IMPACT OF INTRA PERSONAL FACTORS ON WOM GENERATION IN INDIAN AUTOMOBILE MARKET

Word of Mouth (WOM) has been identified as one of the most important form of marketing communication. Various studies have proven its effectiveness and the impact on various consumer behaviours. Although researchers have studied the WOM consumption in great detail, but WOM generation remains a topic less studied till date. In this paper we explored the impact of various intra personal factors on the WOM generation process and tried to study various interaction effects also. In our analysis the WOM generation intent seems to be increasing with age, peeking up at 35-44 yrs. and then slowing down. Similarly, our study supports the males being more active WOM generator than females and some professions such as private corporate workers showing high level of WOM generation intent. The impact of culture and sub culture is also very evident in the study. This insight can be used at the very ground level, where a sales executive in an automobile dealership can filter the consumers initially for referral programs and can save up to 75% of the marketing cost used in referral programs, and increasing its efficiency further.