ACME Washing Machine Consumer Report

Miao Liu

University of Maryland Global Campus

ACME Washing Machine Consumer Report

Marketing is a complicated topic that involves many subjects such as economy,

psychology, sales, etc. Analyzing consumer behavior is one of the most important steps in

marketing since consumers play the key role in the buying process. A successful business

should be able to tell who their customer groups are, what do they think, how do they feel, and

what do they need. Consumer buying behavior is the "the study of the process involved when

individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences

to satisfy needs and desires" (Solomon, 2017). With the understanding of the desires and needs

of the consumer, businesses can target the market accurately, which maximize the cost to profit

ratio. Consumer behavior consists of many factors that are personal, situational, psychological,

and social (UMGC, n.d.). This report is for identifying these factors that affect consumer

behavior in washing machine markets. It will collect and analyze the potential consumer

characteristics and buying behaviors to help ACME to understand the market it is chasing after.

Consumer Regions
 The client will focus on three main markets that are Germany, United States, and United

Kingdom. Each country has its own culture that can influence the consumer’s buying behavior

and market type. The report will analyze each country’s consumer buying behavior since every

country has its unique culture and environment that are the major influence on this topic. The

client, ACME, is able to generate and adjust its sales strategy accordingly to adapt to the local

market.

United States

Although front loader washing machine shows better performance in every way compare

to top loaders, 76% and growing of Americans are still buying top loaders (McCabe, 2016). The

front loaders are better at cleaning, efficient in water and detergent usage, saves energy, and

saves room space since consumers can stack dryers on top of washers. However, all these

benefits are not able to take over bending over to get clothes, and harder to add clothes during

mid-cycle. Along with the choice of front and top loader, there is a survey conducted by

Euromonitor International around the world shows what people prefer for washing machine

features (Baus, 2015). Machine efficiency is on the top of the list while followed by less noise

feature. The fourth and fifth top of the list are quick wash and delicate cycle. Smart feature is

not on the front of the list. People will need to get to the machine to load the clothes. So

wireless connectivity and smart features are less important for this appliance. According to

Statista, the United States has the largest revenue among these three target regions (Washing

machines, n.d.). It generates 4,307 million dollars in 2020 in the washing machine segment. The

United States has many American brands such as Whirlpool, Maytag, GE, and Speed Queen.

Buying locally made is one of the factors to consider for consumer buying behavior. ACME will

have this advantage in the US market. The tariffs on washing machines were an advantage for
US appliances too (Monteiro, 2021). However, with the inauguration of President Biden, this

tariff policy may be lifted. It should be considered as a potential negative factor. The foreign

appliance brand may cause market share shrinkage for US brands.

The main group of people that do laundry in a household is still women in the household

(Rodriguez, 2020). Although we see many males start to do housework such as laundry in the

household, the change is exceedingly small. People tend to follow the gender roles they grow up

with, which for females are their moms that do most of the housework including laundry. The

data shows although men and women are splitting the chore of doing dishes by 50/50, women

are still doing laundry 64% of the time (“Women are still the ones doing laundry”, 2020). And

stay-at-home moms are taking a large percent of the mom-population. In 2012, 29% of the

moms were stay-at-home (Cohn, 2012). Although the number of stay-at-home moms is

shrinking down, it is still taking the larger percentage of the population. In the stay-at-home

group, education level, ethnicity, age, and child’s age are all factors that affect the number of

stay-at-home moms. Lower education level, foreign born, non-white, younger than 35, and has

child age 5 or younger are all major characteristics of stay-at-home moms. Female consumer

preference may be involved more in a washing machine purchase activity.

The household that has dual income will be more likely to purchase a washing machine

due to the financial advantage. The number of dual income households has been rising (“The

rise in dual income households”, 2015). More than 60% of households in 2012 were dual

income. The pandemic reduces the number of outdoor activities including going to laundromat

(Yar, 2020). It may potentially boost the sales market of washing machines. Many companies

started to adapt to work-at-home way of working. This can shift people’s focus more into their
homes. This can result in more home improvements, increasing housework, and so on. All of

these may lead to an upgrade on washing machine.

In 2018, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Best Buy and the two Sears entities which are the top 5 of

appliance retailing stores command 76% of all top 50 retailers (Wolf, 2018). The two home

improvement stores Lowe’s and Home Depot alone share 49.6% of the pie of the appliance sales.

In this top 50, Costco is ranked at No. 48, but it was bested in sales growth. Although online

shopping is booming with retailers like Amazon, eBay, or Walmart, buying appliances online is

always not a favorable choice for consumers. People prefer to buy big appliances locally in

retail stores where they can see, test, and bargain for the product (Ma, 2018). Online buying for

appliances opens a much wider selection of products, but it potentially will involve issues of

delivering, installation, and quality assurance. People often browsing online and choose to go

the retail store eventually.

The seasonality of washing machine sales exists. For washing machines, holiday

weekends such as Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day and,

yes, Black Friday are the best time to increase the sale number (Hamm, 2019). Also, September

to November is also another sales booming period. This is due the reason that many appliance

manufacturers introduce their new model during the fall. As of result, all these previous year’s

model will have a decline on price.

Germany

The survey that Euromonitor International mentioned in the United States section is also

suitable for Germany. Energy and resource efficiency are top of the factors that attracts German

consumer. According to a study from Kruschwitz, Karle, Schmitz, and Stamminger in 2014,
German consumers are not efficient in laundry process. The study collects data from 236

households in German showing that washing machines tend to underloaded, consumer does not

adjust detergent dosage, and consumer does not adjust the water temperature. In another study,

the data showed that consumer has a stronger willingness to pay for a product with eco-energy

labelling (Sammer & Wustenhagen, 2006). Energy saving needs to be one of the focus of the

selling point in Germany. In 2019, Germany showed a decline in laundry appliances sales

number, but freestanding washer dryers showed a good growth (“Home laundry appliances in

Germany”, 2019).

In Germany, the end users are mainly the female in the household. The data shows 72%

of the housework are done by women (Armstrong, 2018). The large amount of female that still

does majority of the housework shows that the purchase of a washing machine will be influenced

by them. This is due to the reason that German women have traditionally been held primarily

responsible for domestic labor. This is not only true in Germany, but almost every culture.

Opposite to the United States, German appliance online store is more mature, which

occupies a larger percentage of the appliance sales (Varma, 2020). General merchandisers and

supermarkets are taking the second and third place for appliance sales. The distribution channels

for home appliances in Germany are diversified (Grand View Research, 2018). Superstores like

Aldi and Tesco wish to diversify into house appliance stores. There are also retailers like Metro

holding large percent of market share. E-retailers are foreseen to have high growth rate in the

market share for home appliance.

Similar to the United States, Germany has its sale seasons. Winter sales is one of the

most popular sales seasons (Sale Seasons in Munich, n.d). There are also summer sales,

Christmas Break Sales, Black Friday sales, and Cyber Monday. Although in Germany it has
similar sales seasons to the United States, ACME needs to adjust its sale strategy to adapt to the

local market.

United Kingdom

A study was conducted on laundry behavior in UK with comparisons for laundry energy,

and time between 1985 and 2005 showed the trend of laundry behaviors and potential needs in

laundry activities (Anderson, 2016). In 1985, the data showed that laundry was a main activity

at least once in 1.37% (95% CI: 1.32%–1.41%) of half hours. In 2005, it was 1.01% (0.94%–

1.08%) of half hours. The shortened time of laundry is coming the technology improve over the

decades for washing machine and need of efficient washing machine to save time and energy.

Although the percentage of working moms has increase, which results in shifting the

focus from domestic work to jobs, 85% of females share of adult’s housework (Armstrong,

2018). It is same as almost any other country around the world that females are the main end

users for washing machines.

Consumer market in UK also have similar sales season. According to an article, the time

that distributors can sell washing machines is around Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year

(Simmonds, 2018).

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-survey-reveals-us-consumers-will-do-

almost-anything-to-avoid-doing-a-second-load-of-laundry-300480341.html
 Where are the products sold, and what are the distribution channels?

How often are the products purchased? Is there seasonality to sales?

References

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