000			02392pab a2200205 454500
008			140923b0 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
040			_cWelingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai _aWelingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai
041			_aENG
082			_a _bZal
100			_aZaltman Gerald
245			_aSure Thing That Flopped
250			_a7
260			_a _bJul-Aug 2008 _c0
300			_a29-37 Pp.
490			_v86
520			_aTibal Fisher made a fortune selling trendy, inexpensive home furnishings to baby boomers. With that generation beginning to enter its sixties, he sees a huge opportunity in products for aging consumers. Focus groups and surveys confirm strong market demand for such items, and the media love the idea. So why is TF's NextStage, his new line of stores for older consumers, a disaster? Donna J. Sturgess, global head of innovation for GlaxoSmithKline, thinks Tibal's research missed the subconscious associations in customers' minds -- the deep metaphors that reveal people's true feelings about products. The solution: Find ways to generate positive emotional associations, as GSK has done with its weight-loss product. Alex Lee, president of household-products maker OXO International, says consumers are attracted by brands they associate with the type of people they'd like to be -- not the type they are. TF's NextStage must avoid trying to get customers to "act their age" and using labels and positioning that call attention to their senior status. Yoshinori Fujikawa, a professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, says certain businesses -- those led by executives with a talent for sensing what their customers want -- can forgo deep research into customers' feelings, at least in the short term. But over the long term, firms need to have an organizational capability to create a systematic method for discovering what's going on in customers' minds. Lewis Carbone, CEO of market research firm Experience Engineering, points out that customers often are unable to articulate their deepest feelings. That's why companies need to go to the trouble to work with them one-on-one to find out what's driving them toward -- or away from -- a brand.
650			_aCase Study-Marketing, Customer Relations, Brands
856			_uhttp://192.168.6.13/libsuite/mm_files/Articles/AR9786.pdf
906			_a28689
999			_c29655 _d29655