CONSUMER MOTIVATION AND HIGH TECH PRODUCTS

Consumer Motivation and High Tech products

Consumer Motivation and High Tech products

Introduction

New technology has become included in every single channel of people's lives¸ resulting in a technology culture (Winkler¸ 1999). The pervasive impact of technology has had an affect on almost everything and everyone in every field of Endeavour¸ whether people like it or not. In terms of businesses¸ this development called for strong brands¸ which win people's trust while offering ideal solutions to their consumers. As a matter of fact¸ most companies founded in the past¸ e.g. Ivory or Coca Cola¸ managed to establish their strong brand in the consumer's mind and became one of the market leaders in their own market segment. Brands in the high-technology segment follow the same rule¸ whereas with the increase of companies competing within each segment¸ the image of a strong brand has always provided something that could not be copied easily. As a result¸ names like Hewlett Packard¸ Sony¸ Toshiba¸ IBM¸ or Apple are well known and the products of those companies have enjoyed a high perception of quality and reliability.

Analysis

High technology is defined as synonymous to cutting-edge technology and state-of-the-art technology. Within this paper¸ however¸ it is referred to the “consumer electronics segment” every time the term “technology” or “high-technology” is used. Consumer electronics¸ therein¸ is electronic equipment intended for use by everyday people¸ which usually finds its application in entertainment¸ communications and office productivity

While the high-technology industry increased in the speed of its development and started to focus more and more on particular consumer segments and individual needs¸ people became more open to technological innovations (McDaniel and Gates¸ 2002). For example¸ it took the radio market 38 years after its invention to attract 50 million listeners and television needed 13 years to reach 50 million viewers¸ yet the internet gained 50 million users within just four years (Temporal and Lee¸ 2000) The connection with brands and the already mentioned problem of providing a USP in present-day markets of parity plays an important role in this context too¸ resulting in shorter PLCs¸ which became reduced to a matter of weeks from what was used to be years. The most important change¸ however¸ can be seen in the increasing adaptation of a mass-customization strategy (Jiang¸ 2004). The new toys produced by high-technology companies¸ such as the iPod¸ the BlackBerry and the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP)¸ deliver seemingly unique benefits to the consumer¸ based on their image and preference match¸ whereas satiety is an alarming reality. In order to build an effective branding strategy for present-day markets¸ it is therefore necessary to investigate consumers' reasons behind buying high technology.

Rising living costs and a general decline in the purchasing power of money have made consumers more price conscious in their shopping behavior. The tendency of high technology being increasingly offered at ever-lower prices¸ on the other hand¸ has made people more aware of actual price differences¸ striven to get a mounting value for their money¸ greater functionality and a ...