The Impact of Online Blogging on Customer Buying Intentions

This report provides a comprehensive literature review on the impact of online blogging on customer buying intentions. It explores the significant changes in business driven by globalization and technology, emphasizing the rise of digital marketing and e-commerce. The report delves into the importance of marketing and promotion, highlighting how businesses use strategies to influence consumer behavior, including the use of online blogs. It examines the role of digital marketing and the increasing reliance on brand image and online presence in shaping consumer decisions. The report also defines online blogging, differentiating between personal and professional blogs and assessing their influence on consumer purchase behavior, particularly in sectors like food, culture, and electronics. The study also discusses the Ansoff Matrix model and the 5 stages of information processing model.

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

ONLINE BLOGGING AND CUSTOMER BUYING INTENTIONS 4
goods if they do not like them. The net result is that the process of e-commerce has not
only changed the business world but opened up new opportunities for consumers (Erkan
and Evans 2018). However, reviews are given by existing customers, and the brand
image of the organizations and their products or services, plays a pivotal role in
determining the buying decision of consumers (Zhou et al. 2017). Thus, it becomes all
the more important for contemporary firms to maintain a positive brand and market
image since it is directly related to the buying intentions of contemporary customers. In
the context of this issue, the model of 5 stages of information processing can be utilized.
As professed by this model, the first stage is the exposure. By means of exposure, the
organizations would ensure the employment of analytics and metrics that can map the
duration for which the customers view the viewership rate and tenure of the individual
customers. The next stage of the implementation of this model is the tracing of the
movement as well as well as the intensity with which the professional blogs of the
company is able to attract the attention of the visitors. The following stage of impact is
the comprehension and perception. In this part, visitors’ comprehension as well as
perception regarding the on page content of the blogs and reviews. The following step is
the yielding and acceptance. This is to ensure that the web visitors are actually enticed
with the online data or the reviews that they are reading on the web. After that the final
phase of Retention is to take place.
“4. DIGITAL MARKETING”
The construct of digital marketing can be defined as the process through which
business enterprises use the Internet and social media for effectively promoting and
marketing the products or services that they offer to consumers (Lu, Chang and Chang
2014). The effective use of digital marketing enables firms to reach a much larger
customer base because people are heavily dependent on various digital technologies
(Chen et al. (2016). Also, the use of social media, Internet and other digital tools for
marketing and promotion is cost-effective in compared to traditional forms of marketing

ONLINE BLOGGING AND CUSTOMER BUYING INTENTIONS 5
and promotion (Cano, Doyle and Zhang 2018). This is perhaps one of the major reasons
for the extensive use of digital marketing by contemporary organizations.
One of the most important current trends is that the buying behaviour of consumers
is determined to a great extent by brand image or online presence of organizations. More
importantly in the recent time, consumers rather than focusing on the quality of products
or services offered by an organization, focus more on the attribute of the brand and
online image of organisation (Hsu, Chuan-Chuan Lin and Chiang 2013). For example, if
an organization has a negative image over the social media and other online platforms, it
is more likely that consumers will not opt for the products or services being offered by
them, regardless of the quality of products or services. The result of this is that
contemporary businesses are increasingly resorting to the use of digital marketing
strategies for the enhancement of their brand and online image, which in turn is directly
related to the sale of the products or services on offer (Laroche et al. 2012). Thus, it can
be said that contemporary organizations are increasingly resorting to the use of digital
marketing strategies not only for the enhancement of their overall brand image but also
to attain a higher level of growth. Digital Marketing is a platform that enables the business
firm to carry out various marketing campaign effectively, using such platform various
alternative ad campaigns can be created with the objective of capturing a different segment of
people at different point of time. Moreover, because of the digital marketing platform, it is
now possible to keep track of the generated leads. Besides, the facility of SEO, keyword
planning are one of the trendy tools that are helping business firms to evolve.
“5. ONLINE BLOGGING”
Blogging can be defined as the process through which individuals express over
online media their opinions or viewpoints regarding the things that are of concern to
them (Cheng and Fang 2015). In this regard, different kinds of blogs can be categorized
into two primary genres: personal blogs and professional blogs. Personal blogs are the

ONLINE BLOGGING AND CUSTOMER BUYING INTENTIONS 6
ones in which the blogger expresses their viewpoints regarding the things that are of
concern to them or the things that they used or have done in the recent times (Laroche,
Habibi and Richard 2013). Professional blogs are the ones in which the different business
enterprises promote or market their products or services (Barrett, Oborn and Orlikowski
2016). More importantly, these blogs also offer an overview of the reasons why
consumers should choose these products or services, and the key benefits they are likely
to receive. Professional blogs also offer detailed information regarding products or
services that firms will be launching in the future (Hwang and Jeong 2016). The different
firms are increasingly utilizing online blogs as an effective promotion and marketing
strategy. This is perhaps one of the major reasons for popular online blogs have recently
gained. It is estimated that online blogging because of the above status factors light turn
out to be a heavily influential marketing tool. Especially in the categories like food and
drink, culture, as well as entertainment, as well as hobbies and so on, wherein
researchers, are estimating that one among four people would be interested to buy some
product after reading the online blogs.
Similarly, it is also experience that the future customers of the electrical items
who are purchasing products ranging between 1 US dollar to 50 US dollar would
generally pertain to read the online reviews of the customers, who has purchased similar
products or the online blogs of those experts who write blogs on electrical items
regularly or make videos or other such online promotional activities regarding them. As
research by Barrett, Oborn and Orlikowski (2016), as an outcome of the emergence of a
hi-bye friend because of online blogging, The E-Commerce sector will be estimated to
flourish in a heavily in the future also. This is because people will be psychological
interest to spend their money to buy the products that they would be reading about in the
online reviews and the nearest option for spending money on the products that they want
to purchase are the E-commerce website or applications. Another essential marketing
tool that would be merging in the future is cross-blog reviews by product experts of
various famous brands that the common people would be enticed to read. As an outcome

ONLINE BLOGGING AND CUSTOMER BUYING INTENTIONS 7
of reading such reviews, people to explore the opportunities of the features that are
included in the latest devices of that concert brand.

ONLINE BLOGGING AND CUSTOMER BUYING INTENTIONS 8
“6. ONLINE BLOGGING, SEO OPTIMIZATION, CONTENT MARKETING”
One of the most important digital marketing strategies that contemporary
businesses are increasingly using is content marketing (Urban, Gosline and Lee 2017).
There are two kinds of content marketing blogs: sponsored blogs and unsponsored blogs
(Hsiao, Chang and Tang 2016). Sponsored blogs are ones which organizations publish to
promote their goods or services (Ukpabi and Karjaluoto 2017). Sponsored blogs
enumerate the positive aspects of goods or services on offer. More importantly, they help
in the process of SEO optimization (Ho et al. 2015). This is because the more positive
reviews a particular organization has in its directory, the better will be its online presence
or brand image.
Unsponsored blogs are ones where the bloggers are not being paid for the blog
they write. These kinds of blogs offer an unbiased or unprejudiced viewpoint regarding
the products or services offered a particular organization (Liljander, Gummerus and
Söderlund 2015). However, along with offering an unbiased insight regarding the
products or services offered by an organization they indirectly help in the process of
content marketing (Hernández-Méndez, Muñoz-Leiva and Sánchez-Fernández 2015).
For example, the greater number of keywords or product or service name one has in its
directory, the higher its name will appear in the Google search engine when consumers
try to look up the name of the product or service or organization (Kim and Johnson
2016). This is important since many customers judge the brand image of the
organizations by their position on the Google search list. Thus, the various kinds of
online blogs directly influence the buying behaviour of consumers using not only
articulating the positive as well as negative aspects of the products or services but help in
the search engine optimisation as well.
“7. CUSTOMER BUYING BEHAVIOR”

ONLINE BLOGGING AND CUSTOMER BUYING INTENTIONS 9
Customer buying behaviour can be defined as the conglomeration of the
customer’s preferences, attitudes, demands, needs and other attributes (Cheung, Xiao and
Liu 2014). This is important since it is directly related to the market prospects of the
products or services being offered by a particular organization to consumers. The business
prospects of an organization depend on the effectiveness as well as the efficiency with
which it can take into consideration the attributes of the customer demographic on which
they are focusing (Chen and Lin 2015). The result of this is that contemporary
organizations regularly conduct various kinds of marketing surveys and analysis to
understand the needs of consumers in the most effective manner (Lim, Cheah and Wong
2017). Various theories and models relating to customer behaviour have in recent times
gained prominence. A consumer is rational and demands only those commodities that
yield maximum utility. A promotional marketing mix, the strategy is to be implemented to
have a position in the market. The marketing mix tools such as People, Place, Price,
Promotion, Process, Product, and Physical evidence. A better understanding of the
marketing mix tool helps in functioning efficiently.
The “Theory of Reasoned Action” articulated by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen
in 1959 is an important theory which is being used by various marketers for analyzing
the behaviour of consumers (Baker, Donthu and Kumar 2016). According to this theory,
consumers are rational beings who, for the purchase of different kinds of products or
services, use their rational faculty to make the best possible choices (Ngai, Tao and
Moon 2015). The result is that different sponsored blogs created by businesses aim to
influence this rational behaviour of consumers. Thus, the focus of contemporary bloggers
is on the creation of rational and logical blogs through which they can influence the
buying decision of consumers.
The “Motivation-Need Theory” of Abraham Maslow (1943) is another theory of
customer behaviour used for analysis of consumer behaviour (Erkan and Evans 2018).
Maslow’s theory suggests that the primary motivation for consumers to opt for the

ONLINE BLOGGING AND CUSTOMER BUYING INTENTIONS 10
products or services is the extent to which the products or services can fulfil the needs or
the requirements of consumers (Lu, Chang and Chang 2014). Thus, contemporary
organizational and individual blogs aspire to shed light not only on the positive as well as
negative aspects of the products or services but also on the likely benefits likely to be
offered to consumers. Thus, regardless of the kind of blog, they take into consideration
one kind of customer behaviour theory or the other.
In this context, the business model of Cyfe can be highlighted here. Motivation needs theory
has been implemented by the company. The customers of current days have the facility of
searching for the desired products through various channels, offline and online. In this context,
various communication channels, as well as sales channels, are implemented by the marketers
of the company so that they always in the middle of the big picture. With the diversification in
the sales and business growth, the company concentrate on acquiring a larger target audience
where they are chiefly targeted the people about the age group between 25 to 50 years. In this
context the organization insured that they have a good dashboard to display their products
properly in each of the online channels. The importance of the products wonderfully portrayed
through the customer reviews which specifically highlights how they have been benefited by
using the products. As established in other segments of this research study, the purchasing
motivation of the customers are acquired through various online blogs that makes them aware
of the connection between their needs and the benefits of using the products. This is how this
company marketed its products and services bye 2018 available to multiply the target market
segment by 31%

ONLINE BLOGGING AND CUSTOMER BUYING INTENTIONS 11
“8. IMPACT OF BLOGGING ON CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR”
The number of options or choices available to consumers has increased due to a
large number of businesses offering the same kind of product or services (Zhou et al.
2017). More importantly, this has not only increased the competition but has also made
consumers more fickle than previously. The result is that consumers often opt for the
products or services which are best in quality and available at the lowest possible prices
(Chen et al. 2016). This is unlike earlier buying behaviour of consumers where they used
to purchase the products or services of an organization by the quality, customer loyalty or
customer satisfaction. However, the contemporary businesses to mitigate the adverse
effects of this change in the buying behaviour of consumers are increasingly using digital
marketing strategies (Cano, Doyle and Zhang2018).
Effective use of digital marketing strategies or online blogs offers a plethora of
benefits to the organizations as well as consumers (Hsu, Chuan-Chuan Lin and Chiang
2013). One of the most important modern trends is that consumers are influenced by
online reviews written by various bloggers as well as existing customers (Hsiao, Chang
and Tang 2016). Thus, the positive reviews given by bloggers and existing customers
motivate other consumers to choose products or services offered by an organization.
Businesses through using content marketing and SEO optimization try to keep only the
positive reviews over their official website and delete the negative (Liljander, Gummerus
and Söderlund 2015). This is done to influence consumers to opt for the products or
services offered by the concerned business. Furthermore, businesses, through the
effective use of content marketing, try to highlight only the positive aspects of the
products or services that they are offering to consumers or the likely benefits that on
offer to consumers. Recent research suggests that this has a profound impact on the
buying behaviour of consumers (Patrutiu-Baltes 2016).