VIII Consumer Behavior Case Study

Unit VIII: Networked Consumer

Behavior

Course Learning Objectives for Unit VIII

1. Discuss how the field of marketing is influenced by the actions of consumers.

1.1 Describe how marketers within a company might revise their website to encourage additional sales.

8. Analyze how consumers evaluate product selections. 8.1 Explain how consumers are using websites in their consumer decision-making process.

Word-of-Mouth (WOM) Communication

• WOM is product information that individuals transmit to other individuals (reliable).

• Buzz building (guerilla marketing) is promotional strategies that use unconventional venues to encourage WOM.

• Negative WOM includes rumors or unhappy customers.

Two women having a conversation (Cuncon, 2016)

Opinion Leaders • Opinion leader: Someone who is

knowledgeable about products and who everyone takes seriously

• Two-step flow of influence: A small group of influencers who distribute information

• Information cascades: When one piece of information triggers a sequence of interactions

Leading (Danymena88, 2017)

Opinion Leaders (cont.)

• Market maven: A person who likes to transmit marketplace information of all types

• Surrogate customer: A class of marketing intermediary which guides what we buy

• Self-designation: Leaders who consider themselves opinion leaders

• Sociometric methods: A way to trace communication patterns among members of a group

Social Media Revolution

• Brand advocates: People who supply reviews for products

• Folksonomy: Sites relying on users to sort contents

• Flow state: When consumers are truly involved with a product

• Websites improve with each additional customer (e.g., can offer suggestions).

iPhone home screen (LoboStudioHamburg, 2014)

Structure of Social Networks

• Social network: This is a set of socially relevant nodes connected by one or more relations. Nodes in a network experience interactions. Flows occur between nodes.

• Ties: These are relationships.

• Social object theory: Social networks will be more powerful communities if there is a way to activate relationships among people and objects.

Online Communities

• Key attributes: Conversations, presence, collective interest, democracy, standards of behavior, level of participation, crowd power

• Social shopping: E-commerce that allows an online shopper to simulate the experience of shopping in a store

• Social games: Leaderboards, achievement badges, friend lists

Innovations • Diffusion: The process in which a

new product, service, or idea spreads through a population

• Adaption: Could be quick, late, or slow

• Continuous innovation: A modification of an existing product– may be dynamic or discontinuous

• Key factors include compatibility, trialability, complexity, observability, and relative advantage.

Light bulb (Qimono, 2017)

Fashion • Fashion system: All the people

and organizations that create symbolic meanings and transfer those meanings to cultural goods

• Fashion: The process of social diffusion by which some groups of consumers adopt a new style

• Models include psychological models, economic models, sociological models, and medical models.

Model poses (OpenClipart-Vectors, 2013)

References

Cuncon. (2016). Girls gossip [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/girls-gossip-female-fashion-style-1733357/

Danymena88. (2017). Leader [Image]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/leader-leadership-manager-team-2206099/

LoboStudioHamburg. (2014). Twitter Facebook together [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/twitter-facebook-together-292994/

OpenClipart-Vectors. (2013). Fashion models [Image]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/fashion-models-models-fashion-women-154934/

Qimono. (2017). Lightbulb idea [image]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/lightbulb-bulb-light-idea-energy-1875247/

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