Family

Family
Family is a key demographic for marketers as they can target many different products that are involved within the family home and life cycle, whether they are a young couple or middle aged with children their needs and values change. Decision making can come from more than one person and influences can be made in order for products or services to be bought.

There are different definitions of the family:
* Nuclear Family - father, mother & children who live together
* Extended Family - nuclear family plus other relatives such as grandparents,
* Family of Orientation - the family you are born into
* Family of Procreation - the family founded through marriage

Recently there have been many different changes that have occurred to the typical definition of the family, there are more single parent families and births out of marriage and a definate increase in 'step' families. These factors can all influence how marketing agencies contact their audience and the way in which and how they advertise their products.
There is also been a large increase in working mums which means that there is more than one person bringing home a wage it can lead to them having more money to spend, women now account for 44% of the workforce.

A family’s needs are affected by the number of children, their ages & whether one, two or more adults are employed outside the home. There will always be one key decision maker, it has typically been the female within the house however there are factors which can affect this. These can be, who has more time at home or cultural influences. Although a product may be seen to be for either children or a man the actual people that a marketing organisation may be targeting will be the the mother or the partner. This is because they will be the buyer of the product and not the user the have the most influence on buying many products.

The typical family buying organisation is:
*Gatekeeper
*User
*Influencer
*Buyer
*Decider

Children have a large influence in the buying process they tend to watch more television and therefore they have more access to advertising this can also be by way of magazine and the internet. However if they find something they want they will then go to their parents who will then buy it for them, children are highly influencial and are always looking to something or someone to aspire to therefore the inclusion of celebrities can have a higher affect on children.

Generations

Generational Marketing
The method of marketing to a specific generation is affecting the way that we promote and sell products and services. We are all a product of our generation. Each generation have their own characteristics, because of this as a marketing target we can usually categorize by generations by the way that we act and speak as well as our belief systems.
There are different groups that can be associated to a particular date, these can say alot about who those people are and also what their attitudes are like towards marketing and values. Many marketing companies look at 'generations' for a target audience.
1.Millenials or Generation 2001ers, born after 1980
2.Baby Busters or Generation Xers born between 1965 and 1980
3.Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964
4.Mature Citizens born between 1909 and 1945

This diagram shows when certain generational groups date from and the populations of those different groups. We can see that at some of the groups there is a large fluctuation in population and baby booms, these started from after the WW2 because of this you are then faced with another rise in population in the 60's because those who were born after the war are now reproducing.

You have see for yourself and look to the future to what the population will be like in 1o years or how it currently is. Just go to this hyperlink: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/populationestimates/svg_pyramid/uk/index.html

There are many different aspects for marketers to consider when looking at generations as a target audience these include:
*Values
*Self-concept
*Nostalgia
*Group Membership
*Perception
These are key to being successful in generating the right product/service that will suit audience as it can create a relationship and build brand name and awareness.

Our task in the lecture was to look into one of the generational groups, ours was to look at over 50's and we decided to look for the 'young olds'. We were to find out their perception of the internet, what their favourite brands are and why, the population within the UK and their value system.
We found that their favourite brands tended to be those that had been around for a long time and they were seen to be reliable they included Marks and Spencer, Debenhams and John Lewis. On and online poll we found these were favourites because of the fact that you could find pretty much everything in one place, if you have grandchildren, children and friends you could buy everything there rather than having to look in many different shops. We found that Marks and Spencer have highlighted this and used it to their advantage creating nostalgic advertising to target the audience. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFVivTXlaEo this shows a typical summer picnic which is popular with older women and will creat many memories.

Another advert which is very in toe with the over 50's generation is the 2007 christmas advert with Antonio Banderas it creates and old school black and white 'Marylin Monroe' film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l8XIoauB6Y
Saga holidays was also very popular with the over 50's category for the reason that they regard travel as hugely inspirational and is one of main spending priorities, and many emmigrate abroad.

With a population of 21 million in the United Kingdom it is a great generational groups for marketers to target, they are very influencial on friends and family and if they like a product they are more likely to stay with that, and will use mainly large branded names because of reliability. This group may be harder than other to change their views and opinions on products if they have been using something for a long time they find it reliable they are less likely to change.

Groups!

Marketers use groups of different types of people to target for particular products. By belonging to different groups consumers can be persuaded to either dress a certain way, buy a particular product or listen to a genre of music. These groups can stem from values you have or the places and people you may mix with.
With the use of Kotler et al and theory we move on to the social and cultural aspect of buyer behaviour which includes social class, culture and reference groups.

Groups
A group is two or more individuals who
–share a set of norms,
–have role relationships,
–and experience interdependent behaviours.
Groups of people can influence the way we learn and how we behave.

There are many different groups types these can include:
1. Ascribed-Born into
2. Peer-People of equal standing
3.Associative-Realistically belong
4.Contrived-Formed for a specific purpose
5.Reference-Looked to for lifestyle
6.Acquired-Moved into
7. Aspirational-Like to belong
8.Disassociation-Hate to belong
Some of these different groups can have a different effect when it comes to influencing decisions about products or brands. For example peer or associative groups are those in which you belong to with people of similar values, therefore it may have a greater influence than others.

There can be negative representations of different brands because of the groups that the product is associated with and many companies try to move away from those stereotypes and re-invent the brand. One of the biggest examples of this within Britain is that of Burberry and the infamous chav stereotype.

Burberry started as one of the most up market designer in the UK with a large flagship store in Knightsbridge, London and the likes of Kate Moss being the face of the brand. However the famous check mark of the Burberry brand was mass produced on a large scale for the group of 'chavs' lowering the brand image and decreasing the sales. One of the most famous pictures is of Eastenders star Daniella Westbrook dressed head to toe in the check including her little girl.

Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954)
This theory explains how individuals evaluate their own opinions and desires by comparing themselves to others. is the idea that there is a drive within individuals to look to outside images in order to evaluate their own opinions and abilities. These images may be a reference to physical reality or in comparison to other people. People look to the images portrayed by others to be obtainable and realistic, and subsequently, make comparisons among themselves, others and the idealized images
•we look to the behaviour of others to provide a guide and to reassure our self-evaluation.
•Consumers are selective about whom they use for benchmarks.
There have being many theorists who have looked into the idea that people can change and act in a certain way due to their surroundings and the situation they have been put in. For example lack of structure and discipline.

http://www.prisonexp.org/
Dr Zimbardo took upon an experiment in 1971 in which twenty-four undergraduates were selected out of 70 to play the roles of both guards and prisoners and live in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Those selected were chosen for their lack of psychological issues, crime history, and medical disabilities, in order to obtain a representative sample. Roles were assigned based on a coin toss.

Prisoners and guards rapidly adapted to their roles, stepping beyond the boundaries of what had been predicted and leading to dangerous and psychologically damaging situations. One-third of the guards were judged to have exhibited "genuine" sadistic tendencies, while many prisoners were emotionally traumatized and two had to be removed from the experiment early

Another example of this is within the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding 1954. In which boys from public school are left deserted on an island and take matters into their own hands with dictatorship and disastrous effects with tribes attacking others and a high level of bullying.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AhIyCCm426c