I couldn’t think of anything to write this blog over, so I decided to watch the Michael Shermer Podcast and I’m glad that I did. He made a lot of great points about science, intelligence, and theory that I thought wouldn’t relate to marketing.
As a Led Zeppelin fan I liked the back-tracked Stairway to Heaven segment too. I picked up on the Satan part at first, but when he put up the supposed backwards lyrics I could make myself hear every word since that is what my mind wanted me to hear. I have tried to spin Zeppelin IV backwards on my turntable before but could never get it perfect at 33 rpm. I also thought the images of the Virgin Mary and the smiley face on Mars were interesting too, and this brings me to the point where I relate this to marketing. As consumers we are too trusting and should be more skeptical. Often, like the images and Stairway demonstrations we believe what we are told without testing for ourselves. A real-world example of this would be Tide detergent; supposedly it cleans clothes better and most consumers believe this without testing for themselves. I have always used Tide since it is included in my care packages, but I really don’t know if it cleans better; in fact I likely couldn’t tell the difference between clothes washed in Tide or the leading store brand. Procter and Gamble and the bottle tell me that it cleans better, so like most consumers I believe it. This is true for a lot of different products but Tide stuck out to me.
I also found the part on intelligence increasing three points every decade interesting too. This seems to be true, but after watching the Podcast maybe I should be more skeptical about it. If the average IQ is 100 now that means in 100 years the average person will be considered a genius by today’s standards. When put in a time perspective 100 years is not too long considering the universe is 13.7 billion years old. This brings me to yet another marketing insight: if the average person is a genius in 100 years, will marketing also adapt at this rate to be able to reach customers at the genius level? Some thought on the topic lends to the idea that if the general population is increasing at this rate then most college-educated marketers will adapt at the same rate as well and marketing as a function will be able to adapt too. This is really interesting considering marketing has adapted so much since the 1950’s, but adding the aspect of marketing to geniuses makes it seem more difficult. If most of the consumers are at this intellectual level they might be able to see through some of the thin marketing tactics and analyze things more themselves.
As I said earlier, when I first started to watch this Podcast I thought, “yeah, it’ll be ok to get through the assignment,” but I am glad that I ended up watching it. It was interesting to realize the history of thought behind Saturn having rings, which most second-graders know today to be a fact, when some of the most historic intellectuals of the day battled with the idea. I agree with Shermer that both good theory and science must be combined and one without the other usually leaves questions, but no answers. In my opinion this has been one of the more interesting Podcasts, not to say that the others were boring, but this one really resonated with me and I believe I was able to draw some insights from it. The insights might be more marketer-based than customer-based but in the end both end up almost mingled together.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The Persuaders
The three-stage technique used by Dr. Rapaille consisted of moving past reason and through emotion to get to the primal core. Dr. Rapaille fit many of the stereotypes of psychologists but his message and impressive list of customers speak for themselves.
Past Reason
In the first step of breaking the code Dr. Rapaille introduces a focus group to a topic and listens to their input. The initial step involves a traditional focus group and a circle of chairs. Participants in the group are encouraged to say how they feel about a topic, such as luxury, and begin to feel more comfortable with the study. Most of the comments made deal with reason in the cortex and are not extremely important in the study; the purpose is to move past the first two steps to get to the primal core.
Through Emotion
Dr. Rapaille stated that participants in a focus group want to show how intelligent they are and this presents a barrier; in order to get past this barrier he gets the members to tell a story about the topic as if the audience was a five-year-old from another planet. The Persuaders did not show much of this step but it could be seen that the focus group was surprised and confused but played along. By having the members tell a story in the simplest form it removed many of the emotions and brought members to the basics of the topic.
To the Primal Core
To begin the third and most important phase of the focus group Dr. Rapialle removed all of the chairs from the room and replaced them with pillows; focus group participants were then encouraged to relax on the pillows with the lights off and think about the first time they experienced the topic or product. After a period the lights were turned on and participants would write about their first experience, which could take them back thirty years and excite the memories they experienced. This brought participants to the primal core and was the main goal of Dr. Rapialle’s study.
One idea that interested me in the reptilian code was the idea that the first time a new product or idea is experienced we imbed and define the product or experience from that first time. This seems intuitive but when I think of coffee I think of my morning routine, not the first time I saw my dad drinking it in the morning. I can see, though, how relaxing and thinking of the first time I experienced the product how the thought of my dad would come to mind. In The Persuaders Dr. Rapialle used the illustration of thinking of mothers when coffee came to mind. I thought it was interesting that we build and build on a first experience of a product, but can still remember the primal core of the product.
I thought the idea of Song airlines was a bit too idealistic and the marketers were a little out of touch with reality. They used and wanted customers to use buzzwords like “that’s song” instead of “that’s cool” to describe their experiences with Song. The marketers also focused only on a specific target market of women during the show; this could be the only part the editors chose to show but if this was the only group they targeted, like in the commercial, they are missing out on many customers. They never addressed business travel and every time I have flown the people in the plane were very diverse, not at all like the upscale, trendy woman the marketers were targeting. I get the image in my head of walking into one of Song’s airplanes and seeing it just completely full of the women they are targeting and it just seems ridiculous to me. With a budget of $12M Song was facing an uphill battle against other giants such as JetBlue and Southwest.
Past Reason
In the first step of breaking the code Dr. Rapaille introduces a focus group to a topic and listens to their input. The initial step involves a traditional focus group and a circle of chairs. Participants in the group are encouraged to say how they feel about a topic, such as luxury, and begin to feel more comfortable with the study. Most of the comments made deal with reason in the cortex and are not extremely important in the study; the purpose is to move past the first two steps to get to the primal core.
Through Emotion
Dr. Rapaille stated that participants in a focus group want to show how intelligent they are and this presents a barrier; in order to get past this barrier he gets the members to tell a story about the topic as if the audience was a five-year-old from another planet. The Persuaders did not show much of this step but it could be seen that the focus group was surprised and confused but played along. By having the members tell a story in the simplest form it removed many of the emotions and brought members to the basics of the topic.
To the Primal Core
To begin the third and most important phase of the focus group Dr. Rapialle removed all of the chairs from the room and replaced them with pillows; focus group participants were then encouraged to relax on the pillows with the lights off and think about the first time they experienced the topic or product. After a period the lights were turned on and participants would write about their first experience, which could take them back thirty years and excite the memories they experienced. This brought participants to the primal core and was the main goal of Dr. Rapialle’s study.
One idea that interested me in the reptilian code was the idea that the first time a new product or idea is experienced we imbed and define the product or experience from that first time. This seems intuitive but when I think of coffee I think of my morning routine, not the first time I saw my dad drinking it in the morning. I can see, though, how relaxing and thinking of the first time I experienced the product how the thought of my dad would come to mind. In The Persuaders Dr. Rapialle used the illustration of thinking of mothers when coffee came to mind. I thought it was interesting that we build and build on a first experience of a product, but can still remember the primal core of the product.
I thought the idea of Song airlines was a bit too idealistic and the marketers were a little out of touch with reality. They used and wanted customers to use buzzwords like “that’s song” instead of “that’s cool” to describe their experiences with Song. The marketers also focused only on a specific target market of women during the show; this could be the only part the editors chose to show but if this was the only group they targeted, like in the commercial, they are missing out on many customers. They never addressed business travel and every time I have flown the people in the plane were very diverse, not at all like the upscale, trendy woman the marketers were targeting. I get the image in my head of walking into one of Song’s airplanes and seeing it just completely full of the women they are targeting and it just seems ridiculous to me. With a budget of $12M Song was facing an uphill battle against other giants such as JetBlue and Southwest.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Kenna's Dilema
Chapter five of Blink offered many insights, one of the examples I found the most interesting was the story of margarine being turned yellow to sell better. From the way the chapter describes the situation researchers had not given much thought to the small detail that, at the time, margarine was white instead of the typical yellow of butter. I thought it was strange that this had never occurred to anyone in the companies, but this example goes to show that no level of detail is too small for customer insights.
Even though the colors were different between old margarine and new margarine the taste is the same. Customers have such a connection with quality butter being a yellow color that they likely thought that something of another color was inferior. After analysis a marketing consultant was able to pinpoint the problem and the research agreed. At a dinner party people did not even notice the yellow margarine was not real butter, they even commented on how good the bread and butter tasted.
Another twist in this insight was that an aluminum wrapper made the margarine seem like a more prestigious product; I have never associated an individual metal wrapper with quality but after thought realized many champagnes have aluminum wrappers on top of the cork as well as Hershey Kisses. These two insights go to show that no level of detail can be left unturned in products and suggestions that might seem strange, if well founded, can often lead to a solution to the problem. Creativity and out of the box thinking are important in marketing but often answers are right under our noses.
Another insight I thought was interesting was the example of the role of packaging between E&J and Christian Brothers brandies. As the chapter describes, these brandies were considered lower level and their clientele were likely not concerned about taste as much as the moderate brandy consumer, but packaging between the two products was a big determinate on which brand was chosen. E&J beat Christian Brothers in blind taste tests and when it was poured from a Christian Brothers bottle, but the more smooth and exciting bottle design of Christian Brothers appealed to customers better.
The packaging of a product is likely the first thing a consumer sees when shopping and can instantly trigger recognition or the thought of a superior or inferior product. Companies go to great lengths to design packaging that appeals to customers better, but some companies seem to ignore this important factor. It is important to compare packaging within the industry to see what brand sets the standard, but it is also important to test customers on what is most appealing to them. E&J’s packaging seemed to be traditional and something management did not even see as being a problem; this mistake likely cost the company a lot over the years in lost sales and customers.
The design for this experiment seemed fairly easy and I was able to relate it to my Marketing Research and Analysis class. The X and O notation could be made out simply and I liked that the research had many controlling variables. Often complicated research methods are necessary to account for all variables, but in this example an elementary method proved to be effective enough. Often it seems research might go too deep in gaining insights when a large, underlying problem may be the cause of the problem in the first place. I think it is very interesting, though, that consumers’ tastes changed according to the bottle design and a trip through the aisles of a liquor store will show that the bottle or packaging design of a product can really make it stand out and seem superior to other products.
Even though the colors were different between old margarine and new margarine the taste is the same. Customers have such a connection with quality butter being a yellow color that they likely thought that something of another color was inferior. After analysis a marketing consultant was able to pinpoint the problem and the research agreed. At a dinner party people did not even notice the yellow margarine was not real butter, they even commented on how good the bread and butter tasted.
Another twist in this insight was that an aluminum wrapper made the margarine seem like a more prestigious product; I have never associated an individual metal wrapper with quality but after thought realized many champagnes have aluminum wrappers on top of the cork as well as Hershey Kisses. These two insights go to show that no level of detail can be left unturned in products and suggestions that might seem strange, if well founded, can often lead to a solution to the problem. Creativity and out of the box thinking are important in marketing but often answers are right under our noses.
Another insight I thought was interesting was the example of the role of packaging between E&J and Christian Brothers brandies. As the chapter describes, these brandies were considered lower level and their clientele were likely not concerned about taste as much as the moderate brandy consumer, but packaging between the two products was a big determinate on which brand was chosen. E&J beat Christian Brothers in blind taste tests and when it was poured from a Christian Brothers bottle, but the more smooth and exciting bottle design of Christian Brothers appealed to customers better.
The packaging of a product is likely the first thing a consumer sees when shopping and can instantly trigger recognition or the thought of a superior or inferior product. Companies go to great lengths to design packaging that appeals to customers better, but some companies seem to ignore this important factor. It is important to compare packaging within the industry to see what brand sets the standard, but it is also important to test customers on what is most appealing to them. E&J’s packaging seemed to be traditional and something management did not even see as being a problem; this mistake likely cost the company a lot over the years in lost sales and customers.
The design for this experiment seemed fairly easy and I was able to relate it to my Marketing Research and Analysis class. The X and O notation could be made out simply and I liked that the research had many controlling variables. Often complicated research methods are necessary to account for all variables, but in this example an elementary method proved to be effective enough. Often it seems research might go too deep in gaining insights when a large, underlying problem may be the cause of the problem in the first place. I think it is very interesting, though, that consumers’ tastes changed according to the bottle design and a trip through the aisles of a liquor store will show that the bottle or packaging design of a product can really make it stand out and seem superior to other products.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Private Label
For my research topic I would like to look at private label brands and the customer connection or experience with the products. Private label brands have become more accepted recently in the United States, and have been very popular in Europe for decades. In economic times like now customers are willing to trade off brands in order to save money, and the growth potential of private label brands continues to grow.
Consumers tend to be brand loyal to a brand that they believe gives them something more and are willing to pay a price. Moms choose Crest toothpaste for their kids believing that it is better at protecting their kids’ teeth while others might be brand loyal to Quaker Oats oatmeal, believing it to be healthier than the store brand. Customers usually claim an experience with a branded product, which makes it harder for private label manufacturers to gain the same level of connection and experience.
An AC Nielsen study found that private label growth rate is five percent while manufacturer brand growth is fairly stagnant at two percent. The savings for customers buying private label brands ranges from sixteen percent to forty-six percent less than brand name products. This creates a lot more value for the customer, but many customers are hesitant to accept these private label products as comparable in quality.
An exception to the private label plague is Ol’ Roy dog food, which is manufactured by Wal-Mart. Ol’ Roy is the top-selling dog food, but many customers do not realize that it is a private label; this might be due to the nontraditional private label packaging of the product. Ol’ Roy packaging does not look like the typical packaging that often plagues private label goods. It is likely that Ol’ Roy has differentiated itself from being known as a private label brand, and the success of this strategy has paid off.
This topic is important to me because I think consumers often put too much emphasis on brands and are not willing to try a product that might be more beneficial in price for them, consider these people brand snobs if you will. In the over-the-counter medicine industry my friend in the PharmD program at UT has told me that many private label products are made by the same manufacturers of products that may be three times more expensive because they carry a well known brand name. This topic is also interesting to me and I think there is a lot of future potential in marketing private label products.
The AC Nielsen article was interesting and provided an excellent analysis of private label goods, ranging from growth rates by country to the percentage of savings versus other brands. The article also states that in nine of fourteen countries almost all households have purchased private label goods in the past year; besides lower income households there is no typical private label consumer as well.
The research on the topic will be interesting too, as more and more stores realize how profitable store brand goods can be. A few concerns that I have about the topic are that the information between sources may be similar or product specific; in the course of the project I may decide to focus on one segment of private label goods in order to better understand a segment.
Source:
Nishikawa, C., & Perrin, J. (n.d.). Private label grows global. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from AC Nielsen Web site: http://us.acnielsen.com/pubs/ 2005_q4_ci_privatelabel.shtml
Consumers tend to be brand loyal to a brand that they believe gives them something more and are willing to pay a price. Moms choose Crest toothpaste for their kids believing that it is better at protecting their kids’ teeth while others might be brand loyal to Quaker Oats oatmeal, believing it to be healthier than the store brand. Customers usually claim an experience with a branded product, which makes it harder for private label manufacturers to gain the same level of connection and experience.
An AC Nielsen study found that private label growth rate is five percent while manufacturer brand growth is fairly stagnant at two percent. The savings for customers buying private label brands ranges from sixteen percent to forty-six percent less than brand name products. This creates a lot more value for the customer, but many customers are hesitant to accept these private label products as comparable in quality.
An exception to the private label plague is Ol’ Roy dog food, which is manufactured by Wal-Mart. Ol’ Roy is the top-selling dog food, but many customers do not realize that it is a private label; this might be due to the nontraditional private label packaging of the product. Ol’ Roy packaging does not look like the typical packaging that often plagues private label goods. It is likely that Ol’ Roy has differentiated itself from being known as a private label brand, and the success of this strategy has paid off.
This topic is important to me because I think consumers often put too much emphasis on brands and are not willing to try a product that might be more beneficial in price for them, consider these people brand snobs if you will. In the over-the-counter medicine industry my friend in the PharmD program at UT has told me that many private label products are made by the same manufacturers of products that may be three times more expensive because they carry a well known brand name. This topic is also interesting to me and I think there is a lot of future potential in marketing private label products.
The AC Nielsen article was interesting and provided an excellent analysis of private label goods, ranging from growth rates by country to the percentage of savings versus other brands. The article also states that in nine of fourteen countries almost all households have purchased private label goods in the past year; besides lower income households there is no typical private label consumer as well.
The research on the topic will be interesting too, as more and more stores realize how profitable store brand goods can be. A few concerns that I have about the topic are that the information between sources may be similar or product specific; in the course of the project I may decide to focus on one segment of private label goods in order to better understand a segment.
Source:
Nishikawa, C., & Perrin, J. (n.d.). Private label grows global. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from AC Nielsen Web site: http://us.acnielsen.com/pubs/ 2005_q4_ci_privatelabel.shtml
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Free Blog
The ideal life in America is well defined and has been instilled into peoples’ minds since childhood: two-story house, white picket fence, 2.3 children, a perfect lawn, new car, and of course the corner office. I know from my experience so much emphasis is placed not on following this model exactly, but at least coming close to meeting the expectations. While not all of the expectations are material, most of them are. I have become disillusioned with the idea that success is not measured in material objects. Think of examples of people that are thought to be successful: Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Richard Branson and Martin Luther King. More often than not the first person to come to mind when the word success is mentioned is a billionaire. Examples like MLK, Mother Teresa and M. Gandhi exist but they are often not the examples that come to mind first even though they are great examples of being successful.
Fortunately for everyone people have been successful in the pursuit of bettering the lives of others, but I think most people define success by owning a certain item further defined by the brand and price. Is it all marketers' fault that people believe this? The answer is definitely no, but it likely plays a part in it. There are many questions I am asking myself lately about marketing products to people and if I think it is something I will say forty years from now was a worthwhile devotion of my life. The answer changes from day to day but has really shifted as of lately. Although we haven’t had any articles that pertain to this subject I think it is important that students realize there are many ethical questions to ask themselves when marketing a product.
Take today for an example: I went on a hike with my roommate and close friend and we had a great time. It didn’t matter what brand of shoes we wore, what kind of water bottle we used, or the names on the backpacks we carried. The things that mattered most were the memories and the experience; I know we have talked a lot about experience in class, but this was a different type of experience. On the trail not much else mattered for those six hours, even the fact that we brought barely enough food to be considered a lunch was fine with me. I was with two of my best friends and we were having a great time; if an experience like that could be marketed then I’m sold. But maybe the reason that we all enjoyed it so much was that we were able to enjoy so much with so little, which could be looked at as a greater value to bring this thought back to marketing terms.
To tie everything together I think often success is viewed as too material and sometimes the best things in life cannot be branded. Many times I find that I am not chasing after my own idea of success, but others. Some people like Bill Gates and Shirley Polykoff are able to find success and help others in products, while other people are not. They believed in their products, something that often diminishes down the ranks of a company. Many insights can be drawn from this, but they are not the type most marketers want to face. Although I wish products and brands didn’t play as large a part in my life the fact is hard to ignore. It was nice to escape everything for a few hours today, but I know that is something I can’t find happiness in everyday. Although students will find their own version of success and happiness in different careers and ways I think it is important for us to evaluate and pursue our own individual definitions.
Fortunately for everyone people have been successful in the pursuit of bettering the lives of others, but I think most people define success by owning a certain item further defined by the brand and price. Is it all marketers' fault that people believe this? The answer is definitely no, but it likely plays a part in it. There are many questions I am asking myself lately about marketing products to people and if I think it is something I will say forty years from now was a worthwhile devotion of my life. The answer changes from day to day but has really shifted as of lately. Although we haven’t had any articles that pertain to this subject I think it is important that students realize there are many ethical questions to ask themselves when marketing a product.
Take today for an example: I went on a hike with my roommate and close friend and we had a great time. It didn’t matter what brand of shoes we wore, what kind of water bottle we used, or the names on the backpacks we carried. The things that mattered most were the memories and the experience; I know we have talked a lot about experience in class, but this was a different type of experience. On the trail not much else mattered for those six hours, even the fact that we brought barely enough food to be considered a lunch was fine with me. I was with two of my best friends and we were having a great time; if an experience like that could be marketed then I’m sold. But maybe the reason that we all enjoyed it so much was that we were able to enjoy so much with so little, which could be looked at as a greater value to bring this thought back to marketing terms.
To tie everything together I think often success is viewed as too material and sometimes the best things in life cannot be branded. Many times I find that I am not chasing after my own idea of success, but others. Some people like Bill Gates and Shirley Polykoff are able to find success and help others in products, while other people are not. They believed in their products, something that often diminishes down the ranks of a company. Many insights can be drawn from this, but they are not the type most marketers want to face. Although I wish products and brands didn’t play as large a part in my life the fact is hard to ignore. It was nice to escape everything for a few hours today, but I know that is something I can’t find happiness in everyday. Although students will find their own version of success and happiness in different careers and ways I think it is important for us to evaluate and pursue our own individual definitions.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Paradox of Choice
Customers have never had as much access to product information as customers do now. People can research a car, a book, or shoes online now before they decide to make a purchase, all at the click of a mouse. There are now so many online stores with reviews and websites solely dedicated to reviews that a customer may have trouble even making a decision about which site to use and trust, and at this point the decision of which product to buy still looms in the near distance.
This example would likely be embraced by Barry Schwartz in his podcast about the excessive amount of products customers must decide between. His examples of how an outing to buy a regular pair of jeans turned into a multi-hour ordeal and being bombarded by 65 million choices of home stereo possibilities at just one store bring the topic into light.
Answers to which product will benefit a customer the most do not magically appear, but rather the customer must make the decision, usually in the store, between many products. Obviously the customer will bring some preconceived ideas into the decision like brand name, past experience with the brand, and intended use for the product. These all contribute to the decision making process but other factors such as options available and the almighty price can influence the decision as well. Different customers make decisions in different ways and by different processes and some can handle having millions of options while others simply cannot.
Research by a McCombs Ph.D. student, Jae-Eun Namkoong, which studies decision making and regret, compliments Mr. Schwartz’s segment on regret after a decision is made. In Ms. Namkoong’s studies respondents are given choices on how to get to work and the path taken. If the respondent is later told that the path they chose was the fastest they feel good, while on the other hand if they are told the path they took had heavy traffic and the other option was faster they feel regret. A familiar or routine path can often lead to regret in the study. The Paradox of Choice contains a segment about how customers may try to reduce their risk of regret by choosing a certain familiar brand or option, which is reasonable. The problem occurs when customers are overwhelmed with the 65 million home stereo options described before, and no clear preferable choice exists. Even when bringing in past experience a choice with this many variables can be too much.
I have experienced the paradox of choice in one of the simplest places where low-effort purchases are made: the supermarket. I look at my shopping list and realize I need bread; once I turn into the bread aisle I am greeted by more than fifty brands and types of bread. The same goes with canned soup. Often I just scan the display and find three flavors quickly just to be done. Can anybody be expected to make a solid decision when faced by a wall of over two-hundred red and white Campbell’s soup varieties?
Another example of when I faced the paradox of choice was a few months ago when I opened a savings account at a national bank. There were so many choices at first and so many options, but fortunately the financial meltdown helped narrow down my prospects. When I decided on a bank that seemed as if it would survive into the new decade I was forced to decide between over ten saving plans. I compare what I wanted in a savings account to what Mr. Schwartz wanted in a pair of jeans, just the regular model, but unfortunately this seems to never be an option anymore.
This example would likely be embraced by Barry Schwartz in his podcast about the excessive amount of products customers must decide between. His examples of how an outing to buy a regular pair of jeans turned into a multi-hour ordeal and being bombarded by 65 million choices of home stereo possibilities at just one store bring the topic into light.
Answers to which product will benefit a customer the most do not magically appear, but rather the customer must make the decision, usually in the store, between many products. Obviously the customer will bring some preconceived ideas into the decision like brand name, past experience with the brand, and intended use for the product. These all contribute to the decision making process but other factors such as options available and the almighty price can influence the decision as well. Different customers make decisions in different ways and by different processes and some can handle having millions of options while others simply cannot.
Research by a McCombs Ph.D. student, Jae-Eun Namkoong, which studies decision making and regret, compliments Mr. Schwartz’s segment on regret after a decision is made. In Ms. Namkoong’s studies respondents are given choices on how to get to work and the path taken. If the respondent is later told that the path they chose was the fastest they feel good, while on the other hand if they are told the path they took had heavy traffic and the other option was faster they feel regret. A familiar or routine path can often lead to regret in the study. The Paradox of Choice contains a segment about how customers may try to reduce their risk of regret by choosing a certain familiar brand or option, which is reasonable. The problem occurs when customers are overwhelmed with the 65 million home stereo options described before, and no clear preferable choice exists. Even when bringing in past experience a choice with this many variables can be too much.
I have experienced the paradox of choice in one of the simplest places where low-effort purchases are made: the supermarket. I look at my shopping list and realize I need bread; once I turn into the bread aisle I am greeted by more than fifty brands and types of bread. The same goes with canned soup. Often I just scan the display and find three flavors quickly just to be done. Can anybody be expected to make a solid decision when faced by a wall of over two-hundred red and white Campbell’s soup varieties?
Another example of when I faced the paradox of choice was a few months ago when I opened a savings account at a national bank. There were so many choices at first and so many options, but fortunately the financial meltdown helped narrow down my prospects. When I decided on a bank that seemed as if it would survive into the new decade I was forced to decide between over ten saving plans. I compare what I wanted in a savings account to what Mr. Schwartz wanted in a pair of jeans, just the regular model, but unfortunately this seems to never be an option anymore.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Fastest Changing Generation
Generation Y has confused marketers perhaps more than any other generation. The fast pace of life and increased individualism youth found from the 90's until now had most companies scratching their heads until recently. It is hard to describe Generation Y in just a few words, but change, technology and individualism come to mind. In trying to sell products to teenagers companies could not keep up; many teens were better on a computer than the marketing manager creating a sales plan.
This confusion might have led to the familiar phrase that Gen. Y is composed of lazy and spoiled kids. While I have never gone without anything I would not classify my life as excessive. Perhaps a quick jab was the best way for companies to simply say "we do not understand you."
I feel like companies are starting to understand younger generations better now, possibly due to better research or young employees that remember how it once was to be misunderstood. Commercials on T.V. aimed at teens are not as unreasonable as they used to be; advertisers realized that trying to look smarter than the young customer did not work as well as in the past.
I must make a confession that I am not the most trendy person; I do not have a Facebook and I am wearing a pair of Levi's that, according to our required readings, are out of style. Even though I do not take up the offer on every new trend I am not a lost cause when it comes to new products. Ads that I have the best feelings towards are realistic, tell me about the product, and are entertaining/funny.
Even though I am not the poster-child of Gen. Y it is important for companies to recognize that a generation is not a blanket description for people born in a twenty year period. Marketers seem to be realizing this now and it should help the avoid expensive mistakes in the future.
This confusion might have led to the familiar phrase that Gen. Y is composed of lazy and spoiled kids. While I have never gone without anything I would not classify my life as excessive. Perhaps a quick jab was the best way for companies to simply say "we do not understand you."
I feel like companies are starting to understand younger generations better now, possibly due to better research or young employees that remember how it once was to be misunderstood. Commercials on T.V. aimed at teens are not as unreasonable as they used to be; advertisers realized that trying to look smarter than the young customer did not work as well as in the past.
I must make a confession that I am not the most trendy person; I do not have a Facebook and I am wearing a pair of Levi's that, according to our required readings, are out of style. Even though I do not take up the offer on every new trend I am not a lost cause when it comes to new products. Ads that I have the best feelings towards are realistic, tell me about the product, and are entertaining/funny.
Even though I am not the poster-child of Gen. Y it is important for companies to recognize that a generation is not a blanket description for people born in a twenty year period. Marketers seem to be realizing this now and it should help the avoid expensive mistakes in the future.
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