Chapter 11: Group Influence and Social Media Flashcards
Reference group
an actual or imaginary individual or group conceived of as having significant relevance upon an individual’s evaluations, aspirations, or behaviour
Reference groups influence consumers in three ways
1) Informational
2) Utilitarian
3) Value-expressive
Reference group is also used for:
used a bit more loosely to describe any external influence that provides social cues
Examples: Cultural figure, parents, Small and informal groups (Exert a more powerful influence on individual consumers)
Reference groups that affect consumption can include
parents, fellow motorcycle enthusiasts, the Liberal Party, the Toronto Raptors, or fellow fans of a musical artist such as Drake.
Normative influence
The process in which a reference group helps to set and enforce fundamental standards of conducts
Example: Parent’s forming our values towards marriage, university
Comparative influence
Process whereby a reference group influences decisions about specific brands of activities
Example: Weight watchers group
A reference group can take the form of:
a large, formal organization that has a recognized structure, complete with a charter, regular meeting times, and officers;
or it can be small and informal, such as a group of friends or students living in a student residence
However, as a rule it is _______, _______ groups that exert a more powerful influence on individual consumers
Small
Informal
Brand community
Brand communities
a set of consumers who share a set of social relationships based on usage of or interest in a product
Meet at events called Brandfests
Example: Jeep car rallies, Harley-Davidson get together’s
Typically don’t live near each other and meet for brief periods of time
Brand communities share emotions, moral beliefs, styles of life, and affiliated product
–Brand loyalty
–Brandfests enhance brand loyalty
–Brand missionaries
Brand communities can also form when
consumers come together for a particular activity around a brand (such as running through a Running Room clinic)
or when consumers commiserate about a brand or activity online (such as yoga on Lululemon’s interactive blog site)
Researchers find that people who participate in these types of brand communities feel more positive about the products as a result, which enhances brand loyalty.
They are more forgiving than others of product failures or lapses in service quality and less likely to switch brands even if they learn that competing products are as good or better
Aspirational reference group
A reference group that the consumer aspires to be a part of
Example: high-profile athletes and celebrities
Membership reference groups
Individuals or a group of individuals who belong to consumer’s own in-group (e.g family, peer group, team) and who influence the consumer’s attitudes and behaviours
Examples include our circle of friends, family, classmates, or teammates from our soccer club. We often conform to what those from membership groups are doing because of a sense of similarity and connectedness to them.
The likelihood that people will become part of a consumer’s identified reference group is affected by several factors, including the following:
1) Propinquity (physical nearness)
2) Mere Exposure
3) Group cohesiveness
1) Propinquity (physical nearness)
As physical distance between people decreases and opportunities for interaction increase, relationships are more likely to form. An early study on friendship patterns in a housing complex showed propinquity’s strong effects: Residents were much more likely to be friends with the people next door than with those who lived only two doors away. And people who lived next to a staircase had more friends than those at the ends of a hall (presumably they were more likely to “bump into” people using the stairs). Physical structure has a lot to do with who we get to know and how popular we are.
2) Mere exposure
We come to like people or things simply as a result of seeing them more often, which is known as the mere exposure effect. Greater frequency of contact, even if unintentional, may help to determine a person’s set of local referents. The same effect holds when evaluating works of art or political candidates
3) Group cohesiveness
The degree to which members of a group are attracted to each other and value their group membership is called cohesiveness. As the value of the group to the individual increases, so too does the likelihood that the group will guide consumption decisions. Smaller groups tend to be more cohesive, because it is more difficult to relate to larger groups of people. By the same token, groups often try to restrict membership to a select few, which increases the value of membership to those who are admitted. Exclusivity of membership is a benefit often touted by credit-card companies, book clubs, and so on, even though the actual membership base might be fairly large.
Dissociative reference groups
Groups (or group members) the consumer wants to avoid association with
Example: He or she may carefully study the dress or mannerisms of a disliked group (e.g., “nerds,” “druggies,” “preppies”) and scrupulously avoid buying anything that might identify him or her with that group
The motivation to distance ourselves from a negative reference group can be as or more powerful than the desire to please a positive group
That’s why advertisements occasionally show an undesirable person using a competitor’s product to subtly make the point that the target of the message can avoid winding up like that kind of person by staying away from that product.
Examples of Dissociative reference groups
In one study, males avoided the dissociative associations of a steak called “the ladies’ cut,” opting for the larger “house cut” steak instead. When the same smaller steak was called the “chef’s cut,” no differences in preferences for the small versus the large steak were observed
In another study, students in one student residence began wearing Livestrong bracelets to support a cancer-related charity. However, when students in the dorky, academic dorm down the street were given the same bracelets to wear, students in the first dorm quickly gave them up
Antibrand communities
Groups of consumers who share a common disdain for a celebrity, store, or brand
Example of antibrand communities
The Rachael Ray Sucks community on the blogging and social networking site LiveJournal claims more than 1000 members who don’t hesitate to post their latest thoughts about the various shortcomings, flaws, and disagreeable traits of the (otherwise popular) television food personality.
Many oppose Walmart, Starbucks, McDonald’s and Hummers
What kind of people are antibrand
One team of researchers who study these communities observed that they tend to attract social idealists who advocate non-materialistic lifestyles.
Antibrand communities provide a meeting place for?
provide a meeting place for those who share a moral stance, a support network to achieve common goals, a means for coping with workplace frustrations (many members actually work for the companies they are bashing), and a hub for information, activities, and related resources
3 basic themes of an antibrand community
1) Injustice
2) Identity
3) Agency
1) Injustice
Consumer protestors frequently talk about their fruitless attempts to contact the company.
2) Identity
Posters characterize the violator (often top management) as evil rather than as simply incompetent.
3) Agency
Individual website creators try to create a collective identity for those who share their anger with a company. They evoke themes of crusade and heroism to rally others to believe that they have the power to change a status quo in which companies can wrong consumers without retribution.
Is reference group influence always powerful?
Reference-group influences are not equally powerful for all types of products and consumption activities
For example, the purchase of products that are not very complex, that are low in perceived risk, and that can be tried prior to purchase are less susceptible to personal influence
Two dimensions that influence the degree to which reference groups are important are
1) whether the purchase is to be consumed publicly or privately
2) whether it is a luxury or a necessity
As a rule, reference-group effects are more robust for purchases that are
(1) luxuries (such as sailboats) rather than necessities, because products purchased with discretionary income are subject to individual tastes and preferences and necessities do not offer this range of choice; and
(2) items that are socially conspicuous or visible to others (such as handbags or clothing), because consumers are not swayed as much by the opinions of others if their purchases will never be observed by anyone but themselves
Public Necessities
Influence: weak for product and strong for brand
Examples: Wristwatch, automobile, suit
Public Luxuries
Influence: Strong for product and for brand
Examples: Golf Clubs, snow skis, sailboat
Private Necessities
Influence: weak for product and weak for brand
Example: Mattress, floor lamp, refrigerator
Private luxuries
Influence: Strong for product and weak for brand
Examples: Tv, video games, trash compactor
Types of social power
Referent Power Legitimate power Reward power Information power Expert power Coercive power
Conformity
Conformity refers to a change in beliefs or actions as a reaction to real or imagined group pressure.
Factors influencing conformity:
–Cultural pressures –Fear of deviance –Commitment to group –Group unanimity, size, expertise –Susceptibility to interpersonal influence –Environmental cues
Social Comparison Theory
Consumers will often compare themselves to others in ways that increase the stability of one’s self-evaluation
–Occurs as a way to increase stability of one’s self-evaluation (without physical evidence)
Examples: Tastes in music and art
–We tend to choose co-oriented peer when performing social comparison
Group Effects on Individual Behaviour
With more people in a group, it becomes less likely that any one member will be singled out for attention
People sometimes behave more wildly at costume parties or on Halloween night than they do normally:
Why?
–Informational and normative social influence.
–Deindividuation
–Risky shift (diffusion of responsibility, value hypothesis)
–Decision polarization
Different roles for different members:
–Initiator – identifies need
–Gatekeeper – searches and controls information
–Influencer – uses power to sway the decision
–Buyer – the purchaser (not necessarily the user)
–User – the consumer/user of the product
Anticonformity:
Defiance of the group is the actual object of behaviour
Independence
Pride in a unique style
Reactance
Preserving freedom of choice. When a person is threatened with a loss of freedom, they try to overcome this loss. This is considered a negative emotional state.
Threats of censoring books, television or rock music that people find objectionable actually results in an increase desire for these items
Opinion leaders
Influence others’ attitudes and behaviours
Attributes of an opinion leader are hard to identify, but are:
–Technically competent –Possess knowledge power –Socially active, highly interconnected –Possess referent power –Are often the first to buy (Hands-on experience)
Generalize opinion leader
Somebody whose recommendations are sought for all types of purchases.
Monomorphic
Experts in a limited field
Polymorphic experts
Tend to concentrate on one broad domain
Microcelebrities
short time fame, people value their expertise
Example: Salt Bae
Influencer marketing
influencer marketing model basically replicates the “cool kid” phenomenon from high school
•bloggers have become such important online opinion leaders
___________ absorb information from mass media and transmits data to opinion receivers
Opinion leaders
- May or may not purchase the products they recommend
- Innovative communicators
Two-step flow of model of influence
Small group of influencers change opinions or many people
Cascades
Which occurs when a piece of information triggers a sequence of interactions
Market Maven
Actively involved in transmitting marketplace information of all types
–Just into shopping and aware what’s happening in the marketplace
–Overall knowledge of how and where to get products
Surrogate consumers
Hired to provide input into purchase decisions
Identifying Opinion Leaders
Many ads intend to reach influencers rather than average consumer:
–Local opinion leaders are harder to find
–Companies try to identify influencers in order to create Word Of Mouth “ripple effect”
–Exploratory studies identify characteristics of opinion leaders for promotional strategies
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
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 behaviour/network, tie strength
–Bridging function, strength of weak ties
Word-of-Mouth Communication (WOM)
Product information transmitted by individuals to individuals
–Thought to be more reliable than traditional advertising
–Social pressure to conform
–Influences two-thirds of all sales
–We rely upon WOM in later stages of product adoption (Powerful when we are unaware of product category, example: Yelp reviews
Negative word of mouth
We weigh negative WOM more heavily than we do positive comments!
–Negative WOM is easy to spread, especially online
–Determined detractors
–Information/rumor distortion
Buzz Marketing
Refers to activities undertaken by marketers to encourage consumers:
- to spread WOM about the brand
- WOM online encouraged by marketers
- Tremor – youth recruited by Proctor and Gamble to act as brand influencers
Product curators
smart marketers proactively seek out influencers to help them identify just what they should offer to their customers.
Crowd Power
key change in the way some new media companies approach their business is to think of it as marketing strategy by committee
Wisdom of crowds perspective
argues that under the right circumstances groups are smarter than the smartest people in them
Guerilla marketing:
Promotional strategies that use unconventional locations and intensive WOM to push products
Recruits legions of real consumers for street theater–Unicef/Offsetters examples
Viral Marketing
Marketers are creating buzz is through viral marketing, the strategy of getting customers to sell or promote a product on behalf of the company that creates it
Social Media
Refers to forms of electronic communication (e.g., social networking platforms and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content.
Our passion for social media exerts a big impact on our emotions and experiences during the course of a typical day
Online Social Networks and Online Communities
- Social networks = social graphs
- Nodes = members in a network
- Ties = relationships among nodes
•Nodes:
–Have interactions (behaviour based ties)
–Have flows (exchange information, influence, etc.)
- Media multiplexity – flows are in many directions
- Social object theory – object of common interest
- Object sociality – extent objects can be shared
Fake drugs online are often made from what?
They’re fakes, in some cases made of little more than powdered cement, artfully disguised to look like the real thing.
At best, they will be of no medical benefit whatsoever. At worst, they could kill you
The fake medicines market is said to be worth over $______ billion a year worldwide
75
What places fall victim the most to fake drugs?
Places like Hong Kong and Dubai,
because of their open and liberal trade policy, their efficient systems devoid of bureaucratic entanglements, and the absence of import and export fees or income tax in their free ports, have become particular targets.
Records show that nearly one third of all counterfeit drugs confiscated in Europe in 2013 came from—which really means through—the __________
United Arab Emirates.
But if that isn’t bad enough, almost half of all alcoholic spirits sold in Russia are counterfeit, killing _______ Russians every year.
43,000
The result is that ___________ of all products sold across the globe is now believed to be counterfeit.
one in ten
Three steps to the Hegelian Principle
Step 1) Create a problem or conflict
Step 2) Publicize the problem and create opposition to it
Step 3: Offer a solution
Step 1) Create a problem or conflict
Perceive a problem that exists and build it up out of proportion to its actual importance, or create a problem or conflict where none existed before.
Step 2) Publicize the problem and create opposition to it
Relentlessly place stories about this problem in the major media outlets. Report on it daily until it becomes a steady drumbeat and a truism for the public who then begin clamoring for a solution to this problem.
Step 3: Offer a solution
The best solutions are those that appeal to the emotions of the public and make them think something really good is being done for them, when in fact, something really bad is being done to them. This solution is one that the public never knew it needed until the conditioning of Step Two was successfully completed.
Example of a Hegelian principle
The war on margarine!
Convince the public that butter is bad
When did the The Hegelian Principle come to be?
The Hegelian Principle was first described by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a 19th century German philosopher
Original three steps to the process:
The original terms for the three steps were Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis.
The original terms for the three steps were Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis.
Under Hegel’s theory, one type of government or society (Thesis) would give rise to another that was the opposite of this type of government or society (Antithesis).
This would result in conflict between the two types since they were opposites. After thesis and antithesis ideas battle each other for an extended time without either side winning, both sides become ready for change. This change (Synthesis) is then brought about by the creation of a third type of government or society.
