Conformity is the act of matching
attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms. Norms are implicit, unsaid
rules, and shared by a group of individuals, which guide interactions with
others. This tendency to conform occurs in small groups and/or society as a
whole, and may result from subtle unconscious influences, or direct and overt
social pressure. Conformity can occur in the presence of others, or when an
individual is alone. It is often associated with adolescence and youth culture, but strongly affects humans of all ages.
Here is an old video shows the power of
conformity:
Although in digital age, people advocating individuality
than ever, conformity still has it’s power to affect people’s behavior on social
media.
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| Stills of 2 broke girls |
Thanks for Internet; the television sitcom
named 2 broke girls become very
popular in China. The main cast Kat Dennings as Max Black in that sitcom also
become popular. To express affection, some Chinese audiences start leave
comments on Kat’s Instagram. From the moment I do not know, those people start
to leave similar sentences to draw Kat’s attention (like the screen shot I took
from Kat’s page). At the beginning, only a group people do this, after a while,
more and more people join in, they send similar Chinese comments for every Kat’s
picture. At that moment, some people didn’t watch 2 broke girls, and they even
don’t know Kat very much, but they do the same behavior, because they saw
their friends are doing so.
 |
| Screen shot of Kat's Instagram |
I’m not sure whether Kat notice those
comments, but this is a kind of conformity effect that happened spontaneously on
social media.
Companies and brands could use conformity
effect to promote their products. KFC did a wise marketing campaign in China.
On 12/30/2013 KFC launched a new product called “Golden crispy fried chicken”. At the same day, KFC made a news release
alleges that this new product is refers to challenge the old product "Original recipe fried chicken", and shake the
old product’s status in the ancestor of KFC. Then KFC launched an online voting,
it asks consumers to decide the futures of those two products. Meanwhile, KFC invited
two handsome famous actors to be the spokesman for the two products
respectively. Also, people might have chance to get rewards after this vote.
This campaign has sparked an earnest
discussion on social media. People are divided into two parties, some people
are fight for their favorite product, and some people are fight for their
favorite actor. The lower right and left corner of the picture below shows the vote
number of two products so far; add the two numbers together, as you can see, people
vote more than 20,000,000 times.
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| KFC Voting Page |
It’s no hard to image that during this campaign
the sales of two products will has a much improved. By use the conformity
effect, the campaign not only promotes the new product but also the old
product. And the input is much cheaper than traditional advertising.
For this case, I learned that social media
could be a place where customs share their passion, and where brands get their profits.
