Social Class

The way we define social class often comes under scrutiny for a number of reasons one of the main ones being that in the typical family household, it is usually the "breadwinners" or "head of the houses'" income that is counted, rather then taking in ALL sources of income within the family home (i.e any money children might earn, etc). Also, it is often argued that the class that a person may appear to be in, does not have to be one they automatically belong too.

The different types of social class

Upper middle class Middle class

Lower Middle class

Skilled working class

Working class

Lower class

Above is a picture of Collen Rooney Wayne Rooney wife. Here is a prime example of how a lower class citizen and become a high class citizen just from marrying a footballer.

People are in different groups of social classes depending on:

how much money they have?
Where they work?
Who they are?
Where they come from?
Who they know?
Who they friends are?

it all boils down to the way u conduct yourself and what you have!!!!!!!!!!!!



There are different types of family:
Nuclear Family- This consists of a father, a mother and children who all live together
Extended Family- This is a nuclear family, however including other relatives such as grandparents and cousins.
Family of Orientation- This is the family someone is born into
Family of Procreation- This is the family founded through marriage.

Marketing to kids

Parents today are willing to buy more for their kids because trends such as smaller family size, dual incomes and postponing children until later in life mean that families have more disposable income. As well, guilt can play a role in spending decisions as time-stressed parents substitute material goods for time spent with their kids.

When a child wants something a child get what they want . markets market tools to aim at children so they can nag there parents. They use a market tool to guide in the parents even though its for the child.

Nowadays, parenting has changed significantly when it comes to their children's leisure and education. More people now can afford private education, children are more demanding meaning parents result to spending more money on toys, clothes, gadgets and food. There is this sort of feeling where parents want to give their children what they could not have or never had. Therefore there is this new trend where parents even compete with other parents on who gives the best for their children.



Kids are interested in:

New Gadgets
stationary
toys
clothes
food
princess and prince
batman and barbie

Many companies are using a word of mouth method. The idea is to find the coolest kids in a community and have them use or wear your product in order to feel around it. this is a way of using trendsetters to market for companies and get it started.

Marketers also create brand recognition in a very young children, as brand marketing overtime into the future they will recognise the brand

Final reflection on blogging

My final reflection on blogging is that its a way to interact with other and know other people opinion , it personally gives me an insight in a more depth way into the world we live . Each blog may contain general information about the blogging topic, in depth research into the topic as well as useful videos and pictures in which relate to the topic along with some description of each link.



What makes a successful blog?

1) Stay on topic
Opinions are generally accepted but the content of the items in the blog should all relate to a general theme.


2) Be informative
If you are attempting to create the impression that you are knowledgeable about a specific industry or sector, be sure that you stay current on news.


3) Old news is not news
While blogging every day can be a drain, it is important that the information presented is current and accurate, writing an article or blurb about something that happened 6 months ago, will not be of interest to many.

4) Adhere to a schedule
Create a schedule and stick to it. Realizing that blogging requires time and effort, don't create unrealistic expectations and be unable to deliver.

5) Clarity and simplicity
Keep your posts and blog entries clear and easy to understand. Remember, the web is global and expressions, idioms and acronyms don't always translate.





I hope reading my blogs has taught quite a few people . i really enjoyed blogging and will be definitely blogging in the future, its has a lot of creativity involved which i enjoyed the most.

Values

In my own words values suggest a pacific way in life. Different people have different set of values depending on the life they live.

Kahle suggest a list of values which are personal preferences to each individual.



1. Self Respect
2. Excitement
3. Being Well Respected
4. Self-Fulfilment
5. Sense of accomplishment
6. Warm Relationship with others
7. Security
8. Fun & Enjoyment
9. Sense of belonging


Values which i remember or mean something to me are :

September 11Th - world trade centre



Princess Diana dying


Tsunami in Thailand



These all have significant values to me as i remember them like it was yesterday


VALS Survey:

From taking this test I have been said to be an 'Experiencer' as a Primary Val and a Innovator' as my secondaryVal .


Experiencers are avid consumers and spend a comparatively high proportion of their income on fashion, entertainment, and socializing.

Innovators are leaders and are the most receptive to new ideas and technologies. Innovators are very active consumers, and their purchases reflect cultivated tastes for upscale, niche products and services.

Memory and Nostalgia

Memory: 1. The ability to recover information about past events or knowledge. 2. The process of recovering information about past events or knowledge. 3. Cognitive reconstruction. The brain engages in a remarkable reshuffling process in an attempt to extract what is general and what is particular about each passing moment.

Memory may be divided into short-term (also known as working or recent memory) and long-term memory. Short-term memory recovers memories of recent events, while long-term memory is concerned with recalling the more distant past.

Memory Process




Here is a link to an article talking about how nostalgic adverts work with certain brands http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/883332/Close-up-Advertising-welcomes-new-age-nostalgia/

Nostalgia
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.



This video relates to nostalgia and gives a great impact on what it means

Groups

A group is a cluster, crowd, or throng; an assemblage, either of persons or things, collected without any regular form or arrangement.A group is two or more individuals who share a set of norms, have role relationships,

Why is there a such thing as groups?

We are all put into to groups or fit into different types of group, What group do you believe you are in ?

Groups exist to have a sense of belonging and to reach the same goals.Some types of groups are social group,family group,secondary group,primary group ,social category and others.


People always put themselves into groups which they believe they belong in.

Example : when children are at school , they might get pick on because of the way they look or the clothes they weir.

if a child turns up to school with these trainers below they will get picked on in today's society.




if a child come to school on these trainers below they wouldn't get picked on



It boils down to today's society and the world we live , it all boils down to peer pressure.

Peer Pressure

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Market segmentation, correctly applied, is about understanding the needs of customers and, therefore, how they decide between one offer and another. This insight is used to form groups of customers who share the same or very similar value criteria. A company is then able to determine which groups of customers it is best suited to serve and which product and service offers will both meet the needs of its selected segments and outperform the competition.

The are many ways that a segment can be considered. For example, the auto market could be segmented by: driver age, engine size, model type, cost, and so on. However the more general bases include:

• by geography - such as where in the world was the product bought.
• by psychographics - such as lifestyle or beliefs.
• by socio-cultural factors - such as class.
• by demography - such as age, sex, and so on.

Targeting :



Positioning:

Positioning involves implementing our targeting. For example, Apple Computer has chosen to position itself as a maker of user-friendly computers. Thus, Apple has done a lot through its advertising to promote itself, through its unintimidating icons, as a computer for “non-geeks.”

Gender

Today i am going to talk about gender and how two different genders are perceived 

When i  first looked at this picture i thought , we have two genders that come together, which are perceived very differently . i see a big line in the middle, one side male one side female. When we was in lesson we talking about how men and women are generalized over job roles . When a woman goes for a job interview they are given a more harder time than men this is because of the society we live in and how men and women and generalized. There is a video below that shows how women are generalized at work. Please have a look very interesting 

i have chosen this video clip as it shows a major aspect on what i have 

been talking about in this blog it shows what type of society we live in and how 

our society is generalized about different genders. The video gives great details 

and aspects about generalization in genders in depth. This video is so important 

because it shows the life that we live and makes you wonder if it will ever change .

Women are also generalized on how they look, when a woman goes out to a night club they are going to look there best

as if they see a guy they like what want him to feel she look good and is going to talk to her. When a man goes out

its the same thing , to go out and look good . When a man is in a club its so stereotypical for the man to make the first move

, why cant it be the girl making the first move.

this picture to me shows the woman really engaging on the conversation and trying to catch the

mans eye which puts her in control, which we see rarely in the day and age. 

This picture shows the man in control making the first move and making the woman feel special by randomly engaging into her. 

Last but no least , i am gonna leave you with a note to think about. 

Why are girls more successful at school? Perhaps emphasis on communication in projects and exams submerges differences. Success at school nowadays depends on being able to writes essays and examination papers. If girls are better at verbal communication than boys, then they are likely to succeed. But, if there are more boys in remedial reading classes, does it not imply a serious defect in our educational system?

Enterprise Week

In November we had enterprise week which ran for 3 weeks from 9th November 2009 till 27th November 2009

I attended 1 event, this was the marketing industry panel , this event were important to attend in relation to one of the assignment. We had well known media executives attend this event from  various companies such as Media com, Millward Brown, Burson marsteller, rapp and Billets the provided the role of advertising in the 21st century and what role their own company plays in relation to advertising, it was well amazing to get a one on one insight on how advertising companies work and a in depth view on what they do., Media com was the company that stood out to me. I say this because Sue Unerman gave me personally a full insight on how media/ advertising agency is run and what were the main aspects and media issues of running of  the business to provide the best service to the consumer.

Rik Haslam -Group Creative Architect for WWV Rap

Sue Unerman - Chief Strategy Officer for MediaCom

Matthew Chapman -  International Service and Systems Innovation Director for Billets

Sue Elms -  Executive Vice President of Global Media Practice Millward Brown

George Hutchinson -  Chair and Managing Director of Public Affairs for Burson-Marsteller UK

Kotler and Armstrong (2004, p.468) define marketing communication as the process of presenting an integrated set of stimuli to a market target with the aim of gaining a desired set of responses setting up ways to receive, interpret and act on messages from the market to modify present company messages and identify new communications opportunities. (Lancaster and Reynolds 2005, P.185)

Also looking at the notes I made on the day of this discussion, I remember that Sue Unerman (Chief Strategy Officer for MediaCom) mentioned about how the businesses will lose up to £10,000 by advertising online if the message they are trying to give is not clear enough and also if the advertisements are not targeted on the related websites.

i believe i have gained some great knowledge of being at this event which will broaden my my arises of of the advertising and media industry works . it was great to meet and see these people in the flesh as we ourselves could be in there foot steps soon . 

Personality and Self Concept

Your understanding about who you believe and feel you are and what you're about. Another word for it would be self identity or self image.

We all have a perception of how we see and feel ourselves to be.

This includes our own personal values, our personality, our characteristic traits, knowledge of our own skills, abilities and limitations and what our hobbies and interests are.

I had taken a personality test on the following link, http://www.mypersonality.info/personality-types/

This test has shown i am a creator/ Persuader(ESTP) and in a fictional sense i am Bart Simpson. 

Bart's character traits of rebelliousness and disrespect for authority have been compared to that of America's founding fathers, and he has been described as an updated version of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, rolled into one.^[

Persuaders are action-loving, "here and now" realists with excellent people skills. Informal, risk-taking, fast-paced and adaptable, they are not always in agreeance with rules and regulations. They are tactical problem solvers that desire quick results. Persuaders , who present a friendly and enthusiastic face, are straightshooters that are able to handle criticism.

The self concept is how we think about and evaluate ourselves. To be aware of oneself is to have a concept of oneself.The term self-concept is a general term used to refer to how someone thinks about or perceives themselves. It is an important term for both social phycology  and humanism 

http://www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/self-concept.html

Below is a video of Self concept on how it effects people self esteem and behavior

Perception - experiment

Part of this module was to understand why and how the consumer performs experiments on perception.

Taste is a form of one of the traditional five senses. It refers to the ability to detect the flavor of substances such as food, certain minerals, and poisons. In humans and many other vertebrate animals the sense of taste partners with the less direct sense of smell, in the brain's perception of flavor. 

i decided to do a experiment on chocolate , i bought two types of chocolate , a well known brand and a supermarket brand. i wanted to find out if a consumer can guess by just tasting the chocolate without knowing the brand or seeing the rapper , which one is which and rating them out of 10.

Solomon et el (2006) p.36, states that: " We live in a world overflowing with sensations".

The two types of chocolate i choose are , Lindt and Sainburys own brand 

 

After carrying out the experiment i came to the conclusion that just because we have expensive brands of chocolate doesn't mean that they taste better than the supermarket brands . As my statistics show more consumers preferred the supermarket brand rather than the well established expensive brand . All this comes down to perception , what we perceive as a better option or plan by what the market shows or tells us. 

Perception - Perceptional Process

Kotler's buying decision suggests that consumers will respond in particular ways to different stimuli after they have 'processed' those stimuli in their minds. In more detail, kotler suggests that factors external to the consumer will act as a stimulus for behaviour, but that the consumer's personal characteristics and decision-making process will interact with the stimulus before a particular behavioural response is generated.

The perceptual process is a sequence of steps that starts with the stimuli that happen in our surroundings and leads through nerve transmission through peripheral and central nerves and the brain to our perception of what is going on. It also includes our resulting action to the original stimulus.

So, the perceptual process involved when we go outside from a room with no windows on a rainy day is that the simulus from the environment - the fact that it is raining and cold and we are getting wet - is recognised by our senses. Our eyes, ears, cold receptors and touch receptors all send signals to the brain, which works out that its raining.

The cognitive process within the brain then comes up with the decision to go back inside and pick up a coat and an umbrella before we set out again. This is our response to the stimulus.

The percetional process come in three stages:

1. Selection

we select the stimuli through our senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch

2. Organisation

we arrange the stimuli information so we can understand or make sense out of stimuli

3. Interpretation

Our interpretations are subjective and based on our own personal values.

Perception - Sensation

The definition of perception : A belief or a opinion, often held by many people and based on appearances .
Senation - Attention - Interpretation

Sensations can be defined as the passive process of bringing information from the outside world into the body and to the brain. The process is passive in the sense that we do not have to be consciously engaging in a "sensing" process.

How sensation occurs?

a) sensory organs absorb energy from a physical stimulus in the environment.

b) sensory receptors convert this energy into neural impulses and send them to the brain

Sensation has 5 senses:

1. Touch
2. Feel
3. Smell
4. Taste
5. Hear

An Example:

if you go to a supermarket and see chocolate you would like to purchase but it is wrapped in a coloured rapper , no brand and no font , how would you perceive this . Advertiser's grab the consumers attention by using colour and font as a persuasion mechanism.