MARKETING AND MARKETING STRATEGY

ASSIGNMENT SELECT TWO products which you have recently bought or rented, ONE a High Involvement purchase, and ONE a Low Involvement purchase, in the following product categories:

HIGH INVOLVEMENT (expensive or otherwise important): Examples:

Automobile,
Home or apartment,
Jewelry
LOW INVOLVEMENT (relatively inexpensive or routine):

Candy bar
Fast food
Newspaper or magazine
Excluding the title page, any appendices or references write a four page paper in which you do the following:

First Page

Applying the teaching materials, explain why the first product you chose was a High Involvement purchase and why the second was a Low Involvement purchase.
Using the five stage model of the Purchase Decision Process in the model of consumer buying behavior described in BACKGROUND MATERIAL, describe in detail the process you went through in buying each product. Bear in mind that the purpose of the assignment is to demonstrate the depth of your understanding of the teaching materials.

Second Page

Identify and discuss the differences between the way you went through the purchase decision processes for the two products. (20%)

Third and Fourth Pages

Assume now that you are a marketer of both of the two products that you have discussed in the previous pages. Applying only the teaching materials, (specifically the presentation “Uses of a Model of Buying Behavior”), explain how you might use your understanding of the Model of Consumer Buying Behavior for the two products. (Note that the presentation “Uses of a Model of Consumer Buying Behavior” is relevant to this part of the assignment).

List at the end all of the references you have cited in the body of the paper.

Ensure that you include on the title page:

the words in bold above including both the two sets of high and low involvement products and the section starting “First Page” and ending “…of the assignment.”
the brand names of the two products you chose for each type of involvement, e.g. “High Involvement: Samsonite luggage; Low Involvement: Del Monte canned fruit

Assignment Expectations
The notes associated with the question indicate that, as for other assignments in the course, you should demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the taught materials in the specific context of this assignment. The emphasis in my grading is primarily on whether you show that you understand what is being taught. In that regard some relevant concepts and frameworks to demonstrate your understanding of in this assignment include:

The difference between goods and services.
What is meant by Involvement and why it might be high or low.
The stages of the Purchase Decision Process, (PDP) and
How a potential buyer might follow this process
How the differences between High and Low Involvement affect the way someone might follow the PDP
How marketers might use their understanding of the model of buying behavior including the PDP to:
Segment a market, including explaining what is meant by segmentation and why segmentation can be useful in marketing.
Influence purchase probabilities as indicated in the relevant presentation.

BACKGROUND MATERIAL

MARKETING AND MARKETING STRATEGY
The materials on this page have direct relevance to both your Module 01 Case and the SLP. The former concerns how people buy products and how knowledge of buying behavior can be used by marketers, while the latter concerns analyzing a market as part of the development of a marketing strategy. This immediately raises some fundamental questions such as:

How do consumers decide what to buy?
How do marketers use that knowledge?
What is a market?
What is a marketing strategy?
What kinds of analysis do marketers do to determine whether a market for a new product might exist?
Your SLP asks you to develop a marketing strategy over modules 01 – 05, broken down into five parts, one for each of five modules, which begs the question “What’s a marketing strategy and how does one do one?”

The resources on this page will directly help answer all those questions.

Resources for All Modules
The course designer has prepared background materials for each module that can be accessed through the presentations link at the top of each page.
An extensive glossary of marketing terms can be accessed at
Marketing Power Dictionary (2011). American Marketing Association.