Contemporary business conditions set up a new complex problem for the companies – a dramatic decline in the return on investment of different types of promotion activities. Consumers on the global market are showing increasing levels of resistance and lack of confidence in a growing number of marketing messages sent to them by companies, mostly because those messages communicate only on the positive and often embellished aspects of the products and services. Consumers wishing to reduce the risk of wrong purchase decisions are turning to other consumers in whose advice and attitudes they have confidence, and thus get a true picture of the market situation. Those consumers are very specific individuals recognized as opinion leaders in marketing literature. In this way, the company’s control on consumer purchase
decision is reduced significantly, thereby increasing the overall risk of doing business. The paper aims to highlight the importance of the research of consumer opinion leaders in marketing theory and practice, to identify their characteristics and behaviour, and to point out possible ways of their identification. The empirical research will test the hypothesis of the existence of the gender impact on consumer display of opinion leadership in the Republic of Serbia
