Pervasiveness of Marketing
Vital marketing decisions are made by every business; but as important as it is to make the right business decision… it is essential that marketing professionals understand how their marketing impacts our social values. There are several different ways that marketers get their message across to potential customers(1), each marketing communications tool can have different effects on us. Marketing is intrusive, businesses are constantly trying to push their brands in our faces… we barely process one piece of information before the next one comes shooting our way.
The pervasiveness marketing has undoubtedly influenced our mind-set and behaviour… a disposable culture creeps closer to becoming reality. It’s because our buyer behaviour is image based, we care about how others see us more than how we see ourselves. This hugely changes our views on society; contemporary marketing has made us believe that we are what we buy, and that the brands we own… are a direct reflection of us. Marketing is an integral business function, but is hardly respected. It continually aims to stimulate demand which leads to new customers… and that leads to more market share.
No longer can marketing be tunnel visioned in it’s pursuit for brand awareness. Certain companies have mastered the AIDA model and can use their understanding on countless consumers, the Sony Bravia advert with the bouncing balls(2) went through the whole cycle from attention all the way to stimulating action… making them buy products they didn’t particularly need in the first place. Point-Of-Sale cues are used relentlessly and marketers are accused of not looking at how their decisions impact broader society. Our social values are changing to customers being more self-centred and buying everything that suits them.
Our social values include friends, who we want to have a good time with. But playing on the back of our heads constantly, is how cool we think we look, have we impressed our friends? Do we have the right clothes on? Do we have the right phone? As I mentioned, we think that the brands we own are a reflection of us… so we try and buy the right products, not only to suit our personalities; but to fit in. There is one thing that hugely influences our social values, and that’s technology(3).
A wireless world is slowly becoming more of an actuality as time goes on. The internet, as enthralling as it may be, has made people ess sociable and more secluded. Perhaps one of the most important social values is quality time with our families; this is not possible if we are glued to the monitor during dinner time. In the past, dinner meant the whole family sitting around a table, having a laugh and eating to their hearts content. The internet has cut into this social value and is influencing young minds. But it’s been a fantastic medium for communication and a brilliant source for information. Both ways can be argued. Advances in technology will introduce location based advertising in the future(4), this makes us even more reliant on technology.
This means that where ever we are, we will be targeted by businesses… which directly impact our social lives; making us shop instead of talk to those we may know in the area. The whole notion of positioning is based upon understanding the consumer… not society, making us feel like we can familiarise ourselves with the brand, so that it doesn’t feel like marketing but instead feels like a developing relationship. Segmenting customers is a common marketing tool used when it comes to deciding on a target market. But it has huge disadvantages on society; a common way for segmentation to take place is with airlines.
First class, business class and economy are forms of segmenting the market. Customers who have high disposable income doesn’t necessarily have to fly first class… but the positioning of first class in the consumers mind communicates the message that if you can afford it, go for it. First class passengers have made the association that flying in luxury means they are successful and are respected. When in realness, they simply have more money than the average person. Economy flyers are made to think that they are normal, nothing special, but some of them could actually be successful.
Some of them may have significantly advanced in their careers, and may have even helped the world! The social values of first class travellers has changed into looking down on other passengers who aren’t flying first class… the feeling of self accomplishment is just an illusion created by marketing. There are other marketing tools which de-individualises customers and sees them as groups and not individuals. An example of this is the postcode analysis, this influences the social values of consumers into thinking that they are only as good as the people who live near them.
Marketing professionals need to start respecting customers as customers, and they need to understand the uniqueness of each individual consumer. There is a really important marketing tool that can assess how much marketers are impacting our social values. Businesses can construct a PESTEL analysis of themselves to gain a better understanding of what is in their way… and what they need to take into account before implementing any marketing decisions. MOSAIC is another segmentation tool used by marketers to decide exactly how to target their target market.
This generalises too much and doesn’t see customers as individuals, but as titles. There is one main point that marketing critics’ keep bringing up. They see branding as being misleading to consumers, that the associations made with the product or service is just an illusion… and doesn’t reflect the actual quality of the product or service itself(5). Marketers definitely need to take this into account when taking care of brand management. However an argument against this is that branding gives people confidence, it helps consumers see themselves in a desirable light when owning a particular brand.
It makes them feel like they are a part of something, this positive feeling surely can’t be criticised. An example of a business who tries to create a strong association is Disney. Their chain of ‘Magic Happens’ adverts definitely play on our emotional strings(6). They play on portraying the dreamy effect with their brand communication, which withholds powerful emotional appeals. Disney sells an experience, something intangible. This works really well when it comes to targeting children, the imagination of a child is endless… with hardly any limits.
However this really affects children’s social values, making them almost worship Disney characters. Ultimately, this makes the children think that going to Disney Land is described as ‘a dream come true’; taking their minds off of the important things in life. Another example is Coca Cola. Their marketing strategy relies on making the consumer feel satisfaction when drinking Coke, making the consumer feel refreshed… and ‘happy’. The Coke slogan is ‘Open coke. Open happiness’(7). The association that will be made is definitely an emotional one, and will make customers feel like someone when they drink a can of coke in front of people.
This is probably the brand that endangers our social values the most, due to the obvious reason that happiness is achieved through success or through a positive social encounter. Not from drinking Coke, this is nothing more than a positioning strategy. Behavioural psychology explains the laws of classical and operant conditioning. This has been used by many businesses in order to condition a specific response from a customer. Classical conditioning can be, and has been used in various advertisements; in order to create lasting associations that will be profitable to the business.
A psychologist called Pavlov tests classical conditioning in one of he’s experiments(8), and since then, he has influenced the use of he’s findings by many marketers. An example of this is McDonalds, the first time we heard the famous McDonalds short and snappy jingle we didn’t know what to make of it. But after a few more adverts we made the association between the jingle and the slogan ‘I’m lovin’ it’(9). Whilst this association was being made, you can visualise the McDonalds logo and any images they want you to see.
The general feel of the adverts are happy and upbeat. With time, our association became so strong, that all McDonalds do now is play the jingle, and we all say or think ‘I’m lovin’ it’. This then becomes our unconditioned response to the jingle, which started off as being a neutral stimulus. So as you can see, classical conditioning is a powerful tool that marketers use, and we have attempted to create an advert; whilst trying to apply the laws of classical conditioning. Customers are almost hypnotised into thinking exactly what McDonalds wants them to think.
This changes our social values into being more self-centred, making us seek pleasure for ourselves and gets rid of the whole idea of togetherness and sharing. The psychodynamic approach in psychology was devised by Sigmund Freud, an influential figure in psychology. He said that our conscious thoughts and actions are influenced by unconscious drives, such as the sex drive(10). Marks and Spencer food adverts take advantage of this idea. The woman speaking in the background speaks in a soft, sensual voice making it seem the food should be eaten in an intimate way(11)… which almost makes us think their selling sex.
According to the psychodynamic approach, our unresolved child issues and our sex drive will influence our conscious behaviour… which is to ultimately buy the food. Marketers need to be very careful with this type of advertising; it’s almost as if the consumers are not in control of what they like. Our social values may have been having a laugh with friends of the opposite gender, but due to this kind of psychological approach to advertising… it may unwillingly effect the perception of the customer. Using psychological approaches in adverts is legal, but it doesn’t mean it’s moral.
The mind-set of the customer changes, their perception changes and so their behaviour changes; this can be seen as immoral. Companies ensure they put all side effects of certain products on the packaging… but when are marketers going to actually take into account the side effects of their own decisions? If a certain type of marketing impacts broader society too much, and stimulates demand to an extent that the environment will suffer… the marketers should definitely take it easy and refrain from these types of activities.
Every career needs to work towards a better world to live in; this is what morality is all about. ‘The strategic business function that creates value by stimulating, facilitating and fulfilling customer demand’(12)… this is on of the definitions of marketing. But how will consumer sovereignty affect this? The old definition was meeting customer needs profitably, customers may decide what will be produced or on the other hand marketers may decide what consumers should be interested in. It all depends on how society is looked after by marketers, and how society reacts to marketing decisions.
Our social values stems from how society operates and how society holds up against continual marketing activities. The decisions that marketers make impact society hugely, it can increase demand and can decrease demand. McDonalds have been successful at stimulating demand, due to this they have had to create 4000 new jobs(13). But even though more demand means success to a marketer, there is always backlash. There is ‘a protest against the promotion of junk food, the unethical targeting of children, exploitation of workers, animal cruelty, damage to the environment and the global domination of corporations over our lives.
Marketing strategies are successful at making a profit, but it’s time marketing professionals look after the society which they themselves are a part of. Not necessarily societal marketing, but just using some of the concepts of this type of marketing. I think that it’s a personal challenge to each and every one of us to act and speak in a way which doesn’t reflect the conditioned responses that marketing and movies have created. Our social values echo our personality and what we hold close to our hearts; marketing professionals can change or strengthen this. That means reliability is a necessity as a marketer.
References
- http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/ModernInvention.htm
- http://www.e-lba.com/ELBA%20Overview%20english.pdf
- http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/pavlov/readmore.html
- http://www.textart.ru/database/slogan/fast-food-advertising-slogans.html
- http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/freud.html
