Introduction of the Product
A Polaroid Cube is a delightful and little camera that takes the still shots as well as video. Just as the name suggest, it is a tiny tube about 35mm on the side. It can stick to any and all the magnetic surfaces and even a dinner folk. The cube can be tossed and can be taken around to take the life's precious moment in town or an adventure (Amstrong, & Kotler, 2011 p.12). However, the cube can be used any place in any circumstance to take photos and video recording. The cube comes in red, blue and red colors and it is water resistant, but one can opt for a waterproof case though not important.
The demographic characteristics such as the age of consumers, hobbies of consumers, the level of income, education, gender and marital status are the objective descriptor of the individual consumers. Any market most of the products are influenced by the consumer's demographic characteristics. In our product, the Polaroid Cube, the demographic characteristic of age is relevant because not all age groups will be comfortable to use the product. It is important for the company or the market to identify the age group they are dealing with. When the marketers are asked about their customers, they refer to the gender, age, marital status, income level and the education level of the clients buying the product (Winer, 2004, p. 34).
The person's age is a powerful determinant of the consumer behavior. The person's age will affect his or her interest, purchasing ability, tastes, investment behavior and political preference. A person aged between 15-35 are likely to go for the Polaroid Cube as they are likely to take photos and interested in capturing life moments at their youthful age compared to old people. Also, the person's level education while buying the Polaroid Cube will be a determinant, in that most of the learned or a person with knowledge of technology use is likely to go for the product. With the Polaroid Cube, the level of education is important because the product is digital and features will keep changing from time to time. Therefore, the consumer must be updated while any changes occur. Also, the level of income is also a determinant, though anyone can purchase it because it is affordable.
Nevertheless, the lifestyle variables are also factors that are more closely reflect the customer's interest in the product, and therefore, they are more likely to explain the consumer purchases. Lifestyle can be measured by the interest, opinions, and attitudes of the customer. First, the customer should be very positive and show much interest in the product for them to make the decision on purchasing or using the product, For example, a person who is positive about life, they are outgoing and like adventure will have an interest in purchasing the Polaroid Cube. It is through an attitude that a person will buy a product, not because of the price but the extent of value for their future (Auh, & Johnson, 2005, p. 47). A consumer should be principle oriented and should be guided by their principles and beliefs rather than by the events, feelings or the desire for approval.
Price, Distribution and Competitive Position about the Product
Polaroid Cube is priced at an affordable rate of $100 and above, and it is acceptable to the consumers. Since the company has selected and positioned the product carefully, then the mixing strategy including the price will be straight forward. The aim of the product is to produce quality pictures and videos to the users. The product has to achieve the quality leadership and provide quality services to maintain its demand in the market. The Polaroid Cube target young population especially those interested in producing quality pictures and videos in adventures. Due to this group of person's attitude, and the lifestyle, they want a quality product to meet their needs. The best thing with the target group, they are quick to learn how to use the Polaroid Cube as they are in the digital era. Besides, this group can learn and accept new features about the new product. That means it can be easy for the company to introduce better Polaroid Cube because the consumers will be willing to pay even if the prices are high compared to other brands (Amstrong, & Kotler, 2011, p. 86). Usually, when one mentions Polaroid Cube, the good quality comes first then the prices that are affordable. Therefore, consumers will pay any price because it's worth due to its quality.
The Polaroid cubes are available at the big malls, near institutions, at the airport and other outlets that are available. The reason for locating the product there is because of its product positioning and targeting. The Polaroid Company identify and also analysis the segment of the target market, the targeting customers are youth who like visiting places of higher standard levels like malls, and they go there for shopping. According to Maslow's hierarchy of need pyramid that talks about promoting exclusivity that will make people feel comfortable and be attracted to buy the product (Amstrong, & Kotler, 2011, p. 73). Therefore, the company should use the exclusive distribution, therefore giving a limited number of the dealers the exclusive right of distributing the company's products in the consumer's territories.
Although there are few competitors in the market, the Polaroid Cube stands on the several competitive advantages. First, the product is of higher quality than those of its competitors comparing the pricing, and then the company gives a comfortable environment to their consumers who shop their products, that are important inference. The product brand is unique and attractive to the consumers, therefore; it creates customer loyalty. The company also gives excellent services to the customers like door step delivery, and they offer convenient locations for delivery. The customers are updated with new features of the product once in the market (Lai, Griffin, & Babin, 2009, p. 981). Also, the company offers free adventures to the customer so that they can have an experience with the Polaroid camera upon buying.
Consumer Decision Process
The consumer decision often begins with the problem of recognition. The difference between the existing state and the desired one mainly become the problem to the consumer. A customer often begins with a specific state of mind that represents their perceptions and the attitudes towards the brand. In the recognition process, the consumer moves from low involvement with the purchase of the product to high involvement, and the decision-making process becomes complex. However, the consumer is usually committed to the brand or the product (Polaroid Cube) they believe it meets their needs well and the product is loyal. The recognition of the problem is usually as a result of the discrepancy between the desired and the actual state, and without it, there is no need for the customer to make a decision. Several factors influence the client's actual state such as past decision, product performance, normal depletion, individual development, the current situation in the market and the availability of the product (Lai, Griffin, & Babin, 2009, p. 985). However, the way different members of the target group will decide to buy the product after recognition will be through the adoption process. In the market, there will always have innovators, early adopters, and laggards who will accept the product late after all other people have bought the product.
After problem recognition, the consumer proceeds to the process of information search. The consumer recognizes problems as opportunities that drive them to an internal and external search of information to solve the problems. The information search involves the physical and mental activity on the part of a consumer. The use of the information from the consumer's memory is called internal search. External information can come from feelings and behaviors, attitudes, opinions of their friends, relatives, and neighbors as well as the marketer's generated information. Therefore the information sources include memory source, independent source, and personal sources, experimental and marketing sources (Ferguson, & Hlavinka, 2006, p. 1). Also, market characteristics like the price, number of alternatives and age can influence consumer's decision on a product. However, it is the customer's beliefs, perception and the market characteristics that influence the purchasing behavior. Finally, the product characteristics like the differentiation, and price levels, the situational characteristics and consumers they tend to influence the external search. In conclusion of the consumer's profile, the consumer can focus on the frequently purchase items or brand, the average transaction value or which other items were purchased in conjunction with other products
After gathering the information about a product, the consumer will go ahead to evaluate and select an alternative if they are not satisfied with the first product. The customers evaluate the best alternatives and then select the course of action that is likely to solve their problem. The evaluative criteria are usually the features the client will look in response to a particular problem. The consumer uses the performance levels and the characteristics to compare a product with another brand (Dewhirst, & Davis, 2005, p. 88). The criteria of evaluation differ from one consumer to another and from a product to another product. Consumers use the decision rules in judging alternative brands and products in the market. The five commonly decision rules are the conjunctive, elimination by-aspect, lexicographic, compensatory rules, and disjunctive rules.
Also, the outlet selection and the product purchase are important when it comes to which company to shop and what product to buy. However, the decision used by customers to select retail out or place to buy is the same as choosing the product or the brand. The store image, the type of the product and the retail adverting are important influences as the evaluative criterion. The common dimensions of the company or the store image are the services, merchandise, the clientele, convenience and the physical facilities (Lai, Griffin, & Babin, 2009, p. 984). The outlet location is also an important attribute for consumers and the larger the outlet, the more likely it will attract most consumers. Once the consumer selects the outlet to buy the product they must acquire the right product they intended to buy.
The post-purchase process comes about when consumers experience anxiety or doubts of what they want to buy. Whether the consumer experience dissonance or not, most of the purchases are followed by the product use whereby a customer will use a particular product to fulfill their needs. However, if the product does not meet the consumer's need, then a negative evaluation may result. The post-purchase dissonance and the product usage disposal may influence the purchase evaluation process of a consumer. The customer must develop particular expectations about the ability of the purchased product to fulfill the symbolic and instrumental need (Alendar, & Hill, 2006, p. 99). When taking actions, or switching to another product or stores and warning friends about the product is usually a negative purchase evaluation
Influences
Internal Influences
Several relevant aspects have internal influences on consumer behaviors. First, perception consists of the activities that an individual assign and acquire meaning to the stimuli. It begins with the exposure that is usually the result of the self-selection. Then attention comes when the stimulus activities one or maybe many of the sensory receptor, and also the resulting sensation go direct into the brain for processing. Therefore, interpretation is an assignment of the meaning to stimuli which has been attended to the customer and should learn everything that is related to being a customer that is the performance, product existence, preference, and clues. Learning can be defined as the change in the content of the long-term memory of consumers. Therefore, the cognition and conditioning learning are used in the consumer's reinforcement plays a significant role in operating the conditioning that it does in the classical conditioning (Amstrong, & Kotler, 2011, p. 182). For any consumer, the strength of learning, therefore, depends on the importance of imagery, repetition, and reinforcement.
The consumer motivations are the driving forces that activate their behaviors and provide the purpose and direction towards that behavior. According to Maslow's need hierarchy, the basic motives should be minimally fulfilled before the advanced motives are activated. That is why it proposes to the five levels of motivation, which include safety, esteem, belongingness, self-actualization and physiological motivation. Consumers must admit that it is the motives that cause their behaviors. The motivational conflict can occur to a consumer in a situation of a large number of motives and many different situations. The motivation conflict can take three dimensions, the approach-avoidance conflict, in the approach-approach conflict or the avoidance-avoidance conflict (Foreman, 2006, p. 1). Therefore, in such situation, the personality of the consumer will direct and guide the behavior chosen for the accomplishment of goals in the different scenarios. It is the long-lasting personal quality that will allow the consumer to respond to the world around him or her. The emotions of an individual are strong and are sometimes uncontrollable feeling that might affect the behavior. These emotions occur when the mental processes and the environmental processes trigger the physiological changes. Therefore, the attitude-change strategy will focus on the cognition, behavior or the combination of both.
External Influences
Some external factors may influence the consumer's decision-making process while selecting a product. However, the most important factor is the reference group factor. The reference group is the group whose presumed values and the perspectives are used by other individuals as the basis of their current behaviors in the market. The marketers have got three criteria they find important, the degree of contact, membership as well as the attraction to be useful for decision making. The groups that have the personal contact are the primary groups in the market while those with a limited interpersonal contact are known as the secondary groups. The group influence varies with different products and situations in the market. The informational influences take place when an individual conforms to another group's expectation so as to gain disapproval or approval (Li, & Green, 2010, p. 1). However, the identification conformity is usually strong because an individual can use the group norms and can identify with then as part of his or her identity and self-concept.
Another important external influence on consumer decision making is the culture. Culture represents the beliefs, behaviors and how people act learned by observing or interacting with other members of the society. Most studies suggest that much of the things we do are shared behaviors that are passed from one member of the society we live into another. As part of efforts to convince the customers to buy products, the merchants usually use the cultural representations mostly in promotional appeals (Winer, 2004, p. 156). The aim is to connect to the customers using the cultural references the consumers are aware of and can easily understand and can be able to relate to the product because it corresponds to the consumer's cultural values. The smart marketers usually research in an attempt of identifying the difference in how the sub-cultures behave with different products. Through that, the market will be able to bring in new products or the new sales to the consumer after understanding their culture.
Recommendation of the Marketing Strategies
The first recommendation is for the products. The product is usually the primary aspect of marketing strategy and every product in the market should differentiate itself from the rest. Therefore, the company producing the Polaroid Cube should come up with a product that differentiates itself from the rest in the market. The major concern of every consumer in any product is the design; that attract the consumer to that product, then the feature that will influence the customer the new product even if they have never used it before. Finally, it is the brand name of the product that will increase loyalty to the consumers (Dewhirst, & Davis, 2005, p. 90). Therefore, the company should strive to achieve the consumer's concerns.
Another recommendation is the price of the Polaroid Cube. The price is the value charged against the product or the services offered to the customer. The price will always have an impact on consumer's psychology, and that will help the client to purchase and repurchase the product (Lancioni, 2005, p. 112). The decision on the pricing of the product will depend on many factors like the buying power of the customer, the cost of delivery and the cost of the product. Since Prince is the primary factor behind consumer's satisfaction as well as the product's loyalty, the company should ensure the prices are affordable and corresponds with the quality of the product (Ferguson, & Hlavinka, 2006, p. 1).
Another recommendation is the location of the product. The concept of location is related to the availability of the service or the product to the consumer. The concept of place includes the distribution channels and the locations as well. The locations and distribution facilities are primary factors in meeting the demand and the supply of the product thereby overcoming the variables that may hinder the supply of the product to the target market (Foreman, 2006, p. 1). Therefore, the company should ensure that Polaroid cubes retail shops are strategically located especially where they can meet a large number of target customers. The distribution channels should be increased across the towns and countries.
The last recommendation is to the promotion strategy. Promotion is the advertisement of the products to sell to the consumers, and the process is known as communication with various clients using the different means of advertising. The main reason of advertising is to reduce the communication gap between the consumers and the organization. Therefore the Polaroid Cube company should focus on exploiting advertising opportunities that will help to communicate to their customers and by attracting and persuading the customers (Lancioni, 2005, p. 113). Once the company identifies their target market, then they can determine the best advertisement channel they can use to reach the customers. For example, with Polaroid cubes, the target consumers are youthful population and can be reached through the use of social media or the digital advertising.
References
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