Author: Neftaly Malatjie

An opinion leader is a reference group member with knowledge or expertise who provides information about a specific sphere that interests reference group participants.

2. An opinion leader is likely to be most influential when consumers have high product involvement but low product knowledge, when they share the opinion leader’s values and attitudes, and when the product details are numerous or complicated.

.     A reference group is any group—large or small—that positively or negatively affects a person’s values, attitudes, or behaviors.

2. There are three major types of reference groups: membership, aspirational, and dissociative.
3. a)     A membership reference group is one to which an individual actually belongs; the individual identifies with group members strongly enough to take on the values, attitudes, and behaviors of people in that group.
4. b)     An aspirational reference group is a group to which a person aspires to belong; the individual desires to be like those group members.
5. c)     A group that a person does not wish to be associated with is a dissociative or negative reference group; the individual does not want to take on the values, attitudes, and behavior of group members.
6. A reference group is an individual’s point of comparison and a source of information.
7. How much a reference group influences a purchasing decision depends on the individual’s susceptibility to reference group influence and strength of involvement with the group.
8. Reference group influence may affect the product decision, the brand decision, or both.
9. A marketer sometimes uses reference group influence in advertisements to promote product purchases and high product satisfaction within a specific group.

.     An individual’s family roles directly influence their buying behavior.

2. Consumer socialization is the process through which a person acquires the knowledge and skills to function as a consumer.
3. The extent to which different family members take part in family decision making varies between families and product categories. Traditional family decision making processes are divided into four categories: autonomic, husband dominant, wife dominant, and syncratic.
4. The family life cycle stage affects individual and joint needs of family members.
5. Within a household, an individual may perform one or more buying-decision roles.
6. a)     The gatekeeper is the household member who collects and controls information—price and quality comparisons, locations of sellers, and assessment of which brand best suits the family’s needs.
7. b)     The influencer is a family member who expresses his or her opinions and tries to influence buying decisions.
8. c)     The decider is a member who makes the buying choice.
9. d)     The buyer is a member who actually makes the purchase.
10. e)     The user is any household member who consumes or uses the product.

.     Every person occupies a position within groups, organizations and institutions.

2. A role is a set of actions and activities an individual in a particular position is supposed to perform based on the expectations of both the individual and surrounding persons.
3. Each individual has many roles and each role affects both general behavior and buying behavior.

Social influences are the forces other people exert on one’s buying behavior.