Groups - are you in the click?

You want to make a group eh? Well follow this easy recipe and you will be well on your way to a life of conformity and stereotype judgement!

First of all this needs MORE THAN TWO people, so grab one more than a couple but remember the more the merrier.

Isolate your chosen people from the one you haven’t chosen to avoid contamination. Mix in some SHARED NORMS ensuring no person is left out.

Pour in a generous amount of ROLE RELATIONSHIPS. It is important your people are marinated with the understanding of their particular role and how it is played within this group recipe. We can’t have a group made up purely of leaders, it’s like a vegetable soup made only of carrots.

Once fully marinated, place in the oven for a period of time to ensure the mix EXPERIENCES INTERDEPENDANT BEHAVIOURS. Nothing works better in a group than when all persons behave similarly and bounce off each other.

Finally remove from the oven, you can tell when the group is ready when you can see the INFLUENCE OF BEHAVIOUR AND WHAT IS LEARNT through each person. If so then voila! You have your group; name as you see fit.

Serving suggestions include dress code, colloquial language possibly a side of ritual activities.

Warning: Some groups may contain nuts.

Stuck for ideas of which groups to make? Well we have some perfected types that you can try:
· Ascribed: a group that you are born into such as your family and gender.
Unfortunately this is a recipe that only God can create, find another.

· Reference: a group you look to for lifestyle, such as neighbours or colleagues.
Recipe that’s great for everyday use.

· Acquired: a group that is joint or moved into, such as work or education.
This recipe is particularly good for developing behaviours.

· Aspirational: A group that you would like to belong to, such as celebrities.
Once made, this recipe can have strong effects n brands and purchasing behaviour.

· Dissociative: A group that you don’t want to be a part of such as Chavs.
Again this recipe may determine what you DON’T buy in fear of being associated with such a group.

· Contrived: a group that is made for a specific reason such as unions or karate class.
This is a recipe for fat free influence on your lifestyle/behaviours/purchasing.

· Associative: a group that you realistically belong to. Don’t kid yourself with this one.
A fair bit of influence on the products bought here, seems to be a recipe used to show off and get reassurance.

· Peer: a group where people are of equal standing of yourself.
This is a recipe especially influential on your behaviours; make sure you pick the right one!

Description of the Peer Group; Chav’s.
A ripe group which many would class as dissociative and those within normally are disillusioned that they are in fact an ingredient to this concoction. Marinated in anti social behaviours such as “music being played out loud on public transport”; this recipe may course allergic reaction to majority of society. Full of colloquial language such as “init cuz” and gone off attitudes to authority. Dress with fake Burberry, peak caps and plenty of oversized impression gold jewellery. Best served smoking on a park bench with cheap cider.

Out of the kitchen and into the classroom. Why do we have groups? According to Maslow and his hierarchy of need; it is vital for human beings to “belong”. This is due to us being social animals; we need unconditional social regard. This is how children learn through conditional positive regard; the knowing of what is right and wrong behaviour. This sense of need for belonging is used and abused by marketers in their campaigns. Aren’t we mean!?

This is what leads to the uber uncool evil entrapment of CONFORMITY.

This above video shows clearly how easy it is for people to accept the conditions of behaviour that a group of people can influence on others. But what is it that make these push over’s reject their individuality? It’s the pressure of group power. This emphasises on the importance of membership (because if you don’t like have the brand new super cool designer in your wardrobe then you are like, so totally not cool.) This leads to the fear of negative sanctions, (Oh no if I don’t get that new designer in my wardrobe they’re right, I will be so totally like uncool and then they won’t like me and then they won’t hang out with me, and then like that guy who I see with them a lot won’t ask me out, and then my life will be over!!!!!!) Alternatively, if you go with someone else’s flow, then you achieve a degree of support from the “cool” people and that girl who once looked down on you, might just help you get asked out by that guy who never knew your name before. Who knew that spending £670 on a handbag could lead to happily ever after?

Now form the classroom to the market board room.
For those who crave to take the inside track to popularity, marketers have victimised them for their susceptibility and made uncountable amounts of profit because of it. According to Solomon, Marketers have a good ride here since those who want to conform do so in buying the products that they are made aware of, and those who are anti-conformity create a paradox since “in order to be vigilant about not doing what is expected, one must always be aware of what is expected.” You have your conformers purchasing and your anti-conformers aware of the purchasing. Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner! Wait do you hear that? It’s the sound of thousands of anti-conformist kids crying into the sleeves if their Che Guevara hoodies...in unison.

Marketer’s have used this in pretty much every campaign in some way, such as aspirational groups, making it seem achievable through the purchasing of a specific product or buying into a brand:

In history though, the exclusive popularity of a brand or product has worked against it, and hijacked the image turning it into something completely different which can destroy the reputation that marketers have worked so hard to keep. The most obvious being Chav’s and Pikey’s holding the designer “Burberry” hostage – not THE Thomas Burberry, just his plaid pattern. This once upper class, classy and respected image is not iconic to the garish, yobbish, classless group of chav’s and pikey’s. I don’t think he’d mind too much but the fact is they don’t even buy the real thing, it’s the cheap imitations. Burberry has since then had to carry over a crises campaign to regain the reputation that has been tarnished, through the minimalist use of said plaid pattern in new designs.

Good Luck Tom