Chapter 11 Group Influence and Opinion Leadership

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Chapter 11Group Influence and Opinion Leadership
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, 8eMichael Solomon
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Chapter Objectives

• When you finish this chapter you should
  understand why
• Others, especially those who possess some kind of
  social power, often influence us.
• We seek out others who share our interests in
  products or services.
• We are motivated to buy or use products in order
  to be consistent with what other people do.
• The things that other consumers tell us about
  products (good and bad) are often more
  influential than the advertising we see.

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Chapter Objectives (cont.)

• Online technologies are accelerating the impact
  of word-of-mouth communication.
• Social networking is changing the way companies
  and consumers interact.
• Certain people are particularly likely to
  influence others product choices.

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Reference Groups

• Reference group an actual or imaginary
  individual/group conceived of having significant
  relevance upon an individuals evaluations,
  aspirations, or behavior
• Influences consumers in three ways
• Informational
• Utilitarian
• Value-expressive

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Reference Group Influences

• Reference group influences stronger for purchases
  that are
• Luxuries rather than necessities
• Socially conspicuous/visible to others

Figure 11.1
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When Reference Groups Are Important

• Social power capacity to alter the actions of
  others
• Types of social power

Referent power
Information power
Legitimate power
Expert power
Reward power
Coercive power
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Discussion

• High schools have all types of reference groups,
  with members representing all types of social
  power. Think back to high school and try to
  identify people who had the following types of
  power (consider not only peers but also teachers
  and administrators).
• 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
  can be a reference group
• Cultural figure
• Parents
• Large, formal organization
• Small and informal groups
• Exert a more powerful influence on individual
  consumers
• A part of our day-to-day lives normative
  influence

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Brand Communities and Consumer Tribes

• 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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Membership versus Aspirational Reference Groups

• Membership reference groups people the consumer
  actually knows
• Advertisers use ordinary people
• Aspirational reference groups people the
  consumer doesnt know but admires
• Advertisers use celebrity spokespeople

• Click to view
• Quicktime video on
• use of celebrity
• athletes in advertising

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Positive versus 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
• Marketers show ads with undesirable people using
  competitors product
• Antibrand communities coalesce around a
  celebrity, store, or brandbut in this case
  theyre united by their disdain for it

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Consumers Do It in Groups

• Deindividuation individual identities become
  submerged within a group
• Example binge drinking at college parties
• Social loafing people dont devote as much to a
  task when their contribution is part of a larger
  group
• Example we tend to tip less when eating in
  groups
• Risky shift group members show a greater
  willingness to consider riskier alternatives
  following group discussion than if members mad
  their own decisions

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Discussion

• Do you agree that deindividuation encourages
  binge drinking on campus?
• What can or should a college do to discourage
  this behavior?

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Consumers Do It in Groups (cont.)

• Decision polarization after group discussion of
  an issue, opinions become more extreme
• Home shopping parties capitalize on group
  pressure to boost sales
• Informational and normative social influence

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Discussion

• Home shopping partiessuch as Tupperware, Avon,
  Pampered Chef, Amway, or Botoxare designed to
  put pressure on friends and neighbors to buy
  merchandise.
• Have you attended these parties? Why or why not?
• Do you believe putting social pressure is
  ethical? Why or why not?
• Why are these parties more common among women?

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Conformity

• Most people tend to follow societys expectations
  regarding how to look/act
• Factors influencing conformity
• Cultural pressures
• Fear of deviance
• Commitment to group membership
• Group unanimity, size, expertise
• Susceptibility to interpersonal influence

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Word-of-Mouth Communication

• WOM product information transmitted by
  individuals to individuals
• More reliable form of marketing
• Social pressure to conform
• Influences two-thirds of all sales
• We rely upon WOM in later stages of product
  adoption
• Powerful when we are unfamiliar with product
  category

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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
• Information/rumor distortion

• Click photo for
• Ihatestarbucks.com

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The Transmission of Misinformation
Figure 11.2
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Negative WOM and Power of Rumors (cont.)

• Three basic themes found in Web-based protest
  communities
• Injustice consumers talk about their repeated
  attempts to contact the company only to be
  ignored.
• Identity posters characterize the violator as
  evil, rather than simply wrong.
• Agency individual Web site creators try to
  create a collective identity for those who share
  their anger with a company.

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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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Virtual Communities

• Which type of Web surfer are you?

Figure 11.3
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Guerrilla Marketing

• Guerilla marketing promotional strategies that
  use unconventional locations and intensive WOM to
  push products
• Recruits legions of real consumers for street
  theater
• Hip-hop mix tapes/street teams
• Brand ambassadors

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Viral Marketing

• 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
• Example buzz campaign for Mini Cooper car

Click photo for Miniusa.com ?
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Social Networking and Crowd Power

• Web sites letting members post information about
  themselves and make contact with similar others
• Share interests, opinions, business contacts

? Click photo for Myspace.com

• Click photo for
• Facebook.com

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Social Networking and Crowd Power (cont.)

• Wisdom of crowds perspective under the right
  circumstances, groups are smarter than the
  smartest people in them
• Some crowd-based Web sites
• CrowdSpirit.com participants submit ideas for
  consumer electronics products and the community
  votes for the best ones
• Sermo.com social network for physicians
• Eventful.com fans can demand events and
  performances in their town and spread the word to
  make them happen

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Opinion Leadership

• Opinion leaders influence others attitudes and
  behaviors
• They are good information sources because they
• May be experts
• Provide unbiased evaluation
• Are socially active
• Are similar to the consumer
• Are among the first to buy

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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)

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Opinion Leadership (cont.)

• Generalize opinion leader versus
  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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Perspectives on the Communications Process
Figure 11.4
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The Market Maven

• Market maven actively involved in transmitting
  marketplace information of all types
• Just into shopping and aware whats happening in
  the marketplace
• Overall knowledge of how and where to get products

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The Surrogate Consumer

• Surrogate consumer a marketing intermediary
  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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Finding 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 skepticisminflation or unawareness of
  own importance/influence
• Alternative key informants identify opinion
  leaders

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Sociometric Methods

• 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