Explain the three types of reference groups and their implications for marketers.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A membership reference group is the group to which a consumer actually belongs. Membership groups could include school clubs, fraternities and sororities, and the workplace. Marketers who understand the influence members of these groups have on consumers can target products aimed at group members. For example, a local bank near your university might offer free checks for students or a debit card featuring the school's logo. Purchasing such products might be seen by new students as a way to assimilate to their new reference group.

An aspirational reference group refers to the individuals a consumer would like to emulate. For example, professional athletes represent an ideal for many people. Subway made use of this reference group in its marketing campaign in the weeks leading up to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Subway commercials showed athletes, such as swimmer Michael Phelps, talking about Subway products as an important part of their training regimen.

Dissociative reference groups include people that the individual would not like to be like. Teenagers and young adults provide perhaps the most notable example of dissociative reference groups: They actively seek to dissociate themselves from groups they view as "uncool" or as something their parents might be interested in. But dissociative reference groups can play a role in marketing to all consumers. DIRECTV has run a series of marketing campaigns to encourage consumers not to be like those who have traditional cable television.