Question

Using college students as the market segment, describe the most relevant reference group(s) and indicate the probable degree of influence on decisions for each of the following:

a) Brand of toothpaste: friends, roommates = Low

b) Purchase of hybrid car: co-workers, friends = High

c) Purchase of breakfast cereal: family, roomates = Low (if for own use) to High (if group use)

d) Becoming a vegetarian: roommates, friends, family = Moderate

e) Choice of computer tablet such as the iPad: family members, friends = Moderate to high

write more than 300 words summary

Answer 1

Answer:

College Student Market Segment: The college student market segment is the most energetic and dynamic market segment, in which the choice or influence of any product or service is directly affected by the latest fashion, technologies, group acceptance, image building elements etc.  

Using college students as the market segment, the most relevant reference group(s) and indication of probable degree of influence on decisions for each of the following are as below:

1. Brand of toothpaste: friends, roommates = Low: The most relevant group for these products is roommates or friends leaving nearby of each other. The degree of influences of these groups on each other low because these group of students do not focus on toothpaste product as it does not comes into their topic for discussion/relevant for general discussions.
2. Purchase of hybrid car: co-workers, friends = High: The most relevant group is friends group of students, roommates, classmates etc. The car is the high topic for discussion and image building in the college. This is the product which has high influences on other students or in the college and can be the image builder in the college. Thus the influence on hybrid car is very high among students.
3. Purchase of breakfast cereal: family, roommates = Low (if for own use) to High (if group use): The most relevant group is family. The influence is low for self usage because students do not have personal focus for purchase of breakfast products, as they take it very easy and they do not have any impact on their image building etc. But when the propose such items for others it becomes high, because they want to show that they are using high energy products for their usage. Thus in a group the influences is very high.
4. Becoming a vegetarian: roommates, friends, family = Moderate: The most relevant group is roommates and friends. The influence on vegetarian is not that much as it do not have any additional image building impact in the college. Thus this has moderate influence impact.
5. Choice of computer tablet such as the iPad: family members, friends = Moderate to high: Most relevant group is friends. The influences is very high because it is the equipment which makes the large impact in image building and it is the high influencing item for the students.