The role of reference group influence: A benchmarking study with working and non-working groups

Abstract

This research examines reference group influence on working women and non-working women. It examines how working women and non-working women differ in their susceptibility to reference group influence across product categories: private necessity, private luxury, public necessity, and public luxury. Data collection included 1044 responses, which were analysed using analysis of variance and validated through discriminant analysis. Results show that working women and non-working women differ in their susceptibility towards reference group influences. The findings reaffirm that it is imperative to devise different marketing approaches accordingly and that women cannot be considered a single homogenous target market.