Summary Marketing 2: Consumer
behaviour
Business Economics: 2016-2017
Book: Consumer Behaviour (Hoyer, Macinnis, Pieters 7th edition)
Chapters: 11 - 14
Stan Paau ANR: 462880
,Chapter 11: Social influences on consumer
behaviour
Learning objectives
Explain how social influence can come from marketing or non-marketing sources, including
opinion leaders, and can be delivered personally or by mass or social media.
Highlight the types and characteristics of reference groups and show how each can affect
consumer behaviour.
Discuss how marketers apply normative influence to affect consumer behaviour.
Distinguish between informational and normative influence, and describe why and how word
of mouth can be both pervasive and persuasive.
Sources of influence
Marketing and non-marketing sources
Social media platforms are increasingly used by both marketing and non-marketing sources.
Marketing sources delivered via mass media
Marketing sources that deliver influence through the mass media include advertising, sales
promotions, publicity, special events, and social media posts from companies.
Marketing sources delivered personally
Salespeople, service representatives, and customer service agents are marketing sources of influence
who deliver information personally.
Non-marketing sources delivered via mass media
A non-marketing source is an influence which is delivered from an entity outside a marketing
organization such as the news, critics, program content, external endorsements, cultural heroes,
clubs/organizations, virtual communities and social media.
Non-marketing sources delivered personally
Our consumer behaviour can also be affected by observing how others behave or by word of mouth,
information about offerings communicated verbally by friends, family, neighbours, casual
acquaintances and even strangers.
How do these general sources differ?
These characteristics affect how much influence each source can have with customers.
Reach
Mass media can reach large consumer audiences. For example, a 30-second commercial in the Super
Bowl break. In general, mass media delivered sources have a higher reach than personally delivered
sources.
Capacity for two-way communication
Personally delivered sources of influence are valuable because they allow for a two-way flow of
information. In general, personally delivered sources have a higher capacity for two-way
communication than mass media delivered sources.
,Credibility
Consumers tend to perceive information delivered through marketing sources as being less credible,
more biased, and manipulative. In contrast, non-marketing sources appear more credible because
we do not believe that they have a personal stake in our purchase decisions. We also tend to
perceive information that we hear from people with whom we have close relationships as more
credible than mass media information.
Opinion leaders
A special source of social influence is the opinion leader, someone who acts as an information broker
between the mass media and the opinions and behaviours of an individual or group. Opinion leaders
are viewed as persons who have first-hand knowledge about the product or service in question and
are regarded as non-marketing sources of influence, which is a perception that adds to their
credibility. Opinion leaders are part of a general category of gatekeepers, people who have special
influence or power in deciding whether a product or information will be disseminated to a market.
Also, opinion leaders have enduring involvement with their product category.
Another source of influence is a market maven: A consumer on whom others rely for information
about the marketplace in general.
Reference groups as sources of influence
Types of reference groups
Aspirational reference groups are groups we admire and wish to be like but are not currently
a member of, for example, a younger brother who wants to be like his older brother.
Associative reference groups are groups to which we actually belong, such as a group of
friends.
A brand community is a specialized group of consumers with a structured set of relationships
involving a particular brand, fellow customers of that brand, and the product in use, for
example: Harley Davidson. Members of brand communities are very committed to the brand.
Dissociative reference groups are groups whose attitudes, values, and behaviours we
disapprove of and do not wish to emulate.
Characteristics of reference groups
Degree of contact
Reference groups vary in their degree of contact. A group with which we have face-to-face
interaction, such as family, peers, and professors, is a primary reference group. In contrast, a
secondary reference group is one that may influence us even though we have no personal contact
with most of its members, like political parties.
Formality
Reference groups vary in formality. Think of a group membership with high profession versus a group
of friends.
Homophily: the similarity among group members
Groups vary in their homophily, the overall similarity among members in the social system. When
groups are homophilous, reference-group influence is likely to be strong.
Group attractiveness
The attractiveness of a particular peer group can affect how much consumers conform to the group.
,Density
Dense groups are those in which group members all know one another. Think of a small group of
employees from a local fashion store versus all members working at the University campus.
Degree of identification
Some characteristics of an individual within a group contribute to the ways in which groups vary. One
is the degree of identification that a consumer has with a group. The influence that a group has on an
individual’s behaviour is affected by the extent to which he or she identifies with it.
Tie-strength
Tie-strength is the extent to which a close, intimate relationship connects people.
Reference groups affect consumer socialization
One way that reference groups influence consumer behaviour is through socialization, the process by
which individuals acquire the skills, knowledge, values and attitudes that are relevant for functioning
in a given domain. Consumer socialization is the process by which we learn to become consumers.
People as socializing agents
Reference groups like family and friends play an important role as socializing agents.
Intergenerational influence – information, beliefs, and resources being transmitted from one
generation to the next – affects consumers’ acquisitions and use of certain categories and preferred
brands. Also, parents affect socialization by influencing what types of products etc. their children are
exposed to. The effect of reference groups as socializing agents can change over time (i.e. children
growing up).
The media and the marketplace as socializing agents
TV programs, movies and videos, music, video games, the Internet, and ads can also serve as
socializing agents.
Normative influence
Normative influence is social pressure designed to encourage conformity to the expectations of
others. It implies that consumer will be punished or ridiculed if they do not follow the norms. Norms:
collective decisions about what constitutes appropriate behaviour.
How normative influence can affect consumer behaviour
Brand-choice congruence and conformity
Normative influence affects brand-choice congruence, which is the likelihood that consumers will
buy what others in their group buy. Normative influence can also affect conformity, the tendency for
an individual to behave as the group behaves. Conformity and brand-choice congruence may be
related. For instance, you might conform by buying the same brands as others in your group do
Pressures to conform can be substantial, think of drinking pressure at a beer cantus.
Compliance versus reactance
Compliance, a somewhat different effect of normative influence, means doing what someone
explicitly asks you to do. When we believe our freedom to choose is being threatened, a boomerang
effect occurs and we engage in reactance, which is doing the opposite of what a person or group
wants us to do.
, Social-relational theory
According to the social-relational theory, consumers conduct their social interactions according to (1)
the rights and responsibilities of their relationship with group members, (2) a balance of reciprocal
actions with group members, (3) their relative status and authority, and (4) the value placed on
different objects and activities.
What affects normative influence strength
Product characteristics
Reference groups can influence two types of decisions: (1) whether we buy a product within a given
category and (2) what brand we buy. One prediction is that because we must buy necessity items,
reference groups are likely to have little influence on whether we buy such products. The higher the
level of luxury, the higher normative influence there is, since luxury products display status. A second
prediction is that products consumed in public give others the opportunity to observe which brand
we have purchased. An expensive car will be observed more than a highly luxury mattress. In short,
reference groups influence product category choice for luxuries but not for necessities and they
influence brand choice for products consumed in public but not for those consumed in private.
Consumer characteristics
The personalities of some consumers make them readily susceptible to influence by others.
Competitiveness, for instance, can influence conspicuous consumption behaviour. In addition, a
personality characteristic called ‘attention to social comparison information’ (ATSCI) is related to
normative influence. People who are high on this personality trait pay close attention to what others
do and use this information to guide their own behaviour.
Group characteristics
One characteristic is the extent to which the group can deliver rewards and sanctions, known as the
degree of reward power or coercive power. Group cohesiveness and group similarity also affect the
degree of normative influence. Finally, consumers from cultures where collectivism is strong, are
more sensitive to how differences in pricing affect those in their group, compared with consumers
from cultures where individualism is strong.
Informational influence
Reference groups and other influence sources can exert informational influence by offering
information to help consumers make decisions. Informational influence can affect how much time
and effort consumers devote to information search and decision-making.
Factors affecting informational influence strength
Product characteristics
Consumers tend to be susceptible to informational influence when considering complex and risky
products. They also tend to be more open to informational influence when they themselves cannot
tell the difference between brands.
Consumer and influencer characteristics
Characteristics of both the consumer and the influencer affect the extent of informational influence.
Such influence is likely to be greater when the source or group communicating the information is an
expert. Like normative influence, informational influence is affected by tie-strength. Culture may
affect informational influence.
