Are you an entrepreneur who wants to become a game-changer in the market?
Are you planning to run an ad campaign for your product in a new market?
Do you know the importance of consumer behavior in business?
Launching a product in a new market is not a big thing. But, launching it without understanding consumer behavior of that market is certainly a big thing.
It may boomerang and lead to devastating results for the concerned business!
The consumer’s behavior understanding should be the top priority for any businessman. In fact, it should precede your nature & type of product, it’s launching, it’s pricing, and its positioning into the market.
So, let’s understand importance of consumer behavior first.
Understanding Consumer Behavior
The behavior of a consumer in buying a product depends on various factors. Depending on the factors, a consumer wears different hats or what we say ‘Buying Roles’.
To study the consumer’s behaviour you have to prepare profile of your target consumers on the basis of following factors: Age, income, gender, marital status, education, location, race, ethnicity, religion, occupation, industry, values, social class, personality, mindset, urban/rural, lifestyle and aspirations.
Having understood the importance of consumer behaviour, now we will showcase some case studies pertaining to consumer behavior.
#1 Pulse Polio Campaign
The Pulse Polio Campaign was launched by the Government of India in association with World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1995. Amitabh Bachchan was made the brand ambassador of that campaign.
In the campaign, he was seen requesting people to get their babies immunized at Polio booth on given dates.
However, in the first five years of the launch, the campaign failed to drive the mothers to the Polio booths to get their babies immunized from this crippling disease.
Shocked from the campaign’s failure, they decided to go door to door in small towns and villages to understand people’s behavior; “why are they not coming at Polio booth to get their babies vaccinated?”
After studying people’s behavior in the village for months, they came to know that in rural areas, elders were responsible for taking important decisions of household, while babies’ mothers and fathers had little control over it.
Portraying Amitabh Bachchan as requesting people to get their babies vaccinated, had no impression on the minds of elders because they had an image of Amitabh Bachchan as a young angry man.
It led them to change their strategy by portraying Amitabh Bachchan as an angry young man, rebuking people for not taking their babies at Polio booth.
It left a long-lasting impression on people’s minds, and the campaign has been successful in eradicating polio from the country.
#2 Cadbury’s in Early 1988
Cadbury until 1988 used to target children as 78% of their target consumers were children. But they used to leave eating chocolates after growing up.
The result was; Market saturation for the Cadbury in early 1988! They were struggling to retain the market.
In 1990s, in order to sustain and expand their market share, they took a bold decision to “remove children from their ads”.
Cadbury re-directed their campaign strategy to target youths by launching “Kya Swad Hai Zindagi Me” campaign.
Since then, Cadbury gradually moved from “children to youths to the family” with advertisements like Shubharambh and Kuch Mitha Ho Jaye.
They influenced the buying behavior of people of all ages through repositioning their brand by changing their campaigning strategy frequently.
#3 Gillette
Before launching their Gillette shaving razor vector in India, Proctor & Gamble (P&G) did a study on Indian students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for analyzing the buying behavior of Indians.
They thought that the “Made in USA” brand will be enough for their product to be successful in India.
However, they tasted failure! Why?
Because they perceived Indian consumer’s behavior from the angle of Indians in the United States (US).
Never launch a product without having an understanding of consumers’ behavior of the target market.
Realizing their mistake, they brought major changes in their product as per the “needs of Indian consumers” after understanding consumer behavior in India.
Their repositioning brought them seamless success over the years. Today, it is the number one brand in the men’s grooming sector in India.
#4 Maruti Suzuki
Have you heard of Maruti Suzuki’s Alto car? It is one of the world’s highest-selling cars.
Do you know that even after 15 years of the launch of Maruti Alto, it is being sold at the same price?
Even inflation is not able to alter the Maruti Alto’s price!
But how it is happening?
Because Maruti Suzuki kept on repositioning it’s Alto as per the consumer’s behavior and needs.
Maruti Suzuki does a lot of study and research before launching each and every edition of their cars.
These case studies along with the understanding of consumer behavior will help you make your campaigning strategy successful.
Do you want to bring transformation in your company?
Do you want to increase the productivity of your company?
How can you improve the performance of employees with the skill will matrix?
If you are a million-dollar company, you can become a billion-dollar company just by practicing the Skill Will Matrix. This matrix can bring a complete change in your company.
Skill Will Matrix depicts four kinds of people working in your organization. These are:
Monkey
These are the people who have recently joined your organization.
they have a high will and low skill .
They do not know- what to do, why to do when to do, where to do and how to do. They want to do something great in the organization.
Star Performers
These are the people who hold important positions like department heads and senior and old people in the organization. They have high skill and low will.
They know what to do, why to do when to do, where to do and how to do. They do not want to do anything due to the long vintage in the organization.
Parasites
These are the people who join an organization and start identifying the employees who have good authority in the organization and take shelter from these employees.
They neither have the skill nor will.
They do not focus on identifying what to do. They do not want to do anything in the organization.
Visionaries
They are the top people of the organization including CXO, CEO, and other senior people. Do they have high skill and high will.
They know everything and work very hard for the success of the organization.
Identifying Most Dangerous People for your Organization
Star performers are the most dangerous people for your organization. Why?
The reason is simple!
Star performers are the oldest people in the organization. They know what to do and how to do but they do not want to do.
Parasites take shelter under star performers and they also do not want to do any work.
As a result, a negative political nexus is formed in the organization.
When new employees go to the star performers to learn something, the departmental heads neither tell them nor encourage them due to some insecurity.
As a result, the enthusiasm and confidence get low. They stop taking initiatives in the organization.
What should Visionary do to change the Organization?
Start the evaporation and purification of star performers.
Start coaching and counseling of star performers.
Ask some of the star performers to leave the organization. This will destroy the negative political nexus build between the star performers and the parasites. Some parasites will also leave the organization and others will start moving towards visionaries.
Start training the monkeys or new employees. They have the will, if you give them skill, they will become the visionaries.
In Vedic scriptures as well, it is written:
tatra laulyam api ekalam mulyam Janma-koti-sukrtair na labhyate
The intense desire to perform something is the only one qualification needed by a man to actually grow and bounce back in tough times.
Start recognizing people with high skill will matrix and ownership taking ability, give them promotion and take them up and train them.
The first rule is to identify your perfect audience because you cannot sell the product everywhere at different prices.
Whether you are an Entrepreneur, a Businessman, a Start-up or a Sales-executive, everyone wants to know the best product positioning strategies for their company or products in the market.
To position your products effectively, you should use the product-quality matrix. In the product quality matrix, there are primarily four product positioning techniques.
You can position your product in any of these markets depending on the type of product.
Let’s study these four quadrants, i.e. the product positioning strategies in detail.
Quadrant #1: Value for Money Market
In this market, companies sell good quality products at a low price. Such products are value for money.
Let us study some of the product positioning strategies examples of value for the money market.
For Example:
Suzuki’s car is considered as value for money because not only it’s resale value is good but also runs smoothly.
Another example is Relaxo; their slippers are long-lasting as well as pocket-friendly.
Quadrant #2: Opportunistic Market
In this quadrant, prices of the products are high but their quality is low.
There are no regular or repeat customers and products. Therefore, the vendor’s sole intention is to make as much profit as possible like the market at the Railway station, Highway or at Cinema halls.
Let us study some of the product positioning strategies examples of opportunistic market.
For Example:
Every day new tourists visit the Taj Mahal in Agra. So, shopkeepers’ or vendors’ priority is to make a maximum profit not to provide high-quality products or services.
Remember, in a defined category, if you are offering products at a high price with low quality, then your business will not survive.
An opportunistic market can only survive in limited space; hence you should carefully position your product.
Quadrant #3: Chinese Goods Market
In this quadrant, both the price and quality of products are low.
Here, buyers usually price-sensitive; therefore, sellers dump their cheap products in such a market for a better return.
Let us study some of the product positioning strategies examples of Chinese goods market.
You must have seen Chinese toys; their shelf-life is very short as the product is of low quality but the price is very competitive.
Here, the financial value becomes your proposition, for instance, Chinese lights on Diwali, Road-side toy seller, etc.
Quadrant #4: Premium Market
In this quadrant, both price and quality of product are high.
Branding and positioning of the product are done in such a manner that high-quality products can be sold at a very high price.
Let us study some of the product positioning strategies examples of the premium market.
For Example:
Brands like Versace, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc. are selling purse, bags, clothing lines, and accessories at a premium price.
A good quality bag which can be bought at ? 7000, they are selling similar products at over ? 70,000 – 80,000. They have positioned their products in such a manner that they sell selected products at a premium price. They have a limited market but huge margins.
Similarly, the actual price of Apple’s phone may be ? 30,000 but they sell the product for over ? 70,000 and get huge margins. Apple has created high aspirational value for their product so much that even a common man is willing to buy it on loan.
Generally, brands stick to one of the four quadrants but there are some organizations who use different product positioning strategies to launch their products.
For Example:
Relaxo’s brand, Flite comes under value for money quadrant but its Sparx brand is positioned under premium quadrant.
Similarly, Maruti Suzuki has positioned its Nexa in the premium segment. For this, the company had opened a separate Nexa showroom because they were not able to sell the product at premium prices.
If you will try to move into a different quadrant with the existing brand or without creating and positioning the new brand, the market will drag you to the lower quadrant again.
Therefore, to create a different brand, as done by Relaxo, you have to change the positioning of the product completely.
Never launch a product without having an understanding of consumers’ behavior of the target market.
