The Impact of Negative ewom on Brand Loyalty : A qualitative study in the context of social media

Social media is a modern commodity, almost half of the world's population are connected to it in some capacity. As a result of the accessibility and the reach social media have, many brands have also established their presence there. The expansive network of interactivity on social media paved the way for changed marketing dynamic and the consumer and brand relationship has been permanently altered. The concept of social media marketing has been studied by researchers and practitioners alike. Understanding consumers on social mediais of interest for marketers since consumers are more informed than ever before. Thanks to social media, consumers have a vast arsenal of tools at hand to compare, review and analyze brands. The strengths of the consumers are based on their ability to connect and communicate with each other. This has introduced the classical marketing concept of word-of-mouth (WOM) to the digital sphere. Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) takes place all over social media in different contexts and subsequently has an impact on consumers' attitude and behaviour towards brands. Despite the extensive research on social media marketing, there has been a lack of research regarding the impact that negative eWOM may have on consumers' loyalty towards brands.In order to fill this research gap, this thesis seeks to provide a deeper understanding of negative eWOM on social media and how it influences consumers’ brand loyalty. To be able to aptly analyze this dynamic, social media marketing, negative eWOM and brand loyalty has been studied in order for this research to examine how the relationship between brands and consumers is affected by negative eWOM on social media. The data in this research was collected through a qualitative study in the form of semi-structured interviews. The sample group of the study were eight Swedish women between the ages of 20-30 who all had experiences with brands online and exposure to negative eWOM. In order to receive relevant data from our sample group and to limit the research, only the clothing retail industry was scrutinized. The data was divided into themes which were analyzed and discussed. The findings of the research are that consumers on social media are highly susceptible to marketing by brands. This marketing can be directly from the brand or indirectly, through an influencer for example. Consumers and influencers on social media tend to voice their experiences and opinions through eWOM. Depending on the circumstance, the eWOM can either be positive or negative. The negative eWOM has an influenceon consumers and the severity of the impact of the negative eWOM depends on the source of the information. Friends on social media are deemed as highly credible sources, who often reinforce the consumers attitude towards a brand. Influencers on social media are often seen as not being credible sources because they are perceived to have a profit interest in the information that they share. Other sources of negative eWOM on social media have to either be numerous or be perceived as trustworthy to be deemed credible. Overall, the interpretation of eWOM is very individual and the biggest impact on brand loyalty is that the brand and the consumer have shared values