The Influence of Bloggers on Consumer Purchase

Running head: ONLINE BLOGGING AND CUSTOMER BUYING INTENTIONS
THE INFLUENCE OF BLOGGERS ON CONSUMER PURCHASE
Keywords:
Online blogging, customer buying behavior, SEO optimization, content marketing,
marketin

ONLINE BLOGGING AND CUSTOMER BUYING INTENTIONS 1
“1. INTRODUCTION.”
Business has undergone a substantial change brought about by innovative
technologies and globalization (Kannan 2017). The process of globalization can be seen
as the single most important factor which has changed the nature of business in present
times (Urban, Gosline and Lee 2017). Contemporary businesses are increasingly
resorting to internationalization and global expansion. This has enhanced business
competition significantly by increasing the number of choices available to contemporary
customers (Kingsnorth 2016). The net result is that business enterprises are increasingly
attempting to mitigate competition (Baltes2015).
Business prospects depend on the kind of strategies organizations deploy (Ho et
al. 2015). The business strategies, a particular organization is using for business
operations need to be in synchronicity with the overall goals it is trying to achieve (Ryan
2016). Digital marketing strategies have significant prominence and businesses are
increasingly using digital marketing (Patrutiu-Baltes 2016).
This literature review will evaluate the effectiveness of online blogging as a form of
digital marketing strategy and also how the diverse online blogs influence the buying
behaviour of the different customers in the present times. This paper will be of interest to a
wide range of readers since it highlights how the construct of blogging can be used as a form
of digital marketing strategy by the different contemporary organizations to enhance their
business prospects. Thus, the paper tries to show that effective use of this construct can not
only aid the different organizations to market as well as promote the products or services
offered by them to the customers but at the same time offer them a better chance of gaining
success as well. It is with this objective that the different aspects of blogging and digital
marketing have been explored in this paper.
“2. MARKETING AND ITS IMPORTANCE”
The processes of marketing and promotion of goods or services offered by an

ONLINE BLOGGING AND CUSTOMER BUYING INTENTIONS 2
organization determine organizational success or its failure (Hsiao, Chang and Tang
2016). Businesses deploy different kinds of marketing and promotional strategies to
cascade the right kind of information to consumers. This act of offering relevant
information to consumers is important since if consumers do not have appropriate
information regarding the products or services they are less likely to choose them
(Ukpabi and Karjaluoto 2017). The concept of marketing myopia is to be given uttermost
importance; Marketing Myopia is a situation where a salesperson tries to convince
consumers to purchase that particular product, but the consumer feels that he/she is being
cheated and hence, the communication stops there. At last, the salesperson is asked to
leave.
Marketing and promotion are important for firms as it enables them to convey
information to consumers to help influence their buying behaviour. More importantly,
different firms are effectively using the tool of marketing to advertise in advance the
goods or services that they will be launching in the future (Hernández- Méndez, Muñoz-
Leiva and Sánchez-Fernández 2015). This enables them to create anticipation among
consumers and thereby ensure the success of the concerned product or service. The
marketing strategy used by Nike for its product Fuelband is an example of this kind of
marketing strategy (Kim and Johnson2016). A survey conducted by Kim and Johnson
(2016), reviews that since 2016, 84% what is meant by consumers have been made after
they were thoroughly impressed with the reviews that they read in the online blogs. Since
2018 this trend has increased, and it is apprehended that in the future the consumers who
are shopping with a group would generally tend to depend on the block as the essential
resources while making any purchasing decision. Otherwise, also, researchers like Kim
and Johnson( 2016), provide the opinion that in the future virtual opinions like customer
rating, product reviews or expert blogs would be highly influencing the customers
compared to firsthand experience. Again, as the internet usage train is going to increase
in a have ropeway among the people of age group between 35 and 54 years, in the

ONLINE BLOGGING AND CUSTOMER BUYING INTENTIONS 3
upcoming future, the perception of people to provide extra favor to the online blogs and
reviews would naturally increase as an outcome.
Marketing strategies used by the different firms have undergone a significant
change keeping in pace with the changing requirements of the modern business world
(Chen and Lin 2015). For example, in the earlier times, firms used to use marketing as
well as promotional methods such as newspapers, radio and other means (Cheung, Xiao
and Liu 2014). However, presently the majority of the firms are using digital marketing
(Stephen 2016). More importantly, recent research suggests firms using digital marketing
have a greater chance of succeeding than those using traditional marketing (Lim, Cheah
and Wong2017). In this context, the Ansoff Matrix model can be implemented in order
to assess the ways in which market development, diversification, market penetration and
product development have differentiated in the light of four core areas, which are
financial, customer based, internal strategies as well as learning based. This framework
would be helpful in mapping the organizational growth and the growth of market share
also. This model gives special emphasis on the processes within the company and its
customer and market segment. As such, the efficiency and benefits of the target
population can be mapped through the application of this model also.
“3. E-COMMERCE AND ONLINE SHOPPING”
One of the most important recent trends is that contemporary organizations, as well
as consumers, are increasingly turning to e-commerce. The rise of this style of business
can be traced to the emergence of the Internet and the change in the buying behaviour of
consumers. For example, the lives of consumers in present times had become much more
hectic and busy, and many do not even have time to visit traditional bricks-and-mortar
shops (Ngai, Tao and Moon 2015). It is precisely here that the importance of e-
commerce lies since this enables consumers to get the delivery of products or services to
their doorstep. This not only saves valuable time but also offers them the ability to return