Chapter 11
Group Influence and Opinion Leadership
By Michael R. Solomon
Consumer Behavior
Buying, Having, and Being
Sixth Edition
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Opening Vignette: Zachary
• Does Zachary meet your mental
stereotype for a Harley Davidson owner?
• Why does Zachary desire to have more
Harley “stuff”?
• How do Zach’s fellow RUBs influence his
purchases?
• What benefits does Zach enjoy from his
association with other Harley owners?
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Harley Owners Group
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Reference Groups
• Reference Group
– An actual or imaginary individual or group
conceived of having significant relevance upon an
individual’s evaluations, aspirations, or behavior
– Three ways reference groups influence consumers
• Informational
• Utilitarian
• Value-Expressive
– Some people are more influential than others in
affecting consumers’ product preferences.
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Relative Reference Groups’
Influence on Purchase Intention
Figure 11.1
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When Reference Groups
Are Important
• Social Power:
– The capacity to alter the actions of others
• Referent Power:
– When consumers imitate qualities by copying behaviors of
a prominent person they admire.
• Information Power:
– Able to influence consumer opinion by virtue of their
(assumed) access to the “truth”
• Legitimate Power:
– Granted to people by virtue of social agreements,
sometimes conferred by a uniform
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Expert Power
• A physician has expert
power, and a white
coat reinforces this
expertise by conferring
legitimate power.
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When Reference Groups
Are Important (cont.)
• Expert Power:
– Derived from possessing specific knowledge about
a content area
• Reward Power:
– When a person or group has the means to provide
positive reinforcement
• Coercive Power:
– Influencing a person by social or physical
intimidation
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Types of Reference Groups
• Reference Group:
– Any external influence that provides social cues
• Normative Influence:
– The reference group helps to set and enforce
fundamental standards of conduct.
• Comparative Influence:
– When decisions about specific brands or activities
are affected.
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Discussion Question
• Marketers often portray
products being used in
groups that represent
favorable reference
groups to the target
market.
• What type of message
does this ad convey?
What type of influence is
this ad designed to exert
on its target audience?
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Brand Communities and Tribes
• Brand Community:
– A set of consumers who share a set of social
relationships based upon usage or interest in a
product.
• Brandfests
• Consumer Tribe:
– A group of people who share a lifestyle and who
can identify with each other because of a shared
allegiance to an activity or product.
• Tribal Marketing:
– To link one’s product to the needs of a group as a
whole.
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Products as a Way to be Popular
• Many products, especially those targeted to young
people, are often touted as a way to take the inside
track to popularity. This Brazilian ad lets us know
about people who don’t like a certain shoe.
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Membership vs. Aspirational
Reference Groups
• Aspirational Reference Groups
– Comprise idealized figures such as successful business
people, athletes, or performers.
• Membership Reference Group
– Ordinary people whose consumption activities provide
informational social influence.
• Propinquity: Physical nearness.
• Mere Exposure: Liking persons or things simply as a result of
seeing them more often (mere exposure phenomenon)
• Group Cohesiveness: The degree to which members of a group are
attracted to each other and value their group membership.
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Match.com
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Positive Versus Negative
Reference Groups
• Avoidance Groups
– Groups that consumers purposely try to distance
themselves from
• Nerds
• Druggies
• Preppies
– The motivation to distance oneself from a negative
reference group can be as powerful or more
powerful than the desire to please a positive group
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Positive Reference Groups
• This recruiting ad
presents a compelling
role model for young
women contemplating
a career in the armed
forces.
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Consumers Do it in Groups
• Deindividuation:
– A process in which individual identities become
submerged within a group.
• Social Loafing:
– People do not devote as much to a task when their
contribution is part of a larger group effort
• Risky Shift:
– Group members are willing to consider riskier alternatives
subsequent to group discussion
• Diffusion of Responsibility:
– As more people are involved in a decision, each individual
is less accountable for the outcome
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Deindividuation
• Costumes hide our true identities and encourage
deindividuation.
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Consumers Do it in Groups (cont.)
• Value Hypothesis:
– Riskiness is a culturally valued characteristic to
which individuals feel pressure to conform
• Decision Polarization:
– Whichever direction the group members were
leaning toward before discussion becomes more
extreme subsequent to discussion
• Home Shopping Parties:
– Capitalize on group pressures to increase sales
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Home Shopping Parties
• Women at a home
Tupperware party.
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Group Influences
• Group pressure often influences our clothing choices.
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Conformity
• Conformity
– A change in beliefs or actions as a reaction to real or
imagined group pressure.
• Norms
– Informal rules that govern behavior.
• Factors Influencing the Likelihood of Conformity
– Cultural Pressures
– Fear of Deviance
– Commitment
• Principle of Least Interest
– Group Unanimity, Size, and Expertise
– Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence
• Role-relaxed consumers
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Social Comparison
• Social Comparison Theory:
– Asserts that people look to the behavior of others to
increase the stability of their self-evaluation
– Co-oriented peer: A person of equivalent standing
• Resisting Conformity:
– Independence: Being oblivious or indifferent to the
expectations of others
– Anticonformity: Defiance of the group is the actual
behavior
– Reactance: The negative emotional state that results when
we are deprived of our freedom to choose
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Word of mouth
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Word-of-Mouth Communication
• Word-of-Mouth (WOM):
– Product information transmitted by individuals to
individuals.
• Negative WOM and the Power of
Rumors:
– Negative WOM: Consumers weigh negative info
from other consumers more heavily than they do
positive comments
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Discussion Question
• This ad for a video
game says,
“Conformity Bytes!”,
but then captions,
“Join the Revolution!”
Why?
• Does this ad
encourage
independence or
anticonformity?
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Word-of-Mouth
• The U.S. Postal
Service hopes to
create a buzz via word
of mouth.
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Rumors
• Hoaxkill.com is a Web site dedicated to
tracking hoaxes and debunking product rumors.
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The Transmission of Misinformation
Figure 11.2
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Changing Information
• Serial Reproduction:
– Technique to examine the phenomenon that
information changes as it is transmitted among
consumers
• Assimilation: Distortions tend to follow a pattern
from ambiguous to conventional to fit with existing
schemas
• Leveling: Details are omitted to simplify structure
• Sharpening: Prominent details are accentuated
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Cutting-Edge WOM Strategies
• Virtual Communities
– Virtual Community of Consumption: A
collection of people whose online interactions
are based upon shared enthusiasm for and
knowledge of a specific consumption activity.
•
•
•
•
Multi-user Dungeons (MUD)
Rooms, rings and lists (e.g. chat rooms)
Boards
Blogs (weblog)
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Multi-User Dungeons
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Four Types of Virtual
Community Members
• Tourists:
– Lack strong social ties to the group
• Minglers:
– Maintain strong social ties, but are not interested in the
central consumption activity
• Devotees:
– Express strong interest in the activity, but have few
social attachments to the group
• Insiders:
– Exhibit both strong social ties and strong interest in the
activity
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Virtual Communities
Figure 11.3
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Guerrilla Marketing
• Guerrilla Marketing
– Promotional strategies that use unconventional
locations and intensive word-of-mouth campaigns
to push products.
• Brand Ambassadors
• Viral Marketing
– Refers to the strategy of getting customers to sell a
product on behalf of the company that creates it.
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Guerrilla Marketing Ads
• Ads painted on sidewalks are one form of guerrilla
marketing.
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Opinion Leadership
• The Nature of Opinion Leadership
– Opinion Leaders: People who are knowledgeable about
products and whose advice is taken seriously by others.
– Homophily: The degree to which a pair of individuals is
similar in terms of education, social status, and beliefs.
• How Influential Is an Opinion Leader?
– Generalized Opinion Leader: Somebody whose
recommendations are sought for all types of purchases.
– Monomorphic: An expert in a limited field.
– Polymorphic: An expert in many fields.
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Opinion Leaders Market Shoes
• Opinion leadership is a
big factor in the
marketing of athletic
shoes. Many styles
first become popular in
the inner city and then
spread by word-ofmouth.
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Types of Opinion Leaders
• Innovators
– Early purchasers
• Innovative Communicators
– Opinion leaders who also are early purchasers
– Opinion leaders also are likely to be opinion seekers
• The Market Maven
– Describes people who are actively involved in transmitting
marketplace information of all types.
• The Surrogate Consumer
– A person who is hired to provide input in purchase decisions.
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Cool hunters and mavens
•
•
•
Maven - unpaid enthusiasts who
initiate discussions with consumers
and respond to requests for
information
– neighbourhoods mavens
– professional mavens (critics,
reviewers, correspondents)
– celebrity mavens (Beckham)
modern consumers need maverns
to
– seek relevant information
– provide a ‘trustworthy’
recommendation
– decide which is best
examples
– Blair Witch Project
– Harry Potter
http://www.NewConsumer.co.uk/
Lewis and Bridger 2000
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Perspectives on the
Communications Process
Figure 11.4
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Fashion Opinion Leaders
• Fashion opinion leaders tend to be knowledgeable about clothing
and highly motivated to stay on top of fashion trends.
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Identifying Opinion Leaders
• Self-designated Opinion Leaders
• Sociometric Methods
– Trace Communication patterns among members of a group.
– Referral Behavior
– Network Analysis: Focuses on communication in social
systems
– Referral Network
– Tie Strength: The nature of the bond between people.
– Bridging Function: Allows a consumer access between
subgroups.
– Cliques: Subgroups
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Revised Opinion Leadership Scale
Figure 11.5
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