Marketing Activities To Affect The Potential Buyer Influences Marketing Essay

selling Activities To Affect The Potential Buyer Influences merchandising EssayThis assignment volition be addressing the issues faced by a company operating in the full(prenominal)ly competitive athletic carry food commercialise in the United Kingdom. The issues presented in the assignment go away be discussed in relation with the changing nature of consumer demeanour. Firstly, it is vital to analyse the current dumb imbed of the company as follows.SOLE-RUNSole- barrage is a company operating in sportswear trade in the United Kingdom specialising in football boots. It is tell that the firm has entered the sportswear market place at a quite aft(prenominal)-hours detail of the market development which bed be assumed to be at a stage where the market was maturing with high competition from the market tameers exchangeable Adidas and Nike. However, Sole-Run was able to capture 12% of the market office despite non having either the mathematical production capacity or the financial bud bunks to compete with much(prenominal) market fall outers.On the varied sham on, it is said that voguish trainers remain as the largest single part of the sports footwear market. man it was found that customers hold deard comfort and did not want to pay high footing re inquisition findings besides showed that low-to medium setd trainers provided the same levels of comfort as high priced trainers where paying a higher price for trainers did not ensure a higher quality or a higher level of comfort.Sole-Run is currently facing difficulties in increasing its gross sales despite the high latent market for trainers as consumers are buy trainers as a darn of fashionable clothing as thoroughly as for sports in particular among the teenagers and unmatched-time(a) hoi polloi with high disposable income.SPORTS CONSUMER BEHAVIOURIn cabaret to pose as how Sole-Run privy submit the consumer obtain it is essential to understand the consumer demeano r of this particular market.According to Kotler and Armstrong (2010) consumer buying conduct is the delight inive(prenominal) get or consuming decision of an individual(a) or household and whoever buys goods and work for private consumption.Sports consumer behaviour is the care for involved when individuals select, corrupt, use, and dispose of sport think products and services to satisfy needs and receive benefits (Funk, 2008). This performance is renderd by a disposition to seek sports consumption experiences that provides benefits and satisfy needs (Funk, 2008). job 1- BUYER invite AND PURCHASING PROCESS1.1 WHAT IS BUYER INFLUENCE?Buyer specifys willing travel the degree of motivation in consumers to exculpate purchasing decisions. On the former(a) hand the level of involvement in sports will also bear on the decision do. It is grave for Sole-Rune to understand the consumers buying behaviour when designing a merchandise dodge for its sports-fashion wear tr ainers or any other sports related products.Involvement involves represent a state of motivation with regard to a product, an activity, or an object (Rothschild, 1984). This state of motivation reflects the level of arousal, interest, or safari evoked by a particular sports stimuli or situation that influences consumer behaviour (Mitchelle, 1979).1.2. INTERNAL INFLUENCESGenerally consumer behaviour kitty be influenced by factors much(prenominal)(prenominal) as motivation, learning and sensing which are known as inwrought factors. Also called as personal factors these gives the ability for the consumer to directly benefit from the product.1.3. away INFLUENCESSocial norms are a prominent external factor influencing consumer purchaser behaviour. As pointed out by Kotler and Armstrong (2010) consumer purchases are influenced by forces such as social, cultural, individual and psychological.Cultural characteristics consists of the set of basic values, perceptions, wants and behavi ours learned by an individual from world a member of a society. In this context Sole-Run will tolerate to identify the cultural characteristics of the possible British based consumers who die hard to be exceedingly fashion conscious. Social characteristics on the other hand consists of social factors such as the pited consumers relation to small groups, family and social roles. individual(a) characteristics toilette be regarded as the consumers age, economic situations and occupation. Psychological factors consist of the motivation, perception and beliefs and attitudes of the purposeed potential consumers.Here it is evident that the targeted consumers for the sports-fashion trainers come from social groups which consist of individual characters of fashion conscious teenagers and old consumers who have high disposable income.1.4. market ACTIVITIES TO AFFECT THE POTENTIAL BUYER INFLUENCESAccording to the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), trade can be defined as a mana gerial process whereby you indentify, anticipate and satisfy customer needs and wants for a profit.In order to come up with market strategies that will affect potential purchaser influences, it is vital that Sole-Run have a reform understanding on the consumers decision making as this will not only augment consumer demand scarcely will also ease to sustain its demand. While Sole-Run should identify properly its market segments in order to design targeted marketing activities, it is said that the teenagers and quondam(a) throng with high disposable income are the highest consumer purchasers in the sports-fashion trainers market. On the other hand, it is also found by research that consumers do not wish to pay high prices for trainers epoch quest for comfort.As it is said that Sole-Run does not possess adequate financial budgets, it is evident that Sole-Run cannot site on large scale nationwide marketing activities by advertizing on mass media such as television and on in tercommunicate to influence potential buyers.The starting point of Sole-Run can be to influence the potential consumers by providing discipline virtually its sports-fashion wear trainers consisting of the marketing jumble in other words, the product, price, place of availability and promotions. This information will lead the potential observable buyers to respond to product choice, discolouration choice, dealer choice, purchasing timing and amount.It is said that sports events play a significant role in a comm make believeing blockys marketing and leaf bladeing strategy (Higham Hinch, 2003). Hence Sole-Run can target more local or regional sports events which are less costly in terms of marketing budget compared to national events.Sole-Run can have special promotions in its outlets for the source time buyers. Also, by having direct marketing campaigns online which is less costly and highly effective compared to television or wireless advertisement, the company can easily t arget the technology savvy teenagers such as by uploading videos on YouTube, and creating pages on popular social ne devilrking sites such as Facebook, Twitter encouraging them to comment and give their faiths on the trainers possibly with special discount codes online which the potential buyers can redeem when purchasing in-store. On the other hand Sole-Run will be encouraging interactive marketing online where consumers will start conversation online around the Sole-Run trainers creating positive ne bothrk influence for the company among others targeted consumers.On the other hand, in order to target the older consumers who has high disposable income, Sole-Run can advertise on sports related magazines and financial hotspapers which are read by these targeted consumers and sponsor events bring outd by sports clubs where these potential consumers can be found.TASK 2 ROGERS DIFFUSION CURVE AND ADOPTION type2.1. ROGERS DIFFUSION CURVE-Predicting buyer behaviour becomes particul arly important with origins and is particularly important in decisions concerning untried product developments. Rogers (1962) attempted differentiate consumers according to their solvent to innovative products and determine five types of consumers based on the idea that accredited individuals are inevitably more open to adaptation than others. These consumers were categorised as follows1. Innovators- brave consumers pulling the change and are very important dialogue mechanisms2. Early studyers repectable people, opinion leaders, try out sassy ideas but in a wide-awake way than innovators.3. Early majority thoughtful people, careful but accept change more quickly than average people do4. Late majority- sceptic people who will use recent ideas and products only when the majority is exploitation5. Laggards traditional people who love to disturb to the old ways and are critical about new ideas ad will only accept it if the new idea has become mainstream or even tradition. The research boil down of diffusion has five elements which are1. characteristics of an cosmos which may influence its bridal2.decision making process that occurs when individuals consider to adopt a new idea, product or practice3. characteristics of individuals that feed them probably to adopt and innovation4. consequences for individuals and society for adopting an innovation and5. communication channels employ in the adoption process (Kotler, 2010)According to this speculation, the innovators and early majority exist an estimated 15% of the population and are regarded as important as opinion leaders in the diffusion curve. Another important implication which this theory provides is that it is of no use of convincing the mass market in one go at the very beginning spending heavily on marketing and advertising. hence the implication this provides for firms like Sole-Run is to establish the characteristics of the first two types of groups in other words, the innovators and the early adopters and to focus the marketing communication whence as according to this process there is always some consumers who would like to take risk and purchase the new products. This model shows the diffusion of new products as a chain reaction on influence surrounded by pioneering consumers and the mass market.2.2. ADOPTION PROCESS MODEL The adoption model which is also called the AIETA model will help Sole-Run to identify the new product adoption process of consumers within the sports-fashion trainer market. This model suggests on how to help consumers move by the stages of purchasing especially new products. Adoption normally in this context applies to the new products. Kotler and Armstrong (2010) defined the adoption process as the genial process though which an individual passes from first learning about an innovation to final adoption.Consumers before purchasing new products will go finished a five stage process which if successful will lead to adoption of product s where adoption is the decision by an individual consumer to become a regular user of the product.1. Attention also known as knowingness is where the consumer becomes aware of the new product but lacks information about it.2. cheer in this stage the consumer will seek information about the new product3. Evaluation with the information the consumer received the consumer will consider whether or not to try the product4. Trial here the consumer tries the product for the first time to improve the estimate of its value5. Adoption finally the consumer decides to make full and regular use of the new productAccording to this model, adoption comes at the end of the process finished which an individual consumer may go from initial awareness through to adoption at which point the consumer becomes a regular user of the product. Here, Sole-Run should identify the product characteristics that will affect the provision of the targeted potential consumers to adopt the product in other word s the quaint characteristics of its sports-fashions trainers. The product characteristics would include relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, divisibility, and communicability. On the other hand the product characteristics would not include the other aspects of the marketing mix such as price and promotions though these may also affect the rate of consumer adoption.TASK 3- EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATION TO INFLUENCE FIRST BUYERSIt is essential that Sole-Run pleases the initial buyers of its trainers by providing justifiedly information with effective communication that will lead to make a purchase as they will in-turn influence many later(prenominal) customers marque choices. This can be especially true among the targeted market of teenagers due to network externalities.3.1. THE DECISION fashioning PROCESSBefore purchasing a product, consumers generally go through a process called the decision making process which needs to be identified by Sole-Run in order to come up with a better communication strategy especially for the first time buyers as the decision making process can be influenced by the personal, social, cultural and psychological factors as substantially as by the marketing mix variables and situational factors.1. Need recognition this is the first stage of the buyer decision process where the consumers recognise a need or identify a problem. This can be triggered by internal or external stimuli.2. Search for information in this stage the consumer is aroused to search for more information where the consumers will tend to obtain information from dissimilar sources such as personal through family and friends, commercial advertisements, mass media, and experiential sources.3. Evaluation of alternatives here the consumers will use information gathered to assess between alternative crosss in among the chosen ones.4. Purchase decision the consumers decisions about which brand to purchase will be make at theis stage. However, two factors c an come in-between the purchase intention and the veridical purchase decision. The first being the attitude of others such as friends and family, and the other being unexpected situational factors such as sudden economic downturns.5. Post purchase evaluation the final stage of the buyer decision process in which consumers take further action after purchase based on their satisfaction or dissatisfaction. If the product is not up to the expected standards of the consumer than cognitive dissonance may occur.The decision making process shows that the buying process clearly starts long before the actual purchase and continues long after that where Sole-Run will need to focus on the entire buying process rather than focusing on just the purchasing decision when culmination up with communication strategies to influence first time buyers.3.2. THE DECISION MAKING UNITOn the other hand, many decisions consumers make had been either do for example in the case of youngsters or influenced by one or more parties. This is collectively known as the decision making unit which consist of 5 different roles of people consisting of an initiator, influencer, decider, financier, buyer and user.Initiators are those who novice the idea of making the purchasing decision where influencers are the people who, because of their expertise, set the specification of what is to be bought. On the other hand, deciders are those who make the actual buying decision with financiers making the purchase, and buyers processing the purchase orders and users actually using the product bought. While there can be few people playing different roles in the buyer process as well as none among a particular consumer, it is essential that Sole-Run communicate the right information and provides the expected value to the consumers who are first time buyers.3.3. incorporate MARKETING COMMUNICATIONAs identified above the different kinds of information that are needed to influence the first time buyers as well as the people who will affect the purchasing decision of consumers, Sole-Run can adopt a intergrated marketing communication strategy where through different communication channels the company can effectively target individually personnel involved in the decision making unit while providing the information for the decision making process of the targeted consumers. Thus, this marketing communication strategy will allow Sole-Run to have individual personalised and tailor made communication among the targeted consumer groups.TASK 4- CUSTOMER ATTRACTION AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY4.1. DIFFICULTIES ASSOCIATED WITH CUSTOMERS DEFECTING FROM other BRAND TO THE SOLE-RUN BRANDSole-Run should take into account the type of buying behaviour of its targeted market as this highly affects the marketing mix decisions. On the other hand the buyer behaviour differs greatly for different types of products and services. The psychological theories of buyer behaviour differentiate consumer behaviour emphasisi ng the environment which is the behavioural approach and the consumer behaviour emphasising mental processes called as cognitive approach. Mainly, there are four types of buying behaviour based on a buyers involvement and the comprehend differences among brands.1. hard buying is where the level of involvement is high with high degree of perceived difference among brands. While this behaviour is tend to be cognitive in nature the involvement arises from uncertainty of product quality, high price, and personal factors such as self image, value and needs.2. Dissonance buying which high in involvement and low in perceived brand difference tends to be cognitive and behavioural in nature mainly associated with risky, infrequent and pricy purchasing.3. Habitual buying has a low consumer involvement with little brand difference and less price sensitive. This tends to be more of behavioural.4. Variety seeking which is more cognitive has a low involvement purchase but significant differenc e in brands. In this situation consumers, if curious about a new brand or dissatisfied with the product choice, will engage in switching to another brand easily.The differences of buyer behaviour will largely reflect on the information and communication needs of potential buyers and the best means, in each case, of meeting these needs with respect to communicated messages and media by Sole-Run.According to the types of buyer behaviour, it can be said that purchases with regards to sports-fashion wear tends to be more variety seeking where customer are highly wedded to a brands perceived difference. Thus in order to get consumers using brands such as Nike or Adidas to purchase Sole-Run, the company should create a unique selling proposition targeting comfort of the trainers and positioning as a brand which provides the same comfort level as the reward brands but for a much low price. This can be through with(p) through means of proper marketing communication strategies which will help consumers differentiate the brand as opposed to competitor brands employing more cognitive approaches to its marketing and advertising. Hence, Sole-Run should also draw strategies to retain these customers by offering better service for the value.4.2. RETRAINING CUSTOMERS THROUGH CUSTOMER LOYALTYAfter successfully attracting customers to purchase Sole-Runs sports-fashion trainers, the company should also then put efforts for retraining the customers with differentiate marketing strategies.Sole-Run can develop allegiant customers if the company is able to successfully influence the variety seeking consumers in the market to purchase its brand and to become habitual buyers by positioning itself in the consumers mind through means of effective marketing communication as then the customers will addicted to buy trainers from the brand Sole-Run. This can be done through marketing strategies that passively communicates information as they watch television or surf the internet where unconscious advertising repetition will create familiarity, which often translates into a brand purchase when the consumer in deciding which brand to buy (Ali Gomez, 2009). As this is pure behavioural decision making, Sole-Run can focus its advertising on classical conditioning in which the potential buyers can identify the products by a single symbol repeatedly attached to it (Ali Gomez, 2009). Thus, this will not only help Sole-Run to increase sales from its loyal consumers but will also help to gain market parcel in the largest market.In order to retrain its loyal customers Sole Run should mainly engage in customer relationship marketing as research has found that it is five times costlier to attract a new customer than maintaining an existing customer and loyal customers mean repeat purchases. Thus loyal customers are a powerful source of marketing the companys brand identity through recommendations and word of mouth especially within the target market of teenagers creating p ositive impact of the brand Sole-Run. Although relationship marketing does not correspond to a specific set of techniques it does emphasise the need to build a continuous, strong and mutually beneficial relationship between the buyers and Sole-Run which is retained even in periods that any purchase is not in the process.Further, through loyalty marketing, Sole-Run can also increase customers life time value in the long run as it is said that especially teenagers purchase trainers to match their clothing and outfits and if they become habitual buyers of Sole-Run they will be stick around to the brand throughout their life as a partner.CONCLUSIONIt was identified that although Sole-Run entered the sportswear market at a later stage, there is a high market potential in the sports-fashion trainers with the increase of purchase by teenagers and consumers with high disposable income. Hence it is recommended that in order to increase its market share in the highly competitive industry, S ole-Run should also target the sports-fashion trainers market with a right marketing and communication strategy. Given the research findings that consumers do not wish to pay premium prices for trainers, Sole-Run can position its trainers as providing the same comfort level the consumers expect for a lower price than of the market leaders. This will in-turn help Sole-Run not only to increase its sales in the trainers but also its overall market share in the industry by capturing the largest market in sportswear.