Country/Region:
Brand/Variant:
Year:
Campaign Start Date:
BACKGROUND
Market/Business/
Competitive Context: BUSINESS GOAL
Key Task
Competition
The path ahead
The key initiatives scheduled are:
Brand Calendar + Start Plan
Rationale for Brief
Communications Task
TASK
Marketing Target Audience:
What’s the barrier the communication has to overcome?
Required Target Audience Response (Attitude):
Required Target Audience response (behaviour):
Objectives
Business Objectives & how they will be measured
Creative units
Prioritisation of Reach/Frequency/
Continuity & Other communication objectives
Budgets
APPENDICES >>
Approvals
Name Signature Date
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The Buying Decision Process
The Buying decision process comprises of 5 steps.
Need Recognition - Information Search - Evaluation of Information - Purchase Decision - Post Purchase Decision/Evaluation.
Need Recognition is triggered by internal (person's normal need) or external stimuli such as advertisement, friends and must reach an intensity high enough to become a drive that would motivate the person to consider a purchase.
Problem Types
Need Recognition - Information Search - Evaluation of Information - Purchase Decision - Post Purchase Decision/Evaluation.
Need Recognition is triggered by internal (person's normal need) or external stimuli such as advertisement, friends and must reach an intensity high enough to become a drive that would motivate the person to consider a purchase.
Problem Types
- Routine Problems : Low Priced, regularly used consumer goods....low risk purchases.
- Limited Problems : Familiar category but new brand or somewhat expensive items.....slightly higher risk.
- Extensive Problem : unfamiliar category, infrequent purchases, high personal commitments....high risk, may lead to cognitive dissonance.
- Impulse Purchase : where not much time, thought or effort goes into the decision.
- Influenced by level of involvement (interest) in the decision.
- Memory (internal) search is sufficient for familiar, regularly used products: this involves the scanning of one's memory to recall previous experience or knowledge concerning the solutions to the problem.
- External search information sources include personal, commercial, public, experiential and may be necessary when past experience or knowledge is insufficient, the risk of making a wrong purchase decision is high, and/or the cost of gathering the information is low.
- Word of mouth sources are most influential (credibility).
Evaluation of Alternatives
- Evaluation process depends on the consumer and the buying situation.
- Attributes and importance weights are chosen as criteria
- Alternatives compared against the criteria.
- Marketers can influence this stage.
Purchase Decision.
Tow factors intercede between purchase intention and actual decision : attitude of others and unexpected situational factors.
Post Purchase Behaviour
What the consumer thinks and does after purchasing and using the product
- Satisfaction : relationship between consumer expectation and perceived performance - satisfied customers tend to be loyal
- Consumer Delight : When the perceived value is definately superior to expectations - delighted consumers engage in positive word of mouth.
- Unhappy or dissatisfied customers tell others.
- Cognitive dissonance - post purchase doubts /tensions.
Cognitive Dissonance
- Feeling of psychological tension or post purchase doubts after a difficult purchase decision
- Cognitive dissonance is likely when when choices are very similar or the rejected alternative has a desirable features lacking in the chosen alterntive
- Consumers seek reassurance, deny info not in consonance with the choice , look for info that supports the choice (advertising)
- Dissatisfied do not re purchase.....they also generate bad Word-Of-Mouth.
- Marketing Communication must be honest, not create unrealistic expectation
- Follow up communication to reassure / reinforce
Six types of buying roles can be distinguished:
- Initiator : the person who first suggest or thinks of the idea of buying the particular category
- Influencer: the person whose views influence other members while making the final decision
- Decider: the person who decides any part of the entire buying decision - whether to buy, what to buy, how to buy and where to buy
- Buyer : the person who performs the physical act of buying. or does the paperwork
- User: the person who consumes or uses the product
- Gatekeeper : the person(s) who controls the information or access, or both to decision makers and influencers
Consumers Adoption Process of New Categories
This is a five stage process
Awareness - Interest - Evaluation - Trial - Adoption.
Five categories can be distinguished across geographical markets and product categories:
- Innovators : 2.5% - cosmopolitan and networked, low risk aversion, courageous and usually well off
- Early adopters : 13.5% - localized, opinion leaders, missionaries, role models, respected.
- Early Majority : 34% - high interaction, deliberate, non-leaders
- Late Majority : 34% - social / peer pressure, economic / social necessity, sceptical
- Laggards : 16% - past oriented, way behind, isolated, suspicious of changes
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
The Consumer Market comprises all individuals and households who buy or acquire goods and services for personal consumption.
- Consumer Buying Behavior refers to the buying behavior of final consumers (individuals & households) who buy goods and services for personal consumption.
- We need to understand consumer behavior to answer the question: “How do consumers respond to marketing efforts the company might use?”
THE BUYING DECISION PROCESS
The Buying Decision Process comprises five steps:
- Need recognition
- Information search
- Evaluation of alternatives
- Purchase decision
- Post purchase behavior / evaluation
FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Personal Factors
- Age – linked to the types of products (categories) that people buy and use
- Life cycle stage – see details given below
- Occupation – certain occupations require people to buy and consume specific products such as types of apparel, accessories, equipment etc
- Economic situation – linked to the price people can afford to pay, and hence categories that are purchased and the brands that are selected within those categories
- Personality & Self Concept – see details given below
- Life style identification – linked to occupation, economic situation etc
Life Cycle Stages
- Single / Bachelor: not living at home; low total income but high discretionary income, few financial burdens; influenced by peer reference groups; buy basic furniture, kitchen items, clothes, vehicles, accessories…
- Newly Married Couples: young, no kids; financially better than they will be in near future; buy vehicles, durables, holidays, insurance, financial products…
- Full Nest I: youngest child under six; low savings, low liquid assets; spending focused on children’s needs; may purchase homes
- Full Nest II: youngest child over six; improved financial position, wives may resume earning; children’s needs still dominate spending
- Full Nest III: older couples with dependent children; older children at work / higher education; more wives earning; buy expensive furniture, holidays, durables
- Empty Nest I: older married couple , no children at home; head of family still employed, income at highest level, low expenses; home ownership at peak; buy luxuries, home improvements, recreation, travel, self education
- Empty Nest II: older married couple , no children at home; head of family retired, significant decrease in income, concern about savings, pensions; spend on medical care, health, some hobbies & pastimes
- Solitary Survivor: still working, income adequate; worries about savings, security, dependence; may sell family home and buy smaller property; spend on some pastimes
- Solitary Survivor, Retired: significant cut in income; high medical expense; need attention, affection, assistance in personal & financial affairs
Personality & Self Concept
- Personality: a set of distinguishing human psychological traits that leads to relatively consistent and enduring responses to environmental stimuli, including buying behaviour.
- Personality: often described in terms of self confidence, dominance, deference, sociability, defensiveness, adaptability…
- Personality can be a useful factor in analysing brand choices – consumer likely to select brands whose personalities match their own
- Brand Personality: a specific mix of human traits that can be attribute to a specific brand: sincere, exciting, sophisticated, rugged, competent…
- Actual Self Concept: how we perceive ourselves
- Ideal Self Concept: how we would like to view ourselves
- Others’ Self Concept: how we think others see us.
Psychological Factors
- Motivation: a need becomes a motive when it is strong enough to propel us to act, to seek satisfaction
- Perception: process by which we select, organize and interpret information to form a picture of the world
- Learning: changes in behavior arising from experience
- Beliefs: a descriptive thought about something
- Attitudes: consistent / enduring favorable / unfavorable evaluations, feelings, and tendencies towards something
Family
The family is the most important consumer buying unit in any society or market in terms of the variety of the item purchased.and volumes. Family members are usually the most important or influential primary reference groups regarding consumption patterns.
The family of orientation consists of parents and siblings who have a strong influence on consumptions habits that lasts a lifetime while the family of procreation comprises the spouse and children where the issue of dominance and influence of purchases and consumption patterns need to be analyzed and understood by marketers.
Reference Groups
- Reference group: group of people with whom a person associates and who influence that person's attitudes, values, behavior, consumption habits. Membership groups are those that have a direct influence.
- A primary group consists of people with whom an individual has continuous informal interaction, such as family, friends, neighbors, colleagues.
- Secondary groups comprise religious bodies, professional associations, trade unions, etc
- Aspirational groups are those a person hopes to join.
- A dissociative group is one whose values or behavior a person rejects and hence tends to avoid such people and groups.
Social Role & Status
- Role: Activites a person is expected to perform
- Status : Each Role a person is expected to perform
- People select products & Brands that reflect their role and actual / desired status in society
- Marketers need to be aware of the status symbol potential of products and brands
Cultural Factors
- Culture: The fundemantal determinant of a person's want's and behavoir acquired through socialization processes with the family and other key institutions - it comprises a set of values, knowledge perceptions, preferences, etc.
- Sub-Culture: susbset of culture, comprising of sub-groups of Individuals who have similar value and behavior patterns within the group but differ from those in other sub-groups - religions, racial groups, special interest groups, etc .
- Social Class: Relatively homogeneous, enduring divisions in society, hierarchically ordered with members sharing the same values, interests, behavior.
How To Build A Successful Brand
In today's International Business World, it is more difficult to compete successfully and ultimately provide return to the investor's. The Challenge seems to overwhelming especially with many corporations working on a quarter to quarter basis for a fear of negative reactions from the stock market and stockholder.
Thus a number of companies small and large, strategically are attempting to build a brand for their companies. Why? Because a product can be imitated but a Brand cannot. The pressure of day to day to business, with a focus on volume, force many company into commodity business and they compete on price. The proliferation of competitors, short term objectives and opportunity to invest elsewhere also make it difficult to invest in building brands plus internal bias against innovations and changing strategies add to the complexity . And today's fragmented media and market, plus the complexities of creating branding strategies and relationship makes the process extremely difficult , if not impossible.
Thus a process has to be developed that creates a team...a team leader, time line, a time table and a budget to accomplish the objective.
Building a brand takes commitment, focus and three to five years of complimentary programmes. It is just not an advertising programme, It is company wide-effort that unifies everyone's energies, towards the same common objective.
There are number of approaches to building a Brand. The one that Harley Davidson used back in early 1980's was simple. It was easy to understand and thus communicable to various tagets.
Simply three basic questions were asked, analyzed, defined, redrafted and then put to work. But the work five years to do. Each year a different programme was launched to develop foundation for the brand.
It took dedication and focus of limited resources to execute the various strategies in the different functions of the company. Each department had to take it's turn, develop it's plan and execute a defined strategy.
But first the three strategic questions?
Who are We?
Who are our Customer's?
What do they expect from us?
Who are we?
Is your company a house of several brands, or is your company branded house with sub brands? What does your company do? Provide a service, promote a cause, build a product or create a lifestyle? Whatever it, is your statement of who you are should differentiate yourself from your competitors.
At Harley-Davidson, it was simply put "Harley-Davidson builds big beautiful American Motorcycles."It does not build mopeds, or dirt bikes or small commuters bikes. The styling is uniquely custom, classic in design, with an evolutionary strategy not a revolutionary product development cycle that competitors had, with new design, new engines, and new product every year. The lines are smooth, with curves and shapes, and each part has a simple function. And the bikes are built in America by American craftsmen, engineers and most of all real motorcyclist. We ride with you they don't.
(Clyde Fessler is the former vice president, business development, Harley Davidson Motor Company)
(Clyde Fessler is the former vice president, business development, Harley Davidson Motor Company)
Who are our Customers?
This is one of the most difficult aspects of the process. Are they the people who buy our products now, and how many of them are there? Or is our customers someone who aspires to the brand what is stands for, and wants to be included? Is our definition going to be exclusive or inclusive to show the potential where we are going and whom we want to reach?
The analysis of the customer should understand the trends in the marketplace, the motivation behind the buying process, the unmet needs of the customer and the subtle differences in the segmentation.
Another important aspect in creating a brand statement is understanding your competitor's brand, if it has one. What is its image, what does it stand for? Every company has strengths and weaknesses.
A SWOT analysis of each competitor should indicate what its strategies are. If you are deep enough, its vulnerability will eventually surface. Taking the time, being disciplined and involving the tam will bring surprising results. Then, start all over and do the same for your company.
A thorough self analysis is where the real fun begins. Internal SWOT analysis will open eyes.But, really understanding your brand image, your traditions, your heritage and above all your company values, will not only help you craft a brand statement, but will also help your company discover your potential and what capabilities are to reach your target audience.
What do they expect from you?
Believe it or not this easiest part of the process. If you have done the homework, the expectations should flow from your findings. Understanding your brand identity and what it means to your customer, is another way of addressing it.
Each brand has its own personality, a relationship with the customer. Defining your company as an organisation, and understanding what it brings to the table, all contribute to what some refer to as the value preposition. Simply put: what are the benefits, both functional and emotional, that the brand gives to the customer?
Now comes the most difficult part...identifying the potential programmes that will build the foundation for the brand, priorities them, create a time table, allocate the resources and communicate and execute the plan. Do one programme a year, take five, six or seven years to do it. Do it slowly. do it right and most of all...stay on the strategy.
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