characteristics like personality traits, social status and demographic characteristics
A profile of Opinion Leaders
Now we need to study a profile of opinion leader so that we can identify them. It would be a very difficult job to exactly identify the profile of opinion leader, but we have a generalized profile as shown in table 4.2
General attributes across product
categories Category specific attributes
Innovativeness Interest
Willingness to talk Knowledge
Self-Confidence Special-interest
Gregariousness Media exposure
Cognitive differentiation Same age
Same social status
Social exposure outside group Table 4.2. Profile of Opinion Leaders
Frequency and Overlap of Opinion
Often we can see that more than half of the people studied in any consumer research project are classified as opinion leaders with respect to some self- selected product category. The frequency of consumer opinion leadership suggests that people are sufficiently interested in at least one product or product category to talk about it and give advice concerning it to others.
Market research suggests the existence of a special category of opinion leaders, the market maven. These are the consumers who possess a wide range of information about many different types of products, retail outlets, and other dimensions of markets.
Some important characteristics associated with market maven are:
a) They both initiate discussions with other consumers and respond to requests for market information.
b) Although they appear to fit the profile of opinion leaders in that they have high levels of brand awareness and tend to try more brands, unlike
opinion leaders their influence extends beyond the realm of high- involvement products.
c) Market mavens are also distinguishable from other opinion leaders because their influence stems not so much from product experience but from a more general knowledge or market expertise that leads them to an early awareness of a wide array of new products and services.
Fig. 4.1. Information Flow
The figure shows that the opinion leaders seek relevant information from the mass media and other sources, and transmit the same to members of the group. The dashed line shows the feedback from the group to the opinion leaders. Interpersonal Flow of Communication
You might have observed that ideas often flow from radio and print media to opinion leaders and from them to the general public. This is the concept behind the two-step flow of communication This so-called two-step flow of communication theory portrays opinion leaders as direct receivers of information from impersonal mass-media sources, which in turn transmit (and interpret) this information to the masses. This theory views the opinion leader as a middleman between the impersonal mass media and the majority of society. A more comprehensive model of the interpersonal flow of communication depicts the transmission of information from the media as a Multistep flow. The
revised model takes into account the fact that information and influence often are two-way processes in which opinion leaders both influence and are influenced by opinion receivers.
Opinion Leadership and the Firm’s Marketing Strategy
Marketers have long been aware of the power that opinion leadership exerts on consumers‘ preferences and actual purchase behavior. Many marketers look for an opportunity to encourage word-of-mouth communications and other favorable informal conversations. New product designers take advantage of the effectiveness of word-of-mouth communication by deliberately designing products to have word-of-mouth potential. A new product should give customers something to talk about.
Proof of the power of word-of-mouth is the cases in which critics hate a movie and the viewing public like it and tell their friends. In instances where informal word of mouth does not spontaneously emerge from the uniqueness of the product or its marketing strategy, some marketers have deliberately attempted to stimulate or to simulate opinion leadership.
There are different opinion leaders for different products. The marketer must determine through research, experience or logic, the role an opinion leader plays in the existing situation for a product or service. Consumers talk to each other about their experiences and performance of the product. If their experiences do not meet expectations then there is cause for concern, and the marketer must take relevant steps to redress their complaints.
This can be reduced by utilising the knowledge of opinion leaders, which are rather difficult to identify. Opinion leaders are gregarious and tend to belong to clubs and associations. Some product categories have professional opinion leaders who are also very influential.
Hairstylists serve as, opinion leaders for hair-care products. For healthcare products-pharmacists are important opinion leaders. Computer professionals can
give an opinion about the purchase of personal computers. The idea is to identify the opinion leaders, and then undertake a marketing research on them and formulate a marketing strategy.
The marketing research conducted on opinion leaders gives ideas of the likes and dislikes of the product users and their categories. Various tests should include the product use test, the pre-testing of the advertising copy, the media preferred for customers to respond favourably to the firm's marketing mix. The sampling should be done from amongst the opinion leaders. In retailing and personnel selling various techniques can be adopted to attract customers like, one meal extra for every three meals or, pay for two and take three or, a "fashion advisory board" can be constituted in clothing stores.
In advertising, people of prominence and, owners can be used and their experiences and satisfaction received can be projected through conversation and, by giving their impression to the general public and non-owners of the product. Opinion leaders can be used effectively in commercials to promote the product to the masses.