Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and

Being
Thirteenth Edition, Global Edition

Chapter 11

Group Influences and

Social Media

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Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
11.1 Other people and groups, especially those that possess
social power, influence our decisions.
11.2 Marketers often need to understand consumers’
behavior rather than a consumer’s behavior.
11.3 The decision-making process differs when people
choose what to buy on behalf of an organization rather than
for personal use.
11.4 Members of a family unit play different roles and have
different amounts of influence when the family makes
purchase decisions.

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Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
11.5 Word-of-mouth communication is the most important
driver of product choice.
11.6 Opinion leaders’ recommendations are more influential
than others when we decide what to buy.
11.7 Social media changes the way we learn about and
select products.

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Learning Objective 11.1
Other people and groups, especially those who possess
some kind of social power, influence our decisions.

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Groups
• Social Identity
• Minimal group paradigm

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What Are Sources of Power?
Social power: capacity to alter the actions of others.
• Referent power
• Information power
• Legitimate power
• Expert power
• Reward power
• Coercive power

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Membership Versus Aspirational
Reference Groups
Membership reference groups
• People the consumer actually knows
• Advertisers use “ordinary people”

Aspirational reference groups

• People the consumer doesn’t know but admire
• Advertisers use celebrity spokespeople

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Positive Versus Negative Reference
Groups
• Avoidance groups: motivation to distance oneself from
other people/groups
• Antibrand communities: coalesce around a celebrity,
store, or brand—but in this case they’re united by their
disdain for it

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Consumers Do It in Groups
Why do we conform?
• Cultural pressure
• Fear of deviance
• Commitment
• Group unanimity
• Interpersonal influence
• Environmental cues

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Brand Communities and Consumer
Tribes
• A group of consumers who share a set of social
relationships based upon usage or interest in a product
• Consumer tribes share emotions, moral beliefs, styles of
life, and affiliated product
• Brandfests celebrated by community

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For Reflection (1 of 6)
• For each type of social power source of influence, share
an example of a time you experienced that form of
influence.

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Learning Objective 11.2
Marketers often need to understand consumers’ behavior
rather than a consumer’s behavior.

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Roles in Collective Decision Making
• Initiator
• Gatekeeper
• Influencer
• Buyer
• User

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Organizational Decision Making
• Organizational buyers: purchase goods and services on
behalf of companies for use in the process of
manufacturing, distribution, or resale.
• Business-to-business (B2B) marketers: specialize in
meeting needs of organizations such as corporations,
government agencies, hospitals, and retailers.

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Compared to Consumer Decision Making,
Organizational Decision Making…
• Involves many people
• Requires precise, technical specifications
• Is based on past experience and careful weighing of
alternatives
• May require risky decisions
• Involves substantial dollar volume
• Places more emphasis on personal selling

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What Influences Organizational
Buyers?
The buyclass theory of purchasing divides organizational
buying decisions into 3 types:
• Level of information required
• Seriousness of decision
• Familiarity with purchase

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Buying Decisions
Buyclass theory: organizational buying decisions divided into three
types, ranging from most to least complex.
Table 11.1 Types of Organizational Buying Decisions

Buying Situation Extent of Effort Risk Buyer’s Involvement

Straight rebuy Habitual decision- Low Automatic reorder
making
Modified rebuy Limited problem Low to moderate One or a few
solving
New task Extensive problem High Many
solving

Source: Adapted from Patrick J. Robinson, Charles W. Faris, and Yoram Wind, Industrial
Buying and Creative Marketing (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1967).

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B2B e-Commerce
• Prediction market
• Crowdsourcing
• Wisdom of crowds

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For Reflection (2 of 6)
• Assume that you are a sales representative for a large
company that markets laptop computers.
• List all the people that may be involved in making the
decision to purchase from you.
• Try to match all the people to their possible decision roles
as outlined on the previous slide.

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Learning Objective 11.3
Members of a family unit play different roles and have
different amounts of influence when the family makes
purchase decisions.

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Household Decisions
• Consensual Purchase Decisions
• Accommodative Purchase Decisions

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Resolving Decision Conflicts in
Families
• Interpersonal need
• Product involvement and
utility
• Responsibility
• Power

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Who Makes Key Decisions in the
Family?
• Autonomic decision: one family member chooses a
product
• Syncretic decision: involve both partners
– Used for cars, vacations, homes, appliances, furniture,
home electronics, interior design, phone service
– As education increases, so does syncretic decision
making

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For Reflection (3 of 6)
• What exposure have you had to family decisions made in
your own family? Can you see the patterns discussed in
the chapter in those decisions? Give an example.

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Learning Objective 11.4
Word-of-mouth communication is the most important driver
of product choice.

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Word-of-Mouth Communication
• Buzz building
• Negative word-of-mouth
• Serial reproduction

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Figure 11.1 The Transmission of
Misinformation

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For Reflection (4 of 6)
• What organizations or products have you posted negative
word-of-mouth about?

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Learning Objective 11.5
Opinion leaders’ recommendations are more influential than
others when we decide what to buy.

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Opinion Leaders’ Influence
• Two-step flow model of influence
• Influence network
• Information cascades

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Characteristics of Opinion Leaders
• Experts
• Unbiased evaluation
• Socially active
• Similar to the consumer
• Among the first to buy

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The Market Maven
Market mavens are actively involved in transmitting
marketplace information of all types
• They are into shopping and aware of what’s happening in
the marketplace
• They have overall knowledge of how and where to get
products

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The Surrogate Consumer
Surrogate consumer: a marketing intermediary hired to
provide input into purchase decisions.
• Interior decorators, stockbrokers, professional shoppers,
college consultants
• Consumer relinquishes control over decision-making
functions

Marketers should not overlook influence of surrogates!

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How Do We Find Opinion Leaders?
• The self-designating method
– Simply ask individuals whether they consider
themselves to be opinion leaders
– Easy to apply to large group of potential opinion
leaders
– Inflation or unawareness of own importance/influence
• Key informant method
– Key informants identify opinion leaders

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Sociometric Methods
• Sociometric methods: trace communication patterns
among group members
• Systematic map of group interactions
• Most precise method of identifying product-information
sources, but is very difficult/expensive to implement
• Network analysis
– Referral behavior/network, tie strength
– Bridging function, strength of weak ties

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For Reflection (5 of 6)
• What opinion leaders have influenced your purchase
behavior?

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Learning Objective 11.6
Social media changes the way we learn about and select
products.

Source: Courtesy of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc.

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Successful Online Social Networks and
Communities
• Standards of behavior
• Member contributions
• Degree of connectedness

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Social Games
• Leaderboards
• Badges
• Game platform
• Mode
• Milieu
• Genre

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Digital Word-of-Mouth
• Viral marketing
• Haul videos
• Unboxing videos
• Megaphone effect
• Disperferred Marker Effect

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Digital Opinion Leaders
• Power users
• Influence impressions
• Mass connectors

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For Reflection (6 of 6)
• What social games do you play? How have they
influenced your purchase behavior?

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Chapter Summary (1 of 2)
• Other people and groups, especially those that possess
social power, influence our decisions.
• Marketers often need to understand consumers’ behavior
rather than a consumer’s behavior.
• The decision-making process differs when people choose
what to buy on behalf of an organization rather than for
personal use.
• Members of a family unit play different roles and have
different amounts of influence when the family makes
purchase decisions.

Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter Summary (2 of 2)
• Word-of-mouth communication is the most important
driver of product choice.
• Opinion leaders’ recommendations are more influential
than others when we decide what to buy.
• Social media changes the way we learn about and select
products.

Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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