81% of purchase decisions are influenced by friends This is the ninth of 20 daily THOUGHTS examining emotions in marketing.A recent study found that 81% of all purchase decisions are influenced directly or indirectly by friends. Consumers are influenced by what friends have purchased or what friends say about a brand to them personally, on […]

81% of purchase decisions are influenced by friends This is the ninth of 20 daily THOUGHTS examining emotions in marketing.A recent study found that 81% of all purchase decisions are influenced directly or indirectly by friends. Consumers are influenced by what friends have purchased or what friends say about a brand to them personally, on social media, or at a dinner party. The influence can follow what a friend says and even what they are reported to have said, what they think or are thought to think. This being the case, why don’t more goods vendors and service providers work harder to establish friendships with their customers? Why don’t more shopkeepers, accountants, etc. become one of the friends that influence purchase behaviour? Service providers tend to be better than retailers, but both could improve – as could I. The second question that occurs to me when considering the influence of…