MT$450$M$2-2$: Evaluate consumer and business opportunities using market research.

GEL$-1\mathrm{.}02$: Demonstrate college$-$level communication through the composition of original materials in Standard English.

Read the fictional scenario and address Parts $1$ and $2$ of this competency assessment.

Sybil$$s Artificial Flowers$*$ The Gift That Keeps on Giving

In $2021,$ Sybil Jones put the final touches on a product she had worked on for years in her garage. Sybil graduated with a degree in chemistry from a well$-$known school in Indiana. However, she has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Initially called Sybil$$s Artificial Flowers, the product broke new ground by creating patented, artificial flowers that look real and smell like a flower. In other words, roses smell like roses, and tulips smell like tulips. However, Sybil$$s flowers will never expire. The scent typically lasts three months and can be replaced with new scented cartridges. As a lover of flowers and the environment, Sybil has always felt flowers should remain on the earth.

She launched a website and opened a small store in a strip mall at the beginning of $2022.$ With modest sales, Sybil hired several employees to assist with manufacturing, sales, and administrative duties. In the summer of $2022,$ a popular morning show interviewed Sybil about her new product. This interview led to many other popular media coverage, in magazines, blogs, and podcasts. Because this product was starting to break on a national scale, she could secure a business loan for $$500,000.$ Sybil$$s biggest concern was her lack of business knowledge, mainly in marketing.

Sybil has just hired you as a marketing manager$/$consultant to assist her in taking the business to the next level. In your initial consultation with Sybil, she suggested that many sales were purchased as gifts. Another segment of customers applied to the home furnishings category. The raw materials required for artificial flowers are paper, cotton, parchment, latex, rubber, sateen $($for large, bold$-$colored flowers and arrangements$),$ and dried materials, including flowers and plant parts and berries, feathers, and fruits. For more upscale silk flowers, silk, rayon, and cotton are the fibers of choice. The cartridges that provide the scents are produced in Sybil$$s manufacturing facility.

Generic Goals

Sell several hundred thousand units.

Create awareness of new product line to new, prospective clients.

Incorporate digital marketing.

Hire more employees.

Target B$2$B clients

Identify the best distribution model for selling to customers.

Part $1$: The more you know about your customers, the better your position is to serve them and create a marketing strategy. In your initial consultation with Sybil, you asked about her customers. You realized Sybil did not understand her customers well, what motivates them, the influencers on customer purchases, and the purchase decision process. Using the concepts as discussed in Chapters $3$ and $4,$ as well as secondary research, address the following items.

Checklist:

Investigate three consumer characteristics $($cultural$,$ social, and personal$)$ influencing consumer buying behavior for Sybil$$s products.

Investigate how the four consumer psychological factors: motivation, perception, emotions, and memory influence consumer buying behavior for Sybil$$s Artificial Flowers.

Illustrate the five$-$stage model of the consumer buying process as a diagram for Sybil$$s Artificial Flowers.

Compare and contrast at least five differences between B$2$C versus B$2$B for Sybil$$s Artificial Flowers.

Part $2$: You realize you do not have all the information you need to understand your customers, particularly in the area of B$2$C$.$ Kotler et al$.(2022)$ suggest that to take advantage of all the resources and practices available, good marketers adopt a formal marketing research process that includes five steps:

Define the research problem.

Develop the market research plan.

How you will collect the information.

How you will analyze the information.

How you will come to a decision.

Using the concepts addressed in Chapter $5,$ address the following items.

Checklist:

Compose the research problem for Sybil$$s Artificial Flowers.

Create the research plan using secondary and primary data.

Evaluate secondary data; what does secondary data suggest in terms of market size, growth rates, consumer and business opportunities, and trends for this industry?

For primary data, include whether you will utilize qualitative, quantitative, or both.

Defend your rationale for each choice.

Provide a list of ten questions $($open$-$ and close$-$ended$)$ to help Sybil better understand her customers.

Explain how you will collect the information for the sampling plan, contact methods, and data mining.

Evaluate the consumer and business opportunities based on your initial research.