bnoo blog

Nostalgia What is nostalgia? In 'Consumer Behaviour: a European perspective ' nostalgia is described as a bittersweet emotion where we view the past with both sadness and longing. References to the 'good old days' are increasingly common, as advertisers call up memories of youth - and hope these feelings will translate to what they are selling today. In class we discussed why nostalgia is so effective as a marketing tool for treats. We decided it was because treats were usually given as a reward or, as the name suggests, a special treat; perhaps for a birthday or day out. As these events were usually happy ones, when they have the same treat in the present day their memory of the original consumption of the treat is recalled and all the emotions that accompany it. Nostalgic memories can be exaggerated because we long for them so much or in some cases we remember them to the extreme of being bad. This is due to events being memorable because they are either gr...

Gender Differences in Buyer Behaviour Gender difference is the topic of today's blog. I'll be discussing what differences they are, if they're important, how they influence buyer behaviour and how they can be applied to marketing as well as commenting on the lecture. In the lesson we were told to make a list throughout the lecture of the differences we could see (my list will be at the end of this blog post). We then discussed different ways to impress a women and came up with a long list including: compliment her, respect her, cuddle her, care for her, buy things for her and go to the ends of the earth for her; we then discussed how to impress a man and came up with 2 things: show up naked and bring food which, although humorous, highlights the fact that men and women are very different. A new Japanese trend of serving sushi on women to provide for the male businessman. We also looked at charity campaigns and discussed how men and women perceive the adverts differe...

Personality Today we're blogging about personality, what it means, what type you have, how you came to be that way and how common different types are. So, what is personality anyway? Personality, according to Schiffman and Kanuk (2004) it is "Those inner psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment" or as Princeton WordNet puts it  "the complex of all the attributes--behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental--that characterize a unique individual". How do you know what personality type you have? There are many systems that have been developed to attempt to map personality types. A popular test is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) system in which there are 16 types (based on Carl Jung's original system of only 8). There are many personality tests and quizzes available to complete which use this system. Here are one , two  and three . ( and a fun little drawing personality test,...

STP is a three step process involving segmentation, targeting and positioning. Smith (1957) describes segmentation as being based on the observation of the evolution of demand and represents a more precise and rational adaptation of the product and the marketing effort to meet customer or user demand. Kotler (2000) describes segmentation as: “the subdividing of a market into homogenous (or similar) subsets of customers, where any subset may conceivably be selected as a target market to be reached with a distinct marketing mix" Segmentation: Dividing the market up into distinctive groups. Targeting: Selecting a group (segment) to market to. Positioning: Developing a market strategy which positions the product to appeal to a target customer base within the chosen segment. It is only suitable to use segmentation when the following are true: Consumers in the segment can be reached by a unique marketing mix. Consumers in the segment will respond to the marketing mix desig...

So, I now have a blog, which you are reading. Blogging isn't something I ever thought I would do, though I've read countless blogs for information, research, recommendations, finding answers to random questions. To me they are something other people did, until now. Now I have joined the realm of the blogger, and I like it; though I don't find it easy. Trying to find a voice to write with that's both interesting and factual seems somewhat challenging. After my first blog I contemplated writing two blogs: one light-hearted, jokey and interesting and another that's factual and more academic - but maybe I'll leave that for year 2 when I have a bit more experience at blogging. I think in future, as what we should blog about is so broad I will be try to answer a question as I think that will help me keep a coherent post as well as providing structure and a topic to focus on. Before coming to university I was working for a local infrastructure organisation (a chari...

This week we have been asked to blog about adverts that target each of the five senses. The senses are a part of the perceptual process, which consists of sensation, attention and interpretation. Sensation is the passive process of bringing information from the outside world to the brain. The process is passive in the sense that we do not have to be consciously engaging in a sensing process. Perception is the active process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting the information brought to the brain by the senses. As the senses are the only means by which marketers are able to target, they have to stand out as we are constantly bombarded by external stimuli. The NLP communication model states that we are exposed to 2,000,000 bits per second of external stimuli, but we only process and perceive 134 bits per second. Sight , smell , hearing , touch and taste : This American coffee advert targets all of the senses and does it well. It starts off with coffee being made i...