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C H O O L JÖNKÖPING UNIVERSITYT h e i n f l u e n c e o f a n d
i n t e r a c t i o n b e t w e e n
s o c i a l i z a t i o n a g e n t s i n t h e
c h i l d - c o n s u m e r s p u r c h a s i n g
p r o c e s s
Paper within: Master thesis in Business Administration Author: Dijana Rubil
Caroline Schöld Tutor: Erik Hunter
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Mr. Benjamin Hartmann and Dr. Erik Hunter for their guidance and support during the process of writing this thesis -
“We would have been lost without you!”
The authors would like to thank the participants for their time and cooperation and also the principals of the two schools for their help.
Further on, many thanks to the ladies in our seminar group, for their many insights and ideas.
Last, but not least, many acknowledgements to our family and friends for their patience, and understanding during the time of craziness.
Thank you all!
_______________________ _______________________
Master‘s Thesis in Business Administration
Title: The influence of and interaction between socialization agents in the child-consumers purchasing process
Author: Dijana Rubil
Caroline Schöld
Tutor: Dr. Erik Hunter
Benjamin Hartmann
Date: [2010-05-21]
Subject terms: Socialization agents, Influences, Internet, Virtual Communities, Child consumption, Consumer behaviour, Decision-making process, Habitus, High involvement products, adolescents
Abstract
Background: In several years researchers have focused on identifying different socialization agents that influence the child consumer in the purchasing process. These studies have identified parents, friends and peers, television, role models, and different virtual communities as socialization agents. However, there is still no understanding of how the socialization agents are integrated in the decision-making process.
Purpose: Identify how the child-consumers are influenced by different sources in their decision-making process, and recognise the socialization agents‘ interaction as influencers.
Method: In order to identify the socialization agents that influence the child-consumer and to recognize how they are integrated in the decision-making process a qualitative method was used. The authors conducted both primary and secondary data search. The primary search was conducted through the use of group interviews in two different schools, which resulted in a total of 31 participants. The secondary data search was conducted through the use of Google Scholar, the Jönköping University library, and Internet websites. The interviews were further analysed based on qualitative analyses techniques.
Conclusion: The authors have found that there is a continuous interaction between the socialization agents in the decision-making process. The socialization agents, such as parents, siblings, friends and peers, television, role models and virtual communities, separately influence the adolescents in the purchasing process, however, the adolescents do not only take into consideration the opinion of one socialization agent but rather they use all of them. The authors have also found that the socialization agents act as support systems to other socialization agents, this in both influence and credibility.
Magisteruppsats i företagsekonomi
Titel: Påverkandet av och samspelet mellan socialiseringsagenter i barnkonsumentens process av beslutsfattande.
Författare: Dijana Rubil Caroline Schöld Handledare: Dr. Erik Hunter
Benjamin Hartmann
Datum: [2010-05-21]
Ämnesord: Socialiseringsagenter, Internet, Influenser, Internet, Virtuell kommunikation, Barn konsumtion, Konsumentbeteenden, Beslutsfattande processen, Habitus, hög involverings produkter, ungdomar
Sammanfattning
Bakgrund: I flera år har forskare fokuserat på att identifiera olika socialiseringsagenter som påverkar barnkonsumenten i dess köpprocess. Dessa studier har identifierat föräldrar, vänner och jämngamla, TV, förebilder, och olika virtuella samhällen som socialiseringsagenter. Dock, finns det fortfarande inte någon förståelse över hur socialiseringsagenter interagerar i beslutsfattande processen.
Syfte: Identifiera hur barnkonsumenter är påverkade av olika sociala faktorer i deras beslutsprocess, och ta reda på hur de socialiseringsagenter interagerar som influenser.
Metod: Med syfte att identifiera vilka sociala agenter som påverkar barnkonsumenter och att ta reda på hur de interagerar i deras beslutsprocess, har kvalitativa metoder använts. Författarna genomför både primär och sekundär informationsökning. Den primära informationssökningen var baserad på gruppintervjuer på två olika skolor, som resulterade i totalt 31 deltagare. Sekundär informationssökningen var genomförd med användning av Google scholar, biblioteket på Högskolan i Jönköping samt genom olika Internet sidor. Analyserandet av intervjuerna var baserat på tekniker för analysering av kvalitativ data.
Sammanfattning: Författarna har funnit att det pågår en kontinuerlig interagering mellan olika socialiseringsagenter i beslutsfattande processen. Socialiseringsagenter, så som föräldrar, syskon, vänner och jämngamla, TV, förebilder, samt virtuella samhällen, influerar konsumenten separat i besluts process, dock tar inte ungdomarna endast en agents åsikt i betraktande utan använder sig av alla de olika agenterna. Författarna har också funnit att socialiseringsagenter agerar som stöd för andra socialiserings agenter, både vad gäller inflytande och trovärdighet.
Table of Contents
1
Introduction ... 1
1.1 Background ... 1 1.2 Problem discussion ... 3 1.3 Purpose ... 4 1.3.1 Research Questions ... 4 1.4 Perspective ... 4 1.5 Delimitations ... 4 1.6 Definitions ... 52
Literature review ... 6
2.1 Choice of literature ... 62.2 Consumers in the market ... 7
2.2.1 Possessions and their meaning ... 7
2.2.2 The development of becoming a consumer ... 8
2.3 Decision-making process ... 9
2.3.1 Problem recognition ... 9
2.3.2 Information search ... 10
2.3.3 Evaluating and choosing ... 11
2.3.4 Post purchase ... 11
2.4 “Habitus” ... 12
2.5 Consumer socialization and Socialization agents: learning how to consume ... 13
2.5.1 Parents ... 15
2.5.2 Friends and peers ... 15
2.5.3 Television ... 16 2.5.4 Role models ... 17 2.5.5 Blogs ... 18 2.5.6 Online communities ... 18 2.6 Summary of literature ... 20
3
Methodology ... 22
3.1 Paradigm ... 22 3.2 Qualitative vs. Quantitative ... 223.3 Collecting the empirical material ... 23
3.3.1 Group Interview ... 24
3.3.2 Selection of participants ... 25
3.3.3 Ethical Issues ... 26
3.4 Analysis of empirical material ... 27
3.5 Reliability, Validity and Generalization ... 28
4
Findings from the interviews ... 30
4.1 Structure ... 30
4.2 General about mobile phones ... 30
4.3 The socialization agents ... 31
4.3.1 Parents ... 31
4.3.2 Friends and peers ... 32
4.3.3 Television and other media ... 33
4.3.5 Blogs ... 34 4.3.6 Online communities ... 35 4.4 Summary of findings ... 36 4.4.1 Process of decision-making ... 36
5
Analysis ... 37
5.1 Parents ... 38 5.2 Friends ... 39 5.3 Television ... 40 5.4 Role Models ... 41 5.5 Blogs... 42 5.6 Online communities ... 43 5.7 Process of decision-making ... 435.8 How socialization agents are intertwined with each other ... 47
6
Conclusion ... 50
7
Discussion ... 52
7.1 Critiques of the study ... 52
7.2 Suggestions of future research ... 53
8
References ... 54
Appendix 1 – Interview information ... 60
Appendix 2 - Guideline Questions for interviews ... 61
Appendix 3 – Letter to parents (Swedish) ... 62
9
Appendix 4 – Letter to parents (English) ... 63
List of Figures
Figure 1 Tension between "I" and "Me" and conumption as reconciler (Mittal, 2006, p. 556) ... 8Figure 2 Consumer information search (Bloch et al., 1986, p. 120) ... 11
Figure 3 Decision-making according to the authors ... 12
Figure 4 Offline and online communication (Brown et al., 2007, p.10) ... 19
Figure 5 Gender Distributions ... 23
Figure 6 Distribution of mobile phone brands among the participants ... 30
Figure 7 The socialization agents’ influence in the decision-making process. .. 46
Figure 8 The influence of one socialization agent without support ... 47
Figure 9 Socialization agent opinion supported by other socialization agents .. 48
1
Introduction
This part will introduce the reader to the thesis and give information about the background, the problem and purpose, which the researchers have chosen to investigate, followed by research questions. Additionally, this section will also bring up the delimitations, which will assist the reader in further reading.
1.1 Background
Studies conducted on adolescents‘ and children‘s consumption habits have before the 1970s been limited due to the conceptions that they did not have much to say about their consumption. However, research on their consumption behaviour has since then evolved and covered the decision-making process, the parental purchases, socialization agents and extensive research regarding advertising towards children (Ward, 1974, Damay, 2008, Roedder, 1999). The authors of this thesis intend to develop the concept of socialization agents one step further to understand how they are influencing and are integrated additionally, the authors intentions are to incorporate the socialization agents into the decision-making process to understand how the agents together influence the adolescent in the decision-making process. This research will use a specified product, a high involvement, as a starting point and examine how adolescents are affected by different influences when deciding what product to purchase. The high involvement product will in this case be a mobile phone (Turnbull, 2000). The choice of using a mobile phone as a tool is because most adolescents have one and are familiar with the purchasing process when purchasing one (Söderqvist, Hardell, Carlberg, & Hansson Mild, 2007). This way of having a specified product as a starting point has not been the focus of recent research. Lachance, Beaudoin, and Robitaille (2003) have conducted many of the few studies in that specific area; however, their choice of product has been fashion with specific brands.
The intention of purchasing a product has its roots in the consumer facing a problem that needs to be solved. To be able to solve the problem some kind of search occurs. Information search can be conducted in several different ways, and the information will eventually influence the consumers and their decision of which product or brand to purchase.
Consumer socialization is the process where the young individuals ―developed consumer-related skills, knowledge and attitudes‖ in other words it is the process where the person learns how to act as a consumer (Moschis & Churchill Jr., 1987, p. 599). In addition, Bahn (1986) also discusses the ―processes by which young people acquire skills, knowledge, and attributes relevant to their functioning as consumers in the market place‖ (Bahn, 1974, p 2; cited by Bahn 1986 p. 383) and refer to these processes as consumer socialization. These influences that develop consumer skills within a child are referred to as socialization agents, and are according to Moschis, and Churchill Jr. (1987) and Lachance et al. (2003) divided into three main groups: Parents, Friends and Television.
The research about socialization agents is extensive where several research studies have been conducted. However, the findings have been limited to certain countries and those that have been done within the subject have been conduced mostly in the US and Canada (Lachance et al., 2003). In addition to socialization agents being an important factor when deciding what product to purchase, the Internet has during recent years become a source of external information search, and has been pronounced as a socialization agent by Lee, Conroy and Hii (2003). According to Bickart and Schindler (2000), online communities, also known as forums, normally generate a higher interest for the product then do corporate WebPages and other online marketing efforts. Further, there may be other
factors affecting from the Internet, namely blogs, where bloggers write about their everyday life. However, previous research on the affects of blogs on adolescents are limited, even though that media present that the bloggers have great influence on adolescents. Blogs, which are journals online, today there are several different large blogs in Sweden that generate around 500.000 to 1 000.000 readers per week. These bloggers have been found to have large influence over consumption (Maria Sundén Jelmin, 2006).
The reason to why it is interesting to investigate the influence of the Internet is because of the many hours adolescents spend online. According to Ulltin (2007) the average time spent online is 13 hours per week, however 36 percent of the respondents of Ulltin‘s study mentioned that they spend more than 16 hours per week online. It is therefore suggested that Internet teaches adolescents how and what to consume. There is research that explains how television is associated to parents and friends (Ward, 1974), however since the research about the online influences is new there are not many findings about the relationship between Internet and other socialization agents.
Marketers are facing a large opportunity in targeting adolescents, reasons for this is according to Zollo (1999) that these adolescents, not only affect their parents expenditures, they are also trendsetters and will in the future spend their own money. These statements make it clear that there is a lack of research regarding Internet sources‘ interaction with the other socialization agents. Additionally, adolescents are an important segment for marketers to reach, and thus, the authors will through building on existing theories provide an understanding of the interaction of the sources influencing in the decision-making process of adolescents.
In a study conducted by Söderqvist, Hardell, and Carlberg (2008), it was stated that 99. 6 per cent of the respondents, adolescents between ages 15-19, had access to a mobile phone. Acknowledging this the authors wish to add to existing research on socialization agents‘ influence by investigating this phenomena in relation to a mobile phone purchase. Turnbull (2000) suggests that a mobile phone is a product that has high involvement, meaning that the consumer will do an extensive information search before purchase. This will in this thesis be helpful in understanding adolescents‘ behaviour and how they are influenced by external sources. In contrast to high involvement, low involvement products, such as chewing gums, are purchased out of habit and a low involvement product would not provide sufficient information regarding decision-making and influences. When purchasing high involvement products there will be a higher risk associated with the purchase (Woodside, 1974; cited by Mitchell, 1999). Mobile phones are expensive today, e.g. Nokia N97 costs approximately 4900 SEK at Elgiganten (Prisjakt, 2010) without a subscription, and the risk if one purchasing the wrong one is high, since one will not easily be able to change to another mobile, due to the high cost. Therefore it is likely that the consumer will look for more information compared to when purchasing low involvement products. Extensive information search can be made by talking to store personnel or with friends and family (Turnbull, 2000).
As stated, between around 90 per cent of the children in the particular age group have mobile phones; this could indicate that this research would contribute more if focus were on the post purchase stage of the decision-making process. However, in a study conducted by Bolin (2005) 94 per cent of the respondents, between the ages of 15-19, said that they have changed their mobile phone once during a period of five years; 70 percent of these have changed their phone two times, and 36 per cent say they have changed a mobile phone three times during a five-year period (Nilson, 2007).
The authors therefore assume that adolescents are in a problem recognition stage right after they have purchased a new phone, thus the main focus of this thesis is to investigate the influences that affect the child-consumer in the pre-purchase stages of the decision-making process.
For the authors to contribute to existing research, the intention is to specify the product (mobile phone) and from that develop the existing theories by identify how the socialization agents interact in the decision-making process and influence the child-consumers in the learning process of becoming a consumer. The objective is to add Internet based sources to the ―original‖ socialization agents and intertwine them into the decision-making. Additionally, since previous research states that boys appear to have weaker association with their peers than do girls (Harper Dewar & Diack 2003) the authors will also identify differences in how they are influenced.
1.2 Problem discussion
Few studies have been conducted in Sweden in the area of child-consumption and socialization agents. The research that has been done was conducted abroad and can in many cases not be generalized to another country. Historically there has been a low interest in child consumption and adolescents‘ consumption behaviour (Ward, 1974). Few studies in consumption among adolescents with regard to decision-making process, and the external factors that influence the adolescents, have been conducted. Even though it has been found that Internet can function as a socialization agent, not much research has been conducted on this. Further, not much research has been conducted, investigating how all these socialization agents interact and together influence the adolescent in their decision-making, therefore this thesis aim is to fill this gap by building on the existing literature regarding socialization agents and decision-making, further, related research on possessions meanings and the concept of habitus will be included.
The social learning theory states that adolescents are taught how to become a consumer by watching and being influenced by others. These influences are referred to as socialization agents. Socialization agents such as parents, friends, television and role models affect the adolescent in what to purchase and how to come about when purchasing. Internet has been found to be a socialization agent however; there has not been any research on how Internet and socialization agents combined together, form and influence the purchasing behaviour of adolescents (Moschis & Churchill, 1978; Moschis & Moore, 1979, 1982; Moschis, 1985).
As mentioned in the background the majority of the adolescent in the ages between 13-15 have access to a mobile phone, and according to Batat (2008) a mobile phone can be understood as an extended part of body to adolescents. Meaning that products contribute to who a person is, and products have an important place to many people including adolescents (Montemayor and Eisen 1977; cited by Belk, 1988). According to Roedder (1999) children in the ages 11-12 have an understanding of products‘ social meaning and status, additionally they start understand how these products are related to group identity. It is important to notify that this study will not be about mobile phones; rather the mobile phone will serve as a tool for the authors when investigating socialization agents and their influence and interaction.
Understanding the process of information search the child-consumers do, and what agents and networks that contribute to this information is a further development of the research around socialization agents and other networks. Additionally it also increases the
knowledge of the child-consumers way of thinking and acting in the decision-making process when purchasing a mobile phone.
1.3 Purpose
Identify how the child-consumers are influenced by different sources in their decision-making process, and recognise the socialization agents‘ interaction as influencers.
1.3.1 Research Questions
Consumer behaviour is a complex science and to understand by whom and when adolescents are influenced by when purchasing mobile phones the authors have specified the following research questions:
Research Question 1: What social influences affect the child-consumers in their
learning process of which mobile phone to purchase?
Research Question 2: In what way do socialization agents; parents, friends, television,
and also virtual communities together influence the child-consumer when taking a decision on potentially purchasing a mobile phone?
Additionally the authors will consider the following research question, however, it will not be as important as Research Question 1 and 2.
Research Question 3: What are the differences between boys and girls regarding their
receptiveness of social influences when deciding to potentially purchase a mobile phone?
1.4 Perspective
The research has been conducted from a consumer base perspective where the authors have investigated what social sources the child-consumer finds information from and how the information from these sources influence the child-consumer in a potential mobile phone purchase. It is important to understand consumers and how they make decisions in their everyday life, as the consumers are crucial for all types of businesses (Olson & Reynolds, 2008). The authors believe that for a business to be profitable it needs to understand its customers to be able to deliver satisfactory products and services. Therefore the thesis is based upon a consumer perspective.
1.5 Delimitations
The authors have decided to limit the research to regard adolescents in the ages 13 to 16, which are the students that attend upper school, since statistics have shown that a high number of individuals within this group consume mobile telephones (Batat, 2008) and thus will provide information about influences in the decision-making process. A second reason to why this age group was selected was to make it easier for the researchers to gather the data as the researcher only had to visit schools with this age group included. The authors have also limited themselves to the size of the city, due to convenience. The city is referred to as a medium sized city in Sweden between 20 000 to 50 000 inhabitants (SCB, 2003). The authors will not bring about the discussion regarding the social class of the family, income levels, education of family members, the family structure and the living habits of the child-consumer, because the authors believe that this is of no relevance in the process of understanding how socialization agent interact during the purchasing process. Further,
the authors were only able to interview the adolescents for one hour and bringing these issues to discussion would have required more time.
Additionally the authors will not take into consideration the different technical attributes the mobile phones have, but instead will only consider the external factors that are influential when the child-consumer purchases that specific mobile phone.
1.6 Definitions
Blog: Originates from the word Weblog – ―Web‖ and ―log‖. A blog is an online journal
where persons, groups or organisations can write and record daily activities, thoughts and attitudes (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009a). Blogs are according to Solomon (2009) the fastest growing online community. The blogs that are mentioned in this thesis are; Kissies.se (Alexandra Nilsson), Blondinbella.se (Isabella Löwengrip) och Kenzas.se (Kenza Zouiten).
Child consumer: The concept ―child-consumer‖ will in this thesis also be referred to as
adolescent, in the ages between 13-16.
Online communities: Or forums are sites created for an open discussion among the
public or the members of the site. An online community is created when enough of people carry out a discussion online during an extended time about ―non-private‖ matters (Brown, Broderick, & Lee, 2007).
Socialization agents: A source of influence, which pass on their ―norms, attitudes,
motivations and behaviours to the learner‖ (Moschis, & Churchill, 1987, p. 600). This can be a person or an organisation, however it needs to be somebody with frequent interacts with the learner and somebody who controls punishments and rewards. The authors will also add Internet based sources to the original ones to be included as socialization agents
Virtual communities: The authors will in this thesis refer virtual communities as online
2
Literature review
This section will bring up previous research that has been used during the study. The literature includes consumers in the market, possessions and their meanings, the development of becoming a consumer, the decision-making process, habitus followed by consumer socialization and socialization agents with virtual communities. This section will start off by explaining the motivation for using this literature.
2.1 Choice of literature
The choice of literature gives the reader an overview of the literature that will be used and also gives the reader an understanding of why these specific ―theories‖ are to be used to answer the research questions and fulfil the purpose. The literature presented will include a variety of different areas, which together will contribute to existing research by being combined in a way not previously found.
Consumers in the market: The literature review will start broad with consumers in the
market as the foundational approach, which the authors believe is necessary to briefly get an understanding in what area this research is conducted. The literature for this section will be based on Solomon (2009), who has explained the concept in the most elaborative way. To be able to understand how the adolescents think and relate to products, in this case mobile phones, an understanding of how products in general influence the sense of self and how the symbolic value of these products influence the adolescents when deciding to purchase a certain mobile phone (Belk, 1988; Mittal, 2006). Further on it is crucial to understand how children act as consumers to further investigate how adolescents are influenced when purchasing a mobile phone (McNeal, 1979).
Decision-making process: The following section that will be explained is the
decision-making process, which is relevant for this thesis since it will help to uncover the different stages of the decision process. Further, understanding the decision process will help the authors to comprehend what social factors influence the child-consumer in the potential mobile phone purchase. All five stages of the decision-making process may be included as potential influential stages; however, the authors of this thesis have decided to focus mainly on the pre-purchase stage, which includes; problem recognition and information search. Research on this will help answer research question two where the authors bring about the interaction between the socialization agents, and the virtual communities. The reason to why the authors will focus on problem recognition is because there are several influences that affect the child in the process of becoming aware of the want of a mobile phone, which influences are these, maybe one of the personalized socialization agents or maybe something the adolescent read online (Bruner & Pomazal, 1988), further, the focus on information search is due to that it is in this stage the different socialization agents are considered by the adolescents.
Habitus: The concept of habitus regards how different agents influence people and how
they make judgements about what is good and bad, right and wrong. This concept will help the authors in understanding the underlying perceptions about the environment and provide an understanding of what have not been spelled out during the interviews, and thus will help answering research question one and two (Bourdieu, 1994).
Socialization agents: Socialization agents are; peers/friends, parents, media, role models
and virtual communities. As the authors wish to understand how the different socialization agents together are influencing and are integrated in the decision-making process, there is a
need to understand the influence of the separate socialization agent. The part of the literature review on socialization agents will explain how children are trained to become consumers. This phenomenon is relevant for this thesis since it gives information about who the teacher is, in this process of becoming a consumer, further, it will help answer research question one and two. As mentioned earlier, children develop consumption skills at an early age, one of the main sources of influence of this skill are several actors. These actors will not only contribute to learning how to consume but also what to consume, which is important in this thesis were the author wish to find out who influences the child-consumer to buy a certain mobile phone (Moschis & Churchill, 1978; Moschis & Moore, 1979, 1982; Moschis, 1985).
2.2 Consumers in the market
Consumer behaviour is the study of the process of consumption and regards all areas from the pre-purchase to post-purchase. In other words it starts before the actual purchase take place and continues through the usage stage and is ending when the consumer dispose of the product or service in some way. A consumer can be an individual but also a group of people or organizations, the consumer first recognize a need or desire that they/s/he wish/es to satisfy, the main reason for companies existing is to provide products and services that fulfil consumers‘ needs and desires and therefore it is crucial understanding consumer behaviour. A consumer‘s specific behaviour is different dependent upon different issues as gender, income and social class, geography, family structure, ethnicity and race and lifestyle. Marketers need to have information about these issues to be able to market their products and services to a desired target group (Solomon, 2009).
Consumer behaviour covers the knowledge about the behaviour of consumers but also knowledge about the sense of self and identity. According to William (1890; cited in Belk, 1988) a person‘s self is everything a person can call his/hers, this means not only the physical body and mind, also possession as house, clothing and money, a person‘s reputation, friends and family are part of a person‘s self.
2.2.1 Possessions and their meaning
A brand is more then just a name of a product or a label on the packaging. The brand name is a complex symbol that represents what the brand stands for and the attributes it contains. A brand is built up over time and so are the attitudes and feelings from the consumer towards the brand. The feelings and attitudes a consumer have towards a brand is essential when picking which one to select and further these attutudes create a level of loyalty towards the brand. However, it is the public image that sets the status of the brand (Levy, & Rook, 1999). Brand loyalty is according to Jacoby and Kyner (1973, p. 2), defined as ―the biased, behavioral respons, expressed over time, by some decision-making unit, with respect to one or more alternative brands out of a set of such brands, and is a function of psychological processes‖.
The symbolic value of a product is based on the perception of a products identity by a group of people, meaning that depending on what perception a group of people has towards the product; the symbolic value of it may differ. For a product to serve as a symbolic communicative it must attain recognition throughout the society, further the meaning and value of the product must be understood and recognized throughout the entire community (Grubb, & Grathwohl, 1967).
Things we own can extend the self, not only like tools do (doing things we could not do without them), but also symbolically. A doctor would not consider himself as a doctor
unless he wore the uniform connected with the title (Belk, 1988). The attributes of having, doing and being contribute to our self. Possessions have an important place to all people, including adolescents, and this drive for possessions takes form in the early years. According to a study by Montemayor and Eisen (1977; cited by Belk, 1988), younger adolescents are describing who they are by telling about their possessions, while older adolescents stated their skills and traits. The reasons for how possessions define who we are, are ―(1) we spend our life with them; they virtually surround us; so we begin to see ourselves as part of those things that surround us, and not as part of things that surround someone else; and (2) we use things to bring out our inner ‗I‘ for display so others may see us for who we are‖ (Eckhardt and Houston, 1998; Dolfsma, 2004; cited by Mittal, 2006 p. 554). A person‘s character, values, accomplishments, traits and possessions together contribute to the sense of self, however, their composition may vary (Mittal, 2006). In addition to the self or ―I‖, there is also the point of view from others that matters, the
―social self-concept‖, which can be referred to as ―Me‖ (Sirgy, 1982 cited by Mittal, 2006 p. 555). There is a tension between these two viewpoints of a person (see figure 1). Depending on the central attributes each person defines them self by, competence or possessions, they will judge others based on the same subjective criteria (Mittal, 2006). People are trying to resolve this tension between these views and according to Mittal (2006 p. 556) there are three ways to do it, ―(1) switching reference groups, (2) educating others; and (3) modifying consumption‖. The first way suggests that a person turns to others that view us as we wishes them to do instead of being a part of a group that not value us the way we wish. The second way is to inform others who we believe are important to us in some way and try to change the perceptions they have about us. The third and final way is to change ourselves so that we appear to be different from before (Mittal, 2006).
Figure 1 Tension between "I" and "Me" and conumption as reconciler (Mittal, 2006, p. 556)
2.2.2 The development of becoming a consumer
Adolescents as consumers are relevant to research, as stated by Zollo (1995) they influence their parents at an early age and will in the future spend their own money. This age group can also be considered as trendsetters (Zollo, 1995).
Adolescents are consumers in several ways, they have ‗needs and wants‘, and they also have money at their disposal. Adolescents follow a specific decision-making process; they plan their purchases, search for information, perform the purchase - often times with their own money, and eventually go through the post purchase process with evaluation of the product (McNeal, 1979).
A child is introduced to the world of consumption between the ages of 4-7 where they start of as ―consumer trainees‖ (Reisman, Glazer, & Denny, 1953; cited in McNeal, 1979). At
this age the parents of the child take them out for shopping trips and the child becomes aware of stores, money, products and services, and the child is trying out the role as a consumer. However, referring to a child in age 4-5 to be a consumer is misleading, since children in that age do not conduct any purchase of their own. The child will somewhere between ages six and seven, perform his first solo purchase, where he will, by himself, purchase a product or service. From ages seven to twelve the child has become a practicing consumer that frequently perform consumption related activities, and also prices are known and used at this age. At this point a child may be referred as a consumer (McNeal, 1964, Anderson, 1978, and Saenz, 1979; referred to in McNeal, 1979, Damay, 2008).
Children get the purchasing information from several different sources. The parent is the most influential, and in McNeal (1979, p. 352) there is a quotation where a child explains why the parent is the best information source, simply because:
“They tell you the truth”
Further, main influencers are friends and television. According to Martens, Southerton and Scott (2004) consumption characterizes a major means by which individualism is communicated or restrained by social forces that might form the child‘s daily life. To sum it up, children are consumers and seek information about products in similar ways as adults. They plan their purchases, however the length of this planning time is relatively short compared to the adults‘ (McNeal 1979).
When learning to consume, the adolescents upbringing and the different agents that they are connected to influence their behaviour. The values and beliefs that are learnt and reside in the adolescent‘s habitus will influence the adolescent in her/his perceptions in future life. The concept of habitus will be further explained in section 2.4.
2.3 Decision-making process
Bruner and Pomazal (1988) argue that a purchase is done by a consumer after s/he first recognise some kind of problem, and thus the purchase is a solution to the experienced problem. Further, Bruner and Pomazal (1988) state that to be able to conduct a purchase the problem recognised needs to be defined.
2.3.1 Problem recognition
Thus the first stage of decision-making is problem recognition (Bruner & Pomazal, 1988; Mitchell, 1992). Solomon (2009) suggests that the problem recognition is the needs, wants and desires the consumer experiences and an aim for fulfilling these is formed. A person‘s reference group is an important information source in deciding what a person desires (Bruner & Pomazal, 1988). E.g. when an adolescent reasons that his/her friend has a new mobile phone and thus also wants a new one. While a need is a biological drive, for instance thirst, a want is a way in which the society has taught the consumer to fulfil the specific need (thirst), by drinking soda instead of water as a response to the need influenced by society (Solomon, 2009). A desire on the other hand is ―the levels of product attributes or benefits that a consumer believes will lead to, or are connected with, higher-order terminal values‖ (Fournier & Mick, 1999 p. 8). The emergence of a problem can occur in two different ways: 1) Opportunity-recognition usually occurs when higher-quality products are exposed to consumers. This type of recognition is often a result of a change that has come about in the consumer‘s life; therefore require material changes as well, for instance, when the adolescent changes reference group, or just becoming older. 2) Need recognition on the other hand can take different forms. The consumer may run out of a
certain product or an already purchased product does not reaches up to the expectations or the consumer recognizes a new wanting or craving (Bruner & Pomazal, 1988; cited in Solomon, 2009).
2.3.2 Information search
The stage following the problem recognition is the information search (Mitchell, 1992), and it is crucial for companies to state their strategy based on knowledge about how consumers behave when searching for products (Moorthy, Ratchford, & Talukdar, 1997). Information search is more or less conducted constantly. Some products have a higher degree of information search, e.g. products that are more expensive, like a car, whereas other products have little or almost non-existing information search, like chewing gums. The assumption, which is also confirmed by Turbull (2000), is that mobile phones are products with high involvement, meaning that the consumers will seek for information about the product.
This information retrieval can be either a pre-purchase activity, implicating that the search is conducted after a problem is realised, or it can be an ongoing search (Bloch, Sherrel & Ridgway,1986). The two different concepts have different determinants and outcomes, which can be seen below in figure 2. The main reason for engaging in pre-purchase search is to improve the purchase outcome‘s quality. The result of the search is improved decision-making, more knowledge of product, the market, and a higher degree of satisfaction with a successful choice (Punj & Staelin, 1983; cited by Bloch et al., 1986). The search can also be a continuing process, an ongoing search where a consumer conducts search independent of whether a problem has been recognized or not (Bloch et al., 1986). The ongoing search activity can have different motives, the first being to obtain information for future use, thus collecting information to perform more effective decisions in upcoming purchases (Bloch et al., 1986). The other motive is that the search is done as a recreation activity; just for the fun of it, this search is not steered by any certain objective, but it is the activity as such that is the goal (Bloch et al., 1986). Further on, Bloch et al. (1986) state that it is difficult to separate the two types of search (pre-purchase and ongoing) since it often is hard to spot when the problem is identified and the process of decision-making begins. In searches the consumer is involved, however in a pre-purchase search the involvement is with the purchase and in an ongoing search the consumer is involved with the product. It can also be distinguished by the actual motivation and ability to purchasing. If a consumer with an interest of purchasing a product does not have the demand for it, an ongoing search will taking place (Bloch et al., 1986).
When a problem is recognised and the consumer feels a low involvement towards the products, the consumer will browse through his/her own knowledge bank and purchase the product desired and the information search will have been conducted internally. The low involvement products are often purchased in an unplanned manner or impulsively; an example can be chewing gum. External search, occurs on more risky and high involvement products, and include finding research through friends, marketing efforts or other external search (Bruner & Pomazal, 1988). When a consumer is in the information search stage, there is one factor that influences the decision-making, that is the perceived risk. The information search is therefore conducted to minimize the uncertainty or risk involved in the purchasing activity (Peterson & Merino, 2003). The information search might be deliberate, but can also occur accidentally, which is when the consumer passively gains information about a certain product through marketing incentives and it is being stored in the memory by incident (Chen & Hernon, 1982 cited by Williamson, 1998). When information search is conducted externally, Zollo (1999) argues that friends are the most
important source for knowing about new trends, and he also states that socialization is most likely the most important activity for adolescents. Putting these statements together: friends and peers function as a major source of influence deciding what to think and do, and what to wear and buy.
Figure 2 Consumer information search (Bloch et al., 1986, p. 120)
2.3.3 Evaluating and choosing
The third step in the decision process framework is the evaluation of alternatives (Mitchell, 1992). This is about defining important attributes of products and then categorizing and evaluate them based on the knowledge found in the information search, this to be able to limit the number of alternatives to choose from (Solomon, 2009).
The framework of the decision process also includes the purchasing of the chosen product, which is the fourth step in the decision-making process, that is when the product is evaluated based on the different attributes of products, and thus leads to selection of product and a purchase is the result (Mitchell, 1992). The evaluation of alternatives and choosing product stages are not relevant for this thesis and will thus not be further explained
2.3.4 Post purchase
After actually purchasing a product the consumer starts evaluate the choice taken, if the expectations is equal to the result after the purchase, that is, is the product of satisfaction or is the consumer dissatisfied with the product (Gilly & Gelb, 1982). The post purchase situation is referred to as the outcome of a purchase and the degree of satisfaction will influence re-purchases (Swan, 1977; cited by Gilly & Gelb, 1982), and thus it is important for companies to have satisfied customers.
When a consumer is dissatisfied with a product s/he, can according to Halstead and Dröge (1991) act in one of three scenarios, or a combination of them; the consumer can return the product to the store for a refund, spread the word about dissatisfaction to friends and stay away from the store in the future, or s/he can take legal actions or contact the media. The action of telling friends about negative aspects of a product or store is according to
Lutz, (1975) and Wright, (1974; cited by Richins, 1983) more influential than positive feedback and therefore satisfied customers are crucial to businesses.
The framework of the decision-making process suggests a linear process that ends with post-purchase and then starts all over. However, the authors perceive it as a circular process (see figure 3). When an adolescent purchase a new mobile phone the problem recognised is solved only temporarily, as stated previously adolescents have a tendency to switch mobile phones rather often and thus it can be considered that these people are always searching for a new one and hence ongoing search, pre-purchase search and the outcomes of a purchase always are influencing the adolescents independent on where in the decision making process they are.
Figure 3 Decision-making according to the authors
2.4
“Habitus”
The concept of habitus is described by Bourdieu (1994) as the feature that describe how people act in society or as Bourdieu (1994) says, social room, which is shaped by beliefs, understanding of what is right and wrong, good and bad and is influenced by agents, such as parents, and friends. Habitus is used to analyze how people within a social context are related through relationships. Bourdieu (1994) states that the family is a crucial cornerstone of how to behave and feel. Habitus is about reasonable action created by the agents in the social room, this occurs individually and foremost collectively and the agents thus together create the norms for how to behave. Thus adolescents are influenced in their upbringing by these ―norms‖ and traditions that are part of their family and hence affect the adolescent‘s actions and judgments, thus learning what is perceived as right and wrong (Bourdieu, 1994). People categorize others based on their perceptions of what is considered normal and those deviating from this will be judged accordingly. Additionally the habitus defines principles for example how and what a person consume, also political opinions are generated through the agents, these are as a result different to different people. Habitus can
•Internal search •External search •Fast •Complex •Opportunity recognition •Need recognition •Satisfied •Dissatisfied
Post-purchase recognitionProblem
Information search Evaluating
be understood as a set of resources and characteristics, which are united by a unified way of living (Bourdieu, 1994). Habitus is defined as "common set of material conditions of existence to regulate the practice of a set of individuals in common response to those conditions" (Williams & Bourdieu, 1980, p. 213 cited by; Pavicic, Alfirevic & Gabelica, 2008, p.163). Further, habitus is a socialized and structured body, which has incorporated the social environment‘s configuration and thus influences how agents behave and understand the environment, and in turn influence other people (Bourdieu, 1994). Bourdieu‘s (1994) perception of habitus is a somewhat older theory and thus does not include Internet based sources. However, the authors believe that agents can be any source that will influence a person of her/his understanding of what is right and wrong, good and bad.
This section on habitus has been retrieved from a book from 1994, however the concept of habitus understood by Bourdieu is older than this. According to Lizardo (2004), Bourdieu‘s understanding of habitus dates back to 1966.
2.5 Consumer socialization and Socialization agents: learning
how to consume
Consumer socialization is defined as ―processes by which young people acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their functioning as consumers in the marketplace‖ (Ward, 1974, p. 1). However, Zigler and Child (1969, p. 474; cited in Ward, 1974, p. 2) have defined socialization as follows: ―Socialization is a broad term for the whole process by which an individual develops through transaction with other people, his specific patterns of socially relevant behaviors and experience‖.
The researchers in the area of consumer socialization agree that it is all about the learning how to become a consumer. One way of learning is through cognitive development where the learner is adapted to his/her environment and giving emphasizes to the personal and environmental factors (Moschis, & Churchill Jr., 1978). The cognitive development stage states that socialization is happening through several stages that occur during the period between infancy and adolescence. The cognitive development is said to end in late adolescence whereas socialization is continuing throughout one‘s lifetime (Moschis, & Churchill Jr., 1978). The other way of learning is through social learning which focuses on the influences of different sources known as socialization agents (Moschis, & Churchill Jr., 1978). These can be anything from persons to organisations, and in the everyday life each individual is influenced by several different other individuals and institutions. The fact that these have received this particular influence is, according to Moschis and Moore (1979, p. 102) ―because of their frequency of contact, primacy and control over rewards and punishments given to the individual‖
There are several different agents that influence the child as a socialization agent, such as stores, role models, and schools, however, according to McNeal (1979) parents, friends and television are three main sources of influence and information regarding purchasing decisions. These three groups have also been found to be the main actors in other research project regarding consumer socialization process of children (Moschis, & Churchill Jr., 1978; Moschis & Moore, 1979; Lachance et al., 2003; Martin & Bush, 2000). Other socialization agents are role models and recently Lee et al. (2003) pronounced Internet and virtual communities as socialization agents. Virtual community of consumption is the interaction between people over the Internet regarding their consumption activity (Solomon, 2009). Through these communities people who would normally not communicate get the chance to interact with each other. According to Lee et al. (2003) the
Internet can be seen as a potential socialization agent, as there has been an increased in the use of Internet as a tool for communication, and the voluminous information available in such an easy way increase adolescents process of learning. Lee et al. (2003) also argue that the Internet has contributed to a new culture of learning, which is social, providing for adolescents to discuss, share, learn and influence in an interactive manner. According to Batat (2008) the number of adolescents that play games, read news and make purchases by using the Internet has increased considerably, and that their consumption learning is based on digital media and equipment. Chitosca (2006) states that Internet has become a socialization agent to adolescents that is comparable to parents, peers, and mass media in the sense of importance. Despite these findings not many researchers have developed this by investigating how the Internet together with the ―original‖ socialization agents interact as an influence on adolescents.
Virtual communities are used by the consumers to spread the ―word-of-mouth‖(Arndt, 1967). Word-of-mouth, or as it will from now on be referred to as WOM, is information that is transmitted from individual to individual. The WOM is considered to be trustworthy and reliable compared to other channels of communications such as sales people or company websites. What is interesting is that despite all the marketing campaigns that companies pay for, WOM is the most influential and influences 2/3 of all sales (Graffney, 2001; cited in Solomon, 2009). When the Word-of-mouth is used over the Internet it is referred to as electronic Word-of-mouth (eWOM). Communication over the Internet has by Henning-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, and Gremler (2004, p. 39) been described as ―directed to multiple individuals, available to other consumers for indefinite period of time, and anonymous‖. Researchers within the studies of WOM have found several different motives to why consumers conduct it. Dichter (1966) argues that the consumer feels a pressure about the product and by expressing the thoughts the consumers has about the product they leas the tension that the experience of the product has caused. He says that the person who has knowledge about a product takes part in the WOM process to give something to the receiver. Engel, Blackwell and Miniard (1993) states that the person wants to gain attention from others by appearing to be knowledgeable within the area, also that the person giving the information is in concern of others and therefore wants to help them by contributing to this type of knowledge (Henning-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, & Gremler, 2004). Finally Sundaram, Mitra and Webster (1998) say that the person who gives information wants to give something to others to make their decisions easier and also appear in the eyes of others to be a smart shopper. The giver also wants to make sure that others do not have to go through the same problems s/he went through, and this will eventually make the anger, frustration and anxiety withdraw.
The authors of this thesis will research the three socialization agents, parents, friends and television, Internet based sources will be included as socialization agents, based on Lee et al. (2003) findings. The authors understanding, which is in line with Chitosca‘s (2006) is that socialization agents (parents, friends and television) are not the only factors that can be seen as influencers, the technological developments have provided for new opportunities to reach children and thus Internet sources should, according to the authors, be included to the concept of socialization agents. The virtual communities blogs and forums have been separated as two different concepts, the reason for this is that virtual communities are sites where different people can communicate, a two way communication, while blogs are one person describing her/his daily life, a one way communication (Brown, Broderick, & Lee, 2007).
2.5.1 Parents
Parents are viewed as to be the most important factor influencing the child on how to consume. The parents are the ones that from an early age will introduce the child to consumption by bringing them to stores and teaching them the process of purchasing, further, it will be the parent who will be first to encourage the child to purchase for the first time (McNeal, 1979). Additionally, parents‘ influence by controlling the amount of money a child has, and they also have an active involvement in educating different ways to consume (Martens et al. 2004). Also the child feels that the parent is the most trustworthy and will not lie when it comes to products, therefore, they are according to McNeal (1979) considered to be the main information source followed by friends and television in shared second place. In addition, Batat (2003) states that adolescents considered their parents to be competent consumers and of great influence in the learning process, and in some product areas, especially fathers were judged to be more competent than mothers; these areas are technological and digital products.
Sociologists Riesman and Roseborough (1955; referred to by Ward, 1974, p. 4) indicate that children learn ―consumption necessities‖ from their parents, meaning that they are taught how to buy the basic things by this group. In a rather similar work, Pearson, Bales and Shils (1953) argue that children learn the rational part of consumption from their parents. Further, Martins et al. (2004) state that a child‘s consumption is closely related to parents‘ consumption, where they learn how to consume through imitation of the parents behaviour, this is referred to as observation learning. This observational learning does not only cover the parents but also role models that they children wish to be like.
As mentioned before, the individuals who do have influence have so because of their control of punishments and rewards and their frequent contact. Parents most likely have the power of controlling the punishments and rewards, but they also have influence due to the very frequent contact with the adolescents.
According to Moschis (1985, p. 902) the parental influence is both direct as well as indirect. They on purpose try to insert certain values in the child, e.g. ‖You will learn the value of money!‖ Other ways in which parents directly influence the child‘s consumer behaviour is through determining to what degree the adolescents comes in contact with other sources of information, other from themselves, such as television and personnel in stores (Moschis, 1985). The indirect way that the parents influence children is through their own behaviour. Children are highly observant and imitate behaviours. So depending on how the parents consume, the children will imitate and learn from the parents‘ behaviour. This way of ―passing down‖ the behaviour is well used by the marketers who create products in child versions, e.g. mobile phones, child-consumers who are socialized in this way create brand loyalty (Moore, Wilkie, Lutz, 2002).
According to Zollo (1999) adolescents wish to form their own identity and at the same time be identified with a group. Zollo (1999) also states that the stereotyping of adolescents being anti-family is false, family is regarded as being a valuable cornerstone in an adolescent‘s life. Another view is that, family is not considered to be as influential as peers among adolescents in the ages of 11-22 (Muratore, 2006).
2.5.2 Friends and peers
Friends do count as the second most influential socialization source, with the position shared with the television (Ward, 1974). This group contributes to the development of the product status value to adolescents, and the main proof of this statement is the several
research projects have found the importance of brands among adolescents and children (Lachance, et al. 2003).
As the parents teach the children how to purchase the necessities (Riesmand & Roseboough 1955; referred to by Ward 1974) peers or friends on the other hand teach the consumers how to conduct ―affective consumption‖ which means that the child-consumer is taught ―styles and moods of consumption‖ from their friends (Riesmand & Roseborough, 1955; referred to by Ward, 1974, p. 4; Whan Park, & Parker Lessige, 1977, p. 104). As mentioned earlier, parents teach children the rational part in consumption while friends teach them ―expensive elements of consumption‖ (Ward, 1974, p. 5). Further,
Mangleburg, Doney, & Bristol (2004) state that friends assist the adolescent to assess different products which increase the adolescent‘s sense of being part of a group and thus influence the adolescent‘s identity.
Friends appear to be an important socialization agent for the young consumer. It is this group who contributes to the teachings of significant consumption elements, such as materialistic values and social motivations (Reisman, & Rosen Borough, 1955; referred to in Moschis, & Churchill Jr., 1978). Further on, peers appear to be an important influence especially among children in their adolescence. According to Collin (1961) an adolescent is acquiring a need to create independency from the parents, which leads them towards a dependency on their friends (Moschis, & Moore, 1979). This has been shown in several studies, as through the years parents influence decrease whereas the influence from peers or friends constantly increases for several purchasing actions (Ward, 1974).
The reason to why it is so important to listen to friends and peers might be because it is not so easy being young and not following the group. This can be explained by the research on brand loyalty. It has been found that brand loyalty is related to high involvement products, i.e. product that the consumer is occupied with, and according to Lachance et al. (2003) adolescents have been shown to have a great interest for clothes. Depending on what an adolescent wears, s/he will be treated in different ways. According to Greekmore, (1980; cited in Lachance et al., 2003) adolescents, who follow the specific dress code, have a higher chance of being accepted by their peers. Meaning that those who do not follow the dress codes can be seen as outsiders, this may have a great effect on their social life and it might also bring about emotional stress and feeling of deprivation (Liskey-Fitzwater, Moore, & Gurel, 1993; cited in Lachance et al., 2003). It is therefore obvious that there are social and psychological risks in not following the existing dress codes. This example can be of use in regard to the setting of mobile phones as well. Just as clothing, mobile phones are high involvement products (Turnbull, 2000) and therefore an assumption can be made that, friends and peers have a similar effect on individuals regarding mobile phones. In addition, Storm-Mathisen (2001; cited by Marten et al. 2004) suggest that children are on the whole exposed to pressure from friends since children have a need for group belongingness and to be accepted, and therefore they use consumption as a means of recognition within their social groups and also to be able to be distinguished from others.
2.5.3 Television
Television has taken the position as an important socialization agent with several significant qualities. First of all television can found everywhere, Americans have more televisions than they have telephones and each American individual watches television on average approximately four hours per day. Giving the level of contact each individual has with the television, it is a large rival to the usual socialization agents. Secondly, the effects of the television are in many cases invisible. As the exposure is high, the effect of the
communication it provides becomes hidden (O‘Guinn & Shrum, 1997). Allen (1992, p. 3) says ―It is the very ubiquity of television and the intricate ways it is woven into the everyday lives of so many people that makes it so difficult to analyze‖. Another characteristics that influence the television as a consumer socialization agent is that the stories and images in the television shows that are often not represented of the viewers social environment and familiarity (O‘Guinn & Shrum, 1997). Another view is, as a source for information, mass media seems to play a rather minor part, either since adolescents have been taught to be sceptical of advertising or that they do not watch television as much (Moschis and Moore 1979; cited by Roedder, 1999). Further, Roedder (1999) states that advertising early acts as part of the socialization of the child.
As mentioned earlier in the section about friends as socialization agents, friends come in second place as the most influential socialization agent; however, they share the second place with television (Ward, 1974). The reason to why the two influential sources have a shared second place is due to them being hard to separate. ―Apparently there are two flows of information, one from television that is confirmed with friends (and parents). The other is from friends and is confirmed by television advertising (and parents)‖ (Ward, 1974, p. 353). Further, Ward (1974) says that the main reason to why these are intertwined is due to the mistrust towards television advertising, thus people need to have a second source of confirmation.
Television seams to influence the learning of materialism and usual sex-roles when parents do not discuss these matters and not teach the child consumption. In that case the child uses the television as a socialization agent to teach them how to consume. This effect can be neutralised by the communication between parents and children about consumption (Moschis, & Moore, 1982). Further, Acuff, (1997), Adler and Adler (1998) and McNeil (1992; cited in Martens et al. 2004) state that advertising and media have become a significant source of influence for older children due to medias force in displaying what products that are best suited to have to be accepted in a social group.
2.5.4 Role models
Role models have during the more recent times been acknowledged as socialization agents. Previous research has uncovered that individuals or groups containing different individuals can be potential role models for adolescents. Role models can include parents (King & Multon, 1996), athletes (Lockwood & Kunda, 1997), entertainers such as movie stars and singers (King & Multon, 1996).
In addition, researchers have found that there are two types of role models, the assigned, which are the role models that were more or less given to the adolescent such as parents, and the other group are the vicarious role models, which are those that the persons can choose on their own, such as movie stars, athletes, singers and others (Martin & Bush, 2000). When it comes to the vicarious role models research has found that the adolescents look for characteristics that they can identify with, meaning that the role models that are chosen have similar traits or characteristics as the individual. These shows that the persons selecting role models chooses those who that are the same age, race, or sex as themselves (King & Multon, 1996).
Other researchers have divided the influences in membership reference group and aspirational reference group. The membership reference group consists of the people that one socializes with, i.e. the people we know. The aspirational reference group are people that we look up to and admire. This group can consist of athletes, stars and other famous
