口碑在消費者制定購買決策的過程中扮演非常重要的角色，甚至比其他行銷方式更具影響力。越來越多的公司利用網路口碑來進行產品的宣傳，期望透過網友的傳播來擴大行銷效果。在新產品的發展中更是如此，由於消費者對於新產品的不了解，口碑就扮演了一個很重要的角色。例如，之前大多數的電影都是利用廣告來做宣傳，但是海角七號因為經費有限，所以利用網路和口碑來做宣傳，而造成相當大的迴響。海角七號的電影官方部落格，已經吸引超過一千萬以上人次的網友上網瀏覽，網友留言也超過六千多筆，其票房也十分驚人，達到新台幣四億六千多萬元，成為台灣票房史上的第二名，由此可以知道口碑的驚人威力。
本研究透過真實的口碑資訊來檢測口碑的生命週期，以海角七號、囧男孩與一八九五三部電影部落格的留言作為口碑資訊，這裡的留言是指一般觀眾看完電影後到部落格上所分享的心得。全面下載留言版的留言，以時間為橫軸，留言數量為縱軸，再以內容分析法來探討口碑的生命週期，最後以三部電影歸納出口碑生命週期的樣貌，並經由數量分析得知在各個口碑生命週期階段的口碑屬性的百分比。
由本研究結果得知，口碑對於電影票房有高度的正相關。電影在進行網路口碑的發展階段（口碑導入期階段、口碑成長期階段、口碑成熟期階段和口碑衰退期階段），每一生命週期階段都有其獨特的特徵，運用各項具體步驟，可促使電影的口碑行銷成功。這些結果可讓電影業者更加了解網路口碑資訊的諸多屬性和網路口碑的生命週期。也可提供部落格版主作為管理網路留言的參考。同時，網路業者可藉由網路口碑生命週期擬定行銷策略。

Word-of- Mouth plays an increasingly important role in the process of consumer purchase decision making, and its influence is even greater than many other marketing methods. There are more and more companies apply the Online Word-of-Mouth strategy for their products, hoping it would expand marketing effect through the e-pals propagations. Especially in the phrase of the new product development since the consumers do not know the products very well by that time. For example, before Cape No.7, most movies use advertisements as the only way to publicize movies; however, Cape No.7 had limited budget, so it sought for the Internet and Word-of-Mouth publicity and received a great deal of responses. The official blog of Cape No.7 has attracted more than 10 million visitors and more than 6,000 posts. Moreover, its box office over Taiwan region has reached NT$460 millions and become the second highest one in the history. The amazing power of Word-of-Mouth can not be ignored.
This research examines the life cycle of Word-of-Mouth with true Word-of-Mouth messages from three film blogs, including Cape No.7, Orzboyz and 1895. Messages here refer to the general audience’s post on the blogs after watching the movies for sharing their experience. All posts on the discussing board were downloaded. The messages were first organized into graph, where horizontal axis is time, and vertical axis number of messages and then content analysis is used to explore the life cycle of Word-of-Mouth. Finally, we got the picture of the life cycle of word-of-mouth from the three films and Word-of-Mouth attributes in each stage of life cycle, which were resulted from quantitative analysis.
The result of this study is that Word-of-Mouth has high positive relation to the movie box office. During the four stages of life cycle of film Online Word-of-Mouth, each stage (word-of-mouth initiation stage, growing stage, mature stage and decline stage) has its own unique characteristics. Get use of the specific suggesting steps of each stage would enhance the success of the film's Word-of-Mouth marketing. These results could also help movie industry understand many attributes of Online Word-of-Mouth, and the life cycle of Online Word-of-Mouth more. Besides, they could provide principles for the blog administrators on network message management. At the same time, the network operators can draft marketing policy complied with life cycle of Online Word-of-Mouth.

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