Final Thought

This is going to be the last blog that i am going to write. I am going to be reflecting on this whole process as a whole with regards to blogging whether i found it benificial, if it helped me and whether I liked it or not, so here goes.

Using blogging helped me to develop on my writing skills and hopefully the style that I use suits me and is easy to read as I think that is essential because what would be the point in writing something that nobody could read or understand?! Also through doing this it made me have to read and do research and personally i'm not a big reader so this really helped me in that sense.

Although in hindsight as this was meant to be a week by week process, I really should have done it weekly as I now feel that this would have been the best way to develop my skills as I would have been able to get feedback etc. I found that some parts of blogging were really hard as it seemed to just drag on but I think that that just depends on whether you are interested in the topic because if you enjoy writing about something then its going to be a lot easier to write because your enjoying it more.

Blogging enabled me to reflect on what was being said in the lectures, then to convey that message into their my own interpretations. This gave me the chance to develop on my understanding and application of the various different theories; showing that I could understand it and transform this into practice by providing examples, external articles which relate to the topic, short clips and images etc.

Overall this has been a good experience as not only did it make me learn about my own attributes with regards to reading, writing and understanding but also in the way that I approach certain situations as this is essentially a reflection of my own personal characteristics which I can work on and develop for the future.

Targeting

A target audience is the set of people from a market segment whom a company wish to sell a product or service to, target markets are defined by several variables which may include; age, gender, income, socio-economic grouping or interests etc.

There are several different ways in which marketers are able to segment the market to establish a target audience in which they are trying to appeal to, continuous changes within society such as lifestyle, demographics and cultures are providing marketers with new opportunities. Before you can even think about selling a product or service you have to first determine who would buy into it and if there is even a place for it in the market.

Segmentation is the process by which marketers break down the intended product market into manageable groups, to enable them a establish a target audience to aim their product at. These groups consists of; the type of customer, how the customer uses the product or service, the buying situation which would take into account whether it were a first time purchase or a repeat purchase etc. Purchase method, behaviour, Geographic, Demographic, Psychographics and the kind of relationship.

All of these factors a company has to take into consideration before launching a new product, one of the main variables which is widely used amongst advertising is demographics which includes; income, gender, age, family size, family life cycle, jobs, education, religion, race, culture / nationality and generation. If marketers can can take into consideration all the elements in which affect the people in these segments then they will be really successful, they need to know and understand their desired market.

The diagram below shows the psychographics that marketers take into consideration when determining their target audiences.

A market analysis is the research that is undergone to assess the target market, this will include looking at several variables such as the demographics, the competition and the needs for marketing the product or service. Regardless of whether you are starting a new venture or revising an old one, conducting a market analysis is key to knowing and understanding the market and for current and future developments that may occur.

Here is a short video that I have found which discusses market segmentation, targeting and positioning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aICIVOl3JU&feature=related

Generational Marketing

In order to sell a product or service, the organisation must firstly know exactly who it is that they are trying to sell to, one way in which marketers can do this is through age segmentation. This enables them to provide products and services that have a distinct appeal to their target audiences.

Consumer spending habits are determined by numerous different variables such as income, gender and culture, however this slightly differs within generational marketing as the aim is to appeal to the age groups by the experiences they have had, their values and lifestyle as this is going to change as the generations grow older. Marketers need to determine what each of these groups value, need and want in order to appeal to them. This can relate back to groups in that if everyone in that age group is buying into the same product then people are going to feel the need to confirm as they wouldn't want to be buying into things that are older or younger than their generation.

To succeed in targeting a specific generation you need to understand what motivates them to make purchases, which interlinks with the underlying values or their generation. After this is achieved you are then able to produce an exclusive message especially aimed at that generation, this enables marketers to show this message with their products and services to respond to their needs and wants. Below I have found an advert which I don't think has used generational marketing very successfully as the product that they are advertising, I don't think meets the market that buys into it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ9Zu2qh0Vo

The life cycle can be used as a tool by marketers to determine exactly who it is that they are targeting, as this shows each stage that an individual goes through, helping them establish the ages during the different stages in their lives. Enabling marketers to find the most efficient means in reaching their audiences.

It is important that you split your market into groups, as a person's age can have an impact on his or her identity and often spending patterns. In society there are age sub-cultures which include age cohorts which are people of a similar age who share similar experiences. These are listed below;

Age Sub-cultures

• Millenials or Generation 2001ers, born after 1980 (also known as Generation Y)
• Baby Busters or Generation Xers born between 1965 and 1980
• Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964
• Mature Citizens born between 1909 and 1945

'Tweens' are more likely to be spending a lot more money compared to 'Generation X', this is due to various values that these two groups hold, as tweens being aged between 8-14 are starting to build on their social statuses in schools and with friends etc therefore are more affected by promotions and brands as they are wanting to fit in. Unlike those of generation X have changed in their priories and values and don't necessarily see new products and brands as being as important.

This goes back to the various life cycle stages and the experiences that the groups have had, as one group is more likely to have gone through more experiences, this has a significant impact on what they see as being important which in turn affects their spending patterns compared to someone who has had very little life experiences and doesn't hold the same values.

Learning, Memory and Nostalgia

According to (Solomon 2006) learning refers to a permanent change in behaviour which comes with experience. This does not necessarily have to affect the learner directly, people can also learn by watching others. For example if two children are playing inside the house and one of them throws a ball and breaks a vase and gets in trouble for it, not only would that child not do it again nor would the other one.

The dictionary defines learning as ' an act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skills. http://www.thefreedictionary.com. People can also learn unknowingly, it happens even if we are not trying to, for example we may recognise or sing along to slogans or songs that we don't even like or have never used before. Learning is an ongoing process as we are continuously having to re-evaluate the environment around us due to the constant new stimulus that we are exposed to.

There are several different approaches to learning, all of which have something to contribute but have different significances for different contexts. These learning styles consists of three main groups; humanistic, cognitive and behavioural all of which believe that there are key characteristics to determine the way in which a person learns.

The behaviourist theorists believe that behaviour can be researched scientifically ignoring any aspects of the mind. One of the views from behaviourist theorists is that all behaviour is determined by the environment either by association or by reinforcement and nothing to do with free will. There are two theories that psychologists often refer to when looking at learning in this perceptive, the classical conditioning and operant theory.

The classical conditioning theory was instigated by Ivan Pavlov, who focused on the observable behaviour he argued that human thinking is down to association. "Beyond association there is nothing more in it" (Pavlov 1955) The classical conditioning theory which has since become very influential within children's psychology.

Pavlov induced classically conditioned learning by pairing a netural stimulus (a bell) with a stimulus known to cause a salivation response in dogs (he squirted dried meat powder into their mouths). The powder was an unconditioned stimulus because it was naturally capable of causing a response. Over time the bell became a conditioned stimulus, it did not initially cause salvation, but the dogs learnt to associate the bell with the meat powder thus salivating at the sound of the bell only. (Solomon 2006)

Operant conditioning is learning through reinforcement in that an individual is either rewarded or punished for participating in a certain action, they learn that what ever the action is that they have done they will either carry on doing so or stop because of the consequences. For example when children are in school they get rewards for doing good work such as stickers or merits etc to encourage them to carry on working hard whereas if they are naughty they get punished with detentions, suspensions and put in isolation rooms to make them not do it again.

B.F. Skinner is known for conducting an experiment which looked to find out about operant conditioning, this experiment involved the use of rats in boxes, in which there was a lever that when the rat pushed it it would release some food. However the rats did not know this thus making the only way for them to find out through trial and error so that the rats would eventually learn that by pressing the button the would get some food, making the food the reinforcer and the lever the operant. .F. Skinner introduced the theory operant conditioning which is the process in which the individual learns to perform behaviours that produce positive outcomes and to avoid those that yield negative outcomes.

I have found an clip that demonstrates this process

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy_mIEnnlF4

Marketers have taken on this concept by introducing consumer reward schemes, the first company that demonstrated this were Tesco's but since then it has become a common and successful way of implementing consumer loyalty. Companies such as Boots, Sainsburys and even Orange have these reward schemes with Orange doing an orange Wednesday whereby their consumers get a buy one get one free cinema offer.

Marketers have taken on the concept of the classical conditioning theory in that, over time they can create an image for the product or brand that will then be associated with it. This can be seen with some brands nowadays such as;

Bounty who have the association of being tropical and exotic.

Nike who have the association of being winners

"Learning is the acquisition of knowledge and memory is the storage of internal representation of that knowledge" (Blakemore 1988) "Without memory we would be servants of the moment, relying on reflexes. Civiliastion itself is the distillation of human memory"

Without our memories it would be impossible to learn, as it plays a huge role in our learning process especially within the behaviourist theories., if we couldn't remember how would we learn what was right and wrong and also reward schemes would prove to be irrelevant as we wouldn't be able to remember any on the consequences.

'Memory involves a process of acquiring information and storing it over time so that it will be available when needed' (Solomon 2006). So basically when you see something or are told something for example a TV advertisement, the information that you have gained will be stored until you need it again. However in order to retrieve this memory there is a process to get it back.

The Memory Process

This model shows the process in which whenever an individual is given a new piece of information that they then may need to retrieve in the future they have to go through various stages. In order for these memories to be recalled at a later date the individual needs to have rehearsed the memory over time.

To see how this work, I done a memory test which involved looking at a shopping list for 10 seconds, and then after writing down as many items that you could remember. There were 10 items on the list which were;

1. Paper Clips
2. Matches
3. Socks
4. Hat
5. Blouse
6. Tie
7. Picture Frames
8. Light Bulbs
9. Petrol
10. Stamps

I didn't remember a lot on the list and this could be due to the fact that I didn't look at it for a long period of time. However there is a method to help you remember things better, this is to make the number rhyme with a word that can be linked to the shopping list. Although this may help you remember better you would only see results if you had been rehearsing the list over a long period of time.

Our senses play a significant role on recalling our memories, as through this we can relate back to a moment that has previously happened. For example a song could bring back a memory of something that you had done or a smell whether it be a positive or negative memory for example the smell of hospitals may bring back a negative experience of the time that you had spent there.

For myself certain songs, or places, or television shows bring back memories from my younger years mostly positive but sometimes negative too.

A process has been identified which shows the various different memory systems to help us understand the relationship between them, as there is sensory memory that an individual has that will help identify objects when seen, heard or touched for the first time. The short-term memory which vary in the amount of information that can be stored and the length of time. Lastly long-term memory which allows us to retain information for long periods of time, in order for this to work a lot of rehearsal of the memory is required. These can all be seen in the diagram below;

Nostalgia is described as 'a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in ones life' (http:www.dictionary.com). It has also been described as 'a bitter sweet emotion where the past is viewed with both sadness and longing.' (Solomon 2006) Nostalgia can refer make to memory in that it is the emotions and the recall from seeing or hearing something that you have a memory for, the difference being its a very positive thing whereas with memories alone it can create negative feelings towards something. Marketers can take advantage of this as when targeting to specific age groups they can put something in that everyone will relate to thus making them more likely to remember the brand that was advertised or buy into their products.

I have done a mood board to show the things that make me nostalgic

The Family Cycle

The family is an important element in anybody's life, this is were you learn and gain all your core values which you take with you throughout your life, it is your first step in forming your social foundation.

Within society there is a certain perception of what families should be like, this stems from ideologies, popular mythology and conventions that are deeply rooted within society's history and culture. However the turn of the century has seen these ideals slowly disintegrate. In terms of the family life cycle stages their seems to be a certain expectation within society as to what you should be doing at each stage.

There are a few different types of families that exist within the world, these are listed below;

Nuclear Family

A mother, father and children that all live together

Extended Family

Nuclear family plus other relatives such as grandparents, aunts etc

Family of Orientation

The family you were born into

Family of Procreation

Family founded through marriage

These sets of families don't always relate to everyone within society as there is such a diverse range in the family structure, this is also visible with the figures of the amount of families that live with their parents or a single parent.

In the 1970s there were 92% of children living in cohabited houses, and only 7% that were living with single parents, whereas the figures from 2008 show that there is now only 77% cohabiting families living together whilst the amount of single parents has rose up to 23%. There are several possible reasons for this but the main one I think being the increase in divorce rates, within today's society 1 in 5 children come from divorced families and this could also be one of the reasons behind the changes in family structures.

Marketers often target families as these are very significant buyers within all markets, as they have many different needs as a family as a whole, as parents and as children. Family needs will be affected by the number of children that are in each household as although they may only have one or two children they may find that they are likely to be spending a lot more, this usually happens as parents tend to spoil their children always wanting the best for them. This also comes back to the strength of pester power with children as they know at some point their parents will give in.

Wells and Gruber developed the family life cycle in order to determine what products and services a family are most likely to be buying. This was put together using different factors such as age, marital status and income. This model consists of nine different stages which identifies the various stages that individuals are more than likely to go through at some point in their lives. These stages are;

• Bachelor
• Newly Married
• Full Nest I
• Full Nest II
• Full Nest III
• Empty Nest I
• Empty Nest II
• Solitary Survivor I
• Solitary Survivor II

Bachelorhood refers to someone that is young, single and not living at home. Usually this type of person hasn't got many financial obligations and is looked up to by their peers. More conventionally a 'bachelor' is associated with young males who live by themselves living the young free and single lifestyle.

Newly married refers to young married couples, who have no children and more than likely have purchased their first home. This group of individuals will be most financially well off than they will ever be as they have no children and will both probably be in full time jobs.

Full nest 1 are families who have children that are under the age of six, they have low income and high debts as there is more than likely to only be one of the parents working, whilst the other is at home looking after the children. The purchases that are made by individuals at this stage are mainly for the children as well as the necessities needed for the family home.

Full nest 2 consists of families that have children aged six and over in which their household income is likely to be larger than of that before, as the children will be at school at both the parents will be able to go back to work. The majority of the expenditure will still be on the children, especially since they are at school with their peers, this is predominately when children start using PESTER power on their parents.

Full nest 3, are older married couples that have children that are dependant on them. The older children of these families are likely to be at work, whilst others are in further or higher education. Therefore most of the family expenditure will be used to support the children in their education.

Empty nest 1 are older married couples with no children living at home and at least one person in the household is still at work therefore there is still a steady financial income. Empty nest 2 are older married couples who are retired with no children living at home, these groups of individuals experience a significant cut in their income and start to have concerns about their savings and pensions.

Solitary survivor 1 refers to those that are widowed but are still in work, thus still having a significant income but are more than likely to sell the family home and find some where smaller. Their biggest concerns are to do with their pensions and savings as they are on their own. Solitary survivor 2 still refers to an widowed individual but that is now retired, meaning that they don't have a big income. Their needs now include attention, affection and security thus making them more than likely to look into sheltered homes where they can feel safe and secure and are constantly being looked after.

This model was created in the 1960s, by which the family cycle is shown to be very traditional with two parents per family however this model doesn't necessarily reflect everybody in the modern day family as there is no mention of single parents, or people who never wed or even divorced couples. This could be due to the fact that in that era divorce rates were extremely low in comparison with today's society and it is much more common today to have a single parent family.

I have found an advert which shows the family life cycle stages in one of the more traditional forms.

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

Within a traditional family, the man is the head of the household, he goes out to earn the money whilst the woman spends it. However within a modern family it is most likely to be a shared participation as more women have their own careers than in previous years. Therefore being able spend their own money on what ever they want and not having to rely on their husband or partner.

With modern they families the dominance of the man or woman in the relationship can sometimes strongly reflect their family background for example if they were brought up in a single parent home where the mother is the lone parent, they would be more than likely to take on that role of the strong, independent lady as that is all that they have known.

When it comes to making purchases it is commonly perceived that women do most of the spending, however recent figures have shown that men nowadays are more likely to be the decision makers and purchasers in the household. It was shown that 49% of men and 40% of women are more likely to use the internet, along with 58% of men and 48% of women having shopped online. Whilst 27% of women and only 17% of men are do their food shopping online.

When marketers are trying to advertise their products they take into consideration who they are marketing them to. Children are best at getting their parents to buy them what they want thus making them targeted more however it also depends on what the product is that they are advertising. For example if they product is electronic, alcohol, or DIY related then marketers would most likely aim the advertising at men and products such as clothes, cosmetics or groceries are most likely to be aimed at women.

I have found some examples of adverts that relate mostly to men and females and both.

This advert I think relates to men

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni0PBPeyHDc

This advert I think relates to women

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_D4890D5aM&feature=related

This advert I think relates to both

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_W1sP344NM

It is visible to see the change within the family structures of the 21st century, however marketers have to be able to identify with the changes to ensure that they are not missing out on any possible target audiences, as from the family life cycle model you can see that even though some of those stages still exists there are limited in there profiles. And if marketers are using this as a template they need to update the model to go with the times.

Social Class

Social class is a very controversial subject within society, it is one that not necessarily everyone agrees with as consequently it determines your role and status within society based on the income that you may or may not have. According to (Solomon 2006) social class is determined by a complex set of variables, including income, family background and occupation.

(Krech, Crutchfield & Ballachey, 2000), describe social class as ' a division of society made up of persons possessing certain common social characterising, 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'.

There are several ways to determine which social class you belong to as mentioned before, the income you earn, the area you live in, your education level or they way you speak or dress etc, however in recent years it has become increasingly difficult to base someone's social class on these factors alone.

In Medieval times you would be able to distinguish the upper class by the clothes they wore, only the rich would wear red and blue purely because they were the only ones who were able to afford it. In today's society it is much more difficult to distinguish someone's social class by the money they earn as the amount of income is overlapping within job titles. For example 10 years ago somebody who worked in a profession such as a doctor, lawyer or engineer would be seen us upper middle class due to their title and their income but now a plumber who would have been seen as lower class is more than likely to be earning the same amount as in a highly skilled profession.

Although social class is still a strong aspect within society you can slowly see it disbursing, in a sense that it is becoming more easily accessible to move up the social hierarchy. Many of the upper class are in fact born into wealth but there are a lot more people coming into new money. One example would be Jade Goody who before she came into wealth she would have been associated with lower middle class however through the income that she made it in fact changed her status and role within society.

This begs the question does social class choose you or do you choose social class? Initially you are born into the social class of your parents but through consumption, social groups and attitudes and behaviours you are able to move through the hierarchy, you can play at belonging to another group.

Products that you use can have a symbolic indicator as to which social group you belong to, therefore in order for marketers to reach their target audiences, they have to first establish which social class would be best suited for their products and services. For example with cosmetic brands such as Mac or Dior they are seen as being upper class so if someone from a lower class were to buy into these brands they would then be associated with the these classes.

Here are some examples of how advertisers try to engage specific social classes;

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUzuiylK850
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asfhGQz0oYc
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACm80Y-jwtE

In the UK there are many different social class groups which people are pit into mesaured by the amount of income that they earn these vary from A to E.

• A is the upper middle class, the highest within society - high managerial, administrative or professional.
• B is the middle class, which is a large proportion of the population - intermediate mangerial, administrative or professional.
• C1 is the lower middle class - supervisory or clerical and junior managerial.
• C2 is the working class - semi skilled manual workers.
• D is the working class - semi and unskilled manual workers
• E is the lower class - casual or lowest grade workers and pensioners.

The social classes within society have gained many criticisms as when these groups are measured it is done solely by the head of the household, which in turn means that only one set of finances are taken into account and with the increase of women in work it is not accurate thus putting people into groups which they may not essentially belong to. Also the social prestige of someone may not essentially reflect the money that they earn for example Tony Blair when he was in parliament his income was lower than of that a footballer or actor.

Social classes are amongst different countries, all of which have their own way of determining the social hierarchy and not necessarily involving income and family background. In some countries the upper class are seen by their skin colour, to be paler means you have an higher social standing. In countries such as India the social class systems are determined by their inherited background and which tribes they belong to, these social classes unlike the UK are set and there is very little social mobility meaning that it is very rare that people will be able to move up the hierarchy.

This system is known as the 'Caste System' in which the people within the system are expected to marry and interact amongst the same class, thus making it a very popular system used within religions such as Hinduism and Muslim. The different classes within this system are;

Brahmins - Priests and teachers

Ksatriyas - Warriors and ruler

Vaisyas - Farmers and Merchants

Sudras - Labourers

Untouchables - Polluted labourer

Social class still plays a major part within society however going back to the question, does your social class choose you or do you choose your social class in relation to the UK I think that social class has turned into an aspirational element of society in the sense that you are born into a certain social class but that doesn't necessarily mean who you are. With your own individual beliefs, values and attitudes you can obtain your own social standing within society and belong to which ever group you feel you most belong to.

Gender Responses

It is said that the way that different genders interpret and see advertisements is to do with which side of their brain is the most dominant. The right side of the brain is where the lateral thinking takes place which is more emotional this is most dominant within women and the left side of the brain which is logical and rational thinking which is mostly dominant amongst males. In today's lecture we looked at gender differences and how each respond differently to different stimulus especially when looking at advertisement.

In class we were shown 11 different print adverts for various different products and companies, which we then had to write down which ones we remembered. Out of all the adverts I managed to remember six that were shown, all of which used bold colours with a similar colour pallet, writing and text that stood out from the others and simple block shapes.

There was one advert which the majority of the class had remembered, which was the Nivea for Men advert, which used repetition of the brand name, block colours and small precise words that went straight to the message. According to some theories men would be able to remember this ad as they are not as able as women to take in a lot of information at any one time nor are they able to understand complicated messages.

In these circumstances, another factor that influences the differences in the way different genders remember adverts is due to recall, generally it is said that men are more prone to remember the adverts that come on towards the end known as regency, whilst women are more prone to remember the adverts towards the beginning known as primacy.

There is said to be a number of factors that can explain why people remember certain adverts, such as using complimentary or block colours, repetition and text which is why especially with beauty products they tend to use simple shapes and the same colour pallet. One of the most used and successful form of this is using slogans, by using this method consumers are able to recognise a brand or company just by hearing a phrase or by the music that they use.

Here are some examples of some popular slogans;

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpJtsNXGUmg
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXPI22r2JtQ
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_-9QFvhQWo

Another theory is that women tend to remember small details whereas men can't because they think more rationally. To test this out we done a small experiment where we were shown a small room in which we were asked to write down what we remembered in the room. In all honesty I didn't really remember anything, but the other girls in the class did remember an awful lot and really went into detail such as the wallpaper, the telephone the big framed pictured etc, so I would just put this down to I was the exception to the rule.

However since we done this experiment I have completed an test which shows which side of your brain is most dominant. My results showed that I am in the middle, meaning that I use both sides of my brain which maybe why I didn't really remember anything.

We then went on to do a little experiment to show the different gender responses to charity adverts. These adverts are listed below;

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMwt28P_xSQ - Cancer Research UK
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blWd3iixIJc - Banardos
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tijSx_fwoM0 - 'Give Blood'

After watching these adverts you could immediately see the differences amongst the genders especially after watching the Banardos' advert as this trigged an emotional response amongst all the women in the class, whilst the boys went as responsive. This was also noticable with the Cancer Research ad however the Give Blood ad even though it didn't really make a shock appeal the boys were more responsive to it.

This goes back to which side of your brain is more dominant, as you could see the adverts that provoked a emotional response was amongst the females in which their most dominant side of their brain is determined by emotions, whilst the boys were responsive to the give blood ad which was straight to the point, logical and rational.

I have found some examples of ads that would appeal to men and women based on the gender differences and what would appeal to them;

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1ZZreXEqSY
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCEHYjnccUQ
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPKIixluNzk

Enterprise Week

Enterprise Week was organised by Open4business, it enabled us to obtain first hand information from people already within industry and carry out activities to gain a better understanding as to what the industry is really like whether it be via music, business or the arts. The events took place over a period of two weeks, it gave people a diverse range of activities and programmes to look into.

During this time I attended three events; Music Events Management Showcase as I am still slightly interested by events management and as to what this fully entails, Get Connected - how to network more effectively and Women in Business.

The event that i found most interesting was Women in Business, which had guest speakers such as Jenny Shoosmith the manager of House of Frasier and Geraldine Mattis who is the managing director of Geraldine Mattis Limited.

Geraldine Mattis's story I found really remarkable, in that how much she had to go through and how much she had accomplished in such a short space of time, I found her talk really inspirational. She is in fact an inventor, designer and entrepreneur. Geraldine Mattis is one of the leading customising catering products for health conscious adults, parents and children, she has won the special recognition at international British Female Inventors and Innovators award 2009 (BFIIN) and the British Invention Silver Award 2009.

She talked about her troubles with dyslexia and education and previous jobs and work experiences she had undergone and then went onto discuss how she had developed her initial idea through to product development, marketing and networking to where it is today.

In her talk she re-emphasized what the Get Communication event had said about networking as to how important it is and she also emphasized the fact that you need to put in yourself out there, because even if you don't go through big marketing communication agencies just to gout out and meet the right people, making contacts and getting your name across is just as important and can really have an impact on your success.

Perception Experiments

A brands image plays a huge role on consumer purchase decisions, more than likely an individual will buy a product based on the perceptions of the brand this is especially seen with FMCGs (fast moving consumer goods) such as food and toiletries. Consumers are more than likely choose a product with a high established brand identity. This is all to do with perception and how consumers see value different brands. Today's lecture was taken over by the class by which we all had to conduct small experiments to test our perceptions.

My group did a blind taste test experiment using two different brands of chocolate chip cookies, we used Maryland which is a high valued biscuit brand and Tesco's value. Each person in the class had one of each cookie and after tasting them was asked which ones they preferred, suprisingly more than half of the classed said that they preferred the Tesco's valued cookies. They said that they were bigger and more flavoursome.

Once the brands had been revealed the whole class was filled with shock, however even though the Tesco's value was the most favoured cookie everyone was reluctant to change their purchase choice. This goes to show the power that brands have over consumers and can influence them when making purchase decisions.

Another group did a blind tasting experiment using the same technique but with Walkers and Tesco value ready salted crisps. Again the results showed that the Tesco's value crisps, although the cheapest were the most preferred by the class. This goes to show that when brands and visuals are taken out of the equation, a persons other senses are used much more and the value of the product itself is taken a lot more into consideration.

If brands such as Tescos Value were to make their packaging more appealing and re-enhance their brand image and profile they would more than likely become much more successful, as these experiments showed that people are influenced by the packaging of products as well as the brand image and identity.

Another group used an advertisement from the Think campaign, which involved a group of people that were passing a basketball between them. The advert asked you to count how many times the ball had been passed between the group, when the group had finished the ad then went on to say 'did you notice the moonwalking bear?'. The main message of this advert is for drivers to look twice, this ad was really successful at the way it had portrayed this message as it really gets you thinking. When you are concentrating on a particular thing you rarely notice any thing else so it really is important that you look twice, especially for drivers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47LCLoidJh4

Values

In this session we looked at values, as to what they are, where they stem from and how they can influence the way in which we perceive things. There are many definitions which describe the key fundamental elements to which values are and what they come from, a definition of values from the dictionary describes its as ' the ideals, customs, institutions etc, of a society towards which the people of the group have an affective regard. These may be positive or negative. (www.dictionary.com) Solomon (2006) describes values as ' a belief about some desirable end state that transcends specific situations and guides selection of behaviour.

Values are general and different to attitudes in that they do not only apply to specific situations. Solomon (2006) Two people may believe in the same behaviours, but their true beliefs may be some what different. The extent to which people share a belief system is a determinant of the individual, social and cultural elements, therefore I believe that a persons core values come from the parents and their cultural and social surroundings for example someone who has been raised with two parents and other siblings may have different values towards family and relationships etc compared to an only child with a single parent. Also I think that your values may change over time but your core values which have been installed within you at a young age will stay the same. I have listed some core values that as children may have been taught to you to show you what is seen as right and wrong within society.

A theorist Khale, came up with their own list of values (1983), in which it shows the most important aspects that people look to have in their lives. This could be through the way in which they want others to see them , or what they believe to be the most valued in their life. The list of values are;

• Self Respect
• Excitement
• Being Self Respected
• Self Fulfilment
• Sense of Accomplishment
• Warm Relationships with Others
• Security
• Fun & Enjoyment
• Sense of Belonging

These values in relation to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, reflect all the motivational aspects of the aspects of the hierarchy levels for example 'warm relationships with others' is strongly embedded with the belongingness level which consists of love, friendship and acceptance by others. In this sense it could be argued that our values stem from our motivational needs.

In class we did an activity which can be used to show how we think others see us and how we want others to see us. We had to put in order of preference a lion, dog, parrot and elephant, the animal that we put in first represents how we want others to perceive us, the second represents how we believe we are actually being seen by others, the third represents how we would like to be perceiced by others in the future and the last one how we truly want to be.

ELEPHANT = Tolerant, Passive, Calm and Wise

DOG = Friendly, faithful, Loyal, Protective, Hard Working and Loving

LION = Dominant, Independent, Proactive, Leading, Critical and Fearless

PARROT = Lively, Fun, Free Spirited, Popular and Passionate

I put the lion first, elephant second, dog third and parrot last; this showed that I wanted people to perceive me as being dominant, independent and proactive, that I believed that I was being perceived as tolerant, passive and calm, that I would like to be perceived as friendly, faithful and hard working in the future and I truly want to be fun and free spirited. The results of this were really true as sometimes I may come across as being independent and critical but those closest to me would often come to be for advice.

We then looked at the laddering technique, this enables people to determine the stages in which they go through when deciding on which product to buy. It is based on terminal values, people each have specific values and they choose alternate actions to achieve the end state. Products then become a way of achieving these terminal values for example, this could be used for someone buying crisps who's end state was to remain healthy they would then go onto buy low in fat crisps.

This technique can really benefit marketers a lot, as it can help them determine their positioning strategy when introducing a new product in to the market and their USP. Without the use of this they are more than likely not going to be able to achieve the success that they were looking for.