1) Expanding Leisure Time

2) Expanding Consumer Choices

3) Patterns of Consumption

1) Expanding Leisure Time

Just as the Media expanded to fill leisure hours, marketing expanded to absorb disposable income.

The preferred target market is the one with the money to spend. As a result, overall popularity in mass media becomes less important than popularity among the "right" segment of the audience.

This helps explain both film and television's obsession with the 12 to 24 demographic. They have both maximum leisure and considerable disposable income.

The ad to the right appeals to a very narrow subculture - male gamers.

No one likes to be "pigeonholed". But finding common characteristics among consumers is the key to niche marketing.

Click here to read "Campaigns for Black Consumers"

"It is a big deal and potentially trend setting," he added, "raising the stakes by taking ethnic markets from afterthoughts to the name of the game."

The Procter changes are emblematic of how the changing demographics of the United States are forcing marketers to pay more attention to minority consumers. Black and Hispanic consumers now account for more than 25 percent of the total population. And white consumers, particularly those ages 12 to 34, are increasingly influenced by the fashion, dining, entertainment, sports and music tastes emerging from minority communities, from hip-hop to salsa-flavored ketchup. But few if any big marketers have coordinated their general-market and minority campaigns in the way Procter plans."

Expanding Consumer Choices

Media helped escort people into a world of choice.

Media made them aware of the world outside their own immediate location. Seeing what others could achieve enlarged their sense of their own possibilities.

But it encourages comparison to others. We compare our standard of living with those we see in the media, and often find our standard lacking. We compare ourselves with those we see in the media, and often find ourselves lacking.

This article argues "stereotypes that can result in damaging consequences to every member of the population still exist." This article reinforces that both the Media Role Model and the Group Behavior Model studied in Module 4 are a central part of advertising.