2. Contents
1. Personal influence and opinion leadership
2. Profile of opinion leader
3. Process of opinion leadership
4. Opinion leadership and promotional strategy
4. Personal influence
Consumer behavior is influenced by a host of personal
Characteristics such as
– Age
– Life Cycle Stage
– Occupation
– Social Status
– Lifestyle
5. Influence of social class
☆ Sociologists have classified members of asociety on a
continuum of social positions.
☆ Members of social class interact regularlywith each other,
people are more likely tobe influenced by individuals in their
ownsocial class than by those in other classes.
Factors:
– Education
– Occupation
– Economic Status
6. • Upper Class– Business community, professionals,politicians
etc.
• Middle Class – White collar jobs, with many of themhaving
pursued higher education. Majority is privatesector and
government employees.
• Working Class – Blue collar workers. Heavily depend onfamily
members for economic and social support. Theyhave a local
orientation. More likely to spend than save.
• Low End Class – Below poverty line(BPL). With lightregular
income also included.
7. Influence of reference group
• A person’s reference groups are all the groups that have a
direct and indirect influence on theirattitudes or behavior.
- Primary group: interacts continuously and informally( family,
friends, neighbors, and coworkers)
- Secondary group: more formal and less
continuousinteraction (such as religious, professional, and
trade-uniongroups)
8. Opinion leadership
• Where reference group influence is strong,marketers must
determine how to reachand influence the group’s opinion leaders.
• An Opinion Leader is the person whooffers informal advice or
information abouta specific product or product category.
• Opinion Leaders can informally influencethe behavior of
customers towards productsor services, either positively or
negatively.
• In short, Opinion leadership is defined as the process in which
one person influences the attitudes or actions of other person
informally, who may be identified as opinion leader.
9. Examples of Opinion Leadership
1. During casual talk, a friend talks about the car he recently
bought. He recommends buying it.
2. A person shows a friend photographs of his recent tour
abroad. He suggests that by using a particular make of
camera, better pictures could be shot.
3. A family wants to have a swimming pool in their spacious
house. The family head asks neighbors which pool
construction company they should call.
4. A parent wants admission for his child in a particular
school. He contacts other parents sending their children to
the same school.
10. A PROFILE of the opinion leader
Marketers are keen to identify the opinion leaders so as to direct
their promotional messages towards them. Are there special
characteristics of theirs which can enable them to get identified
and reached?
• Knowledge and Interest - It makes him knowledgeable about the
product, and he spreads this knowledge when sought or even
otherwise. His involvement with the subject under which the
product gets covered is so obvious that he strives to keep himself
updated.
• Media Habits – An opinion leader reads the print media and
listens to and views the electronic media much more. He is more
tuned to subject specific magazines and techno-commercial
programs.
11. • Consumer Innovator - He is a consumer innovator who tries
new products always first, and passes on his experience to
others. Opinion leaders tend to have certain similar
personality traits, and other personal characteristics such
as social status and demographic characteristics are often
linked to the product in which they ‘specialise’.
• Personality Traits - He is self-confident and gregarious. He
is confident about his knowledge and opinion that he has
built. He is generally found to be outspoken and expressive
in nature. He is differentiated from others and chooses to
act differently.
12. • Social Status Characteristics - He belongs to the same
social class as that of the consumer to engage in horizontal
interpersonal communication.
• Demographic Characteristics – Consumers tend to seek
information and advice from people whom they perceive to
be highly knowledgeable informants. However this is
contextual in nature.
13. Process of opinion leadership
There are two communication theories which explain the flow
of information through interpersonal channels of
communication is Discussed as below:
1. The two-step flow of communication theory.
2. The multi-step flow of communication theory.
16. Opinion Leadership and Firm’s promotional Strategy
• Marketers have long been aware of the power that
opinionleadership exerts on consumers’ preferences and
actual purchase behavior.Many marketers look for an
opportunity to encourage word-of-mouthcommunications and
other favorable informal conversations.
• There are different opinion leaders for different products.
Opinion leaders are gregarious andtend to belong to clubs and
associations. Some product categories haveprofessional
opinion leaders who are also very influential.
17. • Hairstylists serve as, opinion leaders for hair-care
products.For healthcare products-pharmacists are
important opinion leaders.Computer professionals can give an
opinion about the purchase of personalcomputers. The idea
is to identify the opinion leaders, and then undertakea
marketing research on them and formulate a marketing
strategy.
