Beer brand word-of-mouth drivers in Colombia: A qualitative exploration

Abstract

This paper explores which motivational drivers incline consumers to engage in word-of-mouth (WOM) communication within the Colombian beer market, forecast to be among the most important beer markets during the coming years. Colombian consumers are primarily influenced by recommendations from friends and family and are therefore more likely to adopt new products due to WOM rather than mass communication. Yet marketers still have little knowledge of how to manage WOM effectively, especially in the Latin America region. Consequently, the authors adopt a qualitative research method conducting semi-structured interviews with fifteen Colombian beer market mavens aimed at exploring which motivational drivers cause consumers to engage in WOM. Twelve motivational drivers were found for WOM about beer brands. Of these, two were found to be partially important, and three appeared to be necessary. The findings of this study propose a number of recommendations to be made for enhancing motivational drivers to generate more WOM. The findings of the study could be used to develop a quantitative measurement identifying which of the motivational drivers have the most influence on Colombian consumers to engage in WOM. This research could assist brewing businesses to internationalise into the Colombian beer market and to achieve competitive advantage.