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| Main » Articles » Marketing |
Consumer Behaviour
| Consumers have so many choices to make
compared to ten or even twenty years ago. Today as always, business
growth depends heavily on loyal customers who return because they are
satisfied with the product and/or service they have received. But first
companies have to bring consumers into the stores. The companies bring
consumers into the store by marketing their product. The average
consumer would probably define marketing as a combination of
advertising and selling. It actually includes a good deal more. Modern
marketing is most simply defined as directing the flow of goods from
producers to customers. In order to answer this question fully we must
define consumer goods which means goods that are used or bought for use
primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. The essay
outlines the contributions of marketing through fast moving consumer
goods. Promotion, which works hand in hand with marketing a product,
allows the product to be relayed to the right consumer through
campaigns. Market research must be completed to find a target audience
which is used for promotional and advertising reasons. The last part of
the scheme is the actual advertising of the good which pulls the
consumer into the store. Marketing has had an influential impact on
fast moving consumer goods through abroad range of activities
including, promotion, market research, and advertising.
Promotion is used to communicate information about goods and services
to target market audiences thereby facilitating the exchange process.
Promotion plays an important role in informing, educating, persuading
and reminding customers. The promotional mix is adjusted according to
the organizations promotional objectives and its marketing situation.
Generally, in consumer’s services, marketing and advertising will be by
far the main component and the most expensive. Promotion is essentially
about communication. Target audiences need to receive information about
goods and services before they can begin to consider making a purchase.
The promotional objectives will influence the nature of the promotional
message and the type of appeal used to get the message across. One of
the key tasks in designing and executing promotional programmes is the
selection of appropriate media for advertising and other forms of
communication. The range of possible media choice is extensive but will
ultimately be governed by factors such as the budget available and the
target audience profile. The development of an effective promotional
campaign involves combining the promotional mix elements in the most
appropriate way to meet the organizations communications objectives.
Evaluation and monitoring is important and one method of evaluation is
by completing marketing research. (Woodruffe 1995149,163-4) An
advertisement, or a campaign of advertisements, is planned in much the
same way a successful salesperson plans the approach to be used on a
personal call. The first stage is working out the strategy. This
requires a thorough analysis of all available market research, personal
discussions--or focus groups--with typical prospective buyers of the
product, and knowledge of all competitive products and their
advertising. Based on the understanding and insights derived from this
information, advertising professionals write a strategy that defines
the prospects that constitute the target market to which they must
direct the message and what must be communicated in order to persuade
the prospects to take the action that is desired. With this strategy as
a guide, copywriters and art directors begin to create the
advertisements. At this second stage they try to come up with an idea
that involves the prospect, pertains to his life or problems, and is
memorable. The idea can take the form of an unexpected set of words or
a graphic symbol. It also can be a combination of words and graphics,
and even music. An advertising idea works best when it is a totally
unexpected yet thoroughly relevant fulfilment of the strategy. The
third stage is the execution of the idea. This means turning the idea into
some form of communication that a prospect can see or hear. For print
advertising, execution involves writing text, taking photographs or
commissioning drawings, arranging elements on the page (layout),
setting type, making photo engravings, and so on. For broadcast
advertising, it may mean writing dialogue and composing music, hiring
actors and recording voices, filming in a studio or on location.
Throughout all three of these stages, research plays an active role.
Market research provides the information on which the strategy is
based. Copy research may test the relative strength of several ideas on
small groups of consumers or larger national samples. Focus groups may
uncover communications problems in various headlines, photographs,
actors, or musical compositions along the way. Research remains active
after the advertisement has been executed. Often a finished print ad or
broadcast commercial is tested before it appears in print or on the
air, and it is not unusual to track the effect of advertising in the
marketplace during the course of a campaign.
The objective of any advertisement is to convince people that it is in
their best interests to take an action the advertiser is recommending.
The action may be to purchase a product, go to a showroom to try the
product, use a service, vote for a political candidate, make a
contribution, or even to join the Army. Like any personal salesperson,
the advertisement tries to persuade. Advertising companies are keeping
the pulse on contemporary culture, surging with new innovative
marketing techniques that are imputed through promotion. Currently,
consumers “expectations need to be exceeded for commercial success so
that customers are delighted with the outcome.” (Jobber 1998: 13)
Companies take pride in developing advertising that breaks through the
media clutter and creates lasting impressions on potential buyers
minds. It is essential to be seen on TV, magazines, and other media in
order to show potential buyers that your product is worth investing in.
Today, media is so integrated into the society that it dominates the
culture. Therefore, media presence is crucial in influencing consumers.
The worlds’ cultures are growing increasingly visual. People spend less
time reading and more time watching. Advertisers want to engage the
viewer using highly simplified concepts that are a fusion of visuals
and words. They want their ideas to communicate linguistically in
seconds, yet stay imprinted on the mind of the buyer. “Companies need
to avoid the mistake of setting customer expectations too high through
exaggerated promotional claim since this can lead to dissatisfaction if
performance falls short of expectations”. (Jobber 1998: 12) For
instance, Marshall Field's, a department store in Chicago, has long
used the motto: Give the lady what she wants. Finding out what the
customer wants is one of the problems marketing research tries to
solve. Marketing research has been defined as trying to analyze
marketing problems scientifically. It studies people as buyers and
sellers, examining their habits, attitudes, preferences, dislikes, and
purchasing power. It often studies specific segments of a population,
such as teenagers, high-income groups, or senior citizens. Marketing
research also investigates distribution systems, pricing, promotion,
product design, packaging, brand names, and almost every aspect of the
seller-buyer relationship. Marketing research is divided into a number
of sub areas. Advertising research attempts to find out the
effectiveness of advertising. It also seeks to learn the best media for
advertising specific products: television, newspapers, radio,
magazines, billboards, and others. Market analysis tries to identify
and measure markets for specific products and to estimate sales
potential. Markets may be differentiated by population groups or by
geography. Some types of clothing are more likely to sell in Florida
and California than in the northern Midwest. Some cosmetics will appeal
more to black customers than to white customers. Marketing research is
an
expensive undertaking, and its costs are built into the prices of
products.
Almost every company in the United States that manufactures a product,
that provides a service, or that sells products or services through
retail outlets uses advertising. Those that use it most are companies
that must create a demand for several products or services among many
people residing in a large area. While advertising brings the economies
of mass selling to the manufacturer, it produces benefits for the
consumer as well. Some of those economies are passed along to the
purchaser so that the cost of a product sold primarily through
advertising is usually far less than one sold through personal
salespeople. Advertising brings people immediate news about products
that have just come on the market. Finally, advertising pays for the
programs on commercial television and radio and for about two thirds of
the cost of publishing magazines and newspapers.
Consumer goods are those that are sold to final users, the customers.
These goods include food, clothing, automobiles, television sets,
appliances, and all those things people go to stores to purchase. To
sell a product or good successfully you must appeal to the consumer.
Companies use advertisement to entice them to go into stores and
purchase products. For instance, coffee is a very popular and fast
selling consumer good, which will always be in demand. A popular
commercial and slogan was used by Maxwell Coffee to differiante them
from other coffee companies. “A Cup of Instant Culture” was the slogan
the company used earlier this decade. With coffee drinking on the wane,
coffee makers can no longer simply offer satisfied faces grinning over
cups of steaming java. Coffee, like lifestyles, must be exotic and
sophisticated. P&G's Folger's and Kraft General Food's Maxwell
House have spent bundles not only to keep their jingles alive but to
show that they fit into a thirty something mindset awash with babies,
careers and an amateur’s appreciation for those fresh-roasted grounds.
Ironically, the most efficient performers were two Nestle brands that
don't offer the fresh-ground variety: Nescafe and Taster's Choice. Both
reduced their spending and increased their efficiency dramatically. For
Taster's Choice, the trick may have been its allusions to elegance: Is
this one too good for your guests? A handsome neighbor asks a
well-coiffed hostess who's looking to borrow some coffee. Nescafe
evokes the exotic with scenes of tropical splendor. Hills Brothers,
which kept both spending and efficiency relatively static, goes even
further, taking viewers on a jungle expedition filled with toucans and
rain forest haze, all to the strains of melodies familiar to fans of
Paul Simon.
To improve the selling of consumer goods companies are reevaluating
their advertising techniques and promotions. Online advertising revenue
grew 66 percent between the first and second quarters of this year,
with significant gains made in the consumer-goods business. Those are
among the findings of a report based on a survey of major advertising
sites that the Internet Advertising Bureau released last week. The
study, conducted by Coopers & Lybrand's New Media Group, found that
total spending rose to $214.4 million in the quarter ended June 30, up
from $129.5 million in the March quarter. These are the strongest
results we've seen yet, said Rich LeFurgy, chairman of the IAB and
senior vice president of advertising for ESPN/ABCNews Internet. The
advertising bureau is a trade group whose primary members are sites
that are ad-supported. The bureau's numbers reflect self-reported
revenue figures from more than 800 sites, each of which has at least
$5,000 a month in online ad revenue. The survey gets a 90 percent
response rate, according to Peter Petrusky, who oversees the study for
Coopers & Lybrand. The growth of ads for consumer goods was
particularly noteworthy given that ads for computers and related
products had been dominant since the Web's inception. Ads for consumer
goods were responsible or 30 percent of revenue in the second quarter,
up from 17 percent in the first quarter. Following consumer goods were
financial services (22 percent of total spending), computer goods (21
percent), and new media and telecommunications (7 percent each).
LeFurgy said the growth demonstrated that consumer-goods companies were
moving out of an experimental mode and into a commitment mode on the
Web.
In conclusion, the client above used this information to evaluate the
effectiveness of the advertising. They determined that the advertising
was memorable, but that the public tended not to recall the message the
client was trying to portray. They were able to make changes to the
advertising to better communicate the intended message. All of these
types of marketing are attempts to find and reach the elusive and
demanding consumer. However, one of the most interesting of these
responses is it grows out of the conviction that the only way for
marketing to be effective with the consumer of today is to radically
change and become subversive. The marketing techniques, advertising,
and promotion used by today’s companies help consumer goods and
services sell quickly.
Bibliography Atiyah P.S. The Sale of Goods London: Pitman: London, 1990. Dobson A.P. Sale of Goods and Consumer Credit. London: Sweet & Maxwell Limted 1989. Jobber, David Principles and Practice of Marketing. London: McGraw Hill 2nd ed, 1998 Mowen, John C. and Minor, Micheal. Consumer Behaviour 5th ed New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1998 Woodruffe, Helen Services Marketing. M&E Pitman: London, 1995 | |
| Category: Marketing | Added by: Antonio (15.06.2009) | |
| Views: 159 | Rating: 0.0/0 | |
| Total comments: 0 | |
