Effect of Peer Group on Consumer Behavior towards sales promotions- a Conceptual model

Peer group can be defined as a social group and a primary group of people who have similar interests, preferences, shared beliefs, background, or social status. The person’s beliefs and behavior are likely to be affected by the members of his group. Three types of influence have been identified in previous studies - informational, utilitarian and value-expressive. While formulating a marketing strategy for the market, the managers focus on the sales promotions for attracting the customers. Sales promotions provide multiple consumer benefits in the form of monetary and non- monetary incentives which have a direct impact on consumer behavior. Freebies provide hedonic or utilitarian benefits to the consumers. The hedonic freebies can be used as a promotional tool when the company is planning for expansion and utilitarian freebies provide utility value which increases the recognized value of the product. The objective of the paper is to develop and propose a conceptual model that studied the influence of peer group environment on the choice of sales promotions in the form of freebies. This will help the marketers to formulate sales promotions strategies by focusing on the peer groups of prospective customers.