Consumer Behavior Project Three

You may complete this project by yourself or with a partner. There is not a length requirement for this project document, but you must be sure to include all of the project requirements, clearly labelled and complete as assigned.

Description:

The Product

You will choose a product $($good$,$ service, combination, event, place, etc.$)$ which is currently offered for sale in the market today by a specific company. You need to choose a product for which you will be able to find an advertisement; you may use an ad from the Internet, be sure that it has the elements of an advertisement and is not just a picture.

Research the current consumers$/$target market for this product. After learning about the consumers who buy this product, create the concept of a product extension. This new product must be something that is not currently marketed by that particular company, that you think would interest the same customers who are now buying the original product.

EXAMPLE: if you chose Gatorade with their green $($and other colors$)$ drink which is marketed to young sporty people, particularly males, your product line extension might be a line of Gatorade sports clothing, or $($to borrow from a hilarious example provided by a student$)$ a soft drink named Slammin' Prune, which you are going to attempt to sell to the same young sports$-$oriented crowd $($good luck on that one! but you should get the idea$).$

Writing the Project Document

Point of View

When writing the project, put yourself in the role of a marketing consultant to the producer of the product you have selected. Write it like a business report $-$ clear and concise.

Project Requirement $1$

This is an executive summary of the project components. It provides a clear summary that will engage your product producer in your idea$($s$).$

In short, concise point form on no more than $1$ page, do six things $($number them$)$:

State the brand name and product class of a specific product currently existing $($this is your original product$),$ for which it would be possible to create a new product within the product line$*($this is your product extension$).$ The brand name is the specific brand name of the product currently marketed. Add to this a few words to tell me what this thing is$,$ if it is not immediately obvious from its name.

For example, if you have the product class soft drinks and you tell me that your current product is Pepsi Diet Cola, you don't need to tell me that that's a cola. But if you've got time keepers as a product class and you tell me that you're researching the Bagnasty's Absquatulator, tell me what it is$.$

$2.$ State the target market for the current product; then, using $6$ words or less for each characteristic, state the $3$ most important characteristics of the current target market for this product. On a separate line, state in not more than $12$ words the most important customer need that your product meets $($don$\text{'}$t analyze it; just state it$).$ Try as much as you can to be sure that this most important need relates directly to the eventual product extension you will choose.

$3.$ In not more than $12$ words, state where the current product is presently sold, both geographically and in terms of its type of distribution.

$4.$ State in U$.$S$.$ dollars the price range at which the current product is usually sold.

$5.$ State the single most important environmental variable that affects your current product, out of the basic seven environments $($demographic$,$ geographic, economic, natural, technological, political$/$legal$,$ socio$/$cultural$)$; then in not more than $3$ lines explain why it is the most important environment.

$6.$ State your best idea at this time for a proposed product extension to be sold to this same target market and describe it in not more than $3$ lines.

While preparing Requirement $1,$ read the instructions for the other parts and be sure that you can do what is required in the rest of the assignment with what you propose in Requirement $1.$

Project Requirement $2$

Choose one print ad for your company's current product and attach a copy of it to this report. Identify the customers for your current product and describe them in ways specifically relevant to the course material.

Project Requirement $3$

Do some informal research for this part $-$ interviews or survey of a small group of current users of the product or a product similar to yours, and use the information in the first part of this Part, which is done the same way as Part $2.$ Try to gather some simple information on demographics and psychographics that might be helpful to you when you introduce your product extension. You're looking for some early clues to whether or not your extension would be popular with your current target market. Describe your findings.

Remember the basic rules of ethical research with human participants, even informal research for a school project as this is: you must identify yourself and tell them what you are doing and why, you must assure them of confidentiality, andConsumer Behavior Project