Summary chapter 10 : Groups and social media

The social power of the groups

How do other people influence our purchase decisions?

Word-of-mouth communica7on

WORD-OF-MOUTH (WOM) → is product informa0on that individuals transmit to other individuals.

• Informa0on obtained from those we know or talk to directly tends to be more reliable and trustworthy
than that received through more formal channels.
• The influence of others’ opinions is at 0mes even more powerful than one’s own percep0ons.

WOM: is far more powerful than ads: it influences up to 50% of all consumer goods sales.
Þ Word-of-mouth is a 2-edged sword that can cut both ways for marketers.
• Posi2ve word-of-mouth
o WOM is ESPECIALLY POWERFUL when the consumer is RELATIVELY UNFAMILIAR with the
product category.
• Nega2ve word-of-mouth = And nega0ve WOM is even easier to spread online.
o Consumers WEIGH nega0ve word-of-mouth MORE HEAVILY than they do posi0ve.
o Nega0ve WOM reduces the credibility of a firm.

Nega%ve WOM

Nega2ve word-of-mouth will be outweighed in cases where consumers posi0vely evaluate the agent (an inter
alia, a friend, family member, online poster, professional cri0c...) who is the source of the word of mouth.

The power of rumors →A rumor can be very dangerous, especially when it is false.

The method of serial reproduc2on examine how content mutates. Bartle^ found that distor0ons almost
inevitably follow a pa^ern: they tend to change from ambiguous forms to more conven0onal ones as subjects
try to make them consistent with pre-exis0ng schemas.

He called this process assimila2on, and he noted that it o`en occurs as people engage in:
• Levelling, when they omit details to simplify the structure.
• Sharpening, when they exaggerate prominent details.
The Web is a perfect medium for spreading rumors and hoaxes. Modern-day hoaxes abound.
Many of these are in the form of email chain le^ers promising instant riches if you pass the message to 10
friends.

CYBERBULLYING, which occurs when one or more people post malicious comments online about someone else
in a coordinated effort to harass the targeted individual.

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Guerrilla marke7ng

Guerrilla marke2ng are promo0onal strategies that use unconven0onal loca0ons and intensive word-of- mouth
campaigns to push products.

The term implies that the marketer ‘ambushes’ the unsuspec0ng recipient.

Today, big companies are buying into guerrilla marke0ng strategies in a big way.

Opinion leadership

Although consumers get info. from personal sources, they tend not to ask just anyone for advice about
purchases.

• The nature of opinion leadership

Þ This individual is an :a person who is frequently able to influence other’s aetudes or behaviors.

• Opinion leaders possess:

• Homophily: refers to the degree to which a pair of individuals is similar in terms of educa0on,
social status and beliefs.

• How influen4al is an opinion leader

2-step flow model of influence: it proposes that a small group of influencers disseminate informa0on because
they can modify the opinions of a large number of people.

The influence was driven less by influence and more by the interac0on among those who are easily influenced;
they communicate the informa0on vigorously to one another and they also par0cipate in a two-way dialogue
with the opinion leader as part of an influence network.

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 • Type of opinion leader’s vs other consumer types

The opinion leader absorbs informa0on from the mass media and in turn transmits data to opinion receivers.

Opinion leaders are influenced by the responses of their followers.

Researchers call opinion leaders who are also early purchasers INNOVATIVE COMMUNICATORS.

OPINION LEADERS ALSO ARE LIKELY TO BE OPINION SEEKERS:

Opinion leaders =Opinion seekers: They are generally more involved in a product category and ac0vely
search for informa0on.

MARKET MAVEN:

Market maven: Person who likes to transmit marketplace informa0on of all types.

SURROGATE CONSUMER:

Surrogate consumer: Is a person whom we hire to provide input into our purchase decisions.

§ How do we find opinion leaders?

They are hard to find. Opinion leaders tend to operate at the local level and may influence only a small group of
consumers. Marketers are very interested in iden0fying influen0al people for a product category.

• Professional opinion leaders

Professional opinion leaders are people such as doctors or scien0sts who obtain specialized informa0on from
technical journals and other prac00oners.

• The self-designa2ng method

The most commonly used technique to iden0fy opinion leader is simply to ask individual consumers whether
they consider themselves to be opinion leaders.

However, there are obvious problems with self- designa0on: skep2cism → Some people inflate their own
importance and influence, whereas others who really are influen0al might not admit to this quality or be
conscious of it.

• Sociometry

Sociometric methods trace communica0on pa^erns among group members and allow researchers to map out
the interac0ons among group members.

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Social media: the horizontal revolu7on

HORIZONTAL REVOLUTION: It’s horizontal because communica0ons no longer just flow top-down from
companies and established media. They also flow across regular users via social media.

Most popular tools used in social media: Search Engine Op0miza0on (SEO), Search Engine Marke0ng (SEM)
Differences between them : Create content of interest for our consumers to get popular on social media

Social media plaiorms enable a culture of par0cipa0on.

a) Online Social Networks and Brand Communi7es

Virtual Brand Communi2es: e-consumers are not limited to local retail outlets in their shopping, they are not
limited to their local communi0es when they look for friends or fellow fans of wine, hip-hop, etc.
Each social media possesses a set of socially relevant nodes connected by one or more rela0ons.
Þ Nodes are members of the network who are connected to one another.

Flows occur between nodes. Flows are exchanges of resources, informa0on, or influence among members of
the network. As you create content, you create flows from among those in your network.

Successful online communi0es possess several important characteris0cs:

b) Social Games

A social game is a mul0player, compe00ve, goal-oriented ac0vity with defined rules of engagement and online
connec0vity among a community of players.

c) Digital word-of-mouth

Viral marke0ng occurs when an organiza0on mo0vates visitors to forward online content to their friends; the
message quickly spreads much like a cold virus moves among residents of a dorm.
Þ Smart marketers do whatever they can to encourage the use of video WOM for their products.

d) Why do we post

The viral marke0ng explosion highlights the power of the Megaphone Effect.

e) Online opinion leaders / influencers

The internet makes opinion leaders even more powerful.

INFLUENCERS (power users): These influencers are also called MASS CONNECTORS.
• Power users are ac0ve par0cipants at work and in their communi0es genera0ng influence impressions.
o In adver0sing terms, an impression refers to a view or an exposure to an adver0sing message.

f) Influencer marke7ng
The impact of online recommenda0ons by celebri0es or even by ‘micro-celebri0es’.

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