Week 6 Group and Social Influence

Lesson Overview

Lesson: Groups and Social Influence

This is the first lesson from the section on consumers in their social and cultural settings. It extends ideas of the self (week 5) to incorporate the social affiliations that influence consumption. 

Lesson Contents:

· L6.1: Introduces groups and social influence

· L6.2: Discusses group theory

· L6.3: Explains the types of social influence

· L6.4: Illustrates the types of power that can be exerted

· L6.5: Introduces the family as a decision making unit

· L6.6: Illustrates the role of opinion leadership in consumption communities and the diffusion of fashion

Lecture Slides: Download .

L6.1: Introduction to Groups and Social Influence

Lecture：

SPEAKER 1

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SPEAKER 0

Everyone and welcome to Week six topics Thiss week. We are starting our external influence topics and in this particular lecture I'm going to talk about we'll give a brief introduction to groups and social influence. So this just to highlight the fact that we have moved on topics. So we're now in part for off your textbook, which is consumers in their social and cultural settings. I am going to shorthand this and refer to this particular section as external influences or social influences on our consumer behaviour. So in this particular week, in terms of our topics, thie conceptual map of how these things fit together is that when we are decision makers, we are surrounded by numerous important others. So we have influential others, which could be friends. There could be family. I could be celebrities on DH. They could be the communities in which we are members or wish to be members or don't wish to be members for Get to that in a minute. So in terms of ups, there we go. So thiss particular topic does actually link into our intel influence topic in terms ofthe the self in the fact that ourselves is constructed off not just our individual Selves but also the cells that relate to groups. So this idea ofthe are not just being about eye, but it's also about we. So we are certain types of people, so we buy certain products or we don't buy some other type of products. And just to see that again, Sorry. I know so cute on the cake is gone. So in terms ofthe where this topic sits within where we're going for this section ofthe topics on external influences, So this particular week, we're going to concentrate on reference group influence and thie types off social influence that these influential others exert. So the topics this week are going tio appear over and over and over again because the basic types of influence they exert are similar certain types of groups for in influence the type of influence mohr in some situations than in others, and certain groups have certain types of influence more than others, but in terms ofthe how the individual sits within these groups. So we've put the individual in the centre because we're all very Western. And this idea that our group memberships or the influential others are these concentric circles moving outwards that represent larger and larger groups whose influence becomes less direct but often more pervasive. As in thie, our own culture influences the subculture which influences social class, which influences friends which influence the family. So all of the groups then become subsets off the influence ofthe the bigger groups in which they are surrounded. All right, so that concludes this brief introduction. I will be coming back and doing separate videos for the more specific topic areas in which we're going to cover.

Childers, T. L., & Rao, A. R. (1992). . Journal of consumer research, 19(2), 198-211.

L6.2 Group Theory

Lecture：

SPEAKER 3

copyright in these lectures is either owned by the and you are a third party who was licenced the an Yue to use. Its students may use the recording for personal study only. No lecture, maybe communicated online, copied or shared without the prior permission off the menu.

SPEAKER 0

Everyone and welcome to the second lecture recording for Week six. In this particular lecture or recording, I'm going to talk about group theory. So these are the theories that underpin, ah, lot of our understandings of what groups are and what makes them influential. So we're talking about groups as they relate to consumer behaviour. There's two things that need to be differentiated between, so sometimes refer to groups. It is how the group has influenced an individual's actions. So how a certain friend might have influenced your personal decision to buy Brand X versus the other way that groups are understood is the fact that groups behave collectively. So this idea that why does one group have a preference for Brand X entirely? So we have this idea of brand communities, which I'll return to later in a different lecture. But this idea that there's a brand communities around Apple fans. They get together and they talk all things Apple and they celebrate all things Apple and they talk to each other about how much Apple stuff they own. And they help each other to use Apple products and so on and so forth. So that is a group acting collectively. That group hasn't actually informed that an individual to buy Apple Product X, but it is a group that's behaving collectively around their appreciation off the brand. So So when I talk about groups and group influence, there are two different ways of understanding how group functions as it relates Teo consumer behaviour. So the main one that is very old school when it comes to theories that refer that we used understand consumer behaviour is this idea of reference groups so reference this reference group theory very much is in the mould off that first type of group in the fact that we look at reference groups and how people look to certain groups in a particular dishes in making process. So just some basic definitions a group is too warm or individuals who share something in columns, common norms, values or beliefs. So then mush. It might be implicit, as in not acknowledged, its or it might be felt. Or it might be explicit. So you to become a member, you get a medal. Or to become a member, you need to graduate. For example, you become a member of annual alumni when you graduate, and no one can ever take that away from him. So this is just they have some sort of defined relationship that make their behaviours into dependent. And however, a reference group is one of these actual or meant imagined groups that have some sort of relevance upon an individual's evaluations, aspirations or behaviour, usually at a particular point in time. So if I'm going out to buy a technology product, what groups am I going to look to? That might inform that decision. But I asked my family, who are complete technological Luddite CE or should. Would I go to some other reference groups, such as my friends or particularly group of friends? I might have, which I know a lot about technology, or would I go to one of these apple loving forums to see what their opinions and apple might be? A. So all of those are potential reference groups. So our choice of reference group in our usage of reference groups to make decisions is a lot of that is what a lot of this research and our understanding of reference groups is about. So the group characteristics that make a group attractive or not in terms ofthe using it as a reference group. So in terms of talk about three different characteristics or through different dimensions, So we have membership yes or no, so this is either implicit or explicitly defined. So this idea that this group in the picture down on the right hand corner are implicitly a member of entire group. However, you could say that this gentleman in the bottom right hand corner does not feel that he is exactly a member of the group, so he feels he might feel that he is separate to the group even though explicitly he is physically part of the group. The degree of contact is also an important factor when it comes to understanding big degree and attraction of thie influence, or the amount of influence so larger groups generally have less contact. However, there, as I explained in the earlier video, things like your culture while you'll have less contact with individual members off the entire culture, cultures themselves are hugely influential because they are so pervasive. What about the difference of in primary groups, which is the ones where you have frequent into personal contacts versus secondary groups where you have limited amounts of contact? So your friends and France family might be your primary groups, whereas your subcultural cult culture might be your secondary group. And finally, the characteristic that markets are very concerned with this this idea of attraction. So this is actually the desire ability of being a member. This could be either positive or negative. So this idea that this gentleman on the bottom right hand corner he is actually a member of this group of. But you could say that he has negative attraction to this group as he stares off into space, going, Get me out of here! So sometimes we can not be members of groups but desire to be members, and sometimes we can be actual members of a group and not want to be there. So these various characteristics of groups have lead to different types of reference groups. Your text book covers thes in a lot more detail, but these are some of the main types of groups that are referred Teo membership groups, formal groups, informal groups, aspirational groups and disassociative groups. They're going to give you examples off some of these types of groups, but I'm going to use Shipman's typology off groups because it's a little easier. Teo visualise and understand the relationship between these different types of groups than thiss table the table that comes from your textbook. So mixing things up. So I'm going to take through different examples from what's the movie called Pitch Perfect. It's in the title here, and then the fourth one comes from a different part. So because I've got three coming from pitch perfect, I'm going to do these slightly strange order. So I'm going to start with groups that you are not a member ofthe, and you don't want to be a member ofthe so thiss idea of avoidance groups or disassociative groups groups that you go out of your way to make sure that you are not using the symbols that could be confused with being a member of that group, and you not seek formal membership from that group because you don't like them.

SPEAKER 7

Hey, you can audition this year. We have openings. Now that you've puked your way to the bottom, you might actually consider me Hi Auditioned for you three times and never got in because you said my boobs look like baloney. The word's out. Bellas is the laughing stock. Good luck auditioning this year.

SPEAKER 0

Oh, my God! So that we have Bob, who had previously wanted to be a member of the Barden Bellas but had been rejected. But now that the Barden Bellas were unsuccessful, she no longer wants to be a part of that group. So therefore it becomes an avoidance or disassociative group for her so that the Barden Bellas are seen as uncool that Xena's a negative influence and she's not already a member, so she can avoid that group in the future. On the direct opposite side, we have groups that you are members off and you see, this is positive baloney,

SPEAKER 7

Barb, that we can't get anybody to take the dramatics down a notch. Okay, fine. I am confident that we will find eight super hot girls with bikini ready bodies Who can harmonise perfect pitch. Hi. Would you like to be a member.

SPEAKER 0

So there we have two of the existing but members off the Barden Bellas, talking about what the fact that they are already members and that being a member is super hot girls with pitch perfect voices and bikini ready bodies is what it means to be a member ofthe the Barden Bellas. And so they see that as positive. And they want to continue the group and their membership in that group because this is their contact Shewell group there. And it's a primary group because they're in friends and they see each other all the time. So groups that you are not a member of what you see is positive and would wish to become a member ofthe what we call aspirational groups. Aspirational group are can be ones that you would wish to join, and you can achieve membership off. But we also include aspirational groups where you wish to join them. But there is no pathway to membership. So you will always simply want to be a member but can't become a member.

SPEAKER 7

I think it's theirs. What good singers can you think? Yeah. Can you read music? Yes. Can you match pitch. Try me.

SPEAKER 1

Yeah, that was a really good storey.

SPEAKER 6

The best singer in Tasmania.

SPEAKER 7

Love it. What's her name?

SPEAKER 6

That Amy.

SPEAKER 7

You call yourself fat Amy?

SPEAKER 6

Yes, Twig. Bitches like you don't bahama back.

SPEAKER 7

I will see you in auditions. Fat Amy, I can see.

SPEAKER 6

But I'm also good at modern dance.

SPEAKER 0

I don't need to know Fat Amy his entire resume so that we have Fat Amy proving that she could possibly become a member ofthe the Barden Bellas because she can see and match pitch. So the fact that she wants to try out and audition for the Barden Bellas But she is not quite a member ofthe the group yet because they have not accepted her as a formal member means that the Barden Bellas asked at this point an aspirational group for that, Amy, all right, And the opposite of aspirational group is a disclaim it group. This is a group in which you are, remember, but you don't want to bay. So this idea that we can be members ofthe groups and sometimes we are able to renounce our membership will get rid of our membership. But other in some ways, it becomes quite difficult to renounce memberships of groups because our social tyres within that group can be quite sticky.

SPEAKER 5

Remember what we talked about. You've got to be strong. Yes, yes. One more time. Don't you want a washboard stomach and rock hard pecs?

SPEAKER 4

No, I want a flabby gut and saggy man breasts. Good. That's good. I want to quit the gym.

SPEAKER 5

You want to quit?

SPEAKER 4

I want to quit the gym.

SPEAKER 2

You do realise you won't have access to our new full service sweetie spot?

SPEAKER 4

I want to quit the gym. Dave in the membership office handles quitters.

SPEAKER 5

Excuse me, Are you remember May? No. Sorry. Members only E.

SPEAKER 4

I want to quit the gym.

SPEAKER 1

Be strong.

SPEAKER 4

So, are you a member of agent?

SPEAKER 5

No, I'm not going to bay so you can save your little speech. Okay? No problem. Could you come in for a second?

SPEAKER 1

Hi, I am Maria.

SPEAKER 4

I want to quit the gym. Now. Can you honestly tell me that you're 100% satisfied with

SPEAKER 8

your body? Yes.

SPEAKER 4

Yes, Most of the time. I mean, sure, I have my bad days. But then I remember what a cute smile I have way were voted best equipped gym in New York two

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years running. Do you really want to give that up?

SPEAKER 4

Yes, I hate it here. Everything that you have in here is very heavy. Yeah, really? Okay, You don't want to make your friend work out

SPEAKER 5

alone, do you?

SPEAKER 4

What friend? Your friend Ross just joined that We have Chandler trying

SPEAKER 0

to quit the gym because he sees his membership off the gym as something that is negative. Everything is very heavy, and he hates it there. However, we also see the gym's efforts to try and make it difficult for himto leave. And by recruiting Chandler's friend Ross, it means that it makes it more difficult for Chandler to quit the gym because it means that in a certain way, he's also quitting his friendship with Ross. So this idea and his friendship with Ross, he says if he sees it as a more contextual group, there's something that's positive he wants to maintain. How does he then quit the gym without then quitting a another interconnected positive group that he has with his friends? So this's this particular example. It's not the best, but think of it as Apple's ICO sphere in the fact that if you have your entire family using apple products and these interconnected apse, which allow you to do air drop and airplay and all sorts of weird and wonderful things that APP allows you to do as long as the people around you are using apple products as well, it means that if you want to quit apple, you're often you're also being made to quit your ties with that family group that you might wish to maintain. So if you don't have the apple products, you don't get access to the connexions to your family in the same way. So therefore, quitting the product might mean that you have to quit the family group, which he might not want to do. So these ideas off groups being interconnected and forming overlapping spheres of influence where some groups might be negative and you might see them as avoidance or disclaim mint. But by not participating in those groups, you then sacrifice access to more positive groups that you have all right, so that ends this section. I'll come back in a new video to talk about the types of social influence

L6.2 Group Theory

Discussion Forum 6.1

Discussion Forum: 

1. Identify a group that has a positive influence on your behaviour and one that has a negative influence. What type of group does each represent?

2. What are the attributes of each group that make it attractive or not? 

3. Discuss ways in which these attributes can be used by marketers to position their brand / product / offering?