FAMILY PURCHASING

Famiy purchasing is a kind of a art which evey one dosent have. Family purchasing includes the purschasing required for the family. This includes food stuff household items,and many more. Family purchasing should always be done in systematic way and it involves lots of mind and concentration. These days purchasing is becoming difficult because it completely depends on decision making process. If the decision is made correct then the purchasing done is valued or else its a waste.

The family purchasing decision is broadly based on four types:

1.Role Structure

2.Power Structure

3.Decision making stage

4.Family Culture 

Role Structure - Like in societies, families are also structued as roles and each member of the family is then occupied wih a specific role and a task that he/she has to do.Gender role preferences reflect culturally determined attitudes toward the role of husband and wife, mother and father in the household.

Power Structure - As there are differnt types of power people in a family so therefore the decision is also made by them only. for example the head of the family are the men so therefore men have more power to make a decision rather than any one else in the family. But in the matriarcal society women is the head of the family and makes all the decisions.

Decision making stage- Marketing people today are now more studying on the complete process of the purchasing done by a normal family rather than looking at just the final purchasng act. Each family member has its effect on the purchasing behaviour. For eg if a family wants to buy a car then the women will tell the need of what type the car should be and then the men will take that opinion and make a decision on the car. 

Family culture- Each and every family has its own internal way of culture which effects the purchasing decision. these internal culture can be based upon as financial circumstances,social up bringing, family values and many more.   

 

So therefore the above 4 points are considered as main criteria for any family purchasing.

MARKETING TO CHILDREN

In the modern world all the marketing companies are focussing on to grab te attention of children more than the adults. why is it so ? why do companies think that by doing this they can get more attention of people and get a successful business in it.

For example the big amusment parks likethe disney is a place which is totally focussed on children only and aims to get more and more children on it. However marketing which is done on children is expensive as compared to adults.It is just because of the amount of money that thy spend by themselves and the influence they have on their parents spending .

whilst this marketing on children was done on specific products like the toys and games, it has now changed to even clothes, shoes and many more. When i was a kid i was very fond of shoes and i would always insist my parents to get me a pair of shoes no matter how much it used to cost.

According to Powell (1993)Looking around the world it can be observed that in Australia children under 18 have an average spendin of around $31.60 to spend every week and they influence 70% on their parents clothes fast food and purchases.

In US there are about 57 million school going students who spend about $100 million per year on their own and their family money on foods drinks games clothes movies and many more.

So after having a look at the above ratio the car companies cannot ignore the children in their marketing.Car companies like Nissan sponsors the American youth soccer organisation in order to get exposure of their brands in front of the people. Crysler company distributes glossy cardboards opo-up cards that would appeal to the children who love pop-up books. 

According to Zoglin Children advertising mostly covers the outlet from news papers to television. In America before a child starts his/her schooling they will have spend around 5000 hours watching television. they will spend more time in watching televison rather than spending tim in class. 

According to Neal kids clubs, organised by retailers, producers and media outlets, have proliferated in recent times. They offer an opportunity to develop a more personal relationship with each child, get information about the children for marketing purposes that can be used for mailing lists and data bases, and to promote products to children of particular age groups and geographical locations.

According to Durning(1992) these additional forms of marketing have supplemented rather than replaced advertising as the importance of the children's market has grown. Their aim however is the same as advertising, to create brand loyalties and customers amongst children. Also, those wanting to sell goods recognise that some older children become somewhat cynical of advertisements and therefore publicity in children's newspapers and magazines as well as other marketing strategies are alternative ways of reaching these children.

Reference List

1.Richard Zoglin, `Is TV ruining our children?', Time, Vol. 136 (15 October 1990)

2.Powell and Zuel, op.cit.

3.McNeal, op.cit., pp. 173-5.

4.Alan Thein Durning, How Much is Enough: The Consumer Society and the Future of the Earth, ed. Linda Starke, Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series (London: Earthscan, 1992), p. 120.

NOSTALGIA

Nostalgia can be said as a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his college days.(dictionary .com)

Even today sometimes it comes in my mind about the different things which i used to enjoy when i was a child. for example even today when i turn on the TV i look for the cartoon network channel and see whats going on in it. my best cartoon was tom and jerry and i still love to watch it if its coming on the tele. apart from this i used to love eating fast foods very much. after every day or two i used to hve a Mc Donalds burger in my hand (which now can be seen in my weight). Whenever i used to go out with my family Mc Donalds was one common place where we used to stop every time.

Apart from this i was and still very very fond of cars. i used to have a toy car always in my hand and i always used to rub its tyres on the carpet or on the floor and also making the engine sounds from my mouth. when ever i used to buy a toy car i used to see that whether its doors are opening or not. Today when i think about it i always have a big laugh at it. My other part of entertainment was playing video games of robocop and many more. still i love to play those games eventough its been a long time.

According to solomon(2010) nostalgia means a bitter sweet emotion where we view the past with both sadness and longing.

The link below highlights some nostaliga memories of the 80s and makes us remember about some of the things we have forgotten about which were very famous at that time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbBJrK4dKGU&feature=fvsr

Many companies have used nostaliga aspect to bring back the peoples memory which thy have forgotten and to create a spirit in them. for example marketing companies like the coca-cola develops adverts which highlights nostalgia feature in them.

Personally i still have the spirit in me and i still remmber my past when i was a child. the types of fun i used to make the activities i used to do makes me laugh today.

Reference List

Solomon M R,Bamossy G,Askgaard S,Hogg M,Consumer behaviour a european perspective,4th ed,Harlow,Pearson'sEducation LTD

 

 

CULTURE

According to Douglas (2001) culture determines what is acceptable or unacceptable, important or unimportant, right or wrong, workable or unworkable. It encompasses all learned and shared,assumptions, beliefs, knowledge, norms, and values, as well as attitudes, behavior, dress, and language.

OR

According to taylor(1871)Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.

In different parts of the world different type of culture is being followed. people who are from different type of culture come to know about other cultures and the different types of their way of living etc.

Solomon has described culture as the values,rituals and traditional,material object,services produced by the members of society.(Solomon M,Bamossy G,Askegaard S & Hogg M 2010).

Culture is considered as one of the most important aspect in once life. for example some families love to have dinner all together on the dinner table is also a culture which they follow. 

countries like India can be said as an example who follows traditonal culture eventhough the country is multi- cultured and vast.India holds 28 different languages which are spoken in India. the marketing companies need to think about all the different types of people who are in india and not focus on a single religion.

From a marketing perspective it would be impossible to create adverts for each and every language that people speak in India, especially with the country being to vast with a population of around 1.2 billion (BBC, 2011), it is for this reason that a company who wish to sell a product in a country such as India should base their adverts specifically in one language that can be understood by the majority of the population, namely Hindi. As Hindi is the mother toungue of all the indian so therefore adverts placed in this language will be able to reach easily to ever person in different parts of India.

Personally i am always very keen to know about the different cultures in the world. On my last christmas holiday i went to dubai and i explored the arab culture. their culture in just amazing andthe way they greet the other culture people is very appreciated. Although their first language is arabic but still they do not hasitate in conversating in english language and feel comfortable in talking in it. As dubai is such a developed country which now includes the worlds longest tower.People from all the different parts of the world come to see the glamour of Dubai so therefore the goverment of dubai has no restrictions and allows all the types of people from different parts to come and visit their country.Out of the total dubai population 55% of the population are the expactriates who are living(BBC,2009). So it can be seen that how the goverment of dubai encourages in knowing and mixing different cultures.

Companies like coca cola uses the culture as their base for marketing. the link below of a coca-cola advert is made using the culture as its base showing different countries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PtckSsG5R8&feature=related

Marketers need to always have the full information and be updated with the culture of the country they are going in . for this the best way that they can use is outsourcing which would help them in knowing about the people their taste culture and many more.

The next two links are of the culture difference between India & Uk and how coca-cola has made different adverts for both of them

India-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9eclFX0u84&feature=fvwrel

UK-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogetBqMgau0

In both the above links it can be observed that the company has used the culture as the base to advert themselves.

Reference List

Solomon M, Bamossy G, ASkegaard S & Hogg M, 2010, Consumer behaviour a european perspective, 4th edition, Harlow, Pearsons Education LTD.

BBC News,2011,India country profile,(online),BBC,Available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1154019.stm 

(accessed 4th april 2011)