Module 5 - Part 1, Why Consumers Consume

Once a need has been established, advertising nirvana is to make consumption a habit rather than a conscious choice.

"She knew that over the past decade, many companies had perfected the art of creating automatic behaviors - habits - among consumers. These habits have helped companies earn billions of dollars when customers eat snacks, apply lotions and wipe counters almost without thinking, often in response to a carefully designed set of daily cues."

The New York Times - "Warning: Habits May Be Good For You"

"Is it right to advertise to children?" said Dave Siegel, president of WonderGroup, a Cincinnati-based youth marketing agency. "The parents we talk to feel it's very appropriate."

As Generation Xers became parents, attitudes towards advertising changed, Siegel said. Parents these days ask their kids what they want, rather than the other way around. Sixty-nine percent of mothers said it makes their shopping easier when their child knows what brand he or she likes, according to the 2003 Yankelovich Youth Monitor, a survey consisting of in-person interviews with 1,080 mothers.

"Mom's not lazy. Mom's smart. She doesn't want to waste time and money," Siegel said. "Mom will take the child to the store and the child will point. Given that's how parents are, I think it's appropriate for advertisers to market to children at a younger age."

CBS Market Watch - "Aiming at the youngest consumers"

Module 5 - Part 2, The Development of a Consumer Culture

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

The New York Times - "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."

"The Selling of Gender Identity"
by Judith Waters and George Ellis.
Printed in Advertising and Culture: Theoretical Perspectives, edited by Mary Cross.

Patterns of Consumption

Over the years, certain patterns of consumer consumption have emerged. In Part 3, we'll take a look at the environment in which a consumer makes a choice of what to consume. In Module 6, we'll look at the techniques used to influence that choice.

MSNBC.COM - "Why we buy: The truth about shopoholics."

"New research reveals while some super-shoppers spend to boost self-esteem and band-aid other perceived internal deficits, others' carts are driven by plain-old materialism. Whatever the motivation, however, researchers mostly agree that buying behaviors can range from frivolous fun to serious addiction."

"In contemporary American culture, consuming is as authentic as it gets. Advertisements, getting a bargain, garage sales, and credit cards are firmly entrenched pillars of our way of life. We shop on our lunch hours, patronize outlet malls on vacation, and satisfy our latest desires with a late-night click of the mouse.

Yet for all its popularity, the shopping mania provokes considerable dis-ease: many Americans worry about our preoccupation with getting and spending. They fear we are losing touch with more worthwhile values and ways of living."

Social Utility

One of the most powerful tools at the Media's command is our need to be part of something ("Be Like Mike").

This is rooted in a deep fear of being alone. We'll study in detail later, how advertisers make us want material objects by preying on this fear. But in both film and TV, we invite the people we see into our homes, our families, and our hearts. You've heard about people who think the actors on the street are the characters they play in movies or TV? It's not a joke. People really do identify that strongly with figures in the media. These are called "parasocial relationships"

Your local and national news anchors are chosen not for their journalistic ability but for how well we "like" them. Stations pay thousands of dollars on focus groups to explain why they like and not like certain on-air talent. ("See the bubble headed bleached blonde/On the evening news")

This is what the "Q ratings" measure. And these ratings also play a major role in marketing and advertising.

This article describes exactly how and why women athletes are chosen to endorse products.

"A New Image: Female Athlete-Endorser"
The Cyber-Journal of Sport Marketing

Module 5, Part 3 - How Consumers Make Choices

Cultural Shifts

"Others, however, decry the essence of Costco. Teri Franklin, a mother of two in Seattle, said that Costco fed American consumerism and waste. 'Instead of a single board game, you're offered seven shrinkwrapped together,' she said. 'You'll probably end up playing with a couple and the rest will sit in the closet. But you really only wanted one.' She said she was not tempted to buy anything beyond bottled water and diapers at Costco. 'How many things do you need 42 of, really?' she asked."

The New York Times - "24 Rolls of Toilet Paper, a Tub of Salsa and a Plasma TV."

"The Pew data also suggest that the mainstreaming of Internet commerce is nearly complete. Statistics on gender and ethnicity among online shoppers mirror those of off-line shoppers, Mr. Rainie said.

Meanwhile, the gaps in income and education between those who shop in cyberspace and those who need a parking space are narrowing. Half of those who live in households with incomes of $50,000 or less have shopped online, he noted, and 54 percent of Internet users with high school degrees have shopped online."

Business Week Online - "The Vanishing Mass Market"

"The progress of micromarketing appears to be inexorable, favored as it is both by economics and demographics. Certainly there is no stopping media proliferation, for it is providing consumers with what they crave: a wealth of new content and innovative modes of consuming it. The mass market will not disappear, nor will the mass media. But the fortunes of many of America's best-known companies now will rise or fall depending on how well they adapt to what is shaping up as a long and chaotic transition from the fading age of mass marketing to the dawning era of micromarketing."

As more and more shopping is done on the Internet, knowing who that shopper is and how they differ from "traditional" shoppers is critical to the survival of "e-business".

This "white paper" discusses some key differences between the internet and the "brick and mortar" customer.

"As much as Web browsing and email are making it easier than ever to communicate with customers, they're also creating enormous challenges in customer service as expectations rise exponentially. Organizations that understand the new rules for customer service quickly differentiate themselves from those that don't. That differentiation ultimately helps determine who wins in the new digital economy and who loses."

The New York Times - "Metrosexuals Come Out"

"Convinced that these open-minded young men hold the secrets of tomorrow's consumer trends, the advertising giant Euro RSCG, with 233 offices worldwide, wanted to better understand their buying habits. So in a private room at the Manhattan restaurant Eleven Madison Park recently, Mr. Martinson answered the marketers' questions and schmoozed with 11 like - minded straight guys who were into Diesel jeans, interior design, yoga and Mini Coopers, and who would never think of ordering a vodka tonic without specifying Grey Goose or Ketel One."

Business Week Online - "The MySpace Generation"

"A middle-aged father of two teens himself, Lawson spent a good deal of time poring over data about how best to reach youth like Adams. He knew what buzzer Mike Ziemer, 20, so clearly articulates: "Kids don't buy stuff because they see a magazine ad. They buy stuff because other kids tell them to.""

"The pressure on girls and women to look a certain way has always been around," she said. "What's different now is how many media outlets are part of the pressure. We see the images that create our ideas in such a bigger way because of loads more TV channels, magazines, Web sites and lots more marketing."

Sobel said the message is packaged differently, too. "Now that it is fairly acceptable for girls and women to want ‘power,’ the traditional message is targeted in a clever way to tie in appearance to ‘empowerment,’ success, competition and superiority.

"I'd Walk A Mile For A Camel"

This study of the history of cigarette advertising shows how influential attitudes are on sales. Even though the article was written in 1986, it not only summarized the impact of the public attitude on smoking on sales, it effectively predicted current trends.

Regulation - "The Ghost of Cigarette Advertising Past"

"Those who would abolish the remaining conventional forms of cigarette advertising—print media and billboards—no doubt believe that a ban will be beneficial where partial restrictions were not; and of course there is no way this belief can be disproved. But the fact remains that successive restrictions on advertising have tended to undermine improvements in cigarettes while doing nothing to reduce smoking."

"This week was a lesson for businesses in how to do social media right as well as in the perils of ignoring it altogether. Old Spice's stunt, which used YouTube and Twitter to slap together on-the-spot video shorts starring its smooth-talking spokesman -- hit a viral marketing home run. Meanwhile, Apple gave customers nothing but a noseful of condescension, which it may finally fix with its conference Friday."

TechNewsWorld - "The Sweet Smell of Social Media Success - and the Funk of Failure"