EXECUTIVE M.B.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION, MAY 2017
First and Second Year
A-MARKETING
Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Research
Time 3 Hours Maximum Marks: 70
SECTION-A × 5 15)
Answer Three questions
Q1) Personality.
Need for consumer behaviour.
Consumer satisfaction.
Research design.
Hypothesis.
Secondary data.
SECTION-B × 15 45)
Answer Three questions.
Q2) Discuss about development of consumer behaviour.
Q3) What are the determinants of consumer behaviour.
Q4) Examine Schiffman Kanuk's model of customer decision making.
Q5) Explain different methods of collecting data.
Q6) Describe the steps in designing a research problem.
Q7) State the sources of consumer dissatisfaction.
SECTION-C
Compulsory
Q8) Case study
The equation among soft drink competitors was almost balanced. Coke
competed against Pepsi, Tab against Diet Pepsi, Sprite against Mountain Dew,
and so on. But when Coca-Cola introduced Diet Coke in 1982, its aspirations
were high. It aimed at not being content with just outselling Diet Pepsi, the
company wanted Diet Coke to be the number two soft drink of any kind. The
company executives, by 1989, were predicting that their dream would soon
come true.
In its ads, Coca-Cola did not invite people to drink Diet Coke for the benefit of
losing weight or keep a slim-trim figure. Coca-Cola told people to drink it "Just
for the taste of it." The emphasis on taste by Coca-Cola was particularly
effective because Diet Coke was a new entry in the market rather than a
reformulation. Diet Pepsi has been in the market for decades and has undergone
a number of reformulations. If Diet Pepsi had launched a taste based campaign,
sceptical viewers might have responded, "that's not what you said last year."
The taste plank also provided the groundwork for Diet Coke's assault on Pepsi.
As diet Coke was being promoted and sold on taste and not on its lack of
calories, it made sense for it to compete against every other drink that consumers
bought primarily for taste.
Diet Coke quickly overtook Diet Pepsi and was favoured over Pepsi by women
consumers who traditionally bought the majority of diet drinks. The major thrust
of the Diet Coke ad campaign has been to convince consumers that they don't
have to be weight conscious to drink Diet Coke. Already, men buy more than a
third of all diet drinks, and that percentage has been growing rapidly. Coca-Cola
has recruited macho heroes and it has been advertising Diet Coke in sports
magazines especially aimed at men such as Sports Illustrated, Sport, and Inside
Sport.
Coca-Cola's attack on Pepsi has often been direct and aggressive. It ran ads
claiming that one-quarter of the 2 million families that had stopped drinking
Pepsi had switched to Diet Coke. Pepsi responded with ads claiming that 90 per
cent of those consumers eventually switched back to Pepsi and Coke ended up
revising its ads. Pepsi also used its commercials to make fun of how Coke came
up with its numbers.
Diet Pepsi issued its own taste challenge in 1989, using Mike Tyson to claim that
Diet Pepsi's taste was better than Diet Coke's. Coca-Cola counterattacked by
citing research that proved Pepsi wrong, and Pepsi eventually stopped running
the ads. To make up for damage done to its image, Coke used some imaginative
promotions such as giving a coupon for Diet Coke to everyone buying Pepsi at
certain supermarkets. Again, Coke seems to have gained by defining the battle
as Diet Coke against Pepsi, rather than Diet Coke against Diet Pepsi.
Coca-Cola promoted Diet Coke heavily, so much so that during some quarters it
spent more on Diet Coke advertising than on its flagship Coke Classic. It has
used innovative techniques such as "roadblocks," running the same commercial
at the same time on different channel. It has also shown Diet Coke spots on
cable TV such as MTV, ESPN and TBS.
Questions:
What role has advertising played in introducing Diet Coke?
Why did Coke offer coupons to consumers who bought Pepsi at certain
supermarkets?
What functions did Diet Coke's advertising campaign aim at performing?
Based on Lavidge and Steiner model, analyse how consumers responded to
Diet Coke's ads.