Consumer Diversity

Q.1

Non-marketing information sources infer product information sources that are not linked with promotion or advertising. An instance that influenced my recent purchase was when my friend convinced me to buy a MacBook as it had swift and effective performance. I believed him, as he was a close acquaintance who had shared his personal experience on the product; hence, I was convinced to buy the MacBook eventually.

Q.2

The examples of marketing sources that are delivered by mass media include radio advertising, television, and magazine advertisements. The marketing sources that are delivered personally include sales promotions, salespersons, and use of the internet. Non-marketing sources that are offered by mass media include consumer reports, reviews on newspapers, and news coverage. The non-marketing sources that are delivered personally include past experiences, personal experiences from other people, and recommendations from other people.

Q.3

An opinion leader is a person who is an information broker between the opinions, mass media, and the performances of a specific person or team. Opinion leaders can either be marketing maven or gatekeeper. A market maven is the consumer of a product who whom others depend on information about the typical marketplace. On the other hand, a gatekeeper is an individual who us the opinion leader for a specific good or service class.

Q.4

Some of the examples of reference groups include referent power, legitimate power, and expert power. Referent power refers to an individual who is appealed to the characteristics of a group and imitates their behaviors. An instance is when I also choose some items that are associated with a particular social class. Legitimate power refers to specific agreements that are made regarding membership and regulations. An instance is when one is working within a specific organization. The expert power refers to parties that have insights that prospective members, members, and other consumers an instance is when seeks advice medically.

Consumer socialization is the procedure by which individuals learn to become consumers. It is the procedure by which young individuals acquire techniques, skills, and attitudes significant to their functioning as users in the marketplace. It involves consumers learning to know the standards they require in specific products and services.

Compliance refers to doing what social influencer or group inquiries. It relates to conforming to the recommendations and specifications of consumers in a particular product or service. On the other hand, reluctance refers to acting on the contrary manner in which a person or group expects us to do.

The marketing implications that are founded on normative influences and the aspects that affect their strength include; demonstrating sanctions and rewards for goods, stimulating referrals by normative power and foot in the door mechanism that is made to induce compliance by getting a person to first agree to a small indulgence and eventually the largest one.

Some ways in which marketers can incorporate the informational impact on users include persuasions, showing the positives of the product or service and word of mouth to persuade the prospective consumers to use a particular good or service.

It is generally accepted that word of the mouth involves weak ties forming a higher macro-level impact as compared to strong relationships. It is therefore recommended that marketers should knowingly stimulate word of mouth between weak ties to maximize a specific word of mouth operation. Word of mouth can, in some manner lead to unanticipated effects, and this could be bad or good. People who possess weak ties to a particular thing may switch another thing simply because a person told them another good or service is better or more miserable.

Chapter 12

Acculturation refers to the process of interchanging cultural practices between two distinctive characters, that impacts and influences the consumer buying traits, and subsequently has to be regarded as an essential factor in the firm’s marketing strategy, research, execution, and planning. It generally refers to the modification of a person’s culture by borrowing traits or adapting to another culture.

The Generation X people were born amidst 1965-1979. They were generally classified as those with undetermined traits that they would be identified with. The assumption as to why they were named as generation X is that individuals born within a similar time frame can be regarded as a group, with similar tastes, views, habits, and values. This is significant in marketing as it enables the marketing managers to determine the tools to reach people of this particular generation.

Q.3

Teenagers in the resigned section refer to a type of people or group with a culture made up of alienated teens who have little anticipations of the future and material success.

Hofstede refers to femininity as the trait that focuses on caring, sexuality equality, taming behaviors, creating gender awareness, and consisting of fluid gender tasks. The feminine value is that which represents a society in which the roles of each gender overlap, where both women and men are expected to be tender, modest, and alarmed with the value of life. Hofstede refers to the feminine society as that which is relationship-oriented.

Agentic goals refer to goals that focus more on mastery and self-assertion. They also focus on being self-organized, self-reflecting, self-regulating, and being proactive, and not just reactive agents that are shaped by surrounding forces that are driven by inner impulses. They also focus on humans as agents that can make decisions that can have a specific influence on the world. Generally, they are goals which stress on self –efficacy, and strength, and do not involve emotion.

The gray market refers to the people who are 65 years or above. On the other hand, boomtown singles refer to those individuals who are below 55 years and are single; without any children and residing in downtown residential places.

Marketers should be careful when using language and symbols in advertisements to appeal the teens simply because the tastes of teenagers change very quickly and therefore, the language and symbols may seize to be attractive to them overtime. It is therefore essential that marketers should focus more on cratering captivating symbols and phrases that would be appealing to teenagers both in short and in the long run.

Clustering refers to the process of grouping users according to the common characteristics that they possess. Marketers use clustering to develop market sections, which allow a profound position of goods and passing of information. It also helps the company to position itself, find new markets, and enhance the products that particular clusters deem valuable and efficient.

A company would consider multicultural marketing as it would allow the information about their products or services to reach more audiences as compared to single-cultured marketing.