Please respond to the below

The more I learn about the role and importance of an opinion leader the more I realize how much I have been impacted by them. Whenever I am going to purchase something that is not the normal grocery or clothing purchase I tend to do my homework by reading reviews go opinion leaders, and I try to make a fairly educated decision. I am frugal by nature and dont consider myself a normal consumer, definitely not a shopaholic who relies on retail therapy. So when I am going to buy something high dollar such as a vehicle, generator or some other sort of new technology I rely heavily on what I now know is an opinion leader. The text mentioned that companies rely heavily on the content that people post in social media, blogs and also depend on famous people in the media to help get their products showcased(Lamb et al., 2019, p.211)

One such person I would consider to be an opinion leader would be one of the Kardashian women, if not all of them. But to be specific Im referencing Kylie Jenner whom I just saw a news special about today. Just before she wanted to start her own cosmetics brand back in 2011 her mother implied that she(Kylie) needed to start a marketing campaign and her mother had some connections that Kylie could tap into. Kylie politely told her mother marketing campaign? Dont worry mom, I got this!. Kylie really didnt have a marketing campaign but she did use her influence in social media to spread the word about her line of cosmetics. At the time she had over a hundred million followers and nowadays she has over 300 million. The day her products went up for sale they were completely sold out in less then an hour of being online.

Another person that I would strongly consider to be an opinion leader would be retired Navy Seal Jocko Willink. Before starting a podcast and after he retired from the Navy Mr. Willink started a leadership and management consulting firm. His firm would travel around the country and analyze the business practices and leadership principles within a company. They would then offer solutions management could utilize in their leadership approaches to maximize process improvements which lead to employees and management having more ownership in their respective roles which would result in more successful business practices. Currently in addition to the consulting Jocko WIllink and his team hold five day leadership seminars around the country that are called Musters. Everyone from blue collar workers to CEOs from fortune 500 companies attend the musters and I have never heard a bad review from anyone who has attended and shared their experience on his podcast.

He has also started a line of products that are geared towards fitness and healthier versions of supplements that have better ingredients when compared to competitors health supplements. His podcast has been very successful, and he is a NY times best selling author. A couple of years ago he started a company called Origin in Maine and they make products in America and the materials used to make the items are completely sourced from items made in America too. I would say that recent requests from the public that he run for President of the United States in 2024 because of his philosophy of extreme ownership would prove that he embodies the very definition of an opinion leader.

Reference

Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F., & McDaniel, C. (2019). MKTG12: Principles of marketing. Cengage Learning. Retrieved from Chegg eReader website