Learning Outcomes

Model of Consumer Behavior:  Environmental factors.  Student can use the model of consumer behavior to identify those environmental factors most likely to affect the consumer decision making for a specific product or service.

Model of Consumer Behavior:  Consumer factors.  Student can reference the model of consumer behavior to identify the consumer factors most likely to affect the decision making for a specific product or service.

Role of Involvement in purchase decisions.  Student can identify the role of consumer involvement applicable to a specific product or service offering and how that level of involvement affects the type of decision making.

Consumer decision-making process.  Student can identify how marketing strategy can influence each of the steps in the consumer decision-making process.

Directions

• Refer to the product or service you selected at the beginning of the semester. This week, you want to take a closer look at what consumer factors may be relevant for customers who are considering buying your product or service offering.  This will require some critical thinking on your part based on your own behavior if you are a customer yourself, or you may want to talk to others who have purchased the product.  Sometimes you can find clues when looking at the marketing messages that may be addressing some of these factors.

• Prepare your assignment beginning with a cover page with your name and the product or service. Then answer the following four questions in order and number the beginning of your response to each question.

1. Consumer Behavior Model: Environmental factors.  Refer to the week’s readings and the model of consumer behavior and identify two of the most important environmental factors you think are relevant to the customers of your product or service offering.  Explain your choices.
2. Consumer Behavior Model: Consumer factors.  Refer to this week’s readings and the model of consumer behavior and identify the three most important consumer factors you think are relevant to the customers of your product or service offering.  Explain your choices.
3. Role of involvement in consumer decision-making.  Identify the level of involvement a customer of your product or service might use to make a purchase/no purchase decision.  Then, discuss which type of buying behavior is most consistent with that level of involvement.
4. Consumer decision-making process.  Go through the six steps of the purchase process outlined in the readings and identify where marketing can influence each of the six steps.   For example, if a consumer just identified a need for your product in step one, then the company can advertise how your product fills that need.  Or, if a consumer purchased your product, the consumer can be called and asked about their satisfaction with the product and if there is any dissatisfaction steps can be taken to ensure the customer satisfaction.  Be sure to be more specific with respect to your product or service than this example.

Part 2 – Market Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

Learning Outcomes

1. Segmentation.  Students can use the segmentation characteristics to identify and describe market segments
2. Target Market. Students can identify a usable market segment to be a target market
3. Target-market strategy. Students can determine an appropriate target-market strategy.
4. Positioning.  Students can develop and interpret a perceptual map.

Directions

• So far, you have only been considering the customers of your product or service as one big group, or a mass market.  More astute marketing breaks down this large group into smaller market segments of consumers who have similar characteristics.  For any specific product or service, there could be numerous market segments.  However, company resources may only allow a company to pursue one or two or these market segments, which then become target market(s).  In this paper, you should divide the mass market for your product or service into at least two market segments and then pick one target market you think would have the most potential for future growth.  This target market does not have to be the one the company would have actually picked, or is currently pursuing.

• Think outside your own box.  Chances are good you picked a product with which you are familiar. That is a good starting point, and you may represent one target market.  But you may represent a target market that is saturated and therefore not the best target market to pick for the remainder of the semester.  So be sure your second target market is different enough and represents growth potential.

• If you did not do a thorough analysis of the competition in the prior writing assignment, you may need to go back and figure out the nature of the product’s or service’s competition.  This will be important when you address the positioning of your product for your newly identified target market inasmuch as positioning is a competition-based concept.

• We understand you are not an employee of the company and do not have access to the data that you feel will allow you to discuss the questions to the degree you would like.  Take your best educated and reasoned guesses whenever you need to do so.

• Your job will be to critically examine all of the segmentation bases and arrive at your own description of potential market segments for your product or service.

• You may want to visit http://www.segmentationstudyguide.com/understanding-perceptual-maps/a-step-by-step-guide-to-constructing-a-perceptual-map/ for a step-by-step guide on how to draw a perceptual or positioning map.  Remember to label both axes of your perceptual map.  Meanwhile, here is an example of a perceptual map for the beer market, an excellent example for a highly competitive product.