Interpersonal influences on consumers’ behavior

Specific phenomena in consumers’

behavior - Examples
Thomas Van Hezel
Diana Nechita
1. Emulatory behavior
 Wearing large T-shirts and jeans
 Drinking coffee every morning in a café only
because your friends do so
 Smoking only because people in your group smoke
 Drinking alcohol because your friends drink
 Wearing high heels shoes because other girls in your
group wear this type of shoes
2. Snob effect
 Buying a yellow Lamborghini
 Purchase of a real snake leather bag (rare and
expensive)
 Eating caviar in a luxurious restaurant
 Buying an tailored suits (more expensive than a regular
brand)
 Buying a MAC book because it’s not that widely bought
 Vintage furniture or accessories
 Buying specific pieces of art which are worth millions
3. Demonstration effect
 Buying a Channel perfume
 Buying clothes you cannot afford
 Purchasing a purse that a celebrity has in a magazine
 Purchasing a Ferrari to demonstrate something
 Owning a Rolex watch to imitate your boss’s behavior
 Drinking Evian water because some richer people do
 Smoking Vogue cigarettes just to look cool
 Drinking black label scotch to “fit in” a group
4. Conspicuous consumption
 A person buys Gucci bag, wallet, travel bags and
accessories
 Buying a Porsche car and then buying all the
derivatives products for which the brand has no
expertise
 Having a MAC book, an Apple hard-drive, an iPhone,
iPad
 Buying all kitchen accessories from the same brand
(Stove, oven, fridge, freezer, hood etc.)
 Buying all the cosmetics from the same brand
5. International demonstration effect

 Buying a product which is not available in your

domestic market on a website
 Eating croissants for breakfast because French people
do so
 Eating burgers because it is getting a generalized
culture
 Eating Chinese food, Sushi, Indian food…
 Drinking tea with milk in the middle of the afternoon
6. Bandwagon effect
 Buying cigarettes just because many persons are
smoking
 Buying alcohol because a lot of people do so even
though it is not healthy
 Buying an Apple or a Blackberry phone because it is a
new trend
 Going to University just because your friends are
attending a University
 Going out every Saturday night because everybody
does so
7. Counter-snobbery effect

 Buying no-brand tailored clothes but which are very

expensive
 Purchasing handmade T-shirts (which have no
brand) but which are expensive
 Purchasing Italian textile sheets not very known
from Italian hand workers
 Buying invisible brands
8. Counter-Veblen effect

 Buying a non-brand jacket in an outlet store

 Purchasing a second hand old car because it is
cheap
 Buying toys from second hand shops because
they are much cheaper than in a regular shop
 Buying generic medicines (Ibuprofen instead of
Nurofen)
9. Fashion
 Listening to alternative music and going out in clubs
were only this music in played
 Dying your hair in red because it’s the colour of the
season
 Wearing only green clothes because it is this summer
colour
 Going to opera because your role models go to the
opera
 Listening to classical music to feel integrated in the
high-society
Thank you for your attention!