问答题
Consumer Motivation Research
In psychology, motivation is described as the initiation, direction, strength and continuity of certain behaviors. It may be thought that people do any behavior with but one motivation and that one conscious. However, things are not like that. In fact, a number of factors are always at play. In order to help identify these, companies make questionnaire surveys among consumers. But sometimes even the customer doesn't know the exact reasons for his buying choices and non-choices. So, questionnaire research can not reflect the motivations of consumers accurately.
Question: Using information from the reading and the lecture, explain how the consumer motivation research can help companies promote their business.
Now hear a talk on the same subject.
【正确答案】The professor gives an example to show how the consumer motivation research enables companies to discover the motives behind consumers' purchasing behavior in order to boost sales.
The professor says that a company producing sports suits wanted to find out the reasons that their products sales were low. After a series of non-questionnaire surveys, the company realized that people did not buy their sports suits simply because they thought the suits fit only sportsmen. So the company found strategies to spur consumers' motivation by making its sports suits appeal to ordinary people, thereby increasing its sales.
【答案解析】[听力原文]
M: So we know that questionnaire surveys are not useful at all times unless we change the methods of research.
There is one clothing company whose sports suits were not selling well. So the company wanted to know the reasons and undertook an investigation. It didn't question customers directly, but offered respondents some magazines and scissors, asking them to cut out the photos that they thought suitable for their sports suits. The respondents all cut out photos with athletes. So the company recognized that customers think sports suits only suit athletes. Then, the company changed its sports suits and made them more appealing to ordinary people in order to boost sales. Finally, the clothing company realized that using indirect methods to find out consumers' purchasing motivation is the key to better business.
Alternative Wording(替换表达)
Synonyms (a)boost—increase (b)produce—manufacture
(c)reason—cause (d)strategy—technique
Paraphrases 1. A sports suit manufacturer was curious as to why there was a dip in sales.
2. After surveying its clientele, the company discovered that their suits' association with athletes was actually hurting sales.