Peer Response 57

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Question Description

Identify a brand that you purchase repeatedly. It may be any type of product or service. Discuss your experience with the brand in terms of the Five A’s model, using the prompts below:

What is the brand that you purchase repeatedly?
How often do you buy the product or use the service?
How did you first become aware of this brand and why did it appeal to you?
Where do you see this brand advertised or discussed?
Online? Through which channels? Offline? At what locations?
How does this brand satisfy your needs and align with your values?
Have you recommended this brand to any friends or family members?

Answer the peer questions that are related to the above topic

peer#1

My wife and I began to live in Southern California a little more than a year ago. When we moved, we had to adapt our way of life to the local providers closer to our home. We discovered that one of the Markets relatively close was Aldi. We knew Aldi from before, but the reality is that with time, we have become healthy and active advocates of this business. Analyzing this process from the “Five A’s Model” (Kotler, 1), my personal experience was the following:

1)Aware

The first time I entered in contact with Aldi and its brands was in Germany as a student. There was an Aldi close to my residence, and somebody told me that although it didn’t have a lot of different choices for a specific product, it was less expensive than other markets like “Walmart-type.” As a student, lower prices were the priority no. 1 when talking about everyday expenses! (Of course, except beer… again, it was in Germany… and we were students…)

It was a big surprise for us when we discovered that there was an Aldi on this side of the ocean, too, and it was close to where we used to live in Mexico. Years later, we came to live in Southern California in the United States and discovered that there are plenty of Aldi’s around with a specific cultural touch depending on the zone it was located.

At this moment, I was still in a cold/warm position as a consumer regarding the Elevation Marketing Process (Erhart, 2). Indeed, I was aware of the brand, and I had taken some actions when I started to buy some products every now and then, but I was not particularly attracted to the brand.

2)Appeal & Ask

One of the questions in this DQ is where did you see the advertisement for this product? The truth is that nowhere! My wife’s aunt, who also happened to be our health coach a year ago, recommended some of the products from Aldi. With the time, we learned to read the macronutrients and nutritional information from the product labels, and we discovered that most of the products where much healthier than in other places, and best of all, being their brands, it was cheaper!

With lower prices on their products, you might think that the quality might not be the best, but Aldi also has an impressive policy: “ALDI Twice as Nice Guarantee” with which they will immediately replace an Aldi branded product AND reimburse the money paid for it if the customer is not 100% satisfied (Aldi, 3). We’ve never had to return anything to the store, everything always works or tastes as it should be, but that warranty and promise make the customer trust the brand even more.

Besides, the customer service they provide is impressive. It is a relatively small store, and thus, there is usually only one checkout in operation; but as soon as there are more than three-four customers in line making a bottleneck, they immediately call on the radio for support. In less than one minute, one of two more cashiers open to liberate the bottleneck, not making the consumer wait for more than 5 minutes; furthermore, the person at checkout is 95% of the time super friendly and with a great attitude.

In summary, their high product and service quality, reasonable prices, and the word-of-mouth created (Baer, 4) were sufficient to have Other’s, Outer, and Own Influence within my O-Zone (JWI518, 5) to get my attention and invite me to take the next step.

3)Act

Now that we know the quality and best value of the products that Aldi offers, we discovered that the company has plenty of different brands that we have regularly been purchasing. Brands like “SimplyNature” used for organic and natural food, “Specially Selected” for products beyond just our basic needs, “Friendly Farms” for milk and non-dairy products and “Millville” for cereal (Aylward, 6) among many others, cover most of our needs, which are later complemented with other stores such as Costco, but Aldi is indeed our first stop to refill our groceries stands at least twice a month.

4)Advocate

With these strategies in place, unconsciously, I was captured by the 5Ps: The right products were offered to me at the stage of my life when I needed healthier ingredients. Aldi was in the right place, having stores close to my location and opened until a reasonable time to let me have enough time to make my purchases after work. The right promotion message by their full customer satisfaction policy about the product replacement AND refund providing a very high level of confidence in their quality. The right price by using their own branded products and increasing the efficiency in their processes to lower their operating costs and offer the best for the money to the costumers. And finally, the right people by hiring and training their employees to show a fantastic attitude and efficiency towards their job and customers (Welch, 7). All this is, in addition to the right message, their spread about healthier, quality, and less expensive products, which was actually what made us become evangelists instead of just passive loyal advocates (Court, 8). Now that I think about it, I realize that Aldi did a great job on marketing conversely to what Edwin Land said almost 40 years ago: “Marketing is what you do when your product is no good” (Welch, 7).

Thank you,

Leo

References

Philip Kotler. 2017. Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital
Adam Erhart. 2016. What Is A Marketing Funnel?. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=zkDNv6f1_S4
ALDI. N.D. ALDI Twice as Nice Guarantee. FAQ. https://www.aldi.us/en/about-aldi/faqs/aldi-twice-as-nice-guarantee/
Jay Baer. N.D. Why You Need a Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategy ASAP: Interview with Jay Baer. Podcast. http://buildingastorybrand.com/episode-128/
JWI518. 2019. Lecture Notes: Week 5. The Transition to Digital Marketing.
Lawrence Aylward. 2019. ALDI: A private brand powerhouse. https://storebrands.com/aldi-private-brand-powerho…
Jack & Suzy Welch. 2015. The Real-Life MBA: Your No-BS Guide to Winning the Game, Building a Team, and Growing your Career.
David Court. 2009. The Consumer Decision Journey. Mckinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-consumer-decision-journey

Peer #2

The Five A’s – Aware, Appeal, Ask, Act, Advocate has allowed me to summarize how well the customer’s path has been developed through Kotler, Kartajaya and Setiawan diagram and upgrade from E. St. Elmo Lewis’ AIDA. (Kotler, 2017, 1)

The product line that I identify with for the last 10+ years is Samsung Electronics. I use the following Samsung products – cell phones, tablets, and laptops.

Aware

Whenever there is an upgrade for their cell phones, I’m in line ready to see what is new from the previous model. Their tablets are very durable and will sync with cell. I have used other android models but come back to Samsung.

Appeal

Because I am an android user, other manufacturers did not seem to hold up to the demand for upgrades. The Samsung product is very similar to the iPhone products, its biggest competitor. (Trusted Reviews, 2)

Ask & Act

I became aware of Samsung products through television advertisements and my carrier, Verizon. However, some of my friends suggested that I try this product after having a Nextel for pleasure and a BlackBerry for work. To me, it was a no brainer, but my children laughed and went straight to the iPhone and Mac products. Deciding to purchase my first Samsung Galaxy was an adventure that I am glad that I took.

Advocate

Since my first purchase of a Samsung product, I have fallen head over hills in love with all of their products. Yes, I’m in love with this company. Presently I am trying to convince my husband to purchase a Samsung Refrigerator – we shall see how that works.

One may ask, why do you like this company over any other? My answer would be that this company has satisfied my needs and wants for my electronics. Will continue to use Samsung products, especially laptops and mobile units? The answer is a resounding YES!!!

References:

1. Kotler, Philip. (2017). Marketing 4.0 Moving from Traditional to Digital

2. Parker, M. (July 2019). TrustedReview.com. Samsung Galaxy S9 vs. iPhone X: Which flagship is best? https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/galaxy-s9-vs-iphone-x-3402202

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