Lecture 1: Introduction to Consumer Marketing
Potential reasons for demand decline (milkshake example):
- Competitor alternatives
- Customer satisfaction
- Seasonality
- Previous communications
- Product availability/distribution
- Product versatility
- Product quality decline
- Branding
We need to understand the customer deeply. Why do people use or want to use a
product? → think about the jobs that need to be done!
75-85% of all new products fail. → often, they fail because they don’t do a job that
customers want to get done.
Jobs to be done (of a product) (JTBD). What an individual wants to accomplish.
It focuses on the idea that customers "hire" products or services to accomplish specific
"jobs" in their lives, rather than just buying them for their features or attributes. This
perspective shifts the focus from what a product is to what a product does for the
customer.
Customers may Hire a product to get a job done (solution-oriented way of thinking), and
when finished they may discard it. Solutions are always temporary. We can see
products as things we hire to accomplish solutions.
Purchase decisions determined: needs that consumers are aware of and mention when
asked but rather latent… → What do customers hire a product for?
Various needs can explain the job of a product:
(Axe Body wash, compare it to perfume instead of just body wash)
Functional needs
Emotional needs
Social needs
Advantage of JTBD logic for customer needs explanation
- It shifts the perspective of the consumer
- It frees the view of your real competitors
, - It has predictive power as it is solution-free
What are the questions to understand latent needs?
- When do you use it?
- In what setting do you use it?
- What progress are you aiming to fulfill? (emotional, social, functional)
- What are the circumstances of struggle?
- What obstacles are in the way?
- What does quality mean to you?
Key takeaways:
- Jobs to be done is a simple framework that emphasizes the why behind what a
customer is doing. It focuses on identifying enduring consumer needs to
develop products that have a lasting impact.
- It gives a unit of focus, on the job the customer is looking to do. To build
measurable ways of looking at success that do not change over time. The
products need to meet the metrics important to the customers.
- You are not trying to just solve a consumer problem. You are first trying to figure
out what the right problem is.
- Good products do not sell themselves.
How and what to study for the exam
- The lectures focus on how to read and understand the articles, all details are in
the articles
o Aim and goal of a specific article (not expected to know every detail)
o Conceptual model
▪ Concepts used
▪ Theoretical reasoning
o Results of the study
▪ Main findings
▪ No specific numbers
▪ No reproductions of full studies
▪ Be able to interpret the results
▪ Understand why each study has been conducted, and how it helps
us to
o TEST the effects and underlying mechanisms
o Managerial implications
o Limitations of the study
,How and what to study for the exam: content discussed in lectures
- Additional articles:
- Concepts used
- Main findings and explanations
- Managerial implications
- No need to learn author names by heart
- Broader perspective of the research area:
- Main issues in the area (e.g. measurement of loyalty)
- Structure in which articles are embedded (e.g. drivers of sustainable behavior)
See slides for more extensive explanations and tips.
Lecture 2: Understanding Consumers
2A
Exercise 1 about decision-making a 10-euro product.
DMU: Decision Making Unit
DMP: Decision Making Process
Exercise 1: toilet paper
- Place/location matters
- The quality variance is low (products are similar); we buy it regularly, therefore
paying much hurts → price matters more
AIDA Funnel: Attention, Interest,
Desire, Action.
The AIDA Model identifies
cognitive stages an individual
goes through during the buying
process for a product or service.
Straight funnels can be possible,
Awareness creates always
purchases. This can be in
monopoly settings.
, It can also be that stages are skipped, customers might skip the feeling phase and go
from know to do.
If you have a very wide opening and narrow action part, you can state that you are losing
a lot of clients. So you can have a look at where in the funnel you are losing customers
(Interest or desire).
Exercise 2: about the decision-making of 100+ euro products
DMU: Niche Perfume
DMP:
- There is more of a social and emotional need
- Customers know and feel their needs → People may spend extra because of
their social needs and the experience they get.
- Scarcity matters
Cross Model
High vs low involvement/use: utilitarian vs social/emotional needs
Not only for usage but also for search of a product.
How often you buy a product determines where you are in the cross. First, you do more
research (higher involvement) later you do less.
How you structure the cross, links to what type of marketing you do. → WOM is more
related to high involvement and emotional products.
Emotional you use more affective cues in your marketing. For utilitarian you should
more focus on functionality.
Find your opportunity/segment → match your marketing towards your customer.
2B
Knowing your customer, and where they are in the funnel and cross-model dictates how
you want to communicate with your customers.
Often there are many needs in product purchases, we need to understand what needs
drive action (most). That’s what you need to find out as a marketeer.
Tutorials: Philips Avent