Effect of direct marketing on purchasing decision and a research

Nowadays, being able to access to consumer became one of the most important subjects due to increasing product and service category and increasing competition. One of the methods, which are used to access to the consumer fast and directly, is direct marketing. The direct marketing is a marketing method that is used its own tools and distribution channels by providing direct and mutual communication. The messages, which are continuously sent to the consumer, cause that the consumer has loss of confidence after a while and the messages lose their persuasiveness in time. At this point, the consumer consults on opinions of his/her immediate vicinity and finds opinions of people who tried the product or service more reliable according to advertisements applied by the business. Communication between a Recipient and communicator not having any commercial purpose relating to a brand, product or service is called word of mouth marketing. While the consumers make decision on purchasing, they are affected by internal and external factors. The factors, which affect decisions of the consumer on purchasing, are collected under three main titles such as personal factors, physiological factors and socio-cultural factors. For personal factors; values such as age, gender, occupation, education level, income status and marital status are discussed, personality, learning, perception, motivation and attitude/beliefs are discussed as physiological factors and socio-cultural factors are culture, family, social class and advisory group. In this study that was made, effect of the word of mouth marketing on decision of the consumer on purchasing as a direct marketing method will be examined. Purpose of the study is to determine effect of the word of mouth marketing on decision of employees working in energy sector on purchasing and relevant relations. Within this scope, effect of demographical characteristics on purchasing via word of mouth marketing was examined. Besides, effect of the decision on purchasing occurring via word of mouth marketing on satisfaction and dissatisfaction was researched. According to research results, word of mouth marketing has effect on decision of the consumer on purchasing. Some demographical factors affect decision on purchasing occurring via word of mouth marketing. Besides, decision on purchasing has an effect on satisfaction and dissatisfaction via word of mouth marketing.