MARK202 - Consumer Report PDF

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MARK 202 – Consumer BehaviorConsumer Profile ReportJacob Barber – 300447960Tutor: Ailise BealesVictoria University of WellingtonWord Count: 3964Executive SummaryDimension Audio is a fresh company within the headphones market, with a mission to produce a range of quality headphones that are suitable ...

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MARK202: Consumer Behavior 2020 – Jacob Barber, 300447960

MARK 202 – Consumer Behavior Consumer Profile Report Jacob Barber – 300447960 Tutor: Ailise Beales Victoria University of Wellington Word Count: 3964

MARK202: Consumer Behavior 2020 – Jacob Barber, 300447960

Executive Summary

MARK202: Consumer Behavior 2020 – Jacob Barber, 300447960 This report aims to provide an overview of Dimension Audio’s recommended marketing strategy to introduce pair of headphones that are tailored towards individuals who live an active, productive lifestyle. Recommendations have been formed based on insights provided by our consumer, referred to in this report as “V”. V recently purchased headphones known as Beats, whereby she engaged in extended decision making upon making her purchase. V was questioned and interviewed in order to gain a rich understanding of her consumer behaviors and attitudes, being also reflective of our wider target market. Based on these findings, marketing mix recommendations were tailored for a target market consisting of young Gen Z individuals who strongly value personal achievement and success. These consumers strongly value products that enhance their productivity and how they mold with their lifestyles, ultimately influencing their self-concept and helping them to achieve their goals. These recommendations include:

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Price: a competition-based pricing strategy should be employed, pricing relative to high end competitors.

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Product: Introduce a single product that is tailored towards an active lifestyle, with enhanced comfort and noise cancelling to aid concentration and productivity. The headphones should also last long periods of time and be aesthetically attractive.

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Place: Dimension Audio’s products should be sold through leading technology retailers, as well having a strong online retail presence.

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Promotion: Dimension audio should utilize digital marketing, as well as employing prominent influencers that represent the values held by the target market through online platforms.

Through implementing these listed recommendations, a marketer should be able to successfully introduce these headphones upon market entry and form competitive advantage.

Introduction

MARK202: Consumer Behavior 2020 – Jacob Barber, 300447960 Dimension Audio is a fresh company within the headphones market, with a mission to produce a range of quality headphones that are suitable for various different contexts. Our headphones are designed to enhance our consumer’s day to day lives, with style, design and comfort being at their forefront of strategy. Dimension has a strong emphasis on culture and lifestyle, far exceeding the tangible merits of our products. We want our products to not only provide a quality and comfortable listening experience, but to also enhance our consumers lives and motivate them to better versions of themselves. Our brand name “Dimension” reflects our aim to bridge both quality and culture, combining the two in a unified mission to inspire our consumers to achieve their goals.

For this report, we have chosen a consumer to analyze in order to determine our target market. We will refer to this consumer as “V”. =Based on V’s responses, Dimension’s target market embodies individuals aged 17-25 who strongly value fashion and lifestyle, are motivated, active, and are heavily invested in the culture associated with brands. For our new company named “Dimension Audio”, we must fully understand our market in order to be successful within our chosen segment. This report will provide an in-depth profile of consumer behavior within our chosen target market, predominately based on V’s responses to a range of questions related to her purchase behavior. This will ultimately inform recommendations for a suitable marketing mix for Dimension audio.

1. Recommendations

MARK202: Consumer Behavior 2020 – Jacob Barber, 300447960

1.1.

Price

For Dimensions pricing strategy, high end pricing should be implemented in order to communicate greater value to consumers. This value is derived from both functional needs and stylish consumption, with its emphasis on providing high quality, fashionable products. Products that combine practicality and aesthetics are referred to as “fashion tech products”, and at an early stage, are often supplied in small quantities and priced at high levels (Wang, 2017). Dimension audio headphones have the ability to price their headphones high, however, they should employ a competition-based pricing strategy so that consumers are able to easily compare products. Dimension should still aim to communicate value to consumers, as a higher price for headphones indicates good build quality and in turn, longer lifespan. Whilst it can be difficult to spend a lot of money, it can be dangerous to “cheap out” with headphones (Thomas, 2019).

1.2.

Product

Dimension audio should introduce a single product upon market entry to mitigate risk and reduce startup capital investment. This core product should be named the “Dimension Go”, a pair of wireless headphones representing the need for headphones that are tailored for an active lifestyle. They should be suitable for a range of different uses and have a long battery life, as our target market requires a product that is suitable for all their daily endeavors. This is reflected in our consumers interview responses, with V stating she wishes to “use them in a bunch of different contexts like walking to uni and doing exercise”. We will introduce padding protection around the ear to enhance comfort, as well as provide noise-cancelling that enhances our user’s productivity when completing tasks. As our target market consists of business professionals and students who work in busy environments, a quality pair of noise cancelling headphones can help to improve concentration in open workspaces (Kosiuk, 2017).

1.3.

Place

MARK202: Consumer Behavior 2020 – Jacob Barber, 300447960 The Dimension Go should be sold predominately through leading technology retail outlets, such as Harvey Norman and Noel Leaming. These renowned retailers are already in our consumers internal memory, as they are usually the first to the market with the latest technology. Whilst our consumer used Noel Leaming, she preferred to make her actual purchase through their online platform. Noel Leaming, as well as other leading retailers, have e-commerce functionality, complementing Dimensions strong online presence and enabling the information search and purchase to occur in the same context. A greater degree of convenience could be the key to setting brands apart, with 83% of consumers saying that convenience when shopping is more important than it was 5 years ago (Smart Insights Ltd, 2020). V expressed that she preferred not having to deal with face to face interaction, finding staff to be generally “pushy” and preferring to have more convenience in her purchases. In order to cater to this, Dimension should ensure they a strong online retail presence and alleviate any pressure consumers may feel facing staff in person.

1.4.

Promotion

In its promotional efforts, Dimension Audio should focus on digital marketing. Specifically, utilizing online platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. In order to communicate values of enhancing productivity and bettering people’s daily lives, Dimension should aim to employ influencers who live active, busy lifestyles and are highly achievement oriented. These are characteristics that are likely to resonate with our consumers who seek technology that makes them more productive and ultimately more successful, therefore increasing the likelihood of conversion through influencer marketing. Influencers are a powerful tool for marketers, especially as Gen Z individuals tend to rely on user reviews to back up their gut instincts about a company before they actually do business with them (Clark, 2020). These influencers should ideally be business professionals or other successful figures, and campaigns should be implemented within the first week of the products launch.

2.0. Consumer Decision Making Process (please refer to Appendix 1: Consumer Decision Making Process Interview Transcript)

MARK202: Consumer Behavior 2020 – Jacob Barber, 300447960

2.1. Problem Recognition Problem recognition occurs whenever consumers see a significant difference between their current state of affairs and some desired or actual state (Solomon et al, 2018). Consumer V’s headphone jack broke on her laptop, so she was therefore unable to connect wired headphones to her device. This was a problem for her as she was unable to watch lectures for her courses whilst at campus. This causes a great degree of inconvenience for her as she prefers to do most of her own work at the campus library where it is quiet, whilst still maintaining social distancing due to COVID19. In this case, the quality of our consumers actual state, being her level of convenience, moved downwards, rendering this a need recognition. As a result of this, consumer V decided to invest in wireless headphones in to her ideal state of higher productivity through the convenience that wireless capacity offered.

V also acknowledged that she was having issues with the lifespan of her previous headphones, having had headphones in the past that are cheap and tend to break easy. V states “I don’t have high standards for sound quality, although my headphones to tend to break, and I do have to purchase a new pair more regularly”. In this sense, V sees her ideal state as being unconcerned in regard to her headphones breaking, having trust in a pair that has a longer lifespan. Without investing in new headphones, actual state would decrease, creating a split from her ideal state of being content with her headphone’s lifespan. In this regard, V’s ideal state moved upwards, driving opportunity recognition.

2.2. Information Search Consumer V carried out extensive problem-solving in order to identify which headphones worked best for her. V’s initial knowledge of headphones was fairly surface level, having only internal knowledge to rely on at the start of her process. She had internally associated Beats headphones, the brand that she purchased from, with being highly priced and popular. This brand immediately made it into her retrieval set, due to preferring to “purchase high end, well renowned products”.

V conducted external search to supplement her internal knowledge. She consulted sources such as her flat mates and other close acquaintances, gaining insight Beats. This gave her

MARK202: Consumer Behavior 2020 – Jacob Barber, 300447960 reassurance in her decision-making process and made her feel more comfortable with purchasing these headphones. She also turned to renowned retailers such as Noel Leaming and Harvey Norman for specific details on the headphones. Her search was narrowed down to headphones with wireless capacity, as this was the key determinant in her decision. V demonstrated high involvement throughout her decision-making process to ensure a high level of satisfaction. This is predominately due to her gender and generally placing more value on the style and image she presents (Solomon et al, 2018).

2.3. Evaluation of Alternatives/Product Choice Within this stage, V had to make a choice between various available alternatives. Amongst all of V’s evaluative criteria, wireless capacity was determined to be the most fundamental functional attribute. This was the attribute that she used to narrow down her search, however it was not a determinant factor amongst her available alternatives. She reinforces this in her interview by stating “obviously the least I wanted was wireless headphones, but I wasn’t just going to get random ones”. Furthermore, two of the key determinant attributes amongst her available alternatives were charging capacity and lifespan, as these carried most of the weight in her decision-making process. Design and style were also deemed determinant attributes, as she favored beats due to them being available in more colors and being more “stylistic and attractive”.

Out of the alternatives that were made available to her, V discounted brands that were considered uncomfortable, inconvenient and/or unaligned with her own goals. These brands therefore entered her inept set; products that are not considered at all. Contrariwise, brands that V actively considered included Beats and Pioneer due to being closely aligned with her own values and exhibiting attributes that she deemed to be important. These brands comprised her evoked set; brands that she closely considered. These brands were both already in her internal memory, as well as being prominent in the market.

V determined that Beats satisfied her preferred attributes the most, particularly charging capacity and lifespan. She found Beats headphones to have twice the battery life as Pioneer, and generally found that they more trusted amongst her peers.

MARK202: Consumer Behavior 2020 – Jacob Barber, 300447960

2.4. Purchase When our consumer went to make her purchase, she conducted her information search and purchase in the same context. V made her purchase though Noel Leeming’s online platform, as this was the first retailer she thought to go to. She conducted a lot of her information search through the same platform, as their website provided extensive product details and information which was extremely helpful in forming her decision. In her interview, V stated she “trusted them to have all the relevant information and product details on beats that I would need to form a decision”. V preferred to conduct her purchase online as opposed to a brick and mortar setting, as she felt she had much greater control over her purchase experience. She also felt no pressure from staff as she generally finds staff to be pushy, attempting to entice customers to purchase secondary products. This is reflective of our wider target market, with studies showing that there is a large degree of ‘damage’ on customer satisfaction through pushy service providers, with the figure for customer satisfaction being much higher when customers experience no push from staff (Niu, 2013).

2.5. Post Purchase Overall, V felt confident in her purchase as she felt her fundamental needs were satisfied. In her interview, V states “Beats helped me be more productive throughout the day”, predominately due to comfort, convenience and charging capacity. She did however note that whilst she felt that the product met her expectations, she did not feel that they exceeded them, in the sense that the feeling of excitement from purchasing the headphones wore off fairly quickly. She did raise concerns regarding the environmental repercussions of the packaging, as the majority of the wrapping was plastic and could have easily been replaced with sustainable material such as paper. This should be taken into consideration when Dimension Audio designs their packaging, as 50% of consumers take environmental factors into consideration (Consumer NZ, 2018).

3.0. Consumer Segment Our consumer, V, represents individuals who fall within the Gen Z generation. These individuals are ambitious, achievement oriented and live a very active lifestyle, often juggling

MARK202: Consumer Behavior 2020 – Jacob Barber, 300447960 various different priorities. Personal achievement, whether educational or professional, is most central to Gen Z’s identity (Barna Group, 2018). Through close analysis of V’s interview answers and consumption behavior, we can decipher that our consumer segment strongly values achievement, attending university regularly for long periods of time and being committed to her long-term vision of enacting environmental change and forming government policies. She also expresses that she values her sense of fashion and style, preferring to purchase products that have an artistic brand image that aligns with her own values. The same can be said for our target market, as consumers within this segment tend to consider themselves fashionable and are invested in the culture associated with a brands product, rather than their tangible elements alone. Individuals within this segment are likely to be students and business professionals who work in busy environments, requiring a larger degree of concentration as they are constantly balancing many different tasks.

These characteristics are further reinforced through the ‘Magician’ archetype that V falls within. Magicians have a longing desire to make their dreams come true and are motivated by personal transformation (Solomon et al, 2018). With their motivation to achieve their goals and adhere to their own values, they are likely to purchase products that assist them in doing so. The target market for Dimension audio should therefore reflect younger Gen Z individuals, who value achievement, vision and seek to optimize their productivity

4.0. Perception and the senses (please refer to Appendix 2: attribute tables and perceptual map) Perception is the process by which physical sensations such as sights, sounds and smell are selected, organized and interpreted. The eventual interpretation of a stimulus allows it to be assigned meaning (Solomon et al, 2018). Throughout her selection process, there were particular marketing stimuli that V was most sensitive to when evaluating her decision, such as look and feel. As consumers are generally inundated with stimuli, they can only pay attention to a small amount, showing selective attention. V was particularly sensitive to the look and design of headphones, with Beats and Pioneer making it into her evoked set in this regard. V responded well to the look of Beats and Pioneer the most, with both ranking at 10 and 9 respectively on a likert scale for functional design. This design is reinforced through multiple different consumer touchpoints, such as the product packaging, advertising, and

MARK202: Consumer Behavior 2020 – Jacob Barber, 300447960 the fashionable design of the product itself. A similar response was elicited through the sensory receptor of touch, with comfort being a key attribute that V favored. Beats and Pioneer were the leading brands who exhibited this attribute the best, ranking the highest on this particular attribute. Brand image and lifestyle were other nonfunctional attributes that were chosen for our consumer to rank, with Beats and Pioneer ranking the highest again.

These findings should inform Dimension audio to focus on stimuli that their consumer segment can assign meaning to, based on their own values. This concept is referred to as priming and can be used to Dimensions advantage in order to create an association between self-improvement and their products, which is strongly valued by the consumers who fall under the Magician archetype. Dimension audio should aim to evoke emotions that motivate consumers to be more productive through using their headphones, making unique associations with both touch and vision (comfort and design). This should aim to do this through advertising with a clean and sleek aesthetic, as well as encouraging trials of products in stores. Encouraging shoppers to touch a product entices them to imagine they own it, with research showing that people value objects more when they own them. This is known as the endowment effect and is directly relevant to our consumer. Upon trialing the headphones, she states she “imagined they were mine, and how they sort of meshed with my daily lifestyle”, reinforcing this effect.

5.0. Personality and Self (please refer to Appendix 3: brand personality and consumer personality questionnaire)

A personality denotes a consumer’s unique psychological makeup, which consistently influences the way they respond to their environment (Solomon et al, 2018). Consumers will often seek products and brands that...