Topic: Using Consumer Behavior Principles to Develop a Consumer Behavior Exploratory Research Survey
Background
Consumer behavior research can be very expensive and time consuming. How do companies decide/justify spending money on research? Many large companies that regularly conduct research begin with a very small exploratory project that is often done with the expertise that is already staffed in the Marketing Department. Once this is done and if it's found you need a national sample then, you can pitch the CFO for the money needed to go forward. You have been put in the position of conducting the exploratory research to find if you need to hire an expensive outside Consumer Behavior Research firm to take the research to the next level. You have been assigned a brand/product item for your first consumer behavior research project (brand assigned at random by Professor). Complete sections one and three based on secondary data collected through outside research.
Section 1: Background
1. A) Give some introductory information about your product/brand. Include the current status of the four P's. Not needed is historic information (company beginnings, etc.). Only current data is needed here.
B) Research and discuss its target market:
- demographics
- psychographics
- typical decision-making aspects
- identify one market segment that you will discuss as a target market
Section 2: Consumer Influences
Identify and analyze three of the most relevant aspects of consumer influences and their effect on the sale/adoption of the brand/product item. Provide reasoning why you believe the influence is relevant.
Examples of what might be included:
Attitude
Perception
Learning/Memory/Consumer Information Processing
Motivation
Emotion
Personality
External Influences:
- family
- culture
- social class
- reference groups
- situation
- any other external influences.
Section 3: Marketing Strategy
Identify current issues that may need consumer behavior research. Outline at least FIVE questions (relating directly to Consumer Behavior internal and or external factors). Explain why each question needs to asked in terms of the Marketing Mix (4 P's). State the question and then give the reasoning. Be sure to organize by paragraph. For example, a question might be "What are the target markets current perceptions of the brands advertising?".
Examples of areas where questions regarding internal or external factors can be paired are:
- advertising
- consumer decision process (be specific which stage)
- public relations and publicity
- sponsorship
- cross promotion
- product distribution (specific retailer, shelving, etc.)
- product placement
- alternative media
- pricing
- sales activities
- customer service
- packaging
- brand name, brand images, brand personality figures or celebrity endorsers
Section 4: Survey Consumers
Create a 7 to 10-question survey on SurveyMonkey.com.(use the free option) using the questions developed in section 3. Collect survey results from 10-15 consumers that would be a part of the main target segment discussed in section 1. In this section, tell how you recruited subjects to take the survey. Did you offer any incentive? Were there difficulties in doing this?
Section 5: Analyze Finding/Conclusion
Analyze your findings from the survey, including a minimum of one table. Discuss how your findings (even though they are from a very small sample) could be the basis for a larger research project to be conducted by the brand. A copy of the survey itself and your resulting data must be included in your presentation (results can be in table form). Last, make your recommendation if there needs to be a larger study conducted or not (and why). Identify and recommend which type of research approach should be done (Positivist or Interpretivist) and why.