Word of Mouth Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Word of Mouth Marketing - Essay Example Techniques to promote a firm's product have been created and modified to come up with a superior marketing strategy with excellent results. Word of mouth marketing which is also regarded to as viral marketing nowadays emerged as one of the most efficient tools in marketing in product promotion, customer recruitment and retention. This paper will try to address the perceived advantages and disadvantages of word of mouth. This paper will give a closer look at word of mouth marketing and how it affects buyer behavior. To further examine the potency of word of mouth as an effective marketing tool, experiences of practitioners will be evaluated. Disadvantages and costs of word of mouth marketing, especially its inaccessibility will also be looked into. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (2006), word of mouth marketing is the ability to harness the voice of the happy customer for the good brand while acknowledging that the voice of the unhappy customer is equally as powerful (and equally detrimental) to the brand. However, it should be noted that word of mouth is often not an intended marketing strategy for goods and services companies as they do not exert direct effort in the "creation" of word of mouth. Instead, word of mouth can be indirectly promoted by firms by ensuring the quality of the products that they offer to customers. No amount of marketing effort can encourage word of mouth but through the collective effort of the whole company in achieving the goals of marketing-creating products and services that gives customer value. Traditionally, word of mouth is done through the face to face social interactions of individual. However, a new trend has emerged in word of mouth marketing together with the revolutionary development in technology. The most important technological innovation which rapidly introduced change in word of mouth marketing is the internet technology. This revolution led to the establishment of viral marketing as a type of word of mouth marketing. Viral marketing refers to "marketing technique that exploits pre-existing social networks to produce exponential increases in brand awareness through viral processes similar to a spread of an epidemic (Viral Marketing 2006)." It should also be added that viral marketing is a word of mouth "enhanced" and "delivered" online as it takes advantage of the internet technology to reach a huge number of people rapidly. Viral marketing includes the use of blogs, amateur websites and other forms of astrosurfing that facilitates word of mouth. Word of Mouth and Buyer Behavior It should be noted that word of mouth marketing takes advantage of both power of human voice and social interaction among customers. A relationship between

Apple Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 8

Apple - Essay Example Under the leadership of Steve Jobs, Apple underwent a period of tremendous innovation that led to the launch of category-defining products for example the iPod, iPad and iPhone. Apple also launched ITunes online store, Apple retail store to complement the electronics. Apple rides on its strengths to acquire and maintain a competitive advantage in a fast growing market that is extremely competitive.2 On the other hand, the increased competition can have ripple effects on the growth and success of the company. Apple has gained a strong market position due to the ‘Apple Eco-system’. The company has a wide range of applications, software and such interrelated products that support each other. The newly released products especially the iTV keep expanding Apple’s eco-system. The company therefore continues to enjoy customers’ trust therefore enjoys a competitive advantage over its competition. Brand awareness is also increased by the high quality customer experience at the Apple retail stores since the staff is always well informed with direct contact with the customers. The stores enjoy maximum profits from direct sales. Apple also has a strong marketing strategy. It employs a strong team of marketers and advertisers who ensure that pricier products are sold and build superior stores that are meant to achieve marketing goals while advertising the products in a compelling way. This advertising trend was started in 1984 when Apple produced a commercial that became famous for a long time which was broadcast during the Super bowl that year.3 Apple unlike Microsoft creates its own hardware and as such, it does not have to depend on other companies to create products that run on its operating system. Apple offers a variety of products that make profits. It is diversified and does not rely on one sole product to make sales unlike Google which majorly relies upon advertising to