3. Reference Groups
• A group consists of two or more people who
interact with each other to accomplish some
goal
• A reference group involves one or more
people used as a basis for comparison or
point of reference in forming affective and
cognitive responses and performing
behaviors
14-3
5. Analyzing Reference Groups
• Reference groups are cultural groups in that
members share certain common cultural
meanings
– Marketers try to determine the content of the
shared meanings of various reference groups
– Reference groups can have both positive and
negative effects on consumers
• Associative reference groups
• Dissociative reference groups
14-5
6. Types of Reference Group Influence
• Most people are members of several
primary informal groups and a few formal,
membership groups
– People identify and affiliate with particular
reference groups for three reasons
• To gain useful knowledge
• To obtain rewards or avoid punishments
• To acquire meanings for constructing, modifying, or
maintaining their self-concepts
14-6
7. Reference Groups cont.
– Three types of reference group influence
• Informational
• Utilitarian
• Value-expressive
– All three types of reference group influence can
be accomplished by a single reference group.
14-7
8. Reference Group Influence on Products
and Brands
• Reference groups do not influence all
product and brand purchases to the same
degree
– Influences vary on at least two dimensions
• Degree to which the product or brand is
– A necessity
– A luxury
• Degree to which the object in question is
conspicuous or know by other people
– Public good
– Private good
14-8
9. Reference Group Influence on Products
and Brands cont.
– Reference group influence will vary depending
on whether the products and brands are
• Public necessities
• Private necessities
• Public luxuries
• Private luxuries
14-9
10. Reference Groups and Marketing
Strategy
• Developing marketing strategies through an
analysis of primary informal group
influences
• Peer group influence as a major asset of
firms that sell in-home to groups
• Describing similarities between previous
consumers and potential consumers
• Using salespersons as reference groups
• Soliciting experts to aid in the direct sale of
products
14-10
12. Family
• Marketers are interested in both families
and households
– Household is the housing unit having people
living in it
– Nonfamily households include unrelated
people living together
– A family has at least two people, the
householder and someone who is related to the
householder by blood, marriage, or adoption
• Nuclear family
• Extended family
14-12
13. Family Decision Making
• How family members interact and influence
one another when making purchase choices
for the household
– Identification of roles of family members in
family decision making is important
14-13
14. Family Decision Making cont.
– Types of family decision-making roles include:
• Influencers
• Gatekeepers
• Users
• Deciders
• Buyers
• Disposers
14-14
15. Influences on Family Decision Making
• Areas explored in research on family
decision making are
– Differences in product class and their
relationship to family decision making
– The structure of husband/wife roles
– The determinants of joint decision making
• Children and family decision making
14-15
16. Conflict in Family Decision Making
• Decision conflict arises when family
members disagree about some aspect of
the purchase decision
– Means-end chain model is a useful framework
for analyzing decision conflict
14-16
19. Consumer Socialization
• Refers to how children acquire knowledge
about products and services and various
consumption-related skills
– Can occur directly through intentional instruction
or indirectly through observation and modeling
– The consumer knowledge formed in childhood
can influence people in later years
14-19
20. Consumer Socialization cont.
– Developing early brand awareness and loyalty
is an important marketing strategy for many
companies
– The flow of socialization is not restricted to
parents influencing their young children
14-20
21. Factors Influencing American Families
• Three important changes:
– Changes in female employment
– Changes in marriage and divorce
– Changes in childbirth and child rearing practices
14-21
22. Demographic Changes in Household
Composition
• American families are highly diverse
– Various types of families constitute distinctive
markets for many products
• Married-couple family
• Traditional family
• Nontraditional family
• Nonfamily households family
– Cohabiting couples
14-22
24. Family Life Cycle
• The modern family life cycle captures most
types of families in American society,
including:
– Single parents
– Young singles
– Older singles
– Married couples with children
14-24
25. Family- Marketing Analysis
• Considerations for using the family life cycle
for marketing analysis
– Modern family life cycle does not include
nonfamily households
– Modern family life cycle does not capture every
possible change in family status that can occur
• Does not include the boomerang age
14-25
26. Family- Marketing Analysis cont.
– Marketers use the family life cycle to:
• Segment the market
• Analyze market potential
• Identify target markets
• Develop more effective marketing strategies
– Developing marketing strategies for the
bachelor segment is a challenge
– Some stages in the family life cycle are more
important markets than others
– Stages of the family life cycle that contain
children are quite important to many marketers
14-26
27. Family- Marketing Implications
• Ideas for marketing strategies to help
reduce shopping time and stress
– Provide information
– Assist in planning
– Develop out-of-store selling
– Automate processes
– Improve delivery
14-27
28. Summary
• Described two aspects of the micro social
environment
• Discussed three types of reference group
influence
• Described how reference groups could
influence choice decisions about products
and brands, and offered ideas for using
reference groups in marketing strategies
14-28
29. Summary cont.
• Distinguished between families and
households
• Discussed decision making by families
• Looked at conflict in family choices and
described several ways family members
might try to resolve the decision conflict and
influence each other
14-29
30. Summary cont.
• Explored consumer socialization
• Described several demographic trends that
have changed family households
• Discussed a model of the family life cycle
and showed how marketers could use it to
analyze markets and develop marketing
strategies
14-30
