Marketing Strategy Assignment: Impact of Word of Mouth on Business

Question

Task: You are required to prepare 4500-word marketing strategy assignment on word of mouth marketing strategy. Make sure add industry examples from retail, fashion and automobile.

Answer

1 Introduction and background
1.1 Background The 'word-of-mouth' marketing strategy has been circulating in the advertisement market since the earlier period. It is a fact that over 90 percent of people will take or think about a recommendation that comes out of a known person, friends, colleague, or relatives. The power of 'word-of-mouth' certainly has the most influential impact on the audience. It is organic and an entity or individual cannot manipulate someone to spread good words about them to enhance their sells or brand recognition. The current increasing digitalization among different platforms or individuals makes the 'word-of-mouth' more rapid and sustained. It acts as 'viral marketing' on a brand, enhances their after sell, and rapidly promotes their market presence (Peng et al., 2020). The propagation of ‘word-of-mouth’ as a ‘dynamic maintenance’ process to control existing problems.

The 'word-of-mouth' marketing makes the individuals talk about a company's resources, behavioral and selling approach, quality, price point, brand value, and other associated events. The mathematical approach to the 'word-of-mouth' (WOM) marketing process explains four different dimensions – a target market that influences from 'WOM,' active buyers or customers, buyers that spread positive feedback, and buyers that spreads negative impact (Husniah & Supriatna, 2020). These factors are important for a company in enhancing their brand name and product quality to satisfy their customers that will encourage others to avail services from that brand with appropriate ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing.

1.2 Problem Statement
The most challenging factor in 'word-of-mouth' marketing is the negative information that spreads from the customers. As people are more inclined towards the user's experience or reviews before buying any product or availing a service, so negative feedback affects a large section of potential buyers who will not even consider trying the product. However, it has been identified that the positive 'word-of-mouth' has more impact than the negative because the positive feedback makes the customers repurchase the specific product/service and they encourage others to buy the same thing (East et al., 2017). People have faith in organic promotion rather than acquiring information directly from the organization, as they will always praise their services.

The negative 'word-of-mouth' most of the time does not express by the buyers as they simply move on to other alternatives. Thus, the organizations should maintain their product quality or offered features to at least control their customers from spreading negative feedback if not positive. The recommendation on a certain product or service through an organic conversation with a friend or colleague provides a significant impact in their decision-making process (Sathya, 2020). It makes challenges in the 'word-of-mouth' marketing strategy as it can build a brand or ruin a brand just from the customer's expression of personal opinion.

1.3 Aim
The current report is aiming in understanding the significant factors and major aspects of 'word-of-mouth' marketing strategy in various existing industries that influence the customers to make effective purchase decisions.

1.4 Objectives and Research Questions

2 Literature Review
2.1 ‘Word of Mouth’ as a strategic Advertising tool
According to (Maria et al., 2019), ‘word-of-mouth’ is a concept where people can pass information through communication. the ‘word-of-mouth’ can use as a strategic advertising tool. It will be an effect on brand advertising. It has a direct effect on advertising. The ‘word of mouth’ can spread awareness about the customer's behaviors towards a particular product. It can also have increased the association of the brand with the customers.

According to (Santosh, 2020), ‘word-of-mouth' is using as a strategic tool for doing the advertising. It always not uses as direct financial benefits. It can be used to spread the terms of discounts on future purposes, vouchers, special treatment for the existing customers as well as it will attract the new customers also. It will also help to increase businesses economically. The 'mouth of the word' can also fall a great impact on customers about purchase intention. It has required fewer efforts to spreading the business than the old way. To develop the business organization has adopted the ‘word-of-mouth’ strategy.

2.2 ‘Word of Mouth’ marketing strategy on the retail industry
According to (Keller & Fay, 2016), in the world of digital marketing strategy, 'word-of-mouth' can also be a way to grow up any retail business. Internet influencers are also doing advertisements on a particular brand. But when the consumers are meeting face to face, offline conversations fall a great impact on sales of any products rather than social media. The sellers think that 'word of mouth' always focuses on the negative side of the customers. The criticism and complaints about the product can fall a bad effect on the business. But the truth is 'word of mouth' has a great positive impact on the business also. It shows the credibility of the retailer. Through conversation, the problem can be solved as well as it has helped to improve the business.

According to (Mukerjee, 2018), through ‘word-of-mouth’ can also give a great value to the retail banking consumers. the brand experience, quality of the service can also become effective through the ‘word-of-mouth’ strategy. It shows that WOM has more significant than the other way of advertising. Customers are more reliable on the WOM rather than another way statement. WOM plays an important part in influencing customer's attitudes towards the products. It also plays a substantial role in developing the banking sector.

2.3 ‘Word of Mouth’ marketing strategy on the fashion industry
According to (Saleem & Ellahi, 2017), social media has a great impact on the change of living of the people. The ‘electronic word-of-mouth’ has shaped the new marketing strategy of the fashion industry. The studies show that “Facebook" users through electronic WOM has purchase fashion products through. It has enhanced the market value of the products as well as the trustworthiness between the consumers and sellers are also shown. Knowledge of fashion products, the information about it, high-quality fashion products can be done through electronic WOM. 'Word-of-mouth' can also have an impact on customers buying behaviors. It has benefited the sellers as well.

According to (Alavijeh et al., 2018), WOM is the most important way to do communication which will influence the behavior of the consumers. Fashion companies consider WOM as a relevant way to do business. It is a convincing choice where the customer-to-customer interaction happens which will improve the way of business. The online review of the products can also have a great significance on WOM. The face-to-face conversation between the customers can happen about the products that have been bought. It has shown the importance of WOM. WOM plays a significant part to create a tie between the outsiders as well as with the acquaintances.

2.4 ‘Word of Mouth’ marketing strategy on the automobile industry
According to (Ong & Mahmud, 2020), WOM plays an important part to know about the customer's behavior, faith, and trustworthiness towards the organization which will help to enhance the profit of the organization. The competition among the automobile industries is increasing day by day. The WOM can help the consumers to know about the price of the foreign-made and locally made cars. Where the customer can find a lower price of the cars. The activity of the market, which brand should trust, the loyalty of the brand can also be discussed from face-to-face.

According to (NGUYEN, TRAN, and HUYNH, 2019), the relation between the consumers and sellers are more important in any automobile industry. Customers are an important part of any industry. The value of the customer's review can make the industry elevated into the industries. WOM also brings reliable information form the consumers. In the automobile industries who have already used the particular company’s car can do the advertising which is also part of the WOM strategy. The good behavior with the previous customers can attract new customers as well. Therefore, it shows that the WOM strategy is a useful way to do business.

3 Research Design
3.1 Research Description
In the current research paper, qualitative research has been done through the descriptive interview method. With the help of the above-mentioned research paper, the secondary data has been collected. For the research paper, the data has been gathered through the interview methods as well as with the help of an online research paper.

3.2 Qualitative Research
The research paper has been conducted on the qualitative research method. The qualitative research will help to gather the non-numerical data. The research method can help to recognize the concepts of the research, about the opinion of the consumers as well as the experiences of the customers can be done. The importance of WOM can be shown in doing a qualitative research method. The qualitative research paper is more narrative than quantitative (Korstjens & Moser, 2018). In the qualitative research method “credibility”, “transferability” and “dependability” of the data can be done. The method will help the business organization to grow the business rapidly. WOM plays an important role to do the primary qualitative research method.

3.3 Secondary data type
With the help of research papers, it has been shown that the importance of WOM. It will help to do the advertising of the products as well as through the customers the news of offers and the service of the particular business organization has been discussed. Secondary qualitative research has given a brief history of the research method (Sherif, 2018). It is a reliable, valid research source. The secondary research type can also time and cost-effective method. It is based on the primary research paper. Here, how WOM can help to develop the business has been discussed.

3.4 Data collection
In the research paper, the qualitative secondary approach has been done. Through the research paper the retail marketing, the fashion industry, and the automobile industry should be developed by WOM. Through surveys and primary qualitative research, the data has been collected. The data collection method has been shown that the data have been found in an ethical source (Hussain, Zefreh, and Torok, 2018). The survey for “Customer Satisfaction” can also show the WOM method. The qualitative data has shown that every different person can be benefitted from the WOM method.

3.5 Data analysis on the theme
The data analysis has shown that the retail sector, fashion sector, and automobile industries have been using the 'Word-Of-Mouth' way to increase the business in the business world. It shows that through WOM face-to-face communication the business can be developed. Customers reviews, the offers from the particular fashion sites, the seller-consumers relationship can be done by the WOM method. The retail sectors can be benefited from the WOM method. The fashion industries promoting the products in cyberspace by using the EWOM method. The automobile industries using the WOM to attract new customers. The previous customers can also give a review to help to grow the business.

4 Findings
4.1 Theme discussion
4.1.1 The discussion on retail marketing strategy
In the early days, ‘word-of-mouth’ was easier and people discuss good products among their friends and relatives and makes effective purchasing decisions. However, in the current situation, the increasing usage of social media and the internet makes the 'word-of-mount' marketing different from its initial version. The two most important 'WOM' marketing on a digital platform can be user reviews and microblogs about a specific product or service (Marchand et al., 2017). In the retail market, they become very active on social media and observes what their customer thinks about their new approaches. The percentage of positive and negative 'WOM' on a certain product/service online influences a wide range of customers to make effective decisions on purchase. Microblogs from influencers also encourage their admirers to purchase a product that did well for the author. It acts as a rapidly changing process in disseminating valuable feedback on the internet that can build or ruin a company's brand identity.

4.1.2 The discussion on fashion marketing strategy
The social networking websites make a significant impact on potential buyers through the reviews from the customers. The electronic 'word-of-mouth' on social media platforms like Facebook has influenced customers with brand-based feedbacks in the fashion industry. It enhances trustworthiness, informational and expertise influence, and major fashion promotion through ‘word-of-mouth’ on the internet (Saleem & Ellahi, 2017). On the e-commerce websites, the buyers provide reviews on their purchased products with pictures and other information that helps the potential customers to decide whether to buy that product or not. The lack of effective presence on social media by a fashion brand can lead their customers to go for other brands easily (Sudha & Sheena, 2017). 'WOM' plays a bigger role among other industries as people are more interested in purchasing merchandise after seeing the product in real. They are often influenced by their friends or colleagues in buying clothes from certain high-quality brands.

4.1.3 The discussion on automobile marketing strategy
Most of the customers in the automobile industry are often regarded as poorly informed or inexperienced in their decision-making process of purchasing a new product. The 'corporate social relationship' (CSR) in the automobile industry plays an important role in enhancing its financial performance and 'market' value (García-Madariaga & Rodríguez-Rivera, 2017). The CSR provides the performance aspect and operational structure of an automobile brand towards the environment and customers influence the buyers to make an effective purchase decision. On the other hand, expert buyers give positive feedback or disseminate effective informational review on specific automobile brands that makes their acquaintances in searching for that specific brand and buy cars. It is also applicable for acquiring services for resolving automobile-related problems or make a long-term investment on an expensive product. 'WOM' generates real-life experience to the customers before they make a purchase.

4.2 Objective discussion
4.2.1 Major aspects of ‘WOM’ marketing strategy
Statistics generates that over 90 percent of people make a purchase decision after assessing recommendation from their friends or relatives, while almost 75 percent of people do not rely on advertisements generated by the brands(Sukhraj, 2018). It is because people are four times more inclined towards purchasing products that are referred by their friends. It has also been identified that 'word-of-mouth' provides twice the amount of sales than normal promotional ads that require huge costs. However, only above 30 percent of the organizations are actively using reviews from their customers to enhance their marketing position(Sukhraj, 2018). Researchers have been identified that the ‘technological’ innovation that increasing brand value is more important in generating 'WOM' behavior by satisfying customer behavior. The marketing innovation does not work on building a brand's image as it can be only built by the customer's positive 'WOM' dissemination.

Fig: Percentage on the trustworthiness of ‘WOM’ in various forms

4.2.2 Significance of ‘WOM’ marketing strategy
'Word-of-mouth' marketing has both positive and negative aspects of a brand's promotional activity. It happened that the huge number of backlashes from the customer on the internet makes a company to reevaluate or make drastic changes to their products to make it acceptable in the market. Customers primarily trust their friends or relatives, or even reviews from reals persons on the internet before making a purchase decision. Currently, the electronic 'word-of-mouth' directly affects the 'big 5' personality traits on the customers in conducting effective decisions on purchasing online or offline(Husnain et al., 2016). It is a customer interest-based marketing that directly reflects the products or services from an organization. The significance of paying more attention to the 'WOM' marketing process will help an organization to improve their products/services according to the customer's requirements and organically present a positive brand image.

4.2.3 Importance of ‘WOM’ marketing strategy
The primary importance of ‘WOM’ marketing is it provides a crucial 'marketing' tool because the reviews are generated from the customers that are received after they have experienced that certain products/services. It has been identified that the companies are also paid for 'WOM' marketing to present a positive brand image in front of the audience. However, currently, with the help of effective usage of the internet, people are more inclined towards assessing the truth. It has been identified that affection for a certain brand, positive brand image, customer’s commitment towards assessing products/services from a brand, and value ‘congruity’ leads people to disseminate positive ‘word-of-mouth’ (Maisam & Mahsa, 2016).The importance of ‘WOM’ can be,

• 'WOM' is one of the most powerful advertisement as it generates trustworthiness among the potential customers and makes people assess information from other's experience on a particular product or service
• On one hand, ‘WOM’ sustains customer through repurchasing the same item over and over again, on the other hand, it influences people around them in trying those products
• The effective ‘WOM’ from a specific person provides them exclusiveness from that certain organization for which they feel privileged

5 Discussion and Data analysis
5.1 How ‘WOM’ has been used as a marketing tool in influencing the customers?
'WOM' has a strategic way to do business. It helps the organization to develop the business. 'WOM' is also used to influence customers. 'WOM' is a very influential marketing tool. It has the power that influenced customers for giving credits to particular products or services (Nuseir, 2019). It uses as a marketing tool. It shows that most of the marketing has been done by the method. 49% of consumers are using the WOM method to buy anything virtually. It helps to tie the customers and retailers communicatively. Through the reviews, the new customers can be satisfied and also found encouragement to buy a particular product.

5.2 What are the major underlying aspects of ‘WOM’ marketing strategy?
'WOM' is an influential way to do marketing nowadays. The customers play a major role in the 'WOM'. The major aspect of 'WOM' is to encourage the discussion between the customers to face-to-face. The fashion industries spread the news of the offers and discounts which attract new customers. It is also a way to do 'WOM'. The internet influencer can do advertisement for a particular product which will be encouraging other people to buy it. It is an effective way to do advertising rather than the traditional way of doing it. The previous consumers can spread the news which will attract the new customers to buy the product or consider the particular service. The customer experience can also be part of the ‘WOM’ which will help other consumers as well. The e-WOM is based on the information quality of the product (Fukang et al., 2019). It shows the customer's intention when purchasing any products as well as the customer's review after purchasing any product.

5.3 What is the significance of ‘WOM’ marketing strategy?
The ‘WOM’ has a significant role in the marketing or business world. The customers are the main aspects of any business organization. There is a negative as well as a positive aspect of the 'Word-Of-Mouth'. The dissatisfaction of the customers, the bad product assessment as well as the criticism from the consumers are the main negative aspects of the ‘WOM’ (Roy et al., 2019). It shows that ‘E-WOM’ values the most customers. The negative comment also effects on the purchasing behavior of the products. The positive aspects of the 'WOM' are when customers give a positive reaction to the products. the quality services, the good quality products help to grow the business. The customer's satisfaction, the consumer's brand identification, as well as the good review of the particular product, can also get the new customers, which is appositive aspects of the ‘WOM’ (Popp & Woratschek, 2017). The 'WOM' also ties the strangers as well as relatives to buy any particular product.

5.4 How it plays an important role in influencing the customer’s purchase behavior?
Research shows that 90% of people more likely to buy products that are recommended by friends, relatives, or others. ‘Word-of-Mouth’ play a significant role in purchasing any particular products. The positive customer reviews can elevate the business organization where negative comments can demotivate customers to buy particular products (Roy et al., 2019). WOM can increase the 5x more sales of any business organization than any kind of media. E-WOM can improve online purchasing. The neutral E-WOM and rich E-WOM can make online purchases more efficient and reliable.

5.5 What is the importance of ‘WOM’ marketing strategy?
The importance of 'WOM' is more important in any business aspect. Opinions of the customers, new ideas of the consumers can be benefitted the company's growth. The negative recommendation can smear the reputation of the organization, but positive recommendations can also bring new customers to the organization. It is also known as the "Customer-centric marketing strategy". The customer reviews are the main way to elevate the business. The trustworthiness between the consumers can also help the business organization to develop the marketing strategy. Consumers also give the ratings to the other portal which attracts other customers also to come to the particular shop. Social media also have a great impact on the 'WOM' strategy. meaningful posts, a repost of the other customer's posts as well as the quality customer service can also important aspects of ‘WOM’ (Vinerean, 2017). Social media has a great impact on 'WOM' marketing strategy. Customers become more encouraging when interacting with the brand. It automatically connects consumers with brand marketing.

5.6 Does the industry take the ‘WOM’ strategy seriously to make considerable changes?
Word-of-mouth can become the main objective of the marketing strategy. 92% of consumers trust in approval from relatives or customers than any other advertising. It encourages industries to grow business with the help of interactive sessions with the consumers. Industries are basing on the customer's review of the particular products. The retail industries which are benefitting the economy of the company as well as the state. 'WOM' helps the industry to get more consumers through advertising. It is the main source of advertising. Fashion industries are also based on 'WOM'. The online customer's review or the offline store offers and discounts can be spread because of the 'WOM' strategy. The beliefs in the customer's good reviews, good quality products can also help to do good marketing. The automobile industry can also be helpful with the help of ‘WOM’. The old customers can recommend the new customers to buy the car from that particular industry, which will help to improve the business.

6 Research limitations
The research limitations were related to the extensive amount of data that is not easily available on the internet. However, the research process did conduct an interview session with the people who are interested in providing a review after using a certain product or service. It was difficult due to the current Covid-19 situation, which restricted the research process for a significant amount of time in arranging effective data. The interview session was conducted over the e-mail with the selected research participants. They were aware of the current research process and gave their perspective on the important and influential factors of 'word of mouth.'

The existing research articles and journals have provided information regarding the importance of electronic ‘WOM’ marketing in the current situation. from the 19th century, the 'WOM' has gained immense recognition for its organic reach to a wide range of audience and generate sustainable buyers. Currently, the evolution of digital platforms makes ‘WOM’ marketing more effective and rapid. The limitation was related to the lack of real-life incidents that got benefitted from the 'WOM' marketing process. The interview session also resulted in a descriptive analysis of the report objectives and questions. If the current report could have engaged with a survey, it can represent a statistical result on the importance and significance of 'WOM.'

7 Conclusion and Recommendation
The contribution of ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing strategy in different industries, such as the automobile, fashion, and retail sector is huge. It has been identified that the organizations are immensely benefitted from off 'WOM' marketing strategy in both organic and 'amplified' way (Perera, 2020). Customers are now emphasized on understanding the performance of a certain product or service via buyer's review or rating on the internet. 'WOM' is the most trustworthy if it coming out from a friend or family member. In the current increasing competitive environment, organizations are working hard behind maintaining loyalty and trust to their customers. It provides sustainability to the purchase process and improvement of the existing products or services according to the feedback.

The 'relationship marketing' process among the customers in providing loyalty and trust factor increases positive ‘WOM’ (Akbari et al., 2016). It is the most effective and instant promotion on a product or service that enhances an organization to get closer to their customers and fulfill their requirements. It is possible that the popularization of 'WOM' can reduce additional marketing costs via a digital medium or traditional channels. The effective encouragement from the brands to their customers on providing genuine feedback gives them additional room for appreciation and positive recognition.

The identified recommendations on ‘WOM’ marketing strategy can be,

• The organizations need to maintain the quality of their offered products/services to obtain positive ‘WOM’ that will help in increasing their sales and business
• The lack of engagement with the customers or poor quality of products generates negative ‘WOM,’ which is the worst-case scenario for any organization
• 'WOM' marketing enhances the strong brand presence of an organization and secures its brand image with positive 'WOM'
• It is more effective than paid advertisements on digital and traditional media channels, so the organizations should consider ‘WOM’ marketing strategy as a mainstream marketing tool ?

8 References
8.1 Academic Sources
Akbari, M., Kazemi, R., & Haddadi, M. (2016). Relationship marketing and word-of-mouth communications: Examining the mediating role of customer loyalty. Marketing and Branding Research, 3, 63–74.

Alavijeh, M. R. K., Esmaeili, A., Sepahvand, A., & Davidaviciene, V. (2018). The effect of customer equity drivers on word-of-mouth behavior with mediating role of customer loyalty and purchase intention. Engineering Economics, 29(2), 236–246.

East, R., Romaniuk, J., Chawdhary, R., & Uncles, M. (2017). The impact of word of mouth on intention to purchase currently used and other brands. International Journal of Market Research, 59(3), 321–334.

Fukang, Y., Zhongguo, Z., & Yang, C. (2019). Research on the Influencing Factors of Customer’s Purchasing Intention in Virtual Brand Community.

García-Madariaga, J., & Rodríguez-Rivera, F. (2017). Corporate social responsibility, customer satisfaction, corporate reputation, and firms’ market value: Evidence from the automobile industry. Spanish Journal of Marketing-ESIC, 21, 39–53.

Husnain, M., Qureshi, I., Fatima, T., & Akhtar, W. (2016). The impact of electronic word-of-mouth on online impulse buying behavior: The moderating role of Big 5 personality traits. J Account Mark, 5(190), 1–10.

Husniah, H., & Supriatna, A. K. (2020). The effect of word-of-mouth marketing strategy on the number of buyers: a mathematical perspective. PROCEEDING MICEB (Mulawarman International Conference On Economics and Business), 2, 96–103.

Hussain, B., Zefreh, M. M., & Torok, A. (2018). DESIGNING THE APPROPRIATE DATA COLLECTION METHOD FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT PASSENGER SATISFACTION ANALYSIS. International Journal for Traffic & Transport Engineering, 8(2).

Keller, E., & Fay, B. (2016). How to use influencers to drive a word-of-mouth strategy. Warc Best Practice, 1, 2–8.

Korstjens, I., & Moser, A. (2018). Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 4: Trustworthiness and publishing. European Journal of General Practice, 24(1), 120–124. Maisam, S., & Mahsa, R. (2016). Positive word of mouth marketing: Explaining the roles of value congruity and brand love. Journal of Competitiveness, 8(1), 19–37.

Marchand, A., Hennig-Thurau, T., & Wiertz, C. (2017). Not all digital word of mouth is created equal: Understanding the respective impact of consumer reviews and microblogs on new product success. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(2), 336–354.

Maria, S., Pusriadi, T., Hakim, Y. P., & Darma, D. C. (2019). The Effect of Social Media Marketing, Word of Mouth, and Effectiveness of Advertising on Brand Awareness and Intention to Buy. Jurnal Manajemen Indonesia, 19(2), 107–122.

Mukerjee, K. (2018). The impact of brand experience, service quality and perceived value on word of mouth of retail bank customers: investigating the mediating effect of loyalty. Journal of Financial Services Marketing, 23(1), 12–24.

NGUYEN, M. H., TRAN, B. T., & HUYNH, L. T. (2019). Relation Between Employees and Customers Affects to the Positive Word of Mouth Through Customer Satisfaction. Journal of Distribution Science, 17(6), 65–75.

Nuseir, M. T. (2019). The impact of electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) on the online purchase intention of consumers in the Islamic countries–a case of (UAE). Journal of Islamic Marketing.

Ong, M. H. A., & Mahmud, Z. (2020). An Exploratory Factor Analysis of Market Survey Instruments for Automobile Industry: A study on Malaysian Motor Vehicle Industry. Thailand Statistician, 18(4), 481–490.

Peng, H., Huang, K., Yang, L.-X., Yang, X., & Tang, Y. Y. (2020). Dynamic Maintenance Strategy for Word-of-Mouth Marketing. IEEE Access, 8, 126496–126503.

Perera, C. (2020). WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING.
Popp, B., & Woratschek, H. (2017). Consumer–brand identification revisited: An integrative framework of brand identification, customer satisfaction, and price image and their role for brand loyalty and word of mouth. Journal of Brand Management, 24(3), 250–270.

Roy, G., Datta, B., & Mukherjee, S. (2019). Role of electronic word-of-mouth content and valence in influencing online purchase behavior. Journal of Marketing Communications, 25(6), 661–684.

Saleem, A., & Ellahi, A. (2017). Influence of electronic word of mouth on purchase intention of fashion products in social networking websites. Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences (PJCSS), 11(2), 597–622.

Santosh, U. (2020). Application of Word of Mouth in Digital Marketing: Untapped Potential and Emerging Tools.

Sathya, M. (2020). WORD OF MOUTH AS A MARKETING STRATEGY. DogoRangsang Research Journal, 10(06), 326–334.

Sherif, V. (2018). Evaluating preexisting qualitative research data for secondary analysis. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 19(2).

Sudha, M., & Sheena, K. (2017). Impact of influencers in consumer decision process: the fashion industry. SCMS Journal of Indian Management, 14(3), 14–30.

Vinerean, S. (2017). Importance of strategic social media marketing. Expert Journal of Marketing, 5(1).

8.2 Internet Sources
Sukhraj, R. (2018). 7 must-have word-of-mouth marketing strategies. Retrieved from Impact : https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/word-of-mouth-marketing-strategies-infographic [Accessed on 12 October 2020]

9 Appendices
Research Questionnaire
a. Is ‘Word-of-Mouth’ marketing important?
b. What are the main aspects of 'Word-of-Mouth'?
c. Should the business industries consider ‘WOM’ as their main marketing tool?
d. Are ‘WOM’ trustworthy?
e. What are the negative and positive aspects of it? How it is reflecting in the business industries?
f. What is the importance of ‘Word-of-Mouth’ when purchasing any products?
g. What is ‘Word-of-Mouth’ marketing strategy?