Memory and nostalgia

Memory and nostalgia is defined in a marketing context by Britt (1955) as 'Every time an advertisement or commercial appears, the objective is to have the reader or viewer learn something...and remember what he learned'. Rice (1977) suggests that marketings 'ultimate aim is to teach them brand loyalty'.

Memory

Blakemore (1988) states that 'learning is the acquisition of learning and memory is the storage of internal representations of that knowledge'
'without memory we would be servants of the moment......relying on reflexes.....Civilisation itself is the distillation of human memory.'





Memory Process

External inputs-----Encoding Information-----Storage Information------Retrieval Information
is placed in memory is retained in memory is stored in memory
and is found as needed
There are three types of memory: Sensory, short-term, long-term.

Sensory memory - Is the storge of information we recieve from our senses. However, this only last a few seconds.

Short-term - This is very limited. This can also be known as working memory and this holds information we are currently processing.

Long-term - For a person to store information in their long term memory, elaborative rehearsel is needed, which involves thinking about the meaning of the stimulus and relating it to other information already in memory. Marketers use catchy slogans or jingles that consumers can repeat on their own.



Nostalgia

Nostalgia is defined by the dictionary.com as 'a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his college days'






Using nostalgia in a marketing strategy is a very effective way of engaging with potential customers. Everyoone remembers the 'good old days' and as restaurants and other companies have proven, 'the good old day' can pay of in customer loyalty, sales and exposure. An good example of nostalgic marketing is of 'Henry Hippo'. With a smaller audience as the billboards were just located in Northern Ireland, it appealed to the late 20's to early 30's age range who lived in ireland at the time of 'Henry Hippo'. It generated renewed interest in 'Henry Hippo' and also more interest from people in there late 20's early 30's age range in the ulster bank.

Group conformity, opinion leaders and peer pressure

Groups

A group is two or more individuals who share a set of norms, have role relationships and interdependent behaviours.Groups influence the socialisation process. They influence what we learn and how we behave.

Maslows hierachy of needs

The basis of Maslow's theory of motivation is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be addressed. Maslow states that there are general needs (physiological, safety, love, and esteem) which have to be fulfilled before a person is able to act unselfishly. These needs were dubbed "deficiency needs." While a person is motivated to fulfill these desires, they continue to move toward growth, and eventually self-actualization. The satisfaction of these needs is quite healthy. while preventing their gratification makes us ill or act evilly.

Maslow suggests that man is a social animal and that man needs unconditional positive regard. Children learn through conditional positve regard. In a marketiong context, marketers and advertising use 'belonging' as a pivotal message in advertising campaigns.





Social comparison theory

The social comparison theory, suggests that people look to the behaviour of others to provide a guide and to reassure us about our self-evaluation. Consumers are selective about who they us as benchmarks in their purchasing decision. Generally speaking, for social comparisons people tend to choose a peer or a person of a standing equivalent to compare themselves with.

Opinion Leaders

An individual whose ideas and behavior serve as a model to others. Opinion leaders communicate messages to a primary group, influencing the attitudes and behavior change of their followers. Therefore, in certain marketing instances, it may be advantageous to direct the communications to the opinion leader alone to speed the acceptance of an advertising message. For example, advertisers may direct a dental floss promotion to influential dentists or a fashion campaign to female celebrities. In both instances, the advertiser is using the opinion leader to carry and "trickle down" its message to influence its target group. Because of the important role opinion leaders play in influencing markets, advertisers have traditionally used them to give testimonials.

Peer pressure

Peer pressure refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values or behaviour in order to conform to group norms. Social groups affected include membership groups, when the individual is 'formally' a member or a social clique.


Video of how to build trust and confidence with a customer, through a variety of ways.

Segmentation, targeting and positioning

Segmentation

A market segment is a sub-sector of a market made up of people and organisations, sharing one or more characteristics which causes them to demand a certain product based on its quality. The term 'market segmentation' is used whan a consumer with an identical product or service needs to be divided into groups so they can be charged different amounts. These can be known as 'positive' and 'negative' applications of the same idea, splitting up the market into smaller groups.



According to Brassington and Pettitt (2007) there are four different types of segmentation:

Geographic segmentation -Defines customers according to their location. This is effective for local businesses with limited resources, as they would target in their immediate locality.

Demographic segmentation - This can tell a business about the customer and the customers household on measurable criteria. They are largely descriptive, such as age, sex, income, occupation, socioeconomic status and family structure.

Geodemographic segmentation - Geodemographic can be defined as 'the analysis of people by where they live' (Sleight, 1997, p.16) as it combines geographic information with demographic and sometimes even lifestyle data about neighbourhoods.

Psychographic segmentation - The beliefs, attitudes and opinions of any potential customer. Therefore, this is difficult to gather and consequently to analyse.



Targeting

A target market is the market segment which a particular product is marketed to. It is defined by age, gender and/or socio economic group. Market targeting is the process in which intended actual markets are defined, analysed and evaluated just before the final decision to enter is made. Target marketing is a strategic approach to creating a marketing mix for a specific, targeted market segment and set of buyers.

It involves breaking a market breaking a market into segments and then concentrating your marketing efforts on one or a few key segments. The beauty of target marketing is that it makes the promotion, pricing and distribution of your products and easier and more cost effective. It also provides a focus for all marketing activities.



Positioning

Market positioning is the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for it's product, brand or oganisation. There are two parts of positioning:

Re-positioning involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the identity of competing products, in the collective minds of the target market.

De-positioning involves attempting to change the identity of competing products, relative to the identity of your own product, in the collective minds of the target market.

Generally, the product positioning process involves:

1. Defining the market in which the product or brand will compete (who the relevant buyers are)
2. Identifying the attributes (also called dimensions) that define the product 'space'
3. Collecting information from a sample of customers about their perceptions of each product on the relevant attributes
4. Determine each product's share of mind
5. Determine each product's current location in the product space
6. Determine the target market's preferred combination of attributes (referred to as an ideal vector)
7. Examine the fit between - The position of your product and the position of the ideal sector
8. Position

Values

Values is stated by Ries and Trout (1982) as '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'. Wilkie also describes values as 'values are our ideas about what is desirable'








Values are an integral part of every culture. Along with beliefs and worldview assumptions, they generate behavior. Being part of a culture that shares a common core set of values creates expectations and predictability without which a culture would disintegrate and its members would lose their personal identity and sense of worth. Values tell people what is good, beneficial, important, useful, beautiful, desirable, appropriate...etc. They answer the question of why people do what they do.

Kahles list of values (1983)

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



Laddering

People have specific terminal values. e.g. self respect. People choose amongst alternative actions to achieve these end states.

Products become a means to achieving these end states. e.g. weight watchers meals.

Laddering techniques enables us to identify the links between functional product attributes and desired end states.



Laddering in a marketing context

The concept of laddering has it's appication in the positioning of a product. When any brand or product, the attention will be on its attributes and benefits. As soon as this is inprinted into the consumers brain, a deeper meaning has to be associated with the brand. For example, doves marketing has changed from just soap, to 'celebrating real beauty'. Nike is now about athletic performance.

Laddering can only work if the consumer is convinced by the basic functions of the product. The advantages of laddering is that the brand will hopefully break free from the product restrictions

Gender

How to impress a woman?







How to impress a man?





Gender differences play a big part in how business go about marketing. In a research report, a group of people were taken into a room and were asked to remember various items. The males in the group remembered the big picture hanging on the wall, also a desk and bookshelf. The females, however, remembered more intimate details like flowers or a picture.



Schiebe and Condry (1984) examined advertisements according to product type and discovered major gender differences in the way companies market to the two genders.


Advertisements aimed at:
Males - Valued ambition and physical strength
Females - Stressed beauty and youth

A male approach to buying and communication requires decision making based on partial information gained, minimal patience, look for clarity and simplicity and humourous advertisements.

For advertisers, adverts for women are more likely to be more detailed as they appreciate finer details in a product. Males however, pick up on only one or two subtle clues, they need to be shown the bigger picture and are less likely to process cmplex metaphors.



A video highlighting how adverts stereotype the two genders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nIXUjzyMe0

Enterprise Week

The apprentice challenge was a university run competition themed on the television programme. The aim was to get into groups of 6 and each group were given £200 of money from a local business. In my group there was myself, John, Lynne, Chris, Francine and Hannah. Our team name was SMARTYPANTS.




Round 1

The first round consisted of having a designated area in High Wycombe town centre, where we had to buy doughnuts and sell as many as we could and make a profit. We purchased 200 jam doughnuts from tescos at 20p per doughnut, and sold them on for roughly 40p per doughnut.


We were located just next door to tescos in the eden centre and split ourselves into two teams. One team was directly next to tescos and the other group next was further into the eden centre.

Everyone made a great effort in flogging the doughnuts, alongside selling the doughnuts, starbucks very generiuosly lent us and urn of coffee. We then gave an offer to the public of a coffee with every two doughnuts purchased. This really helped our sales, as people were paying for two doughnuts just to have the coffee as it would be cheaper than going to starbucks. Even though the day started slowly, it picked up as the day went on and finished the day by selling all 200 doughnuts.



Round 2

We came 2nd in the first round, which sent us through to the 2nd round. This started off with us having to pitch and idea for a market stall in the eden shopping, to their management. We came up with an pitch to sell doughnuts again as it worked for us in the first round, but also to sell christmas cards, cakes and again free coffee from starbucks.

The team went flat out to acquire customers to our stall. We were located at the front of the eden centre and near the student halls, so this was ideal as we were able to sell to students as well as the normal high wycombe public. By the end of the day we had sold every item on our table and had made it through to the final.



Round 3

The third and final round was to hold an evening event at the universities student union bar. We
came up with an idea to hold a James Bond themed night. We decided to come up with this idea because we had access to casino tables, roulette wheels and James Bond memoribilia. Also, extra things like vodka shots and a James Bond guys and girls auction made this event an attractive proposition.

The night was a huge success. It took a while for the event to pick up, but when it did, all the vodka shots were sold out, the casino and roulete wheel was always busy, and we made nearly £100 on the auction alone. By the end of the night we were confident of victory. When the news was announced we had won, the celebrations started, and a what ended up as a memorable night for everyone involved.

Personality and Self Concept

A famous personality theory was developed by Sigmund Freud. This was named the psychoanalytic theory of personality. It consisted of three parts: the Id, Ego and Superego.

The Id

The id is the only component that is present from birth. This aspect of a persons personality is completely unconsicious and includes primitave and instinctive behaviours. The id is by principle pleasure or self gratification of all desires, wants and need. For example, a need to drink, will result in getting a drink.

Ego

According to Freud, the ego is a development from the id, and makes sure the actions of the ego is acceptable in society. The ego strives to satisfy the id's desires to be realistic and socially acceptable. The id's impulses can be satisfied through a process of delayed gratification, the ego will eventually allow the behaviour, but only in the correct time and place.

Superego

The superego is the part of a persons personality that holds all moral standards and ideals that we acquire through our parents and society, essentially our right and wrong. There are two parts to the superego: The ideal ego and the conscience.

Ideal ego: The rules and standards of good behaviour. These rules are approved by parents and other authority figures. Obeying these rules feels like a sense of accomplishment and achievement.

The conscience: Information about bad behaviour that is viewed as negative by parents and authority figures. These behaviours are forbidden and often lead to bad consequences.


According Freud, self concept is a social product developed through experience, it possesses boundly potential development and actualization. Due to past experiences, individuals may percieve themselves in a different light and others may see them. Also, individuals percieve themselves differently at certain times, therefore inner focusing is an available tool for counselling.



Research from William James (1890) argued that self concept derives from social comparisons with others. e.g. peers, family etc. However, Goffman (1959) saw self concept as reflecting social role experiences. e.g. mother, daughter, sister etc. which add facets to the view of oneself.




There are three sub headings under the idea of self concept:

Self Image: The kind of person we think we are. This usually comprises of social roles, body image and personality traits.

Ideal self: The kind of person we would like to be. This could be slightly or totlly different from our actual self. The larger the gap the lower our self esteem.

Self esteem: The extent to which we like ourselves, whether we accept or approve of our self image.