Sunday, November 30, 2008

Consultancy Services Offered

MANAGEMENT 

  • Facilitating CREATION OF VISION, MISSION AND CORE VALUES
  • Guding in GETTING THE ORGANIZATION ALIGNED ON THE VISION,MISSION AND CORE VALUES
  • Supporting in POLICIES AND PROCESSES - REINTERPRETATION & REFINEMENT based on the Vision, Mission and Core Values.
  • Creating Operating guidelines for each and every role holder inside of the Vision,Mission and Core Values
  • Facilitating Creating Strategies for the short term and long term growth strategy. We recommend using the Blue Ocean Strategy along with TOWS (SWOT) as the starting point of planning.
  • Guiding in the Strategy Implementation. We recommend the BSC - Balanced Score Card given approach as the guiding principle for Strategy Implemenation.
  • Creating Systemic and Systematic Change Management disciplince.

MARKETING

  • Facilitate creation of the Marketing Strategy
  • Guiding on Shortlisting of the Target Market Segments
  • Advice on Creating Specific Strategies for each Specific Target Market Segment.
  • Support on Implementing the Marketing Strategies
  • Guidelines for ongoing monitoring, feedback and updating the Marketing Strategies.
  • Continuous innovation and work on Branding and Positioning.


SALES

  • Training and coaching people on the World Best Consultative Sales Models ( We recommend Huthwaite's SPIN Model as the foundation for learning Consultative Sales. There are some other good models which can also be used)
  • Guiding people on Key Account Management Strategies.
  • Guiding people on Relationship Marketing as building long term mutually rewarding and respecting relationships with clients.
  • Guiding in Channel Management and Market Coverage Strategies and Implementation
  • Facilitating a Sales and Marketing oriented culture in the organization.
  • Creating a result oriented culture with strong MIS and reporting systems with continuous updates, feedback, coaching, interventions.


HR

  • Guide in Creating Performance Based Culture fostering leadership,initiative, ownership and result orientedness.
  • Facilitating KRA setting, performance management, performance appraisal, issue resolutions, teamwork, and growth orientation. 
  • Guide in Creating HR as a strong back bone enriching and supporting the vision, mission, core values and the strategy implementation.
  • Advise on Creating People Development and Talent Management as everyday responsibility of the Supervisors and Managers and integrating it with everyone's KRAs and Performance Appraisals.


TRAINING:

  • Vision, Mission, Core Values - Consulting and Workshops.
  • Strategy Creation - Consulting and Workshops
  • Market Segmentation - Consulting and Workshops
  • Consultative Sales - Consulting, Workshops & Coaching Camps
  • Leadership, Managerial and Supervisory Development, Soft Skills, Attitude, TeamBuilding, Holistic Self Development - Consulting, Workshops and Coaching Camps


MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS

managementinnovations2020@gmail.com; manojonkar@gmail.com; 919375970812

Saturday, November 29, 2008

THE BUSINESS SYSTEM

ECONOMIC SYSTEM:

The system a society uses to provide the goods and services it needs to survive and flourish.

GLOBALIZATION:

The process by which the economic and social systems of nations are connected together so that goods, services, capital, and knowledge move freely between nations.

TRADITION BASED SOCIETIES:

Societies that rely on traditional communal roles and customs to carry out basic economic tasks.

In Locke's State of Nature:

  • All are free and equal
  • Each person owns his body and labour, and whatever he mixes his labour into
  • People agree to form a government to protect their right to freedom and property

Lockean Rights:

  • The right to life, liberty and property.

Weaknesses of Lockean Rights:

  • Assumption that individuals have neutral rights
  • Conflict between positive and negative rights
  • Conflict between Lockean rights and principles of Justice.
  • Locke's individualistic assumptions

INVISIBLE HAND : Arguments of Adam Smith

  • According to Adam Smith, the market competition that drives self interested individuals to act in ways that serve society.
  • Market Competition ensures that the pursuit of self interest in markets advances of public's welfare.
  • Govenment interference in markets does not advance the public's welfare.

Criticisms of Smith's Argument:

  • Rests on unrealistic assumptions
  • False assumption that all relevant costs are paid by manufacturer
  • False assumption that human beings are solely motivated by self interested desire for profit.
  • Some degree of economic planning is possible and desirable.
  • Keynes's claim that government can affect unemployment.

SAY'S LAW:

In an economy all available resources are used and demand always expands to absorb the supply of commodities made from them.

AGGREGATE DEMAND:

According to John Maynard Keynes, the sum of the demand of the 3 sectors of the econonmy; households,businesses and government.

KEYNESIAN ECONOMIES:

The theory of John Maynard Keynes that free markets alone are not necessarily the most efficient means for co-ordinating the use of society's resources.

SOCIAL DARWINISM:

Belief that economic competition produces human progress.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST:

Charles Darwin's term for the process of natural selection.

NATURALISTIC FALLACY:

The assumption that whatever happens naturally is always for the best.

ABSOLUTE ADVANTAGE:

A situation where the production costs (costs in terms of the resoueces consumed in producing the good) of making a commodity are lower for one country than for another.

COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE:

A situation where the opportunity costs (costs in terms of other goods given up) of making a commodity are lower for one country than for another.

FREE TRADE:

  • Advocated by Smith with the idea of Absolut advantage.
  • Advocated by Ricardo with idea of Comparative Advantage.
  • Favours Gloablization.

Difficulties in Applying Ricardo's Theory Today:

  • Easy movement of capital by companies
  • False assumption that a country's prodcution costs are constant.
  • Influence of International rule setters.

MEANS OF PRODUCTION:

The buildings, machinery, land and raw materials used in the production of goods and services.

ALIENATION:

In Marx's view not allowing the lower working classes to develop their productive potential, satisy their real human needs, or form satisfying human relationships.

ECONOMIC SUBSTRUCTURE:

The materials and social controls that society uses to produce its economic goods.

SOCIAL SUPERSTRUCTURE:

A society's government and its populare ideologies.

FORCES OF PRODUCTION:

The materials- land, labour,natural resources,machinery,energy,technology used in production.

RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION:

The social controls used in producing goods i.e. the social controls by which society organizes and controls its workers.

HISTORICAL MATERIALISM:

The Marxist view of history as determined by changes in the economic methods by which humanity produces the materials on which it must live.

MARX'S PRINCIPLE Claims of Injustice in Capitalism:

  • Exploitation of workers whose "surplus" is taken by owners as "profit".
  • Alienation of workers from product, work,self and others.
  • Subordination of government to interests of ruling economic class.
  • Immiseration of Workers.

IMMISERATION:

The combined effects of increased concentration, cyclic crises, rising unemployment, decliining relative compensation.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:

Property that consists of an abstract and nonphysical object.

COPYRIGHT:

A grant that indicated that a particular expression of an idea is the private property of an individual or a company.

ETHICS IN BUSINESS

ETHIC OF CARE:

An ethic that emphasizes cring for the concrete well being of those near to us.

ETHIC OF VIRTUE:

An ethic based on evaluations of the moral character of persons or groups.

UTILITARIANISM:

A general term for any view that holds that actions and policies should be evaluated on the basis of the benefits and costs they will impose on society.

UTILITY:

The inclusive term used to refer to any net benefits produced by an action.

UTILITARIANISM:

  • Advocates maximising utility.
  • Matches well with moral evaluations of public policies
  • Appears intuitive to many people
  • Helps Explain why some actions are generally wrong and others are generally light.
  • Influenced Economics

COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS:

A type of analysis used to determine the desirability of investing in a project by figuring whether its present and future economic benefits outweight its present and future economic costs.

EFFICIENCY:

Operating in such a way that one produces a desired output with the lowest resource input.

NONECONOMIC GOODS:

Goods such as life, love, freedom,equality, health, beauty, whose value is such that no quantity of any economic good is equal in value to the value of the noneconomic good.

INSTRUMENTAL GOODS:

Things that are considered valuable because they lead to other good things.

INTRINSIC GOODS:

Things that are desirable independent of any other benefits they may produce.

JUSTICE:

Distributing benefits and burdens fairly among people.

RIGHTS:

Individual entitlements to freedom of choice and well being.

EVALUATING UTILITARIANISM:

  • Critics say not all values can be measured.
  • Utilitarians respond that monetary and commonsensee mesures can measure everything.
  • Critics say utilitarianism fails with rights and justice.
  • Utilitarians respond that rule - utilitariansim can deal with rights and justice.

LEGAL RIGHT:

An entitlement that derives from a legal system that permits or empowers a person to act in a specified way or that requires others to act in certain ways toward that person.

MORAL RIGHTS:

Rights that human beings of every nationality possess to an equal extent simply virtue of being human beings.

CHARACTERISTICS OF RIGHTS:

  • A right is an individual's entitlement to something.
  • Rights derieved from legal systems are limited by jurisdiction
  • Moral or human rights are based on moral norms and are not limited by jurisdiction.

SUMMARY OF MORAL RIGHTS:

  • Tigthly correlated with duties.
  • Provide individuals with autonomy and equality in the free pursuit of their interests.
  • Provide a basis for justifying one's actions and for invoking the protection or aid of thers.

NEGATIVE RIGHTS:

Duties others have to not interfere in certain activities of the person who holds the right.

POSITIVE RIGHTS:

Duties of other agent to provide the holder of the right with whatever he or she needs to freely pursue his or her interests.

KINDS OF MORAL RIGHTS:

  • Negative rights require others leave us alone
  • Positive rights require others help us
  • Contractual or special rights require other to keep agreements.

CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE:

The requirement that everyone should be treated as a free person equal to everyone else.

MAXIM:

The reason a person in a certain situation has for doing what he or she plans to do. 

UNIVERSALIZABILITY:

The person's reasons for acting must be reasons that everyone could act on atleast in principle.

REVERSABILITY:

The person's reasons for acting must be reasons that he or she would be willing to have all others use, even as a basis of how they treat him or her.

KANT'S CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE FORMULAS:

  • Never do something unless you are willing to have everyone do it.
  • Never use people merely as means, but always respect and develop their ability to choose for themselves.

CRITICISMS OF KANT:

  • Categorical Imperatives are unclear
  • Kant's rights can conflict
  • Kant's theory implies some mistaken moral conclusions

LIBERTARIAN PHILOSOPHERS:

  • Believe that freedom from human constraint is necessarily good  and that all constraints imposed by others are necessarily evil except when needed to prevent the imposition of greater human constraints.

TYPES OF JUSTICE:

  • Distributive Justice: Just distribution of benefits and burdens
  • Retributive Justice: Just imposition of punishments and penalities.
  • Compensatory Justice: Just compensation for wrongs or injuries.

DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE:

Distributive society's benefits and burdens fairly.

RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE:

Blaming or punishing persons fairly for doing wrong.

COMPENSATORY JUSTICE:

Restoring to a person what the person lost when he or she was wronged by someone.

EGALITARIANISM:

Every person should be given exactly equal shares of a society's or a group's benefits and burdens.

POLITICAL EQUALITY:

Equal participation in, and treatment by, the political system.

ECONOMIC EQUALITY:

Equality of income, wealth and opportunity.

PURITAN ETHIC:

The view that every individual has a religious obligation to work hard at his calling (the career to which God summons each individual).

WORK ETHIC:

The view that values individual effort and believes that hard work does and should lead to success.

PRODUCTIVITY:

The amount a person produces.

PRINCIPLE OF EQUAL LIBERTY:

The claim that each citizen's liberties must be protected from invasion by others and must be equal to those of others.

DIFFERENCE PRINCIPLE:

The claim that a productive society will incorporate inequalities, but takes steps to improve the position of the most needy members of society.

PRINCIPLE OF FAIR EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY:

The claim that everyone should be given an equal opportunity to qualify for the more privileged positions in society's institutions.

ORIGINAL POSITION:

An imaginary meeting of rational self interested persons who must choose the principles of justice by which their society will be governed.

VEIL OF IGNORANCE:

The requirement that persons in the original position must not know particulars about themselves which might bias their choices such as their sex,race,religino,income,social status etc.,

PRINCIPLES OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE:

  • Fundamental: Distributive benefits and burdens equally to equals and unequally to unequals.
  • Egalitarian: Distribute equally to everyone.
  • Capitalist: Distribute by Contribution
  • Socialist: Distribute by need and ability.
  • Libertarian: Distribute by Free Choices
  • Rawls: Distribute by equal liberty, equal opportunity, and needs of disadvantaged.

ETHIC OF CARE:

An ethic that emphasizes caring for the concrete well being of those near to us.

  • Claims ethics need to be impartial.
  • Emphasizes preserving and nurturing concrete valuable relationships.
  • Says we should care for those dependent on and related to us.

COMMUNITARIAN ETHIC:

An ethic that sees concrete communities and communal relationships as having a fundamental value that should be preserved and maintained.

Objection to Care Approach to Ethics:

  • Charge: Ethic of care can degenerate into favoritism.
  • Response: Conflicting moral demands are an inherent characteristic of moral choices.
  • Charge: Ethic of care can lead to "burnout"
  • Response: Adequate understanding of ethic of care will address the need to care for the caregiver.

The Basis of Moral Judgements:

  • Evaluations of social costs and benefits.
  • Respect for individual rights.
  • Just ditribution of benefits and burdens.
  • Caring for those in concrete relationships.

MORAL VIRTUE:

An acquired disposition that is valued as part of th character of morality good human being and that is exhibited in the person's habitual behaviour.

THEORIES OF MORAL VIRTUE:

  • Aristotle: Habits that enable a person to live according to reason.
  • Aquinas: Habits that enable a person to live responsibly in this world and be united with God in the next life.
  • MacIntyre: Disposition that enables a person to achieve the good at which human"practices" aim.
  • Pincoff: Dispositions we use when choosing between persons or potential future selves.

VIRTUE THEORY:

The theory that the aim of the moral life is to develop those general dispositions called moral virtues, and to exercise and exhibit them in the many situations that human life sets before us.

VIRTUE THEORY CLAIMS:

  • We should exercise, exhibit, and develop the virtues.
  • We should avoid exercising, exhibiting, and developing vices.
  • Institutions should instill virtues not vices.



Friday, November 28, 2008

BUSINESS ETHICS, MORALITY, CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Business Ethics:

The principles of conduct governing an individual or a group.

Business Ethics:

Ethics is the study of Morality.


Ethics is not the same as morality, it is a study  of various dimensions of Morality.

Ethics is the discipline that examines one's moral standards or the moral standards of a society.

WHAT IS MORALITY?

The standards that an individual or a group about what is right and wrong or good and evil.

MORAL STANDARDS :

The norms about the  kinds of actions believed to be morally right and wrong as well as the values placed on the kinds of objects believed to be morally good and morally bad.

NON MORAL STANDARDS:

The standards by which we judge what is good or bad and right or wrong in a nonmoral way.

5 Characteristics of Moral Standards:

  1. Involved with serious injuries or benefits.
  2. Not established by Law or Legislature.
  3. Should be preferred to other values including self interest.
  4. Based on impartial considerations
  5. Associated with special emotions and vocabulary

NORMATIVE STUDY:

An investigation that attempts to reach conclusions about what things are good or bad or about what actions are right or wrong.

DESCRIPTIVE STUDY :

An investigation that attempts to describe or exploan the world without reaching any conclusions about whether the world is as it should be.

BUSINESS ETHICS:

A specialized study of moral right and wrong that concentrates on moral standards as they apply to business institutions, organizations and behaviour.

BUSINESS ETHICS STUDIES:

  • Moral Standards
  • How moral standards apply to social systems and organizations that produce and distribute goods and services.

KINDS OF ETHICAL ISSUES:

  • Systemic - Social Systems or institutions within which business operate.
  • Corporate - An Individual Company taken as a whole
  • Individual - A Particular individual or individuals within a company and their behaviours and decisions.

ETHICAL RELATIVISM :

A theory that there are no ethical standards that are absolutely true and that apply or should be applied to the companies and people of all societies.

Objections to Theory of Ethical Relativism:

  • Some moral standards are found in all societies.
  • Moral differences do not logically imply relativism
  • Relativism is incoherent
  • Relativism privileges the current moral standards of a society.


Kohlberg's Three Levels of Moral Development :

  • Preconventional - Punishment and obedience; instrumental and relative.
  • Conventional - Interpersonal concordance; law and order
  • Postconventional - Social contract, universal principles

MORAL REASONING:

The reasoning process by which human behaviours, institutions or policies are judged to be in accordance with or in violation of moral standards.

Objections to Bringing Ethics into Business:

  • In a free market economy,the pursuit of profit will ensure maximum social benefit
  • A manager's most important obligation is to the company.
  • Business ethichs is limited to obeying the law.

Arguments Supporting Ethics in Business:

  • Ethics applies to all human activities
  • Business cannot survive without ethics
  • Ethics is consistent with profit seeking
  • Prisoner's dilemma argument
  • Customers and Employees care about Ethics

Elements of Moral Responsibility:

  • Individual must cause or fail to prevent an avoidable injury or wrong.
  • Individual must know what he is doing
  • Individual must act of his own free will.

RECOMMENDED WEBSITES:

www.scu.edu/ethics

www.ethics.acusd.edu

www.web-miner.com/busethics.htm

www.essential.org

www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml

www.betterworldlinks.org/book100.htm

www.corpwatch.org

www.worldwatch.org

www.arq.co.uk/ethicalbusiness

www.bsr.org

www.mallenbaker.net/csr

www.pwblf.org

ETHICAL BUSINESS

Business Ethics is applied ethics in the day to day operations of the business.

It is the on the court application of our understanding or what is good and right to that assortment of institutions, technologies,transactions,activities and pursuits that we call BUSINESS.

Although ethics may be the best policy, the ethical course of aciton is not always clear.

We will try to explore this issue in details through the various series of blog postings in the coming days. The purpose is not to give moral advice but to provide a deeper knowledge of the nature of ethical principles and concepts and an understanding of how these apply to the ethical problems encountered in business.

This kind of knowledge and understanding will help managers in charge to see their way through the various ethical dilemmas that one confronts in our business life.

REFERENCE BOOK:

BUSINESS ETHICS - Concepts and Cases by Manuel G. Velaszquez

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Consumer Decision Making Process & Relationship Marketing

The Consumer's decison to purchase or not to purchase a product or service is an important moment for most marketers. It can signify whether a marketing strategy has been successful or not. Therefore, marketing people are interested in the consumer's decision making process.

For a consumer to make a decision, more than one alternative must be available, including the alternative called making a decision to not buy or not buy now.

The various models of 

  1. Consumers View
  2. Passive View
  3. Cognitive View
  4. Emotional View

depict consumers and their decision making processes in distinctly different ways.

An overview consumer decision making model ties together the psychologist, social,and cultural concepts into easily understood network. This decision model has 3 sets of variables: input variables, process variables and output variables.

Input variables that affect the decision - making process include commercial marketing efforts, as well as non commercial influences from the customer's sociocultural environment. The decision process variables are influenced by the consumer's psychological field, including the evoked set or the brands in a particular product category considered in making a purchase choice.

The psychological field influences the consumer's recognition of a need, pre purchase search for information and evaluation of alternatives.

The output phase of the model includes the actual purchase (either trial or repeat purchase) and post purchase evaluation. Both pre purchase and post purchase evaluation feeds back inthe form of experience into the consumer's psychological field and serves to influence future decsion making process.

GIFTING:

The process of gift exchange is an important part of consumer behaviour. 

Various gift giving and gift receiving relationships are captured by the following 5 specific categoires in the gifting classification scheme:

  1. Intergroup gifting: A group gives a gift to another group.
  2. Intercategory gifting: An individual gives a gift to a group or a group gives a gift to an individual.
  3. Intragroup gifting: A group gives a gift to itself or its members.
  4. InterPersonal gifting: An individual gives a gift to another individual
  5. Intrapersonal gifting: A Self Gift.

Consumer behaviour is not must making a purchase, it also includes the full range of experiences associated with using products or services. It includes the sense of pleasure and satisfaction derived from possessing or collecting "things". The outputs of consumption are the changes in feelings,moods, attitudes, reinforcement of lifestyles, an enhanced sense of self; satisfaction of a consumer related need; belonging to groups; and expressing and entertaining oneself.

Among other things, consuming includes the simple utility of using a supreior product, the stress reduction of a vacation, the sense of having a "sacred" possession, and the pleasures of a hobby or a collection. Some possessions serve to assist consumers intheir effort to create a personal meaning and to maintain a sense of the past.

Relationship Marketing impacts consumer's decisions and their consumption satisfaction. Firms establish loyalty programs to foster usage loyalty and a commitment to continued usage of their products and services.

At its har, relationship marketing is all about buildign trust between the firm and its customers and keeping promisesmade to the customers. Therefore the focus is always on developing long term bonds with customers by making them fee special and by providing them with personalized services.

How is your relationship marketing doing?

MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS

managementinnovations2020@gmail.com; manojonkar@gmail.com, 919375970812 

Consumer Decision Making Process - Consumer Influence

What is Opinion Leadership?

Opinion Leadership is the process by which the opinion leader informally influences the actions or attitudes of others, who may be opinion seekers or merely opinion recipients. Opinino receivers percieve the opinion leader as a highly credible, objective source of product information who can help reduce their search and analysis time and percieved risk.

Opinion leaders are motivated to give information or advice to others, in part doing so enhances their own status and self image and because such advice tends to reduce any post purchase dissonance that they may have.Other motives include product involvement, message involvement or any other involvement.

Market researchers identify opinion leaders by such mehtods as self designation, key informants, the sociometric method and the objective method.

Studies of opinion leadership indicate that this phenomenon tends to be product category specific, generally one of their interest. An opinion leader of one product range can be an opinion receiver for another product category.

Generally, opinion leaders are gregarious, self confident, innovative people who like to talk. Additionally, they may feel differentiated from others and choose to act differently (or public individuation).

They acquire information about their areas of interest through avid readership of special interest maganizes and ezines and by means of new product trials.

Their interests may often overlap into adjacent areas and thus their opinion leadership may also extend into those areas.

Who is a market maven ?

The market maven is an intense case of a opinion leader kind of person. These consumers possess a wide range of information about many different types of products, retail outlest, and other dimensions of markets.

They both initiatve discussions with other consumers and respond to requests for market information over a wide range of products and services. 

Market mavens are also distinguished from other opinion leaders because their influence stems not so much from product experience but from a more general knowledge or market expertise that leads them to an early awareness of a wide array of new products and services.

The opinion leadership process usually take place among friends, neighbours and work associates who have frequent phsyical proximity and thus have ample opportunity to hold informal product related conversations. These conversations usually occur naturally in the context of the product-category usage.

The two - step flow of communication theory highlights the role of interpersonal influence in the transmission of information from the mass media to the populations at large. This theory provides the foundation for a revised multi step flow of communication model, which takes into account the fact that information and influence often are 2 way processes and that the opinion leaders both influence and are influenced by opinion receivers.

It is important for the marketers to segment their audiences into opinion leaders and opinion receivers for their respective product categories. When marketers can direct their promotional effrots to the more influential segments of these markets, these opinion leaders will transmit the information to those who seek product advice.

Marketers try to simulate and stimulate opinion leadership. They have also found that they can create opinion leaders for their products by taking socially involved or influential people and deliberately increasing their enthusiasm for a product category.

The diffusion process and the adoption process are 2 closely related concepts concerned with the acceptance of new products by customers.

The diffusion process is a macro process that focuses on the spread of an innovation from its source to the consuming public.

The adoption process is a micro process that examines the stages through which an individual consumer passes when making a decision to accept or reject a new product.

The definition of the term innovation can be

1. Firm oriented(new to the firm),

2. Product oriented(a continuous innovation, a dynamically continuous innovation, or  A discontinuous innovation),

3. Market oriented(how long the product has been on the market or an arbitrary percentage of the potential target market that has purchased it), or

4. Consumer oriented (new to the customer).

Market-oriented definitions of innovation are most useful to consumer researchers in the study of the diffusion and adoption of new products.

Five Product Characteristics influence the consumers acceptance of a new product:

  1. Relative Advantage
  2. Compatibility
  3. Complexity
  4. Trialability
  5. Observability

Diffusion researchers are concerned with 2 aspects of communication - the channels through which word about a new product or service is spread to the public and the types of messages that influence the adoption or rejection of new products or services.

Diffusion is always examined in the context of a specific social system, such as a target market, a community, a region or even a nation.

Time is an integral consideration in the diffusion process. Researchers are concerned with the amount of purchase time required for an individual customer to adopt or reject a new product/service, with the rate of adoptions and with the identification of sequential adopters.

The 5 adopter categories are innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.

Marketing Strategisits try to control the rate of adoptioon through their new product pricing policies. Companies who wish to penetrate the market to achieve market leaderships try to acquire wide adoption as quickly as possible by using low prices. Those who wish to recoup their developmental costs quickly use a skimming pricing policy but lengthen the adoption process.

The traditional adoption process model describes 5 stages through which an individual consumer passes to arrive at the decision to adopt or reject a new product:

  1. Awareneess, 
  2. Interest,
  3. Evaluation
  4. Trial
  5. Adoption

To make it more realistic, an enhanced model is recommended as one that considers the possibility of a pre existing need or problem, the likelihood that some form of evaluation might occur through the entire process, and that even after adoption there will be post adoption or purchase evaluation tht might either strengthen the commitment or alternatively lead to discontinuation of the product/service.

Companies marketing new products are vitally concerned with identifying the consumer innovator so tht they may direct their promotional campaigns to the people who are most like to try new products, adopts them and influences others.

Consumer Research has identified a number of consumer related characteristics, including product interest, opinion leadership, personality factors, purchase and consumption traits, media habits, social characteristics, and demographic variables that distinguish consumer innovators from later adopters. These serve as useful variables in the segmentation of markets for new product introductions.

Who are the innovators and early adopters for your products and services? How have you planned your diffusion strategy for the current products and the new products?

MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS

managementinnovations2020@gmail.com; manojonkar@gmail.com; 919375970812

Consumer Behaviour - Impact of Culture

CULTURE :

The study of culture is the study of al aspects of a society. It is the language, knowledge, laws, and customs that give that society its distinctive character and personality. In the context of consumer behaviour, culture is defined as the sume total of learned behaviours, beliefs, values, customs that serve to regulate the consumer behaviour of members of a particular society. 

Beliefs and Values are guiding principles while customs are the usual and accepted norms of behaviour.

The impact of the culture on the society is so natural and so ingrained that its influence on behaviours is rarely noted. It is like fish distinguishing water.

Culture offers orders, direction and guidance to members of society in all phases of human problem solving.

Culture is dynamic and gradually and continually evolves to meet the needs of the society.

Culture is learned as a part of the social experience. Children acquire a set of beliefs, values and customs, which constitutes the culture,from the environment. These beliefs, values and customs are acquired through formal learning, informal learning and technical learning.

Advertising enhances formal learning by reinforcing desired modes of behavior and expectations; it enhances informal learning by providing models for behaviour.

Culture is communicated to members of society througha  common language and through commonly shared symbols. Because the human mind has the ability to absorb and to process symbolic communication, marketers can successfully promote both tangible and intangible products and product concepts to consumers through mass media.

All the elements in the marketing mix serve to communicate symbolically with the audience, Products project an image of their own, so does promotion. Price and Retail outlets symbolically convey masages concerning the quality of the product.

The elements of culture are transmitted by 3 pervasive social institutions; the family, the schols and the church. A fourth social insitution that plays a major role in the transmission of culture is  the mass media, both through editorial content and through advertising.

A wide range of measurement techniques is used to study culture. The range includes Projective Techniques,attitude measurement methods, field observation,participant observaiton, content analysis and value measurement  survey techniques.

What are you Consumer Groups? What are their Cultures?  How are you understanding and leveraging that for your business development and client engagement?

MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS

managementinnovations2020@gmail.com;  manojonkar@gmail.com; 919375970812

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Consumer Behaviour and Social Class based Market Segmentation

SOCIAL CLASSES & CONSUMER BEHAVIOURS:

Social Stratification, the divison of memebrs of a society into a hierarchy of distinct social classes, exists in all societies and cultures.

Social class usually is defined by the amount of status that members of a specific class possess in relation to members of other classes. Social-class membership often serves as a frame of reference for the development of consumer attitudes and behaviour.

The measurement of social class is concerned with classifying individuals into social class groupings. These groupings are of particular value to marketers, who use social classification as an effective means of identifying and segmenting target markets.

There are 3 basic methods for measuring social class:

  1. Subjective Measurement
  2. Reputational Measurement
  3. Objective Measurement

Subjective Measures rely on an individual's self perception.

Reputational Measures rely on an individual's perceptions of others and 

Objective Measures use specific socioeconomic mesures, either alone or in combination with others.

Composite variable indexes sucha s the index of status characteristics and the socio economic status score, cominbe a no. of socio economic factors to form one overall measure of social class standing.

Class strucutres range from two class to nine class systems. A frequently used classification system consists of 6 classes: Upper upper, lower Upper, upper middle, lower middle, upper lower, and lower lower classes.

Profiles of these clases are reflected in differences in attitudes, in leisure activities, and in consumption habits. That is why, for the marketers, social class based market segmentation is of high importance.

Geodemographic clustering is a technique that combines geogrpahic and socio economic factors to locate concentrations of consumers with particular characteristics. Particular attention currently is being directed to affluent consumers, who represent the fastest growing segment in our population; however, some marketers are finding it extremely profitable to cater to the needs of non affluent consumers.

Research has revealed social class differences in clothing habits, home decoration, leisure activities, as well as saving, spending and credit habits.

Thus, smart marketeres tailor specific product and promotional strategies to each social-class target segment.

Which Social classes are your customers from? How are their behaviours impacted by these various factors?

MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS

managementinnovations2020@gmail.com; manojonkar@gmail.com; 919375970812

Consumer Behaviour Influencers

Consumer Behaviour & Purchase Decisions Influenced by Reference Groups and Families

Almost all individuals regularly interact with other people who directly or indirectly influence their purchase decisions. Therefore, the study of groups and their impacts on the individual is of great importance,specially for the marketers who want to influence the consumer behaviours in favour of their products and services.

Consumer Reference Groups are groups that serve as frames of reference for inidividuals in their purchse decisions. Reference groups include:

  1. Friends
  2. Work Groups
  3. Shopping Groups
  4. Virtual Groups & Communities
  5. Consumer Action Groups.

Normative Reference Groups are those groups that influence general values or behaviour.

Comparative Reference Groups are those that influence Specific Attitudes.

Consumer Reference Groups include groups with which consumers have no direct face to face contact such as film stars, sportspersons, other celebrities and social classes.

The credibility, attractiveness and power of the reference group affect the degree of influence it has. Reference group appeals are used very effectively by some advertisers in promotig their goods and services because they subtly induce the prospective consumer to identify with the picutred user of the product.

The 5 reference group appeals most commonly used in markting are:

  1. Celebrities
  2. Experts
  3. Common Man
  4. Executive and Employee spokeperson
  5. Trade Spokes Character

Celebrities are used to give testimonials or endorsements as actors or as company spokespersons.

Experts may be recongized experts in the concerned product category or actors playing the part of experts.

The common man appraoch is designed to show that individuals who are just like the prosepective customers are satisfied wiht the advertised product or service.

Companies are using their top executives as spokespersons because their appearance in company advertisements seems to imply tht someone at the top is watching over the cusotmer's interest.

For many customers, their family is their primary reference group for many attitudes and behaviours.

The family is the primary target for msot products and services. As the most basic membership group, families are defined as two or more persons related by blood, marriage or adoption who reside together.

There are 3 types of families: Married Couples, Nuclear Families and Extended Families. 

Socialization is the core function of the family. Other functions being economic and emotional suport and the pursuit of a suitable lifestyle for its members.

The members of a family assume specific roles in their everyday functioning: such roles or tasks extend to the realm of consumer purchase decisions. Key conusmer related roles of family member include influencers, gatekeepers, deciders, buyers, preparers,users, maintainers and disposers.

A family's decision making style in influenced by its lifestyle, roles and cultural factors e.g.: husband dominated, wife dominated, joint, autonomic decisions etc.,

Classification of the families by the various stages in the family life cycle (FLC) provides valuable insights into family consumption related behaviour.

The traditional FLC begins with bacherlorhood, moves on to marriage, then to an expanding family, to a contracting family and to an end with the death of a spouse.

Varios other situations also exists like childless couples, live in couples, single parents or single person households.

Who are the influencers for your Customers? How does this show up in Corpoate Purchase decisions?

How are you leveraging the various influencers?

MANAGMENT INNOVATIONS

managementinnovations2020@gmail.com; manojonkar@gmail.com; 919375970812






MARKETING COMMUNICATION

MARKETING COMMUNICATION:

There are 5 basic components of communication:
1. Sender
2. Receiver
3. Medium
4. Message
5. Feedback

In the communications process, the sender encodes the message using words,pictures, symbols sends it through a selected medium.

The receiver decodes the message based on his or her personal characteristics and experience, and responds based on such factors as selective exposure, selctive perception, comprehension and psychological noise.

There are 2 types of communications:
1. Interpersonal Communications
2. Mass Communications

Interpersonal communications occur on a personal level between tow or more people and may be verbal or non verbal, formal or informal.
Interpersonal communications take place in person,by telephone,by mail,by email,on the web etc.,

In mass communications, there is no direct contact between socure and receiver.
Mass communications occur through such impersonal media as television, radio, newspapers and magazines.

Feedback is an essential component of all types of communications because it provides the sender with some notion as to whether and how well the message has been received.

The credibility of the source, a vital element in message persuasiveness, often is based on the source's percieved intentions.

Informal sources and neutral or editorial sources are considered to be highly objective and thus highly credible. The credibility of a commercial source is more complex and usually is based on a compostie evaluation of its reputation,expertise,and knowledge and that of the medium in which it advertises, the retail channel and company spokespersons.

Media Selection depends on the product,the audience, and the advertising objectives of the campaign.Each medium has advantages and shortcomings that must be weighed in the selection of media for an advertising campaign.

Following the emergence of new technologies, many advertisers are now developing more cusotmized communications that can reach consumers via media with narrowcasting, rather than broadcasting.

The manner in which a message is presented influences its impact. One sided messages are more effective in some situations and with some audiences; two sided messages are more effective with others.

High involvement products are best advertised through the central route to persuasion, which encourages active cognitive effort.

Marketers can either use objective,factual appeals or emotional appeals. The emotional appeals most frequently used in advertising fear, humour,sexual appeals etc.,

Audience participation is a very effective communications strategy becuase it encourages internalization of the advertising message.

What are the challenges you are facing in designing and delivering your Marketing Communications to your current and potential customers?

MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS
managementinnovations2020@gmail.com; manojonkar@gmail.com; 919375970812

Customer Attitude Formation


What is an Attitude?
An attitude is a learned predisposition to behave in a consistently favourable or unfavourable way with respect to a given object whether it is a product, product category, a brand, a service, an advertisement, a website, a store etc.,
Each property of this definition is critical to understanding why and how attitudes are relevant in consumer behaviours and marketing.
The 4 broad categories of attitude models are:
1. Tri component attitude model
2. Multiattribute attitude model
3. Trying to Consume Model
4. Attitude toward the ad Model

The tri componenet model of attitudes consists fo 3 parts:
1. A cognitive Component
2. An affective Component
3. A conative component
The cognitive component captures a consumer's knowledge and perceptions about products and services.
The affective component focuses on a cusotmer's emotions or feelings with respect to a particular product or service. The affective component determines an individual's overall asessment of the attitue object in terms of some kind of favourableness scoring.
The Conative component is concerned with the likelihood that a consumer will act in a specific fashion with respect to the attitude object. The Conative component is many times treated as an expression of the customer's intention to buy.

Multiattribute attitude models like attitude toward object, attitude toward behaviour and the theory of reasoned action models have received much attention from consumer researchers.

These models examine consumer beliefs about specific product attributes.

The thoery of trying is designed to account for the many cases in which the action or outcome is not certain. The attitude toward the ad models examine the influence of advertisements on the consumer's attitudes toward the brand.

How attitudes are formed?
Attitudes are learned and the different learning theories provide unique insights as to how attitudes initially may be formed. Attitude formation is facilitated by direct personal experience and influenced by the ideas and experiences of friends and family members and exposure to mass media.
Individual's personality also plays a role in attitude formation.

Strategies of Attitude Change can be put into 6 distinct categories:
1. Changing the basic motivational function
2. Associating the attitude object with a specific function
3. Relating the attitude object to conflicting attitudes
4. Aleting components of the multiattribute model
5. Changing beliefs about competititor's brands, products and Services
6. The Elaborated Likelihood Model.
Each of these strategies provide the marketer with alternative ways of changing consumer's existing attitudes.

Cognitive disssonance theory suggests that the conflicting thoughts or information, following a purchase might propel consumers to change their attitudes to make them consonant with their actions.

Attribution theory focuses on how people assign casuality to events and how they form or alter attitudes as an outcome of assessing their own behaviour or the behaviour of the other people ro things.

What are you doing to ensure that your potential customers are creating favourable attitudes towards your company, brand, product and services? How are your competitors doing it?

Talk to us for further support
MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS
managementinnovations2020@gmail.com; manojonkar@gmail.com, 919375970812

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Consumer Learning & Consumer Behaviours

What is Consumer Learning?

Consumer Learning is the process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge and experience they apply to future related behaviour.

Most of the learning is incidental. Some of it is intentional. Basic elements that contribute to an understanding of learning are:


  1. Motivation
  2. Cues
  3. Response
  4. Reinforcement


There are 2 theories on how Individuals learn:


  1. Behavioural Theory
  2. Cognitive Theory


Both contribute to an understanding of consumer behaviour.

Behavioural Theorists view learning as observable responses to stimuli, whereas Cognitive Theorists believe that learning is a function of mental processing.

3 Major Behavioural Learning Theories are :


  1. Classical Conditioning : Includes Repetition, Stimulus generalization and Stimulus discrimination.
  2. Instrumental Conditioning: Instrumental Learning theorists believe that learning occurs through a trial and error process in which the positive outcomes in the form of results or desired outcomes lead to repeat behaviour like Repeat Purchase or Repeat Postive Word of Mouth.               Both positive and negative reinforcement can be used to encourage the desired behaviour. The timing of repetitions influences how long the learned material is retained. Learning usually persists longer with distributed re-inforcement schedule, while mass repetitions produce more initial learnings.
  3. Observational Conditioning or Vicarious Learning:



Cognitive learning theory holds that the kind of learning most characteristics of humans is PROBLEM SOLVING. Cognitive theorists are concerned with how information is processes by the human mind: how it is stored, retained, and retrieved.

Involvement theory proposes that people engage in limited information processing in situations of low relevance to them and people engage in extensive information processing in situations of high relevance.

TV is a low involvement medium for learning and print and interactive media encourage more cognitive information processing.

Measures of consumer learning include recall and recognition tests, cognitive responses to advertising, and attitudinal and behavioural measures of brand loyalty.

A basic issue among researchers is whether to define brand loyalty in terms of consumer's behaviours or the consumer's attitude towards the brand. Brand Equity refers to the inherent value a brand name has in the marketplace.

Brand Loyalty consists of both attitudes and actual behaviours toward a brand and both must be measured. For marketers, the major reasons for understanding how consumers learn are to teach them that their brand is best and to develop brand loyalty.

What does your brand mean to your customers? Are they really loyal to your brand? How do you increase their loyalty?

MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS

managementinnovations2020@gmail.com; manojonkar@gmail.com; 919375970812

Consumer Perception & Its Impact

Perception is the process by which individuals select, organize and interpret stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world.

Perception has stratgey implications for marketers because consumers make decisions based on what they perceive rather than on the basis of objective reality.

Consumers selections of stimuli from the environment are based on the interaction of their expectations and motives wit the stimulus itself. The principles of selective perception include the following concepts:

  1. Selective Exposure
  2. Selective Attention
  3. Perceptual Defense   and
  4. Perceptual Blocking.

People usually percieve things they need or want and block the perception of unnecessary, unfavourable or painful stimuli.

Consumers organize their perceptions into unified wholes according to the principles of Gestalt Psychology:figure and ground, grouping, and closure.

The interpretation of stimuli is highly subjective and is based on what the consumer expects to see in light of previous experience, on motves and interests at the time of perception, and on the clarity of stimulus itself.

Influences that tend to distort objective interpretation include Physical apprearances, stereotypes, halo effects, irrelevant cues, first impressions and the tendency to jump to conclusions.

Just as individuals have perceived images of themselvs, they also have perceived images of products and brands. The perceived image of a product or service is probably more important to its ultimate success than are its actual pysical characteristics.

Products and Services that are percieved distinctly and favourably have a much better chance of being purchased than products or services with unclear or unfavourable images.

Service Marketers face several unique problems in positioning and promoting their offerings because services are intangible,inherently variable, perishable and are simultaneously produced and consumed.

Regardless of how well the product or service appears to be positioned, the marketer may be forced to reposition it in response to market events, such as a new competitor, new strategies of exisiting competitors, changing market dynamics, changing consumer preferences.

The quality of a product or services is judged on the basis of a variety of informational clues; intrinsince or extrinisic. Intrinsic will be things like size, colour, flavour, aroma, packaging, look and feel. Extrinsic clues will inlcude store image, price, brand image, service environment etc.,

In the absence of the first hand experience or other information, consumers often rely on price as an indicator of quality. How a consumer percieves a price - as high,low or fair has a strong influence on purchase intentions and satisfaction. Consumers rely on both internal and external reference prices when assessing the fairness of price.

Consumer imagery also includes perceived images of retail stores that influence the perceived quality of products they carry, as well as decisons as to where to shop.

Manufacturers or Retailers who generally enjoy a fovourable image find that their new products are accepted more readily compared to those manufacturers or retailers who have less favourable or even neutral images.

Consumers often perceive risk in making product selections because of uncertainity as to the consequences of their purchase decisions.

The types of risk that the customers perceived are:

  1. Functional Risks
  2. Physical Risk
  3. Financial Risk
  4. Social Risk
  5. Psychological Risk and
  6. Time Risk.

Customers try for reducing the risk by incresing their information serach, buying from reputable retailers, buying the expensive brands, and seeking reassurance in the form of money back gaurantees, warranties, and pre purchase trial.

The concept of percieved risk hs important implications for marketers, who can facilitate the acceptanc e of new products by incorporating risk-reduction strategies in their new product or service promotional campaigns.

How do your customers percieve you? How do your customers percieve your products? What are you doing to increase the perceptions in your favour.

Talk to us for further support:

MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS

managementinnovations2020@gmail.com; manojonkar@gmail.com; 919375970812

Pricing Strategy for Recessionary Times

Pricing has lot to do with the target audience that you are positioning your product and service offerings for?

Do you want to target the uber rich and super rich or you want to target the rich and the upper middle class?

These competitive times along with the recessionary pressures will force most of the organizations to relook at their pricing strategy?

What should be your strategy? What target market will fulfill the sustainable growth requirements for your organization? 

How would your budgets look with high pricing and low volumes vs little lower pricing or even half pricing and increased volumes?

What Volumes are you expecting at what price point?

What will be the increased sales and marketing costs required based on change of the target market segments and the pricing policy to ensure the successful implementation.

What is the scalability in your production capacity, especially if you are a service organization?

Service offerings may have more restriction on their capacities and hence more restrictions on how much they can play around with their pricing models.

What is your product or service packages? What pricing models are your exploring? What optional target market segments are you considering?

Contact: MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS

managementinnovations2020@gmail.com, manojonkar@gmail.com; 919375970812

Monday, November 24, 2008

Consumer Behaviour & Personalities

Personality can be described as the psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment. Although mostly the personality tends to remain consistent and enduring, it may change abruptly in response to a major life events. Personality also change gradually over time.

Theories:

3 theories of personality are prominent in the study of consume behaviour:

  1. Psychoanalytic Theory
  2. Neo-Freudian Tehory and 
  3. Trait Theory

Freud's psychoanalytic theory provides the foundation for the study of motivational research, which operates on the premise that human drives are largely unconscious in nature and serve to motivate many consumer actions.

Non- freudian theory tends to emphasize th fundamental role of social relationships in the formation and development of the personality.

Alfred Adler viewed human beings as seeking to overcome feelings of inferiorty.

Harry Stack Sullivan believed  that people attempt to establish significant and rewarding relationships with others.

Karen Horney saw inidividuals as trying to overcome feelings of anxiery and categorized them as compliant, aggresive or detached.

Trait Theory is a major departure from the qualitative or subjective approach to personality measurement. It postulates that individuals possess innate pyschological traits to a greater or lesser degree, and that traits can be measured by specifically designed scales or inventories.

Because they are simple to use and to score and  can be self-administered, personality inventories are the preferred mehtod for many researchers in the assessment of consumer personality.

Product and brand personalities represent real opportunities for marketers to take advantage of consumers' connections to various brands they offer.

Brands often have personalities- some include "humanlike" traits and even gender. These brand personalities help shape consumer responses, preferences and loyalities.

Each individual has a perceived self image or images as a certain kind of person with certain traits, possessions, relationships, habits, behaviours etc., Consumers frequently attempt to preserve, enhance, alter or extend their self images by purchasing products or services and shopping at stores they percieve as consistent with their relevant self image and by avoiding products and stores they percieve as not consistent to their self image.

What are the personalities of your target consumers?

What is your company's brand image? What is your product/services image?

MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS

managementinnovations2020@gmail.com;  manojonkar@gmail.com; 91-9375970812

Strategy for Recessionary Times - Vision & Core Values

What should you do when in Recession?

How to Create the right Recession Strategy?

Maybe, more than anytime else, Recession is the time for the companies to be true to their Vision, get more focussed on fulfilling their mission and dedicately honour their core values.

This is the time, when the companies and their top management are tested by the employees, customers and all stake holders. 

Are they visionaries or are they just another bunch of opportunists? Do they really have a Vision or they have a Vision Statement as a good PR exercise.

What are their Real Core Values? or are there any core values at all, except self preservation and survival.

The difference between great companies, visionary companies and ordinary companies is very vividly visible in the way they deal with the challenging times like Recession.

This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where the CEO and the board have to walk their talk.

Do all those hours spent in the vision mission exercises mean anything? 

OR the vision the first casuality of the recession.

What is the value of the Core Values created by the top management, investing some huge amount of man hours and a great amount to time and money?

All the companies, who will dump their vision and their core values at this time, are being short sighted. Next Quarter, next financial year, when you would have survived the tough times, when you look back at those people, will you be able to talk big? will you be able to get everyone aligned on any big vision? 

How do you honour your values and fulfill your vision - when you are worried about going down?

That is the time, more than any other time in your life, to honour your values and be true to your vision. This is what differentiates the originals from the fake, the men from the boys, the winners from the also rans.

For support contact:

MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS

managementinnovations2020@gmail.com; manojonkar@gmail.com; 919375970812

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Educational Projects

As management consultants and advisors, we have had the privilege to work on various interesting and esteemed projects in the field of Education.

  1. Delhi Public School, Ahmedabad   - a K-12 CBSE School
  2. Calorex Institute of Technology - a VLSI Chip Design Institute
  3. DPS Prerna (DPS Nalanda) - A School for Dyslexic Children
  4. VISAMO - a Special Initiative for children from BPL families
  5. Zydus School for Excellence - a K-12 school from the house of Zydus Cadila.


Various Activities that we have provided valuable inputs and guidance include:

  1. Market Research
  2. Organizational Positioning
  3. Pricing
  4. Marketing
  5. Sales
  6. Staff Selection and Induction
  7. Teaching Staff ongoing Training & Development
  8. Admin Staff and Support Staff Orientation
  9. Customer Orientation
  10. HR & Employee Engagement
  11. Overall Growth and development

For further information contact:

MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS ( erstwhile INNOVATIVE CONSULTANTS)

managementinnovaitons2020@gmail.com;   manojonkar@gmail.com; 91-9375970812

Consumer Motivation

What is Consumer Motivation?

Motivation is the driving force within individuals that impels them to action. This driving force is produced by a state of uncomfortable tension, which exists as the result of an unsatisfied need. All individuals have needs, wants and desires. The individual's subconscious drive to reduce need-induced tensions results in behaviour that he or she anticipates will satisfy needs and thus bring about a more comfortable internal state.

All behaviour is goal oriented. Goals are the sought-after results of motivated behaviour. The form or direction that  behaviour takes-the goal that is selected-is a result of thinking processes(cognition) and previous learningn(e.g. experience).

There are 2 types of goals: generic goals and product-specific goals. A generic goal is a general category of goal that may fulfill a certain need; a product-specific goal is a specifically branded or labeled product that individual sees as a way to fulfill a need.

Product-specific needs are sometimes referred to as wants.

What are Innate Needs?

Innate Needs are those an individual is born with. They are Phyiological (biogenic) in nature; they include all factors required to sustain physical life (e.g. food, water, shelter, clothing, sex, physical safety etc.,).

What are Acquired Needs?

Acquired needs those an individual develops after birth are primarily psychological (psychogenic). They include love, acceptance, esteem, and self-fulfillment.

For any given need, there are many different and appropriate goals. The Specific goal  selected depends onteh individual's experiences, physical capacity, prevailing cultural norms and valures, and the goal's accessibility in the physical and social environment.

What is the relationship between Needs and Goals?

Needs and goals are interdependent and change in response to the individual's physical condition, environment, inteaction with other people, and experiences. As needs become satisfied, new, higher order needs emerge that must be fulfilled.

How do People deal with Failure in achieving the goals?

Failure to achieve a goal often results in feelings of frustration. Individuals react to frustration in two ways:"fight" or "flight". They may cope by finding a way around the obstacle that prohibits goal attainment or by adopting a substitute goal (fight); or they may adopt a defense mechanism that enables them to protect their self esteem (flight). Defense mechanisms include aggression, regression, rationalization, withdrawal, projection,daydreaming, identification, and repression.

Motives & Behaviours:

Motives cannto easily be inferred from consumer behaviour. People with different needs may seek fulfillment through selection of the same goals; people with the same needs may seek fulfillment through different goals. 

Although some psychologists have suggested that individuals have different needs priorities, other believe that most human beings experinece the same basic needs, to which they assign a similar priority ranking.

Maslow's heirarchy of needs theory proposes five levels of human needs; physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, egoistic needs and self actualization needs.

Other needs widely integrated into consumer advertising include the needs for power, affiliation and achievement.

What are the 3 common methods for identifying and measuring human motives?

  1. Observation and Inference
  2. Subjective Reports
  3. Qualitative Research - including projective techniques.

None of these methods is completey reliable by itself.

Therefore researchers often use a combination of 2 or 3 techniques in tandem to assess the presence or strength of consumer motives.

What is Motivational Research ?

Motivational research is qualitative research designed to delve below the consumer's level of conscious awareness. Despite some shortcomings, motivational research has proved to be of great value to marketers concerned with developing new ideas and new copy appeals.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

What is Consumer Research

What is Consumer Research?

The field of Consumer Research developed as an extnenstion of the field of Market Research to enable the marketers to predict how the consumers would react in the marketplace and to understand the reasons of the various purchase decisions taken.

What is Positivism ?

Consumer Research undetaken from a managerial perspective to improve strategic marketing decisions is known as Positivism.

Positivist research is quantitative and empirical and tries to identify cause and effect relationships in buying situations. It is often supplemented with qualitative research.

Qualitiative Research is concerned with probing deep within the consumer's psyche to understand  the motivations, feelings, and emotions that drive consumer behaviour. Qualitative research findings cannot be projected to larger populations but are used primarily to provide new ideas and insights for the development of the positioning strategies.

What is Interpretivism ?

Interpretivism, a qualitatvie research perspective, is gneerally more concerned with understanding the act of consuming rather than the act of buying. 

Interpretivists view consumer behaviour as a subset of human behaviour, and increased understanding as a key to eliminate some of the ills associated with destructive consumer behaviour.

Positivists generally used Probabaility Studies that can be generalized to larger populations.

Interpretivists tend to view consumption experiences as unique situations that occur at specific moments in time, and therefore, cannot be generalized to larger populations.

These 2 theoretical research orientations are higly complementary and, when used together, provide a deeper and more insightful understanding of consumer behaviour than either approach used alone.

The Consumer Research Process, whether quantitative or qualitative in approach consists fo 6 steps:

  1. Defining Objectives
  2. Collecting Secondary Data
  3. Developing a Research Design
  4. Collecting Primary Data
  5. Analyzing the Data
  6. Preparing a Report of the Findings.

The research objectives shold be formulated jointly by the marketer and the person or company that will conduct the actual research.

The finding from the secondary data and exploratory research are used to refine the research objectives. The collection of secondary data includes both the sources - internal and external.

Quantitative Research designs consist of 1. Observation, 2. Experimentation or Surveys, and, for the most part, 3. Questionnaires with or without attitude scales are used to collect the data.

Qualitative Research- data collection methods include 

  1. Depth Interivews
  2. Focus Groups
  3. Projective Techniques
  4. Metaphor Analysis.

Customer Satisfaction measurement is an integral part of consumer research.

In large, quantitative studies, the researcher must make every effort to ensure that the research findings are RELIABLE ( that a replication of the study would provide the same results) and VALID (that they answer the specific questions for which the study was originally undertaken).

The selection and design of the sample is crucial since the type of sample used determines the degree to which the results of the study are representative of the population.

After the data collection, the results are analysed and specific analytical techniquest applied respectively to qualitative or quantitative data.

How are you applying Consumer Reseearch in your business?

Talk to us.

MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS

managementinnovations2020@gmail.com; manojonkar@gmail.com; 91-9375970812

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