CTE 3809 Final Exam Review Consumer Research The apparel supply chain has one purpose To provide an appealing and desirable product To satisfy customer needs wants or aspirations Manufacturers and retailers push product toward the consumer production New styles introduced seasonally What doesn t sell is marked down Consumers became more demanding independent Requires a continuous flow of consumer information to shape product Consumer Push System driven Pull System driven Consumer research Qualitative Researcher listens to consumer talk or observes consumers in natural settings Quantitative Researcher conducts surveys or experiments with a group of consumers the sample to understand a larger group the population Consumer Anthropology In depth interviews to look at psychology of the individual Interview teens in their rooms and look through their closets to understand the individual taste natural habitat Install a video camera in the store to catch consumers experience Researchers with a clipboard observe in store shopping behavior Mall Intercept Studies Intercept consumers in the mall Ask preliminary questions Takes several weeks to design study negotiate with study site distribute the research materials Style Testing Studies Pretesting styles with consumers Consumers sit in front of a computer screen and are asked to indicate preferred color styles etc Speed In Store Testing Measure actual behavior not attitude or intention Showcase and Laboratory Stores museums to the product to showcase entire line serve a research purpose find out what the customer wants Test Stores specialty store chains selling store labels any store in the chain may be designated as a test store cleared of merchandise and reset with test merchandise Test Merchandise Groups plant test groups of merchandise with ordinary merchandise Consumers and Industry Fashion Innovation and Diffusion Accelerators The Style Confident Consumer Creative class New growing economic class consisting of purveyors suppliers of creativity Designing for and marketing to this segment effective competitiveness 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 Aesthetic appeal to differentiate between products instead of quality Target vs Wal Mart Not only fashion products Aesthetic imperative Bringing top designers design elements to mass market Max Azria at Wal Mart Stresses the importance of aesthetic appeal in consumer decision Cosmetic surgeons nail salons tattoo parlors Blogs 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 Pluralistic aesthetics Personal style is determined by individual Helps drive innovation Challenges for fashion forecasters Mass Customization Defined as the mass production of individually customized Co design design based on customer s selection Timbuk2 customize bags Permits customer to be a part of the design process and manufacturing process Customer made Totally new design innovations or modifications Proctor Gamble more than 35 of innovations due to customer made projects 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 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 Virtual models allow you to try products on a virtual body similar to your own Competitive Analysis Competitive Advantage the marketplace favors one company over another Offensive outsmart the competition exploiting their weaknesses Defensive avoid surprises search for a better way to do the task recognize when they can t compete Informational identify a new niche Branding competitive strategy targeting customers with an appealing coherent message Brand Image identifying a set of tangible and intangible characteristics across a collection or product line and promoting that image to customers Brand Loyalty building purchase and repurchase of behaviors in consumers Brand Recognition consumers retain and recall the brand and its image Positioning emphasizing the differences between a brand and the competitors product Take the pulse of companies whose actions may impact an executive s decision making Competitive Analysis Competitive Intelligence Using public sources to develop A detailed accurate view of the market What the competition is likely to do Trends in the industry Goal Market Scan Scan for relative position Trends shifts in consumer preferences Changes in competitor strategies Direct Competitors Indirect Competitors Ethical and Legal Issues Industrial espionage Breaking the law to collect data Unethical practices Misrepresentation to collect data Soft Information from the popular press TV shows that mention the company or product and industry rumors Secret shopper a person who appears to be just a customer but who is actually noting the operational details of a business Compare the product visual merchandising pricing and service at two or more of your client s competitors Content Analysis involves extracting significant data from the sources and classifying it by topic and reliability it condenses the information into meaningful clusters that can be evaluated to determine their implications Shadow market planning have one or more people in a company be so familiar with a competitor that they can answer what if questions about that competitors strategy on a current and continuous basis put themselves in competitors place Benchmarking comparing a company with other firms considered best in terms of efficient operations may not be in same industry Sensitization to shake up a company s assumptions about its place in relationship to competitors uses information about competitors to build a sense of urgency in a company by alerting executives to gains by competitors or an emerging challenge by a new company Reverse engineering purchasing and dismantling a product to determine how it was designed