Name: Ayesha Anwar Tiwana

Consumer Behavior
WAC # 05
TiVo in 2002: Consumer Behavior
Summer 2015
Max Marks: 25

1. This WAC is due back by end of day, Friday, August 28, 2015.
2. This WAC has a word limit mentioned against each question and you are
required to share how many words each of your answer is at the end of each
reply.
3. You must email your attempts by the deadline to abid.khawaja@nbs.nust.edu.pk
in PDF format.
1. According to Keast, there is a mystery in the sharp contrast between the inertia of
prospects and the evangelical zeal of TiVo users. As an emerging expert in consumer
behavior, how would you tackle that mystery? What do you think could be going on?
Beyond your pet hypothesis, try to be creative and list a large number of conflicting
hypotheses by taking multiple points of view. What might evangelists mention as a
cause of their failure to sell TiVo to their friends? What might a couch potato say
about his reluctance to buy TiVo? What would you expect a top executive at NBC to say
about the situation? What explanation would the founder of TiVo love to hear? Hate to
hear? (600 words; 15 Marks)
List of conflicting Hypothesis
Resistance to technology
Fear of technology
Though people have tendency to buy but willingness and ability to buy
are different
Pricing
Survey questionnaire was not up to the mark that addresses the exact
demand of people
Survey was not surveyed in the proper sample population
Didnt addressed the target market
Market Segmentation.
Underestimated the audience.
Existing Cable industry DVR and TiVo seems to be equivalent
Word of mouth plays a vital role in making good or bad perception
External Costs and external Benefits Relationship (Negative Externalities)
In balance of knowledge between the buyer and a seller
Poor timing of distribution.
Key channel partners not involved effectively
What is going on?
A major implication is that word of mouth is the main source of information and
the traditional persuasion means are not very effective. Data is subjective
because it applies to innovators and not to the next wave of users. As mentioned
in Exhibit 3, emphasis should not only be given on the product features but the
advertisement should contain users who give their honest opinions about their
positive experience.
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Just awareness is not enough, customers need to understand the product but it is
difficult to achieve in a normal sales environment based on purely informational
elements. Consumers need to develop a gut feeling that the product will have a
positive impact on their life.
Evangelists fail because:
They are excited to describe their own experience.
Users dont speak much about features they primarily focus on control
benefits, watching what you want, when you want.
Nonusers do not seem open to being convinced.
User excitement is off-putting for nonusers who are quick to deny that TV
might be that important in their life.
Couch Potato fails because:
The product needs to be personally experienced in the context of ones own life,
but he is too lazy to do so, he does not care about commercials
NBC executive would say:
There are small segments of consumers who need TiVo and big segments
that need it less.
People start from vastly different interpretations of what TiVo actually is;
a substitute VCR or a tool to enhance live TV watching.
People dont want to look like TV matters in their life, while conversations
about TV shows might be frequent, few people want to brag about their
TV technology investments.
Current users are of a type not representative of the mainstream
population. To deepen the understanding three pathways should be
taken; researching current users to a fuller extent, predicting the next
wave of users and researching non users.
Hence root cause should be drawn out.
TiVo founder would:
Hate to hear:
The attitude survey is an ad hoc instrument created in response to TiVos
emerging hypothesis that the impact of TiVo in peoples lives could not be
reduced to the sum of the machines features and that much of televisionviewing habits are so ingrained that the impact of TiVo is difficult to assess.
Hence, to penetrate more they have to decrease price.
Love to hear:
According to exhibit 8 TiVo is not a lifestyle-enhancer whose benefits go beyond
the enjoyment of TV itself. It appears that TiVos importance is most easily
compared to that of other entertainment devices as opposed to devices of
lifestyle enhancement such as cell phone or microwave. On the other hand the
fact that 40 % of users might acknowledge that TiVo is more important to them
than their cell phone is viewed by some as intriguing. So, marketing team will
make the new marketing plan accordingly so that loyal customers base could be
attained. (599 words)

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2. TiVo is a new technological company and the managements approach to research and
insight has gradually evolved over time. What have been the different stages in their
exploratory journey? What conclusion is this journey converging to? If you could timetravel to the early hours of the company, what would your advice be to Keast in terms
of the research they should be conducting (the type of insight they should be looking
for) at the outset for a more effective launch? (400 words; 10 Marks)
Approach to research:
The research was not properly planned and executed but it was still informative
and thought provoking.
They did not expend much effort in understanding the consumers point
of view in the consumers terms.
They were partial when it came to understanding the current users.
The research did not devote any part to understanding the resistance of
consumers and how to break that.
The research had the problem of being myopic.
The research was focused on innovators and very little research was
conducted on the rest of the adopters like early majority, late majority
and laggards.
Their research was product oriented not customer oriented.
Exploratory journey:
Their journey included surveys that found out consumers usage patterns
regarding TiVo.
Their level of satisfaction was evaluated.
Attitude surveys were then performed to better understand the
consumers.
The reason behind the gap between intention to buy and action to buy
was not reflected in the surveys.
The detailed information on consumer behavior reflected that the
products should not be expressed as a list of features and functions,
additional symbolic meanings should also be assigned.
Recommendations
The research should be productive which means that the researchers
firm hypothesis should also be disconfirmed by reality.
The survey should reflect the reason behind the gap in action to buy and
intention to buy and should suggest ways to bridge the gap as well.
The research should reflect why the penetration was slow in the market.
Research should be able to analyze customer loyalty and satisfaction and
devices incentives for people who buy the product and convince others to
buy it too.
Research should measure consumer perception of value and develop a
pricing strategy accordingly. In contrast price should also be analyzed to
make sure that the potential customers can afford it.
Research should include ways to understand the resistance of customers
towards the product so that the resistance can be broken.
Product should be rolled out in a test market and for that pre-launch
survey should be conducted to understand why consumers are reluctant
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to try new technology so that efforts can be made to minimize resistance.
(353 words)

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