Gift Giving.

High and Low Involvement

Buyer involvement with purchasing decisions can vary depending on the need nd want of the product. It will also differ if the product is an every day nesessity or a bigger buying decision. For example with Kotler's buyer decision process you can determine the change in high or low involvement products. See the example below:
Low High

Routine Impulse Regular Irregular (small) Irregular (large)

When it comes to products like milk and bread is a need product that you would buy weekly or even sometimes daily and therefore it would be a low involvement product for the reason that you would automatically choose the item where as an irregular product would be high involvement because it could be a house or car. This would mean that you would have to analyse all of the options of the product and maybe look at other brands if it was a car.

Measuring Involvement
Laurent & Kapferer (1985) argue that a consumer’s level of
involvement will be affected by four components:
1. importance & risk
2. probability of making a bad purchase
3. pleasure value of product category
4. sign value of product category

Gift Giving
Pamela Danziger(2004)
Gift shopping is the ultimate in 'emotional consumerism', since gift giving is all about emotionally connecting giver and recipient. 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. In other words, the gift itself is the means to an end to strengthen the emotional connection between individuals. The challenge for retailers and marketers is how to enhance the 'gifting' experience.The business of gifting for both retailer and marketer hinges on this.

Store choice for gifts is controlled by the left brain, but gift selection is right-brain dominated.
Givers use different criteria when choosing a store to shop for a gift and what to buy once they are there. They select the store based on rational, left-brain factors, such as where they will find the best prices, while they select the gift primarily on emotional, right-brain factors

How are gifts selected?
1. What would the recipient want?
2. What would i like to give them?
3. What occasion is the gift for?
4. How much is the budget?

Many retail stores try to maximise the gift giving process by including added extras for example the option for gift wrapping for example La Senza have luxury bags with scented beads and most jewellery stores will give free gift wrapping not only does this mean the shopper has less to worry about it will also be advertising for those gift receiver and those who see the product.

Nostalgia

nos·tal·gi·a
n.
1. A bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past.
2. The condition of being homesick; homesickness.

The smell of your mum's perfume or that special song that reminds you of a significant event. Even if you may not have any specific memories or things that instantly remind you of a time in your life. A random smell or outing may just trigger one of those nostalgic moments.
Within marketing companies are always looking to create that nostalgic affect, which may lead to an impulse buy or a bigger brand loyalty.

Nostalgia is linked with memory and how we remember certain things and how and where they are stored within the brain. There are triggers that can immediately refresh memories whether it be of a certain time in your life or even jsut a brand. An example of this would be where a company would use the same type of music and it is therefore linked to that company. For example the McDonalds slogan 'Im Lovin It' whenever that plays you are reminded of the brand. Companies use this as a marketing tool not only to create the feeling of nostalgia for their target audience but to also create a memorable link between the brand and a type of music or feeling.


A typical nostalgic feeling brought upon by an advert of a brand is the Christmas Coca-Cola adverts which always start from around the beginning of december. All of my friends will say that they know it is the start of christmas when that is played on tv. It brings together memories from where they have grown up with the advert, and it almost feels a part of christmas for me http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jAeqQwY1xdE

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

When it comes to nostalgia all of the five senses can be linked to those special moments important in someones life.
*Music or sound can act as a trigger http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_r6b3XD8srM
Whole Again, Atomic Kitten is one song that i always remember from my time at Lord Williams's Secondary school going to netball matches in the minibus with all my close friends. Since then everytime it plays we all start to sing together, it is something that we can all relate to as a time in our lives.
The Spice Girls were also a huge part of my life growing up from the music to films.
*Images . These can be things with fashion for example the iconic trend of the jelly shoes!
*Smells. My mums perfume- Jean Paul Gaultier Classic. There are also many different types of food smells that remind me of certain times or places.

Enterprise Week

Enterprise Week 2008
The Business School of Enterprise and Innovation put together some events for students to attend, as part of the first year course to help them get a feel of the industry and to see what comes of a degree in business and marketing!!

What Next? Experts from the world of advertising and marketing come together to discuss the challenges for the industry in the next decade

In this first event we had a panel of businessmen/women from the marketing industry ranging from a media owner to account planners.
Across the table were:
Rob Laurence-BMRB
Jayne Barr-A Creative Consultant
Allan Rich- Mediacom
Steve Cox- The Media Owner
Ivor Peters- PR
Jamie Matthews-Co-Founder of an agency
Andrew Canter
Don Cowley- Account Planner

Most of the focus of the questions asked to the panel where around the current economic climate and how businesses can surive through it.
Allan Rich told us how any well run business will come through any recession from using their strengths to focus on main brands to keep the company going. The need for enthusiam was key for his success within the media and marketing segment.
One other key point was that times are always moving forward and with the introduction of things like sky+ people cant fast forward through adverts so that the 30 second advert on tv is starting to become less and less effective. Allan Rich therefore pointed out the use of 30 minute adds aka the one Barack Obama used within the space bowl for his campaign. Not only that the use of new technology they are using digital screens in the underground for advertising.

Segmentation

It is one of the most fundamental concepts in marketing and your choice of which approach to adopt will directly affect the impact of segmentation on your business.

What is segmentation?

The process of splitting customers, or potential customers, in a market into different groups, or segments, within which customers share a similar level of interest in the same or comparable set of needs satisfied by a distinct marketing proposition.
Marketing proposition; the 'tools' or means available to the organization to improve the match between benefits sought by customers and those offered by the organization so as to obtain a differential advantage. Often referred to as the four Ps, this is usually the appropriate mix of product features, price, promotion and place (service and distribution). For the customer, this manifests itself as benefits, cost, relevant image and convenience; in other words, a customer value proposition.

Marketers use different profilers these can include:

Demographical bases (age, family size, life cycle, occupation)
Geographical bases (states, regions, countries)
Behavior bases (product knowledge, usage, attitudes, responses)
Psychographic bases (lifestyle, values, personality)

There have to be specific criteria in which a company can segment this can include:

•Effective - truly different needs from other segments?
•Identifiable - how can you find those people?
•Profitable - is the segment big enough to offer real profits?
•Accessible - can you reach this group easily?
•Actionable - can it be done?

So many types of product have a range of segmentation for example SHAMPOO!
All it is really needed for is to wash hair so there could be one type for everyone which there always was. However more recently there are different shampoos for all kinda of different purposes. These include:
Coloured Hair-Blonde, Red or Brunette
Dry or damaged hair
Dandruff
Greasy hair.
There are many more from a range of different brands, however if we only need one why do we spend ages looking through all types of shampoos?
Because of society we feel we need those types of shampoo that are suited to our hair type, when really if you look on the label they most probably have the same ingredients with a few extras so your 50p Tesco value shampoo will do the same job to some extent as the £6 Aveda bottle.
This is mainly down to our perception of different products, we feel we need those that suit our hair and the quality that is shown through the brand or price not necessarily what it will do. Does shampoo for shiny hair really make it more shiny?

What makes an advert memorable? Does it differ for each gender?
'The issue is much more fundamental than the usual myopic media one about where the ads appear: It's about recognizing women [and men's] different approach' (Financial Times, June 2001)

This advert is for a male product, however is it women that will be more attracted to the advert? David Beckham more than half naked?
Is it for the girlfriend to buy for her partner or is it for a man to aspire to?




Everyone knows that if a celebrity appears in an ad it will be memorable because it is familiar, however is that a good thing for the product.
Celebrity endorsements are becoming more and more popular with different brands where David Beckham was always associated with Gillette or Vodaphone, or Kate Moss and Topshop or Rimmel? Do these celebrities increase sales?
Or is an ad memorable for just those who are in them rather than the actual product?

In todays lecture we looked at a range of different ads, and were asked the one that stood out the most and to write down all of those we remembered. We found that not one person remembers the same thing in the same way, and that celebrity endorsements were seen to be remembered for the celebrity and not for the product.

The Famous Dairy Milk Gorilla!
Everyone remembers the Dairy Milk Advert with the Phil Collins music and Gorilla playing drums! However sales did not increase! This shows memorable adverts dont always help with the selling of the actual product.

Personality

What Simpsons character would you be?
From taking the Simpsons personality test, i found that i was mostly likened to NED FLANDERS!!

E-You prefer to direct your energy to deal with people, things, situations
S- You prefer to deal with facts, what you know, to have clarity, a realist in the here & now – for you the force is a tool - a fission screwdriver
F- You prefer to decide using values and/or personal beliefs, letting
J- You prefer your life to be planned in a stable and organised way
NED FLANDERS!
Warm hearted individuals who highly value their relationships. Customer focused with the ability to bring out the best of people.
Can be self-sacrificing and may not pay enough attention to their own needs
ESFJ - Supporter



Take a look at this AD........What type of personality does the girl have?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FPKIixluNzk

There are many different theories around personality these include:
Brand Personality by J Aaker, 1997.
This is the framework to describe and measure the "personality" of a brand in five core elements.
These are:
Sincerity-Down to Earth, Wholesome and Honest
Excitement- Daring, Spirited and Imaginative
Competance- Reliable, Intelligent
Sophistication- Upper Class, Charming
Ruggedness- Tough, Outdoorsy

Testing Our Perception!

This week the student became the teacher.....leading the lecture with experiements on perception. From choosing favourite coke and chocolate by taste only.... to changing the music on adverts to see how it changes our perception.

What is the Gestalt Theory?!
A definition!
Psychology concept used in training. It proposes that what is 'seen' is what appears to the seer and not what may 'actually be there,' and that the nature of a unified whole is not understood by analyzing its parts. It views learning as a reorganizing of a whole situation (often involving insight as a critical factor) in contrast to the behavioral psychology view that learning consists of associations between stimuli and responses
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/gestalt-theory.html
Example!
The Rubin vase shown here is an example of this tendency to pick out form. We don't simply see black and white shapes - we see two faces and a vase.
The Rubin vase shown here is an example of this tendency to pick out form. We don't simply see black and white shapes - we see two faces and a vase.
Take a look at the picture.......what do you see?
http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/perception/percep4.html

The Attractive Presenter!
-an attractive presenter appears with a product; she is wearing a 'conservative' dress;
eye-tracking studies show substantial attention to the product; three days later, brand-name recall is high;
-an attractive presenter appears with a product; she is wearing a 'revealing' dress;
eye-tracking shows most attention on the presenter; brand-name recall is low.