Consumer Behavior Model: Environmental factors

There is no doubt that the consumer behavior is considerably affected by the external factors of environment. There are many components that affect the consumer behavior of customers. This fact is becoming especially critical when it deals with the expensive products, for example automobiles. Chevrolet Corvette is one of the expensive car industry representatives. The price for Chevrolet Corvette car model may vary from a starting price $55,000 of Chevrolet Corvette Stingray to almost 100,000 for the full set of appliances of Chevrolet Corvette Z06. Thus, the environmental factors affect considerably the consumer behavior as in order of essay writing

The main factor is the economic one. Due to the fact that the price for the product is rather high, the economic conditions are very important in terms of the consumer behavior. Inflation, economic instability and currency value fluctuations may influence the buying power of customers. Consequently, they may prefer buying a cheaper automobile industry product or refuse to buy vehicles in general.

Another important environmental factor for the automobile industry is the regulatory one. State regulations in the automobile industry are rather considerable. First of all, the taxes are paid for the car being bought. The more expensive car is, the higher tax rate has to be contributed to the state. Fuel price fluctuations and road usage fees may also influence the buying decision concerning the vehicle, namely Chevrolet Corvette.

Consumer Behavior Model: Consumer factors

No doubt that the consumer behavior is most of all influenced by the consumer factors. The consumer behavior in the automobile industry is mainly determined by social, personal and cultural criteria. As for the social criteria, it means that the general trends of the society concerning the automobile industry are critically important for the customers’ behavior model. For example, one time it is popular to have a sport car, then the performance cars are becoming in a trend or the cars with the open top may also be considered stylish. Consequently, popularity of one or another trend gives the preference of the customers to one or another type or model of the car. As for Chevrolet Corvette, it is definitely in trend now, namely the sport stylish look and performance car characteristic.

Personal criterion is not less important for the consumer behavior. Different people have different tastes and priorities when choosing a car. Women usually prefer small cars. Men, on the contrary, like crossovers and SUVs. In addition, according to the personal conditions and concerns, customers may have price, quality, safety or general outlook as the main criteria while making a choice of the vehicle.

The last but not the least consumer factor that has a considerable influence on the customer’s choice in the automobile industry is cultural affect. It deals with affect of different countries’ customs and culture peculiarities. For example, the countries of former British colonies have the steer wheel on the right side, when many other countries have the left-side wheel. Consequently, depending on what culture and what country the customer is a representative of, the different cars will be chosen. Moreover, according to the cultural peculiarities, customers may choose different car types. For example, Americans are fond of large crossovers, SUVs and trucks, while Europeans prefer small economic cars.

Role of involvement in consumer decision-making

There is no doubt that the more involvement the company provides to the customers, the more likely they are to make a purchase. As for the Chevrolet Corvette, the company is giving an opportunity for the customers to express their point of view and feedbacks in the social media network groups. Moreover, while selling Chevrolet Corvette the test-drive involvement is used, which affects the consumer decision making considerably.

Consumer decision-making process

The customers’ decision-making process is very important to know for the company in order to predict all needs and expectations of the target customer while this process. There are five stages of customers’ decision-making process. The first one is need recognition. It deals with the fact that the customer realizes that he or she needs to buy a car. This stage is the hardest to influence from the side of the company. However, once the customer has realized the need for a new car, the second stage is very dependent on the company, namely the search process. The Chevrolet Company has to provide plenty of information via different sources. First of all, the outdoor advertisement has to be effective in order to attract customers’ attention exactly to Chevrolet Corvette product of the automobile industry. Moreover, the note of the web-site address has to be put there. Nowadays the most wide-spread means of search is the Internet. Consequently, the information on the Chevrolet webs-site has to be informative, exact and effective.

The third stage is evaluating the alternatives. For this matter, the company has to take part in different exhibitions where the customer may have an opportunity to make a real comparison of the product. In addition, all point of difference and competitive advantages of Chevrolet Corvette have to be underlined in order to pervade the customers to complete the fourth stage of decision-making process, namely selection stage. The last but not the least stage deals with the evaluation of decision. It is very important for the company to provide good pre and after-sales service and satisfy the customer with the product quality in order to develop loyal relationships with him.

Market Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

Segmentation

The Chevrolet Company is representing a complete automobile segment concerning the production line. There are city, sport and performance cars, crossover, SUVs, trucks VANs and other types of vehicles. In addition, from the geographic point of analysis, the company is launching the car on the domestic market as well as exporting them worldwide. Moreover, the cars are targeted at different age and income groups of people. As for Chevrolet Corvette product, it is focusing on a smaller segment. From the demographic point of view, it is mostly focused on young men. Chevrolet Corvette is mostly oriented on the US market. From the product point of view, it is a representative of a performance car with high speed and horse power characteristics.

Target Market

The Chevrolet Company is young men that are located in the USA when selling Chevrolet Corvette. Due to the fact that it is a sport car product of the automobile industry, the target market from the physiological criterion deals with people that are active, sporty and speed loving. The target market is people with upper middle and high level of income, because the price for Chevrolet Corvette is rather high.

Target-market strategy

As for the target market strategy, the Chevrolet Company is using a differentiation strategy. It deals with the fact that in terms of Chevrolet Corvette product line, there are several models of the cars offered to the customers, namely Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport and Chevrolet Corvette Z06. These three models of Chevrolet Corvette vary in look, technical characteristics and price considerably. Thus, in terms of differentiation strategy, the company is targeting different markets with different products. Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is targeted at the upper middle level of income class, while Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is targeting groups of customers with high level of earnings. Such targeting strategy is very effective because it gives an opportunity to acquire more market share and make the product line more stable to the market fluctuations in general.

Positioning

The Chevrolet Company is positioning itself as an important part of the best American automobile industry leader, namely General Motors. In addition, it lays the stress on its considerable impact to the global automobile industry as a manufacturer and exporter. As for the Chevrolet Corvette product line, its positioning strategy deals with combination of brilliant engineering and precision performance. Moreover, the company is laying the stress on the considerable technical characteristics along with the original exterior.

Providing the positioning analysis, it is important to make the comparison of the product with the main competitors on the positioning map. All Chevrolet Corvette models are compared with such sport cars as Porsche Cayman and Honda CR-Z. The comparison is made on the criteria of price and horse power. Honda product has the worst technical characteristics per the lowest price. Porsche Cayman is about at the same positioning level as Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport. However, Chevrolet Corvette Z06 turned out to be the most expensive model on the positioning map.

Sport Cars Positioning Map

Thus, taking everything into account, it is important to conclude that the Chevrolet Corvette product line has a rather effective STP strategy. The company is targeting a sport vehicle segment of the USA. The main target audience is young men with upper-middle and high level of income that are interested in sport and fast driving. Such STP strategy gives an opportunity to capture large market share, increase the company’s profitability and remain resistant to various negative external influences.