The Word Of Mouth Marketing - An Introduction

Marketing is one of the most evolved fields today. Marketing deals with any market-oriented activity with the ultimate objective of increasing the sales and brand image of products or services marketed. Marketing as a field covers market research, selling, promotion, customer service, after sales service to name some. And what works the best for the ultimate objective of marketing, that is, selling. Well, it is the oldest method of marketing, the word of mouth marketing.

The Concept Of The Word Of Mouth Marketing
The word of mouth marketing involves the activities a company or an individual or an institution takes up, to generate a favorable statement from its customers to acquire new customers and retain the existing ones. The prospective customers can be friends, relatives, acquaintances, colleagues, family members, and the like of existing customers.

The Elements Of The Word Of Mouth Marketing
The word of mouth marketing has the following pillars:
1) Trust drives the word of mouth marketing. Word of mouth marketing impacts its target market when a person whom we trust, recommends a product or service. And, it is because of our trust in that person, we trust his or her recommendation and take resultant action.
2) The credibility of the product or service is very important. It is essential that the product or service is actually convincing and a value for money. Then only anybody will prefer to discuss it or refer it to their friends and acquaintances.
3) The word of mouth marketing is the most potential way to affect a product or service's market strength. Whether favorable or unfavorable, the word of mouth can make or break, respectively, a product's and service's market equity.
4) Involves an effortless dissemination of information.
5) Results in a common response from the target market.
6) This is the most cost-effective marketing method because it uses others' resources to work.
7) The word of mouth marketing is not much affected by any fluctuations in the economy or rising competition in the business.
8) If a product or service has been able to build a particular, either positive or negative, image of itself through the word of mouth marketing then it is difficult for the competition to break it readily.
9) The word of mouth marketing is not a long-term marketing method. It is good as initial marketing or as a support to already encouraging sales. The product or service needs constant improvement to retain and expand its market share.

The word of mouth marketing has been there for years and is the most successful and cost-efficient selling tool. Everybody selling anything must encash the numerous benefits of word of mouth marketing. But take care that the word of mouth for your offering is favorable, failing which, it may result in deceased sales and depleting brand image.