Pre-Purchase Dissonance

Contributed By NIKHIL KAPOOR

Post Purchase Dissonance has for decades been a very important tool for marketers to influence consumer behaviour. Here the customer after purchasing a product thinks that if he had purchased some other item it would have been better than the one he bought. This has led to cognitive dissonance theories as a solution where the job of marketers is to convince the consumer that the purchase made by him is the best one and it will satisfy all of his needs. The customer is reassured that he or she has made the right decision.

But now things are different. In recent times the change in technology is so rapid that even before a product is launched its successor is already visualised and half way through its development. This ushers in the concept of Pre purchase dissonance.

Pre purchase dissonance occurs when even before purchasing a product you are dissatisfied with it as you realise that a better version is under works and still you purchase the product. It is a new trend that can be viewed as emerging especially in technology driven products, Like Mobile phones and Cameras.

Let’s take a real life example. In February Samsung announced a dual core 1.2GHz Phone called the Galaxy S2. This phone is simply the most powerful commercially available phone till date. The phone was to be Available in May 2011 in markets. In March Samsung announces that a 2GHz Dual core processor had been developed and would see the market in January next year. That is almost 50% more powerful than the yet to be launched ‘most powerful phone The Galaxy S2’. In the same month NVIDIA announces its quad core processors. These are 200% times more powerful than the Galaxy S2 and would also be available in January 2012.

Now let’s look at what a buyer goes through. He is excited about the Galaxy S2, very powerful. Then he realises that it is obsolete even before it is launched. It is easy to assume that he would wait 7 months for the new line of phones. But this is not the case always.

The buyer is already saving up and waiting for the Galaxy S2 for 4 months and then if you ask him to wait for an additional 7 months, he would totally get un-settled. Most consumers won’t wait the extra months. They will go ahead and buy the Obsolete yet to be launched phone in May, knowing that they are not that satisfied with their purchase. Thus Pre-Purchase dissonance.

This has a chance of creating a dissatisfied feeling in the consumer regarding the product for apparently no reason. The phone is still the best at the time. But an unwanted negative feeling towards it has been created.

Marketers need to understand that this trend is there to stay. They cannot simply stop announcing technology as and when they are developed. Because if they don’t their competition will. And then they would just be reacting to the competition. Being pro-active is a very important part of technology driven industries. Marketers now have to accept Pre-Purchase dissonance as a trend to stay and try to leverage it in a positive way through further study.

BlackBerry - Changing Its Communication

Tracked By KARTHIK RAJA

When we hear the word BlackBerry, the first thing that comes to our mind is Corporate. The brand over the years  has built its position as an indispensable tool for today’s executive. Loaded with business friendly features like its highly successful and controversial push email service , its qwerty keypads , instant services and robust build quality, blackberry had few major competitors for a significant period of time.

If anything is constant in the technology world , it is the phenomenon of drastic and radical change. With a fresh start  in the humble Ipod, a rejuvenated Apple came up with an overwhelming product the IPhone. Add to it the evolution of tablets led by Ipad and the very successful Android operating system, Blackberry suddenly saw threat to its position.

Blackberry started of its response with the launch of its first touch screen based device named the Storm. It all set to enter the nascent but astoundingly growing tablet market with its Blackberry Playbook.

Blackberry’s communication in recent times however has gone a seemingly drastic with it looking to shed its hitherto official phone image and moving on to represent a cooler and stylish brand. It is aiming to catch its customers young.

The new set of very popular ads from the Blackberry stables represents this very trend with protagonists in their mid twenties. The first ad focused on the purchase of a first car is an effort in this direction with the brand seeking an emotional connect with the target group. The second is targeted at teenage customers and aims to build a sort of coolness about the brand in the minds of this segment.

The  company has also been investing in BTL activities with participation in prominent college festivals and corporate events. How well the brand manages to appeal to a new set of customers while keeping its original positioning intact is going to be  widely watched in the coming few months.

Nestea - Icy Cool And Animated

Tracked by KUMAR RAUNAK

Beverage partners worldwide (BPW),a joint venture between Coca Cola and Nestle, recently launched their ready to drink iced-tea brand, Nestea across the country after test marketing it in Mumbai. The product would be manufactured at Coca Cola India bottling plant at Guntur,Andhra pradesh. This launch could not have come at a better time for both the partners.With Nestle's almost stagnant market share in the chocolate category(25%) making it a distant second to Cadbury(70% share) and Coca cola's struggle to make inroads into non-carbonated beverage market dominated by players like Pepsico's Nimbooz and Tropicana, and Dabur's 'Real' fruit juice, it became imperative for both the companies to create buzz in the market with some exciting new launches. 

This product is expected to accomplish three objectives-

1.Take on Lipton iced-tea, the ready to drink brand from Unilever-Pepsico joint venture's stable.

2.Bolster Nestle's market share and growth performance in non-chocolate category to make up for the stagnant market share in the chocolate category.

3.Support Coca cola's only product in the non-carbonated beverage category, Minute Maid and take on a slew of products from the competitors' stable.

There are some conspicuous facts about Nestea which makes it an interesting launch, first the brand communication of being a refreshing and fun drink with a lemony flavour and yet predominantly a tea brand, a category which is relatively new and unique to India. Second the brand is targeted at 20 something youth as well as kids in the age group 5-12 through different skus and forms of product. For youth it is available at the price point of Rs 25 in 400ml PET bottle emphasizing its communication as refreshing on the go drink for today's youth hard pressed for leisure time and for kids it is available in powdered form in tetra packs with the name Remix.The idea seems to be to avoid placing the bet entirely on the cluttered youth beverage segment and have presence in kids segments also as in India there is no non-malted drink (malted ones are Horlicks, Complan etc) catering exclusively to kids. Third and the most salient fact about this brand is its marketing communication reflected in its television commercial for Nestea Remix which has animated characters, more precisely kangaroos and the communication of it being a fun and refreshing drink for kids is driven home. In India the use of animation in ad films is still very much restricted to a few brands like 7up, Mortein etc. Through the use of animation the idea is to create a novelty factor and enhance brand recall, moreover this advertising strategy of using animated characters in TVCs is adopted across the markets where nestea as a brand is a name to reckon with like UK, Germany, Italy etc.

Nestea India TVC -