Marketers are now working to harness the new-found communications power of their everyday customers by turning them into influential brand ambassadors, Companies like Sony, Microsoft and McDonald's are now developing a new breed of brand ambassador programs that organize and multiply consumer to consumer interactions about their brands

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Marketers are now working to harness the new-found communications power of their everyday customers by turning them into influential brand ambassadors, Companies like Sony, Microsoft and McDonald's are now developing a new breed of brand ambassador programs that organize and multiply consumer to consumer interactions about their brands. Marketers select their brand ambassadors very carefully, based on customers' devotion to brand and the size of their social circles. For the ambassador, rewards include product samples, gifts discounts and token cash payments. Perhaps most important to many brand enthusiasts, they get inside access to company's information about new product and services about to be launched. One such success story was Sony. Sony used brand ambassadors to jumpstart the launch of its new GPS camera, a high tech device that draws on satellite tracking technology to let you record the exact location of every picture you take and later map them out using Google maps. Out of 2000 or more online applicants, Sony picked only 25 brand ambassadors. The ambassadors were given a free camera and other equipment along with lesson on how to use them. They were encouraged to show the camera to friends, associates, and anyone else who asked hand-out discount coupons and blog weekly about their travel and picture taking adventures on a dedicated Sony micro site. 

Q.Read the above case description carefully and answer the below question.

Based on your own understanding of reference groups, how effective would brand ambassadors be as reference groups for relatively expensive, infrequently bought product and services? How would your answer change if the product in question was detergent or cooking oil?