Influence of reference groups on purchasing behaviour (personal Essay

Influence of reference groups on purchasing behaviour (personal examples with reference to academic literature) - Essay Example Even in this technology driven consumer world, the purchasing decisions can be greatly influenced by so many social factors like family, peers and the society in which the consumer is interacting. These entities which influence the purchasing behavior of a consumer is generally referred as ‘reference groups’ and this paper briefly analyses the influence of different reference groups in the purchasing of consumers in general and female consumers in particular. â€Å"A reference group is an actual or imaginary individual or group having significant similarities in their evaluations, aspirations, or behavior† (Park & Lessig, 1982, p.102) Family, peers and societies are some reference groups which can affect the purchasing behavior of a person. These reference groups can influence the consumer in different ways like informational influence, motivational influence, utilitarian influence and value-expressive influence. A consumer will get information about a product from family, peer group or from the society. For example, consider a child got information about a new toy or video game from his friends (peer group) or from different toy shops (society). Moreover the peer group can motivate the child to purchase that toy or video game by explaining the special features about that product. On the other hand when the child ask his parents (family) to purchase that toy or video game for him, the parents will discuss the utility of that toy w ith him initially. Moreover they will discuss the price (Value) of the product also before taking the final decision about whether to purchase it or not. â€Å"Parents, teachers, and peers are representative of normative referents who provide the individual with norms, attitudes, and values through direct interaction (Childers & Rao, 1992, p.199). Normative referents are the ones with we usually interact directly. The direct interaction will help us to