Analyzing the Role of Blogs and Reviews in Consumer Decisions

This essay analyzes the significant role of blogs and product reviews in shaping consumer purchasing decisions. It explores how digital marketing strategies, including blogs and reviews, influence consumer behavior in the context of online purchasing. The essay discusses the impact of product reviews, highlighting their influence on building trust, providing social proof, and shaping consumer perceptions. It also examines the role of blogs as sources of information and their impact on consumer decision-making. The discussion incorporates Maslow's hierarchy of needs to understand how blogs and reviews cater to diverse consumer desires. Despite acknowledging potential drawbacks, the essay emphasizes the importance of these tools in the modern marketing landscape, where online information heavily influences purchasing choices.

Running Head: ROLE OF BLOGS AND REVIEWS IN BUYERS DECISION
ROLE OF BLOGS AND REVIEWS IN BUYERS DECISION
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1ROLE OF BLOGS AND REVIEWS IN BUYERS DECISION
The global nature of business integrates a series of new concept and ideas which in result
generates a new dimension to the business occupation of the business organisation. In addition to
this, with the rapid advancement of technological development, it becomes beneficial for the
consumers to choose and purchase products from home (Lu, Chang and Chang 2014). They do
not need to go to the store for buying. Hence, there is possibility for the consumers to have a
number of determinant factors. In this regards, the blogs and product reviews reflect a clear
understanding of the consumer behaviour and also possess an influential factor for the
purchasing mentality of the customers. The use of internet and computers are witnessing a
vigorous development in trend of online purchasing which further instigates the consumers to
rely on internet technologies more (Chen and Lin, 2015). Therefore, the essay is going to discuss
the influencing role of blogs and product reviews on consumers and the way these technological
factors can put impacts on the purchasing behaviour of the customers. In course of the discussion
the essay follows an array of concepts and understandings which will further helpful to give a
proper perception about the topic.
Verbal promotion was considered to be a prevalent practice in the earlier part of
marketing. Verbal marketing strategy is regarded as a promotional tool which is based on the
oral transmission of words from one customer to another. In some cases, the company officials
were deliberately mentioned their product names publicly so that it could maximize customers.
However, in course of time that strategy was going to fade away and with the help of
technological advancement business organisations are now following a more effective method of
business promotions (Schiffman et al. 2014). In this regards, the digital marketing emerges as a
driving tool for meeting the need of the people. There are a number of digital marketing
strategies where blogs and product reviews are considered to be the newest addition. Blogs and

2ROLE OF BLOGS AND REVIEWS IN BUYERS DECISION
product reviews are associated with the previous experience related to the specific product (Chen
and Lin 2015). It can be composed by some experts or the previous purchaser can write their
experiences in this regards. Business organisations are using the reviews and product oriented
blogs to create a transparent image of the item. The product reviews generally encompass the
strengths and weaknesses regarding the item which in return help the consumers to determine the
nature of the product.
In this context, there are some key factors regarding the role of blogs and reviews in
influencing the consumer behaviour while purchasing an item. It can be argued that product
reviews has a great deal of impact on the purchasing behaviour of customers (Ho et al. 2015). In
most of the developed countries people are much relied upon the reviews as a social proof. The
proof is related to decision making process of the consumers. The empirical evidences prove that
product reviews provide some sort of advices to the people when they are going to buy a
particular product. The study on the American case scenario reflects that about 82% of the
American adults practice the habit of going through the product reviews before purchasing a
product where as 62% of the customers use reviews as a weekly basis (Schiffman et al. 2014). It
can also be asserted that the product reviews yield profits for the companies because most of the
customers at a percentage of 68% approximately are willing to pay more by getting assurance
and trust provided by the product reviews.
In course of this discussion, there are some influential factors regarding product reviews
that can be identified. By giving stars and ratings consumers share their product reviews in the
company portal. As a result of that, the reviews play a significant role in building trust and
assurance in respect of the specific product (Xie, Zhang and Zhang 2014). It is an effective

3ROLE OF BLOGS AND REVIEWS IN BUYERS DECISION
marketing strategy for the companies to attract more customers and push the potential customers
to purchase that product by giving a thorough insight of the product details.
Besides this, online reviews are used to be practised in a consistent basis in order to guide
the consumers to purchase. In fact, the online reviews are considered to be an integral part of the
shopping experience which in return provide a perfect outline in terms of strengths and
weaknesses of the product (Hu, Pavlou and Zhang 2017). Therefore, product reviews have a
consistent touch point which is highly intertwined with the consumer behaviour.
Moreover, the companies recently put more stress upon the product review because it can
help to shade overprice of the product. This is a deliberate practice in which the company
management tries to understand the consumer psyche. According to various marketing reports it
can be argued that quality matters more that the price of the product. The value of good
experience and trustworthy attitude of the product reviews drives the consumers to get more
interested in buying the product irrespective of it high cost characteristics (Schiffman et al.
2014). For example, the product review of Apple helps the company to build a loyal customer
base that is more fascinated with the quality of Apple products rather than the price.
In fact, content is seemed to be utilised as an effective tool in order to convince the target
consumers. The product reviews and content highlights the experience of erstwhile customers
and renders a detailed perception of the product description. It is indeed based on a thorough
research which is very illustrative and lucid in nature (Chuang, Lin and Wu 2014). Furthermore,
the product reviews play the role of a promotional tool which increases the familiarity of the
item. The more the reviews increase the more it leads to trust for the product. As a result of that,
it can motivate and provide a positive impact on the consumers and push them to purchase it.

4ROLE OF BLOGS AND REVIEWS IN BUYERS DECISION
In addition to this, there are two kinds of product reviews in online platforms; one is
related to the expert-written reviews and another is identified as customer written reviews. The
expert reviews are written by professionals who are hired by popular e-commerce portals
(Chuang, Lin and Wu 2014). On the other hand, the customer reviews are encapsulated by the
experience of the prior buyers. In addition to this, the summarize feature of the product reviews
foster a great deal of understanding and considered as time consuming which can be prioritized
by the consumers (Schiffman et al. 2014).
The advent of digitization in business and growing trend of social media there is a
possible role of influence created by the blogs on consumer behaviour. Empirical studies and
researches have accounted that there is a significant impact of blogs on the decision making
process of purchasing something. It can be defined as digital influence which is prevalent in the
modern business activities. Indeed, there are advertising and marketing elements bestow in the
practice of blogging which make it more significant and effective in the process of influencing
the customers. According to different research studies it can be argued that about 84% of the
customers set their purchasing decision after going through different blogs (Schiffman et al.
2014). In fact, the adult consumers are relied more on the blogs related to their specified items
before deciding to purchase the product.
In this regards, the social media blogging sites are pivotal and so effective that it can
create an impact on the purchasing decisions of the consumers. As a matter of fact, social media
is used to be an efficacious marketing tool which facilitates an insight of the product description
and features (Schiffman et al. 2014). Facebook and Twitter become a general trend nowadays. In
fact, 83% of the influencers post their opinion on Facebook once a week and 71% in Twitter (Xie
et al. 2014). As the blogs enters into business sector as a driving force it becomes an effective

5ROLE OF BLOGS AND REVIEWS IN BUYERS DECISION
mechanism to promote specific products of the company. Therefore, it can be ascribed that
blogging acts as a source of information for consumer behaviour.
Positivism and familiarity are also associated with the course of blogging. The nature of blogs to
envisage a thorough insight of the product helps the customers to perceive an idea of the various
details of the item. Furthermore, these insights influence the customer to decide whether he is
going to purchase the product or not. The investigative nature and inspirational feature make
blogs very popular among the customers (Schiffman et al. 2014).
In that context, the discussion will proceed further by understanding the Maslow’s theory
of hierarchy of needs from basic to self development. The Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs
is particularly focused on the human needs, depicted as a five tier pyramid model. According to
Maslow, people are motivated to achieve specific needs and these needs align with the human
behaviour (Datta 2014).
In the model, the first four levels are related to the needs in deficiency which is identified
as D-needs and the apex level is supposed to be the being needs (B-needs). In addition to this,
based on the Maslow theory it can be argued that the whenever the deficit need of individual life
has been satisfied then the person will look for higher level of needs. However, one must have
the idea that there is no hard and fast rule for meeting the need fully. It can be based on the desire
of the individual and priority (Datta 2014).
In this regards, the biological or physiological needs are considered to be the most
important stage of a personal desire which is further put forwarded with the need of safety. It
resembles the elements of security and stability in terms of law and order. The next stage refers
to the need of love and belongings which encapsulates the perceptions of friendship, intimacy,

6ROLE OF BLOGS AND REVIEWS IN BUYERS DECISION
trust and acceptance. The esteem needs is located in the fourth level of the hierarchy. There are
two categories regarding this point highlighting esteem for oneself and the desire to respect from
others. The later one is relevant to children and adolescents to earn self-esteem or dignity. The
apex phase is identified as the self actualisation needs defining potentiality, fulfilment and
personal growth of an individual (Datta 2014).
In this regards, the consumer purchasing decision can be influenced by blogs dominantly.
The very nature of blogs provides a broad understanding of different kind of desires of the
customers. In order to cope with various types of customer demand the blogs also expand its
dynamics by incorporating different ideas and concept in the process of blog writing (Lu, Chang
and Chang 2014). For an instance, there are eBooks, printable, digital subscriptions and software
or mobile applications which are devoted to provide information on given topics. The consumers
can set their purchasing decisions by reading blogs and online previews of specific products.
From the above discussion it can be analysed that there is an array of factors which keep
deep impact on the buying nature of the customers. In fact, the customers’ purchasing decisions
depend on those factors. In this context, product reviews and blogs are played a significant role
in influencing the purchasing decision of the consumers. With the advent of digitization and
technological advancement the activities of product reviews became popularised and started to
make an impact on the business dynamics. However, there are some drawbacks of using the
blogs and product reviews on a massive scale. The demand and priorities of individuals are
different and unique from others. Therefore, the assessment based on blogs and product reviews
never fulfil the whole demand of a person. In fact, the writings are reviews are not considered to
be authentic and accurate all the time. Despite of these discrepancies it can be concluded that
blogs and product reviews are used popularly because the customers rely upon the facts

7ROLE OF BLOGS AND REVIEWS IN BUYERS DECISION
highlighted on those writings and it provide them a sense of trust and assurance while purchasing
an item.

8ROLE OF BLOGS AND REVIEWS IN BUYERS DECISION
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9ROLE OF BLOGS AND REVIEWS IN BUYERS DECISION
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