exercise 2
Chapter 11: group influences and social media
Dr. Jennifer Houston MAR4503
groups
Social identity theory argues that each of us has several “selves” that relate to groups
In numerous experiments that employ the minimal group paradigm, researches show that even when they arbitrarily assign subjects to groups, people favor those who wind up in the same group with them
Humans are social animals. We belong to groups, try to please others, and look to others’ behavior for clues about what we should do in public settings
Social power
Referent power – if someone admires the qualities of a person in a group, they try to copy the behavior
Information power – held by people who simply know more about something that others desire to know
Legitimate power – someone who has been granted power by social agreements on their authority
Expert power – not just knowing more than others, but being an expert in the area
Reward power – held by someone who can provide positive reinforcement
Coercive power – held by people able to influence someone because of social or physical intimidation
Social power describes the capacity to alter the actions of others
The degree to which you are able to make someone else do something, regardless of whether the person does it willingly, gives you power over a person
Reference groups
Reference group influences don’t work the same way for all types of products and consumption activities
We’re less likely to consider other peoples preferences when we are choosing products that are not complex vs. when they are
There are different types of reference groups
Membership reference groups consist of people we know
Aspirational reference groups consist of people we don’t know, but admire anyway
Avoidance groups are people that we want to distance ourselves from
Our effort to avoid negative reference groups may be stronger than to join positive ones
Just because we find ourselves in the company of others doesn’t necessarily mean they impact what we say or do
A reference group is an actual or imaginary individual or group that significantly influences an individual's evaluations, aspirations, or behavior
Conformity
Conformity is a change in beliefs or actions as a reaction to real or imagined group pressure
For a society to function, members develop norms – informal rules that govern behavior
We conform in small ways every day, even though we don’t always realize it, and unspoken rules govern many aspects of consumption
The pressure to conflicts with another motivation we’ve discussed: the need to be unique
Conformity
What makes it more likely that we will conform?
Cultural pressures – some cultures encourage conformity more than others
Fear of deviance –fear that groups may punish deviance
Commitment – the more people value a group, the more they want to conform to the group
Group unanimity, size, and expertise – as groups gain power, compliance increases
Susceptibility to interpersonal influence – how much an individual needs others to think highly of them
Environmental cues – things like temperature can affect how we decide
Brand communities
A brand
A brand community is a group of consumers who share a set of social relationships based on usage of or interest in a product
Some brand loyalists organize and engage in brandfests as bonding experiences
Collective value creation can be created through support communities that encourage members to reach their goals
Collective decision making: how groups influence what we buy
There are several types of important roles that members of collective decision-making can take on
The initiator – the person who brings up the idea/need
The gatekeeper – the person who searches for information
The influencer – the person who tries to sway the outcome of the decision
The buyer – the person who makes the actual purchase
The user – the person who actually consumes the product or service
Collective decision-making processes often include two or more people who may not have the same level of investment in the outcome, the same tastes and preferences, or the same consumption priorities
B2b decision making
Organizational buyers buy from business-to-business (B2B) markets
B2B purchase decisions frequently involve many people
Organizations and companies often use precise technical specifications that require significant product knowledge
Impulse buying is rare; buyers are professionals
Decisions are often risky
Purchases are often high in volume and cost
B2B marketing often emphasizes personal selling over advertising
Many employees of corporations or other organizations make purchase decisions on a daily basis
Organizational buyers are people who purchase goods and services on behalf of companies for the companies’ use in manufacturing, distribution, or resale
B2b decision making
Organization decision-making in buying is complex, and members of the organizations buying center play different roles in this process
The buyclass theory of purchasing divides organizational buying into three types
The level of information needed to gather prior to the decision
The seriousness of considering all possible alternatives
The degree to which there if familiarity with the purchase
B2b e-commerce
Business-to-business e-commerce refers to internet interactions between two or more businesses or organizations
In the simplest form of B2B e-commerce, companies provide an online catalog of products and services that other businesses need
Some trends of organizational decision-making are:
Prediction marketing – two heads are better than one
Crowdsourcing – soliciting ideas from a user community
Wisdom of crowds – groups can be smarter than even the smartest person in the group
Agile marketing – constantly using data analytics
Scrum teams
The intimate corporation: family decision making
Some specific factors that determine how much family decision conflict there will be include:
Interpersonal need – a person’s level of investment and involvement in the group
Product involvement and utility – the degree to which a person will use the product to satisfy a need
Responsibility – for procurement, maintenance, payment, etcetera
The more long-term the consequences and commitments, the more conflict there may be
Power – the degree to which one family member exerts influence over the others
Who is the family financial officer?
The decision process within a household unit resembles a business conference
Certain matters go on the table for discussion, different members advocate different actions based on their differing priorities and agendas, and there may be power struggles
Word-of-mouth communication
Word-of-mouth influences about half of all consumer goods sales
As a rule, advertising is more effective to reinforce our existing product preferences than to create new ones
WOM is especially powerful when the consumer is relatively unfamiliar with the product category
Stimulating WOM to build buzz around a product or service can reduce some of the heavy lifting marketers have in spreading knowledge about a product
Not all WOM is positive – negative WOM decreases credibility and influences attitudes toward a product
Content via WOM mutates via serial reproduction, which is essentially a game of “telephone”
Word-of-mouth (WOM) is product information that individuals transmit to other individuals
Because we know the source, we may deem WOM knowledge to be more reliable and trustworthy
There may also be more social pressure to confirm to a norm spread by WOM amongst a group
Opinion leadership
Although consumers get information from personal sources, they do not usually ask just anyone for advice about purchases
Opinion leaders – people who are knowledgeable about products and whose advice others take seriously – are frequently able to influence others’ attitudes or behaviors
Opinion leaders are extremely valuable information sources because they possess the social power discussed earlier
They are technically competent (expert power)
They prescreen, evaluate, and synthesize product information (knowledge power)
The are social active and highly interconnected in their communities
They are likely to hold offices in community groups and have higher social standing (legitimate power)
They tend to be similar to the consumer in terms of their values and belief (referent power)
Opinion leaders are often the first to buy new products, so they absorb much of the risk
Opinion leadership
Although consumers get information from personal sources, they do not usually ask just anyone for advice about purchases
Opinion leaders – people who are knowledgeable about products and whose advice others take seriously – are frequently able to influence others’ attitudes or behaviors
As opposed to a more old-fashioned idea of a generalized opinion leader, we now look at opinion leaders through a two-step flow model of influence
A small group of influences disseminates information because they can modify the opinions of a large number of people
Influence networks, information cascades, and herding behavior amongst consumers are all important in determining how influential an opinion leader is
Types of opinion leaders
The market maven
Likes to transmit marketplace information of all types
Maybe shopaholics
Confident in their ability to make smart purchasing decisions
The surrogate consumer
Class of marketing intermediaries that often guide what we buy (third party helper)
Product curators
People who assemble merchandise on behalf of manufacturers in stores
Subscription boxes are examples of individuals who curate products on a buyers behalf
Social media: the horizontal revolution
Social media offers synchronous communication (in real time) and asynchronous communication (participation not required)
Social media platforms enable a culture of participation: a belief in democracy and the ability to freely interact, open access to venues, to reviews, and the power to build on the content of others
The online community – the collective participation of members who together build and maintain a site – is a monumental part of the marketing equation now
The power social media has over us isn’t to be underestimated
Fear of missing out (FOMO)
The social media revolution is horizontal because communication no longer flows from the top-down or bottom-up, but instead flows horizontally across social media users via social media platforms
Brand communities in social media
Successful online communities possess several important characteristics:
Standards of behavior (prevent flaming)
Member contributions (though most are lurkers)
Degree of connectedness and cohesiveness
Network effects (the site improves as it gains more users)
An important innovation in e-commerce is the development of consumer-to-consumer buying and selling
Dating websites, eBay, Etsy, gaming, Amazon and more are all examples of consumer-to-consumer commerce
Social games
A social game is a multiplayer, competitive, goal-oriented activity with defined rules of engagement and online connectivity among a community of players
Game platforms refer to the hardware on which a game is played
Mode refers to the way players experience the game world
Milieu describes the visual nature of the game
The genre of the game refers to the method of play
This applications often have leaderboards or badges that influences one's social rank within the community
Digital word-of-mouth
Viral marketing occurs when an organization motivates visitors to share online content with friends
Content marketing happens via videos or streaming, like YouTube or Twitch
Influencer marketing relies on the impact of micro-celebrities who become famous for a short time because people value their expertise
Power users in a mass-marketing sense are called mass connectors, and they create influence impressions on large audiences of current and potential users
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