Editing Consumer behaviour (section)

====Reference groups====
A [[reference group]] is defined as "a group whose presumed perspectives or values are being used by an individual as the basis for his or her judgment, opinions, and actions". Reference groups are important because they are used to guide an individual's attitudes, beliefs and values.<ref name=":2" /> Insights into how consumers acquire a given value system can be obtained from an understanding of group influence and group socialisation processes.
[[File:Family eating meal.jpg|thumb|left|The family, a primary reference group, exerts a strong influence on attitudes and behaviours.]]
The literature identifies five broad types of reference group: primary, secondary, aspirational, dissociative and formal:
: ''Primary groups'': groups, such as family, that exert a strong influence on attitudes and behaviours
: ''Secondary groups'': groups such as clubs, societies, sports teams, political parties, religions that align with a person's ideas or values, but exert a less fundamental influence on the formation of attitudes and behaviours
: ''Aspirational groups'' groups to which an individual does not currently belong, but possibly aspires to become a member because the group possesses characteristics which are admired.
: ''Disassociative reference groups'' - a group which has a negative image; individuals may disapprove of the disassociative group's values, attitudes or behaviours and may seek to distance themselves from such groups.<ref name=":0" />

''[[Opinion leadership|Opinion Leaders]]'' can act like reference groups in that they exert considerable social influence because of their product knowledge, expertise and credibility. In the marketing literature, opinion leaders are also known as influencers, mavens, and even hubs.<ref>Iyengar, R., Valente, T. and Van den Bulte, C., "[http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/14400/volumes/v36/NA-36 Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Diffusion]", in '' Advances in Consumer Research'', Vol 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN: Association for Consumer Research, pp 36-37</ref> Opinion leaders are specific to a product category, so that an opinion leader for computers is not likely to be an opinion leader for fashion. Typically, opinion leaders have high levels of involvement with the product category, are heavy users of the category, and tend to be early adopters of new technologies within the category.  Journalists, celebrities, and bloggers are good examples of an opinion leader due to their broad social networks and increased ability to influence people's decisions.<ref name=":0" /> Indeed, recent evidence suggests that bloggers may be emerging as a more important group of opinion leaders than celebrities.<ref>Paul McIntyre, "Independent bloggers overtake celebrities as key social media influencers", ''Australian Financial Review'', 22 June 2015, Online: http://www.afr.com/business/independent-bloggers-overtake-celebrities-as-key-social-media-influencers-20150528-ghbovu;  (Note that an abridged version of this article also appeared in Marketing Magazine, 16 July 2015); Blogger Outreach dethroned Celebrity Endorsement, Marketing Magazine, 16 July 2015, Online: https://www.marketingmag.com.au/hubs-c/blogger-outreach-dethroned-celebrity-endorsement</ref>

In order to leverage the value of opinion leaders in marketing strategies, it is important to be able to identify the unique opinion leaders for each category or situation and this can be very challenging. Some techniques that can be used are through key informants, socio-metric techniques and self-questionnaires.<ref>Flynn, L. R., Goldsmith, R. E. and Eastman, J. K., "Opinion leaders and opinion seekers: Two new measurement scales", ''Journal of Academy of Marketing Science'', vol. 24, no. 2, pp 137-147.</ref> More often, however, marketers use gut instinct to identify opinion leaders. For example, marketers of athletic shoes have been known to provide gym and aerobic instructors with free shoes in the hope that class members will adopt the same brand as the instructor. Marketers of cosmetics and skincare preparations regularly provide fashion editors with free samples in the hope that their products will be mentioned in fashion magazines.