4 Responses

1. consumer buying
   Hi A,

   Years ago I did some consumer training by getting different plastic bags from different retail and outlets ranging from asda, lidl, M and S through to Selfridges.
   I held an exercise where the groups split the bags into different groups. Firstly which one’s they buy from, then where they would like to buy from and then a 3 way split into bargain, middle range and high quality shops.
   Different groups came up with different answers based on their own consumer knowledge and it was interesting to see the differences in groups of delegates around the UK.

   You can also ask the group to provide 3 words to describe each of the outlets as well.

   Don’t know if this would be of any use but its worth a try.
   May work slightly differently now that most plastic bags have to be purchased rather than given for free.

   H

2. Consumer behaviour

   Taking Hels idea, you could use the carrier bags exercise for one section of the 50 in 3 groups, then maybe corporate logos eg banks for another group and car isignias for a third. You would then cover different types of buying scenarios and can pull on similarities and differences, whether spending thousands on a car, where to put your savings / overdraft (and all the personal info that goes with that) and your daily/weekly shopping.

   You could also ask them to analyse what they are wearing and why or, depending on how they (you?) feel about it, others’ outfits!

    

   Sue 

3. comparing equivilant branded and non-branded products

   This exercise is more of a discussion point rather than exercise but you could run it in a similar way to the bag/logo exercise previously described. Also it is a little restrictive because you’ll need to find some products that are identical in everyway and yet provoke markedly different consumer reactions. For example, the pain relief remedy Ibruprofen is identical to its branded equivilant Nurofen. However, even knowing that they are the same, a lot of consumers will choose to buy the more expensive Nurofen rather than the cheaper non-branded product. This is a great demonstrator of marketing/branding power over logic/information.

   Another good one is car brands – people tend to buy something they feel they know rather than a proven product that is actually superior (compare consumer reports from the likes of Which? magazine and the types of cars that actually remain popular despite their failings).

4. Thank you everyone

   Thanks everyone, very helpful the idea of actually physically bringing in branded products bags, medicine etc. is great will also use it for a branding session !!!

   A