THE ROLE OF REFERENCE GROUP INFLUENCE: A BENCHMARKING STUDY WITH WORKING AND NON-WORKING GROUPS

This research examines reference group influence on working women  and non-working women. The study addresses how working women and non-working women differ in their susceptibility to reference group influence across product categories: private necessity, private luxury, public necessity and public luxury. Data collection included responses from shopper intercept interviews at shopping malls and residential neighbourhoods. One thousand forty-four responses, including 545 working women and 499 non-working women, were considered, which were analysed using analysis of variance and validated through discriminant analysis.  

Working women and non-working women differed in their susceptibility to reference group influences through informational reference group and utilitarian reference group channels. In the case of informational reference group, working women and non-working women differed only in their purchase behaviour across private necessity, private luxury and public luxury. For utilitarian reference group, working women and non-working women differed across private necessity, private luxury and public necessity. No significant differences between the two groups existed in public luxury purchases. Overall, although there is no difference for the value-expressive reference group, working women and non-working women differed in their susceptibility towards the purchase of public luxury only. As working women and non-working women differ in their susceptibility towards reference group influences across product categories, it becomes  imperative to devise different marketing approaches for each audience. Women cannot be considered a single homogenous target market, and hence  the study emphasises that they behave differently based on their susceptibility towards reference group influences.