Applied Consumer Decision - Essay Example

i Applied Consumer Decision Student’s Name: Course: Tutor’s Name: Date: Journal entry 1 To most book lovers, Oprah’s Book Club is just that – a book club. However, a look at the sales volumes registered for each book chosen for reading by the club reveals that it has marketing connotations that cannot be ignored either by publishers or the authors. Even critics such as Chiles (2012, para. 1) admit that the book club, though not enticing to new readers, always boosts the “sales of its chosen books” and gets “readers to try books they otherwise might not have known about”. Among the widely quoted reasons why sales increase for books chosen by Oprah for reading in the book club states that, as one of the most influential media personalities, Oprah’s choice of a book is often perceived as an endorsement to the same. Chiles (2012, para 6) for example states that the book club is simply a “great advertisement for the book industry”. While this may be a debatable assertion, Chiles’ (2012) comment above may have some truth especially considering the history of book club. In 1996 for example, the book club’s first ever book choice “The Deep End of the Ocean” authored by Jacquelyn Mitchard hit the number one slot on New York’s best seller’s list two weeks after it was selected for reading in the club (Brainz.org 2012, para. 4). Drawing upon marketing concepts, it is clear that Oprah’s book club influence consumer behaviour through engaging the marketing mix and the socio-cultural environment, which then affects their perceptions and influences consumers’ decision-making. By choosing a book, Oprah’s book club indirectly markets the book to consumers. The club also informs its members about the availability and prices of the book. By so doing, the club handles the entire marketing mix for the publisher. In the socio-cultural environment, opinion leadership (by Oprah) and group influence among members of the club is evident. This then means that a book chosen for reading by Oprah is most likely perceived as a good book, and even if one was not interested in the same, the mere fact that other book club members would be reading it makes individuals to purchase (and read) the book. Such factors makes the decision-making process easier in that members of the book club do not always have to engage in need recognition, pre-purchase searches and evaluation since they often believe that the book choice was made based on prior investigation by Oprah’s producers as implied in Brainz.org (2012, para. 4). In relation to learning and memory, Garthwaite (2012, p. 7) observes that most of the book club members purchase books chosen for reading not because they value the utility of reading the books, but because of the utility they expect to get from engaging in book club-related activities. As such, it their club membership has conditioned them to purchase (without much consideration), the book(s) chosen for reading by Oprah and her producers. Another effect of Oprah’s book endorsement is evident in increased sales of other titles by endorsed authors (Garthwaite 2012, p. 29). This is probably related to the learning that occurs in people’s mind that a good writer is probably to publish good and/or interesting books only. Figure 1: Oprah's Book Club’s patroness- Oprah Winfrey In relation to self-concept, personality and identity construction, it would appear that Oprah’s book club attracts more women since the books often picked for reading are women-friendly. As Max (1999, p. 36) notes for example, that book episodes end with audience’s talking about “what they thought of the book and –especially and extensively—its relevance to their own lives. Could they be friends with the main character? What did the book teach them about themselves?” and such like things. Oprah also insist that books should be used as “springboards for self-reflection” something that most buyers of the Oprah-endorsed books try to attain (Max 1999, p. 36). Through the book club, Oprah has also arguably managed to shape and/or change consumer attitudes towards books (or reading). As Max (1999, p. 36) notes, the book club “is a vast experiment in linked literary imagination and social engineering”. In other words, the millions of book club members have adopted reading mainly because Oprah often says that reading changed her life, or because she stated the objective of the book club as “getting America to read again” (Max 1999, p. 36). To the larger American society, Sorensen (2007, p. 715-716) observes that listing in New York’s best seller’s list affect consumer behaviour because it reflects on the buyers’ perceived quality towards the book in addition to acting as a coordinating mechanism in that people want to read the most popular book. According to Butler (cited by Brigham Young University 2004, para. 14t), books picked by Oprah for reading in the book club “came from almost total anonymity to become a best seller. Overall and based on the above identified consumer theories, the Oprah’s book club has perhaps acted as a short-term marketing channel for endorsed books. As Max (1999, p. 36) however notes, publishers stop stamping endorsed books with the Oprah seal in a month’s time, and this practically means that a significant number who would otherwise purchase the book due to its association with the celebrity figure do not do so. In other words, there is no carryover or longevity in the Oprah endorsements and soon, authors and publishers fade to oblivion. This then means that it is Oprah’s brand name that sells the book, but even then, it is short-lived (Townsend 2011, para. 9). Among the improvements that would be beneficial for publishers and authors in the long-term is to have the Oprah seal on all future copies. Through such a strategy, the endorsed books would continue attracting consumers in future, especially those who relate with Oprah-like books. The latter have been described as “light-but-not-too-light novels by not-so-well-known female writers that have a happy ending” (Max 1999, p. 36). The ethics of the Oprah book club are perhaps best evident in the September 2005 pick “a million little pieces” by James Frey, which was promoted as a memoir only for it to be discovered two months later that it was semi-fictional. Consequently, the readers were disillusioned when the revelations come through something that underscores the importance of verifying the details of a book before marketing on via the Oprah’s book club platform. The free advertisement offered by the book club also acts as a disadvantage against other publishers who actively marketing their books in different media channels (Garthwaite 2012, p. 7). The book club has also been criticised as ‘cloying’ and too light for serious literature (Minzesheimer 2011, para. 35). References Brainz.org 2012, Top 12 Oprah mistakes, lies and embarrassments’, Brainz, viewed 08 October, 2012, < http://brainz.org/top-12-oprah-mistakes-lies-and-embarrassments/> Brigham Young University 2004, ‘Oprah’s impact on book sales bigger than expected’, News Release, viewed 08 Oct., 2012, < http://news.byu.edu/archive04-Dec-butler.aspx> Chiles, N 2012, ‘An unfair critique of Oprah Winfrey’s book club’, Atlanta Blackstar, viewed 08 October, 2012, http://atlantablackstar.com/2012/06/19/an-unfair-critique-of-oprah-winfreys-book-club/ Garthwaite, C. L 2012, ‘Demand spillovers, combative advertising, and celebrity endorsements’, Northwestern University and NBER, pp. 1-43. Max, D. T 1999, ‘The Oprah effect’, The New York Times, Sunday, section 6, p. 36, column 1, magazine desk. Minzesheimer, B 2011, ‘How the Oprah effect changed publishing’, USA Today, viewed 08 October, 2012, < http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2011-05-22-Oprah-Winfrey-Book-Club_n.htm> Sorensen, A 2007, ‘Bestseller lists and product variety’, The Journal of Industrial Economics, 55(4): 715-738. Townsend, M 2011, ‘Riding the Oprah wave, ready or not’, Business Week, May 19. Journal Entry 2: Samsung Duracool Advertisement featuring Didier Drogba is an advertisement meant to create consumer awareness regarding the admirable traits of the Duracool refrigerators, which have what Samsung calls a ‘cool pack’. The cool pack enables the refrigerators to maintain the cold temperatures even when power goes out. Notably, the advert is one among many that Samsung is using to promote its ‘made for Africa’ brands and as evident in the YouTube (2011) clip < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsGSeSNNzCc>, the featured family of three is African, and power goes out as the young girl prepares to make jelly for Drogba (her TV dad). The Duracool refrigerator is seen to save the young girl from disappointment because even without power, the syrup that the adult woman (her TV mother) had earlier placed in the refrigerator has successfully turned into jelly, something that delights both daughter and father. Drawing upon marketing concepts, it is evident that Samsung uses Drogba’s prominence in African football to strategically position its product to the African consumer market. Of special note is that the use of Drogba would have some aspects of group influences, because in the advert he is seen to endorse the product. The setting of the advert is also socially pleasant in that it would appeal to most families who would admire the family environment portrayed therein. As noted by Bearden and Etzel (1982, p. 184), the use of prominent people to endorse products, the portrayal of products in socially pleasant setups and the use of spokespeople in advertisements are some of the common strategies that marketers use as group influencers. Looking at the advert, it is also evident the cool pack technology would make sense among people who understand the impact of unreliable power supply, and who would then benefit from the powerless cooling abilities of the advertised refrigerator. As Ramachadran (2008, p. 2) notes, “most countries in Africa have very unreliable power supplies”, with even the likes of South Africa having at least an equivalent of 40 days of power outages annually. In relation to culture and consumption, the Samsung advert appeals to families since the refrigerator is a utility that is used by everyone in the household. In the targeted African population, most refrigerator users are urbanites who feel the most impact whenever the power outages occur. Additionally, by featuring a young family, the advert would further appeal to young urban dwellers who understand that new technologies have the potential to make life easier. Ideally, without power, it would not be expected that the syrup featured in the advert would turn into jelly; but through the cool pack technology, the advert illustrates that cooling did indeed occur. Such illustration feeds into the culture and consumption habit of young, urban Africans, who are technology savvy, and who have been seen to purchase technologically-advanced products, but who nevertheless understand the limitations (e.g. power disruptions) that they face in the continent as indicated by Grosskurth (2010, pp. 22-23). In the above discussion, it is evident that the creative team behind the Samsung advert discussed herein knew the value of group influences and culture and consumption. As a highly-rated African footballer, Drogba would not only make the product more admirable to millions of fans who like him, but would also make them aware of the cool pack technology in the refrigerator. In other words, potential customers will consider purchasing the item either because Drogba endorses it, or because of the technology which makes it handle the African power- unreliability better. By featuring the young couple, the marketing also attained the attention of the vibrant young men and women of Africa, residing in cities, and who often have to put up with power outages. Seeing that power outages are a common thing in most African countries, the advert would then appeal to individuals and communities who suffer inconveniences whenever the power outages occur. The Advert could however do with some improvement especially in relation to identifying the eco-friendly qualities of the advertised refrigerators. Like everywhere else in the world, the learned African is just as concerned about environmental matters as those living in developed countries (Grosskurth 2010, pp. 106). Samsung competitors such as LG Electronics are seemingly committed to ‘green’ products, something that is always evident in their product advertisement. For example, LG advocates for solar power as an alternative and/or backup to electricity. The LG refrigerator which compares to the one featured in the TV advert herein is the LG eco-friendly R600A, which has linear compressor technology and LED lighting that effectively saves up to 81 percent of energy used by a normal refrigerator (CIO East Africa 2012, para. 7). Viewed alongside each other, consumers who are environment conscious may be attracted to the LG model more than the Samsung model, hence underscoring the importance of mentioning the refrigerator’s environment friendliness. The ethics of the marketing campaign in the featured advert are closely linked to the personality of Drogba, and the factual nature of the information provided in the advert. Starting with the latter, it is worth noting that will the refrigerator does in fact have enhanced cooling capacity even without power, the advert does not indicate whether such capacity is limited with time or continuous regardless of how long the power outages last. Such information omissions pose ethical challenges in marketing since some people would purchase the product thinking that its cooling capabilities can last for the entire duration that power is out. In relation to Drogba as a person, there are risks (for both himself and Samsung) in that his actions influence the sales of Samsung products, or if Samsung products do not meet the consumer expectations, the same consumer would perceive him as having lied to them. As Knittel and Stango (2012, pp. 1-31) observe, endorsements from renowned people could affect firm value and pose reputational risk to both the firm and the celebrity depending on who is on the wrong. The ethical issue that comes up in endorsements is therefore often related to whether it is ethical to expose the shareholders or the business to risks associated with a person (Smith 1995, p. 86). On the counter side, the person (in this case Drogba) would have to ensure that whatever he advances to consumers is factual rather than deceptive advertisement as indicated by Laczniak (2008, p. 1336). References Bearden, W. O. & Etzel, M. J 1982, ‘Reference group influence on product and brand purchase decisions’, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 9, pp. 183-194. Grosskurth, J 2010, Futures of technology in Africa, SIT, Hague, Netherlands. Knittel, C. R. & Stango, V 2012, ‘Celebrity endorsements, firm value and reputational risk: evidence from Tiger Woods scandal’, Working Papers, viewed 09 Oct. 2012, < http://web.mit.edu/knittel/www/papers/tiger_latest.pdf> Laczniak, G 2008, ‘Ethics of marketing’, Encyclopaedia of Business Ethics and Society, pp. 1336-1343. Ramachandran, V 2008, ‘Addressing Africa’s infrastructure crisis’, Center for Global Development, viewed 09 Oct. 2012, http://www.cgdev.org/doc/events/12.15.08/Ramachandran_Presentation_Demography_Seminar.pdf Smith, N. C 1995, ‘Marketing strategies for the ethics era’, Sloan management Review, vol. 36, summer, pp. 85-97. CIO East Africa 2012, ‘LG adopts green production’, viewed 09 Oct. 2012, < http://www.cio.co.ke/news/top-stories/lg-adopt%27s-green-production> YouTube 2011, ‘Drogba Samsung Duracool’, viewed 09 Oct. 2012, Journal Entry 3 The ‘No-touch hand wash system’ advertisement in the You Tube link < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcgpdI_2cko> by Dettol advocates for the use of a sensor-enabled hand wash soap dispenser that eliminates one’s contact with germs during hand washing. The advertisement starts with two children holding a frog, while the mother prepares meals in the kitchen, and the father putting garbage in the trash can. Later they are all seen to touch the soap dispenser as they prepare to wash hands something that leads to the soap pump being contaminated with different germs. To avoid such a situation the marketing at Dettol recommends the use of the ‘no-touch hand wash system’, which is seen to germ-free clean (even sparkling) clean hands. The marketer in this case seems to have based the message on a home setup, where people often wash hands after handling what they perceived as hand-dirtying activities. Such a context resonates with most people because hand-washing has been advocated as one of the effective ways of minimising one’s contact with germs. The advertisement however reveals something that most people may not have known-that the soap dispenser may harbour harmful germs that one collects during hand washing. As Applegate and Johnsen (2007, p. 73) and Yeshin (2005, p. 59) observe, the context of a marketing activity is important since it enables marketers to understand the attitudes, opinions, and beliefs of the target market. Here, the Dettol marketers seem to understand that people wash hands in the belief that they get rid of germs, and that painting the dispenser as germ-laden would prompt people to action- i.e. purchasing the advertised product. Since the advertised ‘Dettol No Touch Hand Wash System’ is not a regular consumer item, it is probable that the marketing team at Dettol identified problem recognition as part of the consumer decision-making process hence their advertisements attempt at appealing the consumers’ self concept. Ideally, every one wants to lead a healthy life. However, germs have been shown to get in the way of healthy living, and the Dettol advert is arguably seeking to alert the consumer that the continued use of soap pumps comes at a high risk to their health. The need recognition in this case is seen to identify the persistent need to eradicate germs as the major issue to deal with. According to Wilkie (1994), once the problem is identified the decision-making process by the consumer picks up in earnest as it invokes the determination of how to go about satisfying the need. Information search is defined by Engel et al (1993, p. 50) as the ‘motivated activation of knowledge stored in memory or acquisition of information from the environment’. Through the advert, it is probable that consumers would remember the product from memory and hence solve their identified problem by purchasing the same. Alternatively, they could engage external sources to find out if there are other comparable products. Dibb et al (1997, p. 105) observes that a successful information search yield an evoked set of products that the consumer perceives as alternatives. Peppard and Butler (1998, p. 8) and Loudon and Della Bitta (1993, p. 54) however observe that customers exposed to information about a marketed product often use it as a reference point hence increasing the chances that they will eventually purchase the same. In Dettol’s case therefore, it is probable that a significant percentage of the consumers exposed to the advert would still purchase the featured product even after considering alternative products. Before making a decision to buy, a consumer most likely evaluate alternatives based on factors such as price, perceived quality, and aesthetic appeal among others (Engel et al 1993, p. 63). Once the decision is made, the consumer purchases the product that appeals to him/her the most. As Kotler (1997, p. 43) notes however, the purchase decision though seemingly simple, involves instrumental actions that include the brand to purchase, the vendor to purchase from, the quantity to purchase, the time to purchase, and the payment method to use when purchasing. The post-purchase evaluation comes about during then consumption process whereby, the consumer experiences handling the object evoke feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Kotler 1997, p. 29; Dibb et al. 1997, p. 67). In the advertised Dettol ‘No-touch hand wash system’ for example, a customer may be satisfied if the sensors in the product break down just after a week of use, or when the product continue dispensing soap even after one removes the hand near it. If satisfied, consumers are likely to recommend the same to others, make repeat purchases, and/or talk favourably about the same. Dissatisfaction on the other hand has negative results as the consumer may talk negatively about the product hence dissuading others from purchasing it. The Dettol ‘No-touch hand wash system’ arguably walks with the customer through the entire decision-making process by arousing in them the need to use germ-free no-touch soap dispensers. Consequently, the consumers become aware of the need to get rid of soap pumps that are a potential platform for germs. By featuring the everyday activities that families engage in (mum cooks, kids play, and dad takes the garbage to the trash can), the advertisement appeals to ordinary families that engage in similar activities daily. The advertisement therefore makes it easier for families to always remember the product even when faced by competitors in the market. Overall, the advertisement seems successful in convincing consumers that they need to switch to the advertised product. However, the length of the advert itself seems too short, and even this writer had to view it several times before finally understanding what the man featured in the advertisement was doing. As such, this writer would recommend the advertisement to flow naturally in order to avoid giving the viewer the impression that it is rushed, and more importantly, for it to enable the viewer grasp all its contents. Most of the information contained in the featured advertisement seems ethical. Matter-of-factly however, it would be expected that germs contacted when pressing the touch pumps would (just like the rest of the germs) be washed away and disinfected using Dettol hand wash gels. It therefore beats logic why the makers of the hand wash that claims to wash 99.9% of all germs would advocate selling a product that will reduce one’s contact with germs while in the process of washing hands. Ethically therefore (and if their 99.9% germs fighting capabilities Dettol claim are to be believed), it would be argued that they are perpetuating the germs-related information not in the interest of the consumer market, but for their own profit-making reasons. References Applegate, E., & Johnsen, A 2007, Cases in Advertising and marketing management: real situations for tomorrow’s managers, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland. Dibb S., Simkin, L., Pride, W. M. & Ferrell, O. C 1997, Marketing: concepts and strategies, Houghton Mifflin, Boston Engel, J. F., Blackwell, R. D., & Miniard, P. W 1993, Consumer behaviour, Dreyden Press, New York. Kotler, P 1997, Marketing management: analysis, planning, implementation, and control, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs. Loudon, D. L & Della Bitta, A. J 1993, Consumer behaviour: concepts and applications, McGraw-Hill, London. Peppard, J., & Butler, P 1998, ‘Consumer purchasing on the internet: processes and prospects’, Cranfield School of Management Working Papers, pp. 1-28, viewed 09 Oct. 2012, < https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstream/1826/357/2/SWP1198.pdf> Wilkie, W. L 1994, Consumer behaviour, John Wiley and Sons, New York. Yeshin, T 2005, Advertising, Thompson learning, London. Read More