Central European Brands for communication strategy to the French market

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THE INFLUENCE OF OPINION LEADERS ON PURCHASING CONSUMER DECISIONS

RESEARCH & METHODS

DATA ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS[pic 2]

STUDENT NAME: BAKKALI Mehdi

TUTOR NAME:  Petr KRAL

27th January 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction        3

1.        Analysis of qualitative data: the interviews        4

1.1.        Theme 1 – Opinion leaders        4

1.2.        Theme 2 – Theories and limitations        5

1.3.        Theme 3 – Answers regarding problems        6

2.        Discussion of the results        7

2.1.        Opinion leaders        7

2.2.        Theories and limitations        8

2.3.        Answers regarding problems        9

2.3.1.        The reasons pushing opinion leaders to influence consumers        9

2.3.2.        How opinion leaders influence others        10

Conclusion        11

Bibliography        13

Websites        13

Books        13

Appendices 1: Literature Review        14

        26

Introduction

The literature review we made in the first chapter brought us suitable theories (appendices 1) whereas in the second one we collected qualitative data (appendices 2). This final chapter must bring a definitive answer and legitimacy to our findings.  

Data have been obtained by a questionnaire in containing three parts administered to two people with a considerable background. To respond to the main question of our research, “Why opinion leaders impact consumer buying decisions?” we should expose some indispensable steps. The next step will present data from my interviews, then will analyse and discuss before a conclusion will be drawn up after introducing our findings.

1.        Analysis of qualitative data: the interviews

In this part, I will analyse the data collected by interviewing two professors; Sarah Mussol and Chaffik Bakkali. The questionnaire contains three themes.

1. Theme 1 – Opinion leaders

Question 1: In your point of view, what is an opinion leader?

Sarah Mussol qualified an opinion leader as somebody who gets the power, influence, knowledge and experience. She added it must be able to influence others.

Chaffik Bakkali explained us that an opinion leader is somebody who cans influence others using either the persuasion or convincing.

Question 2: Can you highlight the different kinds of opinion leaders?

         Sarah Mussol said “Obviously, we have close people; we have also experts as economic expert on the television. However in my opinion the strongest kind of opinion leaders is celebrities’ endorsement”.

By this quotation, she gives us opinion leaders’ hierarchy, describing which one gets the biggest influence.

For Chaffik Bakkali three kinds of opinion leaders are relevant. The first one is family regrouping friends also and clearly the most powerful. Then we have the group or community as Myspace. Finally we find the celebrities and advertising allowing to diffuse their influence.

1. Theme 2 – Theories and limitations

Question 4: What do you think concerning Katz and Lazarsfeld theory?

Ms Mussol thinks this theory has marked a revolution in the thinking of advertisers or media. She also explained that since the two-step-flow of communication was published there were more and more celebrities (opinion leaders) in the advertising to target subsequently consumers.

Mr Chaffik Bakkali said “the two-step-flow of communication has been a precursor of the communication and it is still a source of inspiration for the new models”. By this sentence, he wanted to explain us that this theory helped to put the necessary foundations for futures theories.

Question 5: Nowadays, according to some researchers this theory is not up-to-date, are you agree with this statement?

“Yes obviously this theory was published in 1955. Now people can be influenced by opinion leaders, then go in Internet to look for others information” said professor Mussol.

She argues that media have changed since 1955; there is less mass media but more online community. Furthermore, Internet did not exist at this period, as consequence the theory is not up-to-date.

Mr Chaffik Bakkali states that the influence is less in “one-way”. The information is more spread. Today, social media are targeted by brands because they understand their importance. People having a considering fans number or followers might be opinion leaders. We could find the same process with “bloggers”.

Question 6: Some alternative theories were outlined by searchers such as one-step flow of communication or multi-step flow of communication. Which one is more suitable today? 

Sarah Mussol declared “the multi-step-flow of communication is the most complicated but also the most realistic”. Clearly, she put forward the fact that this theory considered the evolution and the complexification of modern communication. That is the reason why it is the most relevant.

For Mr Bakkali no one is more suitable today and no one is more relevant than others. He indicated “If I had to choose I will answer by the silent because in my point of view, there are all relevant and working, therefore no one have the exclusivity”. We may understand each theory could work depending on the situation.  

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