“We Are What We Have”

“It’s a simple concept, and a basic premise of consumer behaviour. But, it has boggled the minds of the best psychologists, sociologists, consumer behaviourists, advertisers and marketers for half a century at the least. For, as it turns out now, this simple concept is really a combination of two others. Not only what we are seen to be (the “me” concept), we are also what is seen to be ours (the “mine” concept). It seems we, as human beings, create our identities using both these – the “me” and the “mine” – concepts.”

(http://runawaysun.blogspot.com/2006/09/posessions.html)

Also in week one we learnt about the “me” and “mine” concepts. These take the different factors into consideration which encourage individuals to purchase something. Overviews of these concepts are shown below.

Overall, these factors make up “Kotler’s Buyer Decision Process” as shown and explained below.

This is “the decision-making process by which organisations establish the need for purchased products and services, and identify, evaluate and choose among alternative brands and suppliers”. (Kotler and Armstrong 1989)

For example,

1.      Need Recognition

e.g. Need a new PC.

2.      Information Search

e.g. Internet, In store.

3.      Evaluation of Alternatives

e.g. Dell, PC World, price, customer service, software support, printer/scanner package.

4.      Purchase Decision

Choice made e.g. Epsom

5.      Post Purchase Behaviour

e.g. Use, breakdowns etc.

Again, outside of class I researched what I was required to do for my first assignment for this module. To do this, I went on blackboard and read through the brief and highlighted important sections that I needed to complete. After looking through blackboard I found the following useful information.

The packaging of a product acts as the “silent salesman” who is used as the communication tool between a business and a consumer. The benefits of this are:

ü  Grabs attention

Packaging is “crucial in consumer choice, as one product can be chosen over another in a split second” (Osborne, 2001)

ü  Recognition

Packages which deviate considerably from the standard e.g. wine in a box attract a lot of attention. However, this could be a disadvantage as it may lead to negative package evaluation.

Sources: (Schoormans, J.P.L and Robbern, H.S.J. (1997), “The Effect of New Package Design on Product Attention, Categorization and Evaluation”, Journal of Economic Psychology, 18(2), 271-87)

Dialogue VS Trigger:

ü  Dialogue

You pick it up, look at it, are intrigued by it, informed, persuaded, entertained.

ü  Trigger

Little dialogue other than the brand name.

The design is recognised through visual identifiers – Colour, name, logo, lettering etc.

May be a trigger back to other communications – Advertising etc

Reinforces brand values

The VIEW Model:

è Visibility

“This signifies the ability of the package to attract attention at the point of purchase. The main objective is to have packaging that stands out to consumers.”

è Information

“This includes the various forms of information that is on the packaging e.g. product information, claimed benefits, instructions on use and ingredients.”

è Emotional Appeal

“Package designers attempt to arouse specific feelings such as elegance, prestige, cheerfulness, fun etc.”

è Workability

Does the package protect the contents? Does it facilitate storage space? Is it easy to access and use? Does it protect against breakage? Is it environmentally friendly packaging?

I also found some useful websites which clarifies these topics in more depth. These are below.

http://www.multimediamarketing.com/mkc/buyerbehaviour/

http://www.marcbowles.com/courses/adv_dip/module12/chapter4/amc12_ch4_two.htm

And that was my first week at university, you will have to check back to see how I get on next week, learning about perception.

Hope to hear back from you.

Erica.