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Nicole Bar-Zvi
BUS 101 - Project 3 - Marketing Assignment
Due April 25th, 2018

MARKETING ASSIGNMENT

         The segment I found myself to be most associated with out of the 5 buyer segments would be the "Follower". Upon reading on the other buyer segment definitions, the follower had best fit who I am as a consumer. A few characteristics that summarize a follower is that they stick with what they know. Followers always try to avoid risk at all costs, but only a certain type of risk. They will not try something that has been unproven to work. Followers will go along with a risky decision only if the scenario has been successful before. Another characteristic which defines a follower is that they are responsible decision makers and can be counted on to maintain a business and just take care of the overall business environment. They do not make irrational decisions or go in a direction which could jeopardize the company. Followers are very effective leaders because their decisions are highly dependable and responsible. Another characteristic that followers portray is that they tend to be excellent listeners.
         One follower I had the liberty to learn about is Peter Coors. Peter Coors was CEO of Coors until 2002 but is currently the chairman of Miller Coors, a joint venture between Molson Coors Brewing Company and SABMiller. Peter Coors enjoys visiting distributors and bars to converse with people who in return, would learn about his family business through the eyes of the consumers and public. Coors has worked in various positions at his family's Coors Brewing Company during most of his life. Coors has had a pretty widespread successful background. Aside from being a business leader for Adolph Coors, he was very involved in different organizations such as a civic organization called The Denver Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the National Western Stock Show Association. In addition to being a successful business figure, Peter Coors was also a politician. In 2004, Coors decided to run for Senate against Congressman Bob Schaffer. Bob Schaffer had attacked Coors over his company which provided benefits to the gay and lesbian partners of his employees, which also included the promotion of his beer products in gay bars. Coors described his company's pro-LGBT practices as "good business, separate from politics". Luckily he defeated Schaffer with 61% of the vote in the primary. Peter Coors had many accomplishments, to say the least. In 2012, Coors was added to the Colorado Business Hall of Fame by Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
         The second follower I would like to introduce is Carly Fiorina, who is an American Businesswoman and also a political figure. One characteristic that Carly Fiorina holds as a follower is she had excellent people skills. This skill had allowed her to rise high up the corporate ladder during her tenure at AT&T. She was always there to reward people for closing a big deal and just practiced good leadership skills among her employees. She won people over quickly. From 1999 - 2005 Fiorina was the Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard. She was the first woman to lead a top-20 company as ranked by Fortune magazine. During Fiorina's tenure, she was part of one of the largest technology sector merger in history when Hewlett-Packard acquired their rival computer manufacturer, Compaq. The chain of events was not easy for Fiorina. The merger was actually Fiorina's idea but merely a solution to a problem. When Carly Fiorina came on board with HP as CEO, the company had different departments which were working independently and was a very unorganized structure. She ended up re-organizing the entire operation with a front-end that targeted corporate customers and individual consumers, and a back-end which was split into printing & imaging, and computers on the other hand. When Fiorina started at HP, the business already had a mature product line, which is where her idea to acquire another firm had come into play. After an expensive campaign and bitter battles with investors, the acquisition was a success.
From a political standpoint, Fiorina had performed unpaid services on the Defense Business Board, which focused more on staffing issues among others, at the Pentagon. Fiorina spent 2 years leading the Central Intelligence Agency's External Advisory Board from 2007 - 2009, in which she had become chair of that board. Fiorina had also run for Senate on June 8th, 2010 and won the Republican primary election with over 50 percent of the vote. Before Fiorina had entered the political world, she stated that professional politicians had failed to deliver to the American people, so being an outsider would be a positive attribute. 82% of the American people now believe we need people from outside the political class to serve in the public office, after an interview with Fox News in 2015.
From my own personal standing as a consumer, I would definitely lean to being a follower. With the uprising in the technological world, information is so accessible. Online shopping is like second nature to me. I shop for all kinds of products whether it be a good or a service and I do normally look for something which I purchase frequently. With all the advertisements out today, sometimes I come across something which is either new on the market or a new clothing company marketing a promotion, or the advertisement itself is clever and just grabs my attention. Although the advertisement or given promotion may seem too good to be true, for me it isn't enough. Before I go along with a purchase decision, whether big or small, I feel the need to research the item and look for as many publicly provided reviews as I can which will make it easier for me to make a decision. If I am unable to find any reviews on a product or service, I will lose all desire and not go along with the buy. The internet is such an amazing source for finding information from others experiences. I normally would find reviews via Amazon, Yelp, or websites which sell the given product. Nowadays, you could search for anything and you will be able to find something related to the product. I don't like to just rely on one source. I feel more satisfied with my decision if I find a variety of reviews which better justified my purchase.
There is a recent, and quite amusing experience, I would like to share which would better elaborate why I consider myself a follower. A few weeks ago I decided to wear waterproof mascara. I had accidentally purchased a product line from a brand I use but didn't realize until I got home that I had purchased the waterproof version instead of the regular version. Later on that night as I went to take my makeup off as I normally would, the mascara did not budge. I continued to work on my face and still nothing. Panic began to set in and I had no choice but to rub my eyes more forceful as being gentle was getting me nowhere. After all was set and done, my eyes were so sore and I was rather worried that my eyelashes have now become non-existent. Without hesitation, I immediately jumped online and began googling "ways to grow your eyelashes". I came across home remedies that you could do which sounded interesting but was I really going to put a strange mix of ingredients together and brush them on my eyelashes every night before bed? It wasn't until I came across a review from someone which stated that the given mixture made her eyelashes fall out so without thinking twice, I moved on from that idea.
Still, with some uncertainty and hopelessness, I continued to browse within the topic and happened to come across an eyelash serum which stimulated eyelash growth and was very affordable, the reviews were rather positive, and level of effectiveness was also rather higher. Every now and then, you will come across a negative review from someone who had a bad experience but if there are more positives than negatives, majority rules. I went ahead and checked several websites to see what people said as I was still on the fence with acting on the purchase. I even watched a couple of YouTube videos to better understand how the product is used. After gathering all my primary data, I finally decided to purchase the item and I am so glad I did. Within a week, I feel the product had made a difference and I am very satisfied with this purchase. There were many other types of eyelash serum I could have went with but the experiences of others which I sought were not there. I tend to make decisions based on other people's experiences. Even though others have had good experiences, there is no guarantee that you will also. The chances are slimmer, but a bad experience could always happen. Generally speaking, I am a very easy person to please so I would be more likely to be satisfied than not.
In the business world, I would be a responsible decision maker and I believe by the term "do not try to fix something which is not broken". I work for a corporation which very much has its ups and downs, but every few months the company is constantly rolling out a new process. Whether it be a change to an existing procedure or a new approval system is communicated, something changes. It could be overwhelming because the minute you adapt to a previous process change, something else changes. The process wasn't broken before so I don't feel there was a need for it. In my world, I am devoted to the tried and the true, but not everyone carries the characteristics in the follower's segment.