Chapter 5: My CDM Process Experience

Whether consumers realize it or not, there is a process that they go through when realizing they need something. This process is described in Chapter 5 and in this blog post, I will provide an experience of mine experience where I realized I was going through this process subconsciously.

                The first step of the Consumer Decision Making Process is problem recognition and the problem in my case is that I am hungry. I need food and I want to satisfy this need with some fast food. Next I naturally do some information searching; I try to remember which restaurants are close and within a reasonable driving distance. In this case, there is a Subway, McDonalds, Arbys, Quiznos, Dairy Queen, and Jack in the Box. I now move on to evaluating my choices or alternatives and utilize certain key criteria. One of these criteria is that I want a sandwich and not a burger so that can help me narrow my choices down to just two: Subway and Quiznos. A second key criterion is that I want this lunch to be affordable, but both of these options fit that criteria so I can’t narrow it down any further based on that.

                Finally, I can move onto the next step and that is my decision. Based on brand loyalty I have decided to go with Quiznos, which is my usual favorite. As far as the last step goes, post purchase behavior, I am very satisfied with my decision and I don’t neurotically question myself at all.

                Throughout the above passage, I went through one example of the Consumer Decision Making Process and how it guided me throughout my decision of what to have for lunch. Consumer’s do this all the time for many different products and services whether they realize it or not and if you understand the system, it can actually benefit you as an individual in many different ways.

Chapter 4: Marketing Research

      No matter what company you are or what products or services you deal, you’re going to want to do marketing research. This can be done in numerous ways and in this post I will talk about one way that I think is a growing trend. This form of research is the survey that you sometimes receive on your receipt or at the very least a URL that is on your receipt that leads to a survey. I’m not so sure how effective this is; most people that I know (I included) simply throw the receipt away and never give it a second thought. Sometimes the company will offer possible rewards and prizes for doing the survey- Panda Express offers a free entre with your next purchase for example. Other companies such as chain stores will offer big money shopping sprees, but we all know how hopeless this is so we all don’t even attempt it. Overall, I think this method is largely ineffective; yes, it is cheap, but I would guess the survey is largely ignored. There are many other better ways to gather information and I think that if you do choose to do the survey on the receipt, you should probably have some other marketing research methods as well.

Chapter 2: Marketing Strategies

    One of the concepts that I found interesting in Chapter 2 was the four marketing strategies that companies can utilize to expand. Throughout this post, I will choose a company, Starbucks, and explain how they used these four strategies to grow and include my insights.

    The first strategy is Market Penetration or Expanding Existing Markets. From what I have learned, this is usually done through sales or something similar and creative to draw in more customers from the target market. For Starbucks in particular, I found an example of a coupon they gave out. As you can see, it shows its meant for an existing customer, but it says to bring a friend in. This friend is the expansion that they are trying to get from this coupon and this sacrifice of a cup of coffee. They are assuming this friend that is brought in is a member of their target market and they are hoping this friend will return in the future.

    The second strategy is Market Development or trying to find a new geographic market or market segment. There are numerous ways companies can do this and I noticed that Starbucks used a billboard. This is a perfect way to reach loads of people and it also fits into their product as well because coffee and driving go well together.

    The third strategy is Product Development and this can be anything from Apple creating a new product such as the iPad or Chevy introducing a new vehicle such as the Volt. Starbucks utilized this strategy by introducing a new section to their menu: breakfast. Once again, this is a very smart and logical move for Starbucks. Since they serve coffee and many people go there in the mornings for their coffee, it makes sense to sell breakfast as well.

    The final strategy is Diversification. This is where a company can develop new products for new markets. This was a little bit difficult for Starbucks, but one thing I did find was Starbucks entering the music sales industry. Now they aren’t doing this in a huge way, however they do have their own playlists and they also sell many of these songs as Starbucks-type songs with their trademark. This isn’t exactly finding a completely new market, but it is a new product and if it manages to attract a whole new set of customers, it could fit this strategy quite nicely.

    Overall, it is clear why companies choose to utilize these strategies to grow and expand and its interesting how each company chooses to do it slightly differently than the last (or vastly different in some cases). This is what I find interesting and intriguing: the different methods, products, and ideas that companies employ to grow and the sheer amount of creativity involved.

Chapter 1: Not Just a Product

    One of the major concepts that I picked out from Chapter 1 was the idea centered around "you're not just buying a product, but also...". An example from class was "you're not just buying a pair of sneakers, but you're also buying individuality" or "you're not just buying water, but smart water". I thought this was interesting because I have felt that effect on me before when I'm buying various products- anything from a car to an iPod to an item at a grocery store.
    To demonstrate this point in my own apartment, I checked my pantry and found two items that I thought utilized this marketing strategy. The first image is a box of brownie mix, courtesy of Betty Crocker. As the picture shows, it's "Americas Favorite Brownie!" so you're not just buying brownie mix when you pick up Betty Crocker's brownie mix. You're also buying "Americas Favorite Brownie". This can give someone the feeling of belonging to something- being a part of the group who finds this brownie their favorite. The same thing is shown on the lower image of JIF peanut butter. As you can see, it says #1 Choice of Choosy Moms. If you are a "choosy mom" then you're going to want to buy this product to once again feel a part of something. This is smart on the company's part because it would be my guess that their target market is in fact moms or parents in general.