An Overview on Traditional and Electronic Word of Mouth Communication (WOM)

Year 2018, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 16 - 26, 18.01.2018

Esra Demirbaş

Abstract

WOM is an informal communication way occurring between consumers about a
product, a service or an organization in order to pass their opinion, mostly their
delight or dissatisfaction through other people. Customers of some special
categories of products and especially services feel obligatory to apply WOM to
be wised during pre-purchase period. As WOM importance has been increasing and
it has been becoming a critical issue affecting performance of organizations,
different studies took their place in the literature .Technological
developments boosted the means of WOM communications and introduced online WOM,
making it keep its actuality. Although the definition of WOM is quite simple,
unfortunately its context does no.  Roles
of  WOM parties such as sender and
receiver, power and retention of the transmitted message, how it affects
costumer purchasing process ,how a negative WOM could be transformed to a
second chance to augment consumer satisfaction and to improve the quality of
the product.

The aim of this study is to overview different topics that have been already
observed related to both traditional and online WOM communications and to
consolidate the key, critical and actual belonging issues. Finally, subjects
for the future WOM researches will be suggested.

Keywords

WOM, E-WOM, Market Maven, Opinion Leader, Information Seeker and Provider

Geleneksel ve Elektronik Ağızdan Ağıza İletişim Yöntemlerine Genel Bir Bakış

Abstract

Ağızdan ağıza iletişim (WOM-word of mouth); tüketicilerin, bir ürün, hizmet veya kurumla
ilgili çoğunlukla memnun kalmadıkları veya beğendikleri hususları diğer kişilere iletmek üzere
kullandıkları resmi olmayan bir iletişim yoludur.

Bazı özel ürün kategorilerinde ve özellikle de hizmet sektöründe, müşterilerin satın alım öncesi
WOM’dan etkilenip karar verdikleri düşünülmektedir. Globalleşen ve gelişen iletişim teknolojileri
neticesinde WOM’un gittikçe artan önemi ve kurumların performansını etkileyen kritik bir konu
haline gelmesine bağlı olarak, bu konuda literatürde farklı çalışmalara yer verilmiştir. Teknolojik
gelişmeler, WOM iletişim mecralarını artırmış ve elektronik WOM(e-WOM) geliştirilerek, önemi
bir kez daha ortaya konmuştur. WOM’un oldukça basit olan tanımının aksine içeriği önemlidir.
WOM’u gönderen ve alan tara arının rolü, iletilen mesajın gücü ve akılda tutulma süresi,
müşterinin satın alma sürecini nasıl etkilediği, olumsuz bir WOM’un tüketicinin memnuniyetini
artırmak ve ürünün kalitesini iyileştirmek için ikinci bir şans olarak değerlendirilmesi gerektiği
hususları dahil olmak üzere, bu çalışmanın amacı hem geleneksel hem de elektronik WOM/e-WOM
ile ilgili olarak gözlemlenen farklı konuları gözden geçirmek ve anahtar, kritik ve güncel konularını
pekiştirmektir. Son bölümde de gelecekteki WOM araştırmaları için önerilerde bulunulacaktır. 

Keywords

geleneksel wom, e-wom, pazarda engin bilgi sahibi, lider görüşlü, bilgi arayan, bilgi sağlayan

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