Friends like Family. Or Not?

3 minute read

Ever wonder why we shop more when we shop in a group? Do our shopping partners influence our buying patterns? Going one step further, do our shopping patterns vary when we go shopping with a family member compared to when we shop with friends? Researchers have long studied this phenomenon and a group of researchers in China performed a couple of experiments to understand the impact that family and friends have on our shopping behaviour.

Researchers and experts have long held beliefs that the influence of friends is greater on products and messaging that are more Promotion focused (Example: This shoe helps you run faster and longer) and the influence of family is greater on products and messaging that is more Prevention focused (Example: This shoe will help reduce running injuries).

 To prove this hypothesis researchers asked some students to take part in a study. The researchers conducted this study in 2 steps. In step 1 they asked the students to describe either a close friend or a family member. Once they established the anchor of either a friend or a family member, they proceeded to step 2 where they were asked to undertake a product evaluation task. As a part of the task, they were asked to view a sneaker ad (A subset viewed the ad with a promotion based message - EVLite material gives you great energy to walk” and the other set viewed the ad with a promotion message - “EVLite material prevents your heel from hurting”). After viewing the ad each student was asked to rate the sneakers on a scale of 1-7 ((e.g., I like the sneakers very much; 1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) and their willingness to pay (WTP) for the sneakers.

When the researchers analyzed the response data they found that students who picked and described a friend in the first step of the experiment were much more likely to rate the product higher (4.85 vs 4.12) and willing to pay more (437 Yuan vs. 397 Yuan) when exposed to the promotion focused ad compared to the regulatory focused ad. The results were opposite for students that had picked and had been primed to a family member where they were much more likely to rate the product higher (4.91 vs. 4.22) and willing to pay more (432 Yuan vs 389 Yuan) when exposed to the regulatory focused ad compared to the promotion focus.

Experts have attributed this phenomenon to the sense of duty and obligation one feels towards family members where the expectation (depending on the relationship) is to provide, nurture and take care of family whereas friends are associated with feelings of interest and aspirations.

There are interesting applications of this phenomenon that can be explored in the world of marketing and advertising.

Original research by Xianzheng Fei, Yanfen You, Xiaojing Yang

https://myscp.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jcpy.1152