Case Studies on Consumer Behavior
By: Dr. Rishu Jain
Case1: factor affecting consumer behaviour
• Martin Incorp. was a company carrying on business in cosmetics and perfumes.
It was not following the marketing concept and was catering to a target market
which was using its products. In other words, it only concentrated on what it
would make, and did not bother about changes in preferences of its target market.
It was later joined by Mr. Ash, a marketing graduate who advised the company
regarding the changing consumer preferences, and the changes that were
necessary to be incorporated in the product. He emphasized upon the income
factors, and social factors only. He modernized the products to a great extent, and
invested about 30 lakhs on new packing, etc. Even after six months of these
changes brought about by him, the company did not seem to have a proportionate
increase in sales. The assistant manager and the product manager were not very
happy with the changes, and thought that although an effort has been made in the
right direction, some important factors concerning consumer behavior had been
neglected.
Questions:
• 1. Do you agree with the assistant and product managers, and why?
• 2. What other factors, if any, could have been considered? Elaborate in detail
Case II: Organizational Buying behavior
• Miss Michael was working as a purchase manager in a small-scale company, where
raw materials and other products were purchased solely at her discretion. The company
was doing very well and the credit was given to Miss Michael for all the progress of
the company. Later she got a job in a medium scale company with a turn-over of about
five crore. She was appointed in charge of purchases, and as the procedures of the
purchase made by this company were different from those of the previous company, it
took her quite sometime to get familiar with the procedures of purchase, etc. under her
jurisdiction.
On one occasion, she has to urgently place an order of raw material worth about two
lakhs, which was essential for the supply of a timely order. Considering the situation an
emergent one, she placed the order without informing, or calling a meeting. Although the
order was supplied in time, during the audit it came in for severe criticism, and Miss
Michael was given a show-cause notice as to why she had taken the decision alone. Miss
Michael was very perturbed about the situation and wanted to explain her position to the
manager.
Questions:
• 1.Where did Miss Michael go wrong?
• 2. How can you help her to reply to the show-cause notice issued to her?
SWAN TEXTILE MILLS LTD.
• Mr. Advani ia young Sales manager in a popular textile mill of mumbai-Swan Textile
ltd. The company sells directly to retailers all over India. Recently,Advani faced tough
sales objections from southern retailers. the objections is,we can get the same patterns
and fabrics chaper from Swarna textile Mills Ltd. Chennai.
• Advani found truth in their satement .Swarna Company copied systematically and even
printed a trade mark ‘Rohini’ similar to the trade mark ‘ Rohini’ of Swan Company at
the edge of each yard of the fabric .They supplied their cloth at one-third the price.
• As sales started slipping he thoght of a strategy to prove the quality of Swan products.
Advani devised a simple demonstration to prove the qualitattive difference between the
two products. He took fabric samples from both fabrics and demonstrated the
differnces and explain the reasons .He asked the retailers to find out the customers
view after the three -four washing of Roshini brand within a month after this
demonstration the irate housewives in the south flooded retail shops with complains
that the cheap Roshini fabric lost its luster and startedfalling apart two or three
washing. They started demanding Rohini and not Roshini brand fzbrics. Sales of
Rohini shot up in a few weeks.
Questions
• If you had been in Advani’s place,would you welcome or fear this
objections? Why?
• Could Advani have prevented the initial drop in sales of Rohini
through better planning.
• Would this approach be possible in other markets.
