Title: Impact of word of mouth on consumer buying decision process

Authors: Peter El Moujabber

Addresses: Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Beirut, Kesrouan, Lebanon

Abstract: With the increase of competing products offered, creating and developing brands with unique favourable positions in the consumers' black box, has become the major competitive advantage of companies. Being the 'voice' of the brand, integrated marketing communication has become a major component of the market mix in the brand identity-development process. The goal of this study is to explore the impact and implication of word of mouth on consumers' buying decision process. The conceptual framework was tested through direct interviewing of 200 Lebanese consumers. The statistical results indicate that WOM represents a main source of information, Lebanese consumers rely on in their decision-making process that is explained by their positive perception of WOM characteristics: credibility, quality and quantity of information. Moreover, the carried on chi square results show a statistical positive impact of WOM on intention to buy, mediated by the impact of WOM on brand perception.

Keywords: consumer behaviour; decision-making process; information; word of mouth; WOM.

DOI: 10.1504/EMJM.2023.133614

EuroMed Journal of Management, 2023 Vol.5 No.3/4, pp.230 - 242

Received: 22 Feb 2023
Accepted: 04 Mar 2023
Published online: 25 Sep 2023 *

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