In 2021, Lee Jones put the final touches on a product she had worked on for years in her garage. Lee graduated with a degree in chemistry from a well-known school in Indiana. However, she has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Initially called Lee's Artificial Flowers, the product broke new ground by creating patented, artificial flowers that look real and smell like a flower. In other words, roses smell like roses, and tulips smell like tulips. However, Lee's flowers will never expire. The scent typically lasts three months and can be replaced with new scented cartridges. As a lover of flowers and the environment, Lee has always felt flowers should remain on the earth.

She launched a website and opened a small store in a strip mall at the beginning of 2022. With modest sales, Lee hired several employees to assist with manufacturing, sales, and administrative duties. In the summer of 2022, a popular morning show interviewed Lee about her new product. This interview led to lots of other popular coverage on television, and in magazines, blogs, and podcasts. Because this product was starting to break on a national scale, she could secure a business loan for $500,000. Lee's biggest concern was her lack of business knowledge, mainly in marketing.

Lee has just hired you as a marketing manager/consultant to assist her in taking the business to the next level. In your initial consultation with Lee, she suggested that many sales were purchased as gifts. Another segment of customers applied to the home furnishings category. The raw materials required for artificial flowers are paper, cotton, parchment, latex, rubber, sateen (for large, bold-colored flowers and arrangements), and dried materials, including flowers and plant parts and berries, feathers, and fruits. For more upscale silk flowers, silk, rayon, and cotton are the fibers of choice. The cartridges that provide the scents are produced in Lee's manufacturing facility.

Part 1 for Unit 3: The more you know about your customers, the better position you are in to serve them and create a marketing strategy. In your initial consultation with Lee, you asked about her customers. You realized that Lee did not understand her customers well, what motivates them, the influencers on customer purchases, and the purchase decision process. Using the concepts discussed in Chapters 3 and 4, as well as secondary research, address the following items.

Checklist:

Investigate three consumer characteristics: cultural, social, and personal factors influencing consumer buying behavior for Lees products.

Investigate how the four consumer psychological factors: motivation, perception, emotions, and memory influence consumer buying behavior for Lees Artificial Flowers.

Illustrate the five-stage model of the consumer buying process as a diagram for Lees Artificial Flowers.

Compare and contrast at least five differences between B2C versus B2B for Lees Artificial Flowers.