Essay Marketing Assignment help on : Case study

Introduction

            The following essay is based on a case study wherein a girl named Kate is struggling to buy cell phone as a birth day gift for her boyfriend. It includes discussion about situational influences like physical and social surroundings and time related influences that affect the decision of consumer in buying a product or service. The physical and social surroundings include physical features of the store, smell, color, music etc. Situational influences of time, buyer’s mood and surroundings affecting Kate’s decision in buying a cell phone have been discussed in the essay. It states how Kate struggles in deciding between two opinions, one given by the sales person and another given by her boyfriend’s friend. The essay also contains discussion about the key marketing strategies including product, price, promotion, channels of distribution and market segmentation and how it helps in marketing a specific brand. The overall essay is followed by a brief conclusion stating crux of the entire discussion.Situational influences that would affect consumer’s decision to buy a product or service

            There are several situational influences that would affect the consumer decision to buy a product or service and these influences are discussed below:

Physical and Social surroundings
            Physical surroundings consist of visible configuration and store layout including its décor, light, ambiance, sound, employee clothing. All these features together create customers feelings. A store with stylish color, fixtures and furnishings providing stylish atmosphere would be able to attract more customers than a store with simple layout. Apart from physical surroundings a sales personnel based on his knowledge of product can persuade a consumer to buy or not to buy a particular thing (Kengthon, 2011).

Colors have different significance in different cultures

Colors affect customers in different ways. Some color may be considered as stimulating while other as calming. Thus stores should have colors keeping in view their significance.
Smell is something which catches attention. If a store smells good then certainly it would attract more customers and customers would also stay in store for long. On the contrary, if a store smells bad, then customers wouldn’t stay there for long. It gives a bad image and name to the shop and brand (Wright, 2006).Music influences mood of a person:

Different types of music have different impact on a person’s mind. Slow music where relaxes a person’s mind, it also makes them stay longer in the store while fast music is generally played at places where rapid turnover is required.

Time related influences
Time is a valuable thing which at times customers give up in order to shop. Time of buying differs from product to product. Consumption gets affected by time in three ways.

            Firstly, time pressure is something which affects buying decision to a great extent. When customers don’t have much time they would not be in a situation to consider alternate brands. This may lead to purchase of high priced product or may choose the low priced one owing to the shortage of time. A high value product would require more time than a product of low value. The high value product depending on its worth may take from several days to months together.
Secondly, comes time of the day. It means shopping in morning, afternoon or evening. Somebody may prefer to shop in afternoon thinking they would get more attention from the sales personnel and would be able to explore variety of products without being in hurry. This would be the time when even sales person would have ample of time and would be in a state to pay more attention to customers’ needs (Cant, Strydom & Jooste, 2009). Time of the year:

Purchases get affected with change in seasons. Consumers would prefer shopping for comfort products and that too during day time in winters. While in summer, people tend to shop more in evening. It also depends on the time availability when a consumer can go for shopping. The time available with a business executive would differ from that of a housewife. Thus even the degree of their involvement in shopping would be. A buyer who shops regularly would spend less time than a person who buys taking larger intervals. For example somebody who shops only during festive season or during a family function may take more time in buying being a less frequent shopper. While for a buyer with regular shopping habit shopping may not take much time (Pride & Ferrell, 2011).

Situational influences affecting Kate’s purchase decisions

Amongst various situational influences that affect a buyer’s purchase decision, three influences that have affected Kate’s purchase decision are described below:

Social Surrounding
            Social surroundings include the conditions, characteristics and interactions of people who are present at the time of purchase or who may be present when the product would be used. People here may include sales person at the store present during the time of purchase, relatives or friends. Social condition may also consist of the shopping environment which would affect purchase decision. For example seeing a crowed store a person may drop the idea of shopping in order to avoid hassle of entering a crowded store (Pride & Ferrell, 2011).            In the given case study Kate’s purchase decision is being influenced by the salesman of store who claims to be an expert in smart phones and also by her boyfriend’s friend who knows well about the preference, taste, personality and character of Kate’s boyfriend.

Time factor
            Time factor affects buying decision in various ways. This includes time require to search a product, getting information about it, buying the product and using it. Other dimensions of time influencing purchase decision includes time of day, week, month, season or holidays. The purchase decision of a consumer gets affected with the amount of time pressure a person feels at the time of shopping. Under severe time constraints a person is likely to make a hurried purchase decision without exploring the alternates or postpone the purchase (Ferrell & Hartline, 2010).

            In the mentioned case study Kate is running short of time in deciding birthday gift for her boyfriend. Here, Kate’s purchase decision is getting influenced by time factor wherein she has to make a quick decision from two given options. She needs to decide if she will go with the suggestion offered by friend or would she go with the expert’s suggestion. The time factor is pressurizing Kate to make a quick decision (Pride & Ferrell, 2004).Reason for purchase
            The reason for purchase affects the amount of time that will be spent on shopping.  People may be spending more time when buying a gift than getting something for them. The reason for purchase indicates the level of importance for the purchase to be made. If purchase is general for day to day use then it can be delayed or postponed. While if purchase is for a specific occasion then has to be made on time (Batra & Kazmi, 2009).

            In the given case study reason of purchase for Kate was to get a birthday gift for her boyfriend. She spent lot of time exploring various brands of cell phone on different stores and researching on websites to get the best product from available alternatives. This indicates the level of importance as the gift was to be given on a particular day.

Marketer utilizing situation to market a specific brand or product type

            There are several manners in which the marketer can utilize any situation to market a specific product and brand. Using the situation the marketer can launch several schemes and can also provide the customers with several options that can be used to motivate him or her to bay a product or brand. The marketer can utilize the situation to provide the details and also offer products and services related to the situation of the customer. The marketer looks at the situation as the case which he can use to sell the product. The situation can also be used in order to offer certain product which fits the customer’s requirement (Pride & Ferrell, 2004). As in the current case study the situation was that Kate a prospective buyer wanted to purchase a mobile for her boyfriend on his coming birthday. Under this situation the marketer has the opportunity to sell the higher priced and higher features product to Kate as she was not having sufficient knowledge and time so she can easily be convinced. The marketer can utilize a situation to market the product by identifying the need and reason of purchase associated with the situation.

Marketing strategies associated with situation that a marketer can use

            There are several marketing strategies associated with the situation which the marketer can utilize; this mainly includes the strategies associated with products, promotion, pricing, market segmentation, distribution etc. the marketer can also use the push strategy which is one of the most vital strategy which is used under any situation.Push strategy: Under this strategy the marketer utilizes the situation to market the product and try to push sales. Situational conditions are the most favorable conditions under which the push strategy works. Under the push strategy the marketers tries to push the products for which the demand is comparatively small. Using the situation the marketer can easily push a product which is in a lower demand but this does not apply in all situations (Pride & Ferrell, 2011).

Products Strategies: the marketers can utilize the different product to e marketed utilizing the situation. As in the given case the marketer has analyzed the situation of Kate and offered her products which she might be interested in purchasing.

Promotion Strategies: This is also one of the most vital factors which is used as the strategy by the marketer. The marketer can use the promotion strategy after analyzing any situations. Like in the case of approaching festivals the marketers use that particular situation to market the products. Promotion strategies are used by marketers to promote brands and products utilizing situations coming in their way from time to time, these are mostly festivals and events that occur during each year (Pride & Ferrell, 2011).

Pricing Strategies: Pricing strategies are also used by marketers under situational conditions. Pricing strategies are used by marketers in order to promote any product or brand. It can be seen in several situations like festivals marketers provide several discounts in order to attract the customers. Pricing strategies are the best options used in different conditions to market the product.Strategy related to Channel of distribution: marketers also use the channel of distribution as the strategy to utilize the situations to market their products.  The marketers change the channels in order to take the advantage of several situations (Cant, Strydom & Jooste, 2009).

Market segmentation strategy: This is also one of the most vital strategies the marketers use to market their products utilizing several situations. Segmentation of the market is done by the marketers by the evaluation of the different market situations. Like if an event is coming over a period\d of time the marketers use this situation and segment the market looking at this perspective apart from the general way of segmentation (Cant, Strydom & Jooste, 2009).

Conclusion

            The above essay is based on a case study wherein a girl named Kate is struggling to get a cell phone as a birthday gift for her boyfriend. From the discussion done in the above report it can be concluded that situational influences like physical and social surroundings including décor, light, ambiance, sound etc. of the store and time related influences affect decision of a consumer in buying a product or service.  From the various situational influences which affect a buyer’s purchase decision, the influences that have affected Kate’s decision in buying a cell phone for her boyfriend is the time factor. It can also be concluded that the major influences affecting the purchase decision includes the social surroundings, time factor and the reason for purchase. It can also be said that the manners in which a marketer utilizes various situations to market a specific brand or product type also depends of several upcoming situations. Finally it can be said that marketing strategies associated with product, pricing, promotion, channels of distribution and market segmentation in marketing a product are also dependent on the situation factors.

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