The Effects of Innovative Product Features on Consumers’ Attitudes: A Study on Social Media Posts

Abstract

The perceived risk of highly innovative products is very high for the consumers. In particular, the level of purchasing risk in high-tech products may exceed the risk level of the choosing the product. Therefore, brands which sell high technology products need to apply strategies to reduce risk perception of consumers. In this study, the consumers’ attitudes toward high technology products which have radical and incremental innovative product features are investigated. In order to examine consumer attitudes toward incremental and radical product features, the social media users’ posts, which are posted during the during the product launch period, are retrieved from Twitter, and dataset is generated for three months period. In this study, the attitudes of consumers are analyzed by conducting sentiment analysis on the social media data. According to the results of this research, it is seen that the social media users compare the products of these brands with the products of the competitors regarding the radical or incremental innovative features. When the posts of two different brand followers are compared, it is found that the incremental innovation supporters present different attitudes towards two different brands and these attitudes are generally positive.

Keywords

• Incremental Innovation,Radical Innovation,Consumers’ Attitudes,Sentiment Analysis,Social Media

İnovatif Ürün Özelliklerinin Tüketicilerin Tutumları Üzerindeki Etkileri: Sosyal Medya Paylaşımları Üzerine Bir Çalışma

Abstract

Yüksek inovasyon içeren ürünlerde tüketicilerin algıladıkları risk yüksektir. Özellikle yüksek teknoloji ürünlerinde satın alma risk seviyesi bireyin ürünü tercih etme risk seviyesini aşabilir. Bu nedenle yüksek teknoloji ürünleri satan markaların tüketicilerin risk algısını azaltma stratejileri uygulaması gerekmektedir. Bu çalışmada yüksek teknoloji ürünlerine sahip olan markaların belirli ürünleri için gerçekleştirdikleri radikal ve artımsal inovatif ürün özelliklerine karşı tüketicilerin tutumları incelenmiştir. Tüketici tutumlarının incelenmesi için sosyal medya kullanıcılarının markaların lansman döneminde üç ay boyunca artımsal ve radikal ürün özellikleri ile ilgili Twitter üzerinden yaptıkları paylaşımlar çekilerek veri seti oluşturulmuştur. Bu araştırmada, sosyal medya verileri üzerinde duygu analizi yapılarak tüketicilerin tutumları elde edilmiştir. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre kullanıcıların markaların radikal veya artımsal inovatif özellik içeren ürünleri hakkında yaptıkları paylaşımlarda, rakip firmaların ürünleri ile bu markaların ürünlerini kıyasladıkları görülmektedir. İki farklı marka takipçilerinin paylaşımları karşılaştırıldığında artımsal inovasyon destekleyicilerinin iki farklı markaya karşı farklı tutumlar sergiledikleri ve bu tutumların genel olarak pozitif olduğu bulgusuna ulaşılmıştır.

Keywords

• Artımsal İnovasyon,Radikal İnovasyon,Tüketici Tutumları,Duygu Analizi,Sosyal Medya

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