Chapter 11: Social Influences on Consumer Behavior

    Social influence can affect Nike in many ways possible. This can be looked at in marketing and non-marketing sources. Throughout generations, Nike is able to amass a number of followers and influencers from within the industry and out. Countless advertisements, sales promotion, special events, and social media has played a major role in the success of the company. These are examples of some internal marketing sources that Nike utilized. For non-marketing sources, there is news, reviews, blogs, family, friends, and organizations. Both the internal and external compliments each other and serve the same purpose. To influence and attract consumers. 

   As Nike rose to be the world-leading sportswear brand, they have hired and endorse opinion leaders. These are individuals who act as information brokers between the mass media and opinions. They also play the role of gatekeeper, which controls the flow of information to people. A lot of these opinion leaders are professional athletes for a variety of sports. With the usage of these specific athletes, it would appeal to a group of people who admired that person. Nike knows that when an athlete is idolized, it is the best of their interest to appeal to the athlete's fans. In short, it boils down to loyalty and respect for that representative. With all the positive energy and attitude that they hear about the "said" product, this will influence consumers to jump on board to trust the brand. This will lead to non-marketing sources. The words start to spreads as they have good experience and inputs on the brand and their products. They tell their friends, family, and social media. With how information processing and gathering been evolving, the spread of word is instant. This generates hype and makes the information available accessible to anyone in the world. With fast information being able to transfer and process, social influence is heavily boosted and will continue to have a huge impact on marketing.

    Nike is also notorious for creating reference groups for specific sports. These are groups that strive to become something they want to be, belong to, and stand out. For example, Nike creates products that vary from basketball, running, soccer needs that serve a purpose for their groups. These groups of people would go out and show-off these products to their friends, family, and avid athletic individuals which would influence them to join and also influence them to purchase that product and try it out themselves. This is the same as advertising and a very effective way to attract new consumers. This is why Nike is still the world-leading sportswear go to because of the amount of social influence they have.