Prepare as a word-processed document (such as Microsoft Word). Use 12-point font Times New Roman. Use black ink for majority of your work and only use colors if it enhances your ability to communicate your thoughts.

Your assignment should be the equivalent of approximately six pages of double-spaced text, at very least 1/2 page for each of the eight questions (four in Part 1 and four in Part 2).

• Include a bibliography, which includes at least unique four references.

• You may use APA style.

Bud Light

Part 1 - Consumer Behavior: How People Make Buying Decisions

Questions

1. Consumer Behavior Model: Environmental factors. Refer to the week's readings and the model of consumer behavior and identify two of the most important environmental factors you think are relevant to the customers of your product or service offering. Explain your choices.

2. Consumer Behavior Model: Consumer factors. Refer to this week's readings and the model of consumer behavior and identify the three most important consumer factors you think are relevant to the customers of your product or service offering. Explain your choices.

3. Role of involvement in consumer decision-making. Identify the level of involvement a customer of your product or service might use to make a purchase/no purchase decision. Then, discuss which type of buying behavior is most consistent with that level of involvement.

4. Consumer decision-making process. Go through the six steps of the purchase process outlined in the readings and identify where marketing can influence each of the six steps. For example, if a consumer just identified a need for your product in step one, then the company can advertise how your product fills that need.

Or, if a consumer purchased your product, the consumer can be called and asked about their satisfaction with the product and if there is any dissatisfaction steps can be taken to ensure the customer satisfaction. Be sure to be more specific with respect to your product or service than this example.

Part 2 - Market Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

Things to Consider:

• So far, you have only been considering the customers of your product or service as one big group, or a mass market. More astute marketing breaks down this large group into smaller market segments of consumers who have similar characteristics. For any specific product or service, there could be numerous market segments. However, company resources may only allow a company to pursue one or two or these market segments, which then become target market(s).

In this paper, you should divide the mass market for your product or service into at least two market segments and then pick one target market you think would have the most potential for future growth. This target market does not have to be the one the company would have actually picked, or is currently pursuing.

• Think outside your own box. Chances are good you picked a product with which you are familiar. That is a good starting point, and you may represent one target market. But you may represent a target market that is saturated and therefore not the best target market to pick for the remainder of the semester. So be sure your second target market is different enough and represents growth potential.

• Your job will be to critically examine all of the segmentation bases and arrive at your own description of potential market segments for your product or service.

• You may want to visit http://www.segmentationstudyguide.com/understanding-perceptual-maps/a-step-by-step-guide-to-constructing-a-perceptual-map/ for a step-by-step guide on how to draw a perceptual or positioning map. Remember to label both axes of your perceptual map. Meanwhile, here is an example of a perceptual map for the beer market, an excellent example for a highly competitive product.

Questions

1. Segmentation. Using the various criteria of the segmentation bases described in the week's readings and in Table 4.1, identify at least two distinct market segments for your product or service. Each market segment description must include at least three (more if needed) of the characteristics from amongst any of the four bases categories, e.g. one from demographic variables, one or two from psychographic variables, and one from behavioral variables, or a similar scheme. Be sure to explain your choices based on what customer need the product or service offering can fill for each segment. For example, a market segment might be: men who are 25 - 35 years old with a college degree who earn at least $35,000 and attend 5 or more baseball games annually.

2. Target market. Select one of the market segments you described in (1) above as the one you believe is or can be the most profitable for your product or service offering and explain why you feel they can represent growth for the company. Refer to the six criteria for an attractive market segment as described in course content under ‘Selecting Target Markets'. Name your target market so you can use this name throughout all of your remaining writing assignments. Your name should be descriptive of the segments' characteristics like 'savvy young shoppers' or 'educated baby boomers', or 'urban hipsters', or the like. The goal is for your faculty member to get a mental image of your target market for the remainder of the semester.

3. Target market strategy. Should the company focus all their resources on this new target market (concentrated marketing) or should they continue to pursue both the new and the existing target market as well as other market segments (multi-segment marketing)? Alternatively, is the market so saturated might they be more successful by focusing solely on an even more narrow market segment, perhaps an even narrower version (niche marketing) of your selected target market, as their best chance for growth? What is your reasoning?

4. Positioning. Draw yourself a perceptual map as illustrated in the week's readings or use the websites noted in the directions. Be sure to pick two criteria that are important to your new target market for your two axes, perhaps two of the criteria you used in Week 1 in your competitive analysis. Map at least the two major competitors you noted in the previous writing assignment and add any others that you may have discovered since then. Describe what the perceptual map is telling you regarding how each product is perceived in the minds of the new target market you described above. You may have to make a series of educated guesses for some of the data points.

Ideally, you want to find uncontested space. If your product overlaps with a competing offering discuss whether or not your product or service should try for an ‘uncontested' space on the map and ‘reposition' itself; or if it should keep the same position and compete head on with the other product. (You will have a chance to make changes to the product, the pricing and the distribution to change the product's positioning and find uncontested space in the coming weeks).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3jjbpp1rt7nntax/reading_material.rar?dl=0