The Evangelist’s Evangelist: Developing a Customer Evangelism Scale using Faith-Based Volunteer Tourism Data

The Evangelist’s Evangelist: Developing a Customer Evangelism Scale using Faith-Based Volunteer Tourism Data

Abstract

Customer Evangelism is a manifestation of consumer religiosity resulting in extreme Word-

of-Mouth (WOM) behaviours. This paper further explores a recently proposed conceptual

model of Customer Evangelism, using a data set sourced from a faith-based volunteer tourism

activity.

The analysis demonstrates that three of the seven proposed qualities of Customer Evangelists

are supported: Customer Evangelists tend to more highly value Authenticity; they tend to be

Cultish in their behaviour toward the other users of the brand/product; and they tend to

believe that sharing enriches both the person sharing as well as the person sharing. Other

qualities which have been mooted in the literature as being essential to Evangelism more

Idealistic, Experience Driven, Socially Driven or Epistemologically Driven, were not

supported by the data.

The analysis proposes a Customer Evangelism scale, where individuals can be assigned to a

propensity for Evangelistic behaviour. Initial results demonstrate a correlative effect between

propensity for Evangelistic Behaviour and an individual’s place on the scale.

Introduction

Customer Evangelism is a manifestation of consumer religiosity resulting in extreme Word-

of-Mouth (WOM) behaviours. Consumer religiosity is a growing field of interest, especially

in research relating to Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) (Belk, Wallendorf, & Sherry, 1989;

Miller, 2003; A. M. Muniz & Schau, 2005; Porter & McLaren, 1999; Shanker, Cova, &

Kozinets, 2007; Vukonic, 1996). Customer Evangelism has been touted as a marketing

strategy by industry for decades (Kawasaki, 1991, October 20, 2004; McConnel & Huba,

2007; Shelly, 2008).

Customer Evangelists are known for their zeal in spreading word of mouth about a product or

brand (Collins & Murphy, 2009; Kawasaki, 1991). Often confused with mavenism or other

kinds of brand enthusiasts, Customer Evangelists are unique in several ways. First, their

passion for the product is based on their perception of the product having a sacred quality, as

a result of a Transcendent Customer experience (TCE) (J. W. Schouten, McAlexander, &

Koenig, 2007). This sacred quality has been referred to as Quintessence (Belk, et al., 1989).

Although other brand enthusiasts, such as Mavens (Walsh, Gwinner, & Swanson, 2004) and

Opinion Leaders (Rogers, 1983), spread word of mouth about products, they lack the religious

zeal of the Customer Evangelist.

In 2009 (Collins & Murphy) a conceptual model defined Customer Evangelism (Figure 1: A

Conceptual Model of Customer Evangelism) . Using literature available from marketing,

philosophy and religious studies. The model proposes that a Customer Evangelist has

particular qualities (Experience Driven, Idealistic, Socially Driven, Authentic,

Epistemologically Driven, Cultish, and Gift Economist) which are activated by a

Transcendent Customer Experience (J. W. Schouten, et al., 2007) leading to a feeling of

quintessence (Belk, et al., 1989) toward the product or brand.

Briefly, the qualities in the model are as follows:

Experience Driven: Customer Evangelists are more likely to seek out and enjoy experience-

intensive products rather than goods (Baumann, 2008; Belk, et al., 1989; Gilmore & Pine,

1999; Kawasaki, 2009; Lusch, Vargo, & Wessels, 2008; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2000).

Idealistic: Customer Evangelists have a desire to connect with something better, higher, more

perfect than themselves or their current surroundings. They may also be more trusting of the

motives of others, and more optimistic about the outcome of their actions or their positive

effect on the world around them (Green, 1970; Kawasaki, 1991; McConnel & Huba, 2007).

Gift Economists: Customer Evangelists will tend to participate in free exchanges of

information and knowledge. They particularly believe that sharing good news with other

enriches themselves. (Carse, 1986; Pitt, Watson, Berthon, Wynn, & Zinkan, 2006). The

enrichment as a result of sharing their experience may be a good feeling or a higher status

within the brand community (A. Muniz & O'Guinn, 2001).

Socially Driven: Customer Evangelists will be more driven to interact with others socially

than those who are not Customer Evangelists (Belk, et al., 1989; Hanlon, 2006; Kawasaki,

1991; A. Muniz & O'Guinn, 2001; Rogers, 1983; Walsh, et al., 2004).

Authentic: Customer Evangelists will care more about consistency between belief and action.

Traditional religious literature refers to this concern with authenticity in evangelism as the life

and lip approach—what one says (lip) is what one does (life) (Green, 1970). From a consumer

perspective, authenticity can be interpreted as the sincerity of the producers of a product in the

interest in the product that the consumer enjoys (Belk, et al., 1989; Gilmore & Pine, 2007;

Sweeney, Soutar, & Mazzarol, 2008).

Cultish: Customer Evangelists are accustomed to the idea that others may not think the way

they do. They perceive themselves to be part of a tight knit group of people who think

similarly to they. Therefore their behaviour manifests itself in ways in keeping with tightly-

knit communities. For example, they may perceive themselves to be more skilled, elite or

privileged than the average person (Belk & Tumbat, 2005; Green, 1970; McConnel & Huba,

2007; A. Muniz & Schau, 2007).

Epistemologically Driven: Customer Evangelists are more driven to seek, and share,

knowledge about the brand or product. Within brand communities, status is assigned to those

who know more about the product than others. Customer Evangelists view spreading WOM

as sharing knowledge, and as outward recognition of their dedication to the brand/product

(Baumann, 2008; Belk, et al., 1989; A. Muniz & O'Guinn, 2001; J. Schouten & McAlexander,

1995).

These qualities, plus the catalyst of quintessence, would theoretically lead to evangelistic

behaviour, the most notable being extreme Word of Mouth (WOM) activity.

Quintessence is not the only necessary condition for Evangelism. Evangelists are, by

definition, consistently engaged in high volume WOM generation (Collins & Murphy, 2009;

Collins, Murphy, & Glaebe, 2011; Green, 1970; Kawasaki, 1991; McConnel & Huba, 2007).

Their grass roots approach is an attractive marketing strategy in the age of social media.

One way to differentiate Customer Evangelists from other brand enthusiast, and therefore

examine their behaviour more closely, is to define them with behavioural characteristics.

Evangelists can be identified by two essential characteristics: They test positively for

quintessence (Q+), and they are in the higher range of WOM activity (WOM+) (Collins &

Murphy, 2009).

The Customer Evangelism conceptual model identifies the inputs, or the qualities that

Evangelists share. An Evangelism Scale is then developed. The scale theoretically would

correlate to the propensity of an individual to become an Evangelist.

Theoretically, an organisation’s ability to identify the likelihood of a customer becoming an

Evangelist, generally would enable them to co-create a TCE, resulting in quintessence. And

thus, a Customer Evangelist could be created.

Figure 1: A Conceptual Model of Customer Evangelism (Collins & Murphy, 2009)

Each of the inputs would have its own likert scale and a higher score on more of the inputs

would result in a higher propensity toward evangelistic behaviour if quintessence were

present.

Faith-Based Volunteer Tourists

Volunteer Tourism is a growing area of leisure, where individuals pay to participate in

experiences that lead to community building or restoration, usually focussing on the natural

environment (Wearing, 2001).

One organisation offering experiences such as this one is a Western Australian arm of an

international faith-based youth organisation (which will be referred to as WAFO). WAFO

promotes healthy lifestyle choices for young people. For example, they go to parties and run

hydration stations, serve carbohydrate-based snacks, have coffee crawls and provide safe

spaces. One of the key activities they engage in each year is participation in “Schoolies”

Potential for

Customer Evangelism

Authentic  (AU)  

Cultish  (CU)  

Epistemologicaly  Driven  (EpD)  

Experience  Driven  (ExD)    

Gift  Economist  (GE)  

Idealistic  (ID)  

Socially  Driven  (SD)  

Potential for Customer

Evangelism

QUINTESSENCE as a result of TCE

Customer Evangelist (Q+ & WOM+)

week. Schoolies is a celebratory gathering, usually near beaches, where graduating high

school students gather for a week-long drunken cabal.

Travelling to Schoolies and engaging in activities promoting healthy lifestyle choices is a key

activity in the WAFO calendar. The volunteers play a flat fee to WAFO. In exchange their

meals, travel and accommodation are provided. Leading up to and during the event, they

undergo training, engages in planning activities, recruit other volunteers, and work the event.

This includes the outreach activities WAFO engages in, but also include cooking and cleaning

up after themselves during the experience.

WAFO mainly attracts young people to their activities and to work as volunteers, with

chapters embedded within universities and in churches throughout WA, but mainly in Perth.

Other than one or two key administrators, WAFO is a volunteer organisation. WAFO cannot

deliver its programs without a steady stream of volunteers participating, and in some cases

paying to participate.

Methodology and the Data Set

The survey

WAFO surveyed their volunteers in 2010 to request feedback about the services they were

providing to their volunteers during their activities. The WAFO volunteer who designed and

administered the survey included questions based on the Collins-Murphy Evangelism Model.

The data was then provided to the authors of this paper for analysis.

The survey was delivered online, and everyone who answered the survey questions received a

promotional offer for a video rental service in exchange for taking the survey. WAFO

volunteers from the previous five years were invited to participate. Sixty-four WAFO

volunteers took the survey. A majority of the participants in the survey were active WAFO

members who intended on participating in the Schoolies in 2011.

All questions in the survey were optional. The survey included five questions identifying the

participant for the purposes of providing the promotional gift. There were two demographic

questions relating to age and gender. The genders were split evenly, with 51% of respondents

identifying as male. The respondents were overwhelmingly between ages of 18-25, with 70%

identifying within this age group.

Six questions related to the volunteer tourism experience, and the intent to participate in

future. A majority of the respondents had participated in in Schoolies weeks in the past

(66%), and intended to do so in future; 91% expressed interest in participating in WAFO

events in their local area throughout the year

Five questions were WOM related. A majority of participants had heard about WAFO

through an acquaintance at church (61%), some through a family member or a friend (35%).

Only two respondents remembered WAFO from their experience as a school leaver. It is

worth noting that none of the contacts were made through mass or social media channels.

Interestingly, many WAFO volunteers were brought in via Word of Mouth mechanisms

themselves.

Twenty-two questions in the survey were behavioural and psychographic ones, measured on a

five point likert scale. One question: “My life wouldn’t be the same without WAFO” had a

yes/no answer and was used as the benchmark of Quintessence, with a positive answer

indicating a TCE. This is consistent with previous measurements for Quintessence (Collins, et

al., 2011).

Limitations and anomalies of the survey and data set

The survey data had limitations. The sample size was not large enough for robust statistical

analysis, although it was suitable for exploratory analysis. The results relied on respondents’

self-reports, which are less reliable than verified third-party data.

In a random selection of customers, the number of individuals in the higher end of WOM, or

those who have experiences quintessence is expected to be in the minority (Collins, et al.,

2011). This survey was unusual as most respondents indicated they had quintessence with

WAFO; and a majority of respondents were high WOMers. This is partly because the

opportunity to complete the survey was taken up by individuals who were positively affected

by the WAFO experience, as evidenced by the responses to the questions.

Anecdotally, the respondents would tend to be active members of their churches, involved in

other faith-based outreach programs. The authors propose that the number of Customer

Evangelists will be higher amongst a survey where respondents are also religious Evangelists;

especially when the product is a faith-based outreach experience.

The high number of Customer Evangelists in this survey gives the authors a greater

opportunity to develop the Customer Evangelism Scale and measure the results against

qualities in the conceptual model. The number of Evangelists also makes the smaller sample

size more robust, as the spread across the three points of the scale was more evenly spread

than would be expected other samples would provide.

Developing the Customer Evangelism (CE) Scale

The first step in analysing the data was to develop the CE Scale. The scale was based on a

combination of Q+ and WOM+ Data as in Table 1.

Table 1: CE Scale

Related survey question and possible responses # of

“My life wouldn’t be the same without WAFO”

“How many people have you told about WAFO?”

Respondents in category

CE No (not an Evangelist)

Q- (disagree) told Zero others; or told under 10 people; or told 11 people or over

13

CE Low Q+ (agree) Under 10 people 22

CE High Q+ (agree) 11 people or over 25

The authors assigned respondents a place on the CE Scale, and then used Kruskel-Wallis tests

to measure the mean rank of the psychographic and behavioural questions against the

individuals at different points on the scale.

Results

Correlative results with a level of significance greater than 10% (p < 0.100) were considered

to support the conceptual model, and are outlined in Table 2. Correlative results with levels of

significance less than 10% (p > 0.100) were considered to not support the conceptual model.

All results of the survey were correlative with the conceptual model.

Table 2: Correlative Results with levels of significance greater than 10%

Mean Ranks

Quality Statements Asymp. Sig

CE No CE Low

CE High

Authentic (AU)

WAFO members are more motivated to help others than the average person

Volunteering is important to me

0.031

0.003

36.77

40.85

32.89

32.98

23.69

22.94

Cultish (CU)

If someone is a member of WAFO, it doesn’t mean we have something in common.

WAFO Volunteers are as enthusiastic about helping others as I am.

0.007

0.005

26.96

43.27

25.66

28.83

35.63

26.62

Gift Economist (GE)

I will encourage others to volunteer for WAFO in future.

Explaining to others what WAFO does is important to me.

I usually offer my opinion to people, even before they ask for it.

Volunteering positively impacts the life of the volunteer.

0.000

0.000

0.020

0.000

45.23

45.35

28.08

41.35

31.85

32.11

38.27

28.77

22.82

22.52

24.92

23.55

Preliminary results demonstrate that there is support for Customer Evangelists being more

concerned with Authenticity. They felt that other members of WAFO were genuinely

interested in helping others, and this quality mirrored a similar feeling they had themselves.

This authentic experience, and the bond it creates, can be described as Cultish. Generally

speaking, the group of respondents to the survey would already be predisposed to Cultish

behaviour, as they would be members of faith-based groups within the larger community that

were more devout than the average person in their age group.

Gift Economies are consistent with the values of Evangelists. This philosophy is also the root

of the incentive behind why Evangelists spread WOM. For an evangelist, the benefit of WOM

is not only sharing the good news with the receiver, but the act of sharing benefits the giver as

well.

There is no evidence in the data that the other qualities (Epistemologically Driven, Experience

Driven, Socially Driven, or Idealistic) appear more in Customer Evangelists than people who

are not Customer Evangelists.

Even in populations which would have a proportionally large number of Customer

Evangelists, the variance between CE NO, CE LOW and CE HIGH is not uniform; and on a

couple of statements, the relationship between the mean ranks is not linear where correlation

and significance exist. This demonstrates that there is potential for further exploration od an

Evangelism Scale; however there are two considerations when developing such a scale.

First, The scale is likely to require more than three points. With a larger sample size and a

more comprehensive survey, such distinctions may be able to be made. However, with this

survey, an with the exploratory nature of this research, a three point scale was deemed to be

sufficient to explore whether the concept of an Evangelism Scale was worth further

investigation.

Second, the measure of quintessence is an effective tool to define Evangelistic behaviour.

However, future surveys may include the statement as a measurable scale rather than as a

binomial response. With the WOM measurement and the quintessence measurement as two

ordinal scales, the possibility of a finer tuned Evangelism scale may emerge.

The data analysis demonstrates that on the extreme ends of the Customer Evangelism scale

(CE No and CE High), there is a difference in both the perceptions and behaviour of

consumers linked to their customer experience (transcendent or not) and their resulting

activity as a consequence of that experience (spreading WOM or not).

Conclusion

The purpose of this paper is to commence testing the proposed conceptual model of Customer

Evangelism. The model is based on literature from a variety of sources, however the analysis

of this data set is the first exploratory approach to verify whether the claims made in the

literature can be borne out in an industrial context. The results may differ with a more robust

data set; however this data set provides an opportunity to analyse a high-Evangelism

population and explore possibilities of creating an Evangelism Scale.

With the rising interest in industry and research circles around brand enthusiasm, and the

resulting value-adding behaviours consumers engage in, the place of Customer Evangelists is

recognised by industry, but is just starting to be examined within academic circles. The

contribution of this paper is to both the academic and research circles.

From an academic perspective, this paper furthers the existing research in the area of

Customer Evangelism, and what makes it unique from other forms of brand enthusiasm. From

an industry perspective, this paper further develops a perspective on Customer Evangelism

which goes beyond the case study approach commonly used in industry publications.

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