case assignment

Question one

The consumer decision-making process is how a consumer recognizes their needs, searches for information on the best ways they can satisfy their wants and needs, evaluates the available alternatives, makes a decision to purchase, and finally considers their purchase (Elliot et al., 2012). Therefore, consumers’ most crucial point is not just purchasing but the entire process from conception of the need to buy to the satisfaction after making the purchase that gives them value. Value refers to the overall consumer expectation against what a company offers by a company (Elliot et al., 2012). Wool+Aid is a company that makes wool hyperfine adhesive bandages. Wool+aid creates value for its customers throughout the consumer decision-making process.

The identification of the need by consumers in their decision-making can be externally or internally stimulated (Mormann et al., 2020). Internal stimulation entails the consumers realizing by themselves that they have a deficiency for a certain product or service, whereas external stimulation, the need can be stimulated through advertisement. In the aspect of external stimulation, Wool+Aid creates value, demonstrating the need for their adhesive bandages through their mission, which cultivates care towards consumers. For instance, ensuring that consumers continue with their day-to-day activities amidst minor accidents like scratches is very interesting. Additionally, the versatility of their product which protects the consumer by withstanding both high and low temperatures, is very satisfying (Woolaid.com, 2021).

The information search stage in the consumer decision-making process entails consumers weighing out their options; they want to inform how they can solve their needs (Karimi et al., 2015). Wool+aid provides rich knowledge of its brand by clearly highlighting its qualities. Hyperfine merino wool bandages are breathable; they can absorb large amounts of moisture, providing a perfect healing environment (Woolaid.com, 2021). Moreover, for the consumers who care about the environment, they are biodegradable, protecting the environment. Wool fibers absorb internal odor molecules and do not absorb stains from the external world. Additionally, hyperfine merino wool is fire resistant hence cannot stick to the skin. Merino wool is weightless and soft to the skin, and its source is renewable since it is obtaining from sheep's fleece. Another best quality of merino wool is that it is sterile, anti-bacterial, antimicrobial, and hypoallergenic, and a quality that helps protect the sheep. The merino wool also is adaptive to changes in environmental temperature; it stays warm when cool and cool when warm. Therefore, such rich knowledge is beneficial to the consumers and makes the product a perfect healing fiber (Woolaid.com,2021).

Weighing the alternatives is part of the consumer decision-making process to ensure they choose the right product. Wool+aid is an innovative hyperfine adhesive bandage, which is natural, unlike the traditional plastic bandages, a product developed based on consumer experience ("When life gave Lucas Smith wool, he made Woolaid," 2021). Wool+aid targets consumers that participate in outdoor activities and suffer from scratches and small wounds. The adhesive bandages aim to help consumers comfortably continue with their activities despite having a small wound. Other than bandages, Wool+Aid provides blister pads that help keep consumers comfortable while doing extreme outdoor activities (Woolaid.com, 2021). The experiences that the founder of Wool+Aid gives helps the consumers evaluate their options well. Consumers can purchase the Wool+Aid products online from their website, which is very convenient, and get updates on the new offers. Lastly, post-purchase evaluation determines whether the customers' expectations were met or not by associating it to quality, differentiation from other products, and so on (Wang & Tzeng, 2012). Wool+aid provides a means for contacting to express any dissatisfaction and highlights all the qualities of its brand that consumers can use to compare it is true or not.

Question Two

Good corporate citizenship entails businesses thinking about the society and environment (King, 2018); coming up with strategies that encourage positive impacts while reducing the negative impacts. The Global Compact outlines ten principles through which companies can exhibit good corporate citizenship. Among the principles, businesses should uphold internationally proclaimed human rights and be environmentally responsible (Tempels et al., 2017). Wool+Aid can be considered a good corporate citizen. The company's primary purpose is to not only heal the wounds but also “heal the planet” (Woolaid.com,2021). It advocates choosing the best healing system by providing a website page that shows the role of every person in protecting the environment (Woolaid.com,2021); the page also elaborates on how severe plastic pollution is and the need to seek alternative solutions products. The venture on merino wool is to provide the best healing product and protect the environment. Hyperfine merino wool is biodegradable, unlike plastics, which pose a significant challenge to pollution. Research shows that plastics only grow smaller, and it is estimating that 14 million tons of microplastic can be found on the ocean floor (Helen Regan, 2021). Therefore, minimizing plastic pollution is key. Wool+Aid is an advocate for a sustainable environment and the safety of society. Even though using the hyperfine adhesive bandages will not eradicate plastics, it will reduce the degree of pollution. Annually, trillions of plastic bandages are also casting into the ecosystem; wound care products contribute to 4.14% of greenhouse gas emissions (Woolaid.com, 2021). The high presence of plastics in the ecosystem and is not biodegradable endangers the existence of the planet because it means animals feed on them, and they get into the food chain; thus, humans feed on plastic unknowingly. The existence of Wool+Aid is to provide biodegradable hyperfine adhesive bandages in people's first aid toolkits. Just as quality and sustainability in everything else are improving, wound bandages should not be an exception ("When life gave Lucas Smith wool, he made Woolaid," 2021).

A good corporate citizen should not work to gain high profits at the cost of human rights and the planet's safety (King, 2018). Therefore, it is essential to suppress the negative outrages that come from the corporate world and replace them with positive outcomes covering the three dimensions of economy, society, and environment providing the human race with the right to clean air, clean water, and arable land (Tempels et al., 2017). Sustainability of the planet is important, even for those who will come later, so corporate society should embark on sustainable development (Robinson, 2021). Wool+Aid makes its healing products using renewable fleece, which is gotten from the sheep every new moon; getting the fleece also does not endanger the animals. The beauty of making merino wool bandages is that their manufacturing reduces water consumption up to 25% compared to the creation of plastic bandages. Whereas plastic bandages are made of petrochemical merino wool is a natural fiber. The motto is even though these plasters will not save the world, they can make it a better place to live in.

Reference

Helen Regan, C. (2021). Study finds 14 million metric tons of microplastics on the seafloor. CNN. Retrieved 5 October 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/06/world/microplastics-oceans-14-million-metric-tons-intl-hnk/index.html.

King, M. (2018). 2018 Deakin Law Oration: Human Rights and Good Corporate Citizenship. Deakin Law Review, 23, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.21153/dlr2018vol23no0art803

Karimi, S., Papamichail, K., & Holland, C. (2015). The effect of prior knowledge and decision-making style on the online purchase decision-making process: A typology of consumer shopping behaviour. Decision Support Systems, 77, 137-147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2015.06.004

Elliot, G., Rundler-Thiele, S., & Waller, D. (2012). Marketing. Amerika.

Woolaid.com. (2021). Retrieved 5 October 2021, from https://www.woolaid.com/.

Tempels, T., Blok, V., & Verweij, M. (2017). Understanding political responsibility in corporate citizenship: towards a shared responsibility for the common good. Journal Of Global Ethics, 13(1), 90-108. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449626.2017.1320577

Mormann, M., Griffiths, T., Janiszewski, C., Russo, J., Aribarg, A., & Ashby, N. et al. (2020). Time to pay attention to attention: using attention-based process traces to better understand consumer decision-making. Marketing Letters, 31(4), 381-392. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-020-09520-0

Robinson, B. (2021). Understanding How to Build a Sustainable CSR Program. Hawaii Rise Foundation. Retrieved 5 October 2021, from https://hawaiirisefoundation.com/hawaii-business/corporate-social-responsibility-partnerships-and-ideas/.

Wang, Y., & Tzeng, G. (2012). Brand marketing for creating brand value based on a MCDM model combining DEMATEL with ANP and VIKOR methods. Expert Systems With Applications, 39(5), 5600-5615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2011.11.057

When life gave Lucas Smith wool, he made Woolaid. Podiatry Arena. (2021). Retrieved 5 October 2021, from https://podiatryarena.com/index.php?threads/when-life-gave-lucas-smith-wool-he-made-woolaid.111733/.