Final Thought

This is the last posting for the blogs as the course is coming to an end, therefore I will be sharing thoughts of the overall outline of the blogging process and what has been covered. A general reflection will be discussed.

Blogging was a new experience for me as I have not carried out a blog before. This experience has lead to make me learn about different blogging skills, it also gave me the opportunity to learn each topic in depth which was studied in lecture, as in depth research had to be carried out individually in order to write about the topic in the postings. Blogging has enabled me to take part in individual learning and understanding certain topics on my own such as gift giving.

Blogging gave me the opportunity to elaborate on certain topics by adding videos and images relating to the topic. Related images and videos have helped as it makes the blogs look more interesting and enjoyable to read. The topics that I enjoyed writing about were children marketing, perception and perceptual process.
Blogging has given me the opportunity to improve my ICT skills as well as each topic posted weekly has made me improve from the previous topic.

Gift Giving

Gift giving is an important part of human interaction and a gesture of showing kindness to the people that individuals are close to. Gift giving builds relationships with other people as it brings family and friends closer. An example of gift giving is on occasions such as birthdays, anniversary, Valentine's day and Christmas. Examples of gifts include memorable products such as:

*Perfume
*Flowers
*Wine
*Chocolates
*Book
*Picture frames

Solomon (2000), states that in the gift process consumers tend to procure the perfect item, however the price tag has to be removed in order to give it to the recipient.

Reasons for gift giving:

There are many reasons for why gifts can be given to people for example gifts can be given for personal reasons and professional reasons. Buying a gift for someone can be a difficult job as the buyer has to make sure the gift is likable by the other person. Personal gifts are given to family and friends and professional gifts are usually given to co workers on occasions such as Christmas and Birthdays.

Gift giving impacts on organisations and consumers as it links to both buyers and recievers. The advantages of gift giving to marketers is that the product brought by the buyer is established by the reciever by word of mouth, therefore this enables a peruasive impact on both the buyer and reciever.

Social Class and Purchase

In today's lecture we discussed about the topic social class. Social class is defined as a division in the society made up of persons possessing certain common social characteristics, which are taken to qualify them in certain things such as equal status relations with one another, for intimate, and for which restrict their interaction with members of other social class.
Solomon (2006) states that all societies can be divided into haves and have-nots, the reason for this is because social equality tends to be widely held value throughout Europe, this means that some people seem to be more equal than others.

Mysite.verizon.com, shows a table of different social class people. People are socially recognised by these positions, for example middle class people are seen as people with a reasonable income who can run their households comfortably. A comparison will be shown between the turn of the century and today's social class.

At the turn of the century:

* Tiny Upper Class
* Middle Class
* Majority Working and Lower Classes

Today:

* Upper
* Upper Middle
* Middle Middle
* Lower Middle
* Working Class
* Upper Lower Class
* Poverty Class

Below is a video, which shows the differences between each class and how people are treated in each social class.

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In all societies where classes exist, every class is seen by the following factors:

* Personal or household income or wealth
* Net worth includes the ownership of land, property, means of production
* Occupation
* Education and qualifications
* Family background

People who can attain a position of power in a society often tend to adopt a distinctive lifestyle, this is because they want to emphasize their prestige in order to rank themselves within the powerful class. Each has its own stylistic traits, which is referred to cultural capital. This is important as one's wealth is in determining class status, the higher levels involve the following factors:

* Costume and grooming
* Manners and refinement
* Political standing, government, social clubs and honorary titles
* Reputation of honor or disgrace
* Language,this is an distinction between the elaborate code. This is seen as a criterion for "upper class", and the restricted code is associated with "lower class".

Below each picture shows the difference between a lower and upper class people's dressing style.


Lower class people


Upper class people


Income and social class:

Consumers in a social class are determined by a complex set of variables which includes income, family background and occupation. In this environment the status symbols express one's position in the society, therefore "haves and have-nots" together express "how long have you had".
In today's modern society incomes are starting to rise, the reason for this is because women have started to work also and there has become a rising number of educates and college graduates. Income does tend to matter to different social class people as upper class people will be able to purchase expensive products as they have the money to do so, however working class or middle class people will not be able to make expensive purchases as they do not have the money to do so.


Social class and consumption:

Social class is a better indicator of purchases as that has a symbolic aspect, however it is low to moderate prices, for example liqueurs and cosmetics. Income tends to be a better indicator of purchase behaviour for non-symbolic, high expenditure products such as fridge freezers and televisions. Both social class and income data are needed in order to predict behaviour with expensive and symbolic products, for example cars and homes.

Below are shown two advertisements which target middle class people and upper class people.

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Upper class

This advertisement is aimed at upper class people as it is a Harrods advert. The music in the background and the visual effects of the advert give a very high quality and standard outlook, which tends to make it look posh and expensive.

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Middle class

This advert is aimed at middle class people as it Yorkshire pudding advert. The music in the background and the visual effects of the advert give a homely day to day outlook, which gives a middle class impression to the audience.

Marketing to Children

Children are a important audience to the marketers as they are easier to attract with certain products that companies tend to promote. Marketers tend to find it easier to get their products/service recognised within this particular sector.

In today's modern society children are treated with great care and affection, parents tend to spend time and money on them. In today's society children tend to get thing's without working for it for example, getting a job, however comparing this attitude to the olden days children they had to work and were restricted to receive certain things as there was low income and parents could not afford it. However, today the majority of people have reasonable income which enables them to afford things that their children want.

Today's children are influenced greatly by certain popular role models, for example their favourite television actor such as Hannah Montana.



Celebrities tend to influence children a lot as children look up to them and follow what they do, wear and represent, for example if Hannah Montana represented a new product the majority of her fans would purchase that product as the product has a relation with Hannah Montana. Children tend to easily get influenced by celebrities and the products they use. This benefits celebrities as this allows them to introduce their own product lines, as they know they already have an audience who will purchase it.


Factors that impact on children:

There are many factors that impact on children such as:

*Latchkey kids (working mums)
*Divorce rate/step families- this includes more grandparents and older step siblings
*Helicopter parents

There is an increase Latchkey kids. The reason for this is because children nowadays have become more independent due having an authority figure to look out for them all the time. This is due to their parents working or parent working such as working mothers. Latchkey children are children who's both parents work full-time, therefore they are given their own key to let themselves in the house as their parents will not be in the house to take care of them, for example children who come back from school will have to let themselves in the house as they will not have anyone to pick them up from school due to their parents working. Children can take advantage of this fact and use this against their parents to get what they want.



There is also a large increase in single parents and parents who remarry again, this involves families more with stepchildren, older siblings and grandparents. Single parents behaviour impacts on children as both parents will believe that they to look after the child's needs and make sure he/she receives everything that he/she wants, therefore each parent presents the child with gifts and money in order to keep the child happy.
Mintel data (pocket money 2008), shows that a majority of children are not reliant on a single source for their pocket money, as they tend to receive additional funds from other areas. This explains that children can receive additional funds from grandparents and other family members.

Another type of parents are helicopter parents or mothers. These parents tend to be very protective about their child throughout their life, even if their child is a grown ups. Solomon (2006) states that these type of parents tend to be very protective about their children as they keep close attention to their education, lifestyle and problems. Therefore, they tend to look out for the children all the time and tend to be their for them also.

Theories:

A theory which relates to marketing to children is Burner's theory. The reason for this is because Burner believes that factors such as language is important as this impacts on children's upbringing. Burner introduced three stages which related to children's growth at specific ages.

Stage 1: Enactive mode- this takes place when the child is 18 months and over. This involves the child thinking and taking action physically, therefore many children make mistakes at this age as they take action before thinking.

Stage 2: Iconic representation- this takes place from the 18 months also. This is when the child starts to store information in their memory according to sensory images.

Stage 3: Symbolic representation- this takes place from 7 years and over. This is when the child starts to store information in their memory according to symbols, therefore they start to learn things such as the alphabet and numbers.


Marketing to children:

Organisations tend to understand how and what strategies to use to gain their customers. Companies who tend to have a specific target market such as children tend use different marketing ways in order to attract children's attention towards their product such as television adverts on channels such as Disney channel and in store advertisements. Marketers tend rely on specific methods regarding certain products, for example for children they will use the strategy of Pester Power, in order to gain the customers. This method is very useful to organisations as children use their parents to spend more money on them. Therefore, when children see a product they pester their parents to purchase it for them. When children pester their parents a lot regarding the product, their parents take their demand into account and purchase the product as they do not have any choice.

Due to today's modern generation of children, there are many brands and companies that target children as their target audience, therefore children are exposed to many products that they can choose from when deciding to purchase a product. Elder children in the age range of 12 and over tend to go for more branded products, as they tend to see this as fitting into the society, for example children at secondary schools will be very conscious about what brands they wear, therefore they will purchase popular brands which will keep them popular in the school environment. This is a way to start a trend within the children's environment as one child may purchase a product and others will follow this.

Advertising Standard Authority:

The ASA have set many rules and regulations for organisations to follow when advertising to specific target audience, especially to children. Some of the rules are:

* Adverts must not take advantage of children's inexperience of their natural credulity and sense of loyalty
* To avoid arousing unrealistic expectations
* Adverts for expensive toys must include an indication of their price
* The cost must not be minimised by the use of such words as "only" and "just"

The rules stated above have to be used because these allow the children not be forced or pressured to purchase the product, the product has to appeal to the children in order for them to decide to purchase it.
Other rules also include adverts must avoid anything likely to encourage poor nutritional habits or an unhealthy lifestyle in children. This is very important for all children as they need to be given healthy food in schools and at home, therefore marketers tend to promote health eating in schools in order to encourage children. Also, it is important that adverts do not physically or mentally harm children in any way for example adverts should not encourage or condone children towards bullying. Overall, marketers who advertise to children have to be careful as they need to follow many rules and regulations when deciding to advertise a certain product to children.

Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning

In today's lecture we learned about segmentation, targeting and positioning and what factors are involved in this process.
The main factors regarding segmentation are:

*Gender
*Age
*Social class
*Personality
*Colour and type of hair

STP Marketing:

STP marketing stands for segmentation, targeting and positioning. Smith (1957) states that segmentation is based on the observation of evolution demands, therefore it represents a precise and rational view of the product in order for the business to market it to meet the customers needs and wants.
The defintion Kotler (2000) states for segmentation is that "the subdividing of a market is homogenous subsets of customers, therefore any subsets that maybe selected as a target market can be achieved by using the marketing mix.

STP Theory by Doyle:

Segmentation allows businesses to match their customers needs and wants by increasing their brand quality. This enables the business to increase their business profits by increasing the prices of some of their products. Some of the factors that businesses need to consider are:

*Actionable
*Profitable
*Accessible
*Indentifiable
*Effective

An example is given below on the STP theory process works:



Example of segmentation:

Examples of segmentation are products such as soaps, shampoos and toothpastes.
In today's mordern society there is a variety of pproducts such as shampoos that companies offer. For example, there are shampoos that can meet every individuals needs such as for greasy hair, damaged hair, coloured hair, and fine hair. The images below represent various shampoos for different types of hair:


This shampoo is used for colour treated hair.


This shampoo is used for dandruff hair.

Learning, Memory and Nostalgia

In today's lecture we learnt about three different factors which are Learning, Memory and Nostalgia. The factors mentioned above reflect on a person's behaviour and attitude towards purchasing products or influence on them by the marketers. I will be explaining each sector in detail.

Learning:

Solomon (2006) states that 'learning refers to a permanent change in behaviour, which comes with experience'. This impacts on individuals as when they see repeated adverts they tend to remember and learn what message the advert is trying to deliver across to the audience. By the message getting across to the audience successfully achieves the marketers aim of the advertisement purpose. Therefore, the aims of the product promotion is successfully achieved.
Learning links to memory as learning is seen as getting the knowledge out of what individuals tend to see, therefore this links to memory as the knowledge is stored in the memory. This relates to commercials as when individuals see adverts the aim of the advert is for its audience to remember and learn from it.

The two main theories used by psychologists regarding learning are:

1) Classical conditioning
2) Operant conditioning

Classical conditioning looks at people learning by associating themselves with certain things, for example certain object may remind them of happy events that took place in their life, therefore they will have a positive attitude towards that object. Classical conditioning is used by marketers as they create a certain image for their product or brand, which they associate their product with. Example is given below:





As shown above an expensive car such as a Lamborghini relates and is seen as expensive, therefore people will link this car to money.

Operant conditioning looks at people learning by reinforcement. In this condition individuals are affected as they are punished or rewarded for doing certain things they do, therefore they tend to realise the consequences of their actions whatever they tend to do. So if they do something that they get rewarded for they will do it again, however if they do something they get negative feedback on they will not do that again. For example, children tend to learn from this quickly as if they do something good their parents will reward them with a prize, however if they do something bad the child will get told off by his/her parent and will not repeat the same mistake.

Memory:

Memory processes when individuals gain information, which they store in their memory therefore the information is kept in their memory so when they need to use it they can. Solomon (2006) states that 'memory involves a process of acquiring information and tends to store it over time, so it is available when needed'. This relates to marketing as when individuals look at a advertisement the tend to remember the product if it appeals to them, therefore it becomes stored in their memory. A memory process which it that individuals go through this is:

External inputs >>> Encoding information >>> Storage >>> Retrieval

This process overall shows that in order for individuals to retrieve information in the future they have to go through this process in order to freshen up their memory.
Another process that relates to memory helps individuals understand the link between the memory systems. The main factors in this process consist of the following:
(Taken from Solomon 2006)

Sensory Memory >>> Short-term Memory >>> Long-term Memory

The sensory memory in this process helps an individual understand visually and auditory. Then there is short and long term memory, this reflects on individuals who can store certain amounts of information, for example some people may be able to store certain information in their memory for longer than others.

Memory also relates to humans senses. The reason for this is because certain smells or type of food bring back memories for different individuals as they can relate to these specific things. For example, smells of perfume can bring old memories to people or a certain song which they can relate to.

Markerts tend to use catchy slogans and create an advert which will stay longer in the suadiences mind. For example:

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Nostalgia

Solomon (2006) states that this term means 'bitter, sweet emotion where the past is viewed with sadness and longing. This can impact on people in various ways, for example people can see an object which relates to their past and this can bring back old memories for them. This again relates to certain smells of perfumes that people can relate to from their past. Organisations tend to use this method within their advertising process as this helps them to gain customers attention as it impacts on the audiences emotions and makes people think about the past again, this encourages the customers to relate or gain that certain product/service again. Organisations tend to use this method with people who already have a history with that particular product. For example, old cars reintroduced, this makes people from the older generation remember cars from the olden days. Also, organisations tend to promote and advertise their products on television by using certain themes or songs which takes the audience back into the past.

Family Purchasing behaviours

In today's lecture we were taught about different family purchasing behaviours of men and women. Kotler states that there are four categorizes of families which are given different definitions. The definitions of each family type will be explained:

1) Nuclear family- this is father, mother and children who live together
2) Extended family- nuclear family plus other relatives such as grandparents, aunts and uncles.
3) Family orientation- the family you are born in to
4) Family of procreation- the family founded through marriage


Defining the modern family:

According to Solomon, the mordern family of today consists of the following types:

*One-person household
*Traditional family unit
*Reconstituted families
*Lone-parent families
*Un-married combination
*Multi-person households

All these family types relate to the age of the family and family size as every individuals needs in the family have to be met.
Statistics show that 80% of UK purchasing decisions are made by women, however 83% of "creative" are men.

Kotler states that group influence and consumption impacts on families in many ways also, for example subculture impacts on families in the social sector due to the economic circumstances, lifestyle, personality and self-concept. This psychologically affects families motivation,perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes therefore the buyer is influenced by this.
Solomon states that the two important factors how a family spends money and time depends on whether they have children and whether the women works. The reason for this is because couples with children usually have higher expenses due to the child's food and clothing. However, newly married couples would have different expenditures due to having a smaller family without children.

Families have are targeted by marketing adverts, as some companies main target market is families. The DFS advert shows that their product is aimed at families mainly.

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Family structure:

Solomon states throughout the years family structures have changed in many ways. Families with dependent children in the UK were either headed by a married or cohabiting couple, the number of this was risen in 2008. However, earlier in the years of 70s, 80s and 90s were of this type. Families also consist of individual parents for example the number of a lone mothers increased throughout the years of 70s and 90s, and the number of a lone fathers increased throughout the year of 70s.

The table above shows working women with dependent children statistics. The figures have stayed at high throughout the years.




Family needs are usually affected by the number of members in the family for example children and their ages.
Solomon states family life cycle concept consists of income, family status and changing demands in income. http://tutor2u.net/business/presentations/marketing/familylifecycle/default.html states that the family life cycle consists of various stage titles and each title has different characteristics which relates to individuals or families. An example is given below:

1) Bachelor- Young, single not living at home
2) Newly married- Young, no children
3) Full nest I- Youngest child under 6

Each family life stage impacts on families in a different way financially. The reason for this ios because people with smaller families such as a couple with no children who spend on eating out and holidays will have different purchases according to a couple with children. The life cycle changes for couples who have children in the family as their expenses raise and responsibilities raise.
The life cycle effects on buying habits also, for example young bachelors or newlyweds tend to have 'modern' sex-role attitudes. This is because they tend to do things such as go to clubs and pubs, concerts and they consume more alcohol than the older generation individuals. Comparing bachelors and newlyweds lifestyle to families with young children these families tend to consume more health foods such as fruit.


Family decision making:

The decision process within a family is made by different members in the family as every individual in the household has different roles and agendas.
Solomon states that there are two different household decisions made by families:

1) Consensual purchase decision
2) Accommodative purchase decision

Consensual purchase decision takes place when a group agrees on the desired purchase, however they differ about the fact how it will be achieved. A family would deal with a situation like this by coming up with alternatives until the group is satisfied. An example of a situation would be considering a pet in the family, however the concern would be of different members carrying out different duties.

Accommodative purchase decision takes place when group members have different preferences and cannot agree with on a purchase that will satisfy expectations involved. In a situation as such will cause conflicts due to what the purchase will be and who will get to use it. Conflicts occur as the the decision is more accommodative rather than consensual.


Consumer socialization:

Solomon states that 'consumer socialization' is defined as a process 'which young people acquire skills, knowledge and attitudes relating to their functioning in the market place'. This knowledge comes from usually parents, friends and family. For example, children tend to talk about the latest gadgets in the markets to their friends and family this habit increases with age.
Parents influence on children the most. This is because they impact on them direct and indirect. Parents tend to consumption their own values to their children for example if the parents are wearing designer brands most likely the children will also.



The image above shows that well known brands such as Dolce & Gabbana are part of the social expression of young children as well as their parents.