Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary
2. Situational Analysis
3. SWOT analysis
4. Market strategy
5. Limitation
6. Answers to question in the case study
7. Recommendation
Executive Summary
For business the consumers are its most important goal. Business would like to have a good relationship and total trust with clients that is why they put the clients as their first priority. But customers are not robots that can easily be dictated and influenced they have their own capacity to make their own decisions. Consumer decision making can be affected by different things and it can be changed by different instances. One thing that can affect the consumer’s decision making process is how a certain product is packaged. Packaging of a product may create or ruin a client’s interest in it. The packaging of a product helps in making it as a choice for the client when he/she is about to choose a product. The paper will discuss about the case study. The paper will also discuss about a situational analysis in the case. The paper will discuss a market analysis of packaging. Moreover the paper will conduct discussions on marketing strategy, marketing mix and limitations. The information acquired will be used to create recommendations.
Situational Analysis
Consumers make decisions about many things, of course. It is important to recognize that all decisions involve choices among alternative behaviors or courses of action. That is, a choice decision always involves the selection of one possible behavior or action from a set of at least two alternative behaviors. Strictly speaking, people do not choose product A or brand B ( 2001). Instead, they choose to buy, consume, recommend, sell, or return brand A rather than brand B. That is, one decides whether to buy a Coke or a Pepsi, shop at Giant or Safeway supermarket, or drink the last beer or save it until tomorrow. This means that consumer decision making is about evaluating and selecting alternative behaviors or actions ( 2001).Focusing on behaviors as choice alternatives rather than the typical marketing research focus on physical products, brands, or stores may seem a minor or subtle point, but it has important ramifications for both researchers and managers ( 2001).
By recognizing that consumers chose among behaviors, not objects, decision-making research is placed in context because behaviors always occur in an environmental context. A heightened behavior perspective also reveals that all marketing strategies are actions taken by the marketer that are intended to influence certain actions of consumers. Although much decision-making research is narrowly focused on brand purchase behavior, consumers actually make decisions about many types of behaviors. These decisions include such issues as what information sources to consult, when to shop, where to park, what stores to patronize, what alternatives to even consider, and how to pay for a purchase ( 2001). Understanding consumers’ decision making requires careful attention to the context in which the decision occurs. Context can be understood at micro and macro levels. All behaviors occur in some specific context, which includes the immediate physical environment and the social environment. Specific behaviors are also influenced by broader contextual factors, such as one’s economic situation, cultural influences, and social roles ( 2001). Consumer’s decision is affected by different things, one thing that affects their decision is packaging. The next discussion focuses on SWOT analysis of packaging
SWOT Analysis
Strength
A strength of packaging is it being adaptable to changes in the way it is made. As stricter environmental policies on products and packaging are implemented, companies are adjusting to these kinds of changes and they are providing products with environmentally allowable packaging. Companies are also trying to list both environmental friendly substances and hazardous chemicals that are available in their products. Another strength of packaging is its ability to provide assistance to clients for them to discover what product fits their needs.
Weakness
A weakness of packaging is its ineffectiveness to divulge information that can prevent more environment problems to affect people. The labels and information written in the packaging of products are not always helpful in solving problems that may affect the environment. Another weakness of packaging is most people ignore such things and they use a certain product without knowing if the contents of the product is safe or if the product can produce a good effect.
Opportunities
An opportunity for packaging is determining the different effects of packaging to clients and use the information acquired to reconstruct a packaging of a product depending on the needs of the clients. Another opportunity for packaging is for it to be beefed with information that can help in solving the environmental problems and in turn increase consumer’s interest in it.
Threats
A threat to packaging includes the laws in a country the products are sold. A law in certain country may affect the information the packaging contains. Some countries require limited packaging information; this can be due to the culture and traditions of that country. Another threat to packaging is the tariffs and taxes that different countries impose on products. The taxes and tariffs collected by a country is a threat because this might affect not only information on the packaging but the quality of the packaging as well.
Market Strategy
A company has only a limited amount of resources at its disposal and so selects only certain market segments where it feels that it has the capacity to compete effectively and where the market size is sufficiently attractive. This becomes the served or the target market ( 2000). A market can be segmented by the benefits enjoyed. Different segments buy the same product for different reasons. Some people use toothpaste for healthy teeth, others to prevent bad breath, and some people buy it for both reasons. More than one variable can be used when segmenting markets, and indeed, the more variables the better since it helps to focus on a tighter target market. Tighter targeting means less waste, more relevant offers to appropriate customers and higher customer satisfaction. Industrial, organizational or business-to-business markets can also be broken into segments and the most appropriate ones selected as target markets ( 2000). To affect consumer decision making a certain company’s product should have a market strategy that focuses on creating a packaging that is unique and can give the client information. The information, design and uniqueness of a packaging of a product can help in making the client interested in the product thus the decision making strategy of the consumer is affected.
Limitation
Consumer’s behavior and decision towards a product can only be affected within the boundaries of fair competition. Companies should not engage in unfair techniques to affect consumer behavior and decisions. By engaging in unfair techniques the image of a company becomes tarnished to the client.
Answers to the questions in the case
Question 1
The difference in environmental information across countries suggests different things about globalization of consumer interests. One of this is there is a need for countries to share information that can help in providing the proper solutions to problems on consumer interest. By sharing information countries can find a way to centralize the consumer problems and find a solution that can be used by all countries. Companies should not only standardize the environmental information they provide to customers but they should provide suggestions on how concerns of consumers can be solved.
Question 2
In communicating with clients, the companies should have an open outlook and an open mind in letting the clients inform them about what they think are the environmental issues and by doing this the consumer and the client can find solutions that can solve this issues together.
Question 3
The claims pertaining to lines such as ‘caring for the environment’ and ‘environmentally approved’ can be improved by putting the words mentioned into actions. Companies should realize that clients will be encouraged to buy their products when they believe and have seen that such products are caring for the environment and are environmentally approved.
Question 4
A possible explanation for such scenario is because the countries who appear to be ahead in their provision of environmental information on packaging may have experienced environmental problems before and as a warning they put such information on their products so that other countries can be warned and such problems will not be repeated.
Question 5
Environmental labels should not only be regulated but thoroughly monitored by individuals, companies, governments and non government organizations. Everybody should play a role in monitoring the labels put on products so that the improper labeling of products will be stopped and its negative effects can be prevented.
Recommendations
Consumer decision making can be affected by companies making sure their products are properly packaged. The packaging of the products should conform to the rules set by the country and it should attract and inform clients. The problems between consumers and the environment cannot be solved by only a few groups of people everyone should contribute in making sure that those products will be properly labeled and they should make sure that the information in that label is accurate.
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