CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Individual Assignment
Guruprasad A Shenoy
423/15

Q4) New Product Launch

Why do you think some new products or brands are successfully marketed while many
products/ brands fail to generate same level of response or interest? With the help of
live examples of suitable New Product Launch decisions, enumerate the underlying
factors, product nature and consumer characteristics on which success or failure of
those new brands depend upon.

New Product launch can make or break a business which has spent considerable time
and effort in conceptualising, developing and rolling out a product. Some of the
mistakes that can result in failure are:

1. Not planning early enough: Companies often devote most of their time to
planning and developing their new product, not planning the launch. Several
weeks before the launch date they realize that they don't have a plan in place,
that they don't have the expertise or resources that they need to successfully
carry out the launch.

2. Poor or non-existent marketing strategy: Sometimes companies focus all of

their efforts on planning their launch but pay little attention to develop a
marketing strategy to carry sales in for the long-term. The launch doesn't go
well and they wonder why.

3. Failing to define your target market: If you haven't clearly defined your
target market, how can you be sure what they want and how to reach them?

4. Launching too soon: Companies are often so eager to be first to market that
they overlook important aspects of the launch and it doesn't go well.
5. Poor quality product: This goes along with launching too soon. I've seen it
time and time again-a company is so anxious to launch its new product that
they overlook critical flaws.

6. A rigid, inflexible launch plan: Successfully launching a new product is an

art not a science. Because of that, you need to be flexible. Companies that
aren't flexible pay the price with unsuccessful launches.

7. Insufficient funding: This is a common mistake not just in product launches

but in small companies in general-they fail to ensure that they have sufficient
funding in place to carry them until they develop a regular cash flow.

8. Overestimating results: Results or forecasts need to be calculated with expert

guidance and care. Over/under-estimation can result in over/under-supply and
therefore the market demand is either not met or is saturated which kills the
appetite for the product

9. Not delegating: Some of the companies, especially newer smaller ones need to
delegate tasks/ outsource them which do not fall in their area of expertise. This
not only eats up their valuable resources but also results in failure to deliver
full impact in the product area.

10. Not having a crisis plan: Having a crisis plan can mitigate some of the losses
that can result due to a failure in product launch. This not only would salvage
the exercise but also provide valuable insight into future launches
Q8) Brand Personality

Marketers try to project a personality of the brand (i.e who am I?). Nature of
personality traits may take various forms as follows: i.Ego (power, dominance,
control, status) ii. Affiliation (Love, warmth, caring, friendship); iii.Efficient
(Superior features, performance) iv. Romantic, glamour, Traditional, wholesome, vi.
Expression (active, hedonism, stimulation, Rugged, tough)vii. Repression (passive,
pessimistic, reassurance). Cite specific brands where the above mentioned personality
traits are noticed. Justify the answer how the marketer put the key strategy behind
these brands

Brand Personality is a set of human characteristics associated with a brand like

Gender, age, socio-economic class, psychographic and emotional characteristics.
Some of the forms are discussed below with examples

1) Ego (Power, Dominance, Control, Status): Mercedes Benz cars exude class
and are associated with a powerful status. The brilliant engineering that goes
into the car portray an image of control and dominance over other brands.
James Bond is a brand ambassador for Mercedes Benz.
2) Affiliation (Love, Warmth, Caring, Friendship): Archies greeting cards
convey a warm, friendly and caring image that is associated with every happy
moment in one’s life. This has helped establish it as the leading greeting cards
and accessories company in India. Its ads involve soft music and a tugging
story that strikes a chord with the consumer who would think of Archies at
every cherish able occasion.
3) Efficient (Performance, Superior Features): An example for this case would be
Accenture who have Tiger Woods as their brand ambassador. Tiger Woods is
one of the leading golf players in the world today, having won many
championships and being consistently ranked as the best. He is also portrayed
as a superior athlete and consistent performer which is used by Accenture to
convey their image as consistent performers and industry leaders.
4) Romantic, Glamour:
5) Repression (passive, pessimistic, reassurance):
6) Traditional, Wholesome: Parle G biscuits is one of the most popular and
established biscuit brands in India. This is not only popular with the older
generation when it was introduced but also has managed to maintain this
image with the present younger generation.
7) Expression (active, rugged, tough): Nike shoes convey freedom, not just of the
feet but also of the person. The product delivers the message of a free spirit
and individual freedom. It also is outdoorsy and gives a tough athletic image
to the consumer. Also Harley Davidson bikes convey the macho rugged and
tough image.
Q9) Consumer Insights in NPD

In case of products like car, camera, cell phone, edible items, cosmetics, marketers
invariably develop new offerings or position existing brands keeping in view various
market trends, consumer nature and purchase behaviour. Cite suitable examples
where you have noticed marketers to develop new offerings and positioning based on
distinct insights about emerging consumer trends or aspirations.

New Product Development (NPD) is the term used to describe the complete process
of bringing a new product or service to market. There are two parallel paths involved
in the NPD process: one involves the idea generation, product design, and detail
engineering; the other involves market research and marketing analysis. Companies
typically see new product development as the first stage in generating and
commercializing new products within the overall strategic process of product life
cycle management used to maintain or grow their market share.
Research is the process by which businesses find out about customers' needs,
wants and desires. It makes possible the successful development of new products.
Market research involves the systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data
about customers, competitors and the market. This links marketers to consumers by
supplying essential information to solve marketing challenges and help with
marketing decisions.

Market research should start with the consumer and serves two purposes:
1) To inform companies about consumer needs and desires. What are the
trends in the market? What do consumers want?
2) To give consumers the opportunity to talk to the providers of products and
services so that their views are taken into account.
Consumer insights drive New Product Development. This information takes
into account their behaviours, attitudes and beliefs. It is an expression of their wishes
and desires. Businesses use consumer insights to create opportunities for their brands.
It is the starting point that enables brands to fit meaningfully into consumers' lives.
Consider the development of NIVEA’s deodorant for women. The Market
Research Team conducted a product usage test. A de-branded sample of the proposed
new product was given to the target consumer of females in several countries. De-
branded means the deodorant was in a blank container so that the consumers did not
know who made the product or what type it was. Very often consumers form opinions
about products and services from advertising and packaging. This can sometimes be
very strong and creates a bias in what they think of a product before trying it. The
consumers were asked to use the new deodorant for a week. They kept a diary of
when they used it and scored the performance of the deodorant against a list of
criteria. These included:
Did it keep you dry all day?
Did you have to reapply it?
Did you like the fragrance?
Did it last all day?
Was the deodorant reliable?
Consumers applied the 'de-branded' deodorant under their right armpit and continued
to use their current deodorant under their left armpit. This helped the users gauge if it
was as good as or better than the brand they normally used. This gave a measure of
how likely the consumer would be to swap brands.
Now the marketing team had a new product idea that consumers liked. It had a
name and packaging design that were well received. They now needed to check how
this fitted with the rest of the NIVEA Deodorant brand positioning and range.

The NIVEA Deodorant Pearl and Beauty adds a touch of feminine sophistication and
elegance to the NIVEA Deodorant brand's personality. This built on the core
deodorant positioning. It made NIVEA Deodorant more appealing, modern and
unique to trendy to young female consumers.