, typically advertising. Using an agent-based modeling approach, we demonstrate that while advertising serves as one source of information flow, the WOM that is most effective at driving product growth is created by strong rather than weak ties. The rationale behind this is simple: advertising competes against weak ties in disseminating information globally, and it is this global reach that has been widely considered the vital strength of weak ties over strong ties.

What Happens with the New Guy? Tackling the Problem of Tacit Knowledge through Social Networks

“…Specifically, information relating to job employment was more likely to come from one's acquaintances than from one's close friends. This understanding is reinforced by the marketing literature, as a commonly accepted view is that weak ties have a greater impact on the market-level spread, while strong ties have a greater impact on interpersonal influence (Brown & Reingen, 1987;Frenzen & Nakamoto, 1993;Godes & Mayzlin, 2009;Hu, et al, 2019).…”

“…Strong-tie relationships might be expected to be more effective than weak-tie relationships in transmitting tacit knowledge. Relationships with strong-ties are usually those found in close physical and psychological proximity to each other, which helps promote information seeking and sharing (Hu, Wang, Jiang, & Yang, 2019;Reingen & Kernan, 1986). Moreover, strong-tie relationships develops a solid base of member familiarity based on those members' needs and preferences.…”

Agent‐based modeling of new product market diffusion: an overview of strengths and criticisms

“…They may consider different types of social ties, that is, strong ties with people within their social circles and weak ties with other people (Watts and Strogatz 1998). It is noteworthy that weak ties may also play a crucial role in innovation diffusion because they often function as bridges among different social groups (Brown and Reingen 1987;Goldenberg et al 2007;Hu et al 2019).…”

Word of mouth: How upward social comparisons influence the sharing of consumption experiences

“…The increase in the research response to the call for exploring the motivations behind word of mouth is quite recent (Chen, 2017). Understanding the factors that underlie the spread of word of mouth is of paramount interest against a backdrop characterized by increasing investments in word of mouth marketing (Hu, Wang, Jiang, & Yang, 2019). The social media explosion has attracted researchers to turn their attention to the social motivations of word of mouth (Baek, Scholz, O'Donnell, & Falk, 2017) and to the effect of social media envy (Liu, Wu, & Li, 2019).…”

“…The social media explosion has attracted researchers to turn their attention to the social motivations of word of mouth (Baek, Scholz, O'Donnell, & Falk, 2017) and to the effect of social media envy (Liu, Wu, & Li, 2019). In particular, the type of relationship between the parties involved in an upward social comparison is drawing increasing importance (e.g., Dubois, Bonezzi, & De Angelis, 2016; Hu et al, 2019). In this paper we dig deeper into the social drivers of word of mouth by analysing how the perceived position of the consumer in relation to the content of the information that is shared affects word of mouth.…”