Whether it is apparent or not, every individual belongs to a group. The obvious and most common groups are family unit, friendship group and work or school group. Even those who claim to have no family, friends or other kinds of relationships are categorised by nation, culture and ethnicity. Everybody is part of a group.
For a team of marketers, knowing every single person they may want to attract is part of a group makes their job that little bit easier. Of course, it's possible to sell to a nation of people but more often than not, advertisers want to know how best to reach a more specific type of person.
Drawing from the title of this blog post, groups tend to have leaders and the people within the group are likely to act like each other. This conformity often leads to peer pressure, the desire to fit in with one's peers. Before going too in depth, it's important to define what a group is and to then look into the effects of this natural instinct of categorising ourselves.
- Solomon et al - Reference Group: an actual or imaginary individual or group conceived of having significant relevance upon an individual's evaluations, aspirations or behaviour.
- Dictionary.com - Group: Any number of persons or things ranged or considered together as being related in some way.
- Businessdictionary.com - Group: A collection of indivduals who have regular contact and frequent interaction, mutual influence, common feeling of camaraderie, and who work together to achieve a common set of goals.
- Brassington and Pettitt - Reference Group: Any group, whether formally or informally constituted, to which an individual either belongs or aspires to belong, for example professional bodies, social or hobby-oriented societies, or informal, vaguely defined lifestyle groups.
Brassington and Pettitt (2007) distinguish three types of groups:
- Membership Groups: groups to which the individual already belongs
- Aspirant Groups: groups to which the individual would like to belong
- Dissociative Groups: groups to which the individual does not want to belong or be seen to belong to
These photos show how someone of my age may feel about the three types of groups.
Membership Group
Aspirant Group
Dissociative Group
I've created a profile to help understand how advertisers use these groups to reach their target market. Her name is Wendy and she is a 38 year old woman who is overweight. She has a good group of friends and a comfortable living and feels the only thing holding her back is her issue with weight. The following advertisements would target her...
This would be Wendy's dissociative group, she would not want to be seen as a lover of fast food. Burger King would not aim to target health conscious people who stick to healthy diets.
Special K would target Wendy as she is trying to lose weight. This is her aspirant group. She wants to be like these women whose jeans fit them perfectly and have slim figures. Because this is who she wants to be, she is likely to buy this product.
Wendy would relate to this advert as she has a good circle of friends so this scene would be familiar. This can be classed as Wendy's membership group, Jacob's Creek wants to target people who are socialable and quite young.
Peer Pressure
I'm not sure I would believe a person who told me they had never experienced peer pressure. It does not discriminate against age or gender and I believe it infiltrates a person's groups at one point or another, if not constantly.
An individual can react to these pressures by compliance (doing as it suggested), internalisation (absorbing the beliefs and ideas that are being encouraged) or counter conformity (going against what others are doing).
For most people, the phrase 'peer pressure 'probably brings up a sense of self consciousness or perhaps self belief. It's that desire to be as good as, if not better than, your friends. To school children it means angst, to marketers it's a way of selling to one person but affecting many. This leads to the topic of...
Group Conformity
Fuelled by peer pressure, members of a group often have a desire to be like their fellow members. If one girl buys a Ralph Lauren jumper, the others will too. If one boy starts styling his hair, the rest will follow. It's a human instinct to crave acceptance. This is shown in Maslow's hierarchy of needs at the level of 'Belonging Needs'.
Source: Lifework Transitions, 2002 |
When I was 11, everyone at my school was wearing Adidas All-Stars. My friend and I, who were sadly without the much sought after footwear, went into the woods near our homes and ruined our current trainers as best we could. Jumping in mud, scraping away at the soles... just to get a pair of these:
I did get them in the end. And I was ecstatic... because I 'fit in'. It all seems a bit ridiculous now though.
Ridiculous as I may think that experience was, I still follow trends, although now I would only follow a trend if I liked it and it suited me. Back then that wasn't such an issue. Now I present myself so that I feel good about myself and I can show my best side... which results in people approaching me and getting to know me... which results in the formation or joining of yet another GROUP.
Opinion Leaders
In my opinion (no irony intended), the term opinion leader is very vague. Any person who influences one or more people can be defined as an opinion leader. A person can be a leader, a follower or a bit of both. Marketers want to be on the positive side of someone who is a leader. Hollywood blogger Perez Hilton is an opinion leader. If he is negative about a venue in L.A. it's likely to suffer.If he recommends a store in L.A., it will most likely see the financial benefit. Celebrities have the power to influence large majorities, hence the success of sponsorship and endorsements, because they are seen as aspirational by many consumers.
If a brand can successfully market to an opinion leader, they are likely to get a good return.Groups are often made up of these kinds of people:
- Tourists: lack strong social ties to the group, and maintain only a passing interest in the activity
- Minglers: maintan strong social ties, but are not very interested in the central consumption activity
- Devotees: express strong interest in the activity,but have few social attachments to the group
- Insiders: exhibit both strong social ties and strong interest in the activity
Source: Solomon et al, 2010
Although opinion leaders, most likely to be part of the insiders category, may not heavily influence all members of the group... the potential is there.
Groups Gone Wrong!
It's vital to remember that group influence is not alway positive. Marketers need to be sure they do not attract the wrong kind of person resulting in a negative affiliation.
- Brassington, F. and Pettitt, S. (2007) Essentials of marketing. 2nd ed. Harlow: Pearson.
- Dictionary.com (2011) Available from: www. dictionary.com [Accessed 5 May 2011].
- Businessdictionary.com (2011) Available from: www.businessdictionary.com [Accessed 5 May 2011].
- http://www.lifeworktransitions.com/exercises/part1/mazlow.html
- Solomon, M. R., Bamossy, G. Askegaard, S. and Hogg, M. K. (2010) Consumer behaviour: a European perspective. 4th ed. Harlow: Pearson.