New Analytical Consumer Model Helps Marketers Gain Advantage

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Two Bay Area firms today announced a new service for marketers - an analytical model of consumer behavior which enables marketers to measure, develop, track and enhance a consumer’s relationship with their product or service.

Robin Cobbey, Ph.D., of Cobbey&Associates and JoNel Mundt, Ph.D., of Oasis Consulting LLC recently completed an in-depth study of the consumer experience and the consumer-product relationship. The new model is the result of that study.

“Marketers need to know just how a consumer responds to their product if they are to deepen that relationship,” says Cobbey, “Our model allows them to do that. We offer procedures to measure and evaluate the experience, and then track the developing relationship.” The process culminates in strategic recommendations, she said.

The authors recently conducted a study on newspaper use by GenXers and Baby Boomers. Their new model revealed the significantly different ways the two segments built relationships with newspapers. Currently, the Cobbey-Mundt Model is being employed to understand how people use and would like to use online advertising.

“The premise of the model views consumer experience as fundamental to a product’s adoption and incorporation into a person’s life,” says Mundt. “The marketer’s goal is product embeddedness, an emotional and behavioral state in which the product has become fully incorporated into the consumer’s personal world.” She explains that as emotions and behaviors with the product increase via the experience, the consumer’s relationship with the product increases, until the product is firmly embedded into what she describes as “their lifespace - their activities, emotions, circumstances, lifestyle, and all those products which support it.”

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The model is general and can be applied to any industry and address any relationship constituency - consumers, customers, employees, suppliers, says Cobbey. It is applied to the total consumer experience from pre-purchase through purchase, use and disposal, and it applies to any offering- a product, a service, an environment, brand or communication. “The consumer experience is a linear movement of learning, relationship-building and behavioral change. Our model helps to illuminate that process so the marketing strategies to reach a particular goal become evident. It’s very action oriented.

Dr. Cobbey’s background includes a PhD in communication and considerable experience in market research and product development, especially as related to media, technology, goods and services for consumer and business markets. Her firm has provided services to Bay Area, national and international companies since 1984. Clients have included AT&T, CitiBank, USAToday, the San Francisco Chronicle, Hewlett Packard, Charles Schwab, Silicon Graphics, Netscape and Knight Ridder.

Dr. Mundt’s background includes a PhD in marketing and business administration, with post-doctoral study in design. She provides consulting services in strategic issues, consumer/ product interface, and product-related communications for a variety of F ortune 100 and 500 firms. Dr. Mundt is on the adjunct faculty of several universities, including University of San Francisco.

Contacts:

Robin Cobbey, Ph.D.	JoNel Mundt, Ph.D.
Cobbey & Associates PO Box 12 Carson City, NV 89702 775-847-0324 cobbey@cobbey.com http://www.cobbey.com	Oasis Consulting LLC PO Box 157 Kirkwood, CA 95646 209-258-8676 jonel@telepath.com http://www.oasisconsultingllc.com