This document discusses group marketing, which uses psychological mechanisms to influence customer behaviors in a way that benefits companies. It provides examples of how Nike and Toms have allocated large portions of their budgets to group-based initiatives. The document outlines two necessary conditions for group marketing: 1) making customers aware of their association to a group, and 2) exposing customers to group norms. It also discusses how group influence works through informational and identity appraisals. The document proposes that group norms have a stronger effect on purchase behavior for new customers or when identity appraisals predominate. Finally, it provides steps for implementing group marketing and compares firm-provided versus firm-leveraged groups.

1. From:
Group Marketing
The use of the psychological mechanisms
underlying group influence to drive customer
behaviors that are beneficial to the firm.
Harmeling et al. (2017)

2. From:
Examples of Group Marketing
• In the past five years, Nike has shifted more than one-third
of its multibillion dollar marketing budget to support group-
based initiatives
• Nike+, a system that helps customers build groups,
generated $840 million in sales in one year
• Toms facilitates and provides resources for more than
1,000 “supporter-led” groups that both contribute to
Toms’ mission and increase product purchases
Harmeling et al. (2017)

3. From:
1. Firms must make customers aware of their association to the group
 Segmentation does not assume any psychological connections among the customers
in a segment; it simply predicts that they share common characteristics
 Firms can prime customers with new membership, make customers’ existing group
memberships salient, or identify and leverage customers’ self-selected groups
2. Firms must expose customers to group norms
 Segmentation does not assume visibility or knowledge of group norms, just common
needs
 Firms can expose consumers to group norms by enabling direct group member-to-
customer communication, facilitating customer observation of group member behavior,
or dictating aggregate group norms in marketing communication
Necessary Conditions of Group Marketing and how it
Differs from Segmentation
Harmeling et al. (2017)

4. From:
 Informational appraisals
 People strive to make accurate decisions and must filter a vast amount of potentially relevant information
 Because group members share objectives and values, information coming from them relative to other
sources can seem more diagnostic to the decision
 Identity appraisals
 When people make product decisions they are often assessing how valuable it is to managing the self
 People have a need to belong and also a need to be distinct and balancing this is critical to a positive self-
concept; managing a social identity is critical to this
 Salience of the group identity in making self relevant decision can alter identity appraisals
Mechanisms Underlying Group Marketing Effectiveness
Aron and McLaughlin-Volpe 2001, p. 89, 10 Cruz, Henningsen, and Williams 2000,
Bolton and Reed 2004, Tajfel and Turner 1985
Group product
norm
Conforming
product
purchase
Group Influence
Customer’s
group
association
H1
Necessary Conditions
Informational
appraisal
Identity
appraisal
Harmeling et al. (2017)

5. From:From:
Group Influence on Consumer Decisions when
Information Appraisals Predominate
Harmeling et al. (2017)
Strong
Effect of Group
Norms on
Purchase
Behavior
Time in
Domain
Once familiar with the purchase
domain, the person’s domain
knowledge overcomes group
information, which decreases the
value of group norms as a source
of information.
When new to a purchase domain, the
consumer has limited but increasing
domain knowledge, which improves his or
her ability to absorb domain-specific
information and thus increases the value
of group norms as a source of
information.
Weak Effect of
Group Norms on
Purchase
Behavior

6. From:From:
Group influence on Consumer Decisions when
Identity Appraisals Predominate
Harmeling et al. (2017)
Weak Effect of
Group Norms on
Purchase
Behavior
Strong
Effect of Group
Norms on
Purchase
Behavior
When new to a purchase domain, a
consumer preserves a unique,
personal identity but also seeks to
alleviate the discomfort of extreme
individuality with increasingly
selective group norm violations and
conforming behaviors.
Once a person is familiar with the
domain, the group becomes a
significant contributor to his or
her identity, and conforming to
group norms is essential to
managing that social identity.
Time in
Domain

7. From:From:
Four Steps For Implementing Group Marketing
Harmeling et al. (2017)
Decision to
implement
group
marketing
Use a firm-
managed
group?
Is the
customer
new to the
domain?
Identify
desirable
customer
segment
Build internal
group
Identify most
salient external
group
no
yes
Build
psychological
affiliation to
group
Develop group
norms for
desired
behavior
Communicate
social benefits
of group
affiliation
Communicate
informational
benefits of
group
affiliation
no
yes
Evaluate
effectiveness of
group
marketing
Identify customer
targets
Step 2
Communicate benefits of
group affiliation
Establish necessary group
marketing conditions
Determine type of group
marketing
Step 3
a. Customer awareness of
group affiliation
b. Exposure to group norms
Step 4Step 1

8. From:From:
Firm-Provided Group
 How would you execute this strategy?
 How would you motivate customer affiliation
to the group?
 How would you guide the development of firm
benefiting norms?
 What are the pros and cons of implementing
a firm-provided group? Unique benefits?
Unique costs?
 How would you customize your initiative to
new runners?
Firm-Leveraged Group
 How would you execute this strategy?
 How would you leverage customer affiliation to
the group?
 How would you expose customers to firm
benefiting norms?
 What are the pros and cons of implementing a
firm-leveraged group? Unique benefits?
Unique costs?
 How would you customize your initiative to
experienced runners?
Classroom Activity
Harmeling et al. (2017)
There are two primary ways to implement group marketing, firm provided groups and firm
leveraged groups. Imagine you are the brand manager for a new running shoe and have been
asked to implement one of the two following strategies.