Το προϊόν και οι ανάγκες

της αγοράς
vtheohar@alba.edu.gr

www.alba.edu.gr
Customers are Your Business

• Organizations should not view themselves as

producing products, services, or marketing
brands, they should view themselves as buying
customers, giving customers a reason to want to
do business with the company, at the expense of
competition
(Paraphrased from Theodore Levitt)
 Key Questions
Customer Questions:
• Who are my customers and what are there needs/wants?
• What does their decision process look like?
• How valuable are they to me?
• How many are there; will there be in the future?
Company/Competition Questions:
• Why should customers buy from me?
• What are the impediments to their purchase?

Implementation Questions:
• How do I make them mine?
• Can we eliminate the impediments?
Who is the customer?
• Consider an adult who buys the following as a
gift. Who is the customer?

 Accounting/Finance: whoever pays

 Development: whoever uses

 Marketing: whoever derives value from it

-child who plays
-parent who gets babysitter,
-purchaser getting social capital
The Managerial Decision Making Process

Need
recognition

Information
search

Evaluation of
alternatives

Purchase
decision

Postpurchase
behavior
A Model of Consumer Behavior
SOCIAL AND GROUP PSYCHOLOGICAL
FORCES FORCES
Culture Motivation
Subculture Perception
Social class Learning
Reference groups Personality
Family and households Attitude

SITUATIONAL
INFORMATION BUYING-DECISION PROCESS
FACTORS
When
Commercial Need recognition consumers buy
sources
Choice of involvement level Where
consumers buy
Identification of alternatives

Evaluation of alternatives

Purchase and related decisions Why

Social sources
consumers buy
Postpurchase behavior
Conditions under
which consumers buy
More on the Fickle Customer

• Perceptions are reality.

• Is the customer always right?
• Accuracy of consumer knowledge is often
immaterial
• Wants change. Do needs change?
 Social Factors

• Cultures/subcultures
• Reference groups
– people that an individual refers to for comparison
when making judgements about his or her own
circumstances, attitudes and behavior.
– Aspirational/Dissociative
– Opinion leaders
• Family
• Role
 Socio-economic classification
APPROXIMATE
SOCIAL HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD’S PERCENTAGE OF
GRADE SOCIAL STATUS OCCUPATION FAMILIES
A Upper middle class Higher managerial, administrative or 3
professional

B Middle class Intermediate managerial, 10

administrative or professional

C1 Lower middle class Supervisory or clerical and junior 24

managerial, administrative or
professional
C2 Skilled working class Skilled manual workers 30

D Working class Semi and unskilled manual workers 25

E Those at lowest levels of State pensioners or widows (no
subsistence other earner), casual or lowest 8
grade workers

SOURCE: From Peter M. Chisnall, Marketing: A Behavioural Analysis (Berkshire, England:

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd, 1976), pp. 114-115. Reprinted by permission.
 The Household Influences Most
Consumption Decisions
6-1

Structure
of
household
unit

Household
Stage of
purchases
the Marketing
and
household strategy
consumption
life cycle
behavior

Household
decision
process
 Personal Factors
• Age and Stage in the Lifecycle
• Occupation
• Lifestyle
• Personality
– psychological characteristics that lead to relatively
consistent and enduring responses
– Self-concept vs. ideal self-concept vs. others self-concept
 Psychological Factors
• Motivation
– psychogenic and biogenic
• Perception
– how a person organizes and interprets information
– selective attention/distortion/retention
• Learning
– changes in an individual’s behavior that arise from
experience
• Beliefs and Attitudes
Maslow’s
Hierarchy of
Needs Self-
Actualization
Needs
(Self-fulfillment,
Enriching Experiences)

Esteem Needs
(Accomplishment, Self-Respect, Prestige)

Social Needs (Companionship,

Friendship, Love)

Safety Needs (Protection, Security)

Physiological Needs (Food, Water, Sleep)

 Involvement and Types of
Decision Making
Low-purchase involvement High-purchase involvement

Nominal decision making Limited decision making Extended decision making

Problem recognition Problem recognition Problem recognition
Selective Generic Generic

Information search Information search

Information search
Internal Internal
Limited internal
Limited external External

Alternative evaluation Alternative evaluation

Few attributes Many attributes
Simple decision rules Complex decision rules
Few alternatives Many alternatives

Purchase Purchase Purchase

Postpurchase Postpurchase Postpurchase

No dissonance No dissonance Dissonance
Very limited evaluation Limited evaluation Complex evaluation
 What a Product is Not

• It is not features, but benefits.

• Why should someone buy your
product or service?
What is a Product?

• The Product Offering

- Core : The Benefit
Core
Benefit
What is a Product?

• The Product Offering

- Core : The Benefit
Core
- Tangible: The Packaging, Features,
Benefit
Styling, Quality, Brand Name
Tangible
 What is a Product?

• The Product Offering Core

Benefit
- Core : The Benefit
- Tangible: The Packaging, Features, Tangible

Styling, Quality, Brand Name Augmented

- Augmented: Installation, Warranty,
After Sale Service, Delivery and
Credit
Euros
 The Importance of New Products

New product 1
New product 2

Sales volume
Sales volume
Euros

Profits Profits

+
0
–
Time
THE IMPORTANCE OF NEW PRODUCTS

• Sustain corporate growth and profits

• Replace obsolete items
• Improve quality of life
• Take advantage of new technology
• Better satisfy the needs of current and future
consumers
• Brand extensions
Customer Satisfaction Opportunities

Customer
expectations

Customer Opportunities
satisfaction
gap 1. New products
2. Improvements
Actual
product
performance
How Many
Ideas Are
Required for
One
Successful
New Product?
Lead User Analysis
Method for Creating Breakthrough Innovation

How do you
develop
breakthrough
innovation to
grow
organizational
performance?
What Affects the Rate of Adoption?
Complexity

Compatibility
Characteristics
Affecting
Relative Advantage
New Product
Diffusion
Observability

Trialability
 The Diffusion Process
Relationship of the Diffusion Process to the
Product Life Cycle
Introduction Growth Maturity Decline

100
Cumulative Percentage of Adoption

Product
90 life cycle
80 curve
70
Early majority
60 Late majority
50
Early adopters
40

30 Innovators
Laggards
20

10
Diffusion
curve
0
Time of Adoption of Innovations
Companies that do succeed often share the
following characteristics

• A history of carefully listening to customers

• An obsession with producing the best product
possible
• A vision of what the market will like in the future
• Strong leadership
• A commitment to new-product development
• A team approach to new-product development
 Type name here
Type title here

Antiperspirants Deodorants

Baby Care Cologne

Cosmetics Dish Care

Feminine Protection Food & Beverage

Hair Care Health Care

Household Cleaners Laundry

Oral Care Paper Products

Personal Cleansing Pet Health

Prescription Drugs Prestige Fragrances

Skin Care Special Fabric Care

Tide Liquid

Tide Powder

Tide with Bleach

Tide with Bleach Alternative

Tide Kick

Tide HE (High Efficiency)

Tide Rapid Action Tabs

 PRODUCT MIX CHARACTERISTICS

• WIDTH
• Number of different product lines
• LENGTH
• # of items in the product line/mix
• DEPTH
• Number of variants in line/mix
Crest 2 flavors and 3 sizes
• CONSISTENCY
• How closely are the lines related
If you were given 0.1% of all stock,
which company would you pick?

Sales Assets Profits

$166B $229B $7B

19B 17B 4B

(1998 data)
 Brand Equity
• Definition (Aaker 1991):
– A set of brand assets and liabilities
linked to a brand, its name and symbol,
that + to or - from the value provided
by a product or service to a firm and/or
to that firm’s customers.

• Brands are assets -- only if:

– they have sustainable differential advantage

• Brands improve firm value through goodwill

How Brand Equity Provides Value

To the Customer: To the Firm:

• Enhances interpretation or
processing of information
• Increases confidence in
purchase decision
• Increases use satisfaction
• Increases effectiveness of
marketing programs
• Increases brand loyalty
• Allows for better margins
• Allows brand extensions
• Provides trade leverage
• Increases competitive advantage
 Brand Asset Dimensions

Brand
Equity

Brand Perceived Brand Brand

Awareness Quality Associations Loyalty
Brand Identity: associations that imply a promise
• Should help in establishing a relationship
between the brand and the customer
– Value proposition
• Functional, emotional or self-expressive
– Credibility
• Endorser’s role
– Brand essence
• Product (scope, quality, uses, users, country of origin)
• Organization (innovation, trustworthy, local/global)
• Personality (genuine, energetic)
• Symbol (visual image, heritage)
 FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN GOODS AND SERVICES

 INTANGIBILITY ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS:

 Lack the ability to be stored
 Not protected by patents
 Not easily displayed or communicated
 Pricing is difficult
 Heterogeneity
 Standardization and quality control are difficult to
achieve
 FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
GOODS AND SERVICES

• INSEPARABILITY ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS:

 Service provider is involved in the production process
 Other customers are involved in the production process
(shared experience)
 The mass production of services presents special challenges
 Customer is involved in the production process:
 impact on the type of service desired
 length of the delivery process
 cycle of service demand
 service factory must be built with the customer’s presence in mind
FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN GOODS AND SERVICES

PERISHABILITY ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS:

Services cannot be inventoried

Production and consumption cannot be
separated by time and space
Statistical sampling techniques cannot be used
Marketing and production must work together
 Gaps Model of Service Quality

CUSTOMER Expected
Service

Customer
Gap
Perceived
Service

COMPANY Service Delivery External

Communications
GAP 4 to Customers
GAP 3
GAP 1
Customer-Driven Service
Designs and Standards

GAP 2
Company Perceptions of
Consumer Expectations
 Service Quality Spells Profits

Costs

Defensive Volume of Margins

Marketing Purchases

Price
Premium
Service Customer
Quality Retention
Word of
Mouth
Profits

Market
Share
Sales
Offensive
Marketing Reputation

Price
Premium
KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL SERVICE FIRMS

Ability to master technological change

Excel at niche marketing
Excel at customer service
Excel at customer retention strategies
 COST
CONSIDERATIONS

• Price is sometimes not know until after

the service has been produced
• Cost-oriented pricing is more difficult
• High fixed cost to variable cost ratio
• Economies of scale tend to be limited
 CUSTOMER
CONSIDERATIONS

• More likely to use price as a quality cue

– Nonetheless, comparing prices is more
difficult
• Consumers are less certain about
reservation prices
• Self-service is a viable alternative
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING
SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS

• Develop a word-of-mouth
communications network
• Promise what is possible
• Tangibilize the Intangible
• Feature Working Relationships between
Customer and Provider
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING
SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS

• Reduce consumer fears about variation in

performance
• Determine and focus on service quality
dimensions
• Differentiate the service product from
service delivery
• Make the service more easily understood