The Importance of Reference Groups in Purchase Decisions

A reference group is a collection of people that are used as a standard of comparison for ourselves, regardless of whether we are part of that group. Reference groups are used to evaluate the relative worth of one's feelings, thoughts, appearance, and behavior capability to judge the appropriateness of our appearance and behavior. Therefore, reference groups affect the purchase decision and state of consumers to the product and brand. There are direct or indirect reference groups. The study establishes that whether they are classified as primary or secondary they are important for any business that wants to market products or services to consumers as they influence the purchasing decision of individuals in their groups who are potential consumers.

The paper will discuss the importance of reference groups in purchase decisions, the relevance of reference groups to the purchase decision, norms of the social groups and possibility of using Asch-Type Situation in purchasing shoes, car and an iPhone.

The Importance of Reference Groups in Purchase Decisions

1. Shoes. culture is a factor that influences a consumer's buying decisions. This is the preferences, values, and ideologies of a community. This influences buyer’s decision depending on acceptable behavior and choices when buying shoes (Solanki, 2018). Their influence will be Informational influence since it is one's desire of individuals to hold an accurate view of reality and more knowledge about the situations, in this case, they are family, peers and close friends. When an individual in a situation is unsure of the correct way to behave, they look to others for cues of the correct behavior. Individuals conform because they believe that the interpretation that others have made of an ambiguous situation is more accurate than their own, and conforming will be the appropriate and accepted route of action. The judgments and choices will be formed under informational influence and they are maintained regardless if other individuals in groups can observe behavior decisions and patterns.

2. Cars. For purchase of a car Social factors, is the major influence on such a decision, this refers to the groups to which the customer belongs and his or her social status. In the case of a car, normative influence occurs and it happens when an individual follows group expectation to gain a direct reward to avoid a sanction. This affects a brand because it is related to the type of bond one has with its reference groups. If they are heavily influenced by them they'll purchase whatever brand the group buys.

3. iPhone. Social class or status influences buying decisions. As a member of a certain social class, one is ought to conform to similar behavior, interests, and values. Factors such as income, people in the same occupation, educational system neighborhood can motivate one to buy an iPhone. In this case, the individuals are affected by the identification influence because they live under pressure. This affects a brand because individuals will want a particular brand if someone close to them because they were told to do so by their friend or family member.

Reference Groups Relevant to the Purchase Decision

1. Shoes. Primary reference groups are people whom you meet every day. They can be from your family, your close friends, your roommates, and schoolmates. Purchase of shoes can be influenced by these groups especially peers and schoolmates.

2. Car. Secondary reference groups are usually formal and you interact with them less frequently. Mostly, they are professionals, collogues or seniors at work. There is a tendency of admiring such character and possibly would motivate one to buy a car.

3. iPhone. both Primary Groups and Secondary Groups may influence one into Buying an iPhone, simply because your peers can give you honest and clear advice because they are close to you, and collogues or seniors at work may own such phones thus influencing you to purchase on so as to keep up with their class.

Norms of the Social Groups

1. Shoes. In the purchase of shoes, one belongs to a primary group, that is a group in which one exchanges implicit items, such as love, caring, concern and support. With such, one may be facing normative influence so that they fit in, or be accepted as belonging to a certain group, failure to which may lead to one being disregarded as not capable of affording a certain type of shoe and discriminated amongst their peers and loose social acceptance.

2. Car. Referent Informational Influence can influence an individual into buying a certain type of car, Referent Informational influence is based on the Self-Categorization Theory. This theory states that individuals will categorize themselves into groups based on similarities that they have with others. A person may be tempted to buy a certain type of car that may be more classy than the currently owned one so as to meet the class of a specific group of people.

3. iPhone. Referent Informational Influence can influence an individual into buying a certain type of phone, especially an iPhone since they will feel they belong to a certain category unlike other regular phone owners and they try to imitate by copying referent behavior from people they look up to.

Possibility of Using Asch-Type Situation

1. Shoes. In purchasing shoes, most people will conform to the arch-type situation as they will want to think about society instead of focusing on their inner beliefs. They will go with the latest trends in the market regardless of the price and their preference taste.

2. Car. When purchasing a car, individuals will have their preference and taste, but they often choose the most likely brand and model that will be accepted by society instead of their choice. This is supported by the Asch Conformity Study, whereby individuals agreed with the group decisions

Claiming that the decisions did not look correct to them but since a different decision was the norm, they followed in pursuit this is as a result of the normative pressures the individual feels.

3. iPhone. During purchasing it is very likely for the consumers to buy iPhone so as to be able to gel in with the rest of the high class in the society since if they can not conform they can't belong to that particular class. This is common in college students clearly showing public compliance by changing behavior to conform to expressed attitudes, coercion, or group pressure.

Summary and Conclusions

In the final analysis, reference groups, whether they are classified as primary or secondary, are important for any business that wants to market products or services to consumers. Primary and secondary groups are intentional social groupings. The primary group refers to small groups that last long enough to form emotional attachments between members, differentiated roles, and a group subculture. In contrast, secondary groups refer to groups of people who are not emotionally involved with one another but come together for a practical purpose such as a class, military exercise, or work project. Primary and secondary groups differ in their main characteristics, the function they serve for group members, and the group members' qualitative experience of each. Understanding the role that primary and secondary groups play in social life is vital to all businesses that are interested in marketing their products and services to different consumers since the primary and secondary nature of groups tends to affect the dynamics, norms, values and purchasing decision of the group.

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