Scenario 6-3 Keds Has Been Trying to Turn Around a Long-Term Slide

question 41

Multiple Choice

Scenario 6-3
Keds has been trying to turn around a long-term slide in its shoe business. For years, it had depended on its image as the women's no-frills summer shoe to keep sales moving. But over time, competition from Sam & Libby and Easy Spirit brands has been nipping at the heels of Keds. As part of its effort to revitalize the brand several years ago, Keds' advertising agency developed a campaign that focuses on the warm, close relationships between mothers and daughters. According to an issue of Brandweek magazine at the time, "The new ads really go for the heart." Copy on the first ad included the mother saying, "She was my first, I could never tell her how to dress," with the daughter saying, "She made me feel pretty even when I had braces."
-(Scenario 6-3) Instead of "mothers and daughters," why didn't Keds define its target segment simply as "women"? 

• A) This concept already has a number of established companies targeting it. 
• B) This is not based on a realistic approach to segmentation. 
• C) This is based on demographic criteria for which media is difficult to define. 
• D) This is poorly defined and provides no clear orientation or identity.

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Definitions:

Counterfactual Thinking

The human tendency to create possible alternatives to life events that have already occurred, something akin to imagining "what might have been."

Availability Heuristic

A cognitive bias wherein individuals judge the probability of events based on how easily examples come to mind.

Representativeness Heuristic

A cognitive shortcut that involves making judgments about the probability of an event under uncertainty, based on how much it resembles the typical case.

Theory of Mind

The ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, emotions, knowledge—to oneself and others, and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, and intentions that are different from one's own.