What are the two dimensions that influence whether reference groups affect consumer buying behavior? Which groups tend to be more influential, large formal groups or small informal groups? Why?

Week Two Online Assignment

DATE 1/20/18 Topics Consumer Behavior Reading Assignment

Please put your name on your homework and use in filename.

  1. Fat is good for you, artificial sweetener bad and cricket flour is a real thing being sold as a healthy source of protein in snack bars. Food companies and grocers count on us flitting from one eating habit to another to profit from a steady supply of products tailored to new tastes. But forecasting eating habits is tricky. Some new foods or health trends become common parts of daily life, like $4 lattes, while others such as caffeine gum fizzle.

What can a food or apparel company do to spot new trends/fashions? Can we tell if it’s a trend or just a fad?

  1. In Class your instructor wanted show you a video program from a 2001 PBS program entitled the Merchants of Cool. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/). Watch this video (A bit-dated, but I think you will appreciate some of the memories).

· Do you think this is ethical?

· What techniques were used to understand teens (millennials)?

· Do you think these techniques would work today? Why/why not?

  1. What is culture? List three dimensions that social scientists use to describe a culture and give an example of each. Does America have an American culture? Why or why not? (1/2 page)

  2. What are the two dimensions that influence whether reference groups affect consumer buying behavior? Which groups tend to be more influential, large formal groups or small informal groups? Why?