Group Influence and Word of Mouth Publicity

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Reference groups is actual or imaginary institutions, individuals or groups having significant relevance on the target individual’s evaluations, aspirations or behavior. Such reference groups can be used as standards of comparison for self appraisal or those considered to be informative experts or those used as a source of norms, standards and attitudes. There are different types of reference groups influence, one is external and second is internal.

• External decision making involves explicit social interactions such as situation where 2 or more people are involved. 
• Internal personal influence is when the decision making is affected by mental processes that involve people or group.

Other type of group is informational and normative

• Informational influence refers to situation in which the consumers who don’t know much about the product seek information from friends, salespeople or media personalities. 
• Normative influence refers to situations in which consumers identify with a group to enhance self image and ego, or comply with a group’s norms to gain rewards or avoid punishments.

The major factors that influence the degree of group influence are

• individual differences in susceptibility 
• type of decision making unit 
• nature of product category 
• kind of consumption or purchasing situation involved

Word of mouth and diffusion are informational influence processes in which a potential consumer relies on the opinion of others to decide on trying and adopting the product. The major factors that determine the rate of diffusion and determine the success or failure of word of mouth and motivational characteristics of the audience are characteristics of the product and innovation.

Advertising can give brands cultural meaning through normative influence. Although products take on meaning in the absence of advertising, advertising can create, reinforce, and extend such meanings in a wide variety of ways. Advertising can be used to transfer a particular kind of cultural meaning to a brand. The advertising planner need to think about what kinds of cultural meaning currently exists for the product category and brand, and about how a desired cultural meaning can be linked to it.

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