To revamp word of mouth advertising by energizing referral sales; Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India Ltd.

Abstract

Today, as more and more new mediums of advertising are shaping our worlds, the importance of the old fashioned word of mouth has not diminished, but only increased. The project was to revamp word of mouth marketing for Club Mahindra, and provide a framework by which to go about doing word of mouth initiatives in a methodical and fruitful fashion. The structure followed for this project was based on the framework from "Word of Mouth Marketing" by Andy Sernovitz which was prescribed to us. It defines 5 T's for word of mouth, viz. Talkers, Topics, Tools, Taking Part and Tracking. A survey with 50 members was first performed. The topics were then identified. This was based on the survey results that mapped the present topics that are discussed by the members as well as the company's interests. As different consumers had different motivations and needs to buy a product, there was a need for consumer segmentation. Then with consumer segmentation based on the Yankelovich Mindbase Segments, the topics and the corresponding talkers for each topic were mapped out. A few sample tools were then discussed in this report that explain the way in which the framework is to be used to help various word of mouth campaigns work successfully. Certain tools had to be specific and used with exclusivity. The framework to decide who and how to target was also explained based on the Influentials framework by Jon Berry and Ed Keller. The possibility of taking part and tracking were explained along with the sample tools. The way forward was also explained.