Analyze the buyer decision process of a typical pink customer
Consumers generally follow a certain decision-making process when buying products, particularly new or expensive items. They undergo five steps that include: recognition of need, search information, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and after purchase behavior. These five steps represent a general process that can be used as a guide for studying how consumers make decisions.
It is important to note, though, that consumers’ decisions do not always proceed in order through all of these steps. In fact, the consumer may end the process at any time or may not even purchase products from the Victoria Secrets. According to the market research females, on average, have a larger deep limbic system than males, implying that they are more in touch with their feelings as compared to men.
It follows, then, that women are also tapped into emotionally charged images. Psychologists at the State University of New York and Stanford University found that, though emotion-evoking photographs were more likely than emotionally flat images to stick in the brains of both men and women, women were able to remember more of the emotional images over time than could men (Barney 114).
Women use more of their brains to process emotional images. They have been found to have an increased ability to bond with and be connected to others-which equip them generally to be the best shoppers. A woman’s brain functions differently than a man’s in decision making.
This is not a debate about which gender’s brain is better, per se, because each is simply different in form and function. Understanding these differences gives Victoria Secrets a sound basis from which to launch consideration of female-focused marketing approaches.
Apply the concept of aspirational groups to Victoria Secret’s pink line. Should marketers have boundaries with regard to this concept?
The appeals given are some of the appeals which make use of reference group concepts. A reference group in this context is a set of people with whom consumers of Pink products compare themselves to shape their attitudes, values, knowledge and behavior (including buying behavior). These concepts are used by Victoria Secret brands in a number of situations and celebrity usage is one of the vital applications of reference groups.
A brand would derive value from celebrity associations if celebrity usage is done in a conceptual manner. Marketers would need to maintain boundaries and understand the aspirational groups with which target consumers may like to associate themselves.
These aspirational groups would have to be represented in a manner which would appeal to target consumers. There could be three kinds of reference groups. The aspirational group is one which the young teens admire and like to emulate but they are not members. The consumer does not have a face-to-face contact with this group and hence it is a secondary group.
Explain how both positive and negative consumer attitudes toward a brand like pink develop? How might someone’s attitude toward pink change?
In general, the strength of one’s elaboration likelihood will determine the type of process by which attitudes towards the advertised brand will be formed or changed. The persuasion model in indicates two mechanisms, by which persuasion occurs: at the top, a central route; and at the bottom, a peripheral route.
Under certain circumstances, attitudes towards the advertised brand have a high probability of being changed in the direction of the experienced emotion; positive emotional reactions leading to positive brand attitudes, and negative reactions leading to negative attitudes. Also, because the consumer’s elaboration likelihood is high, it can be expected that any attitude change experienced under the central route will be relatively enduring.
Message-based persuasion
Attitude formation process results from processing message arguments. When Pink consumers are sufficiently motivated and are able to process a message’s specific arguments or selling points, their cognitive responses may lead to changes in beliefs about the advertised brand or to changes in evaluations of the importance of the brand’s attributes and benefits.
In either or both cases, the result is a change in attitude towards the brand. This process is based on the theory of reasoned action (TORA), which proposes that all forms of planned and reasoned behavior have two primary determinants: attitudes and normative influences.
What role does pink appear to be playing in the self-concept of Tweens, teens, and young adults?
Consumption types, whether symbolic, compensatory or voracious, are closely connected to the development of the self, and often intersect through the use of dress. Likewise, as a client at Victoria Secrets goes through a role transition, he or she will likely choose objects believed to signify the new role. Participants often allude to specific brands of clothing as future consumption goals.
We therefore, consider the role of brands like Pink within symbolic consumption at various stages of teens, teens and adults, and to the ultimate transformation of the self. Brands and the Self Brands provide benefits to the consumer. For instance, Barney argues that brands can act as consumers’ partners and that “consumer-brand relationships are valid at the level of lived experience” (112).
A search for the common ground between a brand and consumer has resulted in the development of five dimensions of the brand-consumer relationship: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness (Berry 16). These five dimensions are perceptions identified and defined by the consumer, which serve as symbols of the similarity between the product’s attributes and uses.
The relationship between the consumer and a brand requires a degree of emotional commitment from both parties. Branding that appeals to the consumer’s emotions, allows the brand and consumer to together construct their own “story: which in turn, justifies further use of the brand
Works Cited
Barney, Hansen. “Trustworthiness as a Source of Competitive Advantage.” Building New Forms of Cooperation in a Volatile Economy. (2009): 112-18. Print.
Berry, Bendapudi. “Clueing in Customers”. Communicating in times of Uncertainty. (2002): 2-29. Print.