The influences of electronic word-of-mouth to play Clash of Clan game

Pagi Muhammad
Pagi.muhammad@gmail.com

Abstract
People usually listen to radio advertise, watch television commercial and read in the
newspaper, but the internet has change all of this with the emerge of web 2.0 and social
media. Now people have an instant access to information through their phone, tablet and
laptop wherever and whenever they are, they filtering the marketing advertise, because in this
kind of media they control the content they want to hear or what kind of information they
interested. People is using technology to filter our message such as caller ID, spam filter, TV
Recorder etc., but they listen to people they trust and they using social media such as twitter
and facebook also in the Google play where the android user is searching an application and
games for their smartphone. As a marketer that’s where we should be, people like to share
their experience, information and opinion with other and that word of mouth impact on the
costumer think, eat, buy and do. These researches using an approach by survey method and
literature review, the study assume that electronics word of mouth that had volume, valence,
visual cues and reviewer type (Davis And Khazanchi, 2008) are the factors that influence to
play Clash of Clan game. Respondent for these research are the student at MBTI international
class.

Keywords: electronic Word-of-mouth, purchasing decision, online promotion, costumer

behavior

Introduction
The internet is a changing our behavior in everyday life, starting from the way we
interact with each other, how we share information and experience. The business is
developing with the e-commerce. Amazon is the example of the web that using internet to
doing business with people around the world, but that’s not entire internet is changing, the
use of social media and the owner of smartphone that’s drive the penetration of internet. The
Association of Indonesian Internet Providers (APJII) said the number of Indonesian Internet
users reached 71.19 million in 2013, up by about 13 percent from 63 million users in the
previous year. Every 60’s consumers share more than 600,000 pieces of content, upload 48
hour of video, text greater than 100,000 messages, and create over 25,000 posts within social
media (Bennett, 2012), with that many kind of information in the internet how we filter the
good and trusted information, usually we search something recommended by others people.
The advertise is usually didn’t honest when marketing or selling their product or services,
that’s why they trust other people experience of certain product or services. There are
1,339,508 application in Google play at Augustus, 21 2014 and in app store there is estimate
1,200,000 application. With that much of apps available the competition is became tight for
the developer, Google play and app store it’s self has own comment and rating to review the
apps, so when someone is searching for the apps there will be the review from others people
that already try the apps and tell what they think about it. Mobile game developer Supercell
has reported revenue of $892 million for 2013, a significant gain on 2012′s revenue of $101
million. With just two games released (Clash of Clans and Hay Day), Supercell has
seemingly cracked the winning formula in the mobile space. Clash of clan has $1,282,967
Daily Revenue Estimate, 52,185 Daily installs estimate, 4,189,867 Daily active users in 2014
until Augustus 2014 Clash of Clan is no 1 grossing in app store and Google play. These
researches using an approach by survey method and literature review, the study assume that
electronics word of mouth that had volume, valence, visual cues and reviewer type (Davis
and Khazanchi, 2008) are the factors that influence to play Clash of Clan game. Respondent
for these research is the student at MBTI international class.

Literature Review
Consumers use word of mouth to talk about dozens of brands each day, from media
and entertainment products such as movies, TV shows, and publications to food products,
travel services, and retail stores (Kotler, 2011). People often to share their experience, opinion
and information with others with the emerge of web 2.0 and social media, people had a place
to share their experience, opinion and information easily anywhere there are, but why word-
of-mouth has strong impact in changing behavior?, the answer is simple because people tend
to trust other people opinion and experience, usually people that has try a product or an
service and they either satisfied with it or not, the will give the review about it. Marketers are
becoming more aware of the possibility that online discussions (electronic word-of-mouth [E-
WOM]) can, and do, impact sales, reputations, and brands. A good review is called positive
word-of-mouth and the bad review is a negative word-of-mouth, online firestorm as the
sudden discharge of large quantities of messages containing negative WOM and complaint
behavior against a person, company, or group in social media networks. In these messages,
intense indignation is often expressed, without pointing to an actual specific criticism. Even
though online firestorms are a new phenomenon, their dynamics are similar to the way in
which rumors are circulated. We can’t control what the costumer says about our product or
services, if we can make a positive word-of-mouth that’s mean our product or services is
satisfy the costumer. Word-of-mouth traditionally is using an interpersonal communication
but with the emerge of internet now scientist call an electronic word-of-mouth that is a word-
of-mouth that people post in blog, social media, forum, website etc. there are three dimension
that influence in electronic word-of-mouth that is volume, valence, and variance (Dellarocas
and Narayan, 2006). Word of mouth has been shown to boost sales of books (Chevalier and
Mayzlin 2006). Other work suggests that word-of-mouth may boost sales of music (Dhar and
Chang 2009), movies (Chintagunta, Gopinath, and Venkataraman 2010; Dellarocas, Zhang,
and Awad 2007; Duan, Gu, and Whinston 2008; Liu 2006) and video games (Zhu and Zhang
2010) and sign-ups to a social network website (Trusov, Bucklin, and Pauwels 2009)

Hypothesis 1. Electronic Word-of-Mouth (E-WOM) influence to play the Clash of Clan game

Marketing
Marketing is about identifying and meeting human and social needs. One of the
shortest good definitions of marketing is “meeting needs profitably.” (Kotler, 2011), from that
short definition we can know that the essential from marketing is about identifying and fill
the human needs for product or services that we can make a profit out of it. The core concept
of marketing is an exchange, the concept of exchange, according to most marketing
academics and practitioners, is central to our understanding of marketing. For an exchange to
take place there must be two or more parties, each of whom can offer something of value to
the other and who are prepared to enter freely into the exchange process, a transaction. It is
generally accepted that there are two main forms of exchange: transactional and relational (or
collaborative) exchanges (Fill, 2009).
 Figure 1. A spectrum of marketing changes
Source: Marketing Communications: Interactivity, Communities and Content by Chris Fill
2009 p.8

Over the years, marketing has evolved through three stages that we call Marketing
1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Many of today’s marketers still practice Marketing 1.0, some practice
Marketing 2.0, and a few are moving into Marketing 3.0. The greatest opportunities will
come to marketers practicing 3.0 (Kotler et al, 2010). In the industrial age they produce the
product without concerning what product or services that people like, they just make the
product and sell it to the costumer this is called product centric. In the age of marketing 2.0
the product or services is customize to what people like and the era is called consumer
oriented. But now there’s a new marketing concept that is in the marketing 3.0 that driven by
value.

Figure 2. Comparison of Marketing 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0

Source: Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit by Philip Kotler,
Hermawan Kartajaya and Iwan Setiawan 2010. p6

Marketing Communication
Organizations engage with a variety of audiences in order to pursue their marketing
and business objectives, before we meet or engage with our audience the first that we must
know what the audience characteristic is, so that we can use the proper tools of marketing to
engage with them. Engagement refers to the nature of the communication that can occur
between people and between people and machines. It refers to the use of communication
tools, media and messages in order to captivate an audience, often achieved through a blend
of intellectual and emotional engagement or stimulation. Engagement may last seconds, such
as the impact of a stunning ad, the sight of a beautiful person or the emotion a piece of music
might bring to an individual.

Figure 3. A macro-framework of marketing communications

Source: Hughes and Fill (2007).

Marketing communications is a management process through which an organization

engages with its various audiences. Through an understanding of an audience’s preferred
communication environments, organizations seek to develop and present messages for its
identified stakeholder groups, before evaluating and acting upon any responses. By
conveying messages that are of significant value, audiences are encouraged to offer
attitudinal, emotional and behavioral responses. (Fill, 2010). By the definition of marketing
communication above we can know that marketing communication is an activity that should
be audience centered, not just know what the audience need but all their passion and spirit as
human being.

Consumer Behavior
Marketing to consumers via the Internet has many advantages for marketers. It allows
products and services to be offered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year; it allows
products and services to be offered globally in an efficient manner; it is cost efficient in that it
saves the need for stores, paper catalogs, and salespeople. (Peter and Olson, 2010). By
understanding the consumer we will know what their behavior specially consumer in the
internet because the characteristic of this consumer different with consumer who didn’t use
internet for their purchasing of product or services, without understanding consumer behavior
we would know what marketing strategic that effective to reach the online audience. The
American Marketing Association defines consumer behavior as “the dynamic interaction of
affect and cognition, behavior, and the environment by which human beings conduct the
exchange aspects of their lives.” (Peter and Olson, 2010)
 Figure 4. Three elements for consumer analysis
Source: J. Paul Peter, Jerry C. Olson, Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy. 2010. p2

Volume
Volume is the number of reviews or posts that a given item receives, where more
postings are usually associated with increased sales. According to Liu (2006), volume
measures the total amount of WOM interactions. This would mean the number of comments
from reviewers about a specific product or service. The existence of online WOM results in
an increase in awareness and a positive (or negative) attitude towards a product resulting in a
change in sales (Alvarez et al. 2007).

Hypothesis 2. Volume influence to play the Clash of Clan game

Valence
Valence is the average rating a product receives (e.g., 3.7 out of 5 stars, Dellarocas et
al 2007), or the number of reviews of different types (e.g., 37 1-star reviews, Chevalier and
Mayzlin 2006), and more positive reviews are generally associated with increased sales
(though see Berger, Sorensen, and Rasmussen 2010). According to Liu (2006), valence
measures the nature of the WOM message and whether it is positive or negative.

Hypothesis 3. Valance influence to play the Clash of Clan game

Visual Cues
We define visual cues as any image (a form of communication) posted by a reviewer
and directed at other consumers when evaluating the characteristics of a particular good or
service. Our initial conclusion that visual cues should be part of our online WOM model is
supported by research in the marketing field by Fang and Salvendy (2003) which concludes
that pictures of products are necessary to provide customers visual cues and richer
information.

Hypothesis 4. Visual Cues influence to play the Clash of Clan game

Review Type
The notion of a ‘reviewer type’ is not a new concept as previous studies have
empirically tested models of WOM which consider expert reviews versus user reviews (e.g.
Amblee and Bui 2007). In contrast, we define reviewer type as the nature of the individual
participating in online WOM. Online reviews originate from various sources and are
generally provided by either expert reviewers or individuals who have had either a very
negative or very positive experience (Clemons et al. 2006). Senecal and Nantel (2004) found
that online recommendation systems are the most influential source in consumers’ product
choice process, although peer consumers were perceived more trustworthy. Despite the
differences in motivation for posting reviews both reviews from professional reviewers (i.e.
experts) and consumers (i.e. users) are nearly identical in significance and importance when it
comes to impacting product demand (Amblee and Bui 2007a).

Hypothesis 5. Review Type influence to play the Clash of Clan game

Research Methodology
This study is using statistical approach to explain the relation between electronic word-of-
mouth and decision to play and play clash of clan game. The subjects in this study are MBTI
student in international class, there is 115 people from batch 4, 5 and 6. The study using
purposive sampling, purposive (judgmental) sampling, a nonrandom (nonprobability)
sampling technique in which participants are selected for a study because of some desirable
characteristics, like expertise in some area (Beins, Bernard, 2010). Summary of each variable
is described in the table 1 below.

Variable Item Source

Volume  Number of posting or review in store Liu (2006)
 Number of review in social media
 Number of review in website
Valence  Average rating Dellarocas et al
 Number of reviews of different types 2007
 Positive review Chevalier and
 Negative review Mayzlin 2006
Liu (2006)
Visual Cues  Pictures of products Fang and
 Video of product Salvendy (2003)
Review Type  Expert review Amblee and Bui
 Individual review 2007
Low-involvement  Awareness Fill (2010)
decision making  Short internal information search
 Attitude/intention
 Trial/experimentation
 Long run behavior
Table 1. Research variable

Statistical method is used to measure reliability and validity using SPSS v.24
software, also to analyses linear regression and multiple regression that proposed in the
research framework figure. 5 below.
 Electronic Word-Of-Mouth (E-WOM)
H
Volume 2

H
Valance 3 H
Low-involvement
1 decision making
H
Visual Cues 4

H
Review type 5

Figure. 5 Research Framework

Validity and reliability is one of the important aspects that must be considered in
preparing the questionnaire, the goal in order to describe the phenomenon of wanting to be
measured and the truth can be trusted, so that the study is scientifically. Alpha Cronbach test
is used to measure internal consistency of reliability for whole questionnaire and for each
variable. As shown in table below the validity of the item for N=30 is 0.361, the minimum
Corrected item-Total Corelation score is 0.381, its mean all the item is valid. The sample for
testing validity and reliability is 30 person of MBTI regular class.

Item-Total Statistics
Scale Mean if Item Scale Variance if Corrected Item- Cronbach's Alpha if
Deleted Item Deleted Total Correlation Item Deleted
X1_1 75.73 208.823 .778 .948
X1_2 75.70 208.838 .804 .947
X1_3 75.97 209.482 .801 .947
X2_1 75.73 213.306 .620 .950
X2_2 75.37 220.240 .752 .949
X2_3 75.33 217.195 .696 .949
X2_4 75.70 221.045 .381 .954
X3_1 76.10 214.852 .638 .950
X3_2 76.20 217.545 .635 .950
X4_1 75.93 213.168 .657 .949
X4_2 75.90 216.783 .704 .949
Y1_1 75.57 212.254 .823 .947
Y1_2 75.97 209.482 .801 .947
Y1_3 75.57 222.323 .523 .951
Y2_1 75.67 207.816 .818 .947
Y2_2 75.87 217.982 .689 .949
Y3_1 75.73 221.857 .570 .950
Y3_2 75.70 224.355 .442 .952
Y4_1 75.77 221.013 .602 .950
Y4_2 75.77 220.944 .605 .950
Y5_1 75.57 214.668 .733 .948
Y5_2 75.87 212.533 .772 .948

Table 2. Questionnaire Validity test using SPSS

Sekaran (in Zulganef, 2006) states that an instrument of research has indicated
adequate reliability Cronbach alpha coefficient if greater than or equal to 0.70. While the test
results show coefficient Cronbach alpha of 0.951, thus it can be concluded that this variable is
reliable.

Case Processing Summary

N %
Cases Valid 30 100.0
Excludeda 0 .0
Total 30 100.0
a. Listwise deletion based on all variables in the
procedure.
 Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's
Alpha N of Items
.951 22

Table 3. Questionnaire Reliability test using SPSS

Based on Tabachnick and Fidel (2001) formula, minimum sample requirement for
multiple linear regression analysis is 50+ (nx8), where n was sum of independent variables.
This study using 4 independent variables which is volume, valance, visual cues and review
type, therefore the minimum sample is 50+(4x8)=82, this study is using 89 sample.

Result
The statistical method to measure reliability is using Alpha Cronbatch, Alpha value
0.5 and 0.6 is indicate sufficient reliability and 0.7 or higher is indicated good reliability (Hair
et. Al.,2010). Alpha Cronbach for Valance, Visual Cues and Review type is 0.633 to 0.685 so
it indicate sufficient reliability, for Volume and Low-involvement decision making has 0.833
and 0.888 that indicate good reliability. This study is using linear regression to analyze the
hypothesis using SPSS v.22 software.

Cronbach's N of
Variable Alpha Items
Volume .833 3
Valace .662 4
Visual Cues .633 2
Review Type .685 2
LowDesMake .888 11
All Variable .886 22
Table 4. Cronbach’s Alpha reliability analysis
Model Summary
Coefficientsa
Adjusted R Std. Error of
Model Model R R Square Standardized
Unstandardized Square the
t Estimate
Sig.
1 Coefficients
.861a .741 Coefficients
.738 .338
B (Constant),
a. Predictors: Std.Volume
Error Beta

1 (Constant)
1.564 .135 11.599 .000

Volume
.578 .037 .861 15.789 .000

a. Dependent Variable: LowDesMake

ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 28.509 1 28.509 249.286 .000b
Residual 9.949 87 .114
Total 38.458 88
a. Dependent Variable: LowDesMake
b. Predictors: (Constant), Volume
Table 5. SPSS analysis for volume variable

Hypothesis 2, volume influence to play clash of clan game showed R 2 of 0.741, it

indicated that volume influence 74,1 % to play clash of clan game. Correlation coefficient
computed (R=0.861) show that the relation is strongly correlated. And the ANOVA result of
sig is 0.00 and the sig criteria is < 0.05, which mean the regression model is significant.
Therefore, volume positive and significant influence to play clash of clan game, so
hypothesis 2 is accepted. Table 5 showed the result from SPSS software.

Model Summary

Std. Error of the

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Estimate
1
.669a .447 .441 .494

a. Predictors: (Constant), Valace

ANOVAa
Mean
Model Sum of Squares df Square F Sig.
1 Regression 17.190 1 17.190 70.318 .000b
Residual 21.268 87 .244
Total 38.458 88
a. Dependent Variable: LowDesMake
b. Predictors: (Constant), Valace
Coefficientsa

Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Std.
Model B Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant)
1.668 .238 7.006 .000

Valace
.514 .061 .669 8.386 .000

a. Dependent Variable: LowDesMake

Table 6. SPSS analysis for valance variable

Hypothesis 3, valance influence to play clash of clan game showed R 2 of 0.447, it

indicated that valance influence 44,7 % to play clash of clan game. Correlation coefficient
computed (R=0.669) show that the relation is moderately correlated. And the ANOVA result
of sig is 0.00 and the sig criteria is < 0.05, which mean the regression model is significant.
Therefore, valance positive and significant influence to play clash of clan game, so
hypothesis 3 is accepted. Table 6 showed the result from SPSS software.

Model Summary

Std. Error of the

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Estimate
1
.580a .337 .329 .541

a. Predictors: (Constant), VisualCues

ANOVAa

Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

1 Regression
12.959 1 12.959 44.213 .000b

Residual
25.499 87 .293

Total
38.458 88

a. Dependent Variable: LowDesMake

 b. Predictors: (Constant), VisualCues

Coefficientsa
Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) 2.353 .198 11.863 .000
VisualCues .394 .059 .580 6.649 .000
a. Dependent Variable: LowDesMake
Table 7. SPSS analysis for visual cues variable
Hypothesis 4, visual cues influence to play clash of clan game showed R 2 of 0.337, it
indicated that visual cues influence 33,7 % to play clash of clan game. Correlation coefficient
computed (R=0.587) show that the relation is moderately correlated. And the ANOVA result
of sig is 0.00 and the sig criteria is < 0.05, which mean the regression model is significant.
Therefore, visual cues positive and significant influence to play clash of clan game, so
hypothesis 4 is accepted. Table 7 showed the result from SPSS software.
Model Summary
Std. Error of the
Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Estimate
1
.811a .657 .653 .389

a. Predictors: (Constant), ReviewType

ANOVAa

Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

1 Regression
25.279 1 25.279 166.875 .000b

Residual
13.179 87 .151

Total
38.458 88

a. Dependent Variable: LowDesMake

b. Predictors: (Constant), ReviewType

Coefficientsa
Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) 1.554 .165 9.431 .000
ReviewType .601 .046 .811 12.918 .000
a. Dependent Variable: LowDesMake
Table 8. SPSS analysis for review type variable

Hypothesis 5, review type influence to play clash of clan game showed R 2 of 0.657, it
indicated that review type influence 65,7 % to play clash of clan game. Correlation
coefficient computed (R=0.811) show that the relation is strongly correlated. And the
ANOVA result of sig is 0.00 and the sig criteria is < 0.05, which mean the regression model is
significant. Therefore, review type positive and significant influence to play clash of clan
game, so hypothesis 5 is accepted. Table 8 showed the result from SPSS software.

Model Summary

Std. Error of the

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Estimate
1
.887a .786 .784 .307

a. Predictors: (Constant), EWOM

 ANOVAa

Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

1 Regression
30.242 1 30.242 320.216 .000b

Residual
8.216 87 .094

Total
38.458 88

a. Dependent Variable: LowDesMake

b. Predictors: (Constant), EWOM

Coefficientsa
Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) .857 .158 5.438 .000
EWOM .763 .043 .887 17.895 .000
a. Dependent Variable: LowDesMake

Table 9. SPSS analysis for e-wom to play

Hypothesis 1, electronic word-of-mouth influence to play clash of clan game showed
R2 of 0.786, it indicated that review type influence 78,6 % to play clash of clan game.
Correlation coefficient computed (R=0.887) show that the relation is strongly correlated. And
the ANOVA result of sig is 0.00 and the sig criteria is < 0.05, which mean the regression
model is significant. Therefore, electronic word-of-mouth positive and significant influence
to play clash of clan game, so hypothesis 1 is accepted. Table 9 showed the result from SPSS
software.
Conclusion
The statistic data process of linear regression show that e-wom (electronic word of
mouth) variables that consist volume, valance, visual cues and review type has positive and
significant influence on decision to play clash of clan game. Volume is the strongest
correlation influence on decision to play clash of clan game (R=0.861) or R 2 of 0.741 which
mean 74,1%, and the lowest variable that influence to play clash of clan game is visual cues
that has R2 of 0.337 or 33.7 % to play clash of clan game.
Word of mouth is the effective way to influence costumer or other people to decide on
product or services, because they believe on other people experience in using the product or
services. In the digital world, E-WOM (electronic word of mouth) is the same as effective as
traditional word of mouth that usually spread by talking to each other or by interpersonal
communication also in group communication, but nevertheless every tool of promotion has
its own advantages and disadvantages.

References:
Alanah Davis And Deepak Khazanchi (2008) An Empirical Study of Online Word of Mouth
as a Predictor for Multi-product Category e-Commerce Sales, Volume 18 (2): 130-
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J. Paul Peter, Jerry C. Olson, Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy, McGraw-Hill,
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Liu, Y. (2006) ‘Word of Mouth for Movies: Its Dynamics and Impact on Box Office
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