Buyer behavior & integrated marketing Essay

Briefly summarize the marketing problem/issue you have researched, and provide a brief, but multi dimensional profile of the target market. The problems on which this assignment focuses on is how can an organization understand and influence the demands and needs of a consumer by using consumer decision making model and the a decision sequence model which helps an organization define a set sequence in order to plan for its marketing and promotional strategy. The company that has been researched upon in the research paper is Automobili Lamborghini S. p. A that has recently launched its new SUV in the market which also happens to be the first SUV car from the company. The car is known is Lamborghini SUV and there are a lot of things that need to be taken care of when introducing and marketing the car in automobile arena. A consumer decision model will help the company in order to see how a particular group of consumers decides for a particular commodity. What are their preferences, their expectations, how can they be attracted, what is their taste, how well do they memorize a certain product, their loyalties to a particular brand, their interpretation from a product or marketing strategy and the knowledge that they possess. A consumer consciously or unconsciously using all these factors when going to buy a product thus in the case of Lamborghini SUV the consumer will again question himself on the above mentioned grounds (MacKenzie 1986). As given in the research done on the company, the main problems that the company tends to identify from the consumer behavior are; 1. What is the product 2. What is the target market 3. What are the substitutes 4. How does the price and value for money are correlated 5. Is the product a luxury item 6. What sort of a decision sequence model can be used Here is a brief answer to all of the questions mentioned above. As we all know that the product is a luxury SUV that is being marketed for the first time by the company, the company has to target to a specific group with specific characteristics. These people are supposed to be well to do by having good executive level jobs or running businesses and having a family of 2 to 3 persons. This suggests that the targeted customer should be more then 35 years of age but not more than 45 because that goes beyond the sporty and speedy characteristics of the car. The sport and speedy characteristics of the car open two marketing and targeting corridors for the company, that are, 1. executives and managing directors, (as discussed above) and 2. The existing sports cars clients who will then be filtered for having or not having a taste for a sports SUV. The problem is that the product that is in question in the research is quite expensive and thus it is not at all like marketing coke. Customers need to be educated and informed about the value and worth of the product that should be other than the actual cost price of the car (Bettman 1975). With reference to Blackwell, Miniard and Engel analytical framework, analyze the likely buying behavior of your target market, in terms of degree of problem solving, and identify the probable influences on this decision process. You should also identify any issues related to the information processing aspect, as this will inform task 3 With reference to Blackwell, Miniard and Engel, the decision of any consumer is based upon and involves two or more products that are substitutes to each other. For example a consumer might choose between going out for a movie or staying at home, for this matter going to movie and staying at home will serve to be as substitutes to each other. Similarly, in this of Lamborghini, the consumers have a range of choices. These choices include other sporty SUV’s that already in the market by competitor brands like BMW, Mercedes, Chrysler and others. Thus Lamborghini should look into the matter that what do consumers want in an SUV, how and what characteristics they should highlight to attract their customers. Blackwell, Miniard and Engel advocate the fact that there are a number of cognitive processes going on in a consumer mind while he makes purchase decisions. These cognitive decisions can be identified as consumer knowledge about the market and the product, beliefs and memories about information that a consumer gathers from marketing and promotional activities going on around them, their cognitive process of comprehension and lastly their integration cognitive process in which a consumer evaluates two or more choices and short lists to one final choice. This choice is made on the basis of certain behavioral decisions, thus the decision making process of a consumer can also be regarded as their decision plan. A Cognitive Process Model of Consumer Decision Making Lamborghini should keep in mind that its consumers will gather most of the information from their surroundings. Apart from their own marketing campaign, the consumers consciously and unconsciously are gaining information about the sporty cars, their models, information about other brands, performance of other SUV’s that come I the same category of sporty cars and much more. Consumers are exposed to TV shows, magazines, discussions and even get to see these products live at show rooms that they already a lot about the car. However, a marketer should always keep in mind that in order to attract a customer and give him what he wants, the product should be marketed in such a way that the consumer directly notices what he wants in the product without him being analyzing and comparing with other brands(Roberts 2000). The marketing campaign should highlight the characteristics of the product itself in the marketing campaign rather than letting the customer gather the information on his own that can also lead to possibilities that the customer may not be able to find those characteristics on his own. Same goes for Lamborghini, the company must market the new SUV in such a way that it highlights both its sporty nature and its symbol of power of status in order to cater both the target markets that have already been identified in the previous section. Moreover a company must also see into how do different consumers tend to interpret the information and marketing material that is made available to the customers. This data must be designed in such a way that it is not contrary to any sort of a customer because every potential customer might interpret the information in line with his own preferences and tastes. For example, those customers who are business and corporate executives want the car to be a status symbol for them, thus a campaign should not only cater the racing and sport nature of the car because that will leave an informal image over the formal and status conscious customers. Thus the interpretation of customers should also be taken into account by Lamborghini when coming up with a marketing plan. Moreover Lamborghini should introduce the product in the market that it leaves a lasting impression in the memory of the potential consumers. This is because the consumers that Lamborghini is planning to target are the ones who will not think about whether to buy or not to buy a product. They will tend to go to buy only when they need to buy a product. For this they must have an image of Lamborghini in their minds that they can recall when they feel the need for a product. Moreover, as the product that Lamborghini is marketing is a product that the consumers do not buy very quickly due to its price, thus over this decision making plan and process of the consumers, Lamborghini should also provide the consumers with new information and characteristics of the car in order to renew the old information in the minds of consumers along with keeping them more informed and updated about the product. This can easily be done with a planned marketing campaign through which new information and strategies can be implemented as soon as the company feels the need to implement them(Moner 1973). The integration and evaluation process is stored in a consumer’s memory and thus most of the time it is seen that these evaluations then tend to turn into attitudes and beliefs of a consumer. These beliefs and attitude are of both the natures, they can be changed and at times they cannot be changed. Thus the marketer need to focus on these beliefs and attitudes because basically these are the factors that influence a customer’s intension in his decision making process. Thus Lamborghini can use this information of customer in many ways that is; they can analyze why brand loyal consumers go for a certain brand, why do they hate another brand and what are their beliefs and attitudes towards the product if they don’t go with it. For example, some customers might be loyal to Lamborghini sedan cars and they might not go for an SUV because they might think that they are not that fast s the sedan, hence, the Lamborghini can use this information by educating its customers and potential target market that the Lamborghini SUV is as fast as a normal sedan and can highlight extra advantages of the SUV then the normal sedan. The company can also market its muscular look and powerful attributes in order to attract those customers who are looking for sporty SUV’s due to status symbol both in an out of the office, that is in the corporate world and when traveling with a family(Woodside 1992).