The Hindu Business Line : Opinion leaders as thought leaders

The views of the fellow consumer are increasingly being sought as a credible information source amidst the growing clamour of advertising campaigns.

Each brand stands for a particular consumer perception. Motorola’s mobiles are a symbol of fun and fashion among consumers.

In this era of thought leaders and thoughtless indulgence (meaning pleasure-seeking indulgences without much decision-making processes), opinion leaders may well be one of the much sought after marketing strategies. While the concept of the opinion leader is decades old, its resurgence in the digital marketing scenario has evoked much interest among marketers. Besides, marketers have also started using several variants of the original concept.

Why is opinion leadership topical?

The proliferation of brands, the clutter of brand communication, the emergence of sub-cultures and a shift from mass media (especially for brands not addressing the mass market) are some of the reasons why opinion leadership is becoming a high priority strategy for brands. Buzz or word-of-mouth consumer referrals and viral marketing (word-of-mouth through digital media) are some of the strategies strongly linked to opinion leadership.

With both consumer awareness and consumer confusion on the rise (awareness due to exposure to information and confusion due to exposure to brand claims and advertising clutter), consumers require an information source with credibility.

Opinion leadership provides the credibility that reinforces consumer confidence in brands. Opinion leadership involves the informal communication of one consumer (leader) to another consumer (opinion seeker). This informal communication could be with regard to product and service categories, retail outlets and features and benefits associated with brands.

Opinion leaders, though traditionally considered as consumers providing marketing related information to fellow consumers, can in today’s context double up as trend-setters in categories such as fashion, music, entertainment and symbolic categories such as watches and mobiles. This is because the underlying consumer behaviour related to opinion leadership provides a perception to the information received by the consumer in a variety of product categories. For example:

Louis Philippe Vs Arrow, Van Heusen or Park Avenue (branded apparel)

Samsung Vs LG, Philips or Sony (TVs)

Canon Vs Sony, Kodak or Pentax (digital cameras)

A Swatch watch bought impulsively by a trendy urban consumer simply because it was suggested by a friend as a fashion accessory. In the Indian market the watch is priced in the range of around $100 as against its cheapest version abroad in the price range of $10-$20.

Motorola’s colourful mobiles at around Rs 4,000 are a symbol of fun and fashion among consumers. These examples reflect the popularity and power of opinion leadership in India, with several product categories recording steady market growth in recent times.

Psyche of opinion leadership

There are several cues in the environment such as advertisements and personal sources of information. Consumers get used to advertisements and obtain word-of-mouth opinion on brands and product categories from opinion leaders who may be from their circle of friends or acquaintances.

A consumer would associate a significant degree of credibility to an opinion leader if he or she sees the latter as a consumer who has knowledge of and expertise/experience about a specific product category. This aura of credibility works with the brand’s communication on its features and benefits, and helps the consumer choose the brand that fits in with his requirement.In most cases, the consumer chooses the opinion leader from among his circle of information providers for the respective category. The opinion leader for one category may be the opinion seeker in another category.

The credibility associated with the opinion leader conditions the opinion of the consumer towards a specific brand. The higher the perceived risk associated with the category, greater is the impact of the opinion leader with regard to the purchase of the product or brand in that category.

In certain categories such as fashion or entertainment services (music and movies), the opinion leader may not only be an innovator (first to have tried out the product or service), but also a trend-setter.

The mobile downloads of Sivaji’s songs or the popularity of Om Shanti Om or the demand for Dev Anand’s Jewel Thief hat almost four decades back, may well be the influence of opinion leaders with social involvement who had spread the trend among his/her followers.

A fashion /entertainment product depends to a great extent on millions of such opinion leaders as the fashion or fad cycle is likely to be of a short duration.

Brand Referral (Usage)

Information provider, opinion leader, trendsetter/innovator

While opinion leadership involves word-of-mouth referral, the opinion leader who provides brand referral based on usage is appropriate for high involvement product categories where there is a lot of search effort from the opinion seeker. Recently published research reflects that heavy buyers of a brand may not provide the maximum brand referrals and marketers would do well to explore the word-of-mouth option based on brand usage among various segments of consumers.

In a category such as retail banking or telecom services /mobile services where millions of consumers may be associated with the brand, opinion leadership measurement may provide valuable insights.

Besides, when new product offerings are introduced (for example the futuristic TV in a mobile), the ‘innovator’ segment (consumers who try the service or the product within a short period after it is launched) may consist of opinion leaders who may want to spread the word-of-mouth message about the new innovation/offering. Such opinion leaders are important from the viewpoint of the brand and marketers need to plan out a promotional scheme to motivate such consumers.

With the proliferation of digital media and given the fact that major users of digital media are young consumers, a brand has the opportunity to use the Web to create opinion leadership through word of mouth, especially for entertainment and fashion brands.

Red Bull (a soft drink brand with the energy proposition), that registers billions of dollars of sale every year, has grown into a major brand in several countries.

The brand used word-of-mouth referrals and unconventional promotions aimed at triggering word-of-mouth referral by opinion leaders in the respective segment.

Fun, adventure and quirkiness is the brand personality and its Web site ( www.redbull.com) reinforces this with the backdrop of adventure sports, music juke box (music on demand) and other events that reinforce enjoyment.

The strong linkages of hedonism (consumption experience involving the ingredients that produces energy), the various events that are a part of enjoyment in the lifestyle of younger generation, the country-specific customisation of the Web site to accommodate a diversity of cultural pleasures and the resultant word-of-mouth buzz generated by groups of youngsters makes the brand highly experiential and group-oriented.

Thought leadership in marketing involves innovative thinking that is meaningful to the brand; a conceptual approach towards creating thought leaders among consumers will add value to marketing strategies.

(S.Ramesh Kumar is Professor of Marketing, IIM, Bangalore )

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