Group reference - Essay Example

Social networking is also a very large method for companies to promote their products since people in group-oriented cultures value the wisdom that social networking sites and blogs can provide. It is an effective method of promoting word of mouth since Chapter 11 described this as a very important element of changing or improving buyer behavior. It has influence on 2/3 of all sales and therefore should be recognized as providing excellent marketing and advertising opportunities for many businesses in the UAE.

The Internet is widely used in this country and provides a forum for success. When comparing the readings from the two chapters about social stratification and buyer behavior related to reference groups, Carrefour and Lulu hypermarkets have mixed results in terms of self-promotion and the forums where they advertise. Ameinfo.com (2000) identifies that these firms are often reluctant to address different media sources about their business strategies and success. This makes it difficult to predict the type of strategic focus that these hypermarkets have and how they will change buyer attitudes especially when they are seeking information from knowledge sources of power.

The UAE has very group-oriented values and therefore rely on reference groups to help them make product decisions. Unlike other countries such as the United States and the UK that actively use media press releases to promote their products and business strategies, these hypermarkets are not taking advantage of the word of mouth potential that such media sources provide. Therefore, in the UAE, in relation to the hypermarket concept stores, certain social classes must rely on their own experiences to decide whether to continue to patronize the stores.

This is a limitation for the hypermarkets in many ways for not taking advantage of the advantages of media sources. At the same time, the social class status of buyers is mixed in the UAE and makes it difficult to target them. There are four distinct social classes of buyers in the UAE: Those with immense wealth and political power, the business class, the middle class with moderate income levels, and lower-income households who work in service industries (Omair, 2010, p.123). With such a mixed variety of consumers, it would be necessary to understand whether social mobility is occurring through infrastructure development or jobs creation to determine whether buying attitudes and behaviors would change over the long-term.

This again makes it difficult for the hypermarkets to promote their products effectively and develop a long-term strategy for marketing success. The UAE is also experiencing a recession much like the rest of the globe and global commodity prices are increasing. To combat this, the UAE is fixing the prices at the political level for different food products and other household products as a short-term strategy to prevent inflation (a1saudiarabia.com, 2011). This is going to impact the buying behavior of many different social classes at a time when value and pricing are considerable motivators for buying behavior.

These efforts are being done in an environment that will directly impact the hypermarket stores of Carrefour and Lulu since this is the bulk of their total product variety. Pricing will definitely