ABSTRACT
“People are coming to recognize that connection, both to others and to Nature herself, is the wellspring of human happiness.”
Helena Norberg-Hodge,
Research Problem:
How do online reviews of the customers force brands to be more sustainable?
Chapter overview
The power balance between the two actors in the market, consumers and companies, has considerably changed. Especially with the improvements in technology, consumers can increase their voice and share their societal, social, and environmental concerns with other consumers and companies. Online consumer reviews not only reflect satisfaction, frustration, and complaints but they are also an extension of consumer power that influences companies. This chapter's purpose is to search and highlight the traces of consumer power created through online reviews to make brands more sustainable and to offer more sustainable consumer solutions. Following the aforementioned purpose, the chapter will scrutinize how online consumer reviews push brands toward sustainability. The discussion will be initialized by explaining online transformation in marketing as the power shift from companies to brands and from word of mouth to electronic word of mouth followed by online consumer reviews. The chapter will be finalized by highlighting the power of online consumer reviews on brands’ sustainability efforts by using illustrative global cases. Overall, this chapter summarizes how changes in marketing and consumers lead companies toward sustainability due to the effect of online consumer reviews.
