Consumers’ Use of Blogs as Product Information Sources: . . . Morimoto and Trimble 45 Marketing Management Journal, Fall 2012 INTRODUCTION Conventional wisdom holds that the first, second, and third rules for successful real estate sales are location, location, location (e.g. RealEstateabc.com 2003). A similar idea can apply to consumer decision making and its relationship with effective marketing communication planning. Placement of messages in an appropriate context/ environment might also be the first, second, and third rules of all successful marketing communication (Sissors and Baron 2002). Marketers should not rely on marketing communication to activate or prompt consumers to initiate a product search; marketers should focus their communication efforts in places where already actively searching consumers look for information— which is increasingly in online media vehicles. Court et al. (2009) reports that two-thirds of the most important consumer interaction with product information, when the consumers are in an active search and \ alternative evaluations, involved in word-of-mouth communications. Only one-third of that consumer interaction is said to take place through company-driven marketing efforts like traditional advertising and sales promotions. With regards to consumers’ use of blogs, BlogHer’s Social Media Matters Study (Collins 2011) reports that nearly half of adult consumers (47%) surveyed reported that they turn to recommendations found on Web logs or blogs for new ideas and trends instead of traditional promotions; over half (53%) of the same population reported buying a product that was recommended on a blog; those blog recommendations were also preferred over celebrity endorsements. These findings suggest that marketers would do well to concentrate on creating and maintaining communication vehicles of their own (i.e., blogs, social media) that attract consumers when they are actively searching instead of merely placing traditional promotions amidst media that attracts consumers looking to be entertained. Academics have also begun to explore the potential of this medium. Previous efforts in relation to advertising and blogs have been made mainly in the area of messages (Chu and Kamal 2008) and bloggers (individuals The Marketing Management Journal Volume 22, Issue 2, Pages 45-60 Copyright © 2012, The Marketing Management Association All rights of reproduction in any form reserved CONSUMERS’ USE OF BLOGS AS PRODUCT INFORMATION SOURCES: FROM NEED-FOR-COGNITION PERSPECTIVE MARIKO MORIMOTO, Sophio University CARRIE S. TRIMBLE, Millikin University This study investigated the potential influence of word-of-mouth (WOM) and need-for-cognition (NFC) on consumer information search in the blogosphere. This study, in particular examined how consumers perceive corporate and consumer-generated blogs as product/brand information sources. The results of an online survey indicated that NFC and susceptibility to WOM influenced consumer’s information search process, ultimately leading to purchase intent. The findings also showed that while high NFC individuals showed more favorable attitudes toward consumer-generated blogs over corporate blogs as an information source, low NFC individuals did not have a specific preference for either type of blog. In addition, participants reported greater purchase intent for products addressed in consumer-generated blogs than corporate blogs. This difference in purchase intent existed even when their attitudes toward both types of blogs and the brands/products mentioned there were regarded similarly.