FLOGGING - Making Customers Talk By Faking Their Voice

Sammanfattning: This thesis investigates the controversial area of Stealth Marketing, set apart by its nondisclosure of both the sender behind an advertising message and the fact that the consumer is being marketed to at all. This study concerns flogging, a type of stealth marketing where companies create and spread a fake blog in order to stimulate brand and product interest. The concept of flogging is studied and compared to traditional marketing with the aim to reach a conclusion whether flogging is more effective than traditional ads. Flogging is found to generate both higher buying intentions and higher word of mouth intentions than traditional advertising, as well as higher levels of advertising attitude, brand image and brand interest. Brand attitude however, was found to be slightly lower for flogging. A number of potential explanations for these effects are discussed in the thesis.