The Twenty-first Century, Word Of Mouth Marketing

While the power of word of mouth (WOM) has been acknowledged for more than 50years, marketers regarded WOM as a happy accident and an occasional fortuitousaddition to their campaigns. But times are changing and a slew of recent marketingsuccess stories suggest that WOM may prove to be the most potential marketing toolin the 21st century.Up to date, most of the researches of WOM only focused traditional WOM marketingmethods. However, evidence is pilling up that Internet and mobile communicationtechniques had expanded or changed both the nature of WOM communication and itsimpact on consumer behavior. The thesis built an integrated theoretical foundation forWOM marketing, and explored the new practices to expand the scope of WOMmarketing.In the first chapter, the author re-defined WOM and reviewed the fundamentaltheories from various disciplines to explain the WOM. In the second chapter, anintegrated model of WOM Marketing was built to engage WOM as a strategic vehicle.In the third chapter, the author proofed that in Chinese market WOM marketing iscrucial as in developed countries with positive method. In the fourth chapter, threemain revolutionary changing of WOM in 21st century: experience economy, internet,and mobile communication, were analyzed. In the fifth Chapter, the author discussedthe framework of WOM marketing management.