Social approach: Consumer behaviour Flashcards
What are the 4 social explanations for consumer behaviour?
Conformity to social norms, normative social influence, the bandwagon effect, social proof
CONFORMITY TO SOCIAL NORMS: consumer behaviour
Social norms are beliefs, expectations and unwritten rules about what a social group considers to be a ‘proper’ behaviour. most people have a strong desire to conform to these social norms and this is often exploited by advertising. Behaviours that are publicly visible are ways we signal our group membership eg, the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, the phone we use. Therefore, campaigns and adverts try to influence us by promoting the message that ‘if you buy this product, you are like these other people’. Conformity to social norms is partly explained by normative social influence (NSI)
NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE: consumer behaviour
Acceptance by other people is a powerful reason for conforming to the norms of a group. It appeals to our natural desire to be liked and to avoid being rejected. It leads to compliance (i.e. Changing our behaviour publicly even if privately we still hold a different view). Someone subjected to normative social influence (NSI) may buy products or specific brands to fit in with their friends because not doing so might result in ridicule and/or rejection. i.e. We may be willing to change our (consumer) behaviour if the group’s social norm dictate that as the (unspoken) ‘price’ of membership
THE BANDWAGON EFFECT: consumer behaviour
The bandwagon effect draws on social influence in order to persuade people to buy a product. Behavioural change or purchasing decisions can result from the perception that everyone else is doing it (so people join the bandwagon.) Similar to NSI - most people tend to do something because other people are doing it (heard mentality). Bandwagon advertising operates on the basis that ‘success breeds success’; once a product or brand is adopted by a critical mass of people, many more join in. Companies use ‘social media influencers’ to promote their products, in the hope that once a trend is adopted by influencers and their followers, it will ‘go viral’ and potentially be taken up by millions. adverts try to create the illusion that a product or behaviour is already popular, perhaps by showing lots of people using it or talking about it. it manipulates consumer behaviour by stimulating demand for a product that was not previously there
SOCIAL PROOF: consumer behaviour
Social proof draws on informational social influence and uses numbers to convince people that something is worth having. If enough people endorse a product, then this is evidence that the product is worth having. Celebrity social proof is an example. If a celebrity uses a product or takes a stance on something, it encourages other people to go along with them as they have more influence and can reach a wider audience than most other people. Social proof is another term for informational social influence (ISI) - we often go along with other people because we believe that they know more than us about the current situation. The more people there are who agrees on a course of action or a belief, the more influenced we are. In a situation in which we do not know what to think or do we look to others for social proof of what is happening and how we should behave. eg, a health campaign to change behaviour might imply that lots of people like us are doing something (eg, ‘72% of people lost weight after following this tip’). This is social proof of what people are doing. Social proof also explains why rating systems on websites are influential, and why most people are more likely to read social media posts with lots of likes than those with very few
Name 2 strengths of the social approaches explanation of consumer behaviour
- research to support
There was research support for the bandwagon effect by Niesiobedzka. Teenage students saw an advert for a luxury product (a Ralph Lauren t-shirt) which is the experiment which in the experiment was associated with a famous person (Beyonce). The control group saw the advert without the famous person. They found that the first group were willing to display a significantly bigger Ralph Lauren logo on their T shirt compared to the control group. This shows that the bandwagon effect can explain the sudden popularity of products in terms of conformity to social norms
- has practical application so is useful
Conformity it’s a social norms can be used to influence consumer behaviour. Eg, significantly more people use stairs instead of the stair-lift when they read a notice saying, “did you know, more than 90% of the time, people in this building use the stars instead of the elevator. Why not you?” (Burger)
Name 1 limitation of the social approaches explanation of consumer behaviour
Incomplete explanation
Social explanations for consumer behaviour are incomplete because the approach focuses only on how other people, wider society and culture influence behaviour. It does not consider the influence of cognitive factors such as schemas, cognitive priming and a cognitive biases (such as confirmation bias, brand loyalty and authority by us). Therefore, the social approach offers an incomplete explanation of consumer behaviour
