Business to Business Marketing

Culture

Social Class

Ultimately class represents money. And political views. After having taken the 'what class arte you' quiz online, I discovered I am high upper middle class bordering on the top class. The reasons why I wasn’t at the top? The fact that I am not right wing.

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Groups and group membership

'A group is two or more individuals who
–share a set of norms,
–have role relationships,
–and experience interdependent behaviours.' (Hickmott 2008)

'There is an immense amount of pressure on group members to buy things that will meet with the group's approval.' (Solomon 2006)
This often means paying a price in the form of group rejection or embarrassment when one does not conform to others' conceptions of what is good or bad, 'in' or 'out'.
'As a member of a large society, people share certain cultural values or strongly held beliefs about the way the world should be structured. Other values are shared by subcultures, or smaller groups within the culture, such as ethnic groups or teens.' (Solomon 2006)
Certain groups of consumers buy certain brands. For example, ‘chav’s’ and Burberry. Brands know this and use it to create a ‘personality’. This is created by product advertising, packaging and branding. People choose the brand that is approved by the social group by which they belong, or the one to which they aspire.

A theorist, Mark Levine, discussed how when someone of a similar social group is in trouble, people are more inclined to help. I would like to think this untrue, but know this is not. Even last week, Sallie, Rosh and I went to Thorpe Park. Somehow I ended up with my car mounted on a log and a group of lads stopped to help. When they finished they said ‘oh well we both drive Hyundai’s so we have to stick together.’ Ok, so maybe they still would have helped me if we didn’t drive the same make of car but that verbal recognition of us belonging in a sort of 'group' is a genuine necessity for humans to survive. This is reinforced by Maslow subsequently. Levine (2008) conducted 'Four experiments to explore the interaction of group size, social categorization, and bystander behavior. In Study 1, increasing group size inhibited intervention in a street violence scenario when bystanders were strangers but encouraged intervention when bystanders were friends. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings to social category members.' (Levine 2008).

When gender identity was salient, group size ‘encouraged intervention when bystanders and victim shared social category membership. In addition, group size interacted with context-specific norms that both inhibit and encourage helping. Study 3 used physical co-presence and gender identities to examine these social category effects.’ Increasing group size of women produced greater helping of a female victim, but increasing group size of men did not. Additionally, increasing numbers of out-group bystanders resulted in less intervention from women but more intervention from men. Study 4 replicated these findings with a measure of real-life helping behavior. Taken together, the findings indicate that the bystander effect is not a generic consequence of increasing group size.’ (Levine 2008)

'When bystanders share group-level psychological relationships, group size can encourage as well as inhibit helping.' (Levine 2008)

Yes granted, this is a rather basic explanation of social groups and relationships but it is still relevant to elementary school students about socialising and groups

Interesting case study:

'Extant research suggests that targets' emotion expressions automatically evoke similar affect in perceivers. The authors hypothesized that the automatic impact of emotion expressions depends on group membership. In Experiments 1 and 2, an affective priming paradigm was used to measure immediate and preconscious affective responses to same-race or other-race emotion expressions. In Experiment 3, spontaneous vocal affect was measured as participants described the emotions of an ingroup or outgroup sports team fan. In these experiments, immediate and spontaneous affective responses depended on whether the emotional target was ingroup or outgroup. Positive responses to fear expressions and negative responses to joy expressions were observed in outgroup perceivers, relative to ingroup perceivers. In Experiments 4 and 5, discrete emotional responses were examined. In a lexical decision task (Experiment 4), facial expressions of joy elicited fear in outgroup perceivers, relative to ingroup perceivers. In contrast, facial expressions of fear elicited less fear in outgroup than in ingroup perceivers. In Experiment 5, felt dominance mediated emotional responses to ingroup and outgroup vocal emotion. These data support a signal-value model in which emotion expressions signal environmental conditions.' (Weisbuch 2008)










'Intergroup exchanges are sometimes characterized by heightened levels of the basic motivation to know one's social standing with others'. (Vorauer 2008)










Maslow discussed how important it is for a person to feel belonging. It comes after psychological (eating, drinking and shelter) and safety needs. This makes it a very important need of human beings, not a want. See below.

Being part of a group is not necessarily about belonging. It helps us gain a sense of achievement and sometimes even superciliousness. For example, in a comparative manner. This can be applied in terms of egotism, such as cars, houses and even grades. The initial reaction of all students is to ask each other what everybody achieved so as to know where they stand in comparison to their peers and equals. This can give a great sense of satisfaction if you know you have achieved a very high grade, comparatively.

Generational Marketing

Marketers of course have target audiences for their products. this entails knowing the group, or generation extremely well and using this knowledge of them to market products. The class split off into groups to delve into an assigned generation to see who they are, how many of them there are, and what makes them tick.

This information helps to create a very precise, informative profile of the consumer, which marketers play on. It is not that simple of course, as you cannot simply target one generation, it will be a combination of gender, generation and the 'group' they belong to. This will be discussed in my subsequent blog.

Gift Giving

The giving and receiving of gifts is "a pervasive form of consumer behaviour engaged in on a frequent basis by all members of modern society" (Banks, 1979)

To give a gift, emotionally connects the giver and receiver.
‘Research carried out by psychologists and marketers, among others, have found that giving gifts is a surprisingly complex and important part of human interaction, helping to define relationships and strengthen bonds with family and friends’ (Krusa 2008).

How does gift giving affect marketers?
‘It has an inbuilt habit of reciprocity bound into the construction of human relationships that establishes a virtuous circle of consumption - making gift giving a phenomenon of intrinsic interest to marketers’ (Fong 2009)

'Gifting is an emotionally charged chance for retailers and manufacturers to connect directly with two target markets at once which gives gifting its opportunity for exponential marketing impact' (Admap).

Marketers use these associated emotions and sense of it being imperative to they're benefit. As we know, firms such as accountants have long made use of mailed, timely reminders, such as organizers mailed before tax season. Not all industries are that astute, however, and a recent mailing from a Southwest American florist provides a good tip for firms to offer to certain clients. Mayfield florist sends reminder postcards some 50 weeks after a customer had previously ordered a birthday bouquet. "Last year, we assisted you with a birthday order on..." the card reads, then gives the date. "If we can assist you again this year, please call."
The florist's local and toll-free numbers are given, as is the Web site address, and the florist's mailing address, followed by the number of the previous year's order.
The front of the card also offers a picture of a suggested bouquet, and the back offers a written description of another bouquet. Very astute!

Gift Giving can be viewed as a ritual involving the selection, presentation, acceptance and interpretation of a gift, which can be accentuated during every holiday or special occasion. It can be interpreted as a symbolic exchange where the giver is motivated by acknowledging the social bonds between people. 'The situation in which giving gifts take place can be influenced by certain cultures, occasions or ceremonies whether they are personal or on a professional basis' (Solomon et al).

The more things change, the more they stay the same -- at least when it comes to the holiday season. While consumers will focus on traditional gift categories like clothing and books, what they will be buying in those categories will be different from previous years.

There are certain times you just have to accept it, you will be out of pocket and need to give gifts. for example, Christmas.

This previously religious, joyous occasion has been turned into a marketers dream.

'How would you feel if over the course of many centuries the joyful celebration of the miracle of your virgin birth was slowly but inexorably transformed into an increasingly secular event characterized by binge eating, an insatiable lust for consumer goods and blindly pagan reverence for a mythical, chronically obese, gift-giving hermit?" (Feschuk 2008)

The late Cambridge economist, Nicholas Kaldor, is said to have observed that the money supply surges in December and then falls back in January, before dryly remarking, "At last I have discovered the cause of Christmas!"

'Whenever consumer shopping behaviour is driven by emotion, the shopper's goal is to buy a thing to achieve a special feeling, enhance an emotional experience or deepen an emotional reaction.' It is seen to be an action that will strengthen the emotional connection between individuals (Admap)

Contrary to Kotler's beliefs, Social and psychological factors are regarded as more important than economical ones in determining the consumer's brand choice behavior in the gift-giving process of a specialty good such as an expensive mobile telephone to their family members, close friends and colleagues.

Then talking about the change in the level of involvement of gift giving and the emergence of 'experience gifts', Clarke stated: 'Concepts of donor sacrifice of time and effort, alongside gift surprise emerge as especially pertinent to experience gift giving, and notions of sharing, suspense and recipient sacrifice reinforce the proposition that experience gifts are deserving of researcher effort to better understand the phenomenon.' (Clarke 2006)

Interestingly, Fong talks about the altruistic nature of gift giving. ‘despite that fact that agents have no intrinsic concern for reciprocity or fairness, the more altruistic the recipient is, the more the donor exaggerates the gift size.’ (Fong 2009). I have to agree with this thought.

I have to Say that as much as i wish to disagree with the following statement i know its true... but don't stop buying me gifts because of it!

‘cash is often superior to gifts in-kind for maximizing welfare’ (Principe 2009).

Heuristics, Memory and Nostalgia

What are heuristics? How do they help us make decisions or solve problems? How do they hinder decision making and problem solving? What does the study of heuristics tell us about how our mind works? In psychology, the term "heuristics" is used to describe cognitive shortcuts that our mind takes in order to save time and effort while solving problems and making decisions. Although this rule of thumb technique does not guarantee the solution, it is highly likely to solve the problem. These congnitive shortcuts differ from algorithms as algorithms will definitely solve the problem, although they would consume more time in the process. Thus, heuristics are shortcuts that eliminate the need to consider unlikely possibilities or irrelevant states to reach the final solution. From that perspective, heuristics are useful in making decisions or solving problems. One of the most important heuristic methods was explored by Newell & Simon.

'The human problem solver can be viewed as an information processing system that manipulates structures.' (Newell & Simon 1972).

'Heuristics are the mental rules of thumb that lead to a speedy decision' (Solomon et al, 2006),

Heuristics are 'making quick decisions when there is a lot of choice' (Williams, 2001). When we see advertisements that present too much information to us at one time, we often makie rash, fast judgements. This is without considering all of the relevant information. These mental shortcuts which facilitate decision-making are called heuristics.

There are four possible heuristics that may be processed by the consumer when making a purchase decision. The two most relevant are as follows:

- recognition - these focus mainly on the branding of products, ie the consumer is more likely to buy the one they know;

-minimalist, who are advertising based, use recognition plus one random criteria such as a nice label.

There is a constant need to reinforce a positive brand image, this sits in the sunconscious of the consumer and therefore promotes customer satisfaction during and after a purchase has been made. This in itself helps to create a positive image of that brand/product/service etc. In order to do this effectively, it is imperative that the needs and wants of the consumer are addressed at all times, encouraging the consumer to change a want into a need.

Kotler's Black Box Model of Buyer Behaviour looks at a stimulus-response aspect in which the consumer processes certain stimuli, including the four P's and other major forces and events in their environment.this helps with turning that want to a need. The stimuli experienced by the consumer will enter the black box where they will be turned into a set of responses that will be individual to each consumer based on their past experiences/decision making processes and beliefs.






‘Psychological studies indicate people in positive mood states tend to do a better job of integrating new information than people in negative or neutral mood states.It is also reported that people in positive mood states may tend to engage in heuristic thinking rather than systematic thinking.’ (Eighmey 2008) Eighmey, who has a blog himself, shows an interesting Fiat advert. ‘The spot was part of the 2007 relaunch of the brand positioning this "city car" to the youthful and discerning market segments.’ (Eighmey 2008)

Memory in advertising



Provoking nostalgia is a very effective weapon in advertising as it transports the audience to a ‘happy place’. This of course then has an association with the producat and they will subconsciously like the brand form this associated emotion. This int urn should generate a sale. For example, the follownign marks and spencers advert, appeals to say my parentas generation with the use of twiggy, and of mine, with the use of Myleene klass.

NOSTALGIA.

'Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for earlier days when summers were hotter, days were longer, food was tastier and people were friendlier, lends itself to some traditional, long-lasting brands that many consumers remember from childhood' (Wright, 2000).

'When a stimulus is capable of recreating a personal event, even after many years, there often follows a bitter-sweet sentiment known as nostalgia' (Dubois, 2000).

'Nostalgia has been described as a bitter-sweet emotion, where the past is viewed with both sadness and longing' (Solomon, 2000).

As Solomon discussed, nostalgia is a bittersweet emotion and this knowledge, for advertisers, is like kids in a sweet store! They play on it massively. For example, as we saw in the Marks and Spencer’s advert and the Coca Cola one. Now especially, it is a real trend with advertisers replaying old adverts for example Burger King. This is the epitome of playing on nostalgia. The older generation watch it and get transported to a happy time and place and want to visit the shop to ‘relive’ it.
Many 'classic' products appeal to consumers' memories of their youthful days. Advertisers use many references to 'the good old days' in their campaigns, helping to call up memories of distant youth in the hope that these feelings can be translated into the products they are selling today.
After having conducted my experiment, provoking a nostalgic reaction from my uncle by playing him a song form his generation, I discovered how effective music is in provoking this intended nostalgic reaction. It really can transport you back to a certain place where you were happy, or even sad. The other two main ways of provoking this type of reaction is taste and smell, which of course can’t be achieved through and advertising. Stimuli, such as a song or photograph, can provoke nostalgia in the form of an instantaneous reaction in a person's body language whether it is foot tapping, Goosebumps, smiling, getting more animated or speaking louder and faster. It is reactions such as these that the marketer and advertiser aim to recreate for the target audience of a product in order for them generate a sense of relationship and a bond with brand/product and also to get them talking about it too.
The picture below is a mood board of all the memories the song provoked for my uncle. He stared talking about where he was exactly, and the events of the particular night he associated the song with. He sang along and tapped his foot. It was fascinating to watch after having studied it. The song music video is below the mood board. This same song was played at my parents wedding and my mum will sit and tell you all about her reception party whenever she hears the song!

MEMORY

'Memory involves a process of acquiring information and storing it over time so that it will be available when needed. Contemporary approaches to the study of memory employ an information-processing approach. They assume that the mind is in some ways like a computer: data are input, processed and output for later use in revised form' (Solomon, 2006).

It is a known fact that the more familiar the consumer is with a product, the more likely they are to buy it in the future. This is one of the basic fundamentals of marketing where the advertiser aims to build awareness of a product.

Salience/shock advertising is predominantly used in advertising in order to create certain stimuli reaction by the consumer. this makes it far more likely to stand out int heir memory and they are more likely to buy it. it is a great method to use in such a hoghyl competitive market. Examples of salience could be the use of distinct, contrasting packaging or unusual forms of advertising such as the Gorilla advert or the eyebrow advert used to promote Cadbury's Dairy Milk.