CHAPTER 7
GROUP INFLUENCES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO1: Explain reference groups and the criteria used to classify them
LO2: Discuss consumption subcultures, including brand and online communities and
their importance for marketing
LO3: Summarize the types and degree of reference group influence
LO4: Discuss within-group communications and the importance of word-of-mouth
communications to marketers
LO5: Understand opinion leaders (both online and offline) and their importance to
marketers
LO6: Discuss innovation diffusion and use an innovation analysis to develop marketing
strategy
SUMMARY
LO1: Explain reference groups and the criteria used to classify them.
A reference group is a group whose presumed perspectives or values are being used by an individual
LO2: Discuss consumption subcultures, including brand and online communities and their
importance for marketing.
A consumption subculture is a group that self-selects on the basis of a shared commitment to a
particular product or consumption activity. These subcultures also have (1) an identifiable, hierarchical
LO3: Summarize the types and degree of reference group influence.
Informational influence occurs when an individual uses the behaviors and opinions of reference group
LO4: Discuss within-group communications and the importance of word-of-mouth
communications to marketers.
Communication within groups is a major source of information about certain products. Information is
LO5: Understand opinion leaders (both online and offline) and their importance to marketers
Opinion leaders are highly knowledgeable about specific products or activities and are seen as the
“go–to person” for specific types of information. These individuals actively filter, interpret, or provide
LO6: Discuss innovation diffusion and use an innovation analysis to develop marketing strategy
Groups greatly affect the diffusion of innovations. Innovations vary in degree of behavioral change
required and the rate at which they are diffused. The first purchasers of an innovative product or
service are termed innovators; those who follow over time are known as early adopters, early
LECTURE TIPS AND AIDS
1) The impact of conformity can be dramatized by physically going through the Asch study
presented in the text. Draw the appropriate lines on the blackboard and “walk” the students
through the experiment. Many students will have merely skimmed the example in the text and this
should help in getting the conformity concept across.
4) I like to cover roles along with groups (see Student Handout 1). The concept of a role-related
product cluster is particularly useful. Sometimes it is easiest to do by asking students to define a
role-related product for students. Functionally necessary products should be mentioned – books,
notebooks, calculators, computers, and so forth. Symbolically necessary products usually revolve
around clothing styles, bicycles, automobiles, particular types of apartments, and perhaps cell
phones. Individually all of these products are purchased and used by other role types. But taken
together they are most relevant for the student role.
5) It is useful to have a number of students describe instances in which they gave or received
information related to products, services or shopping. Write brief summaries of each instance on
the board. The class can analyze the common characteristics of opinion leadership.
9) Assign and/or prepare one or more of the CB PRESS HIGHLIGHTS articles for class discussion.
The searchable CB Press Highlights Database can be found in the Instructor Resources in
Connect.
Student Handout 1: ROLES
Roles are defined and enacted within groups. A role is a prescribed pattern of behavior expected of a
person in a given situation by virtue of the person’s position in that situation. Thus, while an
individual must perform in a certain way, the expected behaviors are based on the position itself and
not on the individual involved. For example, in your role as a student, certain behaviors are expected
of you, such as attending class and studying. The same general behaviors are expected of all other
students. Roles are based on positions, not individuals.
All of us fulfill numerous roles. Role overload occurs when an individual attempts to fill more roles
than the available time, energy, or money allows. Occasionally, two roles demand different behaviors.
A typical student might fill the roles of student, bookstore employee, roommate, daughter, sorority
member, intramural soccer player, and many others. In numerous situations, this fairly typical student
will face incompatible role demands. For example, the soccer team member role may require practice
one evening while the student role requires library research. This is known as role conflict. Most
career-oriented individuals, particularly married females, experience conflicts between their role as a
family member and their career. Two working women summarized the stress that this can produce:
The set of roles that an individual fulfills over time is not static. Individuals acquire new roles—role
acquisition—and drop existing roles—role deletion. Since roles often require products, individuals
must learn which products are appropriate for their new roles. For example, the student described
earlier may soon drop her roles as college student, roommate, intramural soccer player, and bookstore
Application of Role Theory in Marketing Practice
Role-Related Product Cluster
A role-related product cluster (sometimes referred to as a consumption constellation) is a set of
products generally considered necessary to properly fulfill a given role. The products may be
enter the stirrup quickly and easily, while the high heel prevented the foot from sliding through the
stirrup. The high sides of the boot protected the rider’s ankles from thorns. Today, the “cowboy” role
still calls for boots, although few urban cowboys spend much time in the saddle. The boot now is
symbolically tied to the cowboy role.
Evolving Roles
Role evolution occurs as the behaviors expected of a role change. Role evolution presents challenges
and opportunities for marketers. For example, the shifting role of women now includes active sports.
Role Conflict and Role Overload
As roles evolve and change, new types of role conflicts come into existence. These role conflicts offer
opportunities for marketers. Students are frequently advised of the existence of speed-reading courses
that promise to improve classroom performance and reduce conflict between the student role and other
roles by reducing the time required for studying. The following advertisement copy from an Evelyn
Wood Reading Dynamics bulletin reflects this theme:
Why let the responsibilities that college demands deprive you of enjoying the college life? With
Reading Dynamics you can handle both all the reading you’re expected to do and know, plus still
have time to do what you want to do.
Role Acquisition and Transition
Role acquisitions and transitions present marketers with the opportunity to associate their products or
Student Handout 2: OPINION LEADERSHIP/SEEKING SCALES*
Instructions: This short questionnaire is about ________________ (product category). Please read
each statement carefully. For each statement, please circle the number that most closely matches your
view of the opinions stated. The items are scaled from 1 to 7, with a higher number meaning stronger
agreement.
1. My opinion on ____________ seems not to count with other people.
2. When I consider buying a ____________, I ask other people for advice.
3. When they choose a ____________, other people do not turn to me for advice.
4. I don’t need to talk to others before I buy ____________.
5. Other people come to me for advice about choosing ____________.
6. I rarely ask other people what ____________ to buy.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1) How does a group differ from a reference group?
A group is two or more individuals who share a set of norms, values, and beliefs and have certain
2) What criteria are used by marketers to classify groups?
3) What is a dissociative reference group? In what way can dissociative reference groups influence
consumer behavior?
A group that serves as a negative (unattractive) reference point. The degree of desirability of group
reference groups.
4) What is an aspiration reference group? How can an aspiration reference group influence
behavior?
5) What is a consumption-based group or a consumption subculture? What are the characteristics of
such a group? How can marketers develop strategy based on consumption subcultures?
A consumption subculture is a distinctive subgroup of society that self-selects on the basis of a
shared commitment to a particular product class, brand, or consumption activity. These
6) What is a brand community? What are the characteristics of such a group?
A brand community is a non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social
7) How can a marketer foster a brand community?
Research finds that certain practices or activities can enhance value for members of brand
8) What is an online social network site? What are the guidelines for marketers operating in online
communities and social networking sites?
An online social network site is a web-based service that allows individuals to (1) construct a
public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with
9) What types of group influence exist? Why must a marketing manager be aware of these separate
types of group influence?
10) What five factors determine the strength of reference group influence in a situation?
11) What is the Asch phenomenon and how do marketers utilize it?
12) How can a marketer use knowledge of reference group influences to develop advertising
strategies?
Marketers can and do use all three types of reference group influence (informational,
13) What is an opinion leader? How does an opinion leader relate to the multistep flow of
communication?
14) What characterizes an opinion leader?
Opinion leaders have greater knowledge of and interest in the product category in question. They
have the same demographic characteristics as their followers.
15) What determines the likelihood that a consumer will seek information from an opinion leader?
16) How does a market maven differ from an opinion leader?
17) Explain the role of enduring involvement in driving opinion leadership?
Opinion leaders possess the characteristic of having a greater long-term involvement with a given
18) How can marketing managers identify opinion leaders?
Offline, opinion leaders can be targeted through specialized media sources. For example,
19) How can marketers utilize opinion leaders?
The first task is to identify opinion leaders for a particular product or service. Then a portion of the
20) What is buzz? How can marketers create it?
Buzz can be defined as exponentially expanding WOM. It happens when “word spreads like wild
21) What is a blog?
22) What is an innovation? Who determines whether a given product is an innovation?
23) What are the various categories of innovations? How do they differ?
24) What is the diffusion process? What pattern does the diffusion process appear to follow over time?
25) Describe the factors that affect the diffusion rate for an innovation. How can these factors be
utilized in developing marketing strategy?
Type of group. Some groups are more accepting of change than others. In general, young, affluent,
and highly educated groups accept change, including new products, readily.
26) What are adopter categories? Describe each of the adopter categories.
They are groups based on the relative time at which the consumer adopts (buys) the product.
a. Innovators: venturesome risk takers. Younger, better education and more socially mobile.
27) How can a marketer use knowledge of adopter categories to develop marketing strategy?
Once defined, the marketing mix can be designed with the characteristics of each group in mind.
Discussion Questions
28) Respond to the questions in Consumer Insight 7-1.
Q1 – Seeding is getting free product in the hands of influential members of groups. It is a tool for
reducing risk since experience is the single most trusted source of information about a product or
service. Influential customers within a network then spread the word via WOM and e-WOM.
29) Using college students as the market segment, describe the most relevant reference group(s) and
indicate the probable degree of influence on decisions for each of the following:
a) Brand of toothpaste: friends, roommates = Low
b) Purchase of hybrid car: co-workers, friends = High
c) Purchase of breakfast cereal: family, roomates = Low (if for own use) to High (if group use)
d) Becoming a vegetarian: roommates, friends, family = Moderate
e) Choice of computer tablet such as the iPad: family members, friends = Moderate to high
Answer Questions 30–33 using: (a) shoes, (b) barbecue grill, (c) car, (d) toaster, (e) iPad, and (f)
30) How important are reference groups to the purchase of the above-mentioned products or
activities? Would their influence also affect the brand or model? Would their influence be
informational, normative, or identification? Justify your answers.
Table 7-1 is a useful tool here for making judgments about product class versus brand influence.
31) What reference groups would be relevant to the decision to purchase the product or activity (based
on students on your campus)?
32) What are the norms of the social groups of which you are a member concerning the product or
activity?
33) Could Asch-type situation be used to sell the product or activity?
Interesting exercise to use to see if students can come up with ways for utilizing others “early”
34) Describe two groups that serve as aspiration reference groups for you. In what ways, if any, have
they influenced your consumption patterns?
35) Describe two groups to which you belong. For each, give two examples of instances when the
group has exerted (a) informational, (b) normative, and (c) identification influence on you.
The answers to this will be individualized. This question is often difficult for students to answer
36) Develop two approaches using reference group theory to reduce drug, alcohol, or cigarette
consumption among teenagers.
Most students will follow the text examples and suggest ads that show that “cool” kids laugh at or
37) What ethical concerns arise in using reference group theory to sell products?
The most common issue discussed is implying that one is liked or accepted by others because one
uses or does not use certain products or brands. This is a very shallow portrayal of friendship.
38) Describe a consumption subculture to which you belong. How does it affect your consumption
behavior? How do marketers attempt to influence your behavior with respect to this subculture?
39) Do you belong to a brand community? If so, describe the benefits you derive from this group and
how it affects your consumption.
You may find that a good way to begin discussion is to describe a relevant brand community for
you (or use a brand community that they can relate to).
40) Do you belong to an online community? If so, describe the benefits you derive from this group
41) Answer the following questions for: (i) Dyson bladeless fan, (ii) space flight, (iii) cell phone-based
GPS.
a) Is the product an innovation? Justify your answer.
b) Using the student body on your campus as a market segment, evaluate the perceived attributes
of the product.
42) Describe two situations in which you have served as or sought information from an opinion leader.
Are these situations consistent with the text?
A good way to start discussion is to provide your own, personal answer. Or, give the students 5
43) Are you aware of market mavens on your campus? Describe their characteristics, behaviors, and
motivation.
Most dorms, fraternities, sororities, and other reasonably large ongoing groups will contain one or
more market mavens for shopping activities relevant to the group.
44) Have you used Twitter recently? Why? Who did you use? How did it work? What marketing
implications does this suggest?
45) Identify a recent (a) continuous innovation, (b) dynamically continuous innovation, and (c)
discontinuous innovation. Justify your selections.
46) Analyze the Roomba (robotic vacuum cleaner) in terms of the determinants in Table 7-3 and
suggest appropriate marketing strategies.
This is a fun and useful exercise that usually generates good discussion.
47) Conduct a diffusion analysis and recommend appropriate strategies for the innovation shown in
Illustration 7-10.
48) Assume that you are a consultant to firms with new products. You have members of the
appropriate market segments rate innovations on the 10 characteristics described in Table 7-3.
Based on these ratings, you develop marketing strategies. Assume that a rating of 9 is extremely
