BUSINESS PLAN, MARKETING AND MARKET RESEARCH

1. BUSINESS PLAN, MARKETING AND MARKET RESEARCH

2. The Importance of Customer Focus

3. Why Study Consumers? • To understand how consumers reason, and select between different alternatives (e.g., brands, products); • To determine which environmental factors influence consumers (e.g., culture, family, media); • To analyse consumer behaviour when shopping or making other marketing decisions; • To determine consumer motivation and any limitations in consumer knowledge/information processing abilities that influence decisions and marketing outcome;  • To adapt and improve a firm’s marketing campaigns and marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.

4. Consumer Behaviour – a definition "The study of individuals, groups, or organisations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society."

5. Segmenting Consumer Markets • Market segmentation involves dividing a market into smaller segments (parts) of buyers with distinct needs, characteristics or behaviours that might require separate marketing strategies or mixes. The company identifies different ways to segment the market and develops profiles of the resulting market segments.

6. Ways of segmenting consumer markets • Geographic segmentation • This type of segmentation calls for dividing the market into different geographical units, such as nations, regions, cities and so on. • Demographic segmentation • This type of segmentation DS divides the market into segments based on age, gender, family size, income, religion and so on.

7. …….Segmenting Consumer Markets • Pschographic segmentation PS divides buyers on the basis of social class, life-style or personality characteristics. Since the products people buy reflect their lifestyle, marketers often segment their markets by consumer lifestyles and base their marketing strategies on lifestyle appeals. • Behavioural segmentation • BS divides buyers into segments based on their knowledge, attitudes, uses or responses to a product

8. Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behaviour • Situational Factors • How much effort is required? • Is purchase being made for the first time? • How many different options are there in the market? • Personal Factors • Demographics such as age, gender, income level, educational attainment, and marital status. • Life Stage – single, living with partner, having children, retiring • Activities, interests and opinions that affect lifestyles • Personality which is prominently useful in the notion of brand personality

9. Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behaviour • Psychological Factors • Motivation - How motivated is the person to buy a product? • Perception - concerns the customer’s impression, awareness or consciousness about a company or its offerings. • Learning and socialisation - Consumer decisions can be influenced by both experiential and non-experiential learning (testimonials, blogger reviews, etc). • Attitudes and beliefs - People have beliefs and attitudes about all sorts of things: food, family, politics, places, holidays, religion, brands, and so on. Beliefs and attitudes may be positive, negative, or neutral, and they may be based on opinion or fact.

10. Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behaviour • Social Factors • Culture and beliefs, values, and customs frame how and what people communicate, how they express what is proper and improper, what is desirable and detestable • Subcultures can represent huge opportunities for marketers within a population that may feel underserved by companies operating in the mainstream market • Social Class - People in the same social class tend to have similar attitudes, live in similar neighbourhoods, attend the same schools, have similar tastes in fashion, and shop at the same types of stores. • Reference Groups -influence a person’s attitudes, opinions and values. • Family - A consumer’s family has a major impact on attitude and behaviour since consumer decisions are made by family members on behalf of the family.

11. Ways of segmenting business markets • Other Specific variables: • 1. Operating • 2.Purchasing Approach • 3. Situational Factors • 4.Personal Characteristics • Consumer and business marketers use many of same variables to segment their markets. • Business buyers can also be segmented geographically, demographically or by benefits sought, loyalty status, etc.

12. Ways of segmenting business markets • Operating Variables  • Technology: What customer technologies should the company focus on?  • User or nonuser status: serve heavy users, medium users, light users, or nonusers?  • Customer capabilities: serve customers needing many or few services? • Purchasing Approaches • Which companies to serve?: • highly centralized or decentralized purchasing • engineering dominated, financially dominated, etc?  • those that are seeking quality? Service? Price?

13. ….. Segmenting business markets • Situational Factors  Urgency: serve companies that need quick and sudden delivery or service? • Size or order: focus on large or small orders? • Personal Characteristics  • Buyer-seller similarity • Attitude toward risk  • Loyalty

14. Major Influences on Business Behaviour Four main influences impact the business buying decision process: Organisatonal Factors Individual Factors Environmental Factors Interpersonal Factors

15. Environmental Factors

16. Organisational Factors • Organizational factors such as the company’s objectives, purchasing policies, and resources can influence the buying process. • The size and composition of the buying centre also plays a role in the business buying decision process. .

17. Interpersonal Factors • Interpersonal Factors • The interpersonal relationships between people working in the company’s buying center can hinder the buying process. • Buying center members need to trust each other and operate under full disclosure. .

18. Individual Factors

19. Knowing the Customer – the Journey Identify target customers Get to know the customers Describe the customers • Who will benefit most from the product? • On which group should the company focus? • What do customers think about the product? • What are their needs and goals? • Combine all insights to create a Persona

20. Thanks! Any questions? ?