Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM, WOM marketing), also called word of mouth advertising, differs from naturally occurring WOM, in that it is actively influenced or encouraged by organisations (e.g. 'seeding' a message in a network, rewarding regular consumers to enage in WOM, employing WOM 'agents'). While it is difficult to truly control WOM, research has shown that there are three generic avenues to 'manage' WOM for the purpose of WOMM: 1) Build a strong WOM foundation (e.g. sufficient levels of satisfaction, trust and commitment), 2) Indirect WOMM management which implies that managers only have a moderate amount of control (e.g. controverisal advertising, teaser campaigns, customer membership clubs), 3) Direct WOMM management, which has higher levels of control (e.g. paid WOM 'agents', "friend get friend" schemes). Proconsumer WOM has been suggested as a counterweight to commercially motivated word of mouth.
[source:wikipedia.com]
Sayed Farrukh Ahmed
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Business & Economics
Daffodil International University
