Developing Marketing Strategy On Customer's Cognition Difference Of Industrial & Consumer Goods

The marketing strategy and definition difference between industrial product and consumer product is a significant area of marketing research. Therefore many previous empirical researches focus on the marketing strategy difference between 2, and/or recommended marketing strategy from the aspect of normative research. Follows 4P's panel, key marketing difference between 2 categories can be divided into product strategy, pricing strategy, placement strategy and promotion strategy. In alignment with external marketing strategy difference, companies marketing 2 different categories results in operational difference accordingly, and therefore difference between 2 industries is formed by companies of each category.The review of litreture can tell that it's been necessary to find the mechanics behind the marketing strategy difference between 2 of these categories, esp. from the aspect of customer difference. Because previous research dug little into reasons behind marketing difference though differences are proved to be empirically objective. Therefore lack of cause rationales research ends up with the neglect of generic factors behind those marketing difference, different marketing strategies for each of category are developed without enough theoretical support from the aspect of customer needs and wants, unsuccessful practices can be found in both industrial goods and consumer goods marketing under a background of the ambiguity.Based on the theory from"consumer behavior", this explorative paper is to test a hypothesis that customer's different cognition to 2 categories ranks among key factors lead to marketing strategy difference respectively.First, typical industrial product and consumer product is chosen as research target– High-voltage oil-filled transmitter and toothbrush, research samples are randomly chosen from each category's current customer. Both qualitative and quantitive reseach are conducted to find and measure"expected benefit"and"involvement"from each customer, Significant cognitive difference of both factors can be measured when making purchase decision to each category.The expected benefit from industrial goods'customers is always functional, and they believe that relevance between industrial product feature and ultra value (Involvement) is high. But consumers expect more emotional benefit when buys consumer goods, and involvement of which are always low comparing with industrial goods purchase. Industrial goods customers believe it will worth more time and effort in decision making than for consumer goods.Second, develop"industrial & consumer goods customer's cognition difference model".Previous models focus only on metal process of 1 certain product instead of difference between 2 customer, therefore can not show a clear picture of 2 customer's cognitive difference, and how it influence marketing strategy developing. Based on empirical conclusion from this paper, we can tell the cognitive difference of"expected benefit"and"involvement"from each customer, 2 of which will have a different cognitive mechanics when making purchase decision. A new cognition model is developed based on above research results, the model is more plain but to the difference, what's more, can interpret the reasons behind empirical difference of marketing 2 cateogries in a cognitive way. The dimension of model consists of"expected functional benefit"and"expected emotional benefit"for both customers, different degree of each customer's involvement is showed by the coverage percentage of each benefit under the model.In consumers'cognition structure,"functiona benefit"is a foundamental factor, above of which"emotional benefit"expectation is built on. But"functional benefit"can only take a small absolute percentage of consumer's expected cognition even though its foundamental, while"emotional benefit"takes majority of consumer's cognition structure. In industrial product customer cognition,"functional benefit"is still foundamental, but also take a loin's share,"emotional benefit"is also based on"functional benefit"and plays a critical role on industrial product purchase decision making.Thirdly, improve the 4P's for each category based on customer cognition difference.To maximize maketer's NPAT under maketing-orientation, different maketing strategy is developed based on cognitive difference from each customer. Many previous literature covered the topic but the strategy they recommend can fall into a not-theoretical-enough dilemma that, either strategy support, esp.from the aspect of target customer, is not sufficient, or necessary empirical test is not conducted. Based on cognition difference from the aspect of each customer, this paper improves 2 marketing strategy in terms of product strategy, branding strategy, pricing strategy, placement strategy, promotion strategy and media mix strategy, and verify proposed strategy by marketing case study for both categories.The outcome from this paper can contribute to both marketing theory and practices. From an aspect of marketing theory, outcome gives the generic reason behind difference between marketing 2 categories, which is marketing strategy is developed to meet"customer's different cognition to 2 products".This is by far the 1st research digging on the reasons of marketing orientation, providing a theoretical foundation for further research on this area.Theoretically, marketing strategy is designed to meet customers'needs and wants, since target customer has different generic cognition to 2 category, marketing strategy need to be different, and then company's supporting operation, and then industry. Therefore cognition difference from customer's aspect is the reason behind all these differences. This is also something special of this research.There is also practical significance, since lack of cause rationales research ends up with the neglect of generic factors behind those marketing difference, different marketing strategies for each of category are developed without enough theoretical support from the aspect of customer needs and wants, unsuccessful practices can be found in both industrial goods and consumer goods marketing under a background of the ambiguity. Researches by Lu Taihong (2003),Jiang Zhengqing(2003), Liu Zhiming (2004),Sun Fengguo(2003), Huang Heshui(2006), Sun Yi(2003),Lv Yonghua(2002) can prove that by various case from 2 industries. Therefore the outcome from this paper provide a deep insight of 2 category's customer attitude, which can be valuable to marketers in developing marketing strategy, to avoid passing projects may have a low ROI, optimize mirco economy resource by improving marketing decision quality.