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Consumer Behaviour

Notes 9.1 Consumer related Reference Groups

An individual can be a member of a reference group such as the family and would be said to be
part of a membership group. This same individual may aspire to belong to a cricket club and
would be said to be apart of an aspiration group. A disclaimant group is one to which an
individual may belong to or join and then reject the group's values. An individual may also
regard the membership in a specific group as something undesirable and to be avoided. Such a
group is a dissociative group. Figure 9.1 depicts types of reference groups.

Membership Groups

Positive reference groups are important and classified as primary or secondary and formal and
informal. If a person maintains regular contact with family members, friends and business
associates, all those individuals constitute a primary group. People, who meet less frequently
such as those who meet during morning walk or club members. From the marketer's point of
view, primary groups are more important because they influence consumer's product beliefs,
tastes and preferences and have a more direct effect on buying behaviour (Figure 9.1). Research
supports the view that members of primary groups are more likely to buy the same brands.
Groups can also be divided on the basis whether they have a formal structure such as a president,
executive and secretary etc. in a hierarchical order with specific roles. The structure of an informal
group is loosely defined.

Example: When three individuals become friends while pursuing a course on computer
applications and on every last Saturday of each month meet for dinner, then it would be considered
an informal group. In the table depicts the types of formal and informal groups.

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