• Unit 7: The Effects of Consumer Groups

    In its broadest sense, a group is two or more people with shared norms, values, or beliefs who have relationships with one another and who exhibit interdependent behaviors. The household is important to marketers because it is the basic purchasing and consuming unit for most goods. Family households are also the primary place where values and behaviors are passed on to subsequent generations. Marketers are mainly concerned with two main types of households: families and nonfamilies.

    This unit covers the various types of groups a consumer may belong to and how they could influence their decision-making.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.

    • Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

      • explain how we are motivated to buy or use products in order to be consistent with what other people do;
      • explain that the things that other consumers say about products (good and bad) are often more influential than the advertising we see;
      • assess how online technologies are accelerating the impact of word-of-mouth communication;
      • identify how social networking is changing the way companies and consumers interact; and
      • identify that many important demographic dimensions of a population relate to family and household structure.

    • 7.1: Consumer Groups

      A consumer group is consumers who share some norms, values, or beliefs and have certain relationships with one another that affect their behaviors. Important questions for marketers to ask concerning groups include:

      • What types of influence do groups exert on individuals?
      • How does group influence vary across products and brands?
      • How can marketers use groups to develop effective marketing strategies?
      • Social Factors Page
      • Social Influences Page

        Social influence is the trend of how our beliefs and behaviors tend to be similar to others around us. These influences can occur consciously or subconsciously. This chapter compares the different types of social influences, reference groups versus opinion leaders, and the role influencers play in consumer decision-making.

    • 7.2: Demographic Groups

      Societies are partly described by their demographics, which include a population's size, distribution, and structure (such as by age, income, education, and occupation). Demographics is a powerful tool for marketers, who frequently segment markets based on a combination of two or more demographic descriptors.

      • Demographic Influences Page

        A consumer's household or family also has a major influence on their attitude and behavior. These influences include their standing in the household group (parent, teen, and so on), their family lifecycle, and their age cohort. Read this chapter which discusses household influences as well as other demographic influences. Who makes the important purchase decisions in your household? What age cohorts are present in your house?

    • Unit 7 Study Resources

      This review video is an excellent way to review what you've learned so far and is presented by one of the professors who created the course.

    • Unit 7 Assessment

      • Unit 7 Assessment Quiz
        Receive a grade

        Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.

        • This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
        • You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
        • You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.