In this activity, you will assess the extent of group influence across various purchase decisions. Listed below is a series of situations that you may be exposed to. Your task is to determine, given the particular situations, what you are most likely to do.
ACTIVITY/TASK
What would be your response (if any) to the following situations/comments?
- Several of your friends tell you about a great movie that has just come out
- You notice that most of your friends buy the same brand of drink each time you go out with them
- When you go to your friends’ homes, they usually serve some unusual cocktails. This has become a talking point among your friends. Next week your friends are coming to your house
- One of the other students in class, who is an expert on the computer, tells everyone about a great piece of software that has just come out, which automatically corrects spelling and grammar while you type – and its much better than the standard word processor software
- You overhear another student stating that Heinz is their favorite brand of Baked Beans
- When you flick through a magazine, you notice that several celebrities are wearing the same style/look of clothes
- You start a new job. You dress very formally on the first day, but you notice that most other employees at your level dress more casually
- You’re about to buy a new smart phone and read in the newspaper that Apple’s smart phone is now the most popular one in the world
QUESTIONS
- What would you do in each of the above situations?
- What do the situations where you are influenced have in common? How do those situations differ from the ones where you are not influenced?
- Given your response to Q2, can you construct a simple model to guide marketers in regards to reference group influence?
- Outline the ways that marketers can use your model in Q3.
