Chapter 11 – social influence Social influence: desire to fit in and identify with desirable individuals and groups - Primary motive for purchases and activities Preferences often shaped by: - Group memberships - Desire to please/be accepted by others - Actions of famous people (who’ve never met) - Reference groups Actual or imaginary individual/group Conceived of having significant relevance upon individual’s evaluations, aspirations, or behaviour Influences consumers in three ways: o Informational Individual seeks information about various brands from association of professionals or independent group of experts (reporters, scientists, doctors, lawyers) Individual seeks information from those who work with product in a profession Individual seeks brand-relate knowledge and experience (such as brand A’s performance compares with brand B’s) from those friends, neighbors, relatives, or work associates who have reliable information about the brands Brand individual selects is influenced by observing a seal of approval from independent testing agency (consumer’s reports) Individual’s observation of what experts do (Ex. Observing the type of vehicle race car drivers drive or brand of washer/dryer repairpersons buy) influences their choice of a brand o Value expressive The individual feels that the purchase or use of a particular brand ,will enhance the image others have of him or her The individual feels that those who purchase or use a particular brand possess the characteristics that he or she would like to have The individual sometimes feels that it would be nice to be like the type of person that advertisements show using a particular brand The individual feels that the people who purchase a particular brand are admired or respected by others The individual feels that the purchase of a particular brand would help show others what he or she is or would like to be (such as an athlete, successful businessperson, good parent) o Utilitarian Individual’s decision to purchase a particular brand is influenced by preferences of work associates, in hopes they satisfy their expectations Individual’s decision to purchase particular brand is influenced by preferences of people with whom have social interaction Individual’s decision to purchase a particular brand is influenced by preferences of family members Desire to satisfy expectations of others has an impact on individual’s brand choice Types of reference groups Any external influence that provides social clues: - Cultural figure - Parents - A large, formal organization - Small and informal groups o Exert a more powerful influence on individual consumers Note – some groups and individuals exert greater influence than others Normative influence: helps to set and enforce fundamental standards of conduct Comparative influence: decisions about specific brands or activities are affected Formal vs informal reference groups Formal reference groups: large and formal with standard, recognized structure Informal reference group: small and informal, just a group of friends Note – small informal groups can exert powerful influence on individual consumers - Brand communities A group of consumers who share set of social relationships based upon usage or interest in a product Share emotions, moral beliefs, styles of life, and affiliated product Creates brand loyalty Members don’t typically live near each other; may meet only for brief periods at organized brandfests o Meetups of like-minded individuals Can enhance brand loyalty Owner’s “bond” with fellow enthusiasts Strengthen identification with product and others who share passion Membership vs Aspirational Reference Groups Aspirational reference - Comprised of idealized figures, such as: o Successful businesspeople o Athletes o Performers Membership reference groups - Involve others consumers who belong to same groups as us Difference between people consumer: Actually knows vs. Doesn’t, but admires Aspirational strategies Concentrate on highly visible, widely admired figures (athletes or performers) Membership strategies focus on “ordinary” people whose consumption provides informational - Propinquity o Physical nearness o Live in same building as another, more likely to become friends - Mere exposure o Result of seeing them more often o Greater frequency of contact, even unintentional, may help to determine person’s set of local referents - Group cohesiveness o Groups attracted to each other and value group membership o As value of group to individual increases, so does likelihood group will guide consumption decisions o Smaller groups tend to be more cohesive o Some groups try to restrict membership to a select few, increasing value of membership to those in group - - Positive vs Negative reference groups Reference groups may exert either positive or negative influence on consumption behaviours Dissociative reference groups: motivation to distance oneself from other people/groups Sometimes marketers show ads with undesirable people using competitor’s product Antibrand communities Coalesce around a celebrity, store, or brand. But in this case they’re united by their disdain for it Social idealists who advocate who advocate non materialistic lifestyles Many oppose Walmart, starbucks, mcdonald’s and hummers An in-depth study of 40 complaint websites such as walmartsucks.come identified three basic themes: o Injustice o Identity o Agency Why reference groups are important Impact of reference groups vary based on whether product: - Complex - Or with little perceived risk o Can be tried before purchasing o Less susceptible to personal influence Two dimensions of influence purchases: - Consumed privately or publicly - Whether luxury or necessity o Products purchased with discretionary income subject to individual tastes and preferences o Necessities don’t offer range of choice Reference group influences Reference group influences stronger and more robust for purchases that are: - Luxuries (instead of necessities) - Socially conspicuous products/visible to others - Consumers swayed by opinions of others if purchase never observed by anyone but themselves Group influence and purchases Reference groups can influence following purchases: Reference group influences: Power of reference groups Social power: Capacity to alter actions of others Types of social power: 1. Referent power - Role model - When you want to be like someone else - You identify with them - Product endorsements, celebrity endorsers - For marketers: - Consumers voluntarily change behaviours to please or identify with referent 2. Information power - Person knows something others would like to know - Able to influence consumer opinion by virtue of (assumed) access to “truth” 3. Legitimate power - Virtue of social agreements (police officers and politicians, uniforms) - For marketers: - Form of power may be “borrowed” by marketers to influence consumers - Ad featuring a model wearing white doctor’s coat can add “legitimacy” or “authority” to product 4. Expert power - Possessing specific knowledge or skill - Consumers often influenced by experts who assumed to be able to evaluate products in an objective, informed way - Power of celebrity experts can be measured by visibility on talk shows, lecture circuits, etc 5. - Reward power Person or group has means to provide positive reinforcement Stimulus increases behaviour or response Entity will have power over consumer so reinforcement is valued or desired Reward may be: - Tangible (raise) - Intangible (social approval or acceptance in exchange for moulding one’s behaviour to conform to group or buying products expected of group members) 6. - Coercive power Effective short term Doesn’t product permanent attitudinal or behavioural change Usually requires people to do something they do not wish to do Rarely used in marketing Usually seen in fear appeals, personal selling intimidation, negative appeals - Conformity A change in beliefs or actions as a reaction to real or imagined group pressure Ex. Unspoken rules (gift giving, using deodorant, gender roles) Factors influencing conformity: - Cultural pressures - Fear of deviance - Group may apply punish behaviour different from group - Children shun those who are “different”, team removes player because not a “team player” - Commitment to group - More person dedicated to group and values, more motivated will follow group - Principle of least interest: person or group least committed to staying in relationship has most power, because not susceptible to threatened rejection - Group unanimity, size, expertise - As groups grow, become more powerful, compliance increases - Often harder to resist demands of many people than those of just a few - Difficulty compounded when members “perceived” as knowing what talking about - Susceptibility to interpersonal influence - Need to identify with or to enhance image in opinion of significant others - Accompanied by acquisition of products person believes will impress audience - Learn how to use products by observing how others use them - Environmental cues - Ex. Warm vs. cold rooms when making decisions Social influence and compliance Social comparison Social comparison theory Consumers often compare themselves to others in ways that increase stability of one’s self evaluation - Done without physical evidence - Tastes in music and art - Tend to choose co-oriented peer when performing social comparison Ego – depletion account of self control Ego depletion: idea that self control of willpower draws on limited pool of mental resources that can be used up - When energy for mental activity is low, self-control is impaired. Self control is a resource we can use up o Have limited capacity for self control, can be consumed quickly When ego – depleted, likely to fall back on: o Heuristics Mental shortcuts for solving problems in a quick way Gives results that is useful enough given time constraints o Automatic processes o Or habitual patterns When depleted: o Less able to resist persuasive messages o More likely to rely on heuristics and impacted by social influence techniques Cialdini’s six weapons of social influence - Reciprocity - Giving back “in kind” Commitment and consistency - Maintain consistency what already said and done Social proof - Follow lead of those similar to you Liking - Agree with person who resembles you or shares same values Authority - Trust and agree with an “expert” based on visual cues (lab cost, power, uniform) Scarcity - Get something limited or difficult to obtain (time, quantity, space) Persuasion Involves action attempt to change attitudes - Basic psychological principles influencing people to change minds or comply with request - Reciprocity - Scarcity - Consistency - Liking - Consensus - Authority Group effects on individual behaviour More people in a group means less likely 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: - Informational and normative social influence - Deindividuation Individual identities submerged within a group - Risky shift Diffusion of responsibility: as more people are involved in a decision, everyone is less accountable for the outcome Value hypothesis: riskiness is a culturally valued characteristic, and social pressures operate on individuals to conform to attribute valued by society Decision polarization Whichever direction the group members were leaning toward before discussion began (risky or conservative) becomes even more extreme after discussion Group discussions regarding product purchases tend to create a risky shift for low risk items Yield even more conservative group decisions for high risk products Group decision making 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 Resisting conformity Anti conformity: defiance of the group is the actual object of behaviour Independence: pride in unique style Reactance - Preserving freedom of choice - When person is threatened with loss of freedom, try to overcome loss. 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 leadership Opinion leaders Influence others’ attitudes and behaviours - Hard to identify, but: - Technically competent - Possess knowledge power - Socially active, highly interconnected - Possess referent power - Often first to buy Hands on experience How influential is an opinion leader? Generalize opinion leader: somebody whose recommendations are sought for all types of purchases - Very few people capable of being expert in number of fields - Opinion leaders are either: - Monomorphic: experts in a limited field - Polymorphic: experts in several fields Tend to concentrate on one broad domain (like electronics of fashion) Types of opinion leaders - Opinion leaders absorb information from mass media and transmits data to opinion receivers - May or may not purchase recommended products - Innovative communicator Traditional perspective on opinion leadership two step flow of model of influence - Small group of influencers change opinions or many people Newer perspective influence network - Other research found influence is driven less by influential - More by interaction among those easily influenced - Communicate information vigorously to one another - Participate in a two way dialogue with the opinion leader Cascades: occur when piece of information triggers sequence of interactions The market maven 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 Central to consumer decision making Marketers identifying influential people for their product category Using ads intended to reach influencers rather than average consumer - Especially if has lots of technical information - Some opinion leaders hard to find - Companies try to identify influencers - Hoping will then create word of mouth (WOM) “ripple effect” with regular consumers The self-designating method Most commonly used technique to identify opinion leaders - Simply ask individuals whether consider themselves to be opinion leaders - Method 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 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 Work of mouth communication Product information transmitted by individuals to individuals - Thought more reliable than traditional advertising - Social pressure to conform - Influences 2/3 of all sales - Rely on WOM in later stages of product adoption - Powerful when unfamiliar with product category (like mattresses) or product - Google reviews - Viral marketing Negative WOM - Weigh negative WOM more heavily than positive comments - Negative WOM easy to spread, especially online - Determined detractors - Information/rumour distortion Buzz building Activities done by marketers to encourage consumers: - To spread WOM about brand - WOM online encouraged by marketers Viral marketing - Marketers creating buzz Strategy to get consumers to sell or promote product on behalf of company that creates it Product curators and crowd power Product curators: smart marketers proactively seek out influencers to help identify what should offer to customers Crowd power - Key change in way some media companies approach business - think of it as marketing strategy by committee - wisdom of crowds perspective - argues under right circumstances, groups are smarter than smartest people in them guerilla marketing promotional strategies using unconventional locations and intensive WOM to push products - recruits legions of real consumers for street theater social media and consumer behaviour social media: refers to forms of electronic communication (Ex. Social networking platforms and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content - about online community - 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 - set of socially relevant nodes connected by one or more relations - social graphs (diagram of interconnections of units in a network) - nodes: members in a network (more than 2B facebook users) - ties: relationships among nodes (Friendship, shared experienes/hobbies, etc) - nodes - have interactions (behaviour based ties like working together, talking to each other) - have flows between nodes (Exchange information, influence, etc. includes sharing updates, memes, etc. on social media) - media multiplexity: flows in many directions - social object theory: object of common interest - object sociality: extent objects can be shared Digital opinion leaders - - - power users - active participatns at work and in their communities - large and well developed social networks - trust them as credible sources of information about one or more specific topics - post lots of brand related content mass connectors - influential 6.2% of social media users responsible for 80% of brand mentions more generally, the strategy called content marketing or sometimes native content marketing - drive cusomters to site - provide value in form of entertaining or educational material - end result: drive profitable customer action haul videos unboxing videos Goldstein et al. (2008) towel study Towel study: - Two field experiments examined effectiveness of signs requesting hotel guests’ participation in an environmental conservation program. - Appeals employing descriptive norms (e.g., “the majority of guests reuse their towels”) proved superior to a traditional appeal widely used by hotels that focused solely on environmental protection. - Normative appeals were most effective when describing group behavior that occurred in setting that most closely matched individuals’ immediate situational circumstances (e.g., “the majority of guests in this room reuse their towels”) - Referred to as provincial norms - Two signs soliciting participation in towel reuse program of a hotel that was part of a well-known national hotel chain 1. Designed to reflect industry standard approach, focused on importance of environment protection but provided no explicit descriptive norm Words on environment protection: “reusing your towel helps to save the environment” 2. Conveyed descriptive norm, informing guests that majority of other guests do, in fact, participate in program at least once during their stays Stats vs. environment importance “8 out of 10 hotel choose to reuse their towels” - #2 more effective at influencing and persuading - Instead of simply saying “reusing your towel helps to save the environment” White, Simpson, and argo (2014) composting study Previous research: - people tend to avoid products or behaviours linked to dissociative reference groups Present research: - demonstrates where consuemrs exhibit similar behaviours to dissociative out group members in domain of positive consumption behaivours - when consumers learns a dissociative out group performs comparatively well on a positive behavior, consumer more likely to respond with positive intentions and actions when setting is public (vs. private) note - - authors suggest occurs because learning successful performance of a dissociatve outgroup under public conditions threatens consumer’s group image and activates desire to present group image in a positive light show although group affirmation mitigates these effects, self-affirmation does not also understands moderating role of positivity of the behavior and mediating role of group image motives results highlight conditions under which communicating information about behaviors of dissociative out groups can be used to spur consumers to engage in positive actions composting study: - survey on 118 business students regarding composting intentions - participants informed study interested in people - two settings: - public participants told their composting intentions and attitudes would be discussed with others in study at the end of session - private participants were told that their responses would be kept anonymous and confidential - participants then viewed a press release regarding new composting program that served purpose of allowing them to familiarize themselves with topic of composting on campus described new composting initiative and then manipulated reference group by stating either computing science students (dissociative outgroup) or business students (membership group) were “the most effective in composting efforts when comparing across the student groups” - when information conveying positive sustainable actions of a dissociative out group is presented, consumers report more favorable composting intentions when setting is public than when it is private - ex. Public reported participants more inclined to compost vs. private group - in contrast, when information highlight positive sustainable actions of a membership group, no differences in composting intentions emerge as a function of setting study notes that under certain conditions, consumers exhibit approach responses to behaviors of dissociative out groups
