WEEK 20

PESTER POWER

Children have a big influence in alot of family aspects now a days. Looking at the kids grow older younger it shows how children do get teased by not having the right brand with the things they may use or wear. They are very aware of the poppular brands coming out and as they grow they have more influence on how they think and what they want. In the marketing world the Marketing companies are probing very deep in understanding parents and children to better understand their needs. With some motherswho are independant or in most cases single mothers, they want their kids to grow up. Where as with aggressive mothers they want to protect their kids and that is why marketers will advertise independant kids in order to attract aggressive mothers. Take for example if marketers show clever kids using the internet then most parents will sign up for the internet.
Mass Marketing which is also known as mass demand creates more jobs. The downside to this is that children get more aware of these brands and want more. Kids have a massive influence on parents shopping behaviour as they grow older they have more demands and that affects what parents are buying for the household. Having looked at some families it shows that boys have more demands of brands that girls when it comes to clothing.

Looking at pocket money, kids may use strategies to get what they want at times for example they may offer to give in most of their pocket money when they want something parents don't agree to, this is because they know that it won't happen and they will end up getting both. Parents main priorities have become the wants and needs of their children. Children are now adapting to adult lifestyles which makes them want to spend their money on what they want. The amount of pocket money given to children has dropped alot recently. Due to the increase in healthy lifestyle the sale of things like crisps have dropped alot together with the amount of sales being made on them. As the new economy is growing it is changing childrens expense together with it. There is alot of difference in what younger children may want and what older children may want. Older children are more interested in brands and things like computers, playstation e.t.c. Where as younger children are more interested in wanting electronic toys and not just the batman or power rangers teddies kids may want electronic dolls or cars with wireless remotes.

Looking at Piagets child developement theory it states that children cannot be known as little adults until they reach the age of 15. This is according to Jean Piaget who is a developemental biologist who devoted his life to closely observe, infants, children and adults.
The plan that has been put in place by Piaget is mostly connected to brain developement. He states that the human brain is not completely developed until the late adolescence and in the case of males it may be early adulthood. Parents need to know that when their children are developing they will see a lot of changes in their behaviour and parents need to be realistic with what they expect from their children.

The Piagets stages of cognitive development

1- SENSORY MOTOR PERIOD (0-24 Months) - In this stage kids start to sense things where they move hands or legs to sensing things, moving things around and trying to explain through doing things like moving objects.

2- THE PREOPERATIONAL PERIOD (2-7 Years) - In this stage kids start to use verbal language and can sense objects without them being infront of them. Language developes through this stage and get a bit more clearer but not completely. They may still tend to focus on one object and ignoring the rest.

3- PERIOD OF CONCRETE OPERATIONS (7-11 Years) - In this stage they may have organized and logical thinking, they may be capable of dealing with more than one object and may also be capable of problem solving.

4- PERIOD OF FORMAL OPERATIONS (11-15 Years) - In this stage thinking becomes more formal and one does not have to put in alot of effort in thinking. Can handle algebra, manupilations and other processes as well.

Here is an interesting video about children developement.

Pester Power has been defined by the director general of the advertising association as 'a pejorative term for children making requests of their parents' (Brown 2004).

Advertisers who target children through their marketing promotions can cause arguments between children and parents which can mostly result in purchases against parents judgement. Advertisers also promt purchases of things that are not good for children but they insist on having.

Pester power is assumed to work by the influence that they have over purchasing through someone else. There is a confusion between childlike adults and sophisticated children in major markets like music and games. One of the main reason for this is the involvement of parents in buying their kids these products as most of them cannot be purchased by underaged children. This is a basic mechanism of pester power. Children tend to have influence on things like leisure, cinemas and holidays. According to some researchers after looking at thomas cook, children have different priorities that parents but they may have most influence on the type of holiday where as the parents may focus more on the hotel and flight informations, But overall kids do have the influence on these purchases. Looking at another study it shows that children normally like to socialize their parents into eating healthy food habits learned at school. In most studies it shows that consumers think that pester power is a very uncomfortable reality and causes problems in their family. Children and parents are targeted everyday by marketing companies. Children get attracted to the products and nag their parents again and again until they end up buying the product even when they do not want to. It is all about the purchase behaviour in most cases than it is about money. Looking at some studies it shows that parents from middle class families tend to say i buy them what they want rather than parents from a higher classed family.

This is also a video i found which shows how much influence kids have looking at what their parents do and try to copy them and develope into more adult likely.

WEEK 18

THE FAMILY

It is said that purchase behaviour is influenced by the nature of an individuals family. People come from different families and that influences on the way they purchase a product.
Children have become a very important part of purchasing products as parents are influenced by their kids on what they purchase. A study showed that one third of parents have changed their shopping habits after listening to the comments by their children. Most companies are becoming aware of young peoples influence in everyday family buying decisions and most companies are trying to persuade them that their products are environmentally friendly. In most cases there is more that one individual involved in making a decision, for example if a family decides to buy a pet, children may be the ones to persuade their parents to buy a cat or dog, but the parents would be responsible for which breed to buy and then the whole family would choose which one. Soon that pet also becomes part of the family. This would also be part of a purchasing influence as when the family would go shopping their shopping habits may change as to buying pet food as well.

There are diffent types of families like:

1. Nuclear family- this is where the parents and children live together.

2. Extended family- This is where the nuclear family and other relatives for example aunty's or grand parents may live together.

3. Family of orientation- this is the family a person is born into.

4. Family of procreation- this is a family a person finds through marriage.

It is possible that there may be changes in the family structures these can be caused by many reasons. Increasing number of births out of marriage, step families, one parent families e.t.c.


Looking at one person families they have less problems with things like the central heating and bath/shower. These include pensioners and non- pensioners. Research shows that most of the one person households do not even have central heatings at all.




There is a very interesting video on the you tube website about how the family social class and structure is changing in the united states. The video link is:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Oqeov0Gcw


Looking at demographic classes it is said that a womans life expectancy is 78 years of age while mens is 73. More that 50% of women over the age of 65 now live on their own and looking at the divorces 1 in 3 people are now having a divorce. The video below is the one we had a look at in class at the main reason that people are now having a divorce.


It is funny looking at one of the main reasons for people having a divorce but it is the reality that people now have divorces for silly reasons at times.
The average age that people get married has also increased alot. For men from 26 years of age to more that 30 years of age now. Looking at the women it has been an increase for 23 years to 28 years now. The proprotion of divorces is estimated to be 15 percent for the people that entered marriages in 1960, while people that entered a marriage recently in 1980 has doubled to 29 percent. There are other countries apart from the EU that have a high rate of divorce like there is a divorce rate of 40% in countries like Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
The employement rate in the EU had increased alot. Looking at the employement rate of 62.2% in 2000, which increased in 2005 to 63.4% and rose again to 64.4% in 2006. The employment rates for women have also increased. One quater of married women now work more that 30 hours a week. It increased from 56% in 2000 going up in 2005 to 53.7% and 57.2% in 2006.
Having a look at the following link, which we had a look at in lectures: ortal/docs/PAGE/PGP_PRD_CAT_PREREL/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2007/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2007_MONTH_07/3-20072007-EN-AP.PDF
It shows that the longest working hours were in Austria and the United Kingdom. Full time employees normally worked 40.5 hours a week in the EU ,where as the united kingdom and austri were 42.4 hours a week. Netherlands was 38.9, Belgium was 39.0, latvia 42.2, Solvenia was 41.4 and France was 39.1 together with Finland with 39.2 hours.

From both a sociological and statistical perspective family is hard to nail down. One thing is certain that the concept of family will continue to exost in the future and manifest itself in varying forms and accross many countries throughout Europe.
After some research done by experts it is shown that as the idea of traditional family has been declined people are now placing greater impact on the role of close friends, siblings and other relatives to to have companionship and support. In the US people are also joining family groups of strangers and meet regularly for holidays and meals.
At a time there was only one acceptable way of families to live, get married, have kids and that is it nothing beyond. Now in the 21st century people have now opened their eyes and cleaned the wax from their ears. In the 21st century people now have broader minds and there is much broader categories where you have, single parents, step families, teenage mothers e.t.c.
Look at the website below for more information:
http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/F/family/21st/index.html
The family life cycle

This is a way of segmenting the family market at different stages of the life cycle. The family life cycle have different stages to it. Starting from the bachelor stage to the solitary survivor 2 stage.

-Bachelors are young single people living on their own. They have a low income but a high discreationary income. Have few financial burdens but are fashion and opinion leaders.

-Newly married couples are young with no children, better off financially now than they will be in the coming future and high income but will have high mortgage commitments as well.

-Full nest 1 are the youngest children under the age of 6. Child dominated household, spending is dominated by childrens needs and they have a low income but higher debts.

-Full nest 2 are the youngest children aged 6 or over. Thei income is improving, still child dominated household, childrens needs have a considerable influence on household shopping and improvement in financial position.

-Full nest 3 are older married couples with dependent children. Older children may be at work and others in full time or higher education. Their financial position is better and they have an school and exam dominated household.

-Empty nest 1 are the older married couple but with no children at home, but the head of family still at work. Their income is the highest with low expenses and they may be interested in travel and self education.

-Empty nest 2 are older married couple, with no children at home and the head of household is retired. They may have a sugnifant cut in income, have a concern with the pension levels and income levels. Spendings on hobbies and past times. Buy medicals.

-Solitary survivor 1 are widow/widower but still in labour force. Income is alright but tend to sell bigger house to a smaller house and their concern may be the level of savings and pensions.

-Solitary survivor 2 are widow/widower but retired. There may be a signifant cut in income, additional medical requirements and special needs for affection and attention and may seek sheltered accommodation.

WEEK 17

GENERATIONAL MARKETING

Generational marketing is the different methods to market to specific generations. Doing this affects the way we may promote or sell the products. Every generation has different things about them like they may have different charecteristics. That is why when promoting a product to a specific generation we do it according to how they may speak or act.

There are a couple of different generations and the are known as:

1. Millenials or generational 2001ers- these are the people that are born after the 1980's

2. Baby busters or generation Xers- these are the ones born between 1965 to 1980

3. Baby boomers- these are the ones born between 1946 to 1964

4. Mature citizens- these are the ones born between 1909 and 1945

In order to promote to specific generations effectively you need to catch their attention which things that will reason with them. Generational lifestyles and social values have a major influence on the purchasing of products and services. To succeed in generational marketing you must understand the what motivates them and also understand their generation values.

As every generation passes through the same life cycle from childhood to old age as these generations find their place in the society the marketing agencies need to acknowledge this very quickly so that they can build their brand loyalty which will stay with them for the rest of their loves.

Age subcultures is where a persons age may influence their habits or spending habits.

When people grow they share a cultural bond with the rest that are born at the same time and as they grow their needs and preferences change and match to those of the same age as them.


Age cohorts is a group of people of the similar age gone through similar experiences. Marketers mostly target people from one or more age cohorts. They realize that the age offering would not appeal to people form different age groups nor will the language or images they use.

Now i will present to you specifics and charectaristics of one specific generation:

Baby busters- generation X'

The cohort of consumers between the age of 19 to 29 includes over 30 million europeans who will be a powerful force in the coming years. This group has been labelled as the generation X or the busters as they were affected by the economic downturn in the first part of the 1990's. So called baby busters include many people from in or out of education, whos priorities are beginning to include fashion, poppular Culture, Politics and Marketing.

Even though the the income of this age cohort is below expectations they still produce a formidable market segmentbecause many of them still live at home and and have more discreationary income.Busters in their twenties are estimated to have an annual spending of $125 billion and most of their purchases consist of products like beers, fast food and cosmetics.

Because these busters have been doing the house shopping for many years Marketing agencies find that these people are most sophisticated about advertising and evaluating products.They see advertising as a form of entertainment and are put of by overcommercialization. As a good Marketer you need to let them know that you know who they are, understand their values and you need to make them feel comfortable about it.

This is a video of a news advert as known the baby busters is the generation that may be most likely to read or watch the nes but this advert is entertaining for them.

WEEK 15

GROUPS

There may be several different kinds of groups to where an organisation may place their customers. These people can be put into groups where they have people with the same behaviours or attitudes. Consumers may be grouped in a number of different ways. They can be grouped according to the financial class they belong to, age groups, culture, occupations and also according to what products they purchase.

The different types of groups available are:

Reference groupes:
These are groups that have signifant relevance on the groups evaluation, aspiration or behaviour. This group influences consumers in three ways. These influences are informational influence where an individual seeks information about various brands from an assosiation. The secound influence is utilitarian , this is so that he/she can satisfy the expectation of assosiates, an individual's decision to purchase a particular brand is influenced by their preference. The third influence is value expressive is where the individual that has purchased a certain product or brand feels that using or purchasing that brand will enhance the image other people have of him/her. This is a table that shows this groups influence.

Ascribed group:

This is the group people are born into, family, gender, social class. This can be what typre of class they come from for example middle class, high class or lower class. It also depends on the gender as in if they are male or female.

There are also many other kinds of groups available like:

Dissassociation

For example chavs

Contrived:

Organisations may look for certain target markets to advertise their products and they do this by achieving what groups people tend to fall in and which groups they are targeting for their products. They do this by doing some many kinds of market research where they learn about these attitudes and behaviours and get additional information to group their customers.

People of different age groups may be interested in the same things but are still grouped differently for example:

An old woman may want to buy clothes from a shop like marks and spencer where as a young girl would prefer to shop in a place like new look. The difference is that they may have different fashion taste.

WEEK 14

Values, attitudes and Involvement
Values represent behaviours that a person desires to have for example self-respect, excitment, warm relations with others and many more. If a person can recognise their values it can help shape a product. A product should be structured according to a persons attitude and behaviour. High involvement would consist of things like clothes, air, water where as the low involvement would be things like a pack of sweets. Organisations that want to market and sell their product in a very effective way do market research to find out these values for example several values were assosiated with attitudes which can influence buyer behaviour for high and low involvement as there can be a range of different food choices taking from snack foods to convinience food.



Look at this video it is not that attractive but i think it tells us something about how these three things relate.
As stated by Laurent and Kapferer (1985) that the level of involvement will be affected by four components one of which is the risk of FTPEPS which is:
-Finance
-Time
-Performance
-Ego
-Physical
-Social
The things that i would personally have an involvement in would be Finance, performance, ego and social due to my age. If we were looking at an older generation maybe the higher involvements in their life would include the physical bit or time as most retired people do have alot of time on hand.

Looking at a print of the results to the harvard project test below:


It suggests that i have a strong preferance for white people over black people. I would say this is not true because i entirely believe that i have an equal preferance for both ways. It also suggests that i have a slightly stronger association between male and leader rather than female and leader. The test also suggests that our behaviour may be influenced by both our concious intentions and our implicit association. I believe this is true because most of us do tend to look at things in a way like some people find it more appropriate to look at males as females where as some people look at it the other way so everyone has a different preference but it onhe of the ways we get influenced by it.
My results state that my automatice associations may be sloght, moderate, strong or little to no preference.

After completing the VALS test it states that my primary VALS type is striver and my secoundary type is experiencer. The primary type represents my dominant approach to life and the secondary type represents a particular emphasis you give to your dominant approach.
I think it does pretty much represent to how you approach to things and also believe that i am an experiencer, which shows that the test does work.

WEEK 12

GIFT GIVING

At most times it is not very easy to buy someone a gift. It actually depends on who you are buying the gift for. Buying a gift for someone can also be linked to the emotion that is shown in what you buy. Women tend to give more christmas gifts rather than men. Women devote more of their time in buying desired and appropriate gifts, It was shown that 10% of women this year had returned presents to shops from which mostly all of the presents were given by men.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9h_I8lFErw

The search theory explains some of tyhe observed practice, but does not state why women spend most of their time and attention to buying gifts. Women tend to find it worthwhile to invest in a tight network of extended family and close friends. Men find it more worthwhile to invest in a goal oriented mentalitym which will save them large amount of time spent shopping. Buying gifts involve an attention to shopping detail that men simply do not have in the first place.

WEEK 10

Heuristics, Memory and Nostalgia

These things mentioned above are a part of a persons attitude towards purchasing a product or the different options people have an influence for on buying a product.

Heuristic is known as a method that is used to help solve a problem, it is normally used to come up with a solution.
Heuristics is something people will look back onto when they want to make a decision in a hurry, for example they will tend to purchase from a store they usually go to or buy the same product they have purchased before instead of considering new options.

Just like this picture a customer can decide which product they want but have to come up with a solution from the range of different options they may have.
These kinds of decisions are not always beneficial for the consumers as for example if a customers has had a bad experience with a certain brand they will automatically refer to not making a purchase with them again. Telling others about the experience can also lead to them assuming that they will have the same experience rather than looking at the overall record of the organisation. Heuristics again is the rules that are made up in a customers mind which leads to making speedy decisions.Customers use this method as it is a way of helping them decide which kind of products they want to purchase and where would be the best place for them to purchase it from.

Learning is getting the knowledge out of what you see and memory is where you store the knowledge you get. Everytime you see an advertisement the objective behind it is for you to learn something from it and gain something out of it.


This memory process shows that when you gain information you store it in you memory and it is always kept there so that it can be found when needed.
It is usually said that the mind is like a computer in many ways because it allows input to the system and output is later used to retrieve the information. All the information that is entered in the memory system is entered in a way that it can be easily recognised.





Marketing businesses tend to use nostalgia in their adverts as this can help to gain customers attention as it brings emotions in and gets people to start thinking of their past days and the wanting for them to experience it all over again. They tend to do this by advetising with the things that people have already experineced to bring back the memories.
Looking at an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo_MMBcTnSU
Looking at this video which is a car advert. The reason i think it relates to them using nostalgic theme is that he is refering every aspect of the car to how the olden times cars used to work. So he explains how the old time cars where so good which cannot be found today but how this speed racer is better that the old cars made.

Agencies use alot of nostalgic ideas for their adverts in todays times that their brands are now known as one of the best leading brands. They do this by either making an advert and trying to use the past features like they will either include very old songs or have the products look abit like the olden times.