Word of Mouth Marketing

The emerging ‘customer engagement behaviour’ (CEB) literature predominantly discusses behaviours displayed by paying customers. However, the rise of free offerings, including free product trials, generates a need for re-examining the relevance of the existing paradigm based on paying customers. We propose the concept of ‘non-paying consumer engagement behaviours’ (CEBs) and outline how these may be leveraged to create value for the firm. We define non-paying CEBs as “a non-paying consumer’s motivationally-driven, positive behaviours toward a product, brand or firm, which are predicated on free offerings”. Using mixed methods and two field studies we develop a model of non-paying CEBs. Our investigations confirm that CEBs from previous studies are also applicable to non-paying consumers, but also identify additional CEBs. We examine the value created by non-paying CEBs for the firm, individuals as well as individual networks and indicate ways in which firms can capture value from non-paying consumers.  We make a substantive contribution to extant theory relating to CEBs and enhance the understanding of managerial practice.

Este livro é destinado a estudantes, pesquisadores, profissionais e demais interessados em comércio eletrônico (e-commerce), e faz um resgate histórico do surgimento das compras on-line, sua evolução no decorrer dos anos, além de explanar sobre as vantagens e as desvantagens de se utilizar as ferramentas e os recursos do ambiente virtual. Um dos principais objetivos do autor é apresentar como se relacionam alguns aspectos que, via de regra, estão presentes em tal ambiente, como a privacidade, a segurança, a qualidade das informações, a confiança, a propaganda boca a boca eletrônica e a intenção de recompra. Trata-se de uma leitura envolvente, ilustrada com diversas evidências empíricas nacionais e internacionais, complementada por uma ampla pesquisa realizada entre consumidores brasileiros que costumam realizar compras no formato on-line.

Word of mouth (WOM) is an extraordinary mechanism with which to spread information and disinformation. There is an interaction between WOM and eWOM, creating different channels for the dissemination of information. However, this information cannot be controlled by marketers; at least this is seldom the case. Positive and negative comments are found in eWOM and they have a powerful influence on credibility, trust and persuasiveness, where influencers play a main role. Brand reputation is shaped by the flow of information and disinformation on the Internet. Social networks are a real tool with which to create and place information. A comment may greatly benefit consumers, preventing uncertainty and boosting sales. eWOM disseminates both information and disinformation, and so internet users and marketers are faced with the problem of how to turn this to their own benefit.

Social media websites have created valuable opportunities for electronic word of mouth (eWOM) conversations. People are now able to discuss products and services of brands with their friends and acquaintances. The aim of this study is to examine the influence of these conversations in social media on consumers' purchase intentions. For this purpose, a conceptual model was developed based on the integration of Information Adoption Model (IAM) and related components of Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). The new model, which is named as Information Acceptance Model (IACM), was validated through structural equation modelling (SEM) based on surveys of 384 university students who use social media websites. The results confirm that quality, credibility, usefulness and adoption of information, needs of information and attitude towards information are the key factors of eWOM in social media that influence consumers' purchase intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well as recommendations for further research.

This study empirically tests and compares the influence of friends' recommendations on social media and anonymous reviews on shopping websites in the context of online purchase intention. For this purpose, we analyse the impacts of these two platforms based on the components of information adoption model (IAM) which are borrowed as information quality, information credibility, information usefulness and information adoption. We conduct a survey and find anonymous reviews as more influential on consumer' online purchase intentions than friends' recommendations on social media. However, as this result was contrary to that expected, we conduct another study through in-depth interviews in order to enlighten our results found in the first study. In Study 2, we find the reasons why consumers prefer anonymous reviews rather than friends' recommendations. Information quantity, information readiness, detailed information and dedicated information are factors which make shopping websites superior than social media in terms of the impact of electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Academic and managerial implications are discussed.

In the present day it is very much momentous to know the attitude of consumers and their intentions while selecting a product, especially FMCG products. Researches on purchasing behaviour will surely help out the companies to know more about the consumer's behaviour while choosing a product, so that they can spend their marketing efforts in an effective way. From the preceding researches it is obvious that bathing soap is among the highest penetrated category within the FMCG sector. The present study tries to calculate the factors behind the consumers purchasing behavior towards bathing soaps with special reference to Ernakulam District in Kerala. The study made use of primary and secondary data. A sample of 110 customers from Ernakulam city of Kerala is collected from four super markets by using judgment sampling method. The results explain that customers are motivated to purchase bathing soap because of the, awareness, brand image, word of mouth publicity, advertisement, celebrity, price etc.

Purpose-The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of word of mouth on customer perceived value for restaurants in Malaysia. The objectives of this research include determining how word of mouth (WoM) factors-frequency of word of mouth messages, reputation of word of mouth messenger, richness of word of mouth message, dispersion of word of mouth conversations and manner of word of mouth delivery impact customer perceived value in Malaysian restaurant industry.
Research Design, Data, and Methodology – The research follows causal / explanatory research method based on quantitative data. A sample of 150 restaurant customers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was selected using convenience sampling technique. Likert scale questionnaire is used to collect data and data is analysed using regression analysis through SPSS 22.
Results – The statistical analysis revealed that independent variable 'manner of delivery' significantly and positively impacts c ustomer perceived value for restaurants in Malaysia.
Conclusions – To build strong positive customer perception, Malaysian restaurants can enhance word of mouth campaigns' 'manner of delivery' by making them passionate, exciting and with high emotional appeal.

The paper presents basic rules of word of mouth marketing. It describes the importance of this tool on the book market, and illustrates the possibilities offered by libraries. It discusses briefly the primary role of the sender's message, the types of messages, channels, customers, and the influence of information on the word of mouth marketing. The paper presents also the results of the research.

Word of mouth (WOM) is an extraordinary mechanism with which to spread information and disinformation. There is an interaction between WOM and eWOM, creating different channels for the dissemination of information. However, this information cannot be controlled by marketers; at least this is seldom the case. Positive and negative comments are found in eWOM and they have a powerful influence on credibility, trust and persuasiveness, where influencers play a main role. Brand reputation is shaped by the flow of information and disinformation on the Internet. Social networks are a real tool with which to create and place information. A comment may greatly benefit consumers, preventing uncertainty and boosting sales. eWOM disseminates both information and disinformation, and so internet users and marketers are faced with the problem of how to turn this to their own benefit.

We review the published research into Sales Force Automation (SFA) in order to identify gaps in our knowledge that might be worthy of further investigation. We find that academics have tried to answer just 4 questions: Why do organizations adopt SFA? What are the organizational impacts of SFA? What accounts for the success or failure of SFA projects? What accounts for variance in salesperson adoption of SFA?

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the level of service quality, which is express as a gap between customer’s expectation and perception of service quality in four stars Estrella hotel in Fatima. The additional goal of this research was an attempt of finding the answer to the question if the perceived service quality could result in word of mouth effect. Servqual method and Net Promoter Score were applied. The data analysis is based on a sample of 65 pairs (ex-ante and ex-post) valid questionnaires. The results indicate that Estrel`s hotel management should pay special attention to two aspects such as cleanliness and standard of meals. Additionally, the perceived service quality expressed in such attributes as cleanliness of guest room and bathroom, and standard of breakfast and dinner are important drivers of WOM effect.

Samsung Electronics entered the mobile device market on the back of their successes in other
markets for electronic devices. The mobile device space in South Africa was dominated by
Nokia and Blackberry and in a short space of time Samsung stormed into a tie for the top spot
alongside Blackberry with a market share of 23%. In 2013 Samsung’s market share dropped 5%,
moving down to 18%, placing them second to Blackberry as they entered 2014. Samsung’s IMC
strategy for their mobile devices has been consistent and well-thought throughout the years.
The influence of WOM suggests a greater need for Samsung to determine the effectiveness of
WOM as part of their IMC strategy for mobile devices in South Africa. It is important for
Samsung to understand how WOM shapes South African consumer purchasing decisions, what
causes WOM, and what types of marketing are available to drive WOM for their mobile devices
in South Africa. This study therefore attempts to investigate WOM as advertising tool in an IMC
campaign, with a focus on Samsung and the South African market for mobile devices.
The research indicates that 94% of South African consumers trust WOM from family and friends
more than any other form of advertising. This statistic clearly indicates that South African
consumers trust WOM from family and friends more than any other form of advertising. It can
be deduced that if 87% of consumers actively seek WOM when purchasing a mobile device, and
94% of consumers trust WOM, then WOM is indeed powerful. In conclusion, it is clear that for
Samsung, WOM is effective as part of an IMC strategy for its mobile devices in South Africa.

"The research studied the factors that affect consumers’ behavioural intention towards apparel stores. Three different aspects of behavioural intention were examined: consumers’ purchase intention (PI), willingness to pay more (WPAY), and brand recommendation (RECM). Specifically the authors propose a model in which consumer satisfaction with the store brand mediates the effects of attitude towards sales personnel and the convenience of the store’s payment conditions or options on PI, WPAY, and RECM. The relationships hypothesized in the model were tested using two apparel store brands familiar to consumers in the city of Istanbul, Turkey. All findings were in favour of the model proposed for both apparel store brands studied, which were either a sample of men or women.

Keywords: satisfaction, willingness to pay more, purchase intention, recommendation, payment conditions, attitude towards sales personnel."

Marketers often use incentives such as coupons, rewards or special membership discounts in order to motivate consumers to purchase or recommend a particular brand. This practice is based on the underlying assumption that an increase in incentives will lead to an increase in consumer response – an idea which has been at the core of traditional economic thinking for decades. Some psychologists have claimed, however, that under specific conditions an increase in incentives can reduce (rather than increase) one's willingness to perform the behavior which is being incentivized. If materialized, the possibility that extrinsic incentives may diminish consumer willingness to recommend a favorite brand could have important theoretical and practical consequences in the context of word-of-mouth or buzz marketing. This study tests that possibility in the context of an experiment about Apple computers, a favorite brand among US college students. Participants were asked to recommend the brand to a friend (1) in absence of any monetary reward and (2) for a small monetary incentive. Students who were promised a small monetary reward experienced a decrease in intrinsic motivation and wrote shorter recommendations than those who were not promised any incentives. Data also suggest that the quality of the recommendation may decrease when incentives are offered. The results are discussed in line of their possible theoretical and practical significance.

Gamification has been shown to encourage contributions of user-generated reviews (word-of-mouth: WOM)
in various domains, including travel and leisure related platforms (Foursquare, TripAdvisor), e-commerce
(Amazon), and auctions (eBay). WOM contributors write reviews about products/services provided by business
venues and WOM consumers read reviews and use them to form attitudes and make purchase decisions.
Gamification elements such as points and badges, awarded to WOM contributors for various reasons, and
displayed to WOM consumers, have a dual role in WOM context. First, points awarded for user contributions
help motivate WOM contributors to increase their participation. Second, badges awarded to users for visiting
business venues signal prior experience or competence, and they help determine how WOM consumers perceive
WOM contributors and form their judgments based on the reviews. While the first role of gamification
(i.e., motivating users) has been widely studied, the impact of WOM presented along with gamification elements
on the perceptions and behavior of the target audience, WOM consumers, has not been examined. This is
important to businesses that are looking to attract customers. Drawing on social psychology literature, we
show that gamification symbols signaling experience that accompany WOM leads to perceptions of positive
WOM contributors as more competent. This leads to important changes in behavioral outcomes such as
willingness to visit/buy and willingness to recommend the reviewed outlets

This paper aimed to investigate the mediating effect of events and experiences and word-of mouth marketing on telecommunications companies in Jordan. The study also attempts to determine the role of demographic variables (gender, qualifications, experience, and career level) in mediating the effect of word-of-mouth marketing and events and experiences on the relationship between consumer trends and marketing effectiveness. The researcher used quantitative method and collected the data using the field survey method. Using the quota sample, the researcher divided a study population (Orange, Zain and Umniah) according to the number of employees in companies' branches across 12 governorates in Jordan. The questionnaire was distributed to 540 respondents comprising of marketing managers, sales managers, and information systems and coordinators. A total of 308 sets of questionnaires returned were valid for the analysis, a response rate of 57%. The findings showed that there is a mediating effect of IMC on the relationship between marketing effectiveness and consumer trends due to the word-of-mouth marketing and events and experiences as important dimensions of integrated marketing communications in the Jordanian marketing environment.

KEYWORDS: Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), Word-of-Mouth Marketing, Events and Experiences, Consumer Trends, Marketing Effectiveness, Telecommunications Companies & Jordan

Satın almakarar sürecinde tüketiciler veri kaynağı olarak birçok unsuru kullanmaktadır. Sosyal bir varlık olmanın getirdiği dürtü ve teknolojide yaşanan gelişmeler satın alım karar sürecinde ağızdan ağıza iletişimi ön plana çıkarmış ve söz konusu iletişimin çevrimiçi gerçekleştirilmesine olanak sağlamıştır. Bu çalışma, bu noktadan hareketle, turizm endüstrisine odaklanmakta ve tatil satın alım davranışları üzerinde diğer müşteriler tarafından oluşturulan görüşlerin etkisini araştırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmanın veri toplama sürecinde ülkenin en eski ve en çok kullanılan tatil web sitelerinden olan tatilsepeti.com’dan yararlanılmıştır. Veri analizi evresinde yarı-logaritmik model kullanılmıştır. Çalışmanın sonuçları müşteri görüşlerinin satın alım karar süreci üzerindeki etkisinin altını çizmektedir.

Word-of-mouth marketing agencies typically report campaign results in terms of the numbers of people receiving the brand message from campaign participants. These reports say nothing about the types of conversation in which the WOMM message is embedded. Using a custom-developed Facebook app and Social Network Analysis we reveal that half of offline campaign-related conversations are deliberately initiated by the campaign participant and half emerge in everyday conversation. Implications for agencies and clients are explored.

In den letzten Jahren zeichnet sich unter dem Schlagwort Web 2.0 bzw. Social Web eine neue Entwicklungsphase des traditionellen Internets ab, die stark vom User Generated Content geprägt ist und damit auch andere Rollenverteilungen in der touristischen Kommunikation ermöglicht. Das Internet, das ursprünglich vor allem als B2C-Kommunikation fungierte, wird immer stärker als Medium zum Austausch zwischen einzelnen Konsumenten, also im C2C-Bereich, genutzt. Das sogenannte Word-of-Mouth (WOM)-Empfehlungsmarketing gewinnt an Bedeutung. Empfehlungen zu bestimmten touristischen Produkten werden nicht mehr nur wie bisher an Freunde und Bekannte weitergegeben, sondern können über Blogs, Social Sharing, Bewertungsportale und Reisecommunities sehr viel breiter gestreut werden.
Dieser Rollenwechsel bei den Reisenden vom rein passiven Rezipienten hin zum aktiv Mitgestaltenden im Kommunikationsprozess mit der hybriden Konnotation des Prosumers, der aktiv als Co-Konstrukteur touristischer Erwartungen fungiert, soll in dem Beitrag anhand eines konkreten empirischen Beispiels beleuchtet werden.
Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei die Frage, inwieweit durch die neuen Medien mit der ständigen Erreichbarkeit der Reisenden und den quasi ubiquitär und loacation based verfügbaren Informationen auch neue Muster der Aneignung touristischer Räume induziert werden, bei der auch das Konsumieren von bislang nicht im Kern des touristischen Besuchsportfolios liegenden abseits der „Straße der Ameisen“ eine größere Rolle spielt.
Am Beispiel der städtetouristischen Destination Riga (Lettland) wird die Frage beleuchtet, welche Aktivitätsmuster die Social Web Nutzern aufweisen und wie weit diese „Off the beaten Track“ liegen und sich damit von den traditionellen Wegen der Aneignung einer städtetouristischen Destination unterscheiden.
Dabei wird deutlich, dass auch die Social-Web-Nutzer einerseits im Kern die klassischen „Places to See“ frequentieren. Gleichwohl gibt es andererseits klare Anzeichen dafür, dass zusätzliche Elemente in das Besuchsportfolio aufgenommen werden und damit auch stärker alltagsweltliche Elemente außerhalb der „Tourist Bubble“ in die Konstruktion touristischer Räume einfließen. Es findet also kein Systembruch statt, sondern es zeichnet sich eine evolutionäre Entwicklung ab, die unter Inklusion der traditionellen Elemente die Gestaltung von Reisen (zumindest im kulturorientierten Städtetourismus) einem intensiven Veränderungsprozess aussetzen. Dabei sind es insbesondere die ergänzend zu den klassischen Besichtigungen unternommenen Aktivitäten des Eintauchens in die (abendlichen) Gastronomie- und Kulturszene bei der sich über das Empfehlungsmarketing eine deutliche Diversifizierung abzeichnet.

This work investigates how consumers insert brands and products in their posts in social network sites (SNS), mainly in pictures, when they receive incentives to do it from a promotional campaign. The analysis takes into consideration the context in which these narratives are produced, focusing four sources of influence: communication factors, identity factors, social-communal factors, and marketing factors. The mention of brands in interpersonal communication has been an object of interest of the marketing academy since the 1950s, under the label of word-of-mouth (WOM), and has dramatically increased since the advent of online environments. The interference of marketers in this process, or word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM), is an emergent tool with increasing importance in a context of lack of effectiveness of traditional advertising and the consolidation of the usage of SNS as part of the contemporary life. One of WOMM’s mechanisms is called seeding, that consists in offering products as gifts to influential consumers, expecting that they produce and disseminate messages with commercial content embedded in their own narratives, according to their cultures, languages and values. Consumers that accept the offer and produce WOM act motivated by the desire of community involvement, obtaining social capital, or material rewards. Kozinets et al. (2010) suggest that, in order to deal with the tension between brand’s interests and the interests of their communities arising from these situations, consumers may adopt four different Communication Strategies – Embracing, Endorsement, Evaluation or Explanation. The messages resulting from these strategies are analog to the advertorial format common in mass media channels. This research employs a netnographic approach to understand the messages produced and published in SNS by 16 consumers invited to participate of a seeding campaign by a global tech company. Posts from Instagram, Facebook and Twitter has been collected and analyzed, totalizing 1.080 units of photographic and textual content. The investigation has found a Communication Strategy not covered by extent literature, attributed to 64% of the analyzed messages, that was named Incorporation – analog to product placement practices in movies and TV dramas. In addition, some elements with relevant influence over the narratives were identified: practices of extended self construction in SNS (BELK, 2013); distinct social groups with whom the consumer interacts while producing messages, configuring performances (GOFFMAN, 1959) driven by mutuality relations (ARNOULD and ROSE, 2015); and a predominant special- temporal setting depicted in posts. The conclusions lead to the proposition of an adaptation of the model of factors influencing WOMM in the coproduction network (KOZINETS et al., 2010), developed in a blogs context, to the environment of SNS. The resulting model includes the Incorporation strategy and broadens the scope of the “communal norms” factor, aiming to encompass a more complex social dynamic. The research contributes to fill a literature gap by analysing eWOM in photos and on Instagram, where 91% of the messages were originated.

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the direct and interactive effects of regulatory focus (promotion versus prevention), attribute type (search versus experience) and word of mouth valence (positive versus negative) on consumption decision for a service and a product.

Design/methodology/approach: Three empirical studies (two laboratories and a field experiment) using “university” and “mobile phone” as the research setting were used to test the key hypotheses.

Findings: Promotion (prevention)-focused subjects preferred experience (search) attributes over their counterparts while making consumption decision. This preference was further reinforced for both promotion and prevention-focused people under positive word of mouth. Under negative word of mouth, in comparison to their counterparts, promotion-focused people still retained their preference for experience attributes, whereas prevention-focused subjects reversed their preference and maintained status quo.

Research limitations/implications: Future research may validate and extend authors’ findings by looking into the underlying process or studying additional word of mouth variables that may moderate the current findings. Practical implications The findings will help managers devise a range of marketing strategies in the areas of advertising and product positioning, especially for products/services that are showcased in terms of experience and search attributes.

Originality/value: The current research is novel as no prior research has proposed and tested the two-way interaction between regulatory focus and search/experience attributes, or its further moderation by word of mouth valence.

İnternet, kullanılan en önemli iletişim araçlarından birisi haline gelmiştir.  Günümüzde oldukça yaygın bir kullanıma sahip internet aynı zamanda, bireylerin seyahatleri için destinasyon seçmelerinde veya herhangi bir turistik ürün satın almalarında da önemli bir aracı rolü oynamaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, ülkemizin en popüler turistik destinasyonlarından biri olan Marmaris’e gelen turistlerin elektronik ağızdan kulağa iletişim (electronic word of mouth, e-WoM) kullanımlarının turistlerin sosyo-demografik özelliklerine göre farklılık gösterip göstermediğini belirlemektir. Araştırmanın verileri Marmaris’i en çok ziyaret eden üç milliyetten toplam 460 katılımcıdan anket yoluyla elde edilmiştir. Yapılan analizler sonucunda, insanların en çok Facebook’ta vakit geçirdikleri, bir turistik ürün ya da destinasyona ilişkin en fazla otel hakkında bilgi almak için e-WoM kullandıkları ve katılımcıların sadece gelir durumlarına göre merak faktöründe gruplar arasında anlamlı farklılık tespit edilmiştir.

This paper explores the relationship between customer-generated word-of-mouth and corporate reputation. After a concise literature review, we present several insights from a multiple case study of 3 organizations. Our main finding is that customer dissatisfaction and negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) are thought to have strong downside consequences for corporate reputation. Positive WOM does not appear to have equivalent upside significance for corporate reputation. NWOM often occurs as customers express dissatisfaction because of substandard customer service. However, it is when these issues or other negatively connoted stories find their way into the public domain that reputation suffers. Fear of reputational damage causes great anxiety to the organisations' senior management. Reputations are shown to be fragile. Damage limitation strategies are implemented in all three organisations.

This study examines and compares word of mouth (WOM) behaviour among university students in Syria. To date, little is known about this important phenomenon which is surprising given the deregulated education market in Syria that allows for private universities to compete for students alongside public universities. Using a mixed methods research design and structural equation modelling, our results show faculty individualised attention and student satisfaction were found to be positively related to university image. Further, student satisfaction and university image were found to be direct sources of students' positive WOM behaviour. We found a moderating effect of university ownership type on university image. Interestingly, we identified six themes showing how support staff empathy could be seen as a source of low student satisfaction. These were defined as deception/credibil-ity/soft-soapers/suspiciousness: when support staff coax something out of students; confusion/role conflict: resulting from the diverse roles played by support staff while interacting with students; unfair-ness: when a student notices discrimination in the level of empathy between their peers; privacy: when support staff empathy can be perceived as a kind of intrusion; self-congratulatory: when a support staff member shows off or praises their empathy; and support staff/student ratio: when this ratio is seen to be small, the empathy effect reverses.

Word-of-mouth marketing agencies typically report campaign results in terms of the numbers of people receiving the brand message from campaign participants. These reports say nothing about the types of conversation in which the WOMM message is embedded. Using a custom-developed Facebook app and Social Network Analysis we reveal that half of offline campaign-related conversations are deliberately initiated by the campaign participant and half emerge in everyday conversation. Implications for agencies and clients are explored.

This study examined customer orientation and loyalty behaviour of users of GSM services. The study adopted a descriptive research design and used questionnaire as the study instrument. Fifty six (56) management level staff of four (4) major GSM service providers in Rivers State were surveyed on a sample frame of fourteen (14) managers per firm. The Spearman's rank order correlation was employed as the statistical tool for testing the direction and strength of the hypothesized relationships while the ordinary least squares (OLS) method of regression analysis was used to determine the effect of customer orientation on customer loyalty. All the statistical analyses were done with the aid of SPSS version 20.0. The study found that customer orientation has a positive and statistically significant relationship with customer loyalty, with positive word-of-mouth posting the strongest relationship with customer orientation. The study concludes that customer orientation is an imperative for customer loyalty and that customer loyalty expressed as positive word-of-mouth and customer retention depends on how customer oriented a firm is; and thus recommends that GSM service providers that seek to retain their existing customers and also benefit from their loyalty behaviours such as positive word-of-mouth should seek to determine the customers' current and future needs with a view of satisfying them better than competitors, and that these service providers must look to customer orientation as strategic imperative to gain competitive edge. INTRODUCTION Business organizations strive to satisfy the value requirements of customers with a view to gaining an edge in the competition for a share of their mind and wallet. Studies reveal that companies that are market oriented do better than others (Mazlina & Anita, 2011). Global system of mobile telecommunication (GSM) service providers in Nigeria fiercely compete to occupy a prime place in the competitive space. This intense rivalry among GSM service providers notwithstanding, some of the operators seem not to fully appreciate the importance of retaining existing customers and expediting their progress on the loyalty ladder. Indications of palpable dissatisfaction among users of GSM services pervade in Nigeria, with respect to the quality of services delivered by the operators. This is discernible from the way GSM service users easily shift patronage from one service provider to another. Most GSM service users even subscribe to more than one service provider, and switch between networks in search of better service. This observed prevalence of disloyalty of GSM service users may be attributed to service providers' orientation toward their markets. Based on the foregoing, this study opts to join the discourse on customer orientation by examining the nexus between customer orientation and loyalty behavior of users of GSM service in Rivers State, Nigeria.