Management

What is word of mouth

WOM can be defined as the most effective source of communication between consumers about a certain brand, product or a service where the information is passed or communicated from one person to another. The impact of one customer passing WOM is known as a ripple effect . WOM can be described as a dual process where both a receiver and a sender are involved together with their attitude which contributes to the effectiveness of this process.There are three factors that leave an impact on WOM; characteristics of the sender and the receiver and their interrelationship, the context within which interpersonal and non-interpersonal factors interact and message characteristics:

Firstly, concerning the interrelationship of parties involved, two key motivation of the acceptance of WOW are the perceived interest of the giver in the recover and the expertise of the giver. These key motivations have an effect on the credibility of the message being communicated and thus the perceived interest of the giver in the receiver depends on the type of the social relationship they share, for instance family members are more socially distant despite their primary type of relationship, while secondary associations despite their relative weakness ,seem to play a key role in the transmission of the information throughout the social networks Furthermore leadership is generated through an opinion of the giver in a conversation related to the WOM of a product or service that should be of enough knowledge to leave a positive influence on the receiver. Secondly, the interaction of interpersonal and non-interpersonal factors; WOM seems to be more influential when the information was sought by the receiver, this shows that when the receiver already has an interest in the brand product or service he/she is more likely to accept the WOM effectively.

Thirdly, when it comes to message characteristics the most important one is its vividness in the...