Culture

Culture can be thought of as the collective memory of society. The accumulation of shared meanings, rituals, norms and traditions amoung the members of a society.

One of the 4 primary influences on our behaviour, the effect of culture on oneself is not to be taken lightly.

Culture consists of 3 primary areas.

Ecology - The way in which a system is adapted to its habitat, shaped mainly by the level of technology usd to distribute resources e.g. more industrialised countrees in contrast to less affluent ones.

Social Structure - The way social life is maintained, including domestic groups e.g. single parent families and political groups e.g. labour.

Ideology - A shared world view as well as shared moral and aesthetic principles. How people relate to their environment and social groups.



How our culture affects our daily lives often goes unseen by ourselves, but thats because everyone else within our culture is doing similar things and thus we regard ourselves as normal.

Take a look at this video on Japanese etiquite. How does it contrast to your daily life?



It is very important to consider cultural differences when marketing a product to a group in a different country or in an area of different cultural beliefs. Otherwise you can risk not appealing to, or even offending your potential customers.



Whilst this ad may be popular in the US, how do you think a more sexually repressed culture such as India would react to it?

We now live in a much more global society. Large companies such as Mcdonalds have stores and sell products in hundreds of countries around the world. Whilst it is important to maintain consistancy with your brand and products, it is also essential to tailor marketing campaigns to specific cultures. When doing this they need to consider:



High Culture

The aspects of culture that require intelligence to appreciate and which are valued and esteemed by a society's political, social, economic, and intellectual elite.

This is in contrast to

Pop Culture

The cultural practices employed by the masses. These practices are undertaken in place of high culture activities, for example pop culture may be going to the cinema, where as high culture may be attending the opera.



Religion - Marketeers need to be aware of the main religions of an area and the moral valus within that religion. Your not going to get far if you try to sell bacon to a Muslim.

Values and Attitudes - Companies need to consider what a culture respects and what it condemns. I don't know many Amish with an Iphone, come to think of it I don't know many Amish.

Education - Marketing needs to reflect how educated the target audience is. Get too clever and the whole campaign could go right over the consumers head. A witty strapline isn't going to cut it if your audience cant read.

Technology and Materials - Marketeers must take into account the technology available to their target consumer. An E-marketing campaign won't work if the audience doesn't have a computer.

Law and Politics - The laws and political values of a culture can have a huge affect on sales. Saudi Arabians aren't going to but a 6 pack of beer of you, not when your in prison for trying to sell it.

Aesthetics - How people within a culture respond to certain smells, tastes, textures, sights and sounds. What is considered a hot curry over here would be considered bland in India.

Language - Obvious really, make sure your campaign translates well, if it doesn't, change it. Bad translations, while a source of hilarity, won't help you sell and products.



Here is an advert demonstrating how you can use cultural norms to help sell your product.



The marines, a graduation tradition and the statue of liberty, Coca Cola are suggesting that their product is a part of American culture in an attempt to drive sales.

Learning, Memory and Nostalgia

There are 2 main approaches to learning theory. Behavioral and Cognitive.

Cogntive learning theory suggest that humans are complex problem solvers and their behaviors are governed by their knowledge and intelligence rather than just a conditoned response to stimuli. It also suggests that humans are more than just how they behave in isolated events but there are deep underlying thought processes influencing us.

Cognitive Learning

The behavioral approach suggests that we are a product of our environment, our behaviour is the result of responses to stimuli that we have learned over time. It is not focused upon rational thought and suggests that rather than analysing situations we simply react to them based upon our conditioning (what and how learned).

Behavioral learning can be further seperated into 2 types. Classical conditioning involves the pairing of a stimulus with another. In other words you hear, see, touch taste or smell something and you associate that with soemthing else. For example if you hear the music from an ice cream van you instantly associate that with ice cream, causing you to run outside with your mothers change. Operant conditioning involves learning to perform behaviors that yield positive outcomes and avoiding those which yield negative ones. For example a child will learn not to swear if when he swears he is repremanded with a slap and when he does not swear he is rewarded with sweets.

Behavioral Learning

"How does this relate to marketing?" I hear you ask. Marketeers can utilise these theories to help sell their products. They can use classical conditioning to get you to associate their product with something else. For example Lynx get you to associate their product with the attention of sexy women.



They can use operant conditioning and reward you for purchasing their product or for being loyal to their brand. For example Tesco reward you with special deals and money off vouchers to keep you as a customer.



These learning methods can also be used to create brand equity by creating brand loyalty and brand associations. If a person has owned 3 Lexus cars and is extremly pleased with the performance and quality of all of them, then they will likely become loyal to the brand as they have been positivly reinforced every time by having an excellent experience with the car. Also a brand such as Lucozade have been able to creat the association that consuming their product makes you feel energised. Therefore when you feel tired you are more likely to buy a lucozade as you believe it will ake you feel better.



Memory

"If learning is the aquisition of knowledge then memory is the internal representation of that knowledge" (Blakemore, 1988).

In lamens terms memory is the storage of knowledge and what we have learned. Without this ability we would not be the dominant species we are today.

The memory process involves the initial External Input which is then Encoded and placed in memory. This inforamtion is then put in Storage and is retained there, to be Retrived when necesary.

What is stored in long term memory is very rarely lost, however it can be difficult to retrieve unless the appropriate cues are present. Ever had that thing in the back of your head that you just can't remember for the life of you and then suddenly after a bit of thought it pops out. It was always there, its just not always easy to access that information.

Who is Paul Mccartney's wife????



Heather Mills?

Sorry Bush but the answer I was looking for was gold digging nut job, better luck next time.


Memory works by related pieces of information being stored together in knowledge structures. For example different types of pizza will be stored in the same knowledge structure.

Links can be made between knowledge structures for example the pizza knowledge structure many be linked to the pasta knowledge structure as they are both italian foods and are therefore connected.

These links can cause triggering, for example if you are eating pizza it may remind you of the pasta you ate on holiday in Italy.

Nostalgia

A sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time. For example remembering a brilliant holiday you had as a kid and wishing you were back there living it all again.



These whimsical memories stick with us for our entire lives and the emotions we have linked to them can be manipulated by marketeers. By using a campaign with nostalgic themes marketers can link their products with the happiness the consumer feels and thus increase chances of a sale.

When it coms to nostalgia the more senses involved the better, if you can utilise them all then you can recreate environments that are sure to evoke a strong reaction in consumers. Iconic images, music, scents, textures and tastes of them time can all be utilised to great effect.

Senses link to our emotions and sometimes all it takes is the taste of a toffee apple or the smell of mums cooking to bring all those wonderful memories flooding back.

Generation Marketing

This is the method of marketing to a specific generation.



The generations are often split into 4 groups:

Millenials - Born after 1980

Empowered and optimistic. They live in a fast world and therefore expect everything to happen quickly. Being the youngest generation they are the most intelligent (the average IQ leaps 3 points with each new generation). This generation is also the most educated.

Baby Busters - Born between 1965 aqnd 1980

Instilled with a sense of economic uncertainty and a reduced expectation of long term fidelity between employers and employees. This is due to events such as the 1973 oil crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the early 1980's recession.

Baby Boomers - Born between 1946 and 1964

The post WW2 generation. People started settling down into family life and repopulating Britain. Without a war going on people also started to get jobs and establish careers, rebuilding Britains economy. They are aware of what their parents had to suffer and are grateful for what they have as a result. They are intelligent consumers and will not be won over easily by advertising.

Mature Citizens - Born between 1909 and 1945

An ever increasing generation in the UK. Thanks to improved healthcare, cultural changes and increased health awareness people are living older. Therefore the mature citizens market is ever increasing, so much so that it is split into 5 groups.

Over 55 - Approaching or already retired, still has commitments such as mortgage and perhaps children to fund.

Young Olds - Under 70. Both partners alive meaning a lot of disposable income.

Old Old - Over 70. Little money and unfortunatly usually living alone.

Silver Surfer - Less money than old old. Many rely on internet due to inability to travel.

Skiers - Their children are now earning the most they are likely to in their careers and they will benefit from their childs income.

The reader should bare in mind however that the above dates are only contemporarily relevant and need to be constantly updated as generations age and time passes.



Above is a life cycle for those fortunate enough to live a long life. It shows that while there are 4 main stages in life, there are also 3 significant transitions. These transitional periods are essential to marketeers as if they can catch people while they are transitioning, they may be able to influence their buying behaviour for a long period in there life.



Here is a graph demonstrating current population distribution.



It is worth mentioning that some generations e.g. silver surfers become a niche, due simply to the fact that there are so few of them compared to other generations.

SPOTLIGHT - Pester Power

"Kids represent an important demographic to marketers because they have their own purchasing power, they influence their parents buying decisions and they are the adult consumers of the future"

Article on marketing to kids

Industry spend on advertising to children has increased dramatically in the past 10 years, from $100 million in 1990 to over $2 billion in 2000.

This is due to trends such as smaller family size, increased disposable income due to women gaining employment and later in life pregnancies, guilt purchasing.

Pester Power is the ability children have to nag, moan and pester their parents to get what they want. PERSISTANT nagging is simply asking for the item repeatedly, IMPORTANCE nagging however plays on the parents longing to provide the best for their children.

Pester power also plays on quick fix parenting. Parents who don't have time to spend with their child or perhaps do not even live with their child will rely on expensive presents to gain their favor.

Cultural changes in parenting have also had an effect. Children are now rewarded for good behaviour by their parents when in previous generations they were punished for bad behaviour and were expected to be good all the time without the incentive of reward.

Pester power can be very effective, advertise to an adult to sell a childs product and the adult will see it once, advertise to the child and the adult will hear about it a million times!

A child does not have the ability to analyse an advert or a product the way an adult can, looking past the adverts bells and whistles and objectivly evaluating the product. Therefore they are a much less complicated group to advertise to, a real benefit for marketers.

Enterprise Week - The Apprentice Challenge

The apprentice challenge is a competition in the style of the popular TV show The Apprentice in which teams compete in various challenges, with the ultimate goal of making as much profit as possible. Any current students studying any subject and from any year could compete as part of a 6 part team. The team would be given money from a sponsor company to participate in the challenges.



I will be talking from the perspective of team leader of team Smarty Pants, being Lynne, Francine, Hannah, John, Ian and of course myself.

When we heard about the apprentice challenge, it went the way of a school disco, all the girls teamed up and the boys did the same. Being that we are no longer 12 we decided that a mixed gender group would be more beneficial all round, bringing more variety to each team (plus who doesnt like a bit of female company). So, what proved to be an awesome team was formed.

The team then had to attend a preliminary meeting, unfortunatly only a few team members (Lynne and Hannah if my memory serves me well) were able to attend. It was they who created the enigmatic entity that is TEAM SMARTY PANTS.



CHALLENGE 1 - DOUGHNUTS



Mission - Sell doughnuts and doughnuts only for one day. The team with the most profit at the end of the day wins.

We elected to go for a buy a lot cheap and sell a lot cheap strategy, using all our budget to purchase jam doughnuts from Tesco. We managed to negotiate a spot in Eden shopping centre that gave us an excellent footflow and lots of sale opportunities, all that was left to do was to start selling.

We split our team into 2, the boys taking on a sales role that involved a lot of shouting and generally attracting a lot of attention and the girls handling the money and the transactions between customers. We then further split the team by setting up 2 seperate stands to maximise our sales potential. All the team members did very well, John used his innate charm and sales experience to great effect, Ian however, was utter shit.

An hour or so in sales were not going as well as we had hoped, we needed a USP. It was then that we decided to approach Starbucks to get free coffee to sell with our doughnuts. We managed to blag it and sales shot up as a result.



By the end of the day we had sold all of our doughnuts and we had made a tidy profit. This got us through to the next round!

CHALLENGE 2 - PROPOSAL



Mission - To propose an idea for a stall within Eden to management.

We decided to use our stall to sell painted pictures of popular childrens characters with a sale or return deal in place. Although they were impressed with our initial idea, implementing it was not allowed due to copyright laws. 6 teams passed through the round, each with different ideas. The strength of our initial idea got us through, although in 6th place and having to completly rethink our strategy.



CHAllENGE 3 - THE STALL



Mission - Sell whatever (legal and tasteful) commodity you wish so long as it is purchased using only profit from previous rounds.

After having our initial idea complimented and then crushed to dust we went with what we knew we could do well. Selling cakes and doughnuts. Our strategy was similar to before, although it focused more upon providing a range of cakes of different price and quality, as well christmas cards. This time the sales team went balls to the wall, assaulting the public with a barrage of charm. John and I made it our mission to approach each and every person who crossed our path, we managed an excellent rate of sale, especially amoungst young women thanks to John's gleaming smile. Ian remained a hideous salesman.

Come the end of the day we had sold our entire inventory, even down to the balloons and christmas hats we had used to decorate the stall. The whole team put in a great effort and if paid off, we had made it through to the penultimate round.

CHALLENGE 4 - THE PROPOSAL (PART DEUX)



Mission - Propose an idea for an event to be held in the SU infront of Uni staff and SU managers.

3 teams left, 2 teams get through, we fancy our chances. The team came up with an excellent idea of hosting a James Bond Casino Royale night. This would allow us to play around with a fun theme as well as capitalise on the income that can be generated from gambling. We decided to go the whole hog in the proposal. We dressed to impress and were accompanied by music as well as posters and all our facts and figures worked out. Although they had some reservations about our theme, our effort and enthusiasm got us in to the final round.

FINAL CHALLENGE - THE EVENT



Mission - Run an event in the SU, highest profit throughout all the tasks wins.

It's game time now. Having already decided on our theme it was now time to put the man hours in and make it all it could be. We went on a sales escapade and knocked on every door there was in student halls, selling as many tickets as possible. The girls did a great job soughting out decorations, creating posters, making jelly shots and generally organising the boys. Thanks ladies.

The night of the event arrives and it is crunch time. The doors open but the queues we hoped for were not there. Over the next few hours people came in drips and drabs, we sold a few jelly shots here and there and a few poker chips but there were no big profits yet. The other team next door were in a similar position. Our trump card was yet to be played however and we held on for a few more people before we held our 00's and Ho's auction.

The auction kicked off and despite my initial nerves as host it went quite well. We received some big offers and made a substantial profit (thanks largely to Anthonys longing to purchase the DJ) with no cost.

The end of the evening came and our nerves reached their climax. Before we knew it the announcement came and we were holding champagne and big cheque. We had won!!!!

It took a lot of effort and a little bit of luck to fight through each round and emerge victorious, but we did it in the end, forever confirming......



WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

Lynne Carter opened a brothel with her winnings, Anthony Holt is a regular customer.

John is now pursuing an actor/model career, using his good looks and lack of morals to get work.

Hannah opted to have a new experimental plastic surgery procedure, she is now a member of the tall society.

Francine bought a share in Nestle to show her support for Yorkies, her stock went through the roof when Craft purchased Cadburys and she is now sipping mohito's on a yaught in San Tropez

Ian decided to use his new found "talent" for sales and start a telesales business, he is now homeless.

As for me, Im selling myself to fuel my crack addiction.

Future Apprentice Challenge members, team Smarty Pants will be back next year to defend their title, so watch your backs.

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

STP marketing involves segmenting, targeting and positioning yourself within a market.



Segmenting the market is based upon seperating the different consumers into groups. The market can be segmented based upon many factors which adhere to 4 groups, geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral. Using age (demographic) as an example, the market could be split into 3 groups, children under 12, teenagers under 16 and teenagers under 19.




Targeting is choosing which segment would be the most beneficial for the company to focus on based upon segment size, growth, profitability, current and potential competitors as well as the core capabilities of the business and then selecting which segment(s) to target.



Positioning involves selecting the target market and creating and sustaining a differential advantage in relation to the competition. This involves the use of the marketing mix.



In the above advert, bounty is clearly highlighting the fact that it attracts and absorbs spills much more effectivly than the competition. This is a clear demonstration of a differential advantage being marketed effectivly.

Group conformity, Opinion leaders and Peer Pressure

A group is 2 or more individuals who share a set of norms, have role relationships and display interdependent behaviours. A group can have an affect on what we learn and how we behave.

So why do we form groups?

If you break it down to its most basic function, people form groups in order to increase their chance of survival. Hunting, forraging for food, building and defending what is yours becomes much easier if you dont have to do it on your own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwt1ioiqMgQ

In modern society however, it is much more complex. Groups exist to fulfill a huge variety of needs and wants.



Maslow suggests that it is one of mans most basic needs to belong to a group, we are very social animals after all.

One of the reasons we establish groups is for social comparison theory. We look at the behaviour of others to provide a guide for ourselves. We normally choose a co-oriented peer (someone whom we view to have equivalent standing) to benchmark ourselves against.

Different groups form different expectations and rules. Behaviour that is acceptable in one group may be considered out of line in another. These norms of behaviour are one of the main influential factors of a group. An individual can comply, internalise and identify or counter confrom in reaction to the pressures of the group.

The power to make an individual conform to a group is based on importance of membership, fear of negative sanctions and the degree of support they receive from others. This peer pressure is often utilised in the marketing world to stimulate purchase.

It is natural for people to want to fit in with people around them, be it neighbours, colleagues or people who enthuse on the same subjects you do. This behaviour is strongly linked to social marketing as people will purchase items in order to achieve this.



The Pepsi challenge provides 2 perfect examples of this. First of all, most people drank coke. The challenge showed that despite the fact most people claimed to prefer coke, they actually preffered pepsi. This would suggest that taste is not the only factor influencing purchase but perhaps people choose to drink coke because it is more popular and by drinking it they are conforming. Further proof of this is that when people became aware that most people prefer pepsi, pepsi's sales increased dramatically and coke's sales fell, why? Well I don't know for sure, but I'd be willing to put a pretty substantial bet that it had something to do with wanting to conform to the new trend of prefering pepsi over coke.

Oh what a fickle species we are.

Opinion leaders are people who are frequently able to influence others due to their technical expertise, knowledge, social activity and high interconnectivity with the community. These people can be used for marketing purposes as consumers believe that if they are endorsing a product, it must be worth buying.



Hope you liked it, more blogs to be crammed in before monday.

Values

Values are our ideas about what is desirable, we establish belief systems upon these. We decide what our values are, based upon individual, social and cultural forces. Values tend to transend specific situations and they guide the way people behave. They are linked to related goals that the person wants to achieve, if a person values excitement then they are likely to set goals that will help them lead a more exciting life, for example they may choose to be very spontaneous and live for the here and now (perhaps affecting their impulse purchasing). This living for the moment behaviour will affect every aspect of their lives.




Values can vary from person to person and manifest in different ways. However Kahle suggests there are 9 values that are commen amoungst the masses.

1.Self Respect 2.Excitement 3. Being well respected 4.Self-fulfillment 5.Sense of accomplishment 6.Warm relationship with others 7.Security 8.Fun and enjoyment 9.Sense of belonging


Each of these represents a terminal value (end state). This is what you ultimatly want to achieve. We all go about achieving these end states in different ways.

We all have some of these values but we hold some in higher regard than others. For some self respect is everything where as for others fun and enjoyment is all that really matters. Makes life kind of interesting doesn't it?



Guess which one represents self respect............ Thats right its Kendra Wilkinson, any self respecting person wouldnt be caught dead in those glasses, come on Ghandi, they are soooooo 1935.

If marketers can understand consumer values and motives they can then manipulate these values in order to make products appeal to them. For example a product promising "a real challenge to the mind" is appealing to consumers who have a sense of accomplishment as an end state.



Marketeers can position a product as a means to achieve an end state, thus increasing the likelyhood of purchase. For example a nutrition company may advertise a protein shake saying "6 pack in 6 weeks". This will cause the customer to associate the product with their goal (fitness) and thus as a means to achieve their end state, in this case perhaps a sense of accomplishment.




Laddering is a commenly utilised technique that allows a link to be made between functional product attributes and desired end states.

1.Concrete attributes 2.Abstract attributes 3. Functional consequences 4.Psychological consequences 5. Instrumental values 6. Terminal values

Here it is using a protein shake as the example product.

Protein Shake---->High Protein------>Muscle anabolism---->Get bigger and stronger------>Look better naked----->Self-Esteem

It is clear that a solid understanding of consumer values and a strategy that implements this theory is a very effective way to sell products. It may be challenging and expensive to gain the information but the juice is worth the squeeze.

Thats all on values, on to the next blog!