Consumer-generated versus marketer-generated websites in consumer decision making

Internet users are encouraged to rate and review all kinds of services and
products. These kinds of reviews are described as eWOM (electronic wordof-
mouth). Our central question is ‘Are consumers using these reviews, and
what is the role of eWOM as compared with commercial-marketer-generated
information and advertising on the internet?’ The vacation decision process was
used as the domain of investigation, but these results are also compared with
four other domains. The conclusion is that the roles of both types of site are
complementary. Furthermore, it was found that, overall, positive and neutral/
mixed contributions to consumer-generated websites are far more frequent
than negative ones. Based on these findings, the implications for marketing and
advertising strategies are sketched out: additional to existing strategies, market
research has to monitor the eWOM about brands and, by using this information,
companies should flexibly adapt their advertising to the discussion points raised
at the consumer-generated sites.