Stages in the Consumer Decision Making-Free-Samples for Students

Questions: 1.Provide an outline of the consumer decision process for the pregnancy test consumer. Discuss why this process is important for Clearblue marketers to complete. Finally, share your recommendations for Clearblue at each stage of the consumer decision process? 2.Pregnancy tests are an inelastic price category. Discuss how the inelastic nature of priced demand impacts the pricing strategy and tactics for Clearblue pregnancy tests. 3.Pharmacies are an important distribution channel for Clearblue. (a) What type of channel power do pharmacy retailers have over Clearblue? (b) What are the implications of this when dealing with channel conflicts? (c) Provide at least two strategies for managing channel conflict. 4.Clearblue is a global brand. Define and outline why Clearblue should consider the ten commandments of global marketing when adapting in-store education materials from other global markets to Australian retail stores. Answers: 1.There are five stages in the consumer decision making process to purchase any product. These stages are identification of need, information search, and evaluation of the alternatives, purchase decision and the post purchase behavior (Pride Ferrell, 2008). The behavioral intention of the pregnancy test consumers is different from other consumers. Whenever the consumer feels that there are chances that she might get pregnant, he chooses to buy a self-use pregnancy test before going to the doctor. Most of the consumers, do not want to share the news of their pregnancy very soon with their friends or family and take the resort of internet and broadcast media advertisement for the pregnancy test. The third option is the evaluation of different options. The prime concern for most of the users is accuracy and the time involved in yielding the results. The price of the pregnancy test is not a major concern for women. The customers also rely on the information by the shop keepers as they h ave knowledge about the accuracy of these pregnancy tests. At the last stage, if the women find the test results satisfactory, they share it with their friends, colleagues and relatives. This decision-making process is important for the marketing managers of the organization to understand (Lantos, 2015). It will help in increasing the market share in Australia. Firstly, the pregnancy test of Clearblue are marked 80% above from other pregnancy test kits. As per the consumer insights, women prefer to pay only 20-30% extra for the digital or pregnancy test with high accuracy. Other than that, women need the support of the pharmacist in selection of the product category. The pharmacist and the retail stores in Australia have not received any formal education and therefore, they are not able to suggest the pregnancy test of Clearblue. 2.The price elasticity of demand measures the responsiveness or the change in demand in response to the price. In the context of the pregnancy test, the demand curve is inelastic. It means that the demand of the curve is not dependent upon the price of the product (Mucka, 2016). Therefore, skim pricing strategy can be used to determine the price of the products. In this strategy, the price is set a little higher to sell the products to the customers who are less pricing sensitive (Lantos, 2015). As per the consumer insight, the price is the seventh factor, which affects the purchase decision of the pregnancy tests. The companies can mark the price of the product higher; however, there are also several competitors in the marketplace. The accuracy of these products is not high, which gives significant competitive advantage to Clearblue. The company can mark the product 20-30% higher than the average market price. However, as per the consumer insights about 50% of women test for pregnan cy twice; therefore, the company can give discount in the pack of two pregnancy tests. The company can also use the strategy of marking the products a little higher and then giving discount at the pack of two such that the cost is 20-30% higher than the average market price. 3.Most of the women buy pregnancy test from the pharmacy or the retail shops. Other than that, the companies also use online retail to sell the pregnancy test kits to the women customers. However, most of the consumers prefer to buy the product at a pharmacy as they can immediately access it, attain the insight of the pharmacist and can make the purchase privately. Therefore, the pharmacy retailers have a high power over Clearblue. Therefore, if the pharmacists do not promote the products of the company, it will be detrimental to the profits of the organization. If the organization sells the product through online mediums, it will create channel conflicts. The channel conflicts occur, when the manufacturer sell the products directly to the customers with direct marketing methods. It creates conflicts and strain between the distribution channels (Ward, 2005). It is a vertical conflict as the manufacturer actions disrupts the supply chain. The resource dependency theory or strategy can be used to address the issue of channel conflicts. As per this theory, the company can provide benefits to the resellers. It will enhance their relative power position in the climate. Clearblue can provide differentiated service support to cater the resellers needs. The tolerance of the suppliers towards the reseller is also affected by the suppliers relative power position. In the present, the power position of the organization can be enhanced by extensive market strategies and gathering large market share. 4.Most of the business dream about creating business, which is known all over the world. The ten commandments of global marketing helps in establishing a global brand image of the company. While adapting the educational materials for the pharmacists, the company should focus on the target market. The needs and preference of every target market is different. The company should gather market intelligence regarding the target market and change the educational material accordingly. The global market encompasses several different countries and regions. All these parts are quite different from each other. At the same time, they also have quite lot similarities. Therefore, it becomes necessary for the company to investigate the laws, regulations, consumer preferences and financial health of the country. Secondly, the company should avoid negative connotations (Raymond, 2013). Since pregnancy test is gender specific product, the company should be careful in understanding that the product or its marketing campaign does not make sexual or religious connotations. It is important to take into consideration in designing the education matter, as if the pharmacists perceive the test negatively, it will impact its promotion. Thirdly, the company should establish an internal understanding and acceptance of the brand name (Cotler, 2007). All the employees and the managers are needed to accept he brand name of the organization. This brand name should be communicated to all parts of the organization. Clearblue should also establish a clear strategy for the organization branding and communicate it with all the pharmacists. References Cotler, (2007). Ten Deadly Marketing Sins: Signs And Solutions. John Wiley Sons. Lantos, G.P. (2015). Consumer Behavior in Action: Real-life Applications for Marketing Managers. Routledge. Mucka, S. (2016). Price Elasticity of Demand and its effect on Revenue. GRIN Verlag. Pride, W., Ferrell, (2008). Marketing. Cengage Learning. Raymond , M. (2013). Everyday Book Marketing: Promotion Ideas to Fit Your Regularly Scheduled Life. Ashland Creek Press. Ward, S. (2005). Selling Places: The Marketing and Promotion of Towns and Cities 1850-2000. Routledge.