A group is defined as two or more individuals who share norms, values or beliefs and influence each other's behavior. A reference group is a group whose perspectives or values influence an individual's behavior, either directly through primary groups like family, or indirectly through secondary groups like clubs. Reference groups can be aspirational groups people want to emulate or non-aspirational groups people do not want to emulate. Friendship, work, shopping, and virtual groups can all serve as reference groups. Factors like an individual's information and experience, and the credibility of the reference group impact the degree of influence. Word of mouth and opinion leaders are important in spreading information between groups. Marketers leverage word of mouth and opinion leaders through various online

2. A group is defined as two or more individuals who share a set of norms, values, or beliefs and have certain implicitly or explicitly defined relationships to one another such that their behaviors are interdependent. A reference group is a group whose presumed perspectives or values are being used by an individual as the basis for his/her current behavior.

3. Reference Groups (1)Primary: Daily STUDENT a.Direct (2)Secondary: CLUBS Types ofReference Groups (1) Aspirational (+ve)“Want-to-Be” IDOLS b. Indirect (2) Non-inspirational (-ve) “DON’T Want to Be” MICHEAL JACKSON

6. Shopping Groups – 2 or more people who shop together

7. Work Groups – Who work together as a part of a work team

8. Virtual Groups/ Communities

11. Opinion Leaders

12. Market Mavens, Influentials, and e-fluentials

13. Marketing and Online Strategies7-8

14. Communications within Groups and Opinion Leadership WOM Versus Advertising (% who put people vs. advertising as best source) 7-9

16. Opinion leaders possess enduring involvement for specific product categories. This leads to greater knowledge and expertise.

17. Opinion leadership is category specific – an opinion leader in one product category is often an opinion seeker in others.7-10

18. Communications within Groups and Opinion Leadership Mass Communication Information Flows 7-11

19. Communications within Groups and Opinion Leadership Situations in Which WOM and Opinion Leadership Occur The exchange of advice and information between group members can occur directly via WOM in the following situations: Likelihood of Seeking an Opinion Leader Individual seeks information from another or Individual volunteers information 7-12

20. Communications within Groups and Opinion Leadership Mavens, Influentials, and e-fluentials A market maven is a generalized market influencer who provides significant amounts of information about various products, places to shop, and so on. Roper Starch identifies a group similar to market mavens called influentials. Influentials are 10% of population but use broad social networks to influence the other 90%! Roper Starch identifies a group similar to internet market mavens called e-fluentials. They wield significant online and offline influence. 7-13

22. Applications in Consumer Behavior Marketing Strategy, WOM, and Opinion Leadership Advertising can stimulate and simulate WOM and opinion leadership. This ad would likely stimulate WOM via interest and excitement © Christopher Kerrigan 7-15

24. Consumer review sites provide consumer product and service reviews in a host of different formats.

25. Blogs are personalized journals where people and organizations can keep a running dialogue.7-16