Marketing principles, class on 2/3 & 2/10

On 2/3 we cover consumer behavior, which is pretty much how people come about making a purchase. There are about 5 steps to the decision process, first is need recognition, then information search or research on the product, after information search we evaluate our alternatives, then we make the purchase, and the final part is post-purchase behavior, whether we show post-purchase remorse or we are satisfied with the purchase. In the first step with Need Recognition, marketing helps consumers recognize an imbalance between their present status and their preferred status. The job of marketers is to convince consumers that when they reach their preferred status, that they aren't actually at their preferred status, we need to always make sure that consumers are wanting more. When we do the information search we use both internal information,which we recall from memory, and external information which we seek from the outside Environment. We also covered how consumer involvement and the decision making process is influenced by social factors. Social influences can be reference groups, like family or friends we go to for advice about a purchase. Individual factors that influence purchase decisions are age, gender, life cycle stage, race, personality, self-concept,pyshological factors, faith, and perception. With perception, part of that is selective exposure, which is when consumers notice certain stimuli and ignores others. Another part of perception is selective distortion, when the consumer changes or distorts info that conflicts with feelings or beliefs. Selective retention is when the consumer remembers only that info that supports personal beliefs. Marketers try to change attitudes or beliefs or add new beliefs to the consumer.

Week of 2/10. We covered marketing segmentation, which gives us a more precise definition of wants and needs of our target market. A market is a group of people or organizations that have needs or wants, and the ability and willingness to buy a product or service. The criteria for segmentation is 1. Sustainability 2. Identifiability and measurability 3. Accessability 4. Responsiveness. We also talked about how the price of a product or service only accounts for 10% of marketing. When we do segmenting we use bases, which are characteristics or variables. The steps to segmenting are first, select a market to study,chose bases for segmentation, select descriptors, profile and analyze segments, select target markets, and lastly is to design, implement and maintain marketing mix. The three types of marketing are undifferentiated, concentrated, and one-to-one marketing. Undifferentiated is a sort of mass marketing, were you just try to sell to the entire population which is typically ineffective. Concentrated focuses on a few different groups but with the same approach, an example of this is selecting a niche, or one segment of a market for target marketing efforts. One-to-one marketing is more individualized and more information intensive, one size fits all marketing is no longer effective. Direct and personal marketing will grow to meet the needs of busy consumers, and consumers will be loyal to companies that have earned and reinforced their loyalty. On top of that, mass media approaches will decline as technology allows better customer tracking.