Preliminary Consumer Buying Behavior Report

ACME Meeting

"Thank you for meeting with us today," Tarek says. "Market intelligence has shown that our major

competitors—Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Henkel—are all developing new detergent pods for

automatic washing machines. These pods have significantly better cleaning potential than what's currently

available to consumers."

Tarek looks to you: "As ACME decides if we want to enter this market, we need you to participate in a

new cross­functional product development team that will research the market for consumer needs, wants,

and preferences for the types of detergent in our three main markets: North America, Western Europe,

and Brazil. We also need to know if there's an unmet demand for such detergent pods in those markets,"

he says. Erik Knops, ACME’s CEO, nods his head in agreement.

Tarek continues, "We need to take into consideration how the consumers in those different markets wash

their clothes. North American consumers usually use big top­loading automatic washing machines—about

20 pounds— that take hot water from the house water heaters, while Western Europeans, with their

smaller houses, use smaller, ten­pound automatic front­loading washing machines that heat their own

water. On the other hand, most Brazilians use smaller, two­tub, semiautomatic, top­loading washing

machines that are manually filled with water. The consumer requirements for each of those markets are

quite different."

Finally, Tarek remarks, "In addition, while there is a growing trend toward the use of detergent pods in

North America, Europeans prefer using low­sudsing detergents, and Brazilians use regular powder

detergent."

Erik nods his head again, smiles, and adds, "Tarek and I want you to research the consumer requirements

for those three markets and provide us with a consumer buying behavior report in two weeks."

You know that to give Erik and Tarek the most in­depth report, you will need to conduct an analysis of the

detergent consumer environment in those markets and create a value proposition.

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