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| The Buyer Decision Process for New Products |
Much depends on the nature of the buyer,
the product, and the buying situation.
We now look at how buyers approach the
purchase of new products. A new product is a good, service, or idea that is
perceived by some potential customers as new.
It may have been around for a while, but
our interest is in how consumers learn about products for the first time and
make decisions on whether to adopt them. We define the adoption process as
"the mental process through which an individual passes from first learning
about an innovation to final adoption and adoption as the decision by an
individual to become a regular user of the product
Stages in the Adoption Process
Consumers go through five stages in the
process of adopting a new product:
1. Awareness. The consumer becomes aware
of the new product but lacks information about it.
2. Interest. The consumer seeks
information about the new product. 3. Evaluation. The consumer considers
whether trying the new product makes sense.
4. Trial. The consumer tries the new
product on a small scale to improve his or her estimate of its value.
5. Adoption. The consumer decides to make
full and regular use of the new product. This model suggests that the
new-product marketer should think about how to help consumers move through
these stages. A manufacturer of large-screen televisions may discover that many
consumers in the interest stage do not move to the trial stage because of
uncertainty and the large investment. If these same consumers would be willing
to use a large-screen television on a trial basis for a small fee, the
manufacturer should consider offering a trial-use plan with an option to buy
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Individual Differences in Innovativeness
People
differ greatly in their readiness to try new products. In each product area,
there are 'consumption pioneers' and early adopters. Other individuals adopt
new products much later This has led to a classification of people into the
adopter categories.
After a
slow start, an increasing number of people adopt the new product.
The number
of adopters reaches a peak and then drops off as fewer non-adopters remain.
Innovators
are defined as the first 2.5 percent of the buyers to adopt a new idea (those
beyond two standard deviations from mean adoption time); the early adopters are
the next 13.5 percent (between one and two standard deviations); and so forth.
The five
adopter groups have differing values. Innovators are adventurous: they try new
ideas at some risk. Early adopters are guided by respect: they are opinion
leaders in their community and adopt new ideas early but carefully.
The early
majority is deliberate: although they are rarely leaders, they adopt new ideas
before the average person.
The late
majority is skeptical: they adopt an innovation only after most people have
tried it.
Finally,
laggards are tradition hounds: they are suspicious of changes and adopt the
innovation only when it has become something of a tradition itself. This
adopter classification suggests that an innovating firm should research the
characteristics of innovators and early adopters and should direct marketing
efforts to them.
For
example, home computer innovators have been found to be middle-aged and higher
in income and education than non-innovators and they tend to be opinion
leaders.
They also
tend to be more rational, more introverted, and less social. In general,
innovators tend to be relatively younger, better educated, and higher in income
than later adopters and non-adopters.
They are more receptive to unfamiliar things,
rely more on their own values and judgment, and are more willing to take risks.
They are less brand loyal and more likely to
take advantage of special promotions such as discounts, coupons, and samples.
Manufacturers
of products and brands subject to strong group influence must find out how to reach
the opinion leaders in the relevant reference groups.
Opinion
leaders are people within a reference group who, because of special skills,
knowledge, personality, or other characteristics, exert influence on others.
Opinion leaders are found in all strata of society and one person may be an
opinion leader in certain product areas and an opinion follower in others.
Marketers try to identify the personal characteristics of opinion leaders for
the products, determine what media they use, and direct messages to them.
In some
cases, marketers try to identify opinion leaders for their products and direct
marketing efforts toward them.
This often
occurs in the music industry, where clubs and radio DJs are influential. In
other cases, advertisements can simulate opinion leadership, showing informal
discussions between people and thereby reducing the need for consumers to seek
advice from others. For example, in a recent ad for Herrera for Men cologne,
two women discuss the question, 'Did you ever notice how good he smells?'
The reason? 'He wears the most wonderful
cologne.'4 " If Anna Flores buys a camera, both the product and the brand
will be visible to others whom she respects. Her decision to buy the camera and
her brand choice may therefore be influenced strongly by opinion leaders, such
as friends who belong to a photography club.
Influence of Product Characteristics on Rate of Adoption
The
characteristics of the new product affect its rate of adoption. Some products
catch on almost overnight (Virtual Pets), whereas others take a long time to
gain acceptance (Digital TV).
Five
characteristics are especially important in influencing an innovation's rate of
adoption.
For example, consider the characteristics of
the Minidisc in relation to the rate of adoption:
• Relative
advantage: the degree to which the innovation appears superior to existing
products. The greater the perceived relative advantage of using a Minidisc over
a cassette - say, it does not tangle or lose quality - the sooner Minidiscs will
be adopted.
•
Compatibility: the degree to which the innovation fits the values and
experiences of potential consumers. Minidiscs, for example, are highly
compatible with an active lifestyle.
•
Complexity: the degree to which the innovation is difficult to understand or
use. CDs have already introduced customers to the benefits of digital
recordings, so the idea no longer seems complex.
• Divisibility: the degree to which the
innovation may be tried on a limited basis. Minidiscs have a problem here. They
require a big investment if people are to replace their in-home, in-car, and
on-street music systems. And what if the technology changes again?
• Communicability:
the degree to which the results of using the innovation can be observed or
described to others. The benefits of Minidiscs are easy to demonstrate on a
hi-fi system, but are the differences big enough to show in a car or a Walkman?
Other characteristics influence the rate of adoption, such as initial and
ongoing costs, risk and uncertainty, social approval, and the efforts of opinion
leaders. The new-product marketer has to research all these factors when
developing the new product and its marketing program.
Consumer Behavior Across International Borders
Understanding consumer behavior is
difficult enough for companies marketing in a single country.
For companies operating in many countries,
however, understanding and serving the needs of consumers is daunting. Although
consumers in different countries may have some things in common, their values,
attitudes, and behaviors often vary greatly.
International marketers must understand
such differences and adjust their products and marketing programs accordingly.
Sometimes the differences are obvious. For
example, in the UK, where most people eat cereal regularly for breakfast,
Kellogg focuses its marketing on persuading consumers to select a Kellogg's
brand rather than a competitor's brand.
In France, however, where most people
prefer croissants and coffee or no breakfast at all, Kellogg's advertising
simply attempts to convince people that they should eat cereal for breakfast.
Its packaging includes step-by-step
instructions on how to prepare cereal. In India, where many consumers eat
heavy, fried breakfast and 22 percent of consumers skip the meal altogether,
Kellogg's advertising attempts to convince buyers to switch to a lighter, more
nutritious breakfast diet.41 Often, differences across international markets
are subtler.
They may result from physical differences
in consumers and their environments. For example, Remington makes smaller
electric shavers to fit the smaller hands of Japanese consumers; and
battery-powered shavers for the British market, where some bathrooms have no
electrical outlets. Other differences result from varying customs. Consider the
following examples:
• Shaking your head from side
to side means 'no' in most countries but 'yes' in Bulgaria and Sri Lanka.
• In South America, southern Europe, and
many Arab countries, touching another person is a sign of warmth and
friendship. In the Orient, it is considered an invasion of privacy.
• In Norway or Malaysia, it's rude to leave something on your plate when eating; in Egypt, it's rude not to leave something on your plate.
• A door-to-door
salesperson might find it tough going in Italy, where it is improper for a man
to call on a woman if she is home alone.42 Failing to understand such
differences in customs and behaviors from one country to another can spell
disaster for a marketer's international products and programs. Marketers must
decide on the degree to which they will adapt their products and marketing programs
to meet the unique cultures and needs of consumers in various markets. On the
one hand, they want to standardize their offerings in order to simplify
operations and take advantage of cost economies. On the other hand, adapting
marketing efforts within each country results in products and programs that
better satisfy the needs of local consumers.
The question of whether to adapt or
standardize the marketing mix across international markets has created a lively
debate in recent years
Summary
Markets have to be understood before
marketing strategies can be developed. The consumer market buys goods and
services for personal consumption. Consumers vary tremendously in age, income,
education, tastes, and other factors.
Marketers must understand how consumers
transform marketing and other inputs into buying responses.
Consumer behavior is influenced by the buyer's
characteristics and by the buyer's decision process.
Buyer characteristics include four main
factors: cultural, social, personal, and psychological. Culture is the most
basic determinant of a person's wants and behavior.
It includes the basic values, perceptions,
preferences, and behaviors that a person learns from family and other key
institutions. Marketers try to track cultural shifts that might suggest new
ways to serve customers.
Social classes are subcultures whose
members have similar social prestige based on occupation, income, education,
wealth, and other variables.
People with the different cultural, subculture and social class characteristics have different product and brand preferences.
Social factors also influence a buyer's behavior.
A person's reference groups - family,
friends, social organizations, and professional associations - strongly affect
product and brand choices. The person's position within each group can be
defined in terms of role and status. A buyer chooses products and brands that
reflect his or her role and status.
The buyer's age, life-cycle stage,
occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle, personality, and other personal
characteristics and psychological factors influence his or her buying
decisions.
Young consumers have different needs and
want from older consumers; the needs of young married couples differ from
those of retired people; consumers with higher incomes buy differently from
those who have less to spend. Before planning its marketing strategy, a company
needs to understand its consumers and the decision processes they go through.
The number of buying participants and the
amount of buying effort increase with the complexity of the buying situation.
There are three types of buying decision
behavior: routine response behavior, limited problem solving find extensive
problem-solving.
In
buying something, the buyer goes through a decision process consisting of need
recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and postpurchase behavior.
The marketer's job is to understand the
buyers' behavior at each stage and the influences that are operating.
This allows the marketer to develop a
significant and effective marketing program for the target market.
With regard to new products, consumers
respond at different rates, depending on the consumer's characteristics and the
product's characteristics.
Manufacturers try to bring their new
products to the attention of potential early adopters, particularly those with
opinion leader characteristics.
A person's buying behavior is the result
of the complex interplay of all these cultural, social, personal, and
psychological factors.
Although marketers cannot control many of
these factors, they are useful in identifying and understanding the consumers
that marketers are trying to influence.
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