chapter 11
TRANSCRIPT
Group Influence and Opinion Leadership
Chapter 11
11-2
Group Influences
11-3
Reference Groups
• An actual or imaginary individual/group conceived of having significant relevance upon an individual’s evaluations, aspirations, or behavior– Reference groups influence consumers in
three ways:• Informational• Utilitarian• Value-expressive
11-4
Reference Group Influences• Reference group effects are more robust for purchases
that are:– Luxuries rather than necessities– Socially conspicuous/visible to others
PRODUCT
Weak Reference Group Influence
Strong Reference Group Influence
BRAND
Strong Reference Group Influence
PUBLIC
NECESSITIES
PUBLIC
LUXURIES
Weak Reference Group Influence
PRIVATE
NECESSITIES
PRIVATE
LUXURIES
Figure 11.1
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When Reference Groups Are Important (Cont’d)
• Social power: capacity to alter the actions of others– Referent power– Information power– Legitimate power– Expert power– Reward power– Coercive power
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Types of Reference Groups• Any external influence that provides social clues
– Cultural figure– Parents– A large, formal organization
• Tend to be more product- or activity-specific: comparative influence
– Small and informal groups• Exert a more powerful influence on individual consumers• A part of our day-to-day lives: normative influence
– Normative influence– Comparative influence
11-7
Brand Communities and Tribes
• Brand Community– A group of consumers who share a
set of social relationships based upon usage or interest in a product
– Brandfests enhance brand loyalty
• Consumer tribe – share emotions, moral beliefs, styles
of life, and affiliated product– Tribal marketing: linking a product to
the needs of a group as a whole
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Types of Groups (cont.)
11-9
Types of Groups
• Membership– either yes or no
• Degree of contact– larger groups generally have less contact– primary groups generally have frequent
interpersonal contact– secondary groups generally have limited
interpersonal contact• Attraction
– desirability of being member– either positive or negative
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Changes in Reference Groups as the Situation Changes
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Types of Groups (cont.)
• Aspirational reference groups– non-membership groups– positive attraction– exert a strong influence on some products
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Membership vs. Aspirational Reference Groups
• People the consumer actually knows vs. people the consumer doesn’t know but admires– Admirational strategies
concentrate on highly visible, widely admired figures (athletes or performers)
– Membership strategies focus on “ordinary” people whose consumption provides informational social influence
• Propinquity, mere exposure, and group cohesiveness
11-13
Positive vs. Negative Reference Groups
• Reference groups may exert either a positive or negative influence on consumption behaviors– Avoidance groups: motivation to distance
oneself from other people/groups– Marketing: ads with undesirable people using
competitor’s product– Discussion: Identify a set of avoidance groups
for your peers. Can you identify any consumption decisions that are made with these groups in mind?
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Consumers Do It in Groups
• Deindividuation– Binge drinking at college parties
• Social loafing– We tend to tip less when eating in groups
• Risky shift– Diffusion of responsibility– Value hypothesis
• Decision polarization
11-15
Consumers Do It in Groups (Cont’d)
• Home shopping parties– Tupperware and Botox parties– Informational and normative social
influence– Deindividuation– Risky shift
• Discussion: Are home shopping parties that put pressure on friends and neighbors to buy merchandise ethical?
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Conformity
• Most people tend to follow society’s expectations regarding how to look/act– Change in beliefs/actions toward societal
norms• Appropriate clothing/personal items, gift-giving,
sex roles, and personal hygiene
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Factors Influencing Conformity
• Cultural pressures
• Fear of deviance– Sanctions against “different” behavior
• Commitment to group membership– Principle of least interest
• Group unanimity, size, expertise
• Susceptibility to interpersonal influence– Role relaxed
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The Nature of Reference -Group Influence
Conformity is not a uni-dimensional concept • Information influence
– behaviours and opinions of reference groups are used as potentially useful pieces of information
• Normative influence (utilitarian influence)– when an individual fulfils group expectations to gain a
direct reward or avoid a punishment• Identification influence (value-expressive influence)
– when an individual uses perceived-group norms and values as a guide for their own attitudes or values
11-19
Consumption Situations and Reference-Group Influence
11-20
Consumption Situations and Reference-Group Influence (cont.)
11-21
Consumption Situations and Reference-Group Influence (cont.)
11-22
Determinants of the Degree of Reference-Group Influence
• R-Group influence is strongest when use of the product or brand is visible and relevant– e.g. product category, product type and brand are all
visible• R-group influence increases as necessity of an item
decreases• The more commitment an individual feels to a group,
the higher the level of conformity to group norms• Individual’s confidence with purchase: low confidence,
then higher influence
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Product Characteristics and Type of Reference-Group Influence
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Influence of Two Consumption Situation Characteristics on Product/Brand Choices
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Consumption-Situation Determinants of Reference-Group Influence
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Social Comparison• “How’m I doing?”
– We look to others’ behavior to inform us about reality
– Occurs as way to increase stability of one’s self-evaluation (sans physical evidence)
• Tastes in music and art
– We tend to choose co-oriented peer when performing social comparison
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Resisting Conformity
• Independence vs. anticonformity– “Marching to own drummer” vs. being aware
of what is expected (and not doing it)
• Reactance– Negative emotional state when we are
deprived of our freedom of choice– Censored books, TV shows, music lyrics
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Marketing Strategies Based on Reference-Group Influences
• Personal sales strategies– Asch phenomenon
• Advertising strategies– all three types of reference groups are used
by advertisers:• informational (use of information)• normative (to avoid/gain) • identification (aspire to join)
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Word-of-Mouth Communication• WOM: product information
transmitted by individuals to individuals– More reliable/trustworthy form of
marketing– Backed up by social pressure to
conform– Influences two-thirds of all sales
of goods– We rely upon WOM in later
stages of evaluation and adoption
– WOM is powerful when we are unfamiliar with product category
11-30
WOM Communication (Cont’d)
• Product-related conversation factors:– High involvement with product (pleasure)– Knowledgeable about product (impressing
others)– Genuine concern for others (avoid wasting
money)
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Negative WOM and Power of Rumors
• We weigh negative WOM more heavily than we do positive comments!– Negative WOM is easy to spread, especially
online– Determined detractors
• Discussion: What is the best way for a company to deal with determined detractors?
– Information/rumor distortion• Assimilation, leveling, and sharpening
IHATESTARBUCKS.COM
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Virtual Communities
• A collection of people who share their love of a product in online interactions– Multi-user dungeons (MUD)– Rooms (IRC), rings, and lists– Boards– Blogs/blogosphere
• Great potential for abuse via untrustworthy members– Amazon.com lawsuit (charging publishers to post
positive reviews of Web site)
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Types of Web Surfers
Figure 11.3
Discussion: Which type of Web surfer are you?
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Guerrilla Marketing
• Promotional strategies that use unconventional locations and intensive WOM to push products– Recruiting legions of real consumers for street
theater• Hip-hop “mix tapes”/street teams• P&G’s Tremor• Kayem Foods’ Great Sausage Fanout
– Brand ambassadors
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Viral Marketing
• Getting visitors to a Web site to forward information on the site to their friends (for product awareness)– Creating online content that is entertaining or
weird
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Social Networking
• Web sites letting members post information about themselves and make contact with similar others– Share interests, opinions, business contacts
THEFACEBOOK.COM
MYSPACE
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Opinion Leadership• We don’t usually ask just
anyone for advice about purchases!
• We most likely seek advice from someone who knows a lot about a product– Opinion leaders frequently
influence other’s attitudes/behaviors
• E-fluential advice
• Discussion: Identify fashion opinion leaders on your campus. Do they fit the profile discussed in this chapter?
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Opinion Leadership
• Opinion leaders filter, interpret or provide information for individuals within groups
• Situations in which opinion leadership occurs:– one individual exchanges information with
another– one individual volunteers information– as a by-product of normal group interaction
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Characteristics of Opinion Leaders
• Opinion leaders have enduring involvement with product category
• Function primarily through interpersonal communications and observation
• Similar demographic characteristics to the group• Public individuation – attention seeking• High level of exposure to media• The market maven – expert on all products!
• Motivation of dissatisfied customers to tell others of their negative message
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Likelihood of Seeking an Opinion Leader
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Marketing Strategy and Opinion Leadership
• Identifying opinion leaders
• Targeting for marketing research
• Product sampling
• Retailing/personal selling
• Advertising attempts to encourage and simulate opinion leadership
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Reasons to Seek Advice from Opinion Leaders
• Expertise
• Unbiased knowledge power
• Highly interconnected in communities (social standing)
• Referent power/homophily
• Hands-on product experience (absorb risk)CLICK ON LOGO TO SEE VIDEO CLIP ABOUT WILD PLANET’S EFFORTS TO
APPEAL TO “TREND SETTER” KIDS
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Opinion Leadership (Cont’d)
• Generalize opinion leader vs. monomorphic/polymorphic experts
• Although opinion leaders exist for multiple product categories, expertise tends to overlap across similar categories– It is rare to find a generalized opinion leader
• Innovative communicators• Opinion seekers
– More likely to talk about products with others and solicit others’ opinions
– Casual interaction prompted by situation
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The Market Maven• Actively involved in transmitting
marketplace information of all types– Just into shopping and staying on top of
what’s happening in the marketplace– Solid overall knowledge of how and where to
procure products• “I like introducing new brands/products to friends”• “People ask me for information about products,
places to shop, or sales”• “My friends think of me as a good source of
information when it comes to new products or sales”
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The Surrogate Consumer
• A marketing intermediary who is hired to provide input into purchase decisions– Interior decorators, stockbrokers, professional
shoppers, college consultants– Consumer relinquishes control over decision-
making functions
• Marketers should not overlook influence of surrogates!
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Identifying Opinion Leaders• Many ads intend to reach
influentials rather than average consumer– Local opinion leaders are
harder to find– Companies try to identify
influentials in order to create WOM “ripple effect”
– Exploratory studies identify characteristics of opinion leaders for promotional strategies
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The Self-Designating Method
• Most commonly used technique to identify opinion leaders…– Simply ask individuals whether they consider
themselves to be opinion leaders– Method is easy to apply to large group of
potential opinion leaders– View with skepticism…inflation or
unawareness of own importance/influence
• Alternative: key informants identify opinion leaders
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Sociometric Methods
• Trace communication patterns among group members
• Systematic map of group interactions• Most precise method of identifying
product-information sources, but is very difficult/expensive to implement
• Network analysis– Referral behavior/network, tie strength– Bridging function, strength of weak ties