- The fact that consumers belong to various groups.
- How you categorise those groups?
- The fact that each group has its own membership criteria and actions
- Marketers can specifically target these groups
Understanding Groups
The basic criteria for a group is for 2 or more people to:
- Have the same basic set of cultural norms.
- Must have role relationships - The relationships roles/influences to the members of the group.
- Experience Interdependent Behaviours - where the choices of the individual are influenced by the people within the group.
"A consumers behaviour is also influenced by social factors, such as the consumer's small groups, family and social roles and status. Because these social factors can strongly affect consumer responses, companies must take them into account when designing their marketing strategies."
(Kotler et al. (2008)Principles of marketing, 5th ed.)
This quote just seemed to point out exactly what I wanted to put across about the influence these groups have on the individual consumer. The groups I'm about to list below are probably the most common influential groups to consumers:
- Reference Groups
- - are groups that have either a direct (face-to-face) influence or an indirect influence on an individual's attitudes or behaviours.
- Ascribed Groups
- - are groups that someone are born into such as family, gender or social class.
- Peer Groups
- - are groups when the consumer has regular contact such as home, school or work and where people are of equal standing to the consumer.
- Associative Groups
- - are groups that the consumer realistically belong to such as groups of friends.
- Contrived Groups
- - are groups that are formed for a specific purpose such as unions or hobby clubs.
- Disassociation Groups
- - are groups the consumer does not want to belong to like criminals, chavs or the elderly.
- Aspirational Groups
- - are groups that the consumer wants to be in such as celebrities, Aston Martin owners club, Millionaires.
- AcquiredGroups
- - are groups that a consumer may join or moved into such as scouts or brownies.
I would like to expand on this list by talking about Reference Groups because this group seems to have probably the strongest influential potential out of all the groups within the list.
"A Reference Group is 'an actual or imaginary individual or group conceived of having significant relevance upon an individual's evaluations, aspirations, or behaviour'."
(Park, C. & Lessig, V. (1977)Students and house wives: differences in susceptibility to refernce group influence, journal of consumer research 4: 102-10.)
A Reference Group will influence a consumer in three main ways:
- Informational Influence: This is where an individual will seek information about products or brands from associations or professions who may work with the products or knows the brands well. They will also seek information on the experience of the brand/product, how does one compare to the other etc. They will also be influenced by what professionals buy, what comes with a seal of approval etc.
- Utilitarian Influence: This is where the consumer will be influenced by his/her own set of preferences of a brand or product but will also want to satisfy the expectations that other people with the social group have whether that be friends, family or work colleges.
- Value-expressive Influence: This is where the consumer will be influenced because they believe that the product or brand will enhance their lives, which enhances what image others have of him/her. It can also be an aspirational aspect - the consumer sees a person on an advertisement and they will buy they product for a hope of being like the person in the advert. They feel that if they buy into that brand it will give off the correct image of what they want to be like or aspire to.
Formal vs. Informal Groups
Formal groups will be large and have recognised structures, regular meeting times and officers. These groups are the type of groups that Marketers can easily get into and influence because they are recognised and easily accessible however this is not the better of the two; Informal groups are better at influencing individual consumers because these consist of people that the consumer comes into contact with in day-to-day life such as friends and family and are more involved. Because of this high involvement with our day-to-day lifestyle they have a high Normative Influence - Helps to set and enforce our fundamental standards. The Formal groups however are more brand, activity or product focused and have a high Comparative Influence - Influence a decision on specific brands or products.
Membership vs. Aspirational Groups
These to groups are the next within the list that are the most interesting because they show how marketers use certain groups to get more coverage. Now Membership groups are likely to contain people that the consumer will know and be able to have this direct (face-to-face) interaction. These types of groups are hard to influence when compared to Aspirational groups. The Aspirationalgroup will most certainly include people or figures that the consumer has no contact with but yet still aspire to be. This is why marketers will use well-known celebrity faces because they will affect a broader audience. You can influence the consumer in Membership groups by making the consumer believe the product or brand will enhance the image that the other members have.
Effects of Reference Groups - When are they important?
Within Reference groups there are 2 deciding factors that determine whether a group is important or not in influencing the consumers decision. This is whether a consumer's purchase is to be consumed publicly such as clothes, cars etc or privately such as a lamp, or a mattress. This can be highlighted by the image below:
From the image above you can begin to see when a Reference group becomes important and influential. The products that are not a necessity and are more of a luxury, especially when they can be seen by others, are when the influences of the Referenceare at their greatest.
Opinion Leaders
Within a Reference group there are certain people with special skills, knowledge, personality or other characteristics that define them as the Opinion Leader. These people hold the most influential power within the group and have the best exertion of this power.
Taking a step back. . .
I just want to take this moment to talk about Reference groups and the way Mazlow's Hierarchy of Need is a key concept.
As you can see from the image above, in the middle of the triangle is the Need to Belong. Humans are social creature and it is in our nature to feel the need to belong to a family or a group. It's a pivot of this Need to Belong that Marketers and Advertisers play on when they advertise their products of brands.
Here are some ads that show the Need to Belong technique that Marketers/Advertisers use:
Carling 'Belong' Ad
Microsoft's I'm a PC Ad
Nike 'Stickman' Basketball Ad
This can be expanded to the Social Comparison Theory which states that we look to the behaviour of others to provide a guideline from which we can behave. It's a way I finding a yardstick about reality. The thing is about Social Comparison is that it will still occur even if there is no right or wrong answer. Take style for instance, there is no real right or wrong answer but we still will look at what others are wearing and go along with it. Another example is take a party for instance and you are nominated to select the play list, this can be a big deal with massive pressure. Now although you have your own, individual taste you are more likely to assume that the tracks in the charts are better than the ones on your ipod.
Social Comparison Theory highlights that "This process occurs as a way of increasing the stability of one's self-evaluation, especially when pysical evidence is unavailable."
(Festinger, L. (1954)A theory of social comparison processes, human relations 7: 117-40)
