How Reference Groups Influence Product and Brand Choices

Not every product makes us look over our shoulder before buying it. You probably didn’t ask anyone’s opinion before choosing a mattress brand, but you almost certainly cared what people would think about the car parked in your driveway. This isn’t random – it’s a well-documented pattern in consumer psychology. How much a reference group shapes your buying decision depends almost entirely on one thing: how conspicuous the product is. And conspicuousness, as researchers have found, has two clear dimensions – how exclusive the product is, and how visible it is to others.

What makes a product conspicuous? 🔗

A reference group is any group of people – friends, family, colleagues, celebrities, or online communities – whose attitudes and behaviors influence your own. Their power over your purchasing decisions, however, is not equal across all product categories. It depends on how conspicuous the product is.

Landmark research by Bearden and Etzel (1982), published in the Journal of Consumer Research, gave us the most widely used framework for understanding this. They identified two key dimensions of product conspicuousness:

• Exclusivity (Luxury vs. Necessity): Does virtually everyone own it, or is it rare enough to signal something about the owner? Exclusivity drives influence over the product decision – whether to buy the category at all.
• Visibility (Public vs. Private): Can others easily see or identify the product and its brand while it’s being used? Visibility drives influence over the brand decision – which specific brand to choose.

These two dimensions create a 2×2 matrix of four product types, each with a distinct pattern of reference group influence.

Public luxuries: strong influence on both product and brand 🔗

Public luxuries sit at the intersection of high exclusivity and high visibility. Think of golf clubs, sailboats, or a luxury sports car. Not everyone owns them, and when someone does, everyone can see it – including the brand. These products function as powerful social symbols.

As research on reference group influence explains, for products in this category, both the decision to purchase the product and the choice of brand are strongly influenced by others. The logic is intuitive: because these items are rare and publicly visible, owning one – and owning the right brand – communicates membership in a desirable group. A Rolex isn’t just a watch; it’s a signal. A Titleist golf bag isn’t just equipment; it’s a statement about the kind of person using it.

For marketers, this quadrant represents the most fertile ground for reference group appeals. Advertising for public luxuries almost always shows aspirational peers or admired figures using the product, because both the category purchase and the brand choice benefit from social reinforcement.

Private luxuries: strong influence on product, weak on brand 🔗

Private luxuries – like a home theater system, a premium espresso machine, or a high-end home gym setup – are exclusive but not publicly visible. Owning one still sets you apart (exclusivity), but nobody outside your home sees which brand you chose.

The result: reference group influence is strong on the product decision but weak on the brand choice. You might buy a home theater because your social circle has one and you want to keep pace – the product grants you the exclusivity signal within your group. But since no one is going to see whether it’s a Sony or a Samsung system, the brand decision gets made on personal criteria: features, price, reviews, and individual preference.

This has a clear implication for marketers. Advertising for private luxuries should focus on why someone should buy the category at all – the aspiration and the lifestyle that comes with ownership – rather than investing heavily in brand differentiation through social imagery.

Public necessities: weak influence on product, strong on brand 🔗

Public necessities are products that nearly everyone owns, but that are used or displayed in public. Wristwatches, automobiles, and shoes are classic examples. Because almost everyone has a car or a watch, the decision to buy one isn’t socially loaded – it’s just a normal part of life. Reference group influence on the product decision is therefore weak.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Because the product is used publicly, the brand becomes the visible marker of group affiliation. What car you drive or which watch you wear communicates volumes. The Bearden and Etzel framework confirms that publicly consumed products show stronger reference group influence for brand choice than for the product category itself – because it’s the brand, not the category, that others observe and evaluate.

This is precisely why automotive advertising almost never tries to convince you that you need a car. It focuses entirely on which car – and who drives it. The same logic explains why luxury watch brands like Omega or Patek Philippe sell identity and belonging, not just timekeeping.

Private necessities: weak influence on both product and brand 🔗

At the opposite extreme are private necessities: products like mattresses, refrigerators, washing machines, or kitchen storage. Everyone needs them. Nobody sees them. The result is the weakest pattern of reference group influence across both the product and brand decisions.

Consumers choosing a mattress are primarily driven by personal criteria – back support, firmness, price, and individual health needs. The brand on the mattress label is irrelevant to anyone outside the bedroom. Research confirms that for privately consumed necessities, purchase decisions are far more likely to be based on individual needs and preferences than on any social signal. Reference group appeals in advertising simply don’t work as effectively here.

For marketers in this space, the takeaway is clear: don’t try to manufacture social pressure where none naturally exists. Focus on product attributes, quality cues, warranties, and functional benefits instead.

How marketers apply reference group theory in advertising 🔗

Understanding which type of product you’re selling directly determines which kind of spokesperson or endorsement strategy will resonate. Marketers have three primary tools, each tapping into a different mechanism of social influence.

Celebrity endorsements: aspirational influence 🔗

Celebrities function as aspirational reference groups. Consumers don’t know them personally, but they admire them and want to be associated with their image. Research from the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative found that people are more likely to choose products endorsed by a celebrity and make that choice faster, with less deliberation – the celebrity builds confidence and reduces purchase anxiety. This is especially effective for public luxuries and public necessities, where the brand’s social meaning matters.

However, the match between celebrity and product is critical. A meta-analysis published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science confirmed that congruent endorsers – those whose image aligns with the product – produce significantly stronger effects on consumer attitudes and purchase intention than mismatched ones. Tiger Woods selling golf equipment works; the same celebrity selling kitchen appliances doesn’t carry the same weight.

Expert endorsements: informational influence 🔗

Expert spokespersons – dermatologists endorsing skincare, nutritionists endorsing supplements, engineers reviewing technology – work through a different mechanism: informational influence. Consumers turn to experts when they want to make well-informed decisions, especially for products with high perceived risk or complexity. In saturated categories like health and wellness, an expert endorsement signals credibility and legitimacy in a way a celebrity alone cannot. This strategy is particularly valuable for private luxuries, where the product decision is socially driven but consumers still need information to evaluate which specific product to buy.

Common-man spokespersons: referent influence 🔗

The “ordinary person” endorser taps into referent power – the influence that comes from similarity and identification. When a consumer sees someone who looks like them, lives like them, and faces the same problems, they find the recommendation far more relatable and credible than a celebrity pitch. Studies comparing celebrity versus influencer endorsements have found that micro-influencers and everyday spokespersons are often perceived as more credible endorsers, particularly among younger consumers who are increasingly skeptical of traditional celebrity advertising. This approach works well for public necessities, where the goal is to connect the brand to a recognizable social identity – not an unattainable one.

Why this framework still matters 🔗

The conspicuousness model, despite being grounded in research from the early 1980s, remains highly relevant. Empirical studies, including research conducted with over 1,000 consumers in India, continue to confirm that social influences vary significantly across product categories along these same dimensions. The rise of social media has arguably amplified the framework rather than replaced it – Instagram and TikTok have simply made more products “public” by expanding the audience that can observe what you own and use.

What the framework ultimately tells us is that reference group influence isn’t random – it’s predictable. The luxury-versus-necessity dimension tells you whether groups influence the product decision. The public-versus-private dimension tells you whether they influence the brand decision. Knowing where your product sits in this matrix is one of the most practical starting points for any advertising or brand positioning strategy.

What do you think? Does knowing that your brand choices for public products are often shaped by group influence change how you think about your own purchasing decisions? And as social media makes more consumption visible to wider audiences, do you think the line between “private” and “public” products is shifting in ways that marketers haven’t fully caught up with yet?

References

1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24099456_Reference_Group_Influence_on_Product_and_Brand_Purchase_Decisions
2. https://profwurzer.com/how-brands-influence-decision/
3. https://chenxing.space/consumer-behavior/notes-on-bearden-and-etzel-1982-reference-group-influence-on-product-and-brand-purchase-decisions/
4. https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-marketing-psychology-behind-celebrity-endorsements/
5. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11747-016-0503-8
6. https://www.aspire.io/blog/celebrity-endorsement-vs-expert-endorsement
7. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02650487.2019.1634898
8. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334264564_Product_conspicuousness_and_reference_group_influence_among_women_an_empirical_analysis