Perceptual Maps in Phase 1

Perceptual Maps

In phase 1 of the simulation, CruiserThor sales are on the decline. Its previous success is being impacted by a changed market where there are fewer target customers in the traditional target audience, 35- to 50-year-olds. Younger potential customers are price sensitive and lifestyle image is very important. I selected lifestyle image, cool, service offerings and price as perceptual map parameters because I believed these would be the most appropriate to target younger customers. However, I found that the optimal perception map parameters were actually lifestyle image, service offerings, price and quality engineering.

In phase 2, the company can either try to reposition CruiserThor or launch a brand new motorcycle called RRRoth. I chose to reposition CruiserThor because I believe that this product can easily be repositioned to appeal to the younger target market. Market research indicated that CruiserThor already rated high on lifestyle image and quality engineering. Price and service offerings are attributes that can easily be adjusted and I believe that a new marketing plan can easily fix these issues with less risk and cost of new product introduction. The positioning strategy I selected was to decrease price and increase styling for the younger market. I chose three promotional strategies, sponsor events such as Daytona, hire celebrities for endorsements, and publicize through Hollywood films. I believe these promotions can all be used to not only reach the younger target audience, but to also reshape CruiserThor's lifestyle image to appeal to younger consumers. For place, I chose dealers and distributors where I believe a younger audience will be the most likely to purchase a motorcycle. I believe that the younger audience might avoid exclusive show rooms which they believe would have higher priced motorcycles. Although the Internet is definitely an appealing channel for younger consumers, I believe that most will actually need to see the product before making a buying decision. Certainly, CruiserThor will still have a strong advertising presence on the Web, but the company will not invest in trying to actually conduct online sales.

Service was the main ingredient of the phase 2 marketing plan. I chose financial services, training to dealers and customization options because I believe these would help improve the affordability of CruiserThor. For example, younger people may need easy payment plans and affordable dealer service in addition to just lower price to afford the bike. Plus, customization options would allow the buyer to easily choose lower-cost standard options and upgrade based on their budget. I also focused on service as a way to protect the impact of lower prices on the brand image. Finally, I selected club membership because I wanted this to enforce the image of CruiserThor as the popular choice that would bring membership to "one of the club."

Despite the marketing plans attempts to overcome price reductions on the image of the bike, performance results showed that changes such as service or style are often viewed as too superficial to change the customer's perception of an inferior product.

Even so, CruiserThor is still outperforming the competition in terms of sales for the past year.

Phase 3

Market research indicates that CruiserThor is still perceived as an expensive motorcycle, but that is also viewed as powerfully, high quality product.

In the final phase, I assigned lifestyle image a value of 9 to reflect the market research indicating how important this parameter is to CruiserThor's consumers. I gave quality engineering a value of 8 as this is one of the product's core strengths. Further, I continued to emphasize service for the same reasons discussed previously, assigning in a value of 7. Learning the important of price on brand image from the phase 2 simulation, I increased the value for this parameter to 6.

The simulation results indicated that I did a good job on all parameters except for price. Here, I should have been more accommodating for the fact that CruiserThor is more expensive than the competition and used a slightly lower number.

What is the relationship between differentiation and positioning of products or services? Is the repositioning of the product in the simulation as you had expected it to be? Why or why not?

A product's position is how potential buyers see the product or service relative to the competition. Product differeniation is the modification of a particular product or service to make it more attractive to a target market. The relaunch of CruiserThor clearly demonstrated that it is possible to differentiate a product using the 4Ps, product, price, place and promotion, in a way that will reposition it in the eyes of consumers. As this mix was adjusted, CruiserThor became more appealing to the new target audience.