The Effect of Word of Mouth on Intention to Use Insurance Services among Customers of Insurance Companies in Rasht

Subject Areas : Jounal of Marketing Management

A. Davari ¹ , A. Mohammadi Almani ² , A. Pournaserani ³

1 - گروه مدیریت دولتی، دانشکده کارآفرینی دانشگاه تهران
2 - کارشناس ارشد مدیریت بازرگانی، بازاریابی، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، واحد رشت، باشگاه پژوهشگران جوان و نخبگان، رشت، ایران
3 - کارشناس ارشد مدیریت بازرگانی- بازاریابی، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، واحد رشت، باشگاه پژوهشگران جوان و نخبگان، رشت، ایران

Received: 2015-03-14 Accepted : 2015-03-14 Published : 2016-02-20

Keywords: Word of Mouth, services, insurance, Customer,

Abstract :

Word of mouth as one of the most important and oldest unofficial communication tools has an influential role in marketing processes specially in persuading people to buy a product or use a service. Most consumers rely more on the information that they acquire from friends and relatives through word of mouth because they consider this kind of information is more reliable than information generated by advertisers and marketers. Therefore, in the environment that consumers’ trust in organizations and advertising is reduced, word of mouth is a great way to gain competitive advantage and it enables business organizations and firms to influence customers’ intention to use by means of word of mouth. Due to the importance of this issue, the present paper has tried to investigate the effect of word of mouth on customers' intention to use insurance services. A descriptive survey design was used in this research and based on its goal this research was an applied one. The target population of this research was the customers of insurance companies in Rasht. To collect data 300 questionnaires were distributed among customers by using simple random sampling method. For data analysis and testing research hypotheses, structural equation modeling method was applied by using LISREL software. The results revealed that word of mouth dimensions namely, intensity, positive valence, negative valence, content and also corporate image affect customers' intention to use insurance services.