Untangelling the Two-Step Flow Theory

Let me give you a bit of background as to how this theory came about. It was formulated in 1948 by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet. They wanted to understand how people vote and what influences their decision, zooming in on the US Presidential election in 1940. 

How we understand it is that the media at mass is received first by people who are trusted, highly ranked in their opinions and businesses. They are called Opinion Leaders. This information is then received by members of the public straight from those Opinion Leaders rather than mass media directly. If we give an example of the election that took place, many people got their information from others who first read about the election in the paper. This research showed how important word of mouth was. The opinion leaders in this case are the commentators and politicians. They first hear political news through mass media such as TV, newspapers, and radio. The opinion leaders will then give their own opinion on any of these political issues. People less influential will hear these views and very likely be influenced as well as generally informed.

Let’s look at this in modern day. If what we are saying is true, then this theory could also be used when companies want to market and advertise their products. They may want to first get Opinion Leaders on their side to then influence others. Nowadays social media has taken over and Opinion Leaders are all over the platform TikTok and Instagram, reviewing products. This is how most people get their information nowadays. An example of a product that went viral is the famous Tangle Teezer hairbrush. After an unfortunate Dragons Den pitch with no investments offered up by the dragons Shaun Pulfrey still got people talking about the hairbrush which influenced many orders on his website. It was exactly that. People talking to one another rather than receiving the mass communication themselves. Shaun has his hairbrushes selling in over 60 countries in shops like Boots, John Lewis and Hamleys and a massive 50 million brushes being sold! Another form of opinion leaders in this case are the celebrities that have posted on their social platform pictures or videos of them using the brush. The brushes have been used by the likes of Victoria Beckham, Kim Kardashian, model Cara Delevinge and many more. These specific celebrities could be called opinion leaders as they are themselves in the fashion world and would know the best products to use. They are experts in the industry. I myself bought a Tangle Teezer through word of mouth and by seeing celebrities use it and I have to say I do love it. In my everyday life I will very often hear about products through the means of social media, friends, and family and then I do tend to base my opinions on what I hear.

A negative aspect to this theory is that companies heavily rely on positive opinions that hopefully won’t change over time. If mass communication is not reaching the ordinary public first then we have to ask the question; How useful does the Two-Step Flow Theory play out for businesses and does it carry more risk?

References:

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