1. Harmeling et al. (2017)
Group Marketing
The use of the psychological mechanisms underlying group influence to drive customer behaviors that are beneficial to the firm.

2. Examples of Group Marketing
Harmeling et al. (2017)
Examples of Group Marketing
Toms facilitates and provides resources for more than 1,000 “supporter-led” groups that both contribute to Toms’ mission and increase product purchases
Group marketing is the use of the psychological mechanisms underlying group influence to guide customer behaviors that are beneficial to the firm. Firms can become group providers such as what is studied in brand communities or they can leverage existing groups or somewhere in between. For example, Nike has shifted 1/3 of its multibillion dollar marketing budget to support group based initiatives such at the Nike + system. Toms, falling more on the leveraging side, provides resources to more than 1000 support led groups that contribute to the tom’s mission. But what makes these strategies effective?
In the past five years, Nike has shifted more than one-third of its multibillion dollar marketing budget to support group-based initiatives
Nike+, a system that helps customers build groups, generated $840 million in sales in one year

3. Harmeling et al. (2017)
Necessary Conditions of Group Marketing and how it Differs from Segmentation
Firms must make customers aware of their association to the group
Segmentation does not assume any psychological connections among the customers in a segment; it simply predicts that they share common characteristics
Firms can prime customers with new membership, make customers’ existing group memberships salient, or identify and leverage customers’ self-selected groups
Firms must expose customers to group norms
Segmentation does not assume visibility or knowledge of group norms, just common needs
Firms can expose consumers to group norms by enabling direct group member-to-customer communication, facilitating customer observation of group member behavior, or dictating aggregate group norms in marketing communication

4. Mechanisms Underlying Group Marketing Effectiveness
Harmeling et al. (2017)
Mechanisms Underlying Group Marketing Effectiveness
Informational appraisals
People strive to make accurate decisions and must filter a vast amount of potentially relevant information
Because group members share objectives and values, information coming from them relative to other sources can seem more diagnostic to the decision
Identity appraisals
When people make product decisions they are often assessing how valuable it is to managing the self
People have a need to belong and also a need to be distinct and balancing this is critical to a positive self-concept; managing a social identity is critical to this
Salience of the group identity in making self relevant decision can alter identity appraisals
Necessary Conditions
Group Influence
Informational appraisal
Group product norm
Conforming product purchase
Identity appraisal
Customer’s group association H1
Aron and McLaughlin-Volpe 2001, p. 89, 10 Cruz, Henningsen, and Williams 2000,
Bolton and Reed 2004, Tajfel and Turner 1985
Social Influence

5. Harmeling et al. (2017)
Group Influence on Consumer Decisions when Information Appraisals Predominate
Strong
Effect of Group Norms on Purchase Behavior
Time in Domain
Once familiar with the purchase domain, the person’s domain knowledge overcomes group information, which decreases the value of group norms as a source of information.
When new to a purchase domain, the consumer has limited but increasing domain knowledge, which improves his or her ability to absorb domain-specific information and thus increases the value of group norms as a source of information.
Weak Effect of Group Norms on Purchase Behavior

6. Harmeling et al. (2017)
Group influence on Consumer Decisions when Identity Appraisals Predominate
Weak Effect of Group Norms on Purchase Behavior
Strong
Effect of Group Norms on Purchase Behavior
When new to a purchase domain, a consumer preserves a unique, personal identity but also seeks to alleviate the discomfort of extreme individuality with increasingly selective group norm violations and conforming behaviors.
Once a person is familiar with the domain, the group becomes a significant contributor to his or her identity, and conforming to group norms is essential to managing that social identity.
Time in Domain

7. Four Steps For Implementing Group Marketing
Harmeling et al. (2017)
Four Steps For Implementing Group Marketing
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Identify customer targets
Determine type of group marketing
Establish necessary group marketing conditions
Communicate benefits of group affiliation
Customer awareness of group affiliation
Exposure to group norms
Build internal group
Communicate social benefits of group affiliation
yes no
Use a firm- managed group?
Is the customer new to the domain?
Decision to implement group marketing
Identify desirable customer segment
Build psychological affiliation to group
Develop group norms for desired behavior
Evaluate effectiveness of group marketing
yes no
Identify most salient external group
Communicate informational benefits of group affiliation

8. Classroom Activity Firm-Provided Group Firm-Leveraged Group
Harmeling et al. (2017)
Classroom Activity
There are two primary ways to implement group marketing, firm provided groups and firm leveraged groups. Imagine you are the brand manager for a new running shoe and have been asked to implement one of the two following strategies.
Firm-Provided Group
Firm-Leveraged Group
How would you execute this strategy?
How would you motivate customer affiliation to the group?
How would you guide the development of firm benefiting norms?
What are the pros and cons of implementing a firm-provided group? Unique benefits? Unique costs?
How would you customize your initiative to new runners?
How would you execute this strategy?
How would you leverage customer affiliation to the group?
How would you expose customers to firm benefiting norms?
What are the pros and cons of implementing a firm-leveraged group? Unique benefits? Unique costs?
How would you customize your initiative to experienced runners?
Firm provided group should first discuss an example of how they would create the affiliation to the group (i.e. recruitment, member socialization and management). They should then discuss the key norms for making this a successful strategy. For pros and cons they should discuss the added control of membership as well as norm development. They should also discuss added costs, overhead, management, commitment, meeting space, recruitment strategies
Firm-leveraged groups should discuss the use of priming or message design to make the group affiliation salient. For norm exposure discussion could include incentivized customer-to-customer interactions such as brand advocates that allow nonusers to observe the use of the product, or referral systems. They could also discuss aggregate feedback mechanisms. For pros and cons they should discuss the much lower costs and less commitment, but also less control over norms.