Dr.

Kelly Haws
MKTG 650

What is Word-of-Mouth and why is it so

important?
How do others influence our behaviors?
Reference groups

How do consumers seek to conform or

comply?
How do others affect our actions even if they
are not physically present?

Gilovich,Thomas and Kenneth Savitsky (1999),

The Spotlight Effect and the Illusion of
Transparency: Egocentric Assessments of How
We Are Seen by Others
Levy, Piet (2009), I Tube, YouTube, Marketing

News

Argo, Jennifer J., Darren W. Dahl, and Andrea C.

Morales (2006), Consumer Contamination: How
Consumers React to Products Touched by Others
Nudge, Chapter 3, Following the Herd
Goldstein, Noah J., Robert B. Cialdini, and Vladas
Griskevicius (2008), A Room with a Viewpoint:
Using Social Norms to Motivate Environmental
Conservation in Hotels

Word-of-Mouth

Our perceptions of Others Opinions/Actions

Reference Groups

Conformity and Compliance

Often the most significant

source of info for consumers

WOM: product information

transmitted by individuals to
individuals

Perceived as more reliable/trustworthy

than traditional marketing
Backed by social pressure to conform
with recommendations
Influences two-thirds of all sales of
goods
WOM is especially powerful when we
are unfamiliar with a product category

Word of mouth about products is more likely if

the product is

Visible
Risky
High involvement
Distinctive
New
Self-image related

Methods:

Encourage WOM in Advertising

Teaser campaign

Methods:

Encourage WOM in Advertising

Teaser campaign
Provide Free trial / Free samples
Provide incentives for referrals
Viral Marketing

Mere Presence Effect

People do not even have to say anything to
influence our behavior

Mere presence of other shoppers

changes our behavior
More likely to buy name brands
Less contact with products
Rush our decisions

Groups provide norms, roles, information,

and status.

Reference Group = Person or group of

people that significantly influences an
individuals behavior

Aspiration groups = groups that we

admire & desire to be like

Identity groups = groups to which we

currently belong

Dissociative groups = groups we do not

want to emulate

 In-group = group to which a person perceives

he/she belongs
Out-group = all other groups
Different beliefs about in-groups vs. out-groups
View in-group members more favorably
Greater complexity for in-group schemas
More variability for in-group members
Less extreme overall evaluations

Social Class Emblems

Geographic Emblems
Ethnic Emblems
Gender Emblems

Reference group effects are more robust for

purchases that are:
Luxuries rather than necessities
Socially conspicuous/visible to others

Admirational strategies concentrate on highly

visible, widely admired figures (athletes or
performers)
Membership strategies focus on ordinary people
whose consumption provides informational social
influence
Avoidance strategies focus on undesirable people
using competitors product

Most people tend to follow societys

expectations regarding how members of their
groups look/act
Appropriate clothing/personal items, gift-giving,
sex roles, and personal hygiene

Tendency to yield to social influence

Conformity = Changing ones behavior or beliefs

to fit in with society's norms
Compliance = yielding to persuasion/requests
Think Cialdini and R-CLASS

Why conform?

Desire for rewards

More likely to conform in public than in private

Want to be liked/be like another

Assume others have more info than you

Identify which line (A, B,

or C) is longer than the
reference line.

Reference Line

Subject 1 : identifies C
Subject 2: identifies C
Q: Percent of people who identify C as longer?

Teachers instructed to teach learners by

shocking them
Shocks ranged from 15V - 450V
All subjects expected to disobey by 135V
None expected to ever go above 300V

Explain both the spotlight effect

and the illusion of transparency.
How can each of these be related
to consumer behavior?***

Others have a big effect because we (wrongly)

believe that they really notice us and care
Spotlight Effect (Gilovich et. al)

Mere Presence Effect

People do not even have to say anything to
influence our behavior

Mere presence of other shoppers changes

our behavior
More likely to buy name brands
Less contact with products
Rush our decisions

What do we often fail to take into account

when anticipating how we will be judged by
others and how does this impacts our
judgments and decision making?***

This is relevant to but not directly from the

reading. How might the German term
schadenfreude be related to consumer
behavior? Please look it up if you have no idea
what it is. How does it fit into our overall
theme this week of social and interpersonal
influence?

What are some keys to viral marketing and

the use of YouTube type outlets?***

Argo, Jennifer J., Darren W. Dahl, and Andrea

C. Morales (2006), Consumer Contamination:
How Consumers React to Products Touched
by Others, Journal of Marketing, 70 (2), pp.
81-94. (Library)

A Brush With Danger

New York Sun (2005)

E Coli in the product samples at the cosmetic

counter

Why we Buy

Trying Experiences

Paco Underhill (2000)

Towels are touched on average 6 times before

purchase you ought to wash them when you buy
Fragile merchandise damaged (e.g., greeting
cards, produce)
Washington Post (2003)

Biggest dressing room complaint is other

customers tried on clothing

Why do we see contamination effects rather

than popularity?***
What kind of others are providing the social
influence here?

Contamination Cues
Proximity to contact
Time elapsed since contact
Number of contact sources

Do you agree that feelings of disgust is the

underlying mechanism driving consumers to
respond unfavorably to products touched by
other consumers? If not, what else might it
be?***

Their studies focus on the clothing category,

but think about other product categories
where the theory of consumer contamination
might apply. ***
How much should consumer contamination be
taken into account when deciding a companys
return policy?

They provide suggestions for mitigating the

effects of product contamination. Analyze
these suggestions and link your thought to
previous readings from the course (e.g.,
Brand Sense).

Goldstein, Noah J., Robert B. Cialdini, and

Vladas Griskevicius (2008), A Room with a
Viewpoint: Using Social Norms to Motivate
Environmental Conservation in Hotels,
Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (August),
pp. 472-82. (Library)

What is the overall basic hypothesis being

tested in this research and how is it
tested?***
What is a reference group?

What is a provincial vs. a global norm? And

how does this distinction related to reference
groups?***
What is the main hypothesis for study 2, and
what did they find?***

Across both research articles (Argo et al. and

Goldstein et al): What is the primary research
methodology used in both of these papers?
What are the advantages and disadvantages
of this approach and why did the researchers
use this method?

What is Word-of-Mouth and why is it so

important?
Often thought of as THE most important

How do others influence our behaviors?

Reference groupswe can help form these

How do consumers seek to conform or

comply?
How do others affect our actions even if they
are not physically present?