A new soft drink in Argentina

Résumé du document

With Nathan J. Sambul we had a seminar of International Consumer Behavior. During the two day of classes, we focus on individuals and groups, and how they select and buy products and services. The science of International Consumer Behavior is increasingly important because the marketplace is more and more complex: Consumers are more aware and they now have so many options. So, in order to convince the better-informed consumers and be more successful than the increasing competition, marketers must have a very clear view of their customers in order to better adapt the communication plan, the distribution channels, the packaging... This study includes a focus on characteristics such as demographic, economy, culture, psychology and behavior.

During this seminar, we examined the science and practice of persuasion and compliance. We focused on psychological principles which influence the tendency to comply with a request ("I offer you to buy this product for example). In other words, we saw the factors (and their techniques) that cause somebody to say yes to another person or to accept to buy a product. The most important principles are Reciprocation, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Liking, Authority and Scarcity.

Extraits

[...] We will mix several methods to find out that information: surveys, experiment and perceptual mapping. Having several methods will permit to give more legitimacy and consistency to our research. Surveys: They are useful for getting a great deal of specific information. Surveys are useful in describing the characteristics of a large population. They may contain open-ended questions (the respondent is not limited to the options listed and he is not influenced) and closed-ended questions (where he is asked to select answers from a brief list). [...]

[...] The second principle we will offer is Social Proof. “People are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer” (source: ICB Presentation). We determine what is correct by finding out what other people think is correct. We will instruct our marketing team to use this technique. They will launch TV ads and magazine ads in which we will see hundreds of children in the nature playing happily and enjoying a bottle of Captain Soda. [...]

[...] In the real life, I spent two weeks in Argentina in April 2011. It will enable me to better realize the macro consumer picture of this country. Argentina is a democratic country located in South America (it is the second largest by land). The President of the country is Christina Kirchner (left-wing party). “Argentna is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico, Colombia and Spain are more populous” (source:” http://www.en.argentina.ar/”). [...]

[...] My aim is to launch a new soft drink in Argentina. In a first time, we will briefly state this product (function, target audience). Then we will analyze both the macro consumer and micro consumer pictures. In a third part, we will imagine we are a consumer in order to know how we would use some factors such as motivation, exposure, decision making Finally, we will decide what information and techniques we would instruct all of our employees and partners in order that consumers say yes to our new soft drink and improve our sales. [...]

[...] We will use some of these influence principles to increase our sales. First of all, we will instruct our sales forces to use Reciprocation. They aim with this technique is to involve a “click and whirr” behavior of the consumer. In other word we will give him something and he will feel automatically obligated to repay. We saw during the seminar that person can trigger a feeling of indebtedness by doing us an uninvited favor (Source: ICB presentation by Nathan Sambul). [...]