Week 6

As the weeks go on, my knowledge of how to market a product expands. This week we elaborated on four questions you ask yourself to see if you have the criteria for a good market. We continued our discussion on Phone-soap and applied these four questions to that specific product. Let's break it down. I am going to go through each step of the marketing process using Phone-soap, and then relating it back to our Smart Project.

Figure out your pain-point. This means that there is a "bug" or issue in this world that is relevant to our society and that is the purpose your product will have- to diminish the negative effects or to eliminate the obstacle altogether. For Phone-soap, the pain-point is germs. Germs are a way of life, but this company is trying to make your phone clean, for it is a product whose sanitation is often disregarded. For our smart project, OK TO DRIVE, we discussed that our "bug" is drinking and driving. This causes many accidents, injuries and deaths and my group thinks that this is a pain-point worth solving.

Next, we need to see if there is interest. We can do that in a variety of ways. The main way to receive information on the interest of your industry or product is through data collection. One way of collecting this information is through primary data. Primary data is information that is collected for the first time; used for solving the particular problem under investigation. Primary data is advantageous because it can answer specific questions related to a certain study in which secondary data could not answer already. That brings up the second type of data collection. Secondary data is data previously collected for any purpose other than the one at hand. For example, PRIZM, IBIS World and Marketresearch.com provide future entrepreneurs, and the rest of the business world, access to their previous findings. This can be extremely helpful because it saves the time and hassle of individualizing the data collected to that specific study when some of the questions could potentially be generalized. Some may ask what the demographic is in a certain area, or what industry is seen as most popular- this information would not change whether it was research taken for Phone-soap, for OK TO DRIVE, or for any other company trying to introduce a new product. This data can be collected in a multitude of ways. Popular ways of collecting data are through focus groups, open-ended questions, scaled response questions, and closed-ended questions.

After taking data about the interest of your product, it is important to look at the market. This has the same, if not more, importance as the product itself. If you do not have anyone to buy your product, then your company is worthless. It needs a market.

The first step to determining if you have the criteria for a good market is determining the size. Is your product potentially a Margin Business, or is it potentially a Volume Business? A margin business is an instance in which there are some people willing to pay a lot of money for a product. An example of this is people buying clothes at Nordstrom. The clothes are quite expensive there, but they make business by having a big enough consumer market, while selling their products for a high price. On the other hand, volume business is where a large amount of people are willing to pay something for it. An example of this is people buying their goods at Walmart. Walmart is cheap, but because so many people buy from there, they produce enough revenue to continue to be successful. For Phone-soap, this was a big concern for Mr.Wonderful. He said that there are not enough people in this world that are willing to pay for a product like this. He though that anal, clean-freaks would be attracted to this product, but simply stated that the market is not large enough. Without a substantial size of consumers, the product will go nowhere. For OK TO DRIVE, I ask myself the same question. Will there be enough people to invest in this product? Some may be reluctant to join forces with our OK TO DRIVE team, but hopefully safety of our surrounding communities will prevail.

The second step is to determine whether your company or product is identifiable and/or measurable. Is your product Business to Business sales, or is it Business to consumer sales? This is a huge question in determining if you have a good market, for it is determining what type of market it is in the first place. There are three different processes for each type of market. For B to B Processes, they are known as (1) New Buy, (2) Re-Buy, and (3) Modified Re-buy. This is referring to companies buying the product to use for their company instead of individual use. The company could either introduce a brand new product for use in their own business. They could re-buy a product that they are used to using and find as a necessity. And lastly, they could re-buy a modified product of something they already use. For example, they see the need for the product, but perhaps the brand they used last time caused problems or had defects, so now they are re-buying the product but modifying their purchase by investing with a new company. For B to C Processes, the three are known as (1) Routine Behavior Response, (2) Limited Decision Making, and (3) Extensive Decision Making. These are not as complex as B to B processes because B to B has to go through multiple channels of headquarters before investing in a product due to its effect on the company as a whole. It does not get as complex for an individual because it is not affecting a huge population by investing in a product. What type of market is Phone-soap? Is it B to B, or is it B to C?? Good question. Even the sharks on Shark Tank could not come to a unanimous consensus. Mark Cuban believed that Phone-soap would be the most useful if sold as a B to B product. He envisioned that Hospitals, schools, doctors offices, nursing homes etc., would be interested in using this product for their own profit. For example, a hospital would charge a sanitation fee and require patients and visitors to put their phone in the cleaning device as a way to promote a germ-free environment. Lori, another shark, disagreed. She believed that individuals would enjoy this product and could see it as useful. She would advertise the product on her go-to business, QVC, to sell to individual consumers. Phone-soap could go either way, but what is OK TO DRIVE's market? Is it B to B, or is it B to C?? From the start, we have determined this would be a B to B product. Although it may be complex, we find that it could be extremely helpful in businesses. Our main goal is to have Restaurants, bars, and event venues purchase this product and make it a policy to abide by through using their venue. After watching this episode of Shark Tank and seeing the controversy over B to B and B to C markets, I've realized that our rental of our product at a smaller scale, for house parties and one time events, would be considered B to C. For the most part though, OK TO DRIVE would be a B to B market.

Next we need to determine if that market is accessible. Now that you've determined who they are, how can you get your product to them? How can you introduce this product in their minds and make them want to buy it? This has a lot to do with the location of your market, and how you will disperse your product. Will you establish a website to sell your product online? Will you sell your product in the stores? How many stores and in what locations? These are the questions to ask yourself before jumping into the release of your product and company. For Phone-soap, Lori provides an accessible route through her advertisements on QVC. For OK TO DRIVE, this is where things become more complex. We would need contacts with authority figures, as well as event venues to get this out on the market. That is what is tricky about a B to B market.

Lastly, what is the response of your product? The value of your product determines what type of response you will get from your market. A big requirement of your product is that it needs to cater to the needs of the consumer. If you do not interest or provide a solution to a problem, then there is no purpose. With no purpose or need, you have no value. And with no value, comes a response that you will not want to hear.

These are four very important concepts to think of when determining if your market meets the criteria for a good market. A good market and just a plain old market are two very different things, and if one of these four criterion is not met, then you are less likely to be successful. This was very helpful for me to break things down step by step, and I hope that as the weeks go on, I can reflect back to this post to augment my knowledge of marketing concepts. It is especially important to connect ideas from the textbook, Shark Tank, and what we discuss in class, all back to our smart projects. Our smart projects are ways to get a hands on experience with these concepts and will help us apply these theories to experience.

Sorry it is long :)

Week 5

On Tuesday, we did a gallery walk of our mind maps and of our advertisements for Bambooee.  As the weeks go on, the mind maps become more and more detailed, and start to leave the organization of the textbook chapter notes. Additionally, we were told to make advertisements based on our market segment. When looking around at all the advertisements, it is interesting how the market segments clustered together. As we presented our individual advertisements to the class, you could see how some matched up and were seen as similar, whereas some were so diverse which changed the entire mission of the ad. We learned that market segmentation is based on a variety of factors: 

1) Demographics

2) Age
3) Monetary Income
4) Family Life Cycle
5) Geography
 6)Psychographics 

All of these factors add up to the overall importance between market segmentation, and can help businesses target their product and market it to a specific group. For example, some of the students in the class had a wealthy class who liked to go out and party, lived in an urban setting, and few had children. For those advertisements, some of the students symbolized a mess through a spilt wine glass and emphasized on how Bambooee could help them clean up after their parties quickly and efficiently. Considering they are not tight on budget, it would be rare for them to be looking at cost as a major decision maker. However, the market segment that I promoted Bambooee for was a low income family who struggles to make ends meet. They might not go for an advertisement about how this product cleans up after a lavish party, for that is why I focused on cost with this group. Either group may not have been attracted nor interested in the product if the marketing of it did not relate to their circumstances, and that is why segmentation is so important!!

On Thursday, we had a joint class with the Engineering students to reflect on our progress with the Smart Project. This was an interesting day for me because I had a softball recruit and was supposed to be showing her what a typical class is like at Western New England University, but this class is not the least bit ordinary. Nevertheless, she was very interested in the class. I liked how she helped my group with our post its for other groups. It was good to see an outside perspective. We all know each others' products now, so we have become biased to what we like and what we do not like; or what we would buy versus what we would not buy. So for someone who had never been introduced to these products, it was nice to see her reaction and she provided great feedback even though she has not taken an engineering or marketing course before; for it was strictly based on her consumer institution. 

Each group presented their revised point of view statement, their three final concept solutions and their ideas for logos. As a class, we were able to walk around and make comments on which type of logo we preferred and if the concept solutions matched our vision of fixing that specific bug. Overall, I think our class did a very nice job. It was quite evident that each of the groups worked hard on making their product vision understanding for their audience. As I walked around, I tried to use the knowledge I have obtained from Shark Tank and the textbook to evaluate my peers. For example, I noticed that one of the products our class is creating is a Trend product. If they were trying to go public with this product, then it would not be a company to invest in. Additionally I noticed some products do not necessarily have a huge target market. So, their chances of going public with this product may happen, but the results may be dissatisfying, Although that is not the purpose of the Smart Project, as we are not doing this for our own monetary success, it is important to notice as we continue on in the course and become apart of the business world. It is helpful to point these things out as we learn them so we can retain the information we are reading about. If I was not utilizing my knowledge from the Textbook and Shark Tank, well, then this would probably be pointless. 

After we got our comments from the class, we were able to reflect on those comments as a group and then address the audience. Some of the questions and concerns we received were just a means of miscommunication. For example, we got a question on if someone else could take the breathalyzer test for someone else. No, for that is why we have a fingerprint scanner and why bars have bouncers to check for suspicious activity occurring. We received some comments on our logo, and on what type of concept we should go with. That was great to hear about because sometimes when you are so close to something, you cannot see the big picture. For example, we thought our logo is great. We thought that we didn't even need to work on it, but most of the people did not like it. This means we need to evaluate ourselves in an unbiased way in order to make our idea the most successful it can be. I appreciated the constructive criticism we received, and I look forward to utilizing that in our final concept solution and final logo. 

Our next OK TO DRIVE team meeting is on Monday, where the engineers will focus on combining the positive components of each concept solution, and the business students will be looking for new ways to market our product through the logo.

Week 4

  

Routine Response Behavior

Brand Loyalty 

Even though we did not have class on Thursday due to the snow, we still have a lot of work to do!

On Tuesday, we got into groups and discussed our blog posts from the previous week. In that group, we talked about the best example of a product for each type of  consumer making decision. As an entire class, we reviewed our examples and Professor Spotts helped us determine that some of us were confused between Brand Loyalty and Routine Response Behavior. Each of  these require a different level of research due to its varying levels of risk. So, a routine response behavior product would be a candy bar. There is little risk associated with a candy bar. It is only approximately $1 or $2, so if you do not like it, then you can easily throw it out and go on with your day. It will not be a huge loss because you did not risk that much money on it, but you will know not to buy that brand of candy bar the next time. On the other hand, Brand Loyalty is slightly more risky. We discussed in class about how buying a pair of cleats is decent investment. It is not too expensive, but it is expensive enough that if you do not like the product, you are going to suck it up and deal with it until you cannot get anymore use out of the product. So, let's say I buy a pair of Under Armour cleats. I hate them. They are awful. I have blisters, my feet hurt. and I feel like I cannot perform well in this brand of cleats. My mom says to suck it up. She just spent $50 or more on cleats for me to use, and she does not want to pay for another pair unless they are completely falling apart. A year later, when I have to buy cleats again,, I know not to invest in Under Armour footwear. Instead, I will put a little more time and effort into determining what I like, and I will make my next purchase based on past experiences. The next year, I find that I love the feel of Nike cleats. What do you think I am going to do the next year, and years after that? I'm going to buy Nike cleats! They provided me with the service I needed after I had a horrible experience with Under Armour, and now I am LOYAL to them. I do not need to look for any more brands, for I have found one that suits my needs. It may have been a risk before, but now I will not second guess my decision to purchase Nike products because they suited my needs in the past.

Additionally, we learned about a new product called Bambooee. They came onto the show Shark Tank and presented their product hoping to have a Shark come on board. Their product was a reusable towel that was not made out of cloth or paper, but instead it was made out of Bamboo. It was seen to be much more durable, and was also seen as an environmentally friendly product. For every roll of Bambooee sold, the company vowed to plant a tree. Now, in my opinion, I find this to be a hassle. First of all, I think it is disgusting. If I am wiping up excess food and germs, the last thing I want to do is put that in my washer machine with other reusable cloth products. Second of all, what is the difference between this and a regular towel? There isn't one! I am still going to have to wash them just like I would with cloth towels and washcloths, so why would I feel the need to buy Bambooee? Another thing that is going to take up space in my washer and dryer machines? The purpose of paper towels is that they are disposable. Sometimes you are not cleaning up the most pleasant things when you need a paper towel, and sometimes I instantly want to throw it out and never see it again. They serve as sanitary cleaning supplies. They are your best bet for removing germs from your mess, and then from your home altogether by throwing it in the garbage. I know that this "Go Green" mentality is spreading worldwide, but I think that this is going too far. Of course I want our earth to be preserved, but paper towels are an industry that is not going to go away at this point. It is just way too mature of a business to completely disregard it. Additionally, Bambooee is asking people to have access to washers and dryers. You are saving the earth by not wasting paper, but then using electricity to save trees. Wow, which one is better? You are taking one evil and replacing it with another. I see no purpose in this product, and think that even though their overall purpose to be environmentally friendly is great; I do not think that they will achieve their goal through this product.

I personally would not buy this product, so when I was asked to research a specific market segment and advertise the product for that group, I found it to be quite difficult. How could I try to convince others to buy this product, when I do not even think it is relevant myself? We picked market segments out of a hat, and I was randomly assigned "68 Bedrock America." This group was classified as a middle aged group of people, who do not usually have kids, and they have a low income. Additionally, they come from isolated areas. Well, this is tricky. First of all, a low income family probably would not have complete access to a washer or dryer, so perhaps they would get their laundry done at a dry cleaners. Would they want to bring a bag of Bambooee to the cleaners to wash? Probably not. Second of all, they are middle aged. I am not saying that mistakes do not happen, but usually more messes are associated with children. They probably do not purchase as many paper towels as a family with children does. Another aspect is that they are middle aged. The people that have already served half their life do not normally care about the environment. Some do, but it really will not affect them directly if our environment is not pristine. Millennials are the ones who hope to make future generations "go green." Lastly, they are in generally isolated areas. Considering Bambooee is a new product, I am sure that they would be putting their product into largely populated cities and towns, and these people would not necessarily have immediate access to it. With this being said, do you see the predicament I am in? I had to make an advertisement trying to get "68 Bedrock America" to buy Bambooee, but the odds are all against it. I went with the argument for long term savings. Eventually, the prices of Bambooee will provide you with more quantity than multiple rolls of paper towels, which could save you money and the earth.

After making my advertisement, I went into trying to find the location of this market segment. We were instructed to research whether this group of people was populated in Springfield, MA or my hometown. Neither location showed this market segment as a vast majority of their populations. I thought this feature was interesting though. For example, when you are introducing a product to a certain area, you can see if it is worth it to open up branches in those areas before you take the risk. It allows you too see the demographic in each zip code before you make a huge mistake.

All of this can relate back to our smart project. Our "OK TO DRIVE?" product would need careful research and experimentation done in order to see which market segments will feed into this business. It is important to do this type of research on who your market is, and where they are located BEFORE  you release the product to save money and time. I think that by looking up Springfield and my hometown's zip codes, I was able to see who primarily populated those areas, and whether or not they would see our product as a want or need.

Additionally, I was able to use this week to work on my individual Concept Solution for our product. I created a computer generated logo, and sketched out how I believe our product should look. When my group meets, we will discuss our visions and decide how to take action. I am excited to address the problem of drinking and driving not only in my hometown, and surrounding the WNE community, but hopefully projecting that to a worldwide project to be safer while being behind the wheel. I think that each of these lessons that we learn through Shark Tank and through our marketing textbook will help us determine how we want to release our product, how we should advertise, and let us know the overall worth behind this idea.

    
  

Week 3

     This week our textbook reading was about what consumers look for in their product before buying it. Each of us have our own preferences on a variety of products, but we do not necessarily think about how we went about buying that certain item. There is a level of involvement and an extent of information search behind each purchase. This is known as the consumer decision-making process. It is a five step process used by consumers when buying goods or services which involves need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post purchase behavior.

     Limited Decision Making is known as the type of decision making that requires a moderate amount of time for gathering information and deliberating about an unfamiliar brand in a familiar product category. For example, I really like Sharpie pens. I feel comfortable using those pens, and enjoy the way my handwriting looks when I use this type of writing utensil. However, they are more expensive than other pens that are on clearance or just regularly cheaper. You may be thinking.. pens? Is she seriously talking about the price difference between pens? Well, it may just be a couples dollars or cents more, but in my opinion, all pens get the job done. Even though I prefer writing with Sharpie pens, I usually pick the cheaper option and the one that is already at the store I am in.

     Extensive Decision Making is the most complex type of consumer decision making. It is used when buying an unfamiliar, expensive product or an infrequently bought item; and requires use of several criteria for evaluating options, and much time for seeking information. For example, I believe that this type of decision making would be utilized when purchasing an automobile. I have not bought a car before, but this is the type of decision model my parents would use when buying a long term item that comes with quite an expense. I do not know much about cars, nor do I necessarily have a lot of experience with buying such a grand item. I have only driven a couple of cars since having my license, and yes, I do already have my preferences. But, before spending a lot of money on something that will be used for a long time, I will need to put research into this. First, I would go to a car dealership and narrow down my options. This would probably be conducted by performing test drives of each car. After that, I would look at the reviews of each brand, and eliminate any bad reviews. then, I would probably discuss my potential purchase with my family and friends and consider their opinions. Another thing to consider is certain philosophies that were introduced by your family and friends and continued throughout generations. One of them is to buy American branded cars. This is similar to buying locally, to support the country you live in and let the money help the economy of America. My dad enforced this policy in my family, and because of my familiarity with this ideology, I probably will continue doing this when I purchase my own car. See how complex this is? There are a majority of factors that go into such a large investment or purchase. It certainly is not something done on the whim.

     Routine Response Behavior is the type of decision making exhibited by consumers buying frequently purchased, low-cost goods and services; and requires little search and decision time. When I think of a product that I buy through the routine response behavior decision making, I instantly think of paper products. This could be toilet paper, paper towels, or napkins. I do not have preference on any of these product, but I usually pick what is present, convenient, and cheapest. Their value is seen as consistent through a variety of brands. Usually I just buy Bounty paper products. It got the job done the first time so I did not feel the need to change the brand I used.

      Brand loyalty is a practice that is seen as habitual by which a consumer sees very little difference between different brands of the same product. For example, this is shampoo for me. I do not necessarily see a difference in shampoo and conditioner. Usually I just get a brand that I see as a cheaper alternative to overpriced products. I choose the cheapest version because every shampoo cleans your hair. Since I don't have allergies or necessities when it comes to hair care, I just go based on habits in my past.

     Consumer behavior is known as the processes a consumer uses to make purchase decisions, as well as to use and dispose of purchased goods or services; and also includes factors that influence purchase decisions and product use. Four of the techniques behind decision making were already discussed above. A majority of the decision making is based on information. A person's search for data could be based on internal information or external information. Internal information is found through the process of recalling past info stored in the memory. It is often based on personal experiences. External information is found through the process of seeking info in the outside environment. That could be from reviews of other people. It is important to be able to get your data behind a product from a reliable source. A marketing-controlled information source may not be as reliable as a non-marketing-controlled information source. When an information source is marketing controlled, it originates with marketers promoting the product, and with non marketing-controlled information sources, vice versa. It is important to look for information, and research not only the information behind a product, but also where you get that information from. 

     As all of our textbook chapter readings do, these concepts relate to our ability to market our inventions for the Smart Project. We were able to identify issues that may present themselves when creating and marketing our product. Sometimes we have blinders on to our own ideas. We often think that there could be nothing possibly wrong with our ideas. That is not the case. In our joint class, we were able to walk around the room and evaluate our peers Smart Projects. This was very helpful because we were questioned on components of our product that we would have never considered. When I was walking around and looking at other ideas, I also had the ability to provide constructive criticism regarding their product. I was acting as if I was a consumer, and went through the decision making process to see the need and value of the product, and how they would compare to their competitors.

     It is difficult to join an industry and expect to succeed. Keeping your consumers in mind is key. Without extensively researching what the customer wants and needs, there will be no business. "Customer is boss." That is a life lesson for any entrepreneur to learn and accept, because without their customers, they have no one to sell to, and will ultimately make no money. By researching consumer behavior, the company and business will succeed in ways that other businesses won't. Some companies believe that their product trumps all, and that is not necessarily the case. When businesses accept that they are not the ones in charge, they will attain continuous success.