Impact of Word of Mouth Communication on Consumer Purchase Decision

Abstract

Corporate executives are searching for new ways to make consumers aware of a product or service as the market is highly competitive. They adopt different methods to achieve this goal. Consumers make decisions using a variety of methods, including word of mouth. Therefore, this study was done to investigate the effect of WOM communication (word of mouth) on the outcome of a brand or the brand image effect on the decisions of consumers to purchase a television. The study focuses on television brands mainly. A sample of 552 was collected from Karaikal, Puducherry State, using the questionnaire method. The data thus generated was analysed with the help of PLS-SEM. The findings reveal that offline WOM, online WOM, E-WOM quality, and information consumption all have a significant impact on the brand image, whereas the brand image has a direct influence on the consumer purchase decision of television. The impact of prior purchase satisfaction and expertise of the sender was found to be not significant.