Page 176 - Marketing Management

ANALYZING CONSUMER MARKETS | CHAPTER 6 153

achievement and success, activity, efficiency and practicality, progress, material comfort, individu-
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alism, freedom, external comfort, humanitarianism, and youthfulness. A child growing up in
another country might have a different view of self, relationship to others, and rituals. Marketers
must closely attend to cultural values in every country to understand how to best market their
existing products and find opportunities for new products.
Each culture consists of smaller subcultures that provide more specific identification and
socialization for their members. Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and
geographic regions. When subcultures grow large and affluent enough, companies often design
specialized marketing programs to serve them.
Virtually all human societies exhibit social stratification, most often in the form of social classes,
relatively homogeneous and enduring divisions in a society, hierarchically ordered and with
members who share similar values, interests, and behavior. One classic depiction of social classes in
the United States defined seven ascending levels: (1) lower lowers, (2) upper lowers, (3) working
class, (4) middle class, (5) upper middles, (6) lower uppers, and (7) upper uppers. 4
Social class members show distinct product and brand preferences in many areas, including
clothing, home furnishings, leisure activities, and automobiles. They also differ in media prefer-
ences; upper-class consumers often prefer magazines and books, and lower-class consumers often
prefer television. Even within a category such as TV, upper-class consumers may show greater
preference for news and drama, whereas lower-class consumers may lean toward reality shows and
sports. There are also language differences—advertising copy and dialogue must ring true to the
targeted social class.

Social Factors
In addition to cultural factors, social factors such as reference groups, family, and social roles and
statuses affect our buying behavior.

REFERENCE GROUPS A person’s reference groups are all the groups that have a direct (face-
to-face) or indirect influence on their attitudes or behavior. Groups having a direct influence are
called membership groups. Some of these are primary groups with whom the person interacts
fairly continuously and informally, such as family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. People also
belong to secondary groups, such as religious, professional, and trade-union groups, which tend to
be more formal and require less continuous interaction.
Reference groups influence members in at least three ways. They expose an individual to new
behaviors and lifestyles, they influence attitudes and self-concept, and they create pressures for
conformity that may affect product and brand choices. People are also influenced by groups to
which they do not belong. Aspirational groups are those a person hopes to join; dissociative
groups are those whose values or behavior an individual rejects.
Where reference group influence is strong, marketers must determine how to reach and influ-
ence the group’s opinion leaders. An opinion leader is the person who offers informal advice or
information about a specific product or product category, such as which of several brands is best or
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how a particular product may be used. Opinion leaders are often highly confident, socially active,
and frequent users of the category. Marketers try to reach them by identifying their demographic
and psychographic characteristics, identifying the media they read, and directing messages to them.
Clothing companies such as Hot Topic, which hope to appeal to the fickle and fashion-
conscious youth market, have used music in a concerted effort to monitor opinion leaders’ style
and behavior.

Hot Topic With over 600 stores in malls in 49 states and Puerto Rico, Hot Topic
has been hugely successful at using anti-establishment style in its fashions. The chain also
sells books, comics, jewelry, CDs, records, posters, and other paraphernalia. Hot Topic’s slogan,
“Everything about the music,” reflects its operating premise: Whether a teen is into rock,
pop-punk, emo, acid rap, rave, or rockabilly—or even more obscure musical tastes—Hot
Topic has the right T-shirt. To keep up with music trends, all Hot Topic staffers, from the CEO to the music-
obsessed salespeople (80 percent of whom are under 25), regularly attend concerts by up-and-coming
and established bands to scout who’s wearing what. Each store looks more like a campus student center