Social Influences
Social influence is a major topic in social psychology and looks at how individual thoughts, actions and feelings are influenced by social groups. There are various types of social influence including peer pressure, obedience, leadership, conformity and persuasion.
Culture
Culture is the patterns of behavior and thinking that people living in social groups learn, create, and share. Culture distinguishes one human group from others. A people's culture includes their beliefs, rules of behavior, language, rituals, art, technology, styles of dress, ways of producing and cooking food, religion, and political and economic systems. People learn their behavior from their culture. Attitudes of society will affect their behavior.
Social Class
Most societies have a social-class hierarchy that confers higher status to some classes of people than others. These social classes consist of identifiable groups of individuals whose behavior and lifestyles differ from members of the other classes. Members of a particular social class tend to share similar values and behavior patterns. Note that social classes are loose collections of individuals with similar life experiences, not formal groups with a strong identity.
Upper Americans:
-Upper-upper: The ‘capital-S society’ world of inherited wealth, aristocratic names
-Lower-upper: Newer social elite, drawn from current professional, corporate leadership
-Upper-middle: The rest of college-graduate managers and professionals; lifestyle centres on private clubs, causes and the arts
Middle Americans:
-Middle class: Average-pay white-collar workers and their blue-collarfriends live on the ‘better side of town’, try to ‘do the properthing’.
-Working class: Average-pay blue-collar workers; lead ‘working-class lifestyle’ whatever the income, school, background orjob.
Lower Americans:
-‘A lower group of people,but not the lowest": Working not on welfare; living standard is just above poverty.
-‘Real lower-lower’: On welfare, visibly poverty stricken, usually out of work (or have ‘dirtiest jobs’)
Upper Americans:
-Upper-upper: The ‘capital-S society’ world of inherited wealth, aristocratic names
-Lower-upper: Newer social elite, drawn from current professional, corporate leadership
-Upper-middle: The rest of college-graduate managers and professionals; lifestyle centres on private clubs, causes and the arts
Middle Americans:
-Middle class: Average-pay white-collar workers and their blue-collarfriends live on the ‘better side of town’, try to ‘do the properthing’.
-Working class: Average-pay blue-collar workers; lead ‘working-class lifestyle’ whatever the income, school, background orjob.
Lower Americans:
-‘A lower group of people,but not the lowest": Working not on welfare; living standard is just above poverty.
-‘Real lower-lower’: On welfare, visibly poverty stricken, usually out of work (or have ‘dirtiest jobs’)
Reference Groups
The beliefs and consumption practices of a reference group can influence a consumer’s behavior. Individuals take cues from reference groups when they are purchasing anything from clothing to automobiles. Usually, reference groups influence consumers in two main ways: normative influence and informational influence.
Normative Influence:
-This occurs when a consumer performs an action in order to conform to another person’s expectations. This influence is driven by established norms of behavior what is acceptable to society. The reference group that exerts normative influence derives this power through its ability to reward or punish the individual’s behavior. Normative influence can affect the products we choose to purchase, for example we may buy certain types of clothing so as to avoid ridicule (or receive compliments) from our friends.
Informational Influence:
-This occurs when someone else provides information to the consumer to help them make a purchase decision. This information is often based on personal experience; friends recommending tried and tested products that they believe will perform well. This can save the consumer considerable time and money both before and after a purchase – before, since it cuts down on required search time; after, since a reliable product would incur fewer repair and replacement costs.
Normative Influence:
-This occurs when a consumer performs an action in order to conform to another person’s expectations. This influence is driven by established norms of behavior what is acceptable to society. The reference group that exerts normative influence derives this power through its ability to reward or punish the individual’s behavior. Normative influence can affect the products we choose to purchase, for example we may buy certain types of clothing so as to avoid ridicule (or receive compliments) from our friends.
Informational Influence:
-This occurs when someone else provides information to the consumer to help them make a purchase decision. This information is often based on personal experience; friends recommending tried and tested products that they believe will perform well. This can save the consumer considerable time and money both before and after a purchase – before, since it cuts down on required search time; after, since a reliable product would incur fewer repair and replacement costs.
Family
Families influence purchases in many ways.A consumer's family is one of the most significant factors because a family helps shape an individual's attitudes and behaviors.One way to understand the family's impact on consumer behavior is to identify the decision maker for a purchase. A decision maker for a purchase can be a husband, wife, or even a child, and sometimes decisions are made in collaboration. Often, the decision maker changes based on the type of purchase or the size of the purchase. A new refrigerator, for example, is likely to be a joint decision, while a week's groceries might be selected by a single member of the family.
Social Media
The influence of media on consumer behavior is profound. The billions of dollars spent in advertising each year attest to the impact of media on consumer purchasing and buying preferences. The ability of media to shape consumer trends and tastes through media such as movies, television shows and music is all-pervasive. New media such as Internet sites accelerates consumer receptivity to products through comments made on websites and blogs.