Groups &

Social Media

Presented By: Group B

Members:

Fatin AtiqueMuhammad ShahidLaraib Shoaib

OUTLINE:• Understand that other people and groups often influence our decisions

about what to buy.

• We are motivated to buy or use products in order to be consistent with what other people do.

• The group contexts can have distinct influences on how we make consumer decisions.

• Word of mouth about products (good and bad) often is more influential than the advertising we see.

• Marketers are using a variety of techniques to harness the power of consumer word of mouth.

• Online technologies and social media can accelerate the impact of word of mouth communication.

• Social media is changing the way companies and consumers interact.

Reference groups:

A reference group is ‘an actual or imaginary individual or group conceived of having significant relevance upon an individual’s evaluations, aspirations, or behavior’.

Reference groups influence consumers in three ways.• Informational• Utilitarian• Value-expressive

Power of reference groups

Social power: “The capacity to alter the actions of others”

• Referent power: A person admires the qualities of a person he tries to copy the referent’s behavior for e.g.: type of car he drives, clothes worn by him or hair styles.

• Information power: Individual possesses informative power simply because she knows about something that others would like to know.

Power of reference groups:

• Legitimate power: Sometimes people grant power to others by virtue of their social agreement or example: police officers, soldiers and sometimes professors.

• Expert power: Expert power is derived form the professionals about a content.

• Reward power: Reward power is used to create a feeling of positive reinforcements on to the consumers for e.g.: rewards or free products along with purchase of one product.

• Coercive power: We exert coercive power when we influence someone because of physical or social intimidation.

Types of reference groups:

Normative influence vs. Comparative influences

Helps to set and enforce fundamental standards of conduct.

Comparative influences affect decisions about specific brands or activities.

Formal vs. Informal Reference Groups

A reference group can take the form of a large, formal organization that has a recognized structure, regular meeting times and officers.

Or it can be small and informal, such as a group of friends or students living in a university hall of residence. Marketers tend to have more control over their influencing of formal groups because they are more easily identifiable and accessible.

Brand communities vs. tribes

• A brand community is a set of consumers who share a set of social relationships based upon usage or interest in a product. Unlike other kinds of communities, these members typically do not live near each other and they meet only for brief periods at organized events called brandfest they also exhibit brand loyalty.

• The notion of a consumer tribe is similar, because this refers to a group of people who share a lifestyle and who can identify with each other through a shared allegiance to an activity or a product. Although these tribes are often unstable and short-lived.

Membership vs. aspirational reference groups

• Some reference groups consist of people the consumer actually knows about while aspirational references consist of people the consumer can either identify with or admire.

Identification membership reference group is affected by several factors, including:

• Propinquity: When the physical distance between people decreases and the number of opportunities to interact increase, people are more likely to form friendships. For example, people living next door in a housing complex are more likely to be friends than those living farther apart.

• Mere Exposure: We come to like people or things that we see more often.

• Group cohesiveness: This is the degree to which group members are attracted to each other and how much each values their membership in the group

Positive vs. Negative reference groups

Reference groups may exert either a positive or a negative influence on consumption behaviors. In most cases, consumers model their behavior to be consistent with what they think the group expects of them. In some cases, though, consumers may try to distance themselves from other people or groups who function as avoidance groups.

Conformity 

•  Action or behavior in correspondence with socially accepted standards, rules, or laws

Conformity (further------) 

Conformity 

Conformity 

Factors Influencing Conformity

• Cultural pressures• Fear of deviance• Commitment• Group characteristics

• unanimity • size• expertise

For Reflection

• How can marketers use the characteristics that explain conformity to persuade individuals to follow consumer trends?

Opinion Leadership

Opinion Leadership

The process by which one person (the opinion leader)

informally influences the consumption

actions or attitudes of others who may be opinion seekers or opinion recipients.

What Is Opinion Leadership?

Opinion Leader

Opinion Receiver

Opinion Seeker

Characteristics of Opinion Leaders

• Experts• Unbiased evaluation• Socially active• Similar to the consumer• Among the first to buy

Motivations Behind Opinion Leadership

• The Needs of Opinion Leaders

• The Needs of Opinion Receivers

• Purchase Pals

• Surrogate Buyers versus Opinion Leaders

• Self-involvement

• Social involvement

• Product involvement

• Message involvement

Issues

• The Needs of Opinion Leaders

• The Needs of Opinion Receivers

• Purchase Pals

• Surrogate Buyers versus Opinion Leaders

• New product or new usage information

• Reduction of perceived risk

• Reduction of search time

• Receiving the approval of the opinion leader

IssuesMotivations Behind Opinion Leadership

• The Needs of Opinion Leaders

• The Needs of Opinion Receivers

• Purchase Pals

• Surrogate Buyers versus Opinion Leaders

• Actually accompany consumers on shopping trips

IssuesMotivations Behind Opinion Leadership

• The Needs of Opinion Leaders

• The Needs of Opinion Receivers

• Purchase Pals

• Surrogate Buyers versus Opinion Leaders

• Surrogate buyers may replace opinion leaders

• An example is a wardrobe consultant who helps in the purchase of business clothes

IssuesMotivations Behind Opinion Leadership

Market Maven

Individuals whose influence stems from a general knowledge or market expertise that

leads to an early awareness of new

products and services.

The Market Maven

The Market Maven

Market maven: actively involved in transmitting marketplace information of all types

• Into shopping and aware of what’s happening in the marketplace

• Overall knowledge of how and where to get products

The Interpersonal Flow of Communication

• Two-Step Flow

• Multistep Flow

The Interpersonal Flow of Communication

• Two-Step Flow• A communication model that portrays

opinion leaders as direct receivers of information from mass media sources who, in turn, interpret and transmit this information

Two-Step Flow of Communication Theory

The Interpersonal Flow of Communication

• Multistep Flow• A revision of the traditional two-step

theory that shows multiple communication flows

Multistep Flow of Communication Theory

The Surrogate Consumer

• Surrogate consumer: a marketing intermediate hired to provide input into purchase decisions.• Interior decorators, stockbrokers, college

consultants• Relinquishes consumer; control over decision-

making functions

• Marketers should not overlook influence of surrogates!

Word-of-Mouth Communication

WOM is product information transmitted by individuals to individuals

• More reliable form of marketing

• Social pressure to conform

• We rely upon WOM in later stages of product adoption

• Powerful when we are unfamiliar with product category

Word of Mouth in Action

• Factors that encourage the word of mouth

Word Of Mouth Communication

Person is Highly Involved With the ProductPerson is Highly Involved With the Product

Person is Highly Knowledgeable About the Product Person is Highly Knowledgeable About the Product

Person Has a Genuine Concern for Someone ElsePerson Has a Genuine Concern for Someone Else

Person May be Uncertain About a Recent PurchasePerson May be Uncertain About a Recent Purchase

• Consumers weigh negative WOM more heavily than they do positive comments

• Easy to spread negative WOM online

• Negative WOM campaigns to criticize compotators

Negative Word OF Mouth: The Power Of Rumors

The Transmission of Misinformation

• Promotional strategies that use unconventional locations and intensive word-of-mouth campaigns to push products.

• The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, engaging, and thought-provoking concept to generate buzz.

Guerrilla Marketing

Example of Guerrilla MarketingDura cell

• a marketing strategy that focuses on spreading information and opinions about a product or service from person to person, especially by using unconventional means such as the Internet or e-mail

Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing

• Social media and community

--Social media are computer-mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks

--community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet.

Social media Revolution

• Social networks

-- A set of socially relavant nodes connected by one or more relations

-- social graph

diagram of interconnections of units in network

Social media Revolution

• Social object theory

--social networks will be more powerfull communities if there is a way to activate relationship among the people and objects

• Social networking sites (SNSs)

• Object sociality

--the extent to which an object can be shared