Lesson 3: Consumer Behaviour, Target Audience Decisions, and Brand Positioning (CH 3 & 6)

Selective exposure

A process whereby consumers choose whether or not to make themselves available to media and message information.

Cognitive dissonance

A state of psychological tension of postpurchase doubt that a consumer experiences after making a difficult purchase choice.

User positioning

A strategy based on emphasizing a product's association with a particular user or group of users.

Brand benefit positioning

A strategy based on emphasizing a product's most important benefits compared to others.

Affect referral decision rule

A type of decision rule where selections are made on the basis of an overall impression or summary evaluation of the various alternatives under consideration.

Hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow's theory that human needs are arranged in an order or hierarchy based on their importance; includes physiological, safety, social love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization needs.

Behaviouristic segmentation

An approach where consumers are divided into groups according to different measurable and generally observable actions, including brand loyalty, user status, usage rate, situation, and benefits sought.

Geographic segmentation

An approach where markets are divided into different geographic units, which may include nations, provinces, states, counties, or even neighbourhoods.

Demographic segmentation

An approach where markets are divided on the basis of demographic variables such as gender, age, marital status, and household size, and socioeconomic variables like income, education, and occupation.

Psychographic segmentation

An approach where markets are divided on the basis of values and lifestyle, personality, culture, and social class.

Limited problem solving/Extended problem solving

Occurs when consumers have limited experience in purchasing a particular product or service and little or no knowledge of the brands available and or the criteria to use in making a purchase decision; consumers learn what attributes or criteria should be used in making a purchase decision and how the alternatives perform on these dimensions.

Routine problem solving

Occurs when the decision process consists of little more than recognizing the need, performing a quick internal search, and making the purchase; the consumer spends little or no effort with external search or alternative evaluation.

Describe how the market positioning strategy adopted for a brand would need to be supported by all other elements of the marketing mix.

Positioning requires consistency among all marketing mix elements. For example, it is difficult for the consumer to perceive that the very best brand/product can also be the least expensive. A high priced perfume or cologne would certainly lose some of its image if distributed in a discount store. High quality, high priced products advertised in low cost media might find that their image suffers. For most consumers, high quality usually means a higher price (and vice versa), upscale (selective or exclusive) distribution, and quality representation in advertising. Trying to go away from these consistencies may lead to confusion and detraction from the positioning. The same holds true for products at other ends of the price/quality spectrum. To maintain margins, intensive distribution may be required, price discounts, coupons, and other deals may be used more frequently, and less expensive media may be employed.

What factors would lead a marketer to the use of a repositioning strategy?

Probably the most common factors leading to repositioning would be a loss of sale, a growing market, and/or the entry of a new product into the marketplace. Other factors might include an erosion of the product image, a desire to enter new markets and/or even management desires. In any of these cases, advertiser would look to a new target audience or perhaps a new message that had a different motive. The CASSIES identified in the chapter propose a key feature of the situation analysis that likely contributed to the repositioning strategy.

Social class

Relatively homogeneous divisions of society into which people are grouped based on similar lifestyles, values, norms, interests, and behaviours.

Heuristics

Simplified or basic decision rules that can be used by a consumer to make a purchase choice.

Why is it important to consider unique brand positioning decisions at each of the buyer decision stages? Is it feasible to implement this approach for all product categories?

Since brand positioning strategy is the direction the brand would like its target audience to see the brand, it is quite likely that users and non-users would have different purchase behaviours, thus necessitating unique messages with varying levels of information to convince them of either repeat buying or trial. The feasibility of this approach is dependent on factors such as size of each audience and the costs to develop the messages and media costs. With lowers costs for both of these via social media, it is entirely possible that brands could consider such an approach.

Subcultures

Smaller groups within a culture that possess similar beliefs, values, norms, and patterns of behaviour that differentiates them from the larger cultural mainstream.

Positioning

The art and science of fitting the product or service to one more segments of the market in such a way as to set it meaningfully apart from the competition.

Consumer behaviour

The process and activities that people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires.

Internal search

The process by which a consumer acquires information by accessing past experiences or knowledge stored in memory.

Brand loyalty

A preference for a particular brand that results in its repeated purchase.

Interpret brand positioning strategy decisions in other contexts.

A brand positioning strategy can be augmented for any marketing communication purposes. Three relevant ones to consider are multiple target audiences, buyer decision stages, and corporate brand,to name a few. Organizations often face the dual task of communicating to long-time customers and newer customers, thereby requiring a more specific message for each and therefore raising the possibility of differences in the brand positioning strategy. Similarly, brands may alter their brand positioning strategy by emphasizing different benefits, for example, at varying stages of the consumer decision-making process. Finally, a corporate identity is of paramount importance and the decisions at the brand level are readily interpreted on a broader scale.

Why is it useful to distinguish between brand positioning strategy and brand position?

A brand positioning strategy is the planned image while the brand position is the resulting image that the target audience believes about the brand. A manager would naturally like the brand position to be identical to the brand position at the end of the planning period to demonstrate success; however this may not be the case as the message might get misunderstood or not be the right message. Alternatively, a brand position might actually be stronger than anticipated with an audience for which the brand was not targeted, thus indicating an unexpected success. A brand positioning strategy relates to the planned image of the product or brand relative to a competing brand for a given competitive space as defined by certain category characteristics. Marketing communication decisions largely impact this projected image that is decided upon by the brand manager in conjunction with agency personnel and is generally written in the IMC plan. In contrast a market positioning strategy is written within the marketing plan and is dependent upon the whole marketing mix and is derived from the corporate plan regarding a particular product-market.

Why is a complete profile of a target audience important for marketing communication?

A complete profile of a target audience is necessary for message, media, and IMC tool decisions. Knowing the background of the target audience in terms of specific segmentation variable (e.g., psychographic) allows the planner to know how to construct the persuasive message with accurate visuals and imagery that will resonate. Similarly, knowing the background on variables like geography or usage allows managers to know which media and media vehicles to use to reach the target audience for exposure purposes. Finally, knowing other variables like lifestyle allows the planner to estimate the correct IMC tool to use in terms of public relations or social media.

Want

A felt need shaped by a person's knowledge, culture, and personality.

Reference group

A group whose perspectives, values, or behaviour are used by an individual as the basis for his or her own judgments, opinions, and actions.

Satisfaction

A judgment that consumers make with respect to the pleasurable level of consumption related fulfillment.

Multiattribute attitude model

A model of attitudes that views an individual's evaluation of an object as being a function of the beliefs that he or she has toward the object on various attributes and the importance of these attributes.

Selective attention

A perceptual process in which consumers choose to attend to some stimuli and not others.

Salient attributes

Attributes considered important to consumers in the purchase decision process.

Mnemonics

Basic cues such as symbols, rhymes, and associations that facilitate the learning and memory process.

Salient beliefs

Beliefs concerning specific attributes or consequences that are activated and form the basis of an attitude.

Salient benefits

Benefits considered important to consumers in the purchase decision process.

What problems would a brand encounter if it communicated with an incorrect motive?

Communicating an incorrect motive can lead to weaker brand effects. For example, a fashionable retailer of men's clothing (e.g., Harry Rosen) could suggest that men would save time by visiting their store since many men do not enjoy shopping (e.g., problem avoidance). However, this motive is not the correct one as social approval or some other positive motive would be more likely, or at least incomplete satisfaction with one's current retailer could be plausible. In each case, a better ad would be created and understood by the target audience.

Market positioning strategy

Concerns the final decision of the market(s) in which firms wish to compete, combined with the specific elements of the marketing mix that are designed to fulfill the respective needs of the market(s).

Functional benefits

Concrete outcomes of product usage that are tangible and directly related to product performance.

Describe the consumer decision-making process and demonstrate how it relates to marketing communication.

Consumer behaviour is best viewed as the process and activities that people experience when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services to satisfy their needs and desires. A five-stage model of the consumer decision-making process consists of need recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase, and post- purchase evaluation. The decision process model views consumer behaviour primarily from a cognitive orientation. Marketing communication plays a role in every stage as marketers adjust their messages and media along with IMC tools to influence appropriately so that consumers move from one stage to the other.

Contrast how the consumer decision-making process varies for different types of purchases and the effects on marketing communication.

Consumer decision making is classified along a continuum from routine problem solving to extended problem solving. Consumers generally spend more time and effort as they move from routine to extended problem solving. Different types of marketing communication are more relevant than others depending upon the type of behaviour expected. Consumer decision making moves from an individual decision to a group decision, and once again marketing communication must adjust its message, media, or IMC tool accordingly.

Motives

Factors that compel or drive a consumer to take a particular action.

Express why a profile of the target audience is important for message, media, and IMC tool decisions.

Finally, the chapter concluded by expressing how other variables more accurately profile the audience in terms of lifestyle or psychographics variables after the initial direction is finalized. This descriptive profile becomes useful for all facets of the promotional plan (i.e., message, media, IMC tools).

Apply the positioning concept in an advertising context by defining brand positioning strategy and brand position.

For many communication problems or opportunities, promotional messages are directed to target audiences. These audiences are a subset of the target market or an entirely different group depending upon the communications situation. As discussed in Chapter 3, promotional planners require a detailed profile of the target audience with most appropriate segmentation variables, including whether the target is a customer or non-customer. Advertising or any other promotional message is guided by the brand positioning strategy that specifies how it is intended to influence its target audience with a given product category or product market. The resulting target audience perception as to what the brand offers is known as the brand position. The flexibility of influencing a target audience's brand position through many IMC tools allows promotional managers to plan for unique brand positions for multiple target audiences.

What are the five customer groups? Explain in terms of beverage products like soft drinks or beer.

From the point of view of Coca-Cola, advertising could be directed to those who only drink Coca-Cola when drinking a cola product (e.g., brand loyals). Alternatively, the brand could target those who regularly switch between Coca-Cola and Pepsi (e.g., favourable brand switchers). Looking at the other side of customer groups, Coca-Cola could target Pepsi drinkers (e.g., other brand loyals) or those who drink Pepsi and RC Cola, or perhaps a generic cola product like PC (e.g., other brand switchers). Finally, those who do not drink cola may be targeted (e.g., new category users), or those who do not even drink soft drinks (e.g., new category user). Of course these two non-category user groups are derived from different market partitions. An important point to note is that specific brands should be identified so that there is an application of the model.

Experiential benefits

How a product makes the consumer feel while consuming the product.

Demonstrate brand repositioning strategy opportunities.

In some communication situations—such as new competitors, changing consumer tastes, or poor brand performance—promotion planners need to reposition their brand. The repositioning can follow the same decisions as described above, where the promotional planner can consider an alternative market definition, communicate a new differential advantage, emphasize different benefit claims, or focus on another motivational option. Promotional planners can consider altering one or all four of these decisions to achieve moderate or very significant change in the current brand position.

Distinguish internal psychological processes, their influence on consumer decision making, and implications for marketing communication.

Internal psychological processes that influence the consumer decision-making process include motivation, perception, attitude formation and change, integration processes, and satisfaction. Each of these are areas in which advertising attempts to influence. Most advertising reflects a particular purchase motive. Certain elements of an ad are designed to attract attention or ensure that the target audience retains the information or symbolic message. The body copy in a print ad, for example, can be written to influence the receiver's attitude, and allows certain ways of integrating the information. Finally, advertising is designed to suggest to consumers that they made the correct purchase so they feel satisfied.

What are the stages of the consumer decision-making model? Why are they important for planning marketing communication?

Marketing communication can be directed to each stage of the model. Ads can highlight need recognition initially (e.g., TV) while additional information can be found at the brand's website (e.g., information search). Comparisons with other brands could be obtained at an independent review website (e.g. JD Power) that influences the alternative evaluation stage. Finally, direct communication on mobile devices indicating a promotional offer from GPS alerts could influence purchase while direct mail pieces can maintain satisfaction levels after purchase. Furthermore, the nature of the message can evolve at each stage as well. Thus, the model is useful for planning the basic marketing communication decisions of message and media, that can be extended to other IMC tools including events etc.

What are the primary psychological processes associated with each stage of the consumer decision-making model? How does marketing communication influence each stage?

Motivation is relevant since it gives direction for consumers to take action. The decision-making process starts with the need recognition stage where consumers understand the requirement to take action to resolve their consumption situation. Marketing communication draws attention to the many reasons why consumers may want to consider buying a good or service such as dissatisfaction, or sensory enjoyment. Perception occurs in the information search stage where consumers sense, select, interpret and retain information. Marketing communication is active for all four aspects of the perceptual system. Messages include attention getting properties so they are noticed. Body copy and headlines in print ads for example assist in allowing consumers to select information. Video associated with a TV message tell a story so that consumers are able to interpret and understand how the product fulfills needs. Finally, concluding message points like voice-over or supers encourage consumers to remember the message just presented. Attitudes formation is relevant at the alternative evaluation stage since consumers are incorporating all the information received to fully understand how much they like or value each brand. All facets of marketing communication should continually reinforce or establish the consumers' attitude to the brand with the appropriate balance of visual and verbal information. Integration occurs more readily at the purchase decision stage as consumers must ultimate pay for the good and service, and therefore tradeoff all the information received and conflicting attitudes to each brand to make a conclusion on which brand will fulfill needs. Marketing communication tries messages that will allow consumers to rely on overall assessment of their evaluation so that decision can be made more quickly and easily. Finally, satisfaction is a feature of post-purchase evaluation since it is the ultimate outcome of marketing. At this stage, the consumer assesses whether the product performance met expectations or is sufficient compared to another standard of comparison. Marketing communication tries to reassure consumers that their decision was sound and that they should feel good about their purchase (e.g., follow up letters from car manufacturers).

Transformational motives

Occur when the consumer perceives their consumption situation as requiring improvement from a neutral state.

Informational motives

Occur when the consumer perceives their current consumption situation as a deficit in which the purchase of the product would minimize the shortfall and bring the consumer a neutral or normal state.

Alternative evaluation

Occurs following information acquisition, when the consumer moves on to compare the brands identified as being capable of satisfying the needs or motives that initiated the decision process.

Purchase intention

The predisposition to buy a certain brand or product.

When defining a target audience for communications, why is it a good idea to use consumer behaviour with respect to your brand as the primary variable before using variables such as demographics or lifestyle?

The behavioural variable is considered first for two reasons. First, it links the communication plan to the marketing plan more specifically. Secondly, actual behaviour signals or leads to sales, something to which most advertising campaigns hope to achieve as an end result. Most good advertising reflects the underlying purchase motive of the target audience. The purchase motive is related to behaviour because consumers act upon their needs during a goal seeking decision process. Thus, the expected behaviour of the target audience is a prime consideration.

Develop the options for making a target audience decision for marketing communication.

The chapter identified a model to profile a target audience by considering the current purchase behaviour of the target audience with respect to the promotional planner's brand as the primary segmentation variable. Promotional messages can be directed to current customers, such as brand-loyal or favourable brand switchers. Alternatively, promotional messages could be targeted to non-customers, like new category users, other brand switchers, or other brand loyals.

Culture

The complexity of learned meanings, values, norms, and customs shared by members of a society.

Market position

The consumer response to the marketing program once developed and implemented; organizations may find results at, above, or below expectations.

Evaluative criteria

The dimensions or attributes of a product or service that are used to compare different alternatives.

Need recognition

The first stage in the consumer decision making process; occurs when the consumer perceives a need and becomes motivated to enter a decision making process to resolve the felt need.

Target audience

The group of consumers toward which an advertising campaign is directed.

Target market

The group of consumers toward which an overall marketing program is directed.

Benefit segmentation

The grouping of consumers on the basis of the attributes they seek in a product.

Sensation

The immediate and direct response of the senses (taste, smell, sight, touch, and hearing) to a stimulus such as an advertisement, package, brand name, point of purchase display, or mobile alert.

Brand positioning strategy

The intended image of the product or brand relative to competing brands for a given competitive space as defined by certain product market or category characteristics.

Selective perception

The perceptual process involving the filtering or screening of exposure, attention, comprehension, and retention.

Selective retention

The perceptual process whereby consumers do not remember all the information they see, hear, or read even after attending to and comprehending it.

Selective comprehension

The perceptual process whereby consumers interpret information based on their own attitudes, beliefs, motives, and experiences.

Strategic marketing plan

The planning framework for specific marketing programs and policies.

Illustrate how to formulate brand positioning strategy decisions.

The process for developing a brand positioning strategy in the context of marketing communications is similar to developing a positioning strategy for the overall marketing. However, it differs by evaluating or integrating very micro-level aspects of consumer behaviour in its planning by closely considering the nature of the purchase decision. The direction of the decisions is much different, with the goal of finding the most appropriate message, media, or IMC tool versus determining optimal product design features. The brand positioning strategy comprises four decisions: market definition, differential advantage, target audience brand attitude, and consumer purchase motive. The market definition decision allows the promotional planner to consider whether to define the market in which the brand is competing by benefits, brand name, usage situation, or product category. Differential advantage decisions include whether the brand takes a differential or central positioning and whether the brand focuses its positioning on its benefit claims or the user. Target audience attitude decisions consider how the message is expected to persuade existing beliefs to the desired beliefs about the brand. Finally, promotional planners decide what type of purchase motive should be associated with the brand.

Perception

The process, by which an individual receives, attends to, interprets, and stores information to create a meaningful picture of the world.

External search

The search process whereby consumers seek and acquire information from external sources such as advertising, other people, or public sources.

Psychological benefits

The status a consumer encounters when associated with a brand.

Identify the concepts of market positioning strategy and market position.

The strategic marketing plan describes all marketing decisions including promotion and the supporting analysis and justification. It typically includes the market positioning strategy, which summarizes the markets the organization is competing in (i.e., target market) and how the marketing mix fulfills the needs of this market. The resulting consumer perception as to where the consumer believes the organization to be competing is known as the market position. Oftentimes, market research illuminates where consumers perceive an organization with respect to its competitors, which can be graphed on a market position diagram or perceptual map. Promotional planners rely on this document for all decisions including the overall IMC direction, creative strategy, and creative tactics for advertising or any other IMC tool such as sales promotion, public relations, direct, or Internet.

Brand position

The target audience's overall assessment or image of the brand resulting from brand related communication that tells the prospective buyer what the brand is, who it is for, and what it offers.

How do the stages of the consumer decision-making model differ from the three types of problem solving?

The three variations of the decision making process are (1) routine response, (2) limited problem solving, and (3) extensive problem solving. Marketing communications will differ in each. Routine response behaviours are close to habits. As a result, they require little external search (if any) and there is little or no reliance on communications. The role of advertising and promotions is more of one of reinforcement, and of reminding the consumer that it is time to purchase. The role of providing information for evaluation is minimal. Limited problem solving involves both internal and external search behaviours. As a result, the role of marketing communications increases. Consumers are more likely to have recognized the problem, and are using advertising and other forms of communication to provide information for evaluation. Consumers are also more likely to employ a variety of sources of information in the process, and the marketer wants to be sure that his/her product is considered in the evoked set. The consumer's most extensive use of communications is likely to occur in the extensive problem solving situation. Decisions are given much more thought, external search is more involved, and there is a much greater reliance on advertising, sales persons, friends, family, etc. as input into the decision. As a result, the responsibility of communications is increased as the marketer wants to have the information readily available to consumers when and where they want it.

Integration processes

The way product knowledge, meanings, and beliefs are combined to evaluate two or more alternatives.

Situations

The ways in which consumers plan to use the product or brand, which directly affect their perceptions, preferences, and purchasing behaviours?

Compare the similarities and differences of target market and target audience.

This chapter also investigated how promotional planners make a target audience decision for any aspect of an IMC plan. To understand the context of this decision,the chapter examined the role of promotion in the overall marketing process, as shown in Figure 3-5. The process includes a situation analysis, target market process, and marketing program development all directed toward a prescribed target market. One of the key aspects pertains to the target marketing process, which includes segmenting the market, selecting a target market, and determining the market positioning strategy, as this process gives direction to the target audience decision. Accordingly, we reviewed how marketing planners and promotional planners segment the market, and explained how each made the target market and target audience decision, respectively.

New category users

Those consumers who are not purchasing within the promotional planner's product category.

Favourable brand switchers

Those consumers who buy the promotional planner's brand but also buy other brands within a given relevant time period for the product category.

Other brand switchers

Those consumers who purchase a few different brands within a category, but not the promotional planner's brand.

Other brand loyals

Those consumers who purchase only one brand, which is not the promotional planner's brand.

Brand loyal customers

Those consumers who regularly buy the promotional planner's brand.