Groups

Group influence and consumption.

A group is defined as two or more individuals who:

• share a set of norms
• have role relationships
• and experience interdependent behaviour

Groups influence the socialisation process or to put it another way they influence what we learn and how we behave. We all belong to groups, we pick up things by watching how those around us behave and we try to please them by doing those things to. This is because we have a desire to fit in and often go to great lengths to do so. It is this that influences our purchase decisions, because our preferences are shaped by the groups that we belong to. We can be influenced by team-mates, colleagues, friends, family, or even famous people who we have never met. There are many different groups that can influence purchase decisions as you can see form the diagram below:



Groups can have a huge impact on the products that we buy, for example, Burberry unfortunately picked up a lot of bad press for being associated with "chavs" it became associated with people who did bad things, therefore the A-lister who once purchased this famous and distinctive brand were put off greatly and sales in the UK for burberry dropped significantly. You can have a read of these articles to find out more: Burberry versus the Chavs.

And Burberry has shaken of its chav image.

Likewise someone of a lower class can be influenced by a product which is marketed to be luxurious and extravagant and therefore they would aspire to have this product to be seen by others as a little classier perhaps. It could be that "chavs" thought by wearing a fake version of Burberrry they were seen to be more up market.

Aspirational groups are often used by marketers because they use highly visible, widely admired and idealized figures, a good example are the following adverts:

• Gillette Fusion
• Gillette- David Beckham
• Sharpies
• Virgin Mobile

Maslows hierarchy of needs includes the need to belong, to have love, friendship and to be accepted by others. Marketers and advertisers use 'belonging' as a pivotal message in ad campaigns. We look to our reference groups, our colleagues/neighbours, for influence on purchase decisions on things such as brands, things that may give us a sense of status, luxurious goods. If marketers can create a strong brand image and market at the correct group then it is more likely that a person will then pass on to their reference group how they feel about a product and how much they like it, therefor it will have a better chance at succeeding tin the market. Likewise our peers can have a huge influence on our purchase decisions, by what is regarded as 'cool' or not. We look to the behaviour of others to provide a guide and to reassure our self-evaluation. Consumers tend to be selective about whom they use as benchmarks and in general, for social comparisons, people tend to use a Co-ordinated Peer, or a person of equivilant standing. Take a look/listen to this, i found it very interesting: Social Influence Marketing.