CTE3809 Review for Exam III Model of the forecasting process Ch 8 Consumer Research Consumer anthropology o Methods originally used by anthropologists to study primitive tribes or subcultures have been adapted to study consumers and buying behavior o Research helps companies understand motivators within a product category or the more specific motivators within a product category or the more specific motivators to buy a particular brand o When people cannot verbalize what they think observing actual behavior provides rich data on the meanings attached to brand choice o Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman asked interviewees to bring images or pictures that describe feelings on a given topic One consumer brought a picture of a rain forest to depict shopping in department stores explaining that both are dense crowded and involve facing the unknown Another brought a picture of a military tank to represent shopping because driving a tank gave her control protection and increased security from the manipulations of the store Taps into the memories emotions thoughts and other cognitive processes we re not aware of or can t articulate o Market research conducted for a client using consumers recruited from shoppers in a mall who satisfy the requirements of the client Mall intercept research 1 Qualitative research o One drawback is time It may take several weeks to design the study negotiate with the research sites distribute the research materials and run the studies o Suppose it takes a month before data are available that time horizon may be too long in a fast paced competitive environment o The researcher listens to consumer talk or observe consumers in natural settings and reports findings as descriptions of consumer types or categories of behavior o An approach to research based on ethnography case studies and phenomenological studies in which human experiences are observed in a natural setting and described or explained using the natural language categories and frameworks of subjects Quantitative research o The researcher conducts surveys or experiments with a group of consumers o An approach to research that uses experimental methods or surveys to collect data on a sample in order to generalize finding to a population o Consumers under age 25 are frequently the focus of qualitative and quantitative research because they have tremendous spending power shows greater interest in fashion than other age groups and are influential in establishing trends Showcase or laboratory stores o Stores where maga niche and lifestyle aka 3 D brands can present their entire line as a billboard for the brand an educational environment for retailers on the latest in visual merchandising and a research site for gathering intelligence about what consumers want which products in the line are heating up and which cooling down and which packaging and promotional initiatives are most effective o The stores are a place for the manufacturer to gather intelligences about what consumers want which products in the line are heating up and which are cooling down and which packaging and promotional initiatives are most effective o For example when Nike wanted to understand the women s customer the company opened up a womens only boutique Data was collected on sales and sales associates encouraged shoppers to complete questionaires Test store period o Specialty store chains selling store labels designate certain stores as test sites o Any store in the chain may be designated as a test store for a particular time o The test store is cleared of merchandise and reset with test merchandise o Then business continues as usual consumers are completely unaware that a test is under way Test merchandise group merchandise o A less extensive approach is to plan test groups of merchandise with ordinary o When product develops monitors sales information from these test sites the company can fine tune sales potential by optimizing the selling price and color assortment 2 o They can discover items that often are sold together as input for promotions and visual merchandising Style testing o Pretesting styles with consumers to identify winners and losers early enough in the product development cycle to enable styles with low consumer interest to be eliminated from further development Ch 5 Consumers and Industry Fashion Innovation and Diffusion Accelerators Blogs o Mass market consumers expect high fashion design innovations to diffuse quickly to lower price points Blogs can provide consumer created information on variety of products Co design Mass Customization Defined as the mass production of individually customized Lands End Ann Taylor Timberland Reebok Nike t shirts com timbuk2 99dogs com Co design design based on customer s selection Customer Made Totally new design innovations or modifications Proctor Gamble more than 35 of innovations due to customer made projects Threadless com http www threadless com an ongoing t shirts design competition scored online for 7 days Smaller firms without a large R D or design team Strengthen the relationship between C B and contribute to customer loyalty Raise the question on future designer s role evaluate enhance and perfect designs rather than the originator of designs Rich Media Creative Class o Consists of website features that enable creation and manipulation of product images to simulate actual experience with the products o Zoom features mix and match product features virtual models 40 fewer returned products o Vendaria for J C Penney Wal Mart 10 15 increase in online sales 3 New growing economic class consisting of purveyors suppliers of creativity Florida 2002 Creativity is a key factor in one s professional role Creativity as the driving force of economic growth today 30 of the US workforce 25 30 of industrialized European countries Changes in values and desires self expression individuality and creativity Designing for and marketing to this segment effective competitiveness Style Confident Consumer Aesthetic appeal to differentiate between products instead of quality Target vs Wal Mart Not only fashion products Wal Mart Aesthetic imperative Bringing top designers design elements to mass market Max Azria at Stresses the importance of aesthetic appeal in consumer decision Cosmetic surgeons nail salons tattoo parlors Ch 10 Competitive Analysis Benchmarking o In competitive analysis comparing a company with other firms considered to be the best in terms of efficient operations o In best