Using college students as the market segment, describe the most relevant reference group(s) and indicate the probable degree of influence on decisions for each of the following:. A) Brand of toothpaste.
B) Purchase of a hybrid car.
C) Purchase of breakfast cereal.
D) Becoming a vegetarian.
E) Choice of a computer tablet such as the iPad.

Answer and Explanation:

A. Toothpaste brand: Toothpaste is a commonly used, inexpensive, and very popular product. These decisions are governed mainly by the reference group such as family , friends or primary group with whom a student has regular face to face experiences. Hence the purchase decision is affected by a low degree of comparison community.

B. Buying a hybrid car: A hybrid car is sometimes described as expensive and luxury products. It's moreover a non-necessity commodity for a college student. These decisions are therefore usually affected by secondary community. And a high degree of control in the comparison community will only inspire a student to buy a car.

C. Buying cereal for breakfast: This is a simple requirement of a lifetime. Therefore, even without consulting any reference group a student can buy such product. Often such transactions are rules by family group control. So it needs a low degree of control.

D. Becoming a vegetarian: It takes a high degree of influence and motivation to become a vegetarian.

Thus the aspirational group influences a student. So they opt for vegetarianism to become part of such a community. Such decision taking involves a high degree of control.

E. Option of a computer tablet like the iPod: these products are a luxury commodity sold at regular prices. Typically refer to their families , friends, magazines before making a purchase student to get an idea about the output and price of these products. These goods are the weak product with a strong brand and a strong purchase is controlled by a strong reference community impact.

answer; encouraging the development of innovations by firms attempting to break a monopoly; (creative destruction)

a manufacturer of printed circuit boards uses exponential smoothing with trend to forecast monthly demand of its product. at the end of december, the company wishes to forecast sales for january. the estimate of trend through november has been 200 additional boards sold per month. average sales have been around 1000 units per month. the demand for december was 1100 units. the company uses α = 0.20 and β = 0.10. make a forecast including trend for the month of january.