Critical Thinking Exercises

Having knowledge of your consumer and them of you verse having them have knowledge of your business will draw them to the front door of your business.

As stated in "You May Ask Yourself" by Dalton Conley a reference group is defined as "a group that helps us understand or make sense of our position in society relative to other groups"(Conley 161). There are many reference groups that we all encounter and compare ourselves to everyday without even noticing that we are doing so. This groups can include classmates, clubs, teammates(if you play or played a sport), and many other groups that we could encounter on a daily basis. I found that I would often use the goalies on the opposing teams as a reference group to judge my performance as a lacrosse goalie. In doing this I either left a game feeling great, or

Group forces influence buying because there may be a complex set of smaller decisions made or influenced by several individuals. The degree of involvement of each member varies. Three questions are taken into consideration when a decision is being considered, which organizational members take part in the buying process, what is each member’s relative influence in the decision, and what criteria are important to each. All of the deciders from Gentech worked as a group on the purchasing decision each had an involvement and came to a decision as a group.

In the case of Stephanie Riesling, you can see the consumer go through the five steps of the consumer decision process as she goes through the journey of purchasing a new car. Stephanie is a senior about to graduate college, in the consumer decision making process, she is about to embark in a life stage change. This leads her to recognize her need for a new car. The next phase of the process was information search, she was not sure what car she wanted to purchase, but knew she needed something that was nice looking, in her price range and was known to last a long time. She narrowed her car search down to a consideration set of four vehicles. She did a lot of external searches for information, using non-marketing sources. She used personal sources from acquaintances and independent sources like consumer reports. She has a high involvement in the determination of information search, since this was an expensive purchase for herself. The consumer final reaches the third step of the process and had the it narrowed down to one car brand, but had alternative things to consider, like features on the car and the color of the car. She had an evaluation criterion that she set of things that must be on the car and the rest was negotiable depending on cost. Based on the case it sounds like the consumer

Reference groups are actual or imaginary individual or group that significantly influences an individual’s evaluations, aspirations, or behavior. Reference group influences us in three ways: informational, utilitarian, and value-expressive. The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is an American non-profit organization, which backs for gun rights. NRA has been acknowledging its members about gun-related bills. NRA has also been directly promoted against legislation.

In the selection “Groups and Conformity" by Michael R. Solomon, he talks about how people in groups are more influential than an individual person would be. When a person basically changes their attitude or behavior just to fit into a group is a reference group. There are three forms of reference group’s influence. The first one is informational influence. With this influence, people seek out information on different products before they buy the product. The second one is utilitarian influence. In this influence, before people make a decision on a product, they go to family or friends and see what they think of the product first. The third one is value-expressive influence. In this influence, people feel like they will be more successful when

The main point of Hydroxycut is to help loose weight in a fast amount of time just like every woman wants diamonds, I think that everyone wants that youthful looking body back as well. We all want the energy that we had as a youth and the metabolism as well so that we can eat whatever

How can we consider Jimmy Buffet as members of a reference group? A brand community. The definition of a reference group is the people of whose attitudes, behavior, beliefs, opinions, preferences, and values are used by an individual as the basis for his or her judgment. One does not have to be (or even aspire to be) a member of a reference group to be negatively or positively influenced by its characteristics. Jimmy Buffet fans are a part of reference group because they each relate to each other with similar beliefs and behaviors and all have a common bond in following the music of Jimmy Buffet and follow the themes of the fan base similar to dead heads

2.Social Factors: A consumer's behaviour is influenced by such social factors as reference groups, family and social roles and statuses. A person's reference group consists of all the groups that have a direct or indirect influence on the person's attitudes or behaviour (Kotler, 2000, pp.163). Reference Groups create pressures for conformity that affect actual product and brand choices. The MiZone and Aqua Blue range of bottled water is aimed and is consumed by people who do considerable exercise and are concerned about their fitness and well being. Consumers in this group would notice that their peers consumed MiZone or Aqua Blue and would then purchase it themselves.

The syllabus and our class conversations have highlighted some of the topics we will discuss in this class. Which topic/issue/theme do you think will be the most uncomfortable one (for you) to discuss? Why?

Reference groups sometimes have the same meaning as in-groups. This is mostly when the reference group accepts the individual. An example of this is when a black wants to be part of the white majority, and isnt able to because of his color and affiliation with the black in-group. This is brought on by the demand for people color to adapt to white culture. In doing so, people of color are forced to rid themselves of taking pride in their ethnicity and culture. By doing this, a person of color may develop self-hate for themselves as individual or for their group. The minority group member is forced to make the dominant majority his reference group in respect to language, manners, morals, and law. He may be entirely loyal to his minority in-group, but he is at the same time always under the necessity of relating himself to the standards and expectations of the majority (Allport 95). The dominant majority is for him a reference group. It exerts a strong pull upon him, forcing attitudinal conformity. Thus, both in-groups and reference groups are important in the formation of attitudes (Allport 97).

Taking a closer look at our social class, we can see all of the social factors that are involved in the purchasing of consumer goods. Factors such as relationships, personal roles, and economic stability. Relational influences often tend to be one of the largest factors in looking at a product. Normally, a family member, friend, or coworker might convey their approval for a product, in

In order to understand what reference group influences are, it is necessary to firstly understand what a reference group is. The depth of information surrounding reference groups and the influences they poses on individuals, particularly on consumer purchasing behaviour is vast and one could get lost in the mist of it all. Therefore, it is vital to ensure that only research relevant to this study is included in this section, thus an overview of what a reference group is will be provided, then the different types of reference groups will be explored based on previous research, then the data will start to look at the influences reference groups have on individuals, and their purchasing behaviour, in order to fully understand the power that reference groups have.

Buying a car is a high-involvement purchase as you can be faced was a large selection of choices. When figuring out which car to buy, consumers consult the advice of family and friends. However, according to a vehicle customer survey from Maritz Research, the most important information that is also the most influential in the buying decision tends to come from an individual that has a lot of knowledge on the product, such as a cars salesperson at the dealership. Considering the complex nature of this decision, reference groups play a large role. A reference group is ‘an actual or imaginary individual or group conceived of having significant relevance upon an individual or group’s aspirations

In a group, several individuals may interact to influence the purchase decision. The typical roles in such a group decision can be summarised as follows: