Nothing Beats Word of Mouth in India
Nothing sways an Indian buyer's choice more than a word of reassurance from the people he knows. Now even high octane media blitz. A global online survey conducted by ACNielsen puts word of mouth communication and referencing as the biggest influence than conventional adveretising on consumers in their buying decisions. In big ticket purchases like cars, mobile phones and home loans, the study says that almost `50%` of consumers in India rely on the references from their friends and realtives While making their decisions. The story is different in developed economies. Take the case of automobiles. In markets like the US, Canada and Japan more people are influenced by conventional advertising by automobile companies, in developing markets like India, Malaysia and Thailand it's the neighbour or the colleague who tips the scales one way or the other. "In case of luxury goods, the psyche of Indians has always been different. Buying a car is a family decision, so it is only natural that all the members of the family will talk to the other users of a similar products, who they know", General Motors India director P Balendran said: "No wonder, large automakers in India spend as much on customer satisfaction as advertising, and recognitions like the JD Power Customer Satisfaction awards taken so seriously."When the whole world is going crazy with Internet and mobile marketing, it is interesting that for Indians it's still conventional advertising and word of mouth campaigns that sways their choices. Unlike in the West, Indians come from a very closely-knit society where people get influenced by their peers, relatives and local celebrities. People are more than willing to accept a brand if it's endorsed by their favourtie superstar or is recommended by their close associates, " AC Nielsen (south Asia) ED Sarang Panchal says. " However, in markets like the US, previous experience with the products is the strongest influencer overall and particularly when it came to buying cars `(49%)`, choosing a banks `(46%)`, mobile phone `(39%)` and loans `(35%)`. World of mouth is a priority while buying weight loss products and mobile phones."
What are the various tools used in this process.

Explanation

The tootls used for promotion are :
`(i)` Advertising is an impersonal form of communication, which is paid for by the marketers to promote some goods or services. The common modes of advertising are newspapers, magazines, television, radio and internet.
`(ii)` Personal selling or salesmanship is the process of infoming, assisting and persuading people to buy a product or service through direct personal contact. It involves face-to-face communication between a seller and a buyer.
In this technique of promotion, salespersons make oral presentation to one or more customers for the purpose of making sales. The persons, who do the job of selling through face-to-face interaction are called salespersons or sales representatives.
`(iii)` Sales promotion refers to all the immediate activites, which are undertaken for the purpose of increasing immediate sales. These activities mainly include lowering the price, distributing the coupons, conducting contest, giving away of gifts, etc.
Sales promotion refers to short-term incentives to boost sales in a short period and it supplements other promotional efforts such as advertising, personal selling and publicity, aimed at stimulating market demand for products. Companiesuse sales promotion tools designed specifically to promote sales among different groups as :
`(iv)` Public relation is an important element of marketing. It means manintaing relations with public. By maintaining such relations, companies create goodwill. Public relations evaluate public attitudes, identify the policies and procedures of an organisation with the public interest to earn profit understanding and acceptance.
Public does not mean only customers, but it includes shareholders, suppliers, intermediaries, customers, etc. Thus, it helps in maintaining and establishing mutual understanding between an organisation and public. It is done through news, speechs by corporate leaders, organising events like sports, events, concerts, seminars, etc.