Exercise 14: Problem Recognition
Objectives
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Background
Consumer
Behavior as Problem Solving
Marketers should
view consumers as conscious problem solvers seeking to satisfy their needs and
wants. Problem solving entails
consumers taking thoughtful, reasoned action to find a solution to satisfy
their needs, where the solution is purchases of a product.
The First Phase—Problem Recognition
The first stage
of consumer decision making is appropriately called problem recognition (need recognition, need arousal, need state),
which is the result of a consumer’s unsolved problem or a felt (unsatisfied)
need or want. It involves a significant gap between a consumer’s actual (current) state of affairs and the buyer’s desired (idea)l state of affairs caused by an unsolved problem or
an unsatisfied need or want. In the ideal state the consumer’s needs are
fulfilled and satisfaction is achieved. The consumer’s goal: to close the gulf
between the desired and actual states.
How Problem Recognition Arises
The gap between
the actual and ideal circumstances can arise in two ways, as illustrated in
Figure 14-1: via opportunity recognition
or need recognition.
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In opportunity recognition, the consumer’s
ideal state increases and that person
wants and expects more than previously. Reasons why consumers “raise the bar”
on their desires and expectations include:
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Life circumstances change. When you graduate college you will need to upgrade
from sweatshirts, dungarees, and baseball caps to a professional wardrobe and
to trade in that seedy backpack for an elegant leather briefcase.
•
Individual development leads to changing needs. A child eventually outgrows
picture books and wants chapter books instead.
•
New products become available. Once you watch high-definition TV, the old
analog TV will no longer do.
•
The purchase of one item creates the need for a related product. When you
purchase a DVD player, you need some DVD software to go with it.
•
What is “in” or ‘cool” changes: new fashion items (e.g., clothing styles),
trendy items (the hot “flavor of the month”), and even fad items (e.g., Beanie
Babies).
• New information reveals the extent to
which the actual conditions deviate from the desired circumstances, such as
when a medical report in The Journal of
the American Medical Association tells us that aspirin can prevent a heart
attack. Marketing communications suggest consumers upgrade their lives by
buying the marketers’ wares.
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A second way for
the discrepancy between the actual and desired states to widen is via need
recognition, where the actual state declines. (Note that this
particular use of the term need
recognition is one type as problem recognition
but is not synonymous with it.)
Need recognition
has several causes:
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Assortment depletion or wear and tear. Examples: running out of tissue, eggs,
or milk; an old suit becomes threadbare.
•
Becoming dissatisfied with one’s current brand.
•
A change in one’s financial status. Examples: suffering a pay cut or
unemployment.
•
External stimuli. Examples: the wonderful aroma wafting out of a bakery or
pizzeria triggers a desire for their delicacies; a record store blasting the
latest Breaking Benjamin CD makes one want to run in and buy it.
•
Boredom induces variety seeking.
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Marketing Opportunities during the Problem
Recognition Stage
New Product
Development
The first opportunity is to
develop and launch new products that trigger problem recognition. The most
successful new products are based on knowledge of unsatisfied needs and wants
Problem-based Ideation. The most
fruitful way to develop new products is to use problem-based ideation, (the problem-solution
route, the problem find-problem
solve approach). The The procedure is to:
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(1) Discover unsolved consumer problems
or unsatisfied needs and wants. Marketing
research methodologies can be used to isolate the problems. Techniques
include customer satisfaction surveys, focus groups, and in-depth interviews.
(2) Develop, test, and launch a product that better solves the problem or satisfies the desires than anything else currently offered in the marketplace. This can be done via individual creativity or using group ideation meetings, like brainstorming sessions.
Problem
Analysis. One well-known
approach to finding and solving problems is problem analysis (problem detection, needs analysis). The procedure
is:
(1)
Determine an activity or product where consumers are believed to have
unsatisfied needs or unsolved problems,
(2)
Use surveys or focus groups with target market consumers to gather a list of those
needs and problems, and
(3)
Employ creative thinking to generate product ideas to solve one or more of the
problems on the list.
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There are two
types of problem analysis: activity
analysis and product analysis. Activity analysis (process analysis) focuses on a particular activity or process, such
as washing the car, entertaining guests, or getting some exercise. Consumer
research is used to ascertain: (1) what
problems consumers experience while performing the activity, (2) how
severe or important each problem is, and (3) the frequency of occurrence of
each problem.
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Customers
can also be asked to propose new product ideas that are solutions to the
problems.
Product analysis uncovers problems consumers associate
with using a particular product, employing the same procedure as activity
analysis. For example, consumers could have complained about spaghetti being a
messy food to eat, leading to the development of Spaghetti-O’s or even the
electric fork!
Other Marketing Strategy Implications of Problem
Recognition
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Launch complimentary items for new products (software, supplies, maintenance
products, etc.).
•
Emphasize to customers the importance of staying on top of cutting-edge
developments, such as recent fashions, trends, and fads related to products you
produce.
• Use problem-solution (problem-resolution) advertising that raises a problem and
dramatically shows how the product solves it. For example, ads for Sherwin
Williams Kids’ Room paint pointed out the issue of kids getting their grimy
paws all over the walls and offered the solution: a more stain-resistant paint.
• Employ primary (generic) demand advertising (e.g., “Pork—the other white
meat”; Stove Top stuffing beats boring potatoes or rice).
• Utilize secondary (selective) demand advertising (e.g., “Brand Apha beat
Brand Beta two-to-one in taste tests”).
• Use consultative personal selling—a persuasive sales approach whereby
salespeople probe deeply to find out what problems customers want to solve and
then offer appropriate solutions.
• Target those market segments with
changing needs. Children and teens, college graduates, newlyweds, new parents,
and newly retired people are all markets whose new life circumstances cause
problem recognition, be it for a companion of the opposite sex, a uniform for a
new job, supplies for a new-born, or furniture for a down-sized home.
Can Problem
recognition be Created?
A
controversial suggestion for is to create “false” problems or unsatisfied needs
and “wicked” wants through advertising and promotion, which can then be
satisfied by a product. But, is “creation of desires” really possible? Do ads
and salespeople create problems like “waxy yellow buildup,” “houseitosis”
(smelly house) and “dog breath”? Do ads manufacture a problem by saying
something like, “The dirt you can’t see”? Do marketers sometimes offer
solutions for invented problems? Are they selling us a bill of goods we don’t
want or need? If this is all true, then we must deny the concept of consumer sovereignty and admit that we
are all dupes in the hands of marketers.3
However, the marketing concept suggests that needs and
wants preexist products. Needs are not
for products—products are for needs! Marketers don’t create wants—they create want satisfiers! In each of the preceding examples, the needs must have
pre-existed the marketers. Perhaps the wants lay below the surface of
consciousness—latent (covert,
subconscious) needs—but they were there nonetheless.
Demand cannot be
created—it can only be discovered via consumer research and then satisfied via
marketing activities which are superior to those of competitors. The best
evidence we have of this is the astronomical failure rate of new products,
which is anywhere from 35% to 90% depending on the product-market. If there was
a formula for creating desires, surely all marketers would use it and thus
never fail!
• Consequently,
the strategy recommendation is not to “create” needs but rather to make people
aware of latent (covert) problems they
hadn’t given much thought to—hidden problems people aren’t aware of. Much
public service advertising awakens problem recognition (e.g., “Friends don’t
let friends drive drunk”). The Oral B Indicator toothbrush, which changes color
when it’s worn out, heightened consumer awareness of the need to dispose of and
replace old toothbrushes.
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In-Class Applications
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What needs and wants of yours aren’t
fulfilled?
Which of the various sources of opportunity recognition and need recognition are the source of your
problems?
Do you believe that there is a segment of
consumers (other than college students) who share any of your problems? If so,
describe this group.
Does this suggest an idea for a new product
or else an improved version of an existing product? If so,
describe your new product concept in terms of three elements that often make up
product concept statements (used to
get consumer reactions to the idea): (1) the product form (i.e., physical attributes, what the product is), (2) its functions or uses and applications it could serve (what the product
does), and (3) benefits (satisfaction of consumer needs and wants) it would
deliver.
Note: A fourth element sometimes included in
new product concept statements is (4) technology—the scientific know-how needed
to produce the product. An example is a new chemical mixing process that
prevents food from drying out and keeps it moist. You may include technology as
part of your concept statement, if you wish.
For example, oxygenated bottled water sales
grew in the early 2000s. Such water is said to provide athletes with the oxygen
they need for training and endurance. Yet, experts have debated whether
oxygenated water really improves athletic performance. Might not these
marketers have created a “false” need or “wicked” want?
Why is this issue important for marketers?
For legislators and government regulators?
www.ebay.com, www.jaguar.com, and
//www.netgrocer.com.
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Written Applications
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Find and discuss four more ads, each of which in a different way from the other ads taps into problem recognition