Determining Consumer Responsiveness to Different Marketing Communications:A summary of findings from the pilot

Introduction In his quest to maintain or gain market share, the manufacturer of branded goods makes various assumptions about potential customers, using his current knowledge to picture who they are and how they can be reached cost‐effectively. In essence, he builds on the socio‐demographic characteristics and assumes that people of a particular profile will respond to image, price, point‐of‐sale material, competitions or bargain offers. His decision is made and implemented and, provided the outcome is satisfactory, it is taken that the assumptions are correct. If the market reacts in an unexpected way, he deems that perhaps there were other variables which affected behaviour—or perhaps that his judgement was wrong—in which event he is apt to try another tack to see if that will produce the desired response. He works best on experience and rationalisation, believing that his inadequate knowledge of the market‐place is unavoidable and that he is doing the best he can in the circumstances.