Word-of-mouth marketing is the most extravagant marketing strategy. It is hard to count on as its effect is based on the huge investment which cannot be ignored and it is usually a tinypart of the numerous marketing strategies.

–It is easy to talk about word-of-mouth but hard to achieve.

While word-of-mouth always needs endless free trails, the company would spend a lot to earn their reputation. From finding accurate customers to maintaining the relationships, from selling for free to charging a large amount of money, there is a long road for company to go before reaching their expectation.

–Plenty of substitutions make the market much more competitive.

In this highly developed commodity economy era, any resources, goods and services are substitutable. One step backward may result in the loss of customers, as they may find more fashionable and up-to-date substitutes. Accordingly, those who rely on fans to survival, either Apple or sports stars, should carefully balance their allocation on earning word-of-mouth and keeping up with trends.

Unless you provide attractive and addictive products and services, no consumer will be willing to follow you, taking no account of what happens. As a result, any company that use this strategy without knowing completely what it is will end up a failure. Therefore, precise aim and continuous innovation is the precondition for word-of-mouth marketing.

Work Cited
<http://money.163.com/14/0919/10/A6GEMCQM00253G87.html>.., 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <

Business ethics is a controversial topic. Whether a company should contribute to society or not and what they should do is never a simple question. Nestle, the world’s largest bottle-water company, has been taking water from B.C. for years without paying a cent. It may seem unfair as Nestle pay nothing to get water but sell it for money. However, I believe that Nestle should not be blamed, at least not the only one to carry the can, because there is no regulation for Nestle to comply with. Government should have introduced policies on taking groundwater decades ago. It is the government that should regularize behavior of business, although it will be a huge effort to do, as the regulation should be specified in every aspect. It will sure cost a long period to complete. However, if government doesn’t do the thing, how can we ask company to do so? Company does not have to shoulder the responsibility when even the government does not care about it, as the ultimately aim of company is to earn profit as long as they do not break the law.