Market Maven Scale

Name: Market Maven Scale
Published: 1987
License: https://psychometricscales.com/methodology.html

MAVENMarket mavens are consumers with a propensity to provide general shopping and marketplace information. They possess information about many kinds of products, places to shop, and other facets of markets, initiate discussions with consumers, and respond to requests for market information. Their expertise is market-wide rather than product-specific — distinguishing them from product opinion leaders.

6 items 1987 α 0.82–0.84 Free Feick, L.F. & Price, L.L.

What it measures

The Market Maven Scale captures a distinct diffuser role in consumer markets — individuals who serve as generalist marketplace information hubs rather than product-specific opinion leaders. Validated in a nationwide telephone survey of 1,531 adults (M=25.6, SD=8.5). Market mavens are more likely to engage in smart shopping behaviours (coupon use, grocery budgeting), are among the first aware of new products, engage heavily with advertising and information sources, and are correlated with innovativeness (r=0.31–0.34). Discriminant from opinion leadership (r=0.22) via confirmatory factor analysis. Item-to-total correlations 0.48–0.67.

Response format

Items 1–5: 7-point strongly disagree to strongly agree; item 6: 7-point 'does not fit me well at all' to 'fits me very well'; items summed (range 6–42)

Scale items

I like introducing new brands and products to my friends.
I like helping people by providing them with information about many kinds of products.
People ask me for information about products, places to shop, or sales.
If someone asked where to get the best buy on several types of products, I could tell him or her where to shop.
My friends think of me as a good source of information when it comes to new products or sales.
Think about a person who has information about a variety of products and likes to share this information with others. This person knows about new products, sales, stores, and so on, but does not necessarily feel he or she is an expert on one particular product. How well would you say this description fits you?

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Item 6 uses a distinct response format ('does not fit me well at all' to 'fits me very well') and should be clearly differentiated on survey instruments. Mean score in national adult sample: M=25.6 (SD=8.5). Market mavens are distinct from product opinion leaders — mavenism is domain-general while opinion leadership is product-specific. Mavenism correlates with coupon use, advertising readership, and early product awareness. 46% of survey respondents reported knowing someone fitting the market maven description.

Recommended companion scales

Opinion Leaders and Opinion Seekers ScaleConsumer InnovativenessNeed for Cognition Scale

Citation

Feick, L.F., & Price, L.L. (1987). The market maven: A diffuser of marketplace information. Journal of Marketing, 51(1), 83–97.

Find on Google Scholar

Keywords

#marketmaven#opinionleadership#informationdiffusion#marketplaceinformation#wordofmouth#shopping#newproducts#consumerinfluence#individualdifferences

View & search this scale interactively →

Free access to 2455+ psychometric scales at PsychScales