The goal of this thesis is studying the effect of consumer’s word of mouth, one of the most powerful and crucial tools to spread products and services. Word of mouth results to be more influential and stronger than any other advertising way in convincing people to trust products or consumer experiences. The first step of research was to analyze the reasons that drive the conversation among people, thanks to different social experiments that have shown psychological and anthropological items to consider for building word of mouth of company. Once you observed these aspects, it has been analyzed a universal plane of marketing that fits to any companies, identifying key points: people, topics, tools, participation and supervision. In the second chapter it has been shown as the word of mouth, with Internet and the new digital tools, has found out new opportunities to express itself and to reach the critical mass. The latter topic has been analyzed in the third chapter as it represents the core of word of mouth that, if it can’t reach a critical number of people, it doesn't achieve its goal. The second part of the thesis is focused on the case study of Airbnb. It is a platform of house sharing which, thanks to the power of word of mouth, it is known in more than 190 countries in the world. First of all it has been done a general view to show how the site works and how the users interact with it; then what the company uses to make people talk about it. In the penultimate chapter, it is illustrated a project where Airbnb is investing on Italian market, with the aim to develop supply in the areas where this is less strong. This is done with the action of host referrers, independent collaborators who spread the knowledge about Airbnb to local level. The thesis ends with two surveys submitted to sample of platform users, and this allowed to confirm the actual worth of the word of mouth and the typical features. The thesis allowed to let us discover how any organization, small or medium-large, can make people talk positively about them. People truly love talking and using products or services in order to share their opinions and experiences, but only when they have a good reason to do it. Companies need to know and explore this field to have a better understanding on where and in what they have to invest.
L’obiettivo della tesi è studiare come il passaparola dei consumatori rappresenti uno strumento chiave per la diffusione dei prodotti o servizi. Il consiglio di una persona fidata riguardo un bene o esperienza di consumo, risulta più influente e incisivo di una qualsiasi altra forma pubblicitaria. Per affrontare la ricerca si è partiti con l’analizzare le ragioni che spingono la conversazione tra gli individui, citando diversi esperimenti sociali eseguiti da studiosi che hanno portato alla luce aspetti psicologici e antropologici di cui bisogna tenere conto per costruire il passaparola d’impresa. Una volta rilevati questi aspetti, si è passati alla struttura di un piano di marketing del passaparola che si adatta a qualsiasi tipo di compagnia, elencando i punti chiave caratterizzanti: conversatori, argomenti, strumenti, partecipazione e monitoraggio. Nel secondo capitolo è stato mostrato come il passaparola, tramite la Rete e i nuovi mezzi digitali, ha trovato nuovi modi per esprimersi e raggiungere la massa critica. Quest’ultima è stata analizzata nel capitolo successivo in quanto rappresenta il cuore del passaparola che, se non riesce a raggiungere un numero critico di persone, non ottiene il suo scopo. Poste le basi teoriche, la seconda parte della tesi si è concentrata sul caso studio di Airbnb. Piattaforma di house sharing che grazie al potere del word of mouth è riuscita a farsi conoscere in più di 190 Paesi nel mondo. Inizialmente si è svolta una panoramica generale per mostrare il funzionamento del sito e come viene usato dagli utenti, per poi osservare quali meccanismi la compagnia adotta per far parlare di sé. Nel penultimo capitolo è stato illustrato un progetto recente in cui sta investendo la compagnia nel mercato italiano, per sviluppare l’offerta in quelle aree geografiche dove è più carente. Questo avviene attraverso l’operato di host referrers, collaboratori indipendenti che diffondono la conoscenza di Airbnb a livello locale. La tesi si è conclusa con due sondaggi somministrati a un campione di utenti della piattaforma, grazie ai quali si è constatato l’effettivo valore del word-of-mouth e le caratteristiche che lo contraddistinguono. Il lavoro svolto ha permesso di scoprire come un’organizzazione, piccola o medio-grande che sia, può ottenere un grande successo quando riesce a far parlare di sé positivamente. Le persone amano parlare e servirsi dei prodotti per farlo ma solo quando dispongono di un motivo valido, ed è su questo che ogni impresa dovrebbe investire.
Il potere del passaparola: il caso di studio Airbnb.
NOTAROBERTO, SARA
2014/2015
Abstract
The goal of this thesis is studying the effect of consumer’s word of mouth, one of the most powerful and crucial tools to spread products and services. Word of mouth results to be more influential and stronger than any other advertising way in convincing people to trust products or consumer experiences. The first step of research was to analyze the reasons that drive the conversation among people, thanks to different social experiments that have shown psychological and anthropological items to consider for building word of mouth of company. Once you observed these aspects, it has been analyzed a universal plane of marketing that fits to any companies, identifying key points: people, topics, tools, participation and supervision. In the second chapter it has been shown as the word of mouth, with Internet and the new digital tools, has found out new opportunities to express itself and to reach the critical mass. The latter topic has been analyzed in the third chapter as it represents the core of word of mouth that, if it can’t reach a critical number of people, it doesn't achieve its goal. The second part of the thesis is focused on the case study of Airbnb. It is a platform of house sharing which, thanks to the power of word of mouth, it is known in more than 190 countries in the world. First of all it has been done a general view to show how the site works and how the users interact with it; then what the company uses to make people talk about it. In the penultimate chapter, it is illustrated a project where Airbnb is investing on Italian market, with the aim to develop supply in the areas where this is less strong. This is done with the action of host referrers, independent collaborators who spread the knowledge about Airbnb to local level. The thesis ends with two surveys submitted to sample of platform users, and this allowed to confirm the actual worth of the word of mouth and the typical features. The thesis allowed to let us discover how any organization, small or medium-large, can make people talk positively about them. People truly love talking and using products or services in order to share their opinions and experiences, but only when they have a good reason to do it. Companies need to know and explore this field to have a better understanding on where and in what they have to invest.È consentito all'utente scaricare e condividere i documenti disponibili a testo pieno in UNITESI UNIPV nel rispetto della licenza Creative Commons del tipo CC BY NC ND.
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14239/5409