Groups, Opinion Leaders and Peer Pressure

"Conformity is the process of maintaining or changing behaviour to comply with the norms established by a society, sub-culture or other group."

(p154 Kendall, D. 2010)



The term 'reference group' can also be applied to social groups, and has a less distinctive or pressurised influence on the consumer. Solomon (2010) describes the term to have reference to informational, utilitarian and value-expressive influences, which could best describe the relationship or impact that parents have on children as early consumers. For example, when a child reaches the life cycle stage of becoming independant the supermarket that their parents shopped at would be the most likely choice as they have been influenced by the preferences of others through social interaction. Another way of looking at reference group would be to categorise them (Blythe, 2008);

• Primary Groups (friends, family)
• Secondary Groups (sports clubs)
• Aspirational Groups (groups we want to join)
• Dissociative Groups (do NOT want to be a part of)
• Formal Groups (members only clubs)
• Informal Groups (moral support)
• Automatic/ Category Groups (age, culture, gender)
• Virtual Groups (forums, blogs, social networking)

All of these groups are not mutually exclusive but all affect the individual through social interaction, and all express a need for compliance to be 'one of the gang'.



Mean Girls (2004)

Solomon Asch (cited in Forsyth, D. 2010) tried to explore why a unanimous majority was so influential on the individual and why having a partner helped to relieve the pressure of social outcast. Whilst there is a certain amount of peer pressure from a number of people within a group it is also limited, a strength in numbers that becomes less influential no matter the scale; "there is a marginally decreasing effect of increased supplies in people" (Latane, 1981. cited in Forsyth, D 2010) as shown in the graph below.

A report by Isabelle Chaney (2000) into opinion leaders, and whether or not to use them for market segmentation, identified that opinion leaders should be isolated and used as a tool for establishing marketing stragies and disseminating information via a word of mouth channel. This technique has in fact been used by The Washington Herald (2007), who target opinion leaders of industry to engage and influence major topical debates and then spread the word about new ideas and concepts, whilst constantly in the glare of the media.