A study of the relationship between electronic word-of-mouth marketing, consumer nationalism, and strategic marketing (A case study of customers of Unilever Iran)

Electronic word-of-mouth marketing plays an important role in influencing the brand perception of Chinese consumers. Although domestic social media managers are interested in understanding how to support their brands, their foreign counterparts are eager to reduce consumer nationalism in order to secure a foothold in the Chinese market. This study uses an online survey to examine whether positive and negative electronic word-of-mouth marketing enhances or diminishes consumer nationalism and brand equity toward domestic and foreign smartphone brands. The findings show that word-of-mouth marketing has positive and negative effects on consumer nationalism and these effects are based on the origin of the brand. In addition, the findings show that the effects of positive and negative electronic word-of-mouth marketing on brand equity are stable regardless of brand origin. Interestingly, consumer nationalism has a positive effect on brand equity for domestic brands but negatively affects brand equity for foreign brands. This research examines the relationship between electronic word-of-mouth marketing, consumer nationalism, and strategic marketing (the case study of the customers of Unilever Iran was carried out. This research is of a survey and practical type. The tool for collecting information is a questionnaire and the method of collecting information is field research. In this research, indicators were first identified, hypotheses were formulated based on these indicators and finally, using statistical techniques, all the proposed hypotheses were proven.