(A): Subcultures, Reference Groups, and Households
Discussion 1
Since few years, it has become the common practice that women do the majority of the household shopping. With the revival of the new era, male participants of the family have started to take the prime responsibility as being the dominant purchaser for the household and decision makers. In my perspective marketing to stay-at-home-dads will not negatively impact the buying behavior of their children. Dads who choose to stay at home and raise their children and permit their wives to be the wage earner will not impact future changes. Children always copy their parents, as it is the nature of the kids to become like their parents (Stay-At-Home Dads Form Group, 2008). I think marketers can easily counteract the negative influences of the stay-at-home-dads by altering their product strategies. They may make their products more attractive to men so that their inclination increases towards shopping. Moreover, they may also adopt more appealing advertisement strategies to grasp the attention of men.
Discussion 2
Reference group includes different personnel, from friends to websites or blogs that give opinions about a certain product (Wang, Yu, & Wei, 2012). The most optimal reference group includes blog sites, friends, or family. Reference group helps in recognizing one’s reviews about the product, which ultimately helps in assessing the consumption behavior of the consumers. The selected reference groups, i.e., blogs and friends help in profoundly gathering product’s information that eventually fosters the consumption process, as communication helps in improving product’s quality.
(B): Product Placement and High and Low Involvement Products
Discussion 1
Embedded marketing, brand integration, and product placement is the enclosure of the branded goods in media, typically without clear product reference (Van Reijmersdal, Neijens, & Smit, 2009). Currently, a number of products are using product placement in video games, movies, and TV to increase consumer awareness (Product Placement, 2007). Presently, four products that are using product placement include cigarette, branded gadgets, alcohol, and luxury cars. When all of these products were compared, it was recognized that all of these products mainly presents similar themes that promote lavishness and elegance.
Discussion 2
The emergence of electronic and social media has played an inevitable role in making the brand selection marketable (Quester et al., 2007). It has been established that a number of external factors have affected the marketing strategies and consumer behavior (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2009). These factors have also played an indispensable role keeping the best global brands on the exclusive list. Most prominent external factors include the emergence of social media platforms, SEO, electronic media advertisements, and contemporary marketing strategies.
Motivation, Emotion, Attitudes, and Product Repositioning
Discussion 1
Emotional intelligence is the capability of a person to determine emotions of other people or other individuals. Emotional intelligence enables the customers to develop certain behavior and thinking patterns that eventually results in making purchase decisions (Kidwell, Hardesty, & Childers, 2008). Three most prominent ways that consumers gain emotional intelligence about their consumption patterns include motivation, self-regulation, and self-awareness.
In the selected market segment, i.e., psychographic segmentation, two learning patterns mainly motivate customers to perform purchasing activities. These learning patterns include the demonstration of specific products through appealing advertisements. Second learning pattern includes the representation of the first-hand experience of the consumers to the target segment, so as to describe product qualities.
Discussion 2
Attitudes are usually impacted by personal experience, personality, and other information sources (Solomon et al., 2014). It is observed that changing consumer’s attitude is one of the prime marketing strategies, so as to grasp customer’s attention. Some of the attitude change strategies that are used by the marketers include altering the basic motivational function of the consumer and relating the product with the trendy event or group. Negative advertising campaigns play an effective role in altering customers’ attitude and opinion towards the product. For instance, the negative advertisement of the food chain may considerably impact the flow of customers and may restrict them in dining in that particular restaurant. The advantage of attitude change strategies includes attracting maximum customers. On the other hand, the con of these strategies includes negative publicity and repute of the business.
References
Kidwell, B., Hardesty, D. M., & Childers, T. L. (2008). Consumer emotional intelligence: Conceptualization, measurement, and the prediction of consumer decision making. Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (1).
Product Placement (2007). [Motion Picture].
Quester, P., Neal, C., Pettigrew, S., Grimmer, M. R., Davis, T., & Hawkins, D. (2007). Consumer behavior: Implications for marketing strategy. McGraw-Hill.
Schiffman, L. G., & Kanuk, L. L. (2009). Consumer behavior. PHI .
Solomon, M. R., Dahl, D. W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J. L., & Polegato, R. (2014). Consumer behavior: buying, having, and being. Prentice Hall.
Stay-At-Home Dads Form Group (2008). [Motion Picture].
Van Reijmersdal, E., Neijens, P., & Smit, E. G. (2009). A new branch of advertising: Reviewing factors that influence reactions to product placement. Journal of advertising research, 49 (4).
Wang, X., Yu, C., & Wei, Y. (2012). Social media peer communication and impacts on purchase intentions: A consumer socialization framework. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26 (4).
