Consumer Behavior Models and STP Marketing Paper Example

Introduction

FIJI water dealing in bottled water is an example of organizations that market segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) has enabled to reach its customers effectively. Consequently, the marketing process is directly influenced by consumer behavior models such, environmental factors, consumer factors, the involvement of consumers in decision making and the decision-making process guiding the consumers to purchase the company's products. The company emphasizes the origin of its water products to achieve market share, and it creates significant value to the consumers. The company was introduced in 1996, and to date, it has provided fresh and natural water that is bottled to its diversified consumers.

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Part 1

Consumer behavior aspect of environmental factors

Political environment and competition are significant environmental factors that continuously influence consumer behavior regarding the operations of FUJI Water Company. The political environment, for instance, has contributed to the decline of the company's operations in local and international markets. The unfavorable political environment has discouraged the consumers from purchasing the bottles due to high prices contributed to by the high tariff rates and unfriendly legislation. Competition, on the other hand, has been a favorable environmental factor that has attracted the consumers to purchase the products from the company. This has been possible due to the strong brand associated with the company which has greatly shaped the customer's decisions to purchase bottled water from FUJI Water Company (Brei, 2018). Also, changes in technology is an environmental factor that has influenced the customer's decisions to purchase water products from the company. A good illustration is the introduction of social media platforms through which the company has conducted its advertisements to reach to the target market. Moreover, the improved technology has enabled the consumers to raise their concerns about the products and hence the company has been able to address such concerns to retain its market pool.

Consumer behavior aspect of consumer factors

The critical decision factors that influence the consumers to buy a bottle of water from FIJI Company is brand recognition and the display of price as well as packaging. Moreover, the consumers are influenced by the brand loyalty and thus are likely to buy the bottles from the company due to the familiarity of the brands 9GungorDemirci, Lee, Mirzaei, & Younos, 2016). Accessibility is another factor that has attracted the consumers to buy the bottled water from the company; this has been achieved through the company's empowerment strategy in which it empowers its customers (Baumeister, Clark, Kim, & Lau, 2017). The company ensures its presence in four major social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. With social media, the customers feel valued since their needs and responding quickly via the social media platforms; hence timely feedback is achieved.

Role of involvement in purchase decisions

The company uses social media platforms to get the consumers directly involved in the purchase decisions for its bottled water. Through social media, the company initiates emotional connections by making it possible for consumers to share their experiences. The social media also creates an engaged conversation between the consumers and the company and through the platform the company can gauge the feedback of the customers. As a result, the company in many instances has been tailoring its brand to meet the customer's specifications and the preferences considering their complaints and concerns (Brei, 2018). Nevertheless, via social media, the company has been able to understand the demographic information of the consumers thus identifying how to deliver a marketing message that suits the demand of the customers.

Consumer decision-making process

The consumer decision-making process is influenced by the name, symbol, sign and the combination of all descriptive factors which identifies the product of the company and differentiate from the competitors. (GungorDemirci, Lee, Mirzaei, & Younos, 2016).The descriptions must be related to the consumer's decision-making process. FIJI Water has branding criteria with a specific taste that attracts its consumers ("Privacy Policy," 2018). Furthermore, the customers prefer the natural refreshing taste attributed to its neutral PH level. Customer's decisions to purchase the company's water is also influenced by the odor, flavor, aftertaste and the appearance of its water (Baumeister, Clark, Kim, & Lau, 2017).

Most importantly, the packaging of the company has a superior impression as compared to its competitors. The company also provides attractive, well-delivered and consistent branding of their water to the customers and also have ensured its water is adequately treated thus maintaining the taste and the smell. Nevertheless, the customers decide to purchase the water from this company because the bottles are easy to carry and store.

Part 2

Market Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning and Target Marketing Strategy

The STP marketing model is useful for the organizations in the identification of the most valuable types of consumers as through that the organization can tailor products and marketing messages that suit the needs of the consumers. Furthermore, the model allows for the engagement between the organization and the varied groups of customers thus able to sell their products (Claiborne, & Sirgy, 2015). The customers are diversified. Thus an organization cannot employ the same strategy to get to the customers since not all consumers would have the same preference and demand. For effective marketing, most organizations practice the use of the concept of STP which stands for segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Understanding the process of marketing and the practices involved in STP is significant in the identification of consumer behavior.

Segmentation

Segmentation as the first step of product marketing involves simplification and division of the marketing process into segments within a large market to establish a pool for consumers who have similar needs, preferences and demands (Dibb, & Simkin, 2016). Individuals targeted by this kind of marketing exhibit the same response to the market including market fluctuations and changes in the identity of the products. In the case of FIJI Water Company, has a specific brand that is preferred by a section of the customers arrived at after thorough analysis (Claiborne, & Sirgy, 2015). The company has targeted the beverage industry where its bottled water has is in categories of three major divisions to achieve its segmentation process. These include beverage sales, private labels and small manufacturers (Brei, 2018). The beverage sales include PepsiCo, Crystal Geyser Water Co, Coca-Cola, and Nestle. Small manufactures segment include the Mintel Oxygen.

Targeting

Targeting happens after the segmentation process, and it involves the formulation of various marketing strategies and marketing schedules depending on the tastes and preferences of individuals of the specific segment (Schlegelmilch, 2016). This process enables organizations to target the identified segments through the existing marketing plans and schemes. Targeting has been achieved through the company building a strong brand with attempts to achieve the desired placement (Claiborne, & Sirgy, 2015). The promotional channels embraced by the company have been tailored to convey specific messages during advertisements to reach the target market. Marketing conveys messages by the use of some positioning slogans including "natural artesian water" as well as the images of tropical settings to achieve unique brand image (Biro, 2017). Moreover, the company employs the use of advertisement channels to position the products and some of the placement messages are conveyed via Hollywood movies, musical events alongside golf tournaments.

Positioning

Positioning as the last stage in STP is effected after the organization has decided on the target market. Positioning is achieved by the organization attempting to create an image and brand for its consumers. Through this step, the organization in the marketing process establishes a first impression of the product in the minds of the consumers through positioning. Most importantly, positioning enables the organization to develop a perception of the products especially when there is a new product to be introduced into the market (Schlegelmilch, 2016). The process of positioning has been achieved through ensuring high quality and artesian water by the company. The bottled water from the company is thirst quenching, and its position in the market is supported by the creation of a high priced bottles of water on the displayed on the shelf at the retail stores (Biro, 2017). Nevertheless, to retain its position, the company has established a brand image of exotic water and tropical type achieved by embracing the images of palm tree (Brei, 2018). This ensures that the segment part of the customers selected can identify with the brand.

More Tasteful

The perceptual map above shows FIJI Water Company amongst its competitors where its competitive advantage has positioned it better as compared to its competitors. The competitors include Perrier Company, San Pellegrino. C, Evian Company, and Glacier Water. FIJI Company has managed to achieve competitive advantage in the aspect of its brand and the taste of its water products through relevant criteria, new opportunities for expansion, tailoring the products to meet the perceptions of the customers while beating the beliefs of the competitors. The company moreover, has used three steps to achieve the competitive advantage as indicated in the map. The steps include identifying possible competitive advantages, choosing right competitive advantage, and communicating and delivering the chosen target and position. The target market identified by the company is restaurants and resort centers.

Target Marketing Strategy

Target marketing strategy is done after segmentation, targeting and positioning processes. It involves the manager of the company incorporating targeting strategies the can best access the consumers. It enables the marketing and sales teams to tailor their message to the target groups identified by the company. Nevertheless, the process integrates marketing mix approaches to create a suitable offer for each segment identified. The process as used by the company incorporates the concept of a marketing mix where a perfect selection of the product, price, place, and promotion approaches are integrating into the company's operations.

FIJI Company conducts marketing opportunity analysis, and by doing this, the company can investigate the available space within the market, the level of competition and the potential of profit realization (FIJI Water, 2018). Consequently, the company chooses the basic market approach and this step factors in three strategies which are a selection of the target consumers, concentration on the identified segment and pursuance of the segments of the whole market through a mix of marketing approaches. Most importantly, this strategy is used by the company to select and describe one or more target to influence of the decision of the consum...