Unit 3 assignment - Admission/Application Essay Example

Marketing 16 September Unit 3 Assignment Before buying a particular item there are 5 stages of consumer behavior. The example of the action taken by my family for purchasing goods is explained by taking examples along with each stage. They are as described below –(C.L. Tyagi)Problem Recognition – This is basically the difference between consumer’s ideal state and the state he is presently in.eg- The consumer notices the empty carton of milk in his refrigerator and thus the need is triggered.

This need may also be triggered after watching an advertisement of some new flavored milk.Information Search – Information regarding the need is searched through either internal methods or external methods. For low cost items like milk cartons the past experiences with various brands is enough. However for high value items like car the consumer also performs external search like searching the net, asking a car dealer or asking his friend and relatives about their experiences with a particular brand.

Alternative Evaluation – After the search has been completed consumer tries to evaluate the different brands both on the basis of objective or rational attributes of a brand and also the subjective or emotion factors such as prestige. While purchasing a car; the family doesn’t take only rational decisions but also tries to show off the status of the family by buying a brand which is associated with luxury.Purchase Decision: While making the purchase the consumer considers the following factors – from whom to buy, when should he buy and whether he should buy at all or not.

Many factors can make or break the sale at his point like store atmosphere, past experience of consumer etc.Post Purchase Behavior – After buying a product the consumer compares the product with his expectations and may be satisfied or dissatisfied.The five adopter categories for any new products are the following – (Govindarajan)Innovators who are risk taking people and are generally the first time users.Early adopters they are prestigious people and are usually opinion leaders and thus have influence on other people buying the product.

Early Majority – This is the leading segment of the mass market.Late Majority – They are followers of the early majority and buy the product only when it is known that it is a good product.Laggards are conservatives and a very price conscious segment. They are reluctant to adopt any new product. In the case of high definition television my family will come in the bracket of late majority. They will buy a product only when it has been in the market for some amount of time and has been used by a large number of people.

Unit 6 AssignmentThe four major steps in designing a customer driven marketing strategy have been described below – (Gary Armstrong)Segmentation consists of dividing the whole market into a number of segments depending upon the different type of customers.Targeting – Once the segmentation has been completed the firm has to decide which segment to target. A firm might target one or more than one of the segments that have been identified before.Differentiation – The market value which the company offers should be differentiated form other firms which are present in the market.

This is the process of differentiating the product from the competition.Positioning – One the offering has been decided upon it needs to be positioned in the minds of the customers. In order to do this the firm has to devise a proper marketing strategy in order to position itself in front of the targeted customers.Behavioral approach of segmenting customers is the one in which customers are classified in to different groups based on their knowledge of a product the use of the product or response towards a project.

The variables which can be used for classification are as follows –(Gary Armstrong)Usage Rate – Example – Airlines unusually qualify their customers as frequent fliers if their usage rate is high and provides some concessions to them.Benefits Sought – e.g. – An example of this is the toothpaste market where the market is divided based on the benefits provided by the paste such as economical, medicinal, and cosmetic and taste.Product Loyalty – Customers who buy only one product all the time and are not lured by the competition.

The cigarette market is an example of this. Users are usually very loyal to their brands and do not change the brand very easily.Occasions on which product is used-e.g.- cereals have been usually marketed as a product which is to be served in breakfastIn order to be useful the market segments need to be measurable, accessible, substantial, differentiable and actionable. Measurable segment means a segment which can be measured through different methodologies which are variable. The organization should be able to determine the size of the market.

These markets should also be accessible to the firm. There should not be any barriers in serving the particular market. The segments will lose its purpose if the size of the segment is not large enough. A very small segment cannot be served as the profits earned will not justify the expenses. The market also needs to be differentiable. This means that there should be certain characteristics which this segment of customers has which are distinct and are not possessed by the customers of any other segment.

Lastly the segment should be actionable. The firm should be able to reach the market through various communication strategies available at their disposal.Works CitedC.L. Tyagi, Arun Kumar. Consumer Behaviour. Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 2004.Gary Armstrong, Michael Harker, Philip Kotler, Ross Brennan. Marketing : An Introduction. New York: Prentice Hall, 2009.Govindarajan. Marketing Management : Concepts and Challanges. PHI Learning pvt ltd., 2007.