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1. Introduction:

We in India, also pay weightage on who is conveying the message and how, so if there is a

prominent or eminent personality advertising in the form of a TV advertisement then people are

tending to believe or trust the product more because they saw their idol or someone much above

them to be using the same product. Hence the big business houses try to capture the majority of

the market via this strategy too. But with the change in technology every single day, people are

becoming more aware; they are becoming more knowledgeable. This leads the company to find

and come out with new strategies to reach out the market with every waking moment. We live in

an era where people are more focused and product conscious. Yes, there would be people who

are brand loyal but product conscious people are in the majority.

What we mean by this is that the past decade has seen the shutting down of companies like

Nokia and emerging companies like One Plus, who has also threatened the existence of Apple

products as their products are far much technologically advanced and value for money.

Then we see companies like Lava and MI which have come up with standardized affordable

smartphones for the likelihood and comfort for most. These companies are doing very well in the

Indian market; people are shifting form one brand to another and changing devices depending on

the better technology out there in the market with coherence to what they hear from their near

and dear ones.

1.1 Word of Mouth Marketing:

Oral or written recommendation by a satisfied customer to the prospective customers of a good

or service. Considered to be the most effective form of promotion, it is also called word of mouth

advertising which is incorrect because, by definition, advertising is a paid and non-personal

communication. Verbal publicizing is essential for each business, as each glad client can direct

many new ones your way. What's more, it's a standout amongst the most valid types of publicizing

on the grounds that a man puts their notoriety hanging in the balance each time they make a proposal

and that individual has nothing to pick up except for the energy about the individuals who are tuning

in.Physical, nonverbal explanations are the most trustworthy in activating informal. These

announcements can be building, motor or liberal, yet they should go a long ways past the limits of

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what's ordinary. In the event that you would prefer not to be normal, for what reason do you demand

being ordinary? Here are a few cases of these announcements:

Design. The piano store that resembles a colossal piano, with high contrast keys framing the long

canopy over the long entryway patio. The ejecting well of lava outside the Mirage in Las

Vegas.A glass-base floor that enables clients to perceive what's going on the floor underneath

them. Do you recall when McDonalds started constructing connected play areas to every one of

their eateries? It's worked like enchantment for over 20 years.

Dynamic.The hurling of new fish starting with one representative then onto the next at Pike

Place Market in Seattle. The enchanted, spinning blades of the tableside cooks at Benihana.

Kissing the codfish when you get "shrieked in" at any bar in Newfoundland. (A shriek is a

boisterous and amusing service amid which non-Newfoundlanders down a dose of shoddy rum,

rehash a few expressions in the neighborhood vernacular and kiss a codfish. Everybody who

visits that magnificent island returns home with an account of being "shrieked in.") While it 4

might at first appear like a motor verbal trigger is an infringement of #2 above, "Don't rely upon

your staff...," it's truly not. A motor verbal trigger is always perceptible by administration. It isn't

a "client benefit" encounter conveyed secretly, one on one.

Liberal. It is safe to say that you will end up plainly known as the eatery that enables its visitors

to choose - at no charge- - their selection of sweets from a costly pastry menu? You can take care

of its hard expense in the costs of your dishes and beverages. Flour, margarine and sugar are

shoddy publicizing. Is it true that you are the adornments store that will end up plainly known for

supplanting watch batteries at no charge, notwithstanding when the client hasn't bought anything

and didn't purchase the watch from your store? Word will spread. Also, watch batteries cost not

as much as a promoting.

1.2 The Smartphone Industry in India

India has piped the United States to wind up noticeably the world's second-biggest cell phone

advertise, after China, with more than 40 million units dispatched with 23% yearly development

in the second from last quarter of 2017, Singapore-based statistical surveying firm Canalys said.

The discoveries were like those of Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research, which said India

transported a record 84 million units - cell phones and highlight telephones - amid the quarter

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finished September, and 75% of the units were privately made. At present, more than 100

manufacturing plants create telephones locally. Contradiction, be that as it may, said India

overwhelming the US in shipments is a transitory marvel. The market development was powered

by Chinese handset creator Xiaomi, which expanded its shipments by more than 290% to 9.2

million units in the quarter, additionally narrowing the piece of the overall industry hole with

Korean major Samsung, which dispatched 9.4 million units in the quarter, right around 30%

more than in second from last quarter a year ago. Canalys examiners now figure that Xiaomi

may soon overwhelm Samsung in India.

As indicated by experts, while shipments were solid ahead of the pack up to the merry season,

genuine deals were lukewarm, prompting stock heap up. They said Xiaomi seems to have

improved the situation than most, even in genuine deals. "Final quarter will be essential for

disconnected players as they have to streamline their stock levels, which they have collected in

front of Diwali.

2. Literature Review:

Kristopher Floyd, Ryan Feeling, Saal, (2010) Research conducted by Kristopher Floyd, Ryan

Freling and SaalAlhoquil shows that has emerged on online product reviews and their ability to

elicit performance outcomes desired by the Smartphone manufacturers. Scholars continue to

navigate an array of studies assessing different design elements of online product reviews, and

various research settings and data sources. They undertook a meta-analysis of 26 empirical

studies yielding 443 sales elasticity to examine how these variables relate to retail sales. The

results of our meta-analysis reinforce the old retailing adages that “the customer is always right,”

and yield practi- cal implications for retailers. First, our findings highlight the importance of

providing a quality product that delivers on its brand promise and meets or exceeds consumers’

expectations.

However, it is important that retailers encourage positive eWOM without appearing to engage in

unethical or deceptive practices. While extant research on the “gaming” of review sites is

primarily anecdotal, there is some evidence of retailers posting fake positive reviews to boost

their ratings and unfavorable reviews deni- grating competitors (Fisman 2012). Such

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transgressions breed mistrust among consumers, and are likely to prompt a negative backlash in

the marketplace (Moyer 2010).

Tourism Department, (2011) The research article from the Tourism Dept. from Tourism

Hospitality School talks about the positive effect of Word of Mouth marketing has surprised the

negative effects and has been comprehensive in pursuing the consumer decision making while

making purchase. Research shows that the consumers who have been customers of the

organization since a long period of time add more value to the organization than the conventional

customer or marketing strategies. The study has provided with a detailedunderstanding of the

word of mouth and found to be highly significant in influencing the purchase decision of the

consumers. The study has proven that word of mouth marketing has yielded positive relations

from the consumers and shows that in today’s technology age: word of mouth marketing and

aggressive social media marketing are the key tools towards positive consumer behaviour.

ShirkodaiMaisam, Rasgoodeylami Masha, (2001) Research article conducted by

ShirkodaiMaisam and Rastgoo – deylamiMahsa speaks about the importance for the company to

pay for word of mouth marketing before they decide to invest on other forms of marketing. 30

stories were selected in the city centre and 384 questionnaires were distributed with sampling

available in different stores. Amos 22 was used to test the conceptual model. The results show

that the value congruity of the brand consumer has a positive impact on the brand image and

brand commitment. Moreover, brand love and brand commitment have a significant positive

impact on positive word of mouth. But the impacts of brand image and brand love on brand

commitment are rejected. In the above research, the meaningful effect of congruence variable of

brand and consumer`s values on the brand image and commitment, and two of the mentioned

hypotheses have been accepted; hypothesis 1) the effect of brand congruity on the brand image,

hypothesis 2) the effect of brand congruity on the brand commitment. Every consumer has a

unique personality and the brands found it preferable to deal and approach the consumers

accordingly personalising their pitch.

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Rick Ferguson, (2013) The author of the research paper Rick Ferguson’s purpose for the

paperwas to study the emerging market trends like that of word of mouth marketing and viral

marketing and attempt to determine the measurability in terms of return on investment (ROI).

The study examines real life campaigns from well-known companies and attempt to measure

consumer response beyond merely viewing or participating in the campaign. The paper found

that word of mouth marketing or viral marketing are not always the safest bet. But a well placed,

proactive and calculated campaign can take the markets for the years to come for the following

product or the company and could be the most effective in the non terminal mediums like that of

the internet. The paper suggests that many smartphone brands have only come back into the

market because of the good word of mouth marketing strategies like that of the brand Nokia

when they launched their new series in the Android version, their advertisements were not that

good or effective whereas the spread of the word that they are entering or have already entered

the markets created a bigger storm.

Yakov Bart, (2013) The author Yakov Bart, Assistant professor of Marketing, Northeastern

Universiry Boston in his paper relates and talks about product seeding when it comes to

smartphone with its customers and potential customers. So seeding is a form of marketing that is

conducted in the form of or in the name of research and aims to place the product to its target

customers or target market to understand and analyse its feasibility and the trend in the market.

In the past decade a lot of smartphone brands have gone around and over this concept. Starting

from the brand OnePlus, they only let out invitations to a selected few potential applicants tosee

their response and also to see if the product and brand is able to position themselves as

something exclusive for the market. And in their very first attempt and first product their

calculated sales were to be somewhere around 30,000 which exceeded and final sales number

was above and around 1,50,000 all across the globe which is 5 times the expected and calculated

sales. Similar was the case with Motorola, after them vanishing from the market, the tech giant

Google bought the company to come back to the market with a storm. They launched three

models of the product simultaneously and only made it available in platforms like that of Flipkart

and Amazon, again making the product to seem as exclusive.

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Moreover the fact that very few people but analysts know is that Motorola was a pilot project for

Google. Once the understood and saw the market and became the reason for the success of

Motorola phones, they sold the company to Lenovo and launched their own product: Google

Pixel. Now they knew what they were getting into and how to rule the market. And word of

mouth was already doing wonders for them as everyone knew the success entity behind Motorola

phones is none other than Google which gave the product Pixel 1 and 2, a head start in the

market. They still have a long way to go and compete with OnePlus and Apple though. Nokia is

trying to enter the markets as well.

Imtiaz Ali, WajeehaAslam, (2014) The prime purpose of the article authored or written by

ImitiazArif, WajeehaAslam and Muhammad Ali was to explore how social needs, and social

convenience affect the dependence on smartphones and purchasing behaviour amonguniversity

in India’s emerging economy as the product smartphones in itself is directly in relation with the

selfesteem of the people buying them and also play a role in increasing or acting in favor of

higher social status. Apple in all these years has been tapping on the social factor of its customers

only. Which has led Apple to become a status symbol today rather than being placed at any other

position? The overall findings or conclusion for this research paper was that social need, social

influence and convenience significantly affect the buying behaviour or the purchase decision of

not only students but also other adults is it male or female. Their decisions are primarily affected

by the influence their family members and friends have over them. The paper also dwells upon

the fact that some notions are conscious and some are made or developed unconsciously like

people are not aware of the fact that if they are then why they are indulging into some purchase

decision or how their buying behaviour is influenced or much rather affected. The research

methodology used for this research article was via survey methods and non-profitability

purposive sampling were used to collect data from about 337 respondents, and structural

equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis. It was discovered that social impact, social

needs and comfort fundamentally influenced understudies' reliance on cell phones.

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James Smith, Ross Taylor, (2001) this outcome shows that social impacts and social need do

impact the sum which college understudies utilize cell phones and this makes a reliance to the

degree that they would purchase a cell phone on the off chance that they trusted it would help

them to fit in better with their social gathering. This finding is steady with the conclusions drawn

by Park and Chen (2007). This current examination's outcomes likewise found that comfort is

another imperative factor that influences understudies' reliance on cell phones. The examination

analyzed understudies' reliance on cell phones and the impact of that reliance on their acquiring

conduct with the assistance of a SEM. Social need, social impact and accommodation were

analyzed to evaluate understudies' reliance on cell phones while their buying conduct was

estimated by taking understudies' reliance as an affecting variable. It was discovered that social

impact, social needs and comfort fundamentally influenced understudies' reliance on cell phones.

3. Research Methodology

Scope of Study:

It will be in the form of Questionnaire that will be collected within the area of Hulimavu and the

research will target people aged from 18-25.This study will determine the factors taken into

consideration by consumers while buying smartphones.

Objectives:

Primary Objectives:

1. Study the impact of Word of Mouth on this Smart Phone industry.

2. To study the best kind of marketing for the people in the Indianmarkets.

Secondary Objectives:

1. To study and analyses company’s strategies into dwelling into word of mouth.

2. To study the influence of the peer, environment, friends and family members on the

purchase decision of the consumer.

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Limitations of Study:

It’s not possible every time to measure the impact of WOM and calculate ROI. And another

limitation is the area or the number of people. So the result generated after the study cannot be

generalized.

Sampling Technique

Convenience Sampling

Data collection Method

Questionnaires

4. Analysis and Interpretation:

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According to the survey 92.8% of the people do consider their friends and family before making

the Smartphone purchase. This is a very large chunk of population. This shows that WoM do

take place while making any purchase.

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The above figure shows that 52.2% do not have any influence but if we look closely around 48%

do get influence, which can bring us to a conclusion that advertisements are important as people

do look up to their stars and then go for the product.

Around 44.3% people do consider their acquaintances review and then buy. But 21.4% people do

consider other factors.

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This study shows that around 48.6% of the people sometime their life has given preference to

friends over critique. This is a very important factor that should be taken in consideration that

every company should present themselves out in the most positive light to the consumer. This

will not only help them in increasing their sales but also loyal customers.

5. Findings and Suggestions:

The conclusion of the research paper can be concluded by saying that yes all the factors and

variables studied in the study are correlated to each other. And the null hypothesis is rejected.

The influence of word of mouth from the friends and family member on to the individual plays

an important role and that is what this paper aimed to find. Mostly people in the age bracket of

18-25 years of age dwell into seeking consultation from friends, peer and family members as

most of them in that age bracket have better and best access to technology and its usage.

Majority of the people in this age bracket are students who are also very self-aware about their

social standing and social acceptance.

If people do seek consultation and advice for the recommendation from the people, they know.

That does not always mean that they rely on just that information. With this millennial

generation, every individual does or at least tries to do all the research he or she can do

beforedeciding on the best product for himself. With the growing number of options in today’s

time, it has also become difficult for the consumer to choose from. And the best part is the

smartphone industry still has a lot of scope because entrants of brands like that of One Plus,

Xiomi, MI, Oppo, Vivo etc is not even a decade old. Smartphone industry has seen the most

rapid changes as compared to any other industry.

Especially in a country like India, it is believed whatever is seen or visible could be or is sold.

Hence the market players have to look for ayes to make their products accessible along with

making them affordable. The more accessible it is the more chances of those products sold

would be there.

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Jin, D. (2017). Evolution of Smartphone technologies: Putting Smarts into the Phone.

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University of Michigan Press.

Jin, D. (2017). Reimagining Smartphones: Kakao talk and Youth Culture. In Smartland Korea:

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