The power of influence
Marco Dalglish pondered the conventional marketing theory that if you research many individuals feelings, brand perceptions and their needs and wants and group the results you will be able to predict how they will behave.
But why then are so many people wrong in their predictions of success even if they have access to research?
Marco remembered an article he had read in the NY Times and it had resonated with him.
“…people almost never make decisions independently — in part because the world abounds with so many choices that we have little hope of ever finding what we want on our own; in part because we are never really sure what we want anyway; and in part because what we often want is not so much to experience the “best” of everything as it is to experience the same things as other people and thereby also experience the benefits of sharing.”
Marco thought. “So it’s not that the sum of the individuals perceptions that make the whole, its their views influenced by others.
This is very important because its the influence of that persons social network more than the intrinsic quality of the product that make a difference.”
What are the implications from a marketing point of view?
Marco wrote:
Are the most important people in your market the people who INFLUENCE the network ?
