© Research Journal of Internatıonal Studıes - Issue 20 (September, 2011) 24
The Impact of Word of Mouth (WOM) on the Purchasing
Decision of the Jordanian Consumer
Ahmad M. Zamil
King Saud University, Riyadh Community College, Faculty of Administrative Science
P.O.Box 28095, Riyadh 11437, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
E-mail: drahmad764@yahoo.com,azamil@ksu.edu.sa
Tel: 966 543718710
Abstract
The speed of everything has become one of the features of this era; spread of knowledge
and information, communications, e-management, e-marketing and selling and even e-
everything, the whole practice became faster and more useful through the means of various
communications. The importance of this study as it deals with a contemporary theme, a
mobile communication services and which is now in fierce competition. Organizations, in
order to maintain its existence and continuity in the market, they must employ an integrated
marketing strategies, investing their current customers as unpaid marketers through their
word of mouth. The findings of this study indicate that Companies of all types have to be
aware that word of mouth is an important part of the marketing strategy. Companies must
build good relations with its customers to earn their loyalty, and ensure their commitment
to talk about the virtues of the company and its products in all forums. Managers must
understand that the satisfied customer can attract new customers through word of mouth.
Keywords: Word of Mouth, Purchasing Decision, Jordanian Consumer
1. Introduction
Word of Mouth is the sound of new ideas up to our ears in several ways such as; telling stories,
dialogs, conversations, shared experiences radio and etc., and its impact remains on our souls until we
hear another story, thus, word of mouth helps us to know about what is new, and what is the latest.
These days we often hear people talking about hybrid cars, some of them focus on energy saving as an
advantage, and others are focusing on it's environmentally care, because it does not pollute the air as a
result of fuel combustion, whereas, others warn of the high cost compared to regular cares
(www.hybridcars.com). This means that word of mouth is an important source of information to
consumers. Literature in marketing has defined word of mouth, or "between –customer
communication" as a probable driver of consumer decision making (chevalier and maysilin, 2004, P.
2).Word of mouth may be positive or negative the customers who are satisfied will continue
purchasing the product, and in telling others about these good products, while customers who are not
satisfied will remember only disadvantages of the product and they will tell others about these
disadvantages (Richins, 2009).This study will focus on the impact of word of mouth, in directing the
purchasing behavior of Jordanian consumer, when choosing to purchase the services of a mobile
telecommunication companies.