Business to Business...

The potential market of buying/selling business to business is huge as there are many different types of business each requiring many different elements in order to help it run. Businesses are categorised into three main types of organisations:

1. Institutional Organisations -E.g. Not-for-profit

2. Government Organisations - E.g. Education/ Transport

3. Commercial Organisations - E.g. Distributors/ Retailers

Each different type of organisation (and the businesses within it) will require a different approach to marketing itself to another business. Behind one consumer transaction there are many business to business transactions therefore applying the appropriate approach to marketing may land a business a sustained contract in a long line of suppliers and retailer where there business will repeatedly be required. However this also means that there is a lot of competition and that efforts must be made to be competitive yet efficient.

Kotler recognises the differences in consumer markets and industrail or business to business marketing. The main method of a business marketing to another is through personal selling, often taking the form of a sales person pitching the relevant information to the other business. This method is used less in consumer marketing as it would mean only reaching a limited amount of people when, in comparison, advertising could reach a much wider audience. Furthermore, where consumers are able to buy on impulse companies can not afford to do that due to it's high risk nature, most companies adopt a purchasing policy that involves many stages. Therefore the decisions of a business will usually affect the business it is buying/selling from/to in the long term.

Culture...

Culture is a complex concept, which is often very difficult to define. Ralph Linton (1995) offers that ''culture is the configuration of learned behaviour and results of behaviour whose component elements are shared and transmitted by members of a particular society.''

Culture is made of three essential components:

1. Beliefs - processes that reflect our knowledge and assessment of products/ services.

2. Values - indicator which are used a a guide for what is an appropriate behaviour.

3. Customs - modes of behaviour that are culturally approved ways of behaving in certain situations.

In terms of purchase decisions, culture is a very complicated element where it is hard to determine how it makes an effect. However, it is extremely important in an individuals characteristics, and must therefore make direct impact on their decision making processes. For example, values such as material wealth which is prevelant in the UK affects the way that we buy as we will aim to give the image of wealth through our purchases. The Geert Hofstede analysis for England demonstrates strong feelings towards individualism and masculinity, this may affect the purchase decisions we make as they may possibly be influenced by our aim for individuality and masculinity.

For products that are marketed globally culture is a major factor. For example, culture involves language and perceived meaning therefore if a product is to go world-wide it should be recognisable by many cultures in order to be made a success. The cleaning product formally known as 'Jif' was difficult to say in languages such as French and Spanish so it was turned into 'Cif' which is recognised and easily spoken by many countries.

Culture is an extremely complicated topic for discussion when determining it's effects on Kotler's buyer decision process. What can be noted is that it is deeply ingrained in each of us and will impact upon our decision processes. The following link takes you to an article where the culture of decision making is discussed with clarity, it is definately worth taking a look at:

http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/251-300/article251_body.html

Social Class is...''a division of society made up of persons possessing certain common social characteristics which are taken to qualify them for intimate, equal status relations with one another, and which restrict their interaction with members of other social classes'' Krech, Crutchfield & Ballachey in Dubois 2000.

Social class is often determined by a complex set of variables ranging from income to family background. However, income is often the variable most closely associated with your social class and the purchases made available through a high/low income often symbolise social class. For example, a person with a very high income will be able to afford the lastest Mercedes- Benz car, whereas, an individual with a low income may only be able to afford a second-hand ford escort. In a warped way, these things symbolise our standing in society when really someone of a lower class could win the lottery and be able to afford the same as a higher class individual and someone of a higher class (due to family background) may have no money at all and be unable to afford the luxuries associated with the higher classes.

In terms of consumerism, social class is a good indicator for products that have a symbolic aspect, for example, fine art, but is a bad indicator for low to moderate priced goods such as cosmetics as class does not tend to affect these. Income is a good indicator of purchase decisions for non-symbolic, but high- expenditure goods such as washing machines. For products such as cars or houses both social class and income affect the purchases made. In terms of marketing and advertising, appealing to the different classes is quite difficult to achieve. However, brands such as Harrods produce adverts with class and a regal element to them, suggesting that they are targeting the higher classes. This may put the lower classes off from going there as they may feel inadequate for the standard of people expected by the shop.

Marketing For Children...

"We're relying on the kid to pester the mom to buy the product, rather than going straight to the mom."

The children of today have increasingly more involvement in the making of purchase decisions due to more autonomy and the ability to be more vocal about what they want their parents to buy. The term ''pester power'' is the child's ability to effectively nag their parents into buying something that they may not other wise buy. Marketing towards children therefore involves stimulating ''pester power'' through advertising that will create strong desire or want for the product. As children are exposed to more and more advertising the importance of tapping into the phenomenon that is ''pester power'' is even more vital for companies and brands to do. The products don't even have to be the typical newest Barbie or play-ground trend, children are targeted for products starting from food such as the sunny D orange juice product so that even in the super market the parents are unable to avoid being pestered.

According to the Mintel Pocket Money report (2008); children are increasingly adopting adult lifestyles as children are growing older younger, this, in turn, affects what they wish to spend their money on... giving them hefty buyer power. In terms of marketing, if a product can be marketed in such a way where it demonstrates an aspiration to be older and more grown-up the children exposed to the advertisement will be more inclined to take it seriously.

Mintel also notes that the amount of money recieved as pocket money has decreased due to the current financial climate, therefore when marketing a product suitable for the younger aged individual, the price should aim to be as low as possible. The decrease in pocket money may only effect the toy/clothing industries as these tend to be higher priced compared to that of the confectionery industry. However, this does not necessarily mean that more money will be spent on sweets etc as there has been a major shift in the emmergence of a more healthy lifestyle. In terms of pester power, a parent who would supposedly have a little more disposable income coupled with the guilt of maybe not being able to supply all their child's wants and desires (due to the current economy) will supposedly be more effected by the child's ability to pester.

The image above depicts Piaget's four stages of cognitive development. These demonstrate the intellectual abilities of an child and highlight that children are not little adults, in fact, until they reach the age of fifteen they are uncapable of reasoning as an adult. Jean Paiget who derived these different stages was not a psychologist, but a biologist, who observed and recorded the ability of children as they grow older. Therefore, Piaget does not provide any theoretical explanation for the cause of the different behaviours, but simply states the stages of a child's understanding.

If a child is incapable of the reasoning of an adult, they are more likely to be swayed by careful marketing where a strong want is created. This want will not be counter-acted by reasoning such as money constraints or practicality, which puts enormous pressure on the parents as a child will be unable to understand why they are not allowed what they want. It is this pressure, which if applied persistently, results in pester power and the purchasing of the desired good, after all don't we all want an easy life?

The Famo..

According to Kotler et al family directly influence the decisions that a buyer makes. Therefore, it appears important that marketers target and consider the different types of family that are active consumers. For example, in the UK there is an increase in step- families which could suggest that there is a lot of money being spent on the children in those families to counter-act any hardship faced by them due to joining with another family. Therefore, a product marketed with the concept that the child would love it, or was heavily branded with the likes of the latest fad such as High School Musical would be more likely to be purchased with ''guilt money'' due to the perceived pleasure of the child receiving it.

In the current financial climate, many family's buying behaviour may have changed with the emphasis being on greater value for their money. This could see a greater purchase increase in supermarkets own branded products, for example, a low involvement product such as buying Heinz baked beans could easily subsitituted for an own brand alternative saving a few pennies per tin. The decision to do so may be affected by the role of the individual in the family and their decision making. Field (1969) identified three dimensions which determine the influences of the husband, wife and child in decision making: discernment - technical know how, price- who pays and satisfaction - who uses it. In terms of purchases for children, it will be their satisfaction which is paramount to the parents. Therefore, if a product can be marketed as value for money and of great satisfaction to the child (i.e a brand) it should be able to succeed in a competitive market.

However, it is not only toys that children can influence the decision for. As they are big TV viewers, they are exposed to a variety of ads which can enchance their ability to influence their parents purchase decision.

However some argue its ''the wife'' who makes the decisions...

Generational Marketing and Tweenagers...

A Tween is between 8 to 12 years old, in the UK there are currently around four million tweens. They are a highly media literate group of consumers for whom marketing, advertising and the importance of brands are a part of life. One of the most marked effects of the ‘kids getting older younger’ phenomenon is the increase of interest in appearance at an earlier age. Marketers are able to target this through magazines such as “Cosmo Girl” and “Sugar”. By using pink and other girly images on make up packaging, along with using older models that the Tweens aspire towards they are easily influenced into purchasing the products. E.g. Miss Sporty Make-Up (which is also pocket money friendly).

In terms of advertisement, raunchiness and the rebellion of being a teenager is kept off the scene with more emphasis on how they will look, feel or act better. An important aspect of tween marketing is the viral nature of the school playground with trends and fads such as Pokemon cards or the Tamagotchi flitting in and out of fashion.

Tweens are an important generation to market to as they are becoming increasingly savvier consumers affected by the influence of the media. The female tween market is saturated with brands targeting young girls for make-up, hair straightners, clothes etc. Whereas, the boy tween market has limited branding apart from the likes of Play Station and Xbox. Therefore, if marketed correctly, there is scope for further branding to arise in the boy tween market.

Groups and their implications on marketing...

''Identifying and understanding the groups consumers belong to is a key strategy for marketers. Doing so helps identify target markets, develop new products, and create appealing marketing promotions to which consumers can relate.''

(knowthis.com. [online], 2009)

There are many group types which can influence purchase decision:

Ascribed (born into)

Reference (looked to for lifestyle)

Aquired (join/move into e.g Guides or Brownies)

Aspirational (like to belong)

Disassociation (hate to belong to)

Contrived (formed for a specific purpose)

Associative (realistically belong)

Peer (people of equal standing)

The different group types can impact greatly on purchase decision, for example, as ''chavs'' are associated with the burberry pattern, this may deter a buyer purchasing a genuine burberry item as it could be seen as an association with a group which would not be desirable to be associated with. Furthermore, someone of a lower class could be influenced by careful marketing if a product is shown to be luxurious and something that they would ''aspire'' to be associated with. The glitz and glamour portrayed in the following Chanel advert would give a buyer a product which they could aspire to and also be able to afford.

Maslow's hierachy of needs includes the need to belong, which is a pivot on which marketers and advertisers often advertise their products. The need for belonging is re-iterated in the social comparison theory which states that we look to the behaviour of others to provide a guide to how we chose to behave. The person on which social comparisons are made tends to be a co-oriented peer or someone of equal standing. Hornstein et al (1968) conducted an experiment where they dropped a wallet containing trivial items (such as a letter), a return address and $2 in the middle of Manhattan. they observed what people did when they piccked it up and found that when the person who found the letter felt similar to the letter-writer, they were more inclined to return the wallet. However, when they felt similiar to the letter-writer, but the letter was written in a negative way they ''punished'' them by not returning the wallet. Therefore demonstrating our desire to belong, and feel good about the group that we belong to.

Consequently, we look to our reference group (colleagues/neighbours), for influence on purchase decisions such as luxury items often branded. Therefore if a marketer or advertiser can establish a strong brand, it will be more likely to be suggested by an individual's reference group and therefore have a better chance of succeeding in it's market.

Reference group influence: (Solomon, 2000)

Values and purchase decision...

“If we believe our overall values drive our behaviour, then we should be concentrating on the important, underlying motives that drive consumers to make product or service choices rather than simply product attributes” (Ries & Trout 1982)

In terms of marketing, values impact greatly on the purchase decision of more highly involved products such as a car or new mobile phone (relative to age and egocentricity). An interesting concept to consider is if we always act upon our values when making a purchase decision. Kahle (1983) created a list of values including; sense of fulfillment, security and self respect. A value particularly important to me is a sense of accomplishment, this can be reflected through my purchase decision, as i often seek the best offer to feel that my money has gone to a suitable place.





Significant events that have taken in a person's life can also affect their values; for example the 9/11 attacks or the death of Princess Diana. However, significant personal life events can also affect a person's values; for example, if they had been involved in a severe car crash- on buying a car they would be looking for a safe vehicle rather than one that fulfilled their ego.







There are a few scientific tests such as the VALS test which is used as a marketing and consulting tool that helps businesses develop better strategies. On taking this test i came out as the ''Achiever'' being my dominant approach to life which is supported by ''Experiencer'' being the emphasis to my dominant approach. According to the VALS webpage (2009), an achiever ''favors established, prestige products and services that demonstrate success to their peers. Because of their busy lives, they are often interested in a variety of time-saving devices". Therefore, i am more likely to purchase something with a reputable brand which gives the impression of success to others. If i was not a student this would probably be true, but at the moment due to available finance i am more likely to stick to high street brands such as Primark and New Look.



Another motivation involved in purchase decision is that consumers have certain terminal values (such as self-fulfillment) which are achieved through a series of decisions made from weighing up the alternatives. Laddering techniques means that there can be a link found between product functionality and desired end states (often a value). For example, i bought a new phone, because i needed one, because it was getting old and looked old, it was an old model so was no longer cool, so i wanted to look better infront of my peers by having a new and reputable phone. With this is mind, in terms of marketing strategy, if a company produced a phone which was packaged beautifully and advertised as the ''next best thing'' i would be more likely to buy it as it would appeal to my ego, as my terminal value (looking ''cool'') would be seen to be fulfilled.

Gift Giving...

When giving a gift, is it always an involved decision? Do we put complete thought into our gifts or just buy for necessity and an easy purchase? In order to measure consumer involvement Laurent & Kapferer (1985) propose that it will be affected by four components:

1. Importance and risk. (FTPEPS: Finance, time, performance, ego, physical and social)

2. Probability of making a bad purchase.

3. Pleasure value of product category.

4. Sign value of product category (what do other people think of it and what it stands for; i.e. brand recognition).

According to Laurent and Kapferer's average involvement scores for various products a gift often given (champagne) has a high importance of perceived risk and a high probability of making an erroneous choice. Therefore, if buying champagne as a gift it would be a highly involved product as it entails many considerations. This is similar to products such as clothes and perfume (often given as gifts), suggesting that products often chosen as gifts have a high purchase involvement from the gift-giver.

In the current financial climate when giving gifts it is often value that will dominate purchase decision. There are many factors that can drive the value of the product; it's functionality, what is symbolises (often through branding and labels that are shown to be reputable) and their fun factor. For example, for Christmas 2008 I asked for a crumb-pet (a small novelty hoover)- this product was both functional (for desk use) and had a fun factor as it was in the shape of a pig which sucked crumbs through its nose.

Danzinger (2004) takes a different approach to gift- giving and suggests that gift-giving emotionally connects the giver and the receiver, therefore creating emotional shopping where the goal is to achieve a special feeling by giving a gift that communicates a message. This addresses that gift selection is from the right side of the brain (emotional), however, where we purchase from (store-selection) is left dominated (rational). This impacts upon marketing as it will be the experience that we have in the store that counts whilst making our purchase. For example, Ho-Ho Silver in Taunton, Somerset puts all jewelery in expensive looking gift boxes which are then gift-wrapped and put in an expensive-looking carrier bag; this saves personal time as the present is wrapped and the expensive looking box and bag allude to an expensive and worthwhile product. If marketers could concentrate on the extras offered by a store and markert the product along with these then many more consumers could be attracted.

The effect of good and bad gift giving:

Memory & Nostalgia...

Memories can effect a buyer's decision influencing the ''information search'' and ''evaluation of alternative'' stages in Kotler's buyer decision process. In terms of fast and frugal heuristics (making quick decisions when there is a lot of choice- Williams 2001) we use our memory as one source from which we can search for information that we can use for as choice criteria such as taking your last purchase decision in mind when looking at a similar situation. However, there are other sources from which buyer decision is influenced such as; recognising the brand and going for that one over the unfamiliar, recognising attractive labelling and advertising and assessing the options in order of percieved importance of criteria (each products unique selling point).

In terms of marketing objectives memory can be an effective tool in manipulating the buyer's mind; Britt (1955) describes this as "Every time an advertisement or commercial appears, the objective is to have the reader or viewer learn something …. and remember what he learned", in other words "to get the brand into the evoked set" (Ruth Hickmott).

As well as heuristics and memory; nostalgia cann also influence the buyer decision process. For example, music can trigger memories - therefore, a product aimed to a certian age range could be accompanied by a hit of that era consequently causing nostalgia for the intended audience. If a marketer can evoke feeling of happiness through nostalgic stimuli, there will be postive links toward the product. The advert itself can also be nostalgic: for example, the follwing Marks & Spencer advert is black and white with old fashioned music and adopting the style of an old movie.

In order to test the effects of nostalgia i showed my mum a youtube ad of Level 42 (a band dearly loved by herself in her late 20's). After hearing the music and watching the pop video she began talking extensively of her past and appeared positive and cheerful; she relayed stories of the dodgy fashion of the 80's and the old cars that she used to drive. This therefore showed positive links towards her past and if this could be linked to a product it would definately influence buyer decision.

Male Vs Female Brain

According to the Sex I.D. questionnaire on the following bbc website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/ my brain has both male and female traits. Research into the male and female brain has shown that women tend to make use of both sides of the brain, whereas men mainly use their left side. In terms of marketing campaigns, understanding the differences in male and female brain processes is vital in producing an appropriately targeted advert. Take into account the picture to the right, if men and women were asked to look at the picture and then remember what was in the room the men would typically remember the location of a desk or bookshelf; whereas, a woman would typically remember the more intimate details such as a vase of flowers or a picture on the wall. When applying this to advertising and marketing it could suggest that women prefer to be presented with an advert that has a story behind it with more details, whereas men would prefer a direct advert displaying what the product is and what it does.

Research "Message order effects and gender differences in advertising persuasion" studies have shown that women tend to have a greater concern for others than men. This is applicable to the campaigning done by charities as they will use this concern that females have for others to gain donations.

In terms of other methods of marketing communications understanding the differences in the male and female brain is also vital to a campaigns success. For example, in direct mail women tend to respond to a more emotive style, in the form of a conversational tone, which is often found in mailshots from charities. Women also respond to strong colours and evocative images. However, men respond to a factual style where colours and images are irrelevant; this relates to the previously discussed different methods of thinking from a male and female perspective. Research has shown that a re-written factual letter for men generated a response 85% better than the emotional (female) one. Whereas for the women, the response rate was 15% lower than with the emotional mailshot.

Enterprise Experience...

" Everything Starts with the Customer" Andrew Carter (2008)

A dismal Monday morning turned into an enlightening and insightful peek into the marketing world. Luckily, i was able to meet first hand with a panel of industry members by being part of the team who helped in running the 'What Next?' event (a question-time-esque affair). Mr. Allan Rich (Non- Executive Director of Cello) spoke first highlighting that the recession was a ''fantastic opportunity'' and that a ''well run business will come through a recession extremely well". His enthusiam about the future of the marketing world was a welcome change to the doom and gloom that has seemed to consume the UK in light of the credit crunch. Many of the other panel members shared in Allan Rich's positive outlook for the industry with Ivor Peters (Board Director of the BWP Group) adding: " there is no solution because there is no problem".




Jamie Matthews (Managing Director of Initials Marketing) talked about a change in "balance of power" as many clients are under pressure, (from time constraints and budgets), therefore making marketing campaigns much more shorter term. With a move towards digital marketing and in light of marketing campaigns needing to reach all areas in a shorter term (for greater impact) there is a need for marketing companies to integrate their disciplines. This broadens their communication channels.



On a cold and dark Tuesday evening in a full lecture theatre,Tom Vic (Group Business Director of JWT), re-iterates the need for companies to embrace the new technological era especially in terms of mobile technology. A point stressed by Tom Vic was that although marketing is evolving through digital and online marketing the older traditional channels are adapting to the new times. For example, everywhere you look in an underground station or train there are advertisements. These are still effect, but, in order to update them and embrace the new technology available D.E.P.s (digitial escalator panels) have been created which link within the bluetooth of your mobile phone to produce a fluid moving image advertisement as you progress up the escalator.


Tom Vic created 5 key points of how traditional agencies should respond:

1. Forget above the line and below the line as marketing concepts.

2. Bring back the dictionary definition of advertising.

3. Re-structure business around brands and it's communications needs.

4. Invest in re-training and re-orientating agency colleagues.

5. Learn from the youth, for example, agencies using younger staff to train the older.



From Vic's lecture it became evident that technology should be embraced by all agencies as it can be used to enhance and better their campaigns. It appears that an agency should go back to basics and adapt to the times then their should be a return to "full-service" agencies but in a new format. Vic addresses the credit crunch as an opportunity to make greater focus on cost-efficiency and return on investment a concept which should be adopted in better times as well.





So, it appears that the future is bright for the marketing industry and it will not suffer greatly in light of the current financial climate. If we can all take the infectious enthusiasm of Allan rich along with the modern mind of Jamie Matthews and the experience of Tom Vic the modern marketing world seems a very optimistics place.

Advertising for the sexes..

The issue of male and female differences 'is much more fundamental than the usual myopic media one about where the ads appear: it's about recognizing women [and men's] different approach' (Financial Times, June 29, 2001)

Today's lecture entailed looking at the gender differences in advertising and how some adverts appeal more relevantly to women than to men and vice versa. Afetr being shown a slide show consisting of a variety of printed advertisements we were asked which one stuck in our mind the most and what ones we remembered. The females in the class tended to remember the adverts that involved a celebrity whereas the more humerous advert (involving a comical guinea pig) proved more relevant to the males. This experiment poses many questions about advertising for the sexes and the contrast between the two. This concept is invaluable to marketers and advertisers as they are able to target their market effectively and produce an advert which will have maximum impact through being relevantly appealing.

The advert to the right invovles a female product which is clearly targeted to a female audience. The use of sensual colours which relate to the colours on the bottle of the perfume is appealing to the visual sense;this is enhanced further through the inclusion of the celebrity Beyonce Knowles. The product is clearly shown in the foreground accompanied with the bold 'true star GOLD' title which indicates exaclty what the product is and how it looks. What is interesting is that the perfume advert does not address the sense of smell which is paramount to the success of a perfume.

In contrast to a typically female advert, the advert to the left could be described as 'typically male'. Rather than being appealing, the advert has taken a humerous approach which would be relevant to the male mind-set. The advert is aiming to advertise online bingo to the male sex, an area which is largely dominated by female directed comapanies such as Foxy Bingo. In order to have maximum impact the advert created is overtly funny with a man breast feeding a baby with the tag line 'Where have all the women gone?'.

With gender difference in mind, we are now comtemplating what our personal perception experiment would be and which variables we would test according to perception theories from theorist such as Solomon et al or the black box model.

Personality

Prior to today's lecture we were asked to take the Simpson's personality type test and unfortunately mine was Krusty the clown. However, on first glance i thought this would be something negative, however,on reading the personality it related to my personality quite accurately. It described me as enjoying lively intellectual conversations, welcoming interactions such as learning opportunities. As well as describing the strengths of your personality the test also described the weaknesses which were also quite true as i am often direct and confrontational.

Personality: "a person’s unique make up, which consistently influences the way the person responds to his or her environment” (Solomon 1999)

Self Concept: "the beliefs a person holds about his or her own attributes & how he or she evaluates those qualities” (Solomon 1999)

Personality is unique to each and every person; marketers and advertisers are interested in the concept of personality in purchase choice. If personality was a key element to purchase choice key personality aspects could be targeted by marketers and advertisers to produce a suitable and effective campaign. However, it may be that self- concept is more of a key determining factor in pruchase choice. But, both personality and self- concept are hard to segment due to the complexities of a person's unique make-up.

Hollander conducted extensive research into personality and derived 4 key aspects of personality; external, internal, dynamic and consistent. External is the way that a person interacts with other people, internal is a combination of their attitudes and values, dynamic is how they behave when faced with a new situation and consistent is their characteristic style. Although this research provides us with valuable insight into personality psychologically it does not relate personality to consumer choice. This can be best demonstrated by J. Aker (1997) who derived a brand personality framework which shows how personality could be marketed by relating something like sophistication to an upper class personality or someone that is charming. By showing something to be sophisticated a marketer is able to vaguely target a personality type which would be associated with sophistication. By clicking the following link: Jaguar commercial you are able to see how advertisers have produced a sophisticated and professional advert which will in turn appeal to upper class, and supposedly charming personality types.

Despite being closely linked with personality self- concept is very different. Solomon (2001) states that "people see themselves as they imagine others see them." For example, someone suffering from an eating disorder such as bulimia or anorexia nervosa will believe that they are fat as they have the belief that others think this of them. When in reality, they are extremely slim. William James (1890) argues that self- concept derives from social comparisons with others. A person's self-concept is probably more important to a marketer as a person will make choices upon their beliefs and consequently what they believe about themselves. This will directly influence their decision making and therefore marketer should be interested in this more as this could be their deciding factor.

However, both personality and self-concept are extremely hard to target as everyone has many different elements to their personality and self-concept. A person may also be very shy about their self-concept, for example, not admitting that they have an eating disorder whilst portrayign a confident personality. It appears that personality and self-concept will baffle marketers for years to come.

''Need does not exist but the desire or want can be created" (Ruth Hickmott, 2008)

Today's lecture addressed segmentation one of the key areas of marketing. Marketers are constantly trying to sort people into different segments so that they can be targeted and then their product or service can be positioned effectively within that market (STP Marketing). To demonstrate the difficulties that marketers have in segmentation we were asked to group a variety of shapes, numbers and colours and found that there were endless possiblities as it could be interpreted in any way desired.

Information about customers comes from a variety of different sources such as market research questionnaires and even information supplied from the seemingly harmless Tesco club card database. Tesco can now profile each of their customers using their database. This allows them to market products directly to the different segments of consumer which, in turn, generates profit.

Smith (1957) claims that “Segmentation is based on the observation of evolution of demand and represents a more precise and rational adaptation of the product and the marketing effort to meet customer or user demands”. Similarly, Kotler (2000) describes segmentation as
“the subdividing of a market into homogenous (or similar) subsets of customers, where any subset may conceivably be selected as a target market to be reached with a distinct marketing mix". All in all, both of these marketing heavy weights describe segmentation as finding out what the different groups of people want.

In the new Feria hair colour commercial, the product has been targeted at women desiring a change in hair colour. Loreal have segmented their product to young to middle aged women (this is apparent through the celebrities used) and to an audience which regularly dye their hair (shown through the use of listing the positives, seperating their product from another hair colourant).

Perception Continued...

This week, we put our 'perception' knowledge into practice and devised some experiments that would test our classmates perception. Natasha and Laura used a variety of visual perception tests to discover what we saw clearly in the foreground and what we disregarded in the background.
The picture to the left can either be seen as a young woman or an old hag. It is your perception which interprets the way that you see it. Natasha and Lauran found that 7 out of the 8 particpiants (four female and four male) saw the young maid with only one seeing the old hag. This concept of foreground and background is important to printed advertising as a means of marketing communications. For example the picture to the right is an effective printed advert for wonderbra as the product is in the foreground and the image conveys the busty 'wonder' image that they are trying to achieve.

Natasha and Laura's experiment gave us all valuable insight into our visual perceptions and how this can be applied into marketing communications. However, it is not only visual techniques that can produce effective marketing communications but all of our other senses too. For example, Agata and Magdalena showed the class how perception can be aroused through smell. We were asked to smell different shampoos and discuss their price and if we could relate it to a brand. A majority of the participants recognised the brand of Dove and everyone identifed the cheapest brand which smelt the worst. This highlighted that our sense of smell is an important part of our perception and that we relate a less inticing smell to a cheaper brand. This lead to a discussion about the success of Dove in creating a smell which is continuous across their products, therefore making it clearly identifiable.

This developed into a more academic discussion of the perceptual set which can be best described by Vernon (1955) '' the individual develops a persistent and deep rooted way of perceiving, thinking and believing''. The perceptual set works as a selector interpreter and can be influenced heavily by marketing strategies. Our tendancy to try to make sense of things means that we actively seek to process stimuli and make some sense of it. This concept is important in Gestalt Psychology. In essence:

Gestalt is the German word for "form," and as it applied in gestalt psychology it means "unified whole" or " configuration." The essential point of gestalt is that in perception the whole is different from the sum of its parts.

To understand the complexities of Gestalt psychology please click on the following link : Gestalt Psychology

Buyer Behaviour

As a consumer, we all make decisions as to what we are going to buy and where we are going to buy it. We often don't recognise that there are many factors in play by businesses which heavily influence our decision. These factors are best described as stimuli which in turn correspond with our individual characteristics and our decision making process which result in a response. This can be demonstrated through the 'Black Box Model' pictured below:

http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/buying_stimulus_model.asp

This visually shows the process through which our buying decisions are made. An alternative process is that devised by Kotler which suggests the following five stages of the buyer decision process: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post-purchase behaviour. However this doesnt necessarily apply to impulse buying as this would discount the information search and evaluation of alternatives stages of the process.

Both the 'Black Box Model' and Kotler's five stage buyer decision process rely upon consumer behaviour as it is their characteristics which determine how they percieve the stimuli (tutor2u, [online],n.d.). The following diagram portrays the different factors which affect consumer characteristics:

For example, what would make someone chose Patene over another leading hair care product? This may depend on their social class (due to it's relatively high price), their social network (if friends/relatives use it and have recommended it), their lifestyle (if they take pride in their appearance and integrate this into their life), and their previous perception of the brand. All of these things contribute to the buyer's decision which is aroused through marketing stimuli such as printed and TV adverts. Clicking on the pantene icon below will take you to a recent pantene advert. From the advert you will be able to see that strategic marketing is vital in the persuasion of a buyer making a decision.

When looking at consumer behaviour, it is apparent that perception plays a key role within the decision making process. According to the dictionary perception is defined as the following:

1.the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding.
2.immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities; insight; intuition; discernment: an artist of rare perception.
3.the result or product of perceiving, as distinguished from the act of perceiving; percept.
4.Psychology. a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present.
5.Law. the taking into possession of rents, crops, profits, etc.

Perception is probably best described by Schiffman & Kanuk (2003) who state that it 'is how we see the world around us'.It is our perception that guides our decision making process, often unconciously. Our perception is aroused by certain stimuli which is often placed strategically for the consumer. This results in affective selling techniques and ultimately persuades us to make a purchase.

Freshers First Thoughts...

Who would of thought that an egg could sum up your whole life in an 'egg-shell' (excuse the dodgy pun) but it really gets you thinking... do my possesions make me 'me' or does my sense of self make me 'me'. What i have learnt is that it's a bit of both. It was an interesting introduction to the psychology behind consumer behaviour and reflects the outlandish teaching style of our lecturer Ruth.
If writing all of our qualities inside a giant egg and allowing your class mates to fondle your personals wasn't enough, Ruth then made us create a blog... so we can share our new found knowledge with the world wide web. So here i am, creating a blog (one of many)... feeling slightly worse for wear letting you all know that the bloggin' legend has begun possibly the best series of blogs to grace the web.

Bloggin' Ledge x