Analysis of Internal Influences on Consumer Behaviour - Assignment Example

Analysis of Internal Influences on Consumer Behaviour Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name Insert Date Here (Day, Month, Year) Section 1: Motivation and Involvement (20 marks) Select one level of from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs that can be used to segment the market and position the product/service. Explain your choices. Justify the application of Maslow’s need hierarchy for segmentation and positioning of your product or service. As a sales person, level of motivation my customer is showing towards the product Compaq Presario will be examined through the fourth level of Maslow’s hierarchy which is esteem. Every human being aspires for respect, self esteem, a feeling of recognition and above all belongingness and a sense of contribution and to be accepted, and valued. Any imbalance can result in low self-esteem or inferiority complex. (Jarvis, 2005) In products, a person wants to see his dreams of creating a niche in the world comes true, and at the same time devote some part of his time in leisure and relaxation. My Compaq Presario will fulfill all his needs, as he can carry on all his activities at a quickest way as possible and at the same time remain every time contacted with the world outside. There is no complications and no life strains, its your moving business, and way to your success. 2. Identify possible motivational conflicts that a prospective consumer of your chosen product/service may have. Discuss how the marketer can reduce or resolve these motivational conflicts. To retain themselves at every step of the corporate ladder, executives and other working class have to show just not the competency but also show themselves as the men of the world with quick decisions and power to influence others. Compaq Presario is away through the efficient use of which these players of the corporate world can attain their niche at the topmost position. As now both the men and women are entering into the labour market competition is getting tougher and tougher with every one trying to beat each other and getting less time to devote towards their daily chores. In this struggle and strife and tensions and confusions, men and women, as well students needs a product, which could not only make them take the world to their stride but also help boost their motivational level, give them confidence and raises their self esteem. . There are three cognitive processes which are followed before the client’s motivational level is judged, one is category based, another contrast and third is piecemeal processes. These different kinds of processes are in turn determined by the degree of consistency with the way brand information is described, the way consumer gives information and the way position of the brand is discussed in the market. (Lee, 2005) The features of the product and its standing in the market is explained explicatively to the customer and thus inclination is shown towards the product first by learning more and more about the way it functions. Customer asks several questions about the way it should be used and taken care of so as to get best utility service out of it. But on the other hand is also shown certain hitches regarding many of its features, or utility period and services the company would provide or not in case of any technical fault or whether it has all the features and are these features user friendly and above all its level of power consumption. A good salesman tries his level best to solve these motivational conflicts by showing complete transparency in presenting all the facts and brings to the focus of the client the value this product can add to her life. I also give written materials on the way the product should be used and taken care of with written promise to give services in case of any fault in whatever period of time it may occur. I also show the market position of the product and percentage of consumers who are using this product. 3 Develop an involvement profile for a typical consumer of your chosen product/service and discuss any key issues that would be relevant to a marketer. Use assessing the level of involvement that a prospective customer of your chosen product/service may have. The way customer shows his involvement could be judged by his motivational level. His involvement can be seen to the extent he asks the questions. Hereby I have made use of the New Involvement Profile (NIP) developed by Jain and Srinivasan as in 1990 with fifteen points, “Essential-non essential; Beneficial-non beneficial; Not needed-needed; I do not find it pleasurable-I find it pleasurable; Unexciting-exciting; Fun-not fun; Tell others about me-doesn’t tell others about me; Others use to judge me-others won’t use to judge me; Does not portray an image of me to others-portrays an image of me to others; It is really annoying to make a suitable purchase-it is not annoying to unsuitable purchase; A poor choice wouldn’t be upsetting- a poor choice would be upsetting; Little to lose by choosing poorly- a lot to lose by choosing poorly; In purchasing it I am certain of my choice-in purchasing it I am uncertain of my choice; I never know if I am making the right purchase-I know for sure that I am making the right purchase; I feel a bit at a loss in choosing it –I don’t feel at a loss in choosing it.” (Bearden, W.O. & Netemeyer, 1999, p. 192) By asking him questions on the basis of these scales, I estimate that he finds the product essential, beneficial, needed and will portray an image of him to others. In other words, customer finds this product will boost his image in his society. As discussed above, being an executive in a marketing company my client would be enthusiastic about this product, as it would provide him great satisfaction. SECTION -2 Freud Theory Given your thinking on your product or service thus far, select two theories or traits from summary of personality theories ( e.g. Freudian theory, Horney’s neo-Freudian theory, Cognitive theories: need for cognition, Cognitive theories: Verbalizer versus visualizers, Trait theories: Consumer innovativeness, Trait theories: Consumer materialism, Trait theories: Consumer ethnocentrism) that should prove helpful in targeting, branding and related strategies. Provide examples of ads that would appeal to those with similar personalities/traits (provide URL for ad, cite in text, scan, or describe in detail). Explain your choices. According to Freud’ theory, all human beings strive to fulfill their personal needs or desires in the world of limited resources. They are more motivated by their unconscious as well as conscious level and are attracted by the visual, auditory and tactical elements of a product with the potentiality to satisfy the personal needs of human beings. (Weiner, 1980). Another brand I have to sell is The HP Compaq Presario SR5610F which is a part of the HP's Compaq Presario SR line of budget-price PCs. Like other SR models, the SR5610F is a no-frills model that costs less than $500. Its capable handling of basic daily computing tasks (Web browsing, archiving CDs, e-mailing, standard office productivity) can make for a decent student PC or second home computer. The Presario SR5610F is fueled by a dual-core AMD Athlon X2 4400+ processor running at 2.3 GHz. While it doesn't offer the performance of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor found in the Dell Inspiron 530, it's more than capable of tackling general tasks like e-mailing, surfing the Net, and burning music. The 2GB of system RAM is common in Vista budget systems, while its integrated nVidia GeForce 6150 graphics is designed strictly for casual game play (Solitaire, anyone?). Its 320GB of hard drive space is plenty of storage to archive music and media files, but you'll have to use one of the two front USB ports to transfer media files from a digital camera or mobile device because there is no card reader. A standard dual-layer DVD± RW drive can play movies and back up data. The expansion options on the Presario SR6150F are typical for a system at this level. While there are no available SATA ports (the two on the motherboard are occupied by the hard drive and optical drive), an available IDE slot can accommodate a second hard drive. There are two available PCI slots, perfect for adding things like FireWire, and an available PCIe (x16) slot, useful for giving your system a little 3D gaming prowess. You'll also find a single PCIe (x1) slot occupied by a 56K modem, plus an available slot that will let you expand the total system memory (a single 2GB DIMM occupies one slot). (K Neal, Online) You will find product at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2329099,00.asp Another product is HP's mainstream Compaq Presario 2100 series is one of the most chameleonlike notebooks around. It goes from a frugal $899 mainstream system (a mail-in rebate good through December 1, 2003 cuts the price by $100), with basic specs such as an Intel Celeron or an AMD Athlon processor and a 14.1-inch display, to a packed $2,266 desktop replacement, with an Intel Pentium 4-M CPU and a 15-inch screen. Things only get better from there, with the ability to add more cutting-edge options such as a DVD/CD-RW combo drive and integrated wireless. Be aware that the Presario 2100's lack of a cutting-edge graphics chip prohibits peak performance; still, it provides enough speed and battery life for the average tasks of a The Presario 2100 series is a well-crafted mainstream notebook, and our only major complaint with the design is the loud fan that kicks in on occasion. The 7.2-pound notebook measures a slightly wide 13 by 10.7 by 1.6 inches, which is reasonable when you consider that every system in the series comes with a big and bright 14.1- or 15-inch screen, an integrated floppy drive, and a built-in CD, DVD, or DVD/CD-RW combo drive home user. We're particularly partial to the unusual blue lights that complement the Presario 2100 series' power button and the standard touchpad (no pointing stick option is available). A button above the touchpad turns the pad on and off, helping you avoid accidentally moving the pointer by bumping the pad. We also like the way the right side of the touchpad is sectioned off by a vertical line, indicating the part of the software-enhanced pad that you should use for scrolling. Two mouse buttons form a smile shape underneath the pad. Finally, the wide keyboard features a familiar, desktoplike layout, with Insert, Delete, Home, and End keys huddled in the upper-right corner. You can find this product online at http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-compaq-presario-2100/4505-3121_7-21271063.html These products mentioned are conducive to the culture of the market place where consumer preference is given due importance and predominance. It follows what is known as theory of consumer materialism stating that we human beings have become materialistic in our approach. All human beings need the products that would not only make their life comfortable but also meet their egoistic and materialistic needs. Being a sales man I exploit this theory to make my customer lure to the benefits my products will be giving to him like with the Compaq Presario he can boast off in front of his colleague, friends and other people. Describe how you would use the concept of brand personality to develop a personality for your chosen product/service Compaq Presario is not only a useful product but economically feasible too for the executives and marketing professionals and the products which are useful are naturally friendly too. Therefore I would make Compaq Presario to be a friend and partner to his customers. My Compaq Presario would move along with his client towards the growth of his career helping him all the way. Like it would say with me “you would be a man of this world”. SECTION 3 Draw an attribute based perceptual map for your chosen product/service. Include main competitive brands and any opportunity for repositioning. What extrinsic and intrinsic cues would be used in assessing the perceived quality of your chosen product/service, and how would you as a marketer use extrinsic cues to improve the perceived quality of your product/service? Also comment on the price-quality relationship of your chosen product/service. The external features of Compaq Presario V5000Z presents best performance and full set of important features with pricing starting from as low to the highest. Its external features including the Presario V5000Z have a weight of a few ounces more than V4000 and it is almost more than a pound and a half more than HPs thin and light models like Pavilion dv 1000 and the Presario V2000. Presario V5000Z test unit comes with 128 MB of VRAM, a 100GB hard drive moving at 4, 200rpm. It has 15.4 inch BrightView wide screen display, a DVD burner with external features like HPs neat LghtScribe technology; an integrated 54g 802.11a/b/g networking card with Bluetooth; and a standard 6-cell battery. As compared to its counterpart the V4000, which is configured with a 6-cell battery, that can run for slightly more than 3 hours, 5000Z, has 6-cell battery, that can be delivered only 2.4 hours of run time;, also. In looks it is 6.6 pound and is very durable and is little thick by two inches. This laptop color is silver from all the sides have black colour on the top. This dual colour scheme helps this machine to stand out then the rest of the machines. All its ports lies at either left or right side including three USB 2.0 ports, having 5-in-1 memory card reader with expansion port to place the notebook at an optimal base. The V5000Z runs on a 2-GHz Turion 64. With a MobileMark 2005 score of 176, and its CPU gives best performance. This system lasts for 1 hour and 45 minutes ripping a few CDs in iTunes and then watching a DVD. As regards power and heat management is concerned it does pretty good job and without voice even though there are many programs running. It only has one minute complaint that its notebook becomes warmer from the bottom left side, so that its users may find it little discomfort while performing. It also has a built in Wi-Fi radio which get connected to the 802.11a/b/g networks, and we would no problem while logging onto wireless network. It has 1 GB of DDR memory sufficient enough to handle multipurpose task and applications like Photoshop. We can also run without problems programs like ripping CDs, playing music, surfing the web and in the processing of Word documents. This hard drive of 100 GB is as compared to others is very large but spins at only 4,200 rpm. If you required a hard drive which is very fast then you should downgrade 5,400 rpm with 80GB drive. As compared to others like Levino, V 4000 and others it displays “good performance, discrete graphics and double-layer DVD burner with LightScribe.” (Laptopmag.com, online). If we compare its features we find that its price is $ 1,172 is quite comparative to the other products. It is best for the consumers who would like to buy t he laptop which can easily handle various other applications or programs besides productivity software but also would never like to sacrifice portability or deliver huge price like that of Compaq Presario CQ45-200 Notebook PC series the price of which is 7,990 Taxes & levies extra. Comment on the type and degree of perceived risks likely to be associated with your chosen product/service? The expected risks and uncertainties included among others conditions in the marker especially in the United States, increasing rate of competition and pressure on prices, and further disruptions due to the restructuring process and further there could be delay while implementing changes in delivery models etc. Section 4 Concept of “Shaping” ‘ How would you apply the concept of “shaping” to reinforce desired pre-purchase behaviour and attract customers? In case of uncertainties in the market position, adaptation is the real “mantra”, in other words, adaptation is only a key to success. But along with the adaptation the concept of shaping strategy will turn the market to your stride. The continuous technological change may make many companies restrict itself to protect their own markets and making their own performance better but many companies adopt what is known as shaping strategies. They utilize these technological changes to their own advantage and form an environment of new business eco-system which could be profitable for themselves and other participants. In other words a shaping strategy is an “effort to broadly redefine the terms of competition for a market sector through a positive, galvanizing message that promises benefits to all who adopt the new terms”. (Hagel, Brown, Davison, 2008, online). For selling of the Compaq Presario in this world of uncertainty it would be involving consumers themselves in the idea generation process for making Compaq Presario at more of a comfort level of consumers. Constant feedback from clients using the products would generate the idea for more innovation to the already existing product. Section 5 Consumer Attitude Formation/Change Explain how you would change consumer attitudes towards a particular brand of your chosen product/service by: Changing beliefs about the brand : The customer could be made to change the belief about the brand by making observation about the behaviour of consumers and adopting adequate measures about the same. It is changed by changing his attitude in the favour of the by providing him insights of the products, through direct personal experience and making him expose to media. Changing belief’s about competing brands Through the television advertisements the brand can be projected as not only useful but also most prestigious proposition for clients and a symbol of respect, pride and dignity for corporate genres. Clients are attracted towards the product by making them change their attitude towards the competing brands and this can be done by providing them with cheaper goods with additional features making the product also reach the common masses and making it a not just a luxury item but also a necessity. Changing the relative evaluation of attributes Brand is presented before client focusing on its special characteristics or traits. The attributes which were told earlier can be revaluated to present the same product but in a different form. It is done through Multi-Attribute Utility Theory, (MAUT) an evaluation scheme which has become most popular by consumer organisations for conducting evaluations of their products. According to MAUT, “the overall evaluation v(x) of an object x is defined as a weighted addition3 of its evaluation with respect to its relevant value dimensions [WE86]. The common denominator of all these dimensions is the utility for the evaluator”. (Schafer, online). Following this theory Compaq Presario is evaluated with its added features like internet-, graphics-, and business-application ready with its healthy 16MB of RAM, whopping 1.6GB hard disk, 28.8Kbps modem, Netscape Navigator, and stereo surround-sound system including its 15-inch monitor. These features had an added weightage of the product. Adding an attribute Compaq Presario 9546 is of a very good quality machine that could be bought with a very decent price. It comes along with everything you may require for an office computer, like telephony software for bringing change in your computer to a full-fledged voice-mail and fax center. It also comes along with the productivity software helping you in money management and for the creation of raphics and presentation Do you think the “foot-in-the-door” technique is applicable to your chosen product/service? Foot-in-the-door technique (FITD) is a tactic involving person for agreement of a much larger request by first making potential customers agree to modest request. The foot-in-door technique is applicable for the Compaq Presario as we as salesman make client agree to go to their home and give the demonstration of the added attributes of the product and then make them feel wanted of the product by actually showing them how the product could become a good financial asset for them. Section 6: Communication and Consumer Behaviour Using Persuasive Capabilities and limitation of major advertising media model (e.g. news paper, magazines, TV, radio, Internet, Direct mail, and direct marketing) recommend two advertising media for your product/service and explain your choices. For the objective of promoting sales, what type of message structure, presentation style, and appeal would you use? Would you use a comparative message For making my brand of Compaq Presario a name to reckon with I will make use of the Television advertisement. Television has now reached at the nook and corner of the world and therefore if a commercial advertisement is made of the product and is shown at a prime time with the corporate programs and the programs of the interest to men like sports programs or programs of financial matters it would get good exposure and executives and students will feel more close to the product. That would increase the image of the product and its market. The message structure could be Climb to the ladder of the Success with Compaq at your hand. As all human beings especially persons working in the corporate world has but one aim in their life-get promotions and rise in their pay scale, this message will increase their anxious level to know about the product and eventually they will be eager to buy it. Another advertising strategy could be adopted is the direct marketing approach as the product like Compaq will get more publicity by the word of mouth. Direct approach and presentation of the product to the clients will make them more close to the products and it will have an everlasting impression on the clients. Hereby I can visit offices and give live demonstration of the product explaining executives and managers on the way this product will add value to all their existing propositions. For the Comparative Presario there is no need for the comparative message as the product is unique in itself and stand apart then the rest of its counterparts. Though there are many brands of computers in the market but the product with many new features that can make the life of a consumer much easier, better and efficient there is no need for comparative massage to display. Reference List Section 1 Bearden, W.O. & Netemeyer, R.G. (1999). Handbook of Marketing Scales: Multi-item Measures for Marketing and Consumer Behavior Research. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE. Jarvis, M. 2005. The Psychology of Effective Learning and Teaching. Cheltenham, UK: Nelson Thornes. K Neal Brian, 2008 Lenovo IdeaCentre K 210 , pcmag, Retrieved on February 6, 2009 from W.W.W. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2328609,00.asp Lee, M. 2005. Informational and motivational influences on consumer evaluations of line and brand extensions. Journal of Business and Psychology, 8(4): 475-496. Section 2 Bruzzese Stephanie, 2003, HP Compaq Presario 2100, CNET Review, Retrieved on February 6, 2009 from W.W.W, http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-compaq-presario-2100/4505-3121_7-21271063.html K Neal Brian, 2008, HP Compaq Presario SR5610F , Retrieved on February 6, 2009 from W.W.W http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2329099,00.asp Weiner, B. 1980. Human Motivation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Section 3 Badford Communications INC, 2008, HP Compaq Presario V5000, Retrieved from February 6, 2009 from W.W.W http://archive.laptopmag.com/Review/HP-Compaq-Presario-V5000Z.htm Section 4 Hagel John 111, Seely Brown John, Davison Lang, 2008, Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption, Retrieved on February 2, 2009 from WWW. Section 5 Schafer Ralph Rules for Using Multi-Attribute Utility Theory for Estimating a User’s Interests, DFKI GmbH, Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3, 66123 Saarbrücken Read More