 sway them. Social pressures can even cause a person to drop a carrier and switch to one that is more socially acceptable. Chapter 4 Friends/Family The strongest of the social churn factors is the friends and family issue. People will often change the decisions they have made based on pressure from these groups. In many Chinese and other Asian cultures, the family will exert a strong influence on decisions. Adult children many times change their decisions to conform to the wishes of parents. Some of the people interviewed in focus groups gave family pressure as the reason for changing. Even more powerful than family pressure is peer pressure, especially on teenagers and young adults. If a carrier happens to be recognized as the cool, hip, young people's carrier, many customers will switch from their competition due to social pressure. Two cases come to mind that underscore this effect. The Dingo Blue Company in Australia established a strong unique young image, which produced an almost complete counterculture association for subscribers. This company created an image that leverages strong peer pressure to become one of the people with the "right" provider. In another market, a company was able to establish such a strong recognition as the best, that people having the "wrong" phone number (the phone number prefix associated with the less popular carrier) are singled out as "uncool." Image Strongly related to the pressure that friends and family may create for a consumer is the self-image that the consumer brings to the provider contract. In some cases, the image projected by the company can clash with the self-image of the consumer. In these cases, consumers will switch to a company with an image more in line with their own. Experimentation Finally, there is a small group of consumers who simply have a need to try new things. These consumers will switch carriers just to see what the other service is like and to give themselves a basis eXcellence in Telecommunications The Telco Churn Handbook for comparison. The ex