CTE3809 Final Exam Study Guide 12 06 2014 Chapter 8 Consumer Research Listening to the Consumer Asking What and Why Questions Consumer Anthropology Interview teens in their rooms and look through their closets to understand the individual taste Install a video camera in the store Researchers with a clipboard observe in store shopping behavior Mall intercept research Intercept consumers in the mall Ask preliminary questions Facilities in the mall Takes several weeks to design study negotiate with study site distribute the research materials Researcher listens to consumer talk or observes consumers in Qualitative Research natural settings Quantitative Research Researcher conducts surveys or experiments with a group of consumers the sample to understand a larger group the population Showcase or Laboratory Stores In Store Testing o Measure actual behavior not attitude or intention Showcase and Laboratory Stores Test Stores Specialty store chains selling store labels designate certain stores as test sites Any store in the chain may be designated as a test store for a particular time period Test Merchandise Groups A less expensive approach is to plan test groups of merchandise with ordinary merchandise When product developers monitor sales information from these test sites the company can fine tune sales potential by optimizing the selling price and color assortment Style Testing Speed Pretesting styles with consumers Consumers sit in front of a computer screen and are asked to indicate preferred color styles etc Chapter 5 Consumer and Industry Fashion Innovation and Diffusion Accelerator Blogs Mass market consumers expect high fashion design innovationsto diffuse quickly to lower price points Blogs can provide consumer created information on variety of Consumers as not only shoppers but digital content creators Consumers share their insights and complaints with companies and products customers globally Content added to retail sites content creator by disseminating information through blogs social networking sites product reviews product commercials Co Design Mass Communication 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 Consumer Made Movement Creative Class Consumer made is the phenomenon of corporations creating goods services and experiences in close cooperation with experienced and creative consumers tapping into their intellectual capital and in exchange giving them a direct say in what actually gets produced manufactured developed and designed 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 Aesthetic appeal to differentiate between products instead of competitiveness quality o Target vs Wal Mart o Not only fashion products o Bringing top designers design elements to mass market Max Azria at Wal Mart Aesthetic imperative o Stresses the importance of aesthetic appeal in consumer decision o Cosmetic surgeons nail salons tattoo parlors Pluralistic aesthetics Personal style is determined by individual Helps drive innovation Challenges for fashion forecasters Rich Media Consists of website features that enable creation and manipulation of product images to simulate actual experience with the products Zoom features mix and match product features virtual models 40 fewer returned products Vendaria for J C Penney Wal Mart 10 15 increase in online sales Virtual models allow the consumer to try product images on a virtual body form similar to his or her own Chapter 10 Competitive Analysis Competitive Advantage Competitive Analysis Competitive Intelligence o Using public sources to develop A detailed accurate view of the market Trends in the industry What the competition is likely to do o Goal Take the pulse of companies whose actions may impact an executive s decision making Who benefits from Competitive Analysis o Large Apparel Companies o Mid Sized Apparel Companies o Small Companies o New Businesses Competitive Analysis offers a way to pick up on signals that promote better understanding between firms o Missing signals can be costly leading to disruption in o Supply o Demand Shadow Market Planning a technique in competitive analysis in which one or more people in a company are so familiar with a competitor that they can answer what if questions about that competitor s strategy on a current and continuous basis Best Practices Benchmarking o means comparing a company with other firms Competitive Benchmarking Sensitization o The goal is to shake up a company s assumptions about its place in relationship to competitors o Uses information about competitors to build up a sense of urgency in a company by alerting executives to gains by competitors or an emerging challenge from a new company Reverse Engineering for Products o Purchasing and dismantling a product to determine how it was designed and constructed o The purpose of this process is to estimate the costs and evaluate the quality of the product to determine how to produce a more competitive product o May involve the way the product is packed or shipped or the way it is manufactured Reverse Engineering for Services o Profiling the steps and attributes of the service and comparing it to current practices in the industry SWOT Strength Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Analysis Scenario Planning Content Analysis a method of analyzing information involving extracting significant data from source material classifying it and noting patterns and regularities in the data Pattern Recognition Methods of Data Analysis Information Gap Analysis Market Scan Scan for relative position Trends shifts in consumer preferences Changes in competitor strategies o Direct Competitors sell the same general product to the same customers in the same distribution channels o Indirect Competitors those that offer alternatives that may redirect a customer away from a purchasing situation Industrial espionage Breaking the law to collect data Soft Information Secret Shopper popular press television shows that mention the company or product and industry rumors A person who appears to be just a