CONSUMER ANALYSIS
消费者分析
Consumer Analysis → Market → Competition → Distribution → Marketing Mix → Economics → Revise
Research Can Help to Understand the Buying Process. Consumer research is a major tool in helping make the buying process theory useful. Research can show a marketing director where he has succeeded and where his efforts need to be redirected. Research is valuable if it can be translated into tangible marketing actions. Before you embark on research, you must ask yourself:
调研工作有助于理解购买程序 消费研究是使购买程序理论变得有用的一个主要方法。研究工作能让营销总监认清他哪些方面成功了，哪些方面的努力需要调整方向。研究工作的价值在于，它能转化为实际营销行动。在你开始研究之前，必须先问问自己：
“What specific question do I need answered?”
“哪个具体问题是我需要得到答复的?”
“How am I going to use the information once I have it?”
“一旦掌握了信息，我如何使用它?”
If you haven’t thought through these two simple questions, you will probably waste your time and money.
如果没有想透这两个简单的问题，你可能就会浪费自己的时间和金钱。
Is the product a high- or a low-involvement product?
产品的复杂程度是高还是低？
As the discussion of buyer behavior indicates, different products elicit different purchase behaviors because of their inherent importance to the buyer and user. If the consumer feels a high level of “risk” in buying a product, then it is considered a high-involvement product. There are several reasons for high-involvement purchase decisions:
正如关于购买行为的讨论所表明的，不同的产品会由于其内在的对购买人和使用者的重要性而导致不同的购买行为。如果消费者感觉购买某种产品有较大的“风险”，这种产品就被认为是复杂程度高。决定购买复杂程度高的产品有以下几个原因：
High price
价格昂贵
The need for the product’s benefit (e.g., reliability, as in the case of a pacemaker)
对产品优势的需求(例如，起搏器的可靠性)
The need for the product’s psychological reward (e.g., status, love)”
对产品的心理满足需求(例如，地位、喜爱)
Cars, and professional services are examples of high-involvement purchases. They are usually higher priced and at times difficult to compare. Determining the differences between alternatives makes high-involvement purchases difficult, especially if the buyer is not an expert. Thus, the information search can be quite extensive. When litigating a damage claim, for example, usually there is no second chance to take the case to trial. Therefore, the choice of a lawyer is a high-involvement selection. With low-involvement products the decision is simpler. For example, if a candy bar isn’t tasty, you can always pitch it and buy another one.
汽车和专业服务，都属于高复杂程度产品，价格一般相对较高，且常常难于进行比较。特别是当买主并非专家时,要确定可替代产品之间的差别，更使购买高复杂程度产品变得十分困难。因此，信息研究很可能会成为一个漫长的过程。
Consumer Behavior Matrix
消费者行为矩阵
This academic model does have real-world implications for action. A high-involvement product, such as a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, would appear in the upper left-hand corner of the matrix. The model would suggest that Harley’s marketing efforts should be geared toward demonstrating its technical superiority, but also include an emotional appeal—“buy an American classic”—to engender loyalty.
这一理论模型在现实生活中确有实际意义。像哈雷-戴维森摩托车这类产品，就作为高复杂程度产品而处于图中的左上角。该模型表明，该公司的营销力量应集中在展示其摩托车的技术优势上，同时还有情感上的诱惑力——“买一辆传统的美国车”，以唤起一种忠诚心理。
The marketer’s magic is at work when he or she transforms a previously low-involvement product into a high-involvement one. Athletic shoes are a prime example. Once just functional shoes for gym class, sports shoes have become a status symbol for young people and even the cause of murder on inner-city streets. The conversion of a low-involvement product to a high-involvement product can make a simple commodity product stand out against an undifferentiated field of competitors. There are four generic ways in which this can be accomplished.
当营销人员将一种过去认为是低复杂程度的产品转化为高复杂程度的产品时，它的魔力就发生了作用。运动鞋就是一个很好的例子。运动鞋仅仅是体操课上的功能性鞋，现已成为年轻人地位的象征。低复杂程度产品向高复杂程度产品转换，可以使一种简单的商品从一个未被区分的竞争领域里脱颖而出。通过以下4种常见的方法可以实现这一点：
Link Product to a High-Involvement Issue. Linking no-cholesterol cooking oil to a wife’s fear of a husband’s heart attack is a classic example of an advertising ploy.
将产品与高复杂程度的问题连接起来。典型的一例广告就是宝洁公司将不含胆固醇的烹调油与妻子害怕丈夫心脏病发作联系起来。
Use Involving Advertising. If the advertising creates a value-expressive message about the product or service, then a product can become important. Such messages link values, such as social status and love, instead of promoting physical product attributes to differentiate the product from the competition. Pepsi tries to link being modern and youthful with its products by using singers in elaborate commercials to sell its soda.
运用复杂广告。如果广告建立起一种表现产品或服务价值的信息，那么该产品就变得重要起来。这种信息将价值（诸如社会地位、爱）联系了起来，而不是仅仅着眼于产品本身的特性以及与竞争对手产品的差异。百事可乐努力在商业广告中经常使用明星，将青春、朝气、时尚与自己的产品联系起来，以利销售。
Change the Importance of Product Benefits. Products as well as services provide a variety of benefits. If through marketing action a benefit can be raised to a heightened level of importance, buyers are likely to become more involved. The beer wars of the 1980s made calories an important competitive issue. An overlooked attribute—calories—made health-conscious drinkers more aware of their purchasing decisions, and consequently Miller Lite made out like a bandit. In the 2000s it is carbohydrates. In 2012 the “gluten-free” labels on baked goods were attractive to many, even to those with no gluten allergy.
改变产品优势的重要性。产品和服务都能给使用者带来某种益处。如果通过营销活动将某种益处的重要性提高一个层次，更多的购买人则会有兴趣。20世纪80年代的啤酒大战使卡路里成为一个重要的竞争话题（21世纪是碳水化合物）。长期被忽略的特性——卡路里，使得对健康问题很敏感的饮酒者们在购买时更加注意了。结果，米勒清啤被说得与土匪一样一无是处。21世纪的头10年，消费者喜爱碳酸饮料。到了2012年，厂家热衷给烘烤食品贴上不会引起过敏、无谷蛋白的标签以吸引消费者。市场反响不错，这一宣传把消费者中对谷蛋白过敏的人也吸引过来了。
Introduce Important Characteristic to Product. A marketer can also tinker with some of the elements of the product itself to distinguish it. When childproof caps were introduced on household cleaners, the involvement of parents in this purchase decision was heightened. The first products with protection caps stood out on the store shelves. But once all competitors copied the cap, new avenues of differentiation were needed and the purchase returned to its low-involvement status.
介绍产品的重要特点。营销家还可以在产品本身的某些性能上大做文章，使之与众不同。当家用吸尘器推出儿童防护帽时，家长们的购买决策介入程度大为提高。在商店的货架上，配有首批防护帽的产品占据显要位置。然而，一旦竞争对手们都仿制了这种防护帽，就需要新的差异，同时购买热又回归到低复杂程度状态。
Truly low-involvement products often are that way because a minimum level of acceptable performance is required. A thumbtack, for example, does not have a difficult job to perform. No matter what the brand, you can’t go too wrong. If the cost of trial is low, such as for a pack of gum, involvement is difficult to stimulate.
真正低复杂程度产品，主要是因为人们对其可接受的性能标准要求较低。例如，一枚图钉的使用功能简单，无论是什么牌子的，都差不到哪儿去。如果尝试的成本很低，例如，一包口香糖，其介入程度很难被刺激起来。
Related to involvement is the level of purchase planning. Is the purchase planned or an impulse buy? High-involvement products are usually planned, while impulse products are bought on the spur of the moment. If a purchase is planned, then a buyer is likely to seek information. If not, the proximity of the product to the need is important. Snack foods are an example of impulse buying. Midday hunger leads to the nearest junk food.”
与复杂程度相关的是购买计划的层次。购买的目的是计划购买还是即兴购买?高复杂程度产品总是经过计划才购买的，而即兴产品是一时高兴就买的。如果是计划购买，买主很可能要搜寻信息。反之,产品与需求的联系紧密程度就十分重要了。小吃食品就是即兴购买的一个例子，饥饿的人就会选择最近的快餐店。
(To be continued)
Reference:
Ten-Day MBA 4th Ed. by Steven Silbiger
发表评论 取消回复