Customer and Market Profile - Brain Reader - Assignment Example

of dissertation Marketing Plan and Market Profile) Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Executive summary 3 Needs satisfied by the product 3 Market segmentation and target marketing 4 Market segmentation 4 Market targeting 5 Market targeting strategy 5 Market size and growth rate 6 Characteristics and influencers of customer buying decision 7 Value proposition 7 Characteristics of this industry 8 Key competitors 8 SWOT analysis 8 Pest analysis 10 Conclusion 11 Works cited 12 Executive summary This paper describes a product that is considered to be breakthrough in the scientific and psychological field. The product has been named ‘Brain Reader’. The main purpose of the commodity is to convert the different signals transmitted in the brain of human beings into electrical signals that might be reproduced in the form of words or commands for computer programmes. The US has stable political and economic conditions to support the development and marketing of niche products such as the Brain Reader. The socio-cultural and business situation of the country enhances prosperity of the market for this device. Financial aid by the government helps in further development of the product. Needs satisfied by the product The Brain Reader is a product of the twenty-first century, belonging to the new generation of “portable neural devices and algorithms” (Duncan, 2012) loaded with the capacity to read the different thoughts that go on in the complicated brains of human beings. The brain is a complicated chamber that generates various kinds of thoughts, feelings, desires and emotions. Till date scientists have been putting sincere efforts to develop ways in which the minds of people can be read; hypnosis is one of those methods, but none of these methods have been able to render complete success. It has been proved in various scientific studies that human beings are often unable to report their thoughts properly either naturally or due to some disability. This makes it difficult for them to communicate properly. This specific product has been devised with the aim of bringing immense benefit to a number of sectors. The commodity would have a simple design and would be user friendly. The person using it would be required to wear it on his or her head like a hair band and a small box attached to the band, which acts like a transmitter, would convert the signals generated in the brain into electronic waves that can be seen on a screen in the form of waves. These waves would be converted into words or commands via a software installed in a computer attached to the screen. Thus the thoughts of a person can be read by outside people that are communicating with that person. The transmitter works on a small battery installed within the box and no connection of electricity is required for running this new device. This data would be automatically updated with time and hence it would be easy to study and analyze the data at a later point of time. Market segmentation and target marketing Market segmentation Market segmentation is “the process of dividing a market into meaningful, relatively similar and identifiable segments or groups” (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2011, p. 259). This is done with the purpose of enabling the marketer to tailor the marketing mixes so as to cater to each segment successfully. For the current product the market segments have been represented through the following pie chart: (Source: Author’s creation) The four market segments identified for the Brain Reader are criminal investigators, HR Departments in private companies, teachers and academicians and psychologists. While criminal investigators and human resource personnel are the target markets, it can also be used by school teachers to make the process of teaching and learning more efficient. Using the Brain Reader a teacher would be able to measure the level of understanding of the pupils by evaluating their responses to the lessons imparted in a better way than conducting tests. The device would also ease out the tasks of psychologists by allowing them to understand the workings of their patients’ brains. Market targeting Market targeting refers to the decision made by the organizational leaders on the market segment that the company is going to pursue by evaluating “the market potential of each segment” (Clemente, 2002, p. 235). It is assessed by studying the size of the market, its growth prospective, the corporate objectives of the company and its resource availability, as well as the competitor activity in the selected market. In the process of customer targeting marketers can identify and evaluate the likely customers that seems the most likely to be interested in purchasing the products or services of the company in the future (Jones, 2013). Market targeting strategy The three ways in which targeting can be made are undifferentiated targeting, concentrated targeting or multi-segment targeting (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2011). Brain Reader is a niche product mainly useful to scientists, doctors, academic practitioners and such other persons belonging to high end professions. It is not meant for daily use by commoners. Hence it is profitable for the company to choose multi-segment targeting. This marketing strategy yields economies of scale since different marketing mix can be used for the different target markets simultaneously, which reduces the cost of marketing considerably (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2011). For criminal investigation the Brain Reader being an advanced device would allow the investigator to read the thoughts of the person, thereby gaining access to the thought process of the subject. The human resource departments in private organizations would be benefitted from this device. They can use it while interviewing new employees to make sure that they are potent and competent enough to carry out the responsibility assigned to them. The target markets are described below: Segment Age Group(in years) Type of Usage Target1 (Criminal investigators) Age (15-55) Device used for checking the thought process of alleged offender and criminals. Target 2 (HR Departments) Age (24-60) Device used for assessing attitude and capabilities of new would be recruits. Market size and growth rate The market size of crime investigators and that of the HR departments in private companies look promising. Crime rate in the USA is on the rise since 2009. According to a recent report, Detroit, Chicago, Houston, Greenville, and Atlanta, have been rated as the most dangerous neighborhoods in terms of violent crime, including forced rape, aggravated assault, murder and armed robbery (CNN Money, 2012). Therefore crime investigation departments, at local, state and national levels are becoming more active to bring such incidents under control. There are 121 registered private investigation companies in the country apart from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (SPF, 2013). The market of crime investigators would be rewarding for promoting the Brain Reader. The US is recovering from the financial crunch faced by it between 2007 and 2009. The employment market is improving, but still has to create a lot of employment opportunities in order to boost up economic activities. In April 2013, 165,000 fresh jobs have been created in the economy and unemployment rate has fallen modestly from 7.6 percent to 7.5 percent (Prial, 2013). Hence there is huge scope of recruitment in the country and organizations would screen candidates minutely to absorb the best talents, thereby creating demand for the Brain Reader. The large and medium sized organizations would be the greatest demanders of the device. Characteristics and influencers of customer buying decision The characteristics of customers’ buying decision can be determined form the socio-cultural, situational as well as psychological background of the target market. USA is a developed country and the majority of its GDP comes from white collared services in the service sector. In this society crime has taken an upper seat since criminals are using complicated crime routes and abusing the gift of technology. On the commercial front, business leaders are becoming more stringent in working with the best talents in the industry and are therefore becoming more dependent on advanced technological devices to make crucial business decisions. Good recruitment criteria decide the fate of an organization and it is an important place in which employers are eager to take the help of scientific technology to choose the future employees. Value proposition The brain Reader is a modern technologically advanced device that is aimed at helping the crime investigation department and the human resource departments in improving their services. The customers would be benefitted from the facilities provided by the device and they would be able to get deeper insights on the workings of the human brain in order to minimize error and reach more accurate outcome. This would minimize cost to these organizations and bring future financial benefits. Characteristics of this industry The device belongs to the industry that has huge scope for growth in the US. There is steep competition among a handful of competitors that compete to come up with the most innovative idea and design. There is good scope for future growth since this industry is still in a nascent stage. Although it requires huge startup capital, support from Federal government provides much of the funding. Since this industry is niche, only few entrepreneurs can enter this industry (Australian Government Productivity Commission, n.d.). Key competitors The Brain Reader would face the rivalry of very few but strong competitors. NeuroVigil’s ‘iBrain’ is one of them. The iBrain is an EEG device that records and stores the data by transforming the brain’s signals into electrical waves and operates on one rechargeable battery. It is mainly used for sleep monitoring and medical diagnosis purposes (NeuroVigil, 2013). A researcher group is also working to improve a ‘mind reading machine’ that is supposed to decode words spoken verbally only from tracking the signals received from the brain with the help of this machine (Alleyne, 2010). SWOT analysis Strength The Brain Reader is a modern device and is loaded with all the modern technologies to make the product most easy to use for the one upon whom the device would be applied while being scientifically advanced so as to provide close to accurate data to the investigators and interviewers. The device is produced with high end technology and is therefore not possible for other commercial organizations to produce imitations of this product. Weakness This product is new and therefore in order to maintain its quality, its price cannot be easily lowered. Hence it would not be possible to offer this device to smaller business organizations or private investigators. Besides, only trained practitioners would be able to decipher the data generated from this machine. Hence its use would be limited within a section of well-trai8ned customers. Opportunity Although niche and costly, this product would be available at prices that would be affordable for the registered investigation houses and large as well as medium business enterprises. Thus, it can grab a wide customer base. It is first of its kind, which can ‘read’ the human thoughts and provide highly accurate information and is also available commercially. Other companies, such as, Zeo, offers smart phone based applications that helps the user to measure only sleep patterns; or Emotiv Syatems, offers 3D brain mapping tools that can map the users’ facial expressions from their muscle movements (Duncan, 2012). Threat The market for brain reading devices is becoming popular and more companies and research teams are making efforts to develop their own customized devices meant for various purposes that can map brain signals. With further research brain reading machines would also become available in the market. Thus, new competitors would enter the market. Brain Reader would have to keep up its position by maintaining its high quality. It would also have to upgrade itself technologically and lower the price in course of time. Pest analysis Political The government has taken easy monetary policies in order to boost up private invstmnet activities in the country. Despite taught fiscal policy, spending on R&D in FY2013 budget has been increased by 1.4 percent from the previous year. This would help in gaining government funding for the production of the new Brain Reader. Economical USA is the country with highest GDP in the world with the GDP of US $15.66 trillion in 2012. The economy is achieving financial stability after recovering form the subprime crisis. It is a good ground for the development of niche products using high end technologies. With large business enterprises making efforts to expand their business activities, its impact would be realized when the Brain Reader would be well accepted in its target markets. Social The Brain Reader would find a prospective market in the US. Per capita GDP in the country is $49,800 (2012 estimate) and the services sector contributes more than 79 percent of the country’s GDP (CIA, 2013). Hence the service sector would pose the greatest demand for the Brain Reader device. Technological With greater spending on R&D, new high end technological products find support for their development both financially and politically. The most advanced technology would be utilized in designing these devices. It would make them highly capable and also competitive. Conclusion The brain Reader is a new generation scientific device that aims at detecting and reading the thoughts of human brain. It would help specialists in different sectors to evaluate human thoughts that would take the success of their profession to higher levels. The socioeconomic condition of the country is beneficial for the development of the product and the analysis of the market provided in this paper shows that the product is expected to generate good revenue for the company. Works cited Alleyne, R. (2010). 'Mind-reading machine' can convert thoughts into speech. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7987821/Mind-reading-machine-can-convert-thoughts-into-speech.html Australian Government Productivity Commission. (n.d.). Annual review of regulatory burdens. Retrieved from http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/83032/04-chapter2.pdf Clemente, M. N. (2002). The Marketing Glossary: Key Terms, Concepts and Applications. New Jersey: Clementebooks. CNN Money. (2012). Most dangerous U.S. cities. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/gallery/real_estate/2013/01/23/dangerous-cities/index.html Duncan, D. E. (2012). A Little Device That’s Trying to Read Your Thoughts. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/ibrain-a-device-that-can-read-thoughts.html Jones, J. C. (2013). What is Customer Targeting? Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-Customer-Targeting?&id=706131 Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F. & McDaniel, C. D. (2011). Essentials of Marketing. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. NeuroVigil. (2013). The iBrain™ — the portable and user friendly single-channel EEG recording device. Retrieved from http://www.neurovigil.com/ibrain/ Prial, D. (2013). U.S. Adds 165,000 Jobs, Unemployment Rate Dips. Retrieved from http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/2013/05/02/us-adds-165000-jobs-unemployment-rate-dips/ SPF. (2013). List of PISA Active Private Investigation Licenses as At 18-04-2013. Retrieved from http://www.spf.gov.sg/licence/PI/others/PIA180413.pdf Read More