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Marketing vocabulary · Consumer Behaviour

Word of mouth

Meaning in marketing, with examples

/ˌwɜːrd əv ˈmaʊθ/nounCore term

In marketing, word of mouth means: Information and recommendations about a product that spread from person to person, in conversation or online, rather than through paid advertising.

In Turkish: ağızdan ağıza pazarlama, kulaktan kulağa yayılma, tavsiye

How it is used

Very common for small businesses and services such as restaurants and clinics. “We grew through word of mouth” means through recommendations. Before a noun it takes hyphens: word-of-mouth marketing. Reports sometimes shorten it to WOM.

Example sentences

  1. We've never advertised; all our customers come through word of mouth.

  2. Bad word of mouth spreads much faster than good word of mouth.

Common collocations

  • through word of mouth
  • positive word of mouth
  • word-of-mouth marketing
  • spread by word of mouth
  • social proofPeople's tendency to trust and copy what others do, which marketers use by showing reviews, ratings, customer numbers or testimonials.
  • brand loyaltyCustomers' habit or wish to keep buying the same brand again and again, even when competitors offer similar products or lower prices.
  • customer satisfactionHow happy customers are with a product, a service or their overall experience, compared with what they expected.
  • Net Promoter ScoreA score based on one question, “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?”, answered from 0 to 10 and used to measure customer loyalty.

More terms: Consumer Behaviour

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