| The almost limitless availability of the internet and especially social media caused brand-to-consumer-communication to shift from a brand’s monologue towards a consistent “multi-path dialogue” (Powell/Groves/Dimos 2011, p. 27). This means that organizations can reach broad audiences at much lower cost than through traditional communication instruments, but individuals can now also react to these messages or even take the initiative by distributing their opinions via the internet (Dellarocas 2003). This development offers a wide range of benefits for both consumers and companies but for the latter it also comes with a loss of control over the communication of brand-related content. Internet users can easily share their opinions about brands in social networks or write product reviews on online retail websites and thus affect the level of brand trust of many other (potential) customers. Compared with traditional word-of-mouth, this electronic variant has a much higher volume and persistency, with the effect that an opinion shared online reaches a bigger audience and is available for a long period of time (King/Racherla/Bush 2014). Since unpleasant customer experiences do not only harm the relationship with the respective individual but can also be shared within the Web 2.0 and in consequence affect the public’s brand image (Jalilvand/Samiei 2012), it is more important than ever for companies to live up to their brand promise at every single brand touchpoint. This represents the most effective way to reduce negative outcomes due to the loss of control over brand-related content. In addition, communication between brands and consumers has turned into a dialogue that occurs on many different channels, with high frequency and velocity, and is conducted by a large number of employees. Thus, more employees have direct contact to the brand’s customers and therefore serve as ambassadors for the brand. While formally and temporally consistent brand communication can be achieved by design guides and campaign management, respectively, consistency with regard to content is more difficult to achieve when diverse employees are interacting with target groups with increasing frequency and velocity. Therefore, it has become important for every employee to know how to fulfill his or her role in the brand’s best interest in order to (1) minimize negative brand experiences and thus the risk of negative electronic word-of-mouth and (2) enable a consistent brand communication over all channels. |
