I need a reply/response to these discussion board answers. Just read the discussion board answers, and respond to the information you read by also adding your own point of information about each topic itself to each discussion board answers not about how to correct the person answers by saying he or she needs to add more information or saying you agreed without stating why. Just three to five Lines response each. Please I need good and quality response to these discussion board answers. Please I need good and quality reply, and plsi want you to add more information about the their answers n your contribution to my classmates answers and topic.
Consumer behavior
QUESTION FOR THE TWO DISCUSSION BOARD BELOW;
Based on the readings (from Week 2 Learning Resource list), complete the questions below. Utilize headings to organize your responses.
Research outside sources, cite within your text answer and then fully cite the source at the bottom of your response. Discussion this week center around two topics: Market Segmentation (which should be review from Principles of Marketing) and learning about Consumer Behavior Research methods.
A) Identify the four bases of Market Segmentation and give three market segmenting variables that demonstrate each of the four bases.
B) Based on the article found in the Learning Resource tab of the classroom entitled "How Companies Learn Your Secrets" answer the following questions in order.
B-1) What surprised you the most about the article?
B-2) Which approach to Consumer Behavior Research is being used? Why?
B-3) What types of questions are they trying to answer through this research (think of these on your own).
B-4) Do you think this type of research is insightful and worth the money?
Robyn Morrison
The four bases of consumer market segmentation include Demographic Segmentation, Geographic Segmentation, Psycho-graphic Segmentation and Behavioral Segmentation (Chand, 2016). Demographic segmentation divides the markets into groups based on variables such as age, income, and sex. Geographic segmentation divides the market into geographic unit groups such as states, cities or even neighborhoods. Psycho-graphic segmentation divides the marketing into groups based on personality characteristics such as attitudes, habits and lifestyle choices. Behavioral segmentation divides market groups based on knowledge of and attitude towards a product as well as how likely are they to be a repeat customer.
1. Based on the article found in the Learning Resource tab of the classroom entitled "How Companies Learn Your Secrets" answer the following questions in order.
• B-1) As a frequent Target shopper, I was surprised to read that I had a guest ID number and especially that it held so much information about me. I was pretty surprised to read that Target wasn't only gathering transaction information on what I bought but also person information like my age, if I am married and have kids, which part of town I live in, how long it takes me to drive to the store, my families estimated salary, whether I've moved recently, what credit cards I carry, and where I like to shop online (Duhigg, 2012).
• B-2) Quantitative research is being conducted to predict consumer behaviors. Observational research is being used to gain an understanding of the consumer in relations to products and Target as a business. With the lower cost of quantitative research, Target is able to gather a vast majority of information on customers. While the information will not be as specific, it does offer a wide range of information to add to each guest ID profile from what they purchase to where they live. Observational research offers a company the opportunity to track what is purchased and when, and the relationship to repeat purchases as well as satisfaction.
• B-3) Target is trying to pinpoint what you buy and when you buy it. They are able to concentrate on when the ideal time is to market new customers and new products.With the idea that by targeting pregnant women when they are most likely to be open to new consumer relationships, it allows Target the opportunity to strike while the iron is hot to to speak. If Target is able to demonstrate that all the consumers needs can be met at one place and offer great customer service, they will earn a new loyal consumer.
• B-4) I absolutely do believe that is worth it. It allows Target the ability to create a direct marketing plan for each guest ID based on what they prefer. Past purchases are often a good prediction of future ones. While it may concern some people being placed into certain categories or being tracked, it really does allow for the consumer to have an optimized shopping experience.
CassiSahut
Discussion 2
A) The Four Bases of Market Segmentation are:
Geographic: Businesses that use this segmentation strategy divide the market into regions or locations. Some regional variables used to determine the segmentations are; climate, continent, population density and growth.
Demographic: For this segmentation, a company divides the larger market into groups based on several variables. Variables like, Age, Gender,
Occupation and income.
Psychographic: is segmentation using a person's lifestyle or personality traits. Companies look to identify consumers based on variables like, opinions, attitudes, values and social class.
Behavioral: With this strategy, segmentation is based on customer interest or experience with the company or products (Kokemuller, n.d.).
Variables such as occasion, usage rate, brand knowledge and loyalty status aid in determining behavioral segments.
B) Based on the article found in the Learning Resource tab of the classroom entitled "How Companies Learn Your Secrets" answer the following questions in order.
1. What surprised me the most was the amount of information that companies can obtain on consumers. It's astonishing and frightening all at the same time. The fact that a retailer could have info on what credit cards I have, websites I visits, my relationship status, or job history is unsettling. I knew retailers collected information about customers but not the sheer scope of that info or that customers are assigned an ID number.
2. The Approach to Consumer Behavior Research being used is Primary. Pole observed customers and asked them questions. He did the research himself and didn't get the info second hand. Pole used behavioristic segmentation to determine what types of products consumer namely pregnant women buy. So, he could determine whether a customer was pregnant or not to better advertise to them. Pole used an analytical program he developed to find patterns in the products the pregnant women buy in certain trimesters. As Pole's computers crawled through the data, he was able to identify about 25 products that, when analyzed together, allowed him to assign each shopper a "pregnancy prediction" score (Duhigg, 2012). This will allow target to identify which women are in there second trimester and aid them in creating new shopping habits.
3. The types of questions they are trying to answer with their research are: how consumer habits are created and what can we do to change or influence those habits? Can we collect enough consumer information to determine certain aspects of a consumers' life like pregnancy without being told? When are consumer habits more flexible?
4. This type of researcher is insightful and wroth the money because it allows companies to determine when consumer habits become more flexible and willing to spend more at their store. For instance, if companies can identify pregnant shoppers, they can earn millions because new parents are the most flexible consumers.
Organizational behavior BMGT 464
QUESTION FOR THE TWO LA 1 BELOW:
Complete the Big 5 personality test and Jung test given in our content area. NOTE: The Jung test is the same typology as the MBTI discussed in our Saylor text chapter 3. Compare your results and explain what you have learned from this: what did you learn about yourself? Was either test accurate or would you devise your own (if so, what components would you include?)? Based upon your own work experiences, would these be effective in the workplace-why or why not?
Erin Cullum LA1
I have always found these sort of test interesting and had taken similar ones in the past. The results did not indicate anything new that I had not already learned in the past. I do find them to be pretty accurate to how I perceive myself. Where I work, we have an opportunity to take the MBTI test and go through a learning session to really understand what your results mean.
These sort of tests would be useful in the workplace. The usefulness of these tests could help employees and managers know more about each other. It can strengthen emotional intelligence by creating awareness of each other's emotions (Organizational Behavior, 2014). According to Rachel Green (2011), emotions can drive behavior and create motivation that can ultimately drive productivity.
These tests can also be an indicator of the self-esteem of the individual. Those with higher self-esteem have lower scores in neuroticism and more likely to extroverts (Hitti, 2005). The results can also be a gauge on the individual's organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Those that are agreeable and conscientious are more likely to perform OCB which helps others and benefits the organization (Organizational Behavior, 2014).
My results for the Jung typology test I was an ISTJ (Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging). In the Big 5 personality test, my results indicated that I:
• Openness: prefer traditional familiar experiences
• Conscientiousness: am organized and reliable
• Extraversion: enjoy spending quiet time alone
• Agreeableness: find it easy to criticize others
• Neuroticism: generally relaxed
My results would indicate I may not be as open to change, have a higher motivation to perform, may not have an easier time adjusting to a new job, am not as tolerant, and create a fair climate at work. I also feel that I have a high locus of control which could be contributed by my high degree of conscientiousness. High locus of control individuals believe their actions control their own destiny (Organizational Behavior, 2014).
While I said at the start of my post that I had not learned anything new about myself through these tests, I do now have a stronger understanding on how these tie to organizational behavior. If everyone took these tests, they would have a much better understanding about their behavior and what it means in the grand scheme of the organization and organizational behavior.
Marguerite Van Ness
LA1, Peggy
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or Jung test has been a regular measurement in my life for many years. I am curious about human behavior so I tend to gravitate towards these kinds of resources. I have taken it at work for sessions that raise awareness about self and working with other personality types and I have taken it for 2 other classes - the last one being just a month or so ago for an Organizational Leadership class. I can say that I am consistent because I always get the same outcome and generally, the percentages that indicate degrees do not vary by any significant amount.
Even though I am very familiar with the indicator, I think it is a useful measurement tool both for self-reflection and for understanding others in a way that provides valuable insight into how to best work with them. I am an ENFJ (Extravert, iNtuitive, Feeling and Judging) with emphasis on the E and F (Human Metrics, n.d.). I have lots of energy, friends, and am highly organized. I care about social issues and believe that while there are great injustices in our world, most people are good people. I also know that I need to have high emotional intelligence to temper my enthusiasm to not overwhelm others of a more introverted nature. By self-monitoring and understanding the context of my environment I am able to act appropriately in most situations (Organizational Behavior, 2014). Although I have to be aware of my extraversion and temper it appropriately for each context, it is valuable to be an extravert because we tend to have high self-esteem that can buffer against anxiety (Hitti, 2005) and anxiety can be dominant over knowledge and lead people to behave in ways that are in conflict with their intellect (Green, 2011). I believe that the MBTI is a very accurate reflection of my self-perception and the feedback that I have received over the years about my personality and behavior.
The Big Five Personality Test I also took in my last class and because it was new to me, I found it very interesting and insightful. I am an agreeable and conscientious extravert that is very low-strung and has a very low score for openness, meaning I do not like change and like to know what is going to happen all of the time - no surprises please (The Big Five Personality Test, n.d.). I was surprised to learn how low I scored on Openness to Experience/Intellect that indicates having narrow interests and being uncreative but I suppose compared to others this is a true reflection of my personality. This can be a real personal handicap for me as it limits my stretching out of my personal comfort zone and will constrain my ability to take my engagement to higher levels (Saylor Academy, 2013). The positive outcome is that I scored in the 97th percentile for conscientiousness and this is the best trait for predicting strong performance ((Organizational Behavior, 2014).
Both of the indicators that we took are subject to the interactionist perspective because few of us behave the same way in every situation, except perhaps those with very low self-monitoring, so we answer the questions based on our perception of how we behave most of the time (Organizational Behavior, 2014). These measurement indicators are not only valuable but can be a fun way to help teams to learn more about each other and share more experiences that make their bonds stronger lending to greater trust and therefore proactive behavior and stronger ties to their workplace.(Forret& Love, 2008). Because we tend to work in collective environments where people are have strong attachments to their groups (Organizational Behavior, 2014) better understandings of each other will help us to have a more positive work environment. These measurements should be taken in relative context, however, remembering that job performance variability is only influenced by personality by about 10%-15% so cognitive tests (Organizational Behavior, 2014), job history and references should be primary tools used to select individuals for jobs.
QUESTION FOR BOTH LA2 BELOW:
Review the information on locus of control (core self-evaluation), attitudes, self-esteem and efficacy, as well as looking back to perception.
What connection do you see of these to self-monitoring? Why is this important to understand in the workplace?
Victoria Ojaomo
LA 2 LOC, attitude & self-monitoring
Perception which is "affected by our values, needs, and emotions" (Saylor, 2014) needs to be examined by individual. For instance, people make judgement according to their surroundings or what they see which lead to stereotyping and the kind of impression they perceive when they see someone for the first time and how they relate with such individual from that moment on which can lead to bias of behavior.
Meanwhile, some companies tend to know how the candidate perceive the company by trying to evaluate them so as to know their perceptions about the job.To get to know the candidate, some companies made their candidate to take a test, even though some candidate can lie on the test just to get the job which make it very difficult for the companies to know who are the best candidate for a certain position.
So companies now tend to evaluate their candidate's value by asking them to take a personality test (Saylor, 2014) in order to evaluate their characters and to know whether they are fit for the position they are applying for." When hiring a candidate, some companies are interested in assessing at least two types of fit. Person-organization fit which refers to the degree to which a person's values, personality, goals, and other characteristics match those of the organization and other characteristics match the job demands." (Saylor, 2014) but employees tend to remain in a job where they value their contributions. (p. 6).
Locust of control
Locust of control is the ability of an individual to take responsibility for his or her life and be in control of it. It is important to know when to use the initiative to take steps to do the right things or starting something without being told or led. The ability to take charge of someone self-control drives one's self-esteem which is the respect that you have for yourself. The respect you have for yourself lead to "self-efficacy" where one believes to succeed in a particular situation. So with the ability to have "internal self-control" that is ability to act on your own without being told to do something can reduce someone's stress.
Emotion
Emotion drives behavior as one needs to pay close attention to one's behavior as this can affect other employees in a company. For instance, if an employee has something bothering his or her mind before getting to work, if not control, it tends to go the workplace with the same feelings thereby acting in a strange attitude when at work as each individual emotion drive behavior as emotion drive productivity (Green, 2011) as the video shows how some employees come to work with their emotions but this has to be controlled by employee. This needs to be controlled by employee as most jobs are being carried out collaborate as a team (Emerald Group Publishing, 1980).
Self-esteem
It is important for an individual to examine his or her self-esteem as this can determine the level of success it achieve in life. To this reasons, individual needs do a self-examination about how it perceives life what they like and dislike. Because failure to do the self-examination can lead to stress at work. When going through stress, someone start to having negative feelings about others which can eventually affect its self-image and the way people see them. Furthermore, there are example of countries that are scored highest in their self-esteem. Country like Serbia ranked the highest with self-esteem followed by Chile, Israel, Peru, Estonia while United States ranked sixth in self-esteem (Hitti, 2016) as high esteem "serves as a natural buffer against anxiety". (Hitti, 2016).
Theodore Trevino LA 2
Locus of Control refers to the degree to which people feel accountable for their own behaviors. For perception, its about interpreting our environment via various degrees of perception. Whether it is social visual or self perception, it all ties into how we evaluate things. (Saylor,2016). For Self-monitoring which is a personality characteristic that makes an individual pay closer attention to a social situation so that they can change their behaviors to fit that situation. The connection I see in regards to attitudes and self monitoring is that the way a persons confidence and attitude can dictate or project on to others at any given time. If a person has a very positive self esteem, they are fairly confident in their abilities and capabilities which then projects a positive perception from others or yourself via self perception. All of these characteristics connect to each other when you start to pay close attention to your actions (physical, verbal, etc). Self Monitoring Behavior allows for an individual to be place in a situation or area where their sensitivity of how another views them to effect their actions or thoughts.(Changingminds.org,2016).
There are high self monitors and low self monitors in which people viewed themselves as and are listed in these categories. For low self esteem, can negatively effect every aspect of a person's life.(Mayo clinic,2016). High Self monitors often observe other people consistently to see what they are doing and how they respond to others making them very self conscious to how they look in front of others, while low self monitors are oblivious to how others few them and often stray away from the perceptions that others give to a low self monitor. Why this is important for people to understand in the work place is because your work ethics may be in viewed by supervisors, managers or other employees as either strong or weak and may jeopardize employment, pay, etc status in the future due to how you, as a self monitor, view yourself. The impression or the perception you create for others to use can often jeopardize or enhance your professional life.
Managing customers relationship MRKT 395
QUESTION FOR ALL DISCUSSION BOARD ANWERS BELOW:
There clearly seems to be a relationship between customer satisfaction, customer retention and profitability. For example, the whole concept of Customer Lifetime Value suggests that we need to consider the profits received from customers from all of the transactions over their lifetime. Further, we know that other organizations are constantly vying for our customers. In this conference, please share your thoughts and perspectives on this issue. Especially, consider the difficulty of customer retention during economic downturns.
You might also want to investigate the experience of McDonald's, NetFlix, Bank of America or some of the many other companies in the news in regard to their efforts to retain customers and maximize profits.
David Jones
Retaining customers is a hard task; one has to stay on top of "what's hot" in the market in order to stay alive in the business. No business can determine how long they will hold the attention of a customer the entire relationship is a prediction based on the value of the company to the customer. In addition, there are other companies out there who offering something similar or the next best thing for cheap. Society is always in the market for what I call the "more for less". Pay less and get more bang for a buck something Netflix did not understand at this point and time. "They've done this so many times," Kaltschnee said. "There's this pattern that you come to recognize about Netflix. Sometimes they just don't stop to listen to their customers when their customers are telling them they aren't happy." It's a bewildering, still-unanswered question: How could a company that had built such customer loyalty be, at the same time, so tin-eared to what those customers wanted and so slow to respond when they made their wishes clear (Sandoval, 2012)?"
However, Hastings saw what many people did not see, the death of dvds just like VHS. He was trying to stay ahead of the curve unlike most of his employees and peers. The curve being digital. Why bother with mailing out DVD's when everything Netflix owns can be digital for all of its customers to view. The only mistake made was not informing Netflix customer of the reason why the division was taken place. "Inside Netflix I say, 'Actions speak louder than words,' and we should just keep improving our service. But now I see that given the huge changes we have been recently making, I should have personally given a full justification to our members of why we are separating DVD and streaming, and charging for both. It wouldn't have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do (Sandoval, 2012)."
Nicole Mcmichael
I can definitely see that there is a relationship between customer satisfaction, retention and profitability. I think that the person in charge of this area in a business would be very consumed every day. I think that there are two main things to ensure the satisfaction and retention of customers. Those would be ensuring the customer is so happy with every last detail of the product(s) so that they will not go anywhere else, and also that the company is ahead of the game with things like technology and customer loyalty programs.
If your company is not producing top notch quality products, or is charging much more than another company, it will be hard to retain customers. I also believe that included in said product purchase is customer service through the whole experience. This includes the person helping find the product, to the cashier, to the customer service rep on the phone. If there is a bad experience with any one of these people, it can cause the customer to not want to purchase the product. Also as stated above, the technology and loyalty programs play a large part in retaining customers. I believe that a company should be able to communicate with the customers on any platform, like social media, chat through their website, phones, email, or even through their app. If the only way to contact a company for an issue is through email, then that can deter customers as well. I do not want to "talk to a computer" when I have a problem. I want to talk to a real person. Anything that makes the lives of the consumer easier is what I think a company should do, as long as it is within reason, to keep the customers happy and coming back, as well as ensuring there is a profit.
In an economic downfall though, no one wants to spend money on things they do not need. Plus, more than before, they want the most bang for their buck. Companies must ensure that every single detail is on point, all day, every day so that they can still retain the customers. I also think that in hard economic times, loyalty programs can be huge. If someone has already earned towards the program, and hard times hit, they know that when they shop at said company, they will be getting "more than their moneys worth." They also know that if they have the reward sitting on their account, they can cash that in at any time and it will ensure they are getting their necessities when they think they might not be able to.
Melvin Burrell
Customer satisfaction, customer retention, and profitability are all important when it comes to businesses. Most businesses such as Bank of America ensure that they set customer expectations. This helps them eliminate uncertainty as to the level of service needed to ensure their clients are happy. Clients tend to remember negative experiences more that positive experiences when conducting business and it is very important for them to keep it all positive. They also build trust through relationships. People tend to do business with people they trust and it is essential in business and building relationships with clients. Customer retention is very challenging in today's market. Another important thing to do is to allow customers to complete feedback surveys. This helps the customers voice their opinions and it allows businesses to monitor customer's feedback on an individual level. All of these cases with help improve customer satisfaction, retention, and profitability for the company.
David Choi
There clearly seems to be a relationship between customer satisfaction, customer retention and profitability. For example, the whole concept of Customer Lifetime Value suggests that we need to consider the profits received from customers from all of the transactions over their lifetime. Further, we know that other organizations are constantly vying for our customers. In this conference, please share your thoughts and perspectives on this issue. Especially, consider the difficulty of customer retention during economic downturns.
The numbers do not lie. 45% of customers stay loyal to a consistent degree, where they may tend to shop around. 28% shoppers stay completely loyal to their service/brand (Carter, 2015). Companies like Amazon, Apple, and Starbucks were able to increase their brand loyalty in the past year (Gazidak, 2016). Not only increasing their brand the traditional way, but all three companies are moving massive amounts of money into digital marketing or e-commerce. The companies that placed heavily into digital marketing have seen over 80% customer loyalty rate (Tode, 2016). As the new majority of shoppers are of the millennial age and are obsessed with online shopping, it is critical to appeal to your target market (Carter, 2015).
As for the retention or economic struggles, a company can only do what they can when the economy is suffering as a whole. If the market/demand side is struggling so are the business/suppliers. To help everyone at least make something instead of nothing, company's/supplier are going to have to reduce prices and have more sales. I was working at Nordstroms during the recession. And we went from one annual sale to a spring sale, fall, etc. etc... It definitely felt like Nordstrom was reaching.
Amber Creamer
Taking into consideration recent news articles and events surrounding Wells Fargo, I think they are a prime example of how to destroy a relationship with their customers, and how the loss of this relationship directly impacts customer satisfaction, retention, and profitability. From the creation of unauthorized accounts to hit their sales targets, to the class-action lawsuit following the discovery of Wells Fargo's overcharging hundreds of thousands of homeowners for appraisals, and the illegal repossession of cars owned by active-duty service members, Wells Fargo has been surrounded in scandal the last couple months.
Based on the fake account scandal alone, from the outside looking in it seems that Wells Fargo was pushing its employees to be more concerned with their sales targets and potential bonuses rather than the well-being of the bank's customers. Once the world's most valuable bank, Wells Fargo is now forced to try to recover and rebuild the relationship they effectively destroyed with their customers through numerous missteps. The bank's chief financial officer has even stated the need to deepen relationships with customers and regain their full confidence in the institution.
Wells Fargo is facing a steep uphill climb in a market where banks are becoming more and more competitive for customers. Banks are dependent upon the relationships built with their customers to generate revenue, and when customers are discouraged from doing further business with their bank, that bank loses that customer's lifetime value. A customer's lifetime value to their bank comes from interest paid on loans, account fees, ATM fees; in other words, paying money to get money. Wells Fargo greatly decreased any satisfaction and trust they had with their customer base, caused customers to take their banking needs elsewhere, and that directly impacts their profitability because they have fewer customers paying them to manage their money.
JasonMontalvo
Customer satisfaction is very important in all businesses as it is "a leading indicator of consumer repurchase intentions and loyalty". I see this on a daily basis as a sales person at a hotel. We send out surveys and one of the questions is, "how likely will you stay with us again". If the scores of the survey are low, the front desk manger or general manager may call or email the guest to ask what went wrong and how can we correct it.
In the hotel industry, our best customers are repeat customers so we go above and beyond for their satisfaction. Customer retention is important as with so many hotels in the market, hotels must do everything possible to satisfy guests to set their hotel apart. This is also true with groups that come to hotel with monthly, quarterly or yearly meetings. We want to "wow" groups when they come so that they book with us next time. If a group is not coming back we must figure out a way to replace the group. Hotels also offers loyalty programs by giving points back to customers so that they can use them towards gifts or free nights stays.
Customer satisfaction relates to profitability because the happier the customer, the more they are willing to share their experience or product with friends and family. The same is true on the opposite end, if a person is unhappy with the experience or product, the person may give a bad review which will entice people to stay away.
Benjamin Willems
In my opinion, there is definitely a relationship between customer satisfaction, customer retention and profitability. Each relationship is just as important as the other. For example, if a customer is not satisfied with a product or service, then why would her/she be loyal to the company.
Which ultimately would result in a loss in revenue and customer. This would set a spiral affect causing the business and company to eventually disintegrate. However, on the other hand if you create a satisfied customer, then they will continue to purchase the product or service and this would lead to higher sales. This also occurs in other sequences as well, if a company does not have profitability then they cannot afford to provide CRM to help generate satisfied customers. Or if they cannot find a CRM to create profit and satisfied customers then the retention of the customer will diminish.
During economic downturns companies suffer from retaining customers dramatically. This reason for this is because customers want to be insured with product and be informed that the product and/or service is going to perform like they said and if not, then that company would perform all the necessary advances to fix any issue occurring.
A recent example of this process occurring was a Volkswagen Lawsuit. Volkswagen has always been the company known for providing clean diesel in the vehicles. However, the owners of "CleanDiesel" recently discovered a dirty little secret about their vehicles, determining that these clean diesel cars are not so clean. Once this secret was leaked owners of these vehicles launched lawsuits against VW around the country seeking to hold VW accountable for its actions. This lawsuit and dirty secret resulted in damages that includes a loss of value and inability to sell vehicles and reduced cost efficiency. Furthermore, is cost VW a longterm economic downturn that caused many customers to be unsatisfied and unhappy with the product. This has resulted a loss of customer retention and profitability.