MANAGEMENT 3210Y
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
GROUP RESEARCH PROJECT GUIDELINES
Background
Positioning refers to how consumers perceive a product (or service), brand, or organization
relative to its competition. A product’s position is thus not so much about the product itself,
as it is about the place it occupies in the mind of the consumer. For example, Mount Blanc
pens sell for over $100 and are clearly not for everyone, including many wealthy people.
People who buy them, buy them as a fashion statement or as a status symbol — not because
they are good writing instruments. They’re not made of translucent plastic and you won’t
find them in packs of ten in Walmart next to your 49-cent Bic (which is positioned
differently), or advertised in the weekly Shoppers Drug Mart flyer. How a product is
positioned thus affects and is affected by the product itself, the price, the way it is promoted,
and the place where it is purchased; i.e. all aspects of the marketing mix. One of the major, if
not the major goal of marketing, is to create beliefs about products, companies, brands, etc. in
the minds of the target market relative to the competition.
Occasionally, brands have to be repositioned because of such things as changing customer
needs and tastes, competitive actions and pressures, poor sales performance, new entrants
into the market, changing distribution channels, and so on. McDonalds, for instance, recorded
its first net loss in the 4th quarter of 2003 because it lost touch with consumers, failing to
recognize the global changes in consumers’ greater concern for health. Although seen as a
family restaurant McDonalds was also seen as “greasy”. Since then the company has had
considerable success repositioning itself to families seeking healthy eating options, by
offering and promoting salad meals, wraps and other low fat alternatives.
Repositioning requires an understanding of the consumer and consumer trends and involves
changing the image of the product in the mind of the consumer. Achieving this may involve
modifying the product, changing the name, the price or where it is purchased, stressing
different benefits, changing the target market, or a combination thereof. Repositioning thus
requires rethinking the entire marketing strategy.
Project Overview
The group research project is a semester-long project designed to integrate and apply the
course material to the development of a real-world marketing strategy. The project requires a
team of three to five people to select either an existing product or service, or a new product or
service, and reposition it, (or position it in the case of a new product or service) and then
outline a general marketing strategy for the repositioned product based on an understanding
of the consumers. Marketing plans must also take heed of corporate financial and operational
capabilities, but for the purpose of this project you can assume that the company has both the
skills and the finances to pull off the repositioning.
It consists of a written report and two class presentations and is worth 35% of the final grade.
It will require both secondary research as well as primary research collected through a
questionnaire administered to a small sample of the target market.
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Since leaving the project to the end of the semester is counterproductive it needs to be
completed in three phases. Dates are set for the completion of each phase. As the aim of the
first two phases is to ensure that the team is on track, and to provide feedback, they will not
be graded. For each phase not handed in on time, however, the group will lose 10% of the
overall project grade. Details of each phase are given below. See the course outline for due
dates.
Objectives
 To integrate and apply the understanding of the concepts and principles of consumer
behaviour learned throughout the course to real-world marketing strategy.
 To develop skills working in groups
 To develop leadership and presentation skills.
Group selection
You will work on this project in groups of three to five people. Groups will be self-selected
and a list of members must be provided by the third class. One person in the group must be
elected as a contact-person. Group cohesiveness is often improved if the team also gives
itself a name. All problems arising within the group related to relative contributions of the
members are to be handled internally by the group. This is an essential part of the group
project experience. You will, however, have an opportunity to provide a confidential
evaluation of the quality and quantity of your group members’ contributions at the end of the
semester. A form for this purpose is included at the end of these guidelines and is also
available on the class web site. Your grade can go up or down based on these evaluations. It
is important, however, to inform the instructor of any problems that have arisen, and the steps
taken to resolve them, before the evaluations are submitted.
OUTLINE OF GROUP PROJECT
The following outline is provided as a sample structure for your group project. It is not meant
to be all-inclusive and should be modified where necessary to fit the specific context within
which your product or service is marketed. Your marketing strategy should draw on as many
topics covered in class as possible.
Phase One: Market Profile
Phase one is essentially a project plan. How is your product currently positioned in
consumers’ minds, i.e. how they currently view it, and how you would like them to view it.
This change may involve a change in the target market, and/or a change in the marketing
mix. You need to justify why you intend to reposition the product. The deliverable for this
phase is a two-to-three page description of the specific product or service and product
category the group has chosen to focus on, a one to two sentence statement as to how the
group plans to reposition it, (from what to what) and a timetable with a breakdown of who is
responsible for what (i.e. a project plan).
Phase Two: Description and justification of your target market segment
Phase two is about 1) the product or service category your repositioned product belongs in
(i.e. the new market situation) 2) the trends occurring in that market segment and 3) a profile
of the consumers in that market. The deliverable for this phase is a five-to-six-page progress
report and involves a profile of your product category's market, the competition and the
trends occurring in that market, a description and justification of your new target segment, a
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product positioning statement, and a draft of your questionnaire. At this time you will also be
required to give a short (5-7 minute) oral presentation to the class describing your product or
service and its new target segment. Part of the class on this date will also be used to pre-test
your questionnaire and receive feedback from the class.
Phase two consists of:
1. A profile of your current product category's market and the product itself based on any
secondary research such as library research, company brochures, websites and reports,
personal interviews, etc., you have conducted. This is a profile of the market you are
repositioning from and should be kept brief. Essentially it provides part of the
justification for the repositioning.
 Describe the product category you are analyzing. Where does it sit on the store shelf?
 If you are building on brand equity or name, then you need to discuss how customers
currently view the brand
 Describe the product or service you are repositioning. What are its features and
benefits?
 Describe the market for your type of product in terms of size, historical trends,
growth forecasts, etc.
 What customer segments exist in the market?
 How do consumers currently use the product?
 How do customers currently perceive the product or service? Is it seen as the safest,
best quality, cheapest etc. in its category? I.e. what is its current position?
 Describe competitive positions within major market segments. Who are the leaders?
Why? What are their positions (e.g. have they positioned their product as the safest,
cheapest, best quality, trendiest, etc.)? Look at their advertisements and other
marketing communications. Who are they targeted at?
 Develop a positioning map.
 What is different about your product relative to the competition that you can
capitalize on?
 How loyal are consumers to competitors
 What recent trends (e.g. economic, demographic, psychographic) have affected the
nature of this market?
2. A description and justification of your new target segment. This is the market you are
repositioning to.
 Who are the major competitors in this market?
 How are these competitors positioned? Can you draw a positioning map?
 Are there any gaps in the market that can be exploited?
 What trends are occurring in this market? For example, if you want to reposition a
woman’s cosmetic product and target it towards men, you would want to find out
what is happening in the men’s cosmetic market.
 What might be your consumers' consideration set? Which brands might be included?
 What beliefs exist regarding important brands and product attributes? Why do these
beliefs exist? What are the salient attributes?
 What are consumers' attitudes towards the brands in the category? Do strong
subjective norms exist? What kind of brand loyalty, if any, exists in your product or
service category? Why does it exist?
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
Based on your understanding of the market, what consumer segment(s) do you feel
will be especially attractive in the future? Describe that segment.
 How does the problem recognition occur for products in this category?
 Describe the internal/external search process. What sources of information are used?
When? For what purpose? How do these inputs affect consumers?
 Describe the interpretation processes consumers might use in learning about your
product. Is exposure likely to be accidental or intentional? Is comprehension likely to
be shallow or deep? What types of inferences, if any, are likely to be common?
 Describe the kind of knowledge and involvement consumers might have about your
product.
 What do they value and what is it about your product that will help them realize those
values? What types of means-end chains might they have?
 What are the general lifestyles of your consumer?
 Is symbolic meaning important for your product?
 What will using the product say about the consumer?
 Do any issues of one's personality and self-image affect purchasing and use decisions
for your chosen product
 Do consumer psychographics and lifestyles affect product usage? What lifestyle
factors do the consumers seem to have in common?
 Describe typical decision strategies used by consumers to make a choice in this
product category. What model best predicts choice?
 Is there role specialization in the buying process? What are the relative influences of
family members or others in the buying process? Are there other important reference
group or cultural influences?
 Is word of mouth an important factor for purchasing your product? How does word of
mouth flow?
 Where and when do consumers buy the good or service? How does the setting and
timing affect consumer behavior? How important is the sales environment or sales
person?
Much of the above information can be gathered from secondary sources, from analysing
competitors’ marketing promotions, and from informal/formal interviews. Much more,
however, won’t be available from these sources so you need to ask what else you want to
know about your consumer – what information do you need to gather? This will involve
surveying your target market and perhaps even defining it further.
3. A repositioning statement. This should be only two or three sentences, and should state
the position you are moving from as well as the position you are moving to. How you
would like your product or service to be viewed relative to the competition by your target
market.
4. A draft of your questionnaire (not more than two pages long) as an appendix. The
questions in this questionnaire must be based on what you think are the key consumer
behavior issues for your target segment. While you will want to have demographic
questions and questions about the product itself, it is more important to ask respondents
about their lifestyle, attitudes and values. This information will be invaluable when it
comes to developing and justifying your marketing strategy.
5. Your group must also make a 5-7 minute oral presentation to the class. In this
presentation, you need to describe your product/service and its new target segment, and
use your findings thus far to convince the audience that your repositioning idea is a
creative and profitable one. This is an opportunity to get feedback from the class.
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This class will also be used to pretest your questionnaire so print enough copies for everyone.
The aim here is not to collect data, as it is unlikely that the class is representative of your
target market, but to get feedback on the questionnaire itself. If people in the class are part of
your target market you may wish to administer a revised survey at a later date. You should
not administer your questionnaire until you’ve received feedback. You should also aim to
survey a minimum of 50 people.
Phase Three: Marketing Strategy Final Report
The final phase of this project involves using the knowledge about the potential consumers
for the repositioned product gained during phase two and from the survey to put together a
marketing strategy. In other words, now that you have a good understanding of the
consumers for your product how are you going to market it to them? Note that this is not a
product launch or marketing plan but a marketing strategy. The difference is that a marketing
plan involves specific tactics, while a strategy is a general approach. You don’t have to come
up with specific marketing slogans but should indicate the slant, or the general message the
slogan will promote. For instance, if the consumers of your product are into healthy living,
then the health benefits of your product might be one message you would want to convey,
and you would promote it in healthy living magazines etc. The details would be worked out
later.
The final report should contain the following:
1. A revision and expansion of phase two integrating concepts discussed in class with your
questionnaire data as well as any other secondary data you may have about your target
segment.
2. A product positioning statement
 Including the specific brand image to be used.
 Justify your positioning statement based on your analyses of the target consumer’s
behaviour
3. Marketing mix recommendations
 Select a product strategy for your brand. Discuss packaging, brand features, services,
etc. Justify your strategy with what you have learned about consumer behavior in
Phase Two.
 Select a pricing strategy for your brand. Justify your decision based on your
understanding of price sensitivity, cost, competition, and psychological pricing
considerations.
 Outline and justify a general promotional program.
 How will you create consumer awareness?
o Don’t just say “we will use effective displays to grab consumers’
attention.” What will make them effective and why?
 What is the relative importance of various promotional mix tools?
 What are your advertising objectives?
 What is the general substance of your message?
 What slant or idea will promotion take? – This should be consistent with the
positioning statement. How are you going to persuade the target audience to
buy your product?
 What media will you select and why?
 Will you use a personal selling program? If so, why and how?
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 Design and justify the appropriate channels of distribution.
4. Appendixes
 A copy of the power point presentation
 A copy of the questionnaire with frequencies for each answer
 Copies of any competitor ads if applicable
The heart of this project is your analysis and application of the basic consumer behavior
issues, concepts, models, and theories involved in the marketing problem you are addressing.
Your marketing strategy should flow from what you know about the consumers of your
product or service. You won’t know how to effectively market to them unless you understand
them.
While you can offer creative suggestions for how this is done you need to justify your general
approach. The same is true for strategies involving aspects of the product itself, advertising,
sales promotion, pricing, and distribution. For example, you can’t just say you will be a price
leader without justification. People switch brands because of low prices when there is weak
brand loyalty and price sensitivity. Is this true of your product category? If you’re relying on
your existing brand loyalty for pricing or some other aspect of the marketing mix then you
need to research how the brand is perceived.
The key to getting a good mark for this project is to justify what you intend to do. If you give
the product a new name for example, you need to provide the reasons for doing so. If you
want to market Herbal Essences shampoo to men and call it “Herbal Essences Shampoo for
Men” then you need to say why — i.e. because most shampoos are marketed to women yet
men still wash their hair, and because you’re going to change the product slightly in terms of
scent etc. to make it more appealing to men. Your promotions are all going to be geared to
men, but the appeal will be based on what you understand about men and what they look for
in a shampoo. Imagine yourselves as making a proposal to the CEO or marketing manager of
the company – the ones that will give the go ahead to move forward on the project and cost it
out. Can you convince them that it will succeed?
It helps too if you put yourself in the shoes of the typical consumer for your product. If you
are repositioning a hairspray as a carpet spot remover, for instance, where would you look for
information? The Internet? Probably not. If you say word of mouth will be important in
promoting the product will people actually talk about it? Would you? If you sell a stain
remover product will people talk about it? Do people value clean clothes and appearance?
Do they want to be able to remove stains? Does your product remove stains effectively? If
the answer to these questions is “Yes” then perhaps people will talk about your product. If
the answer is “No” then people probably won’t talk about it. If you’re marketing bottled
water to a new market will news spread by word of mouth? Do people talk about water? Put
yourself in the shoes of the consumer. What would you value? Some of this information can
be confirmed in the survey. The idea is to convince the reader(s) (i.e. your marketing
manager or financiers) that your idea of a repositioned product or service would succeed.
The final report, due the last day of classes, must be a professional and polished document,
no longer than 25 double-spaced pages (excluding any appendices, references, or exhibits),
using no smaller than 11-point font. Be sure to cite all references where appropriate in the
body of the paper and list your sources of information, including articles, interviews, etc. at
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the end. Any additional charts and tables (if not used in the body of the text), as well as the
PowerPoint presentation and questionnaire, should be included as appendices (marks will be
deducted if they are not). Papers must include a cover page with the names of all group
members. The first page of the report must be a table of contents and the second page an
executive summary that provides a brief overview of the report (i.e. product chosen and your
market repositioning concept). A common error with the executive summary is to summarize
what the team did rather than, or to the exclusion of, the results. An example of a table of
contents is provided at the end of these guidelines.
Final presentations
Presentations will take place over the last two classes of the term. Lots will be drawn the
week before to determine the order of presentation, unless a compelling reason can be given
for making the presentation on a particular date. Those groups giving their presentation the
first week of presentations have the advantage of getting feedback on their project before the
final report is due. Those going on the second week have the advantage of extra time . All
team members must participate in the final presentation.
The final presentations should be in PowerPoint. They must be professional, interesting, and
clearly convey the strength of your repositioning concept and both the thoroughness of your
marketing strategy and its soundness in terms of consumer behavior.
Plan on presenting roughly 15 minutes of material, leaving about 5 minutes for classroom
discussion. Since part of the presentation mark is for class discussion it is important to
encourage questions. You are expected to attend all the project presentations, as some exam
questions will be based on them. Each group must include a copy of its PowerPoint
presentation with the final report.
Evaluation
This project is worth 35% of the final grade; 10% is allotted for the presentation and 25% for
the final report. In general, the project will be evaluated on your choice of the key consumer
behavior issues involved in the marketing problem, the creative way in which you analyze
the consumer issues, how you select and use concepts from the class to help solve the
segmentation and repositioning "problem", the originality and soundness of the strategies that
you recommend and how clearly these follow from your consumer behavior analysis.
More specifically, papers will be graded using the following guidelines
Organization, style, grammar and spelling
20 points
Executive Summary
25 points
Profile of the market (competition trends etc.)
25 points
Product positioning statement
5 points
Description and justification of target segment
10 points
Analysis of consumer behaviour issues
35 points
Strategic marketing mix recommendations
20 points
Conclusion
10 points
150 points
Note that a substantial portion of the mark is allotted to the Executive Summary. Executive
Summaries are so called because they are for busy executives who lack the time to read the
entire report. It needs to be brief and specific. State what you did – briefly e.g. conducted a
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survey of how many people, but focus on the findings and recommendations. Avoid
marketing hype.
There is also a substantial portion of marks allotted for organization style, grammar and
spelling. It is worthwhile, therefore to ensure that that there are no spelling or grammatical
errors. Students will also be asked to comment and evaluate other groups and these
comments and evaluations will be taken into consideration when a mark is calculated.
Oral presentations will be graded using the following guidelines
Content
10 points
Organization
5 points
Presentation style
5 points
Use of visual aids
5 points
Timing
5 points
Handling questions
5 points
Professionalism
5 points
40 points
Examples of Past Projects
 Vinegar repositioned from a condiment to a cleaning agent
 Huggies Baby-wipes repositioned as all-purpose hygienic wipes
 Swiffer wet jet repositioned as an industrial Swiffer Mighty
 Travel cosmetic organizers repositioned as a “Purse Pal” for teens
 Bacardi cooler repositioned as a low carb cooler
 Dasani Bottled Water targeted to children (and parents)
 Spray 9 All-purpose cleaner repositioned as a stain remover for clothes
 Bounce Dryer sheets repositioned as a room deodorizer
 Molson’s Canadian repositioned as a beer shampoo
 HMV repositioned as a Music Café
 L’oreal concealer for women repositioned as a concealer for men
 Labatt’s 50 repositioned as a beer for women.
 A yoga studio repositioned to men
 OCI nail polish repositioned as a car touch up paint
 Bic pens repositioned as a multi-purpose pen and hair stick
 Crest toothpaste repositioned as an acne treatment
 Mercedes repositioned to women
 Labello lip balm repositioned to men
 Clairol hair spray repositioned as a carpet spot remover/clothing stain remover
 Ipod repositioned to media and Gaming device
 Preparation H to anti-wrinkle cream
 Herbal essences shampoo repositioned to men
 Swiss army knife repositioned for women
 Olive oil as a skin moisturizer
 Rice Krispies as a baking ingredient
 Jacob clothing repositioned as a clothing store for men
 Parissa Studio’s warm wax from women to men
 Smirnoff Ice coolers repositioned as highballs for men
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Sample Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Product Description/Background
Product repositioning statement
Product category market profile
Segments
Competition
Trends
Target segment Consumer Behavior
Motivation and Values
Personality and Lifestyles
Attitudes
Decision making
Group Influences
Cultural Influences
Situational Influences
Marketing mix recommendations
Product
Price
Promotion
Place
Conclusion/Summary
References
Appendices
Charts and Tables
Questionnaire
PowerPoint Presentation
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PEER EVALUATION FORM
Yourself:____________________
Performance Criteria
Excellent
Good
Average Poor Unacceptable
Attendance
5
4
3
2
1
Contribution
5
4
3
2
1
Task Completion
5
4
3
2
1
Attitude
5
4
3
2
1
Quality of work
5
4
3
2
1
Total Score
/25
Comments______________________________________________________________
Team Member #1____________________
Performance Criteria
Excellent
Good
Average Poor Unacceptable
Attendance
5
4
3
2
1
Contribution
5
4
3
2
1
Task Completion
5
4
3
2
1
Attitude
5
4
3
2
1
Quality of work
5
4
3
2
1
Total Score
/25
Comments______________________________________________________________
Team Member #2____________________
Performance Criteria
Excellent
Good
Average Poor Unacceptable
Attendance
5
4
3
2
1
Contribution
5
4
3
2
1
Task Completion
5
4
3
2
1
Attitude
5
4
3
2
1
Quality of work
5
4
3
2
1
Total Score
/25
Comments______________________________________________________________
Team Member #3____________________
Performance Criteria
Excellent
Good
Average Poor Unacceptable
Attendance
5
4
3
2
1
Contribution
5
4
3
2
1
Task Completion
5
4
3
2
1
Attitude
5
4
3
2
1
Quality of work
5
4
3
2
1
Total Score
/25
Comments______________________________________________________________
Team Member #4____________________
Performance Criteria
Excellent
Good
Average Poor Unacceptable
Attendance
5
4
3
2
1
Contribution
5
4
3
2
1
Task Completion
5
4
3
2
1
Attitude
5
4
3
2
1
Quality of work
5
4
3
2
1
Total Score
/25
Comments______________________________________________________________
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