Final Report Consumer Behaviour Submitted By Abdul Rehman Sohail  Product type: Shoe skins/zippers Product name: Zippers Company: NEXT Background of the company: Next was founded by Joseph Hepworth in Leeds in 1864 as a tailor under the name of Joseph Hepworth & Son. Initially Hepworth was in partnership with James Rhodes, but the partnership was dissolved in 1872. On his own, Hepworth expanded the company rapidly, becoming a pioneer for the development of chain stores in Britain. Next is British multinational clothing, footwear, accessories and home products retailer which has its headquarters in Enderby, Leicestershire (England, United Kingdom) and has around 700 stores. Next has shifted its international strategy to brand expansion, focused on franchising. Next operates franchises in some 20 international markets, especially in the Middle Eastern and Far East Asian markets. Next has three main channels: Next Retail, a home shopping catalogue and Website with more than 3 million active customers, and Next International, with 180+ international stores. Its other businesses include Next Sourcing, for own brand products; Lipsy, which designs and sells its own branded younger women's fashion products through wholesale, retail and website channels. The logo that next used form 1991 to 2007: Recent logo: (newer, improved version) Next pursues a strategy of selling almost exclusively company-designed clothing, accessories, and other merchandise under the Next and other brand names. In this way, the Next product offerings of womenswear, menswear, children wear, and home furnishings are available only through the Next retail and catalogue channels. Targeted at an age range between 20 and 46, with a focus on the 25--35 age group, the Next product range features high-quality, contemporary but not trendy styling, priced at levels affordable to the company's targeted upper class and middle-class market. The company employs its own design staff to keep an eye on seasonal trends and to create each year's clothing offerings accordingly. Presently, Next also have its outlets in some of the major cities of Pakistan which are Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Current Product Details: Simple, durable and neatly finished. Different types: Oxford Derby Men’s Boots Moccasin Loafer Buckled Shoes Slip-on Shoes Current Positioning: Next shoes are known to be semi-formal and casual design aesthetics footwear. The company has focused on high quality and medium to high pricing structure as per the design and value of the product. Currently next shoes has quite a few competitors that are competing its products, these brands manly include Zara, Lacoste and GAP. Although Zara is known to have better design and trendy products than next, however next is known for its quality to be better than of Zara. However with the new innovation coming in next shoes product, it is expected that next will now be considered as a better-designed, quality and better-priced product. With this aspect in mind, Next shoes are more likely to succeed in the market. Currently Zara and Lacoste have the major market share, followed by Next and Gap. This is mainly because of its new innovative designs and aesthetics. Zara is rapidly increasing its market share as it launches new product collections several times in one year, whereas all other brands launch Why to reposition: With the growing demand of daily wear shoes in the market and with the new innovations in designs of the shoes, it is essential that Next shoes is repositioned in the market. Currently, consumers who are more concerned about quality product than design, go to Next Shoes. However, next needs to take initiatives to change their design philosophy so that more and more consumers are willing to purchase next shoes as compared to other brand products. This can only be done if next shoes launch new innovative designs that no other company is currently providing. This will ensure that customers position next as a high quality, better price, and good price product. Once all these three aspects are positioned within the consumers mind, Next shoes will increase its market and sustain in the long run. New Product Details: Shoe skins The product that we are introducing will provide the consumers with an ultimate satisfaction of buying more in less. This means they can wear their ordinary shoe in different styles be it Classy, Casual or sporty. These amazing shoe skins will come along with different soles but those will be optional for the customers to buy. All that is need to be done to create a brand new shoe is to zip on the new skin. The Four P’s: Product: Our product type is that we are introducing Shoe Skins/ Zippers. Our product name is “Zippers”. Our product brand is “NEXT” Price: 1 sole and 1 skin=Rs. 5000 1skin =3000 1 sole=2000 Promotion: The promotion of our product will be done by using: 3 dimensional print ads in magazines, newspapers etc Video advertisements on roads Radio Ad’s Placement: Our product will only be available at authorized “NEXT” outlets and online at our official website. Market segmentation on basis of Demographics: Age: 15-35 Gender: Male and female Occupation: No specificity. Can be Students, athletes, officials, business person or any other occupation which enables them to afford. Income: Upper class and Upper middle class. Market segmentation on basis of Psychographics: It will attract people of almost all kind of lifestyles. People who like to keep everything formal and classy People who make it simpler and keep it casual The ones who crave for adventures and prefer sporty things People who have a thing for latest fashion /style trends. Youngsters who prefer enjoyment and parties Positioning: Our brand offers value to the customer, it provides them with an opportunity to save money since different styles can be bought in the price of one shoe. It has many specialties which makes it better than competitors: The skins are portables , can be easily carried everywhere which means no more jumping on your luggage to fit in many different shoes Super flexible soles to go with Best quality Italian leather for leather skins Water proof zippers Comes in extremely stylish and trendy designs for Fashion Lovers Comfortable, in seamed zip protection Classy, Casual and sporty Save money Our slogan: “Chase your dreams in the perfect pair of shoes!” . Vision: The zip on skins and soles will come in vibrant colors and exclusive designs which seek to gain attention of the consumers Packaging will be done in neon colored boxes Formal colors like black/brown for formal shoes Neon colors for athletic and sporty soles and skins. Touch: Leather-it’s the quality of leather alone that says a lot about the level of immersion a person. Bio-cottons- soft and comfortable feeling. Soft interior of the skin –makes it Soothing and comfortable to wear. Perceptual Map: Learning Where to buy: The product can be easily bought at any of NEXT stores throughout the country. How to use: The uniquely designed Zippers will be introduced with excitingly colored soles. The consumers just have to select the sole (optional if they already own one) and Zippers of their choice and all that is need to be done to create a new shoe and then to simply zip on the new skins on the sole. How to maintain: Since it involves high quality leather, it should be taken care of. They should be cleaned, conditioned and polished How to dispose: the material is environment friendly and can be easily recycled. Classical Conditioning: An association will be created between the shoes and zipper through advertisements and billboard that will make the consumers think about Zippers every time they think of buying shoes. We will show through our advertisements that the Zippers will enable the consumers to have multiple designs of shoe with only one sole. Unconditioned Stimulus: The previously acquired consumer perception of the well-known brand NEXT will act as the unconditioned stimulus. Conditioned stimulus: The conditioned stimulus will be the new product i.e. the Zippers. Conditioned response: The conditioned response will be the consumers trying the product due to the recognized name of the brand and their new perception towards the shoe that is created through our advertisements. Repetition: Exposure to conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus will be done through medium like televisions. Exciting advertisements will be created. These advertisements will consists a variety of themes and formats to avoid advertising wear-out. Print media will be used for publishing pamphlets and further publicizing the product. Colorful Billboards will be used. Stimulus Generalization: Product Extension: It is being done through the introduction of our new product, Zippers. Family branding: Using the highly recognized brand name, NEXT to publicize the product. Licensing: All copyrights reserved for this new product idea. Stimulus Discrimination: The product is differentiated by its unique idea, especially in Pakistan and by its ability to enable a consumer to have different designs of a shoe with one sole. Positioning of a product will be done through advertisements that shows how a person can carry these portable shoe Zippers and attend a business meeting followed by casual dinner just by the change of shoe skins. The soft interior of the shoe will give the consumer a comfortable and soothing feeling on first try and this will increase the likelihood of the consumers returning and buying more Zippers. Instrumental Conditioning Negative reinforcement: An advertisement Showing that a person out for jogging cannot go home on time due to certain circumstances and has a really important meeting which he has to attend in his sports shoes and gets humiliated by his boss, but next time he carries his portable formal leather skin while wearing his sports shoes just in case he has to face the problems again. Thus the humiliation acted as negative reinforcement to buy the Next Zippers. Frequency Marketing: Customers will be provided with prizes that get better as they spend more. There will be Membership cards for regular customers. Free pair of socks will be given on purchase of a Zipper Discounts will be given if Zipper and soles are bought together. Encoding Information Sensory Meaning: Neon colored Zippers in amazing and different designs; best quality leather; and bio-cotton texture will make the consumers remember the Zippers and attract them towards it. Semantic Meaning: Zippers are for multi-taskers. An association is created which attracts consumers who like to multi-task. Personal Relevance: Product information is conveyed as a narrative in advertisements where a man finds himself in trouble due to his inability to change the design of his shoes when needed. Spreading Activation Brand specific: People will remember it by the claims that it allows a person to have variety of shoes with just one sole. Also with our slogan, “Chase your dreams in the perfect pair of shoes!” Ad-specific: Ronaldo using the product in the advertisements will make the consumers remember it. Brand identification: The unique name, “Zippers” will attract consumers and build curiosity as to try what it is. Product category: The product is used by various people ranging from athletes to business people to casual ones. Evaluative Reactions: The celebrity endorsements and unique idea helps store the information in consumer’s mind. Nature of advertisements: 3 dimensional print ads will be printed Video advertisements on roads Radio ads Decision Making Consumer decision making: Now moving to the categories of consumer decision making, our product falls in the cognitive purchase decision category as there is much thought put in the purchase of the product. Moreover this decision comes as an outcome of a series of stages that incline consumers to buy our product. This can be because of varying involvement of the consumer. A consumer may also buy our product based on an emotional reaction such as he/she may admire the next brand or may desire to buy these unique type of shoes that make them stand out , this is known as affective/emotional buying decision. Involvement: Consumer’s involvement in our product is based on their inherent needs, values or beliefs. Involvement can be of three types’ product involvement, message involvement and situational involvement. The product involvement is the importance or level of interest that the consumer’s give to Zippers. The product involvement will be high in case of our product as it is expensive and unique. Also the involvement will be high because the consumer believes that there is a perceived risk. Now our product Zippers avoids any social, psychological, physical and functional risk as these are traits that the product helps develop such as building a person’s self-confidence and self-esteem created by wearing a well know brand and a trendy product. The monetary risk of Zippers entirely depends on the consumer weather they may use it properly and appropriately, if it is used rightly then undoubtedly Zippers will be worth the consumers money. The message involvement is the influence the advertisements and promotions of Zippers will have on consumers. Mostly print ads are known to have high involvement with consumers. For Zippers to have high message involvement: We will use novel stimuli by placing ads in unexpected places where the consumer does not expect it to be such as on luxuries hotels or a one-time ad on a helicopter. We can also use motion pictures and fast motion displays that surprise and attract customers. We will include celebrity endorsements of athletes such as Ronaldo and actors such as Fawad Khan who are known for their fashionable dressing. This would attract customers of deferring interests, such as fashionable people and sporty people, to buy the product Zippers. We will also make the advertisements of Zippers entertaining so that the consumer can recall the product with the humorous or fun ad they saw, this can be a funny line at the end of the ad. The situational involvement of Zippers can be increased by making the product available at different next stores all across the country. To keep the product’s elegance and image we will only display it in next stores and not in any third party shops. The shoes can also be bought on the next website with detailed customization available of some customers who are willing to pay more .We will also ask customers to fill a product review form online that will make the consumer feel more involved and to encourage customers to do this we will open a lucky draw for a free Zipper shooz for all those who fill out the form. Product Categorization: Positioning Our Product: We will position Zippers in the mind of our consumer for the need of customized shoes where they don’t need to carry a lot of shoes and can change the skin very easily because of its portability and designs. Identifying Competitors: We currently don’t have any competitors apart from the traditional shoe makers. Creating Exemplar Product: Zippers will be an exemplar product as they will come in a number of designs and soles where anyone can buy just a new skin and their want for different shoe will be fulfilled, in a very affordable price. Location of a Product in stores: Zippers will be available at all authorized NEXT outlets. Compensatory Rules: Zippers will automatically allow the customers with a decision making rule that they only have to buy shoe skins rather than different traditional shoes for different occasions. It should convey a rule that is consistent with how the person made the decision on previous occasions. Non Compensatory Decision Rules: Lexicographic rule: Customers will select Zippers as they are the best in category of detachable skins and sole. Elimination-by-aspects rule: The customers will evaluate Zippers on the most important attribute that they have portable skins. Habitual Buying Behavior As now a days it is a famous proverb that “Time Is Money” people usually don’t get time for shopping. Zippers will help the people in time saving as well as money saving that they only have to buy the shoe skins and that they can change the skins anytime, anywhere and in very lesser time. Priming and Nudging The stimulus such that people are very busy now a days and don’t have much time for shopping, this will change the behavior of people in such a way that they will prefer the Zippers as they will be easily available, are portable and only different shoe skins are needed for them. Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts Covariation: Next has always created the concept of bringing something new to the market which is usually successful, hence the customers will associate that if Next brand is bringing something new i.e. the Zippers they will be useful, affordable and a must have thing. Familiar Brand Name: Next has always been a well-known brand name for most of the people with many loyal customers. Country of Origin: Customers have always trusted brands of USA and Next is a brand of USA. Affective Decision Making: We make some decisions on the basis of an emotional reaction rather than as the outcome of a rational thought process. Hence, a consumer may also buy our product based on an emotional reaction such as he/she may admire the next brand or may desire to buy these unique type of shoes that make them stand out , this is known as affective/emotional buying decision. The Self Self-Concept: This basically focuses on how consumers’ feelings about themselves shape their consumption pattern, particularly as they strive to fulfill their society’s expectations, about how a male or female should look or act. The personality type our consumers are having is very important for us in launching our product i.e. zippers. As we all know now a day’s demand for products which enhance our selves is increasing, consumers constantly look for things which enhance their physical appearance and makes them feel good hence our product will be attractive and eye-catching combined with the comfortable quality to satisfy our consumers. Also, the demand for shoes is increasing due to change in our culture as well as opening of many shoe stores, which attract a large number of consumers such as Nike, Adidas, Levis etc. Self Esteem: The consumers who are interested in buying zippers are high self-esteem people as they think they will be successful and will take risks, they love to spend more money on themselves as they consider themselves powerful. Moreover, to tap into their needs our advertisements will state all the best qualities of our product used by a famous celebrity Ronaldo which would further increase their will to consume the product and feel positive about themselves. Real and Ideal Selves: Zippers are basically targeting the people that prefer products that will show them off in good light and make them stand out from others. Looking Glass self: It is the process when we imagine the reactions of others towards us. We aim to make our consumers believe that these shoes skins will definitely earn praises from others and will also get positive reactions from others. Self-Consciousness: People who are self-conscious are more interested in how they present themselves to people and hence will prefer highly presentable products. Our renowned brand name itself makes people feel worthy and hence any product linked to it is categorized to be classy and presentable and make people feel good about themselves and remove insecurities about perceptions of people. Freudian Theory: Ego: The ego is the system that mediates between the Id and the superego. It acts as the referee between temptation and virtue. To reach an audience’s ego, content must be created that helps the consumer positively define themselves to the world and that’s what we aim to do. Our advertising focuses on ego focused branding. Our strategy is fully centered on building the customer’s ego. We aim to position are product as the one for those who want to achieve great things and demonstrates that in our ads, marketing will be focused around the users who want to achieve their goals , users who are on a path to self-betterment and that just so happens to be using NEXT products while doing so. As our slogan states “chase your dreams in the perfect pair of shoes” our advertisements will be targeting such people too. The Big Five Theory: Unique and different type of shoes are liked by all kind of personalities Openness to experience: people who love to try new things. Conscientiousness: people who are efficient and organized as opposed to easy-going and disorderly. Extroversion: people who have a quality of being outgoing  Agreeableness: people who are kind, sympathetic, cooperative, warm and considerate Neuroticism: people who are good stress handlers. Anthropomorphism: We can apply this concept in our TV add especially for the children shoe zippers. Like we will show that the skin will be having the eyes and the sole will have the mouth when they both will be joined full face will be made which will attract the children. In this we will personify the full shoe which will create an impact on the children that it is a living thing and they will be needing both the sole and the skin for completing the zippers. Brand personality: Shoe Zippers are designed in such a way that they would be considered as a product with class due to its variety of offerings ranging from crazy neon colors for adventurous and thrill loving consumers to colors in black and brown for formal going people. Brand equity: The packaging and quality of the shoe zippers will attract many customers from various age groups and those who want to look classy and unique from others and also for people who want to multitask. This will strengthen the already vast number of brand loyal people and attract those who are not brand loyal so they will stay committed to it as we would retain our products quality. Brand Behaviors and Possible Personality Trait Inferences: We will be using same slogan of our product which is “Chase your dreams in the perfect pair of shoes” so that people won’t consider our brand as flighty. Moreover we will be using continuing characters in our advertisement i.e. for celebrity endorsement we will use Ronaldo so that consumers will feel comfortable with our brand. Body image: A consumer’s subjective evaluation of his/her physical self. A person’s physical image is a large part of his or her self-concept and our product will make them believe that it will make them look good and fashionable. Conclusion Next is a British multinational clothing, footwear, accessories and home products retailer. The product that we are introducing will provide the consumers with an ultimate satisfaction of buying more in less. This means they can wear their ordinary shoe in different styles be it classy, casual or sporty. Our brand offers value to the customer, it provides them with an opportunity to save money since different styles can be bought in the price of one shoe. As we all know now a day’s demand for products which enhance our selves is increasing, consumers constantly look for things which enhance their physical appearance and makes them feel good hence we are sure that our product will be successful. Our product is not only valuable but also classy and sophisticated. Moreover in Pakistan’s shoe market product like “Shoe Zippers” is not available hence our product will be unique and majority of the people will be willing to buy our product. Appendix A: Questionnaire Survey results/Responses 18 | Consumer Behavior Final Project