Exam 9: Reference Groups and Word-of-Mouth

Identify three of the key findings in research investigating the relationship between the effectiveness of an advertising message and the spokesperson or endorser employed.

The process by which one person informally influences the actions or attitudes of others is known as ________.

A(n)_______________ is either a person or medium providing consumption-related information and hired and paid by and organization. A(n)__________________ is person whom the message receiver knows personally, such as a parent or friend who gives product information or advice, or an individual met and respected online.

$\text{STUMBLEUPON MINI CASE:}$ StumbleUpon calls itself a "discovery engine" because, at one time, 50.27% of all traffic from a top 10 list of social sites came from StumbleUpon. Their relatively small group of users (15 million) often out-refers the larger user base from Facebook (over 1.15 billion). In fact, the influential users of StumbleUpon generate 1 billion page referrals per month. Their users, called "Stumblers", introduce other Stumblers and non-users to web content, providing a "map to an adventure you wouldn't otherwise have found out about." The influence of these Stumblers was deemed valuable by film marketers, who worked with StumbleUpon to promote films like Jurassic Park 3D and Evil Dead. Stumblers are young and highly engaged, so studios see the personalized search engine, which "learns" the preferences of its Stumblers, as a way to reach early influencers. -In the STUMBLEUPON MINI CASE, the influencers are expert informal sources of information, also known as ____________________________.

The traditional five adopter categories present in diffusion literature include all potential consumers present in the marketplace.

Which of the following does NOT enhance the credibility of a salesperson?

$\text{BZZAGENT MINI CASE:}$ BzzAgent is a word-of-mouth marketing agency that runs brand advocate programs for global brands. It recently partnered with a company to pair its social media and word-of-mouth insights with shopper loyalty data. The results indicated that consumers who were making repeat purchases were also more engaged and created a higher volume of advocacy. The information from this study is important to marketers, who are trying to find ways to engage advocates and influencers, especially via social media. Marketers are trying to figure out the characteristics of individuals who are most likely to influence others. -In the BZZAGENT MINI CASE, which of the following is a likely motivation for the individuals who influence others?

Which of the following is true of the characteristics of risk-averse consumers?

Identify and describe each of the five adopter categories.

Not-for-profit sources generally have more credibility than for-profit sources.

Innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards are all ________.

$\text{BZZAGENT MINI CASE:}$ BzzAgent is a word-of-mouth marketing agency that runs brand advocate programs for global brands. It recently partnered with a company to pair its social media and word-of-mouth insights with shopper loyalty data. The results indicated that consumers who were making repeat purchases were also more engaged and created a higher volume of advocacy. The information from this study is important to marketers, who are trying to find ways to engage advocates and influencers, especially via social media. Marketers are trying to figure out the characteristics of individuals who are most likely to influence others. -In the BZZAGENT MINI CASE, the desirable brand advocates are engaged in _________ when they advocate on behalf of products in social networks, brand communities, and blogs.

Professional tennis players may constitute a(n)________ group for an amateur tennis player who identifies with certain players by imitating their behavior whenever possible despite the fact that the amateur tennis player does not qualify for membership as a professional tennis player because he/she has neither the skills nor the opportunity to compete professionally.

The ________ category tends to perceive little risk in adopting new products. These consumers are even willing to pay high prices for newly-introduced products because they enjoy being the first to own them.

Social norm messages are more persuasive when they are credible and believable.

A(n)______________________ assists consumers in making consumption decisions and supports consumers' rights.

The sociometric method of measuring opinion leadership captures person-to-person communications about a product or brand among members of a community where most people know each other by name.

A symbolic group is a reference group to which an individual is unlikely to belong, but whose values and behaviors that person adopts.

Consumers view promotions initiated by marketers as more credible than feedback from reference groups.

Celebrity-credibility includes the audience's perceptions of the celebrity's ________________ and ______________________.