Final Customer Buying from the Product Producer

Acquire Steps: Acquire steps include all activities the customer completes preceding the use or the consumption of the product. These steps include the customer's efforts needed for evaluation and acquisition of the product.

3. Intellectual: Segment customers on the basis of their current knowledge and understanding of the company and its products.

A. Knowledge of company and company product

2. Familiarity with specific product

Customer segment does not know product because the product is: Untried by the segment

Segment is unaware of the product

No. SIC Year Note
1 913 2004 As cheap foreign imports flood the market, U.S. shrimpers are fighting back with a new marketing strategy. Domestic shrimpers are trying to persuade consumers to buy American. Shrimp from Florida has "characteristic Florida flavor." Such efforts are very important to U.S. shrimpers, who this year are receiving 41% less for their product than they did during 2000 because of a 70% rise in shrimp imports. American producers say that foreign shrimp is being dumped on the American market at artificially low prices.
2 1542 1987 Info-Mart shifted marketing investments from broad advertising to focused calling on trade groups.
3 2000 1996 Hain repackaged its rice cakes in brightly colored, resealable cardboard canisters. The company launched bite-size rice cakes in such flavors as "peanut butter crunch" and "strawberry cheesecake," & rice cake snack bars.
4 2052 1998 Keebler has made sales gains on Nabisco by focusing on advertising to children. Nabisco, however, was focused on selling its low-fat Snackwells to adults.
5 2111 2001 American Spirit Cigarettes was originally created in 1982 when there was a growing environmentally conscious and focused awareness of natural products. Sante Fe Natural Tobacco Co. began marketing the American Spirit brand cigarettes in small ads in New Age publications such as Body, Mind, & Spirit, Mother Earth News and the Utne Reader. Sales began to grow by word of mouth particularly in New York's East Village and the Haight in San Francisco. When the anti-smoking movement and its campaign began attacking big name manufacturers of the tobacco industry in the mid 1990s the public looked to American Spirit as the healthier choice because of the organic appeal.
6 2500 1990 Craftmatic widely advertises $400 beds. Salesmen then work to sell $2,000+ beds (some accuse the company of "bait and switch," but Craftmatic say it's just upselling). Salesmen are carefully trained to give a specified pitch.
7 2600 1991 Day-Timers delivered samples of a 4-Week personal organizer – included one-week samples of 4 different page formats.
8 2800 1990 NutraSweet is widely known for the "branded ingredient" strategy it has used with its sweetener – selling it to beverage makers, for instance, with the provision that the ingredient's logo appear on the final product.
9 2800 1998 Nutrasweet was a pioneer of Monsanto's "ingredient-marketing" which is a strategy of getting customers to pay more for special ingredients. NutraSweet has paid $1 billion to advertise.
10 2834 1999 Big drug firms need blockbusters to build growth. King Pharmaceuticals focuses on lesser known drugs. Its strategy is to buy low-selling products from larger companies and then advertise them.
11 3571 1999 Toshiba has its Equium line aimed at the corporate market and made a stab at the consumer desktop arena with a product line called Infinia.
12 3577 2005 Hewlett-Packard aims to streamline operations in its main inkjet and copier business and shift capital to new high-growth markets. In response to stagnant demand in Europe and North America, the company has introduced several new innovations for businesses. A partnership with Logo Works will introduce a Web-based service to help businesses design logos. The service will cost $265 and up.
13 3900 1991 Kiddie Products gave away its products to Lamaze instructors, to promote them with Lamaze attendees.
14 4813 1994 MCI is trying to create a brand name for itself through such programs as Friends & Family, and Friends Around the World. Seems to be working. MCI promoted 1-800-COLLECT without mentioning MCI and billed through regional phone companies.
15 7041 2004 Bluegreen Corp sells its family-focused vacation shares through Bluegreen Vacation Club preview centers which rely heavily on virtual technology. These centers allow the company to market to a larger market than possible through actual visits.
16 8011 1986 One doctor has begun advertising in local papers, places notices in church bulletins, sends patients a quarterly newsletter and gives free lectures at his offices on subjects like AIDS, childbirth and aging.

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