Social Belonging

Social belongingness conforms to the societal influence in social psychology (Tajfel 1979, Bearden, Netemeyer & Teel 1989; Burnkrant & Cousineau, 1975; Cialdini, 2001; Cialdini & Trost, 1998). Marketers have long endeavoured to understand the effects of societal groups or reference groups on the consumer behaviour and how it affects the attitude towards a particular brand. The fact that people act in accordance with reference produced by the group they are a part of or familiarises themselves the most is a long accepted and rock solid foundation (Merton and Rossi 1949). Though much of the behaviour which a customer exhibits is affected by other variables but it is this societal group influence which created confusion. Social influence has an

The degree and scope of influence exerted by various kinds of reference groups have also been examined, resulting in classification of groups along the dimensions of degree of contact, membership, and attraction (Hawkins, Best and Coney 1995; Newcomb 1943, 1950). Reference group influence has been treated as a multidimensional construct (Bearden and Etzel 1982; Bearden, Netemeyer and Teel 1989; Brunkrant and Cousineau 1975; Deutsch and Gerard 1955; Park and Lessig 1977) based on the assumption that influence can occur for different motivational reasons. studies show that brands used by member groups and aspiration groups can become connected to consumers' mental representation of self as they use these brands to define and create their self-concepts (Jennifer Edson, James

Considering the Brand Selection Model (Herzberg, 2009) which helps in understanding, that consumer’s decision is much affected by the level of Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction, it also helps in interpreting the effect of various factors affecting the brand selection decision which helps marketers in applying limited marketing resources and converting them efficiently. The results however have not been commensurate with the efforts made due to the diversity which people exhibit in their behaviour. Thus, it is imperative for marketers to keep track of their customers by undertaking researches on the various facets of consumer behaviour, in different contexts on a regular