Essay on John Deere New Product Line Up

Introduction

For the actualization of a new product line up at John Deere, there is the need for the management to have a good understanding of the behavior of the consumers of their products. Consumer behavior refers to the behavior displayed by consumers in the process of searching for, purchasing the goods, using, evaluating as well as disposing of the products that are meant to satisfy their needs (Swarbrook, 2007). For John Deere, there have been different perceptions that people have had for their products in the recent years. The perception has in a way influenced the overall consumer behavior of consumers of their products. It is therefore necessary for the management at John Deere to have a good understanding of how the various consumers perceive make their decisions that make up the buying decisions, the type of decisions that are involved as well as the steps of buying their products since customers cannot be forced to buy a new product if he spends adequate time making the buying decision (Phillips & Hallman, 2013). For farmers who use John Deere products, they happen to prefer to buy durables that can last both in the post-harvest and the festivals.

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Since every John Deere aims at increasing their sales by knowing what drives their customer's purchasing decisions, it would be important for the board of management of John Deere to understand the consumer behavior of their prospective customers by looking at the motivations that drive them to buy or not buy the various agricultural products through understanding their consumer perception (Peter & Olson, 2010). Consumer perception being the sensory perception theory that consumers have towards the marketing and advertising of various products the company will be in apposition to understand how people create views about business and the products they provide. Therefore, John Deere will have to apply the consumer perception theory to have a better understanding of how their customers perceive them as well as use the theory to develop their advertising and marketing strategies to retain their current retiring customers as well as attract the new ones. The market share increase reported at the company recently was a result of the positive consumer behavior as well as their study and understanding of the perceptions the customers have for their products. This was contrary to the previous stagnation of the company that might have been as a result of the company's marketing decisions that were on dealer feedback, something that might have caused problems as typical dealers would rarely meet typical consumers.

Additionally, based on the studies on the reasons as to why various consumers buy John Deere products it has been seen that the perception that the consumers have on their products in a great way contributes to the purchasing behavior (Kapoor & Kulshrestha, 2014). I will look into the John Deere tractors that have always maintained its sales despite the changing demographic factors. To understand the consumer behavior in relation to perception customers have on the John Deere products, there will need to answer questions such as why the customers opted to acquire the John Deere products instead of something else. Why did the customer choose the specific brand of the products? Why the models based on the price level? What is so special about the product brand chose? What does the customer say about the value-price chosen? And how is the buying process take place?

Also, before developing the products, John Deere's management may opt to listen to the customer's perception regarding the existing ones and improve on the things that the customers are not comfortable with. Most customer's state that their perception that products from John Deere are the most reliable, their low operating costs as well as the ease of using the tractors are what drives them to acquire the products (Lim & Yu, 2016). With such knowledge on how the various consumers perceive their products then the company will be in the position to take care of the customer's needs as well as increase their market share (Emilien, Weitkunat, & Ludicke, 2017). Also, research shows that most of the marketing-related organizations relate consumer behavior with company's stimuli such as personal selling and advertising as these are some of the factors that influence the perception of customers towards the products and thus influence the customer behavior (Emilien, Weitkunat, & Ludicke, 2017).

Consumer behavior is also ideal in the process of creating an image of the John Deere products in the minds of consumers commonly referred to as product positioning. The positioning of the product helps to create the first impression of the products in the minds of consumers as well as influence how they have presently perceived the products as well as their future perception (Cole, 2015). There are steps that John Deere will have to follow to position their product brands based on the consumer behavior of the existing customers as well as the future ones which include;

Knowing the target audience well

It is vital for the marketing department to have a good understanding of the target audience and then understand what they need and prefer as far as the products are concerned. This is because every customer possesses difference preferences, needs and interests and no two individuals can have the same line of thinking (Cole, 2015). Therefore, the company's management needs to know what the customer expects of their products so as fulfill their individual needs.

Identify the product features

John Deere must be aware of the features and benefits of the products since it is impossible to sell something until one is convinced of it. The management of John Deere should themselves use the tractors to convince more customers to have a good perception of the product as well as make the old customers retain the products.

Unique selling propositions

Since every product needs to have unique selling Propositions (USP's) with some features being unique, the organization will have to create USP's of their brand and communicate the same to the target audience (Keller, 2013). The manager and the marketing department need to be aware of what the John Deere tractors are capable of doing and how the tractors can be useful to the end-users. For instance products such as the Anti-dandruff shampoo" have been positioned in the minds of customers as one to get rid of dandruff. Thus the USP for the shampoo is "Anti-dandruff shampoo" that has enabled the company's position their products. John Deere, on the other hand, need to have USP's that will make their brands unique in the market.

Know your competitors

The marketing of John Deere must be aware of what their competitors offer and let the customers be aware that their products are better than those tractors from other companies. It is prudent for the management instill the culture of their employees that are in charge of marketing their products not to underestimate their competitors and always strive to have an edge over to their competitors.

Choosing the best ways to promote the brand

John Deere will have to make the choice of the best theme of advertising their tractors by using catchy taglines. However, the advertisements should not be meant to confuse people but to highlight the benefits of the products.

Maintaining the brand position

For John Deere Company to have an effective positioning of their tractor brands, it is essential for the marketers to keep on living to the end-users expectations. Also the company should always be conscious of not compromising the quality of the products as well as not drastically reducing the prices of the tractors as the perception people have for the product would not be the same if the price is reduced as some people believe that the price is proportional to the quality of the tractors (Bakker & Raabe, 2015).

Therefore, for John Deere to position their products in the minds of their customers effectively, it will be important to adhere to the steps above as well as the principles accompanying them to make sure that they retain their old customers as well as the emerging ones (Keller, 2013).

To make customers have a strong perception of the tractors from John Deere, the management will have to come up with catchy slogans that will attract many customers as well as retain the existing ones. Such slogans are referred to as a marketing message for a product and can be defined as a marketing strategy developed by a business with the aim of promoting a product or service (Lenderman, 2010). This promotional message comes in many forms such as magazine and television advertisements or a slogan on a product package.

The marketing message on John Deere's tractors will act as a tech startup's key tool to get its target customers as it forms part of an important communication process ("Creating the Perfect Online Marketing Message," n.d.). A brilliant marketing message for the John Deere tractors will have a number of characteristics such as one that gets to the point, that which takes the customer's viewpoint, that which makes a customer smile as well as one that needs no further explanation. Since John Deere tractors attract different people based on the demographics in the market, the marketing message will have to be sensitive in a way that it will cater for buyers, retirees, ethnic and female customers based on their different tastes and preferences.

John Deere looks forward to positioning their entire consumer product line to address the older customers that are just retiring, the female population as well as the people from different ethnicities. Therefore a marketing message for the John Deere products that would address their needs such as that message will promise them of life after their retirement from their formal jobs for the retirees, promise the females of their beauty as well as put the different ethnicities in a position that they will believe that they are equal with the dominant population would position their products well in the market. A marketing message such as "Ploughing for your future" will be ideal as it will be promising the retirees that the products such as the tractors will guarantee them a brighter future due to the productivity of the tractor. Also, the various genders and ethnicities will be caught by this marketing message as they too need a bright future that the tractors are meant to plough.

Conclusion

Therefore, I would advise the management at John Deere to put in priority knowing how the consumers perceive their products and how such perceptions affect their consumer behavior. With such knowledge, the company will be in a position of satisfying consumer's needs, ensuring customer loyalty that will, in turn give the company good returns on their investment.

References

Bakker, D., & Raabe, T. (2015). Vertical brand portfolio management: Strategies for integrated brand management between manufacturers and retailers.

Cole, G. (2015). Executive summary of "Effects of pronoun brand name perspective and positioning on brand attitude". Journal of Product & Brand Management, 24(2). doi:10.1108/jpbm-03-2015-0821

Creating the Perfect Online Marketing Message. (n.d.). Taking Down Goliath. doi:10.1057/9781137444219.0008

Emilien, G., Weitkunat, R., & Ludicke, F. (2017). Consumer perception of product risks and benefits. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

John Deere Capital. (2015). Genealogy of American finance. doi:10.7312/wrig17026-030

Kapoor, A., & Kulshrestha, C. (2014). Dynamics of competitive advantage and consumer perception in social marketing. McGraw-Hill Education.

Keller, K. L. (2013). Strategic brand management: Building, measuring, and managing brand equity. Harlow etc: Pearson.

Lenderman, M. (2010). Experience the...