Culture

It is important to understand different cultural backgrounds before marketing a product in a foreign country, as if it is not understood correctly, offence could easily be made and the product not being successful.

Solomon has described culture as 'the values, ethics, rituals, and traditions, material objects, services produced or valued by members of society' (Solomon M, Bamossy G, Askegaard S & Hogg M, 2010)

Culture is very important in different religions and can stem from anything, for example some families only eat dinner together at the dinner table, this could be a part of their culture and they in turn value that family time spent together. 

But why is culture so important to marketers? Countries such as India for example, still have a very traditional culture even though the country is extremely multi cultural. It is for this fact that marketers need to ensure that their products are not specifically aimed at one target religion. The advert would have to be open and depending on where it would be aired in the regions regional language. 

From personal experience I know that even mobile phone companies have embraced this by where the SIM cards are sold. Recently a member of family bought a SIM in the region of Gujarat (towards the North west of India), when ringing the number and getting through to the voice mail service the welcome message was recorded in Gujarati, Gujarat's regional language. This is very different to other countries where one language is spoken.  This is due to the fact that India has many different languages. 

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. An example of a UK based company using the culture of both UK and India is Tilda Rice. Their advert which shows how the rice that was enjoyed by people in India decades ago is still being enjoyed today. The video which can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrgknNk7UNM. 

Personally I am very keen on learning about new cultures and travelling to different countries to experience this first hand. The culture that moved me the most was when I visited Thailand some years, whilst there we went on a boat trip where we stopped off at a floating man made island that was made from mainly wood, as a home for the local people there. Seeing the way these people lived and experiencing their own unique culture was something very different. When I know think of them, I wonder how difficult it would be to market a product to them as some of the people on the island have not received any form of basic schooling. That island may no longer be there after the 2006 tsunami...

HSBC bank claim that no company should under estimate the power of local culture. In my opinion the adverts aired by the bank, which always show Chinese culture, have show me things I would probably never have known, even if I were to visit the country first hand. 

Examples of HSBC adverts showing culture:

• Sky Lanterns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WdUsxjoznA
• Washing Machines: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=LnKhlymHcu0&feature=related
• New York: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=IlLi08p3Bpg&feature=related
• Germany & France: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=5OaqFJT4mQ&feature=related

The above adverts which were shown around the world show how different culture can mean very opposite things than they are meant to. 

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/crosscultural-marketing.html

The above link shows 10 marketing blunders, which now people would read about and have a giggle at. However if the campaigns had been given the green light, I think the public's reaction would have been slightly different than the companies anticipated. 

Another company that uses culture in the different countries in which they operate in is Coca-Cola, for example in India they used http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJeC_XTBSiQ for Diwali, which worked very well as it showed the culture of Diwali with the lights and the sadness of the man who thought he would not be able to spend Diwali with his family, a time which is very family orientated. 

  

Marketers need to ensure that they understand the culture fully, as they cannot get a full picture over night. The best way round this is by outsourcing work to companies in that are already established within the country in question. This would help eliminate errors from occurring; this could also aid a company with a damaged image to wipe out the negativity caused by a previous campaign.

Although numbers of women in employment are lower than males, there is still a considerable amount of women working in the UK today. The graph below shows both genders in employment in 2008. According to Hofstede, the levels of masculinity in the UK is at around 72, so it seems that males are still mainly in control compared to females (Hofstede 2009)

(Source ONS, 2008)

The graph above shows that the 'breadwinner' culture is on the decline as high levels of women are now in work. This is having an effect of the family culture as females are not as home as much to look after their children (if any), therefore causing children to entertain themselves, thus causing children to 'grow up quicker'. For a more detailed discussion on this topic see the posting in this blog on 'groups'. 

The increase of working women over the years could be linked with the increase in sales of connivance food. A Mintel report shows 'ready to cook' foods have increased by over 30% between 2005 and 2009 (Mintel 2009). Products in this range are generally products that can be put in the oven and not much effort is required.

To conclude this posting, to marketing a product in a foreign country is something that can prove very costly and potentially damaging to the company in question.  If the wrong steps are taken the product could potentially fail, even if the product is successful in the companies’ home country. 

Reference List:

BBC News, 2011, India country profile, [Online], BBC, Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1154019.stm, [Accessed 5th April 2011]

Greet Hofstede, 2009, United Kingdom, [Online] Hofstede, Available at: http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_united_kingdom.shtml [Accessed 6th April 2011]

Mintel, 2010, Chilled and frozen ready meals, [Online], Mintel, Available at: http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=480766/displaytables/id=480766, [Accessed 3rd April 2011]

Office of National Statistics, 2008, Working lives, [Online], Office of National Statistics, Available at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1654 [Accessed 6th April 2011]

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

Marketing to Children

Why do people market to children? What do they expect their end result will be? To sell more goods? To gain market share?

Marketing to children is something which can be extremely costly, as the majority of marketing campaigns aimed at children are promoting toys, it is these toys that push the price of the end product up significantly.

Why is this you may ask. Well the answer is extremely simple, every character needs a licence. It is the cost of making an ordinary product an 'official licenced product'. This also in turn protects the manufacturer, as it would be difficult for the base company to give the rights of the product to any other company.

For example, Disney is a company have a product, such as 'Playhouse Disney', they take this base that has built to a manufacturer such as 'Fisher - Price' to manufacture different products under the umbrella. The company's both sign a contract. This is then pretty much a licenced product and Disney could not go to another firm to have the products made unless a breech of contract occurred.

Firstly, what's the difference  between marketing to children and marketing to adults? Marketers need to be clever in the way that they are selling the product to children. They cannot simple use the main rules of marketing to adults as there are currently are separate set of rules about marketing to children.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) say that adverts are not meant to harm or distress children in anyway (ASA, 2009). The company also states that ads should not directly ask children to pester their parents to make the purchase, it should only be used to inform the relevant audience of the product, features, availability and price. A good advert for marketing to children is the advert for

Dr Daniel Acuff, author of the book 'Kidnapped', a book written about how markets are stealing the mind of children's speaks about his own personal experience and how he has noticed his theory developing in real life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZslgHPs9am4 This video gives a good reasons about the negative aspects of marketing to children and shows that children do enjoy the traditional games such as crafts and doing things other than playing video games.

He also goes on to speak about how children are at great danger of not knowing when a game is a game and when reality starts, this is because children are left to play video games hours on end, with catastrophic impacts.

In February this year a boy of 16 from America is await sentencing after killing his mother for taking his play station away. After that didn't kill her the youth took her body and cremated her. (Yahoo News, 2011) This is not the first case of violent crimes against parents or Innocent members of the public for this type of punishment.

There are many issues with marketing to children... In many countries governments have banned marketing to children for many reasons. 


It is not only marketing to children that is causing a problem. As children are watching more and more television than ever before, they are picking up on these adverts and then causing havoc in stores by crying, screaming or shouting when parents refuse to buy this product that they have seen. This is more commonly known as pester power, where children will pester a parent for a new toy until they give in and make the purchase. Children these days have many different tricks up their sleeves! They know exactly how to get what they want and how far to push... Children make fake promises, something which has not changed over the years, this is where children want a new toy really really badly, but their parents say no, so they say 'if you buy it for me, I will do the washing for a week or mow the lawn, however these promises never get filled! 


Another big problem that children have to suffer with is playground bullying. Children want to fit in where ever they go... Its natural... However when everyone has a certain brand of trainers or the 'cool kid' has a new toy or iPod they become the trend setter, which everyone follows, However there is always one child who cannot be in this group, this can cause them to feel like a social outcast, thus lowering self esteem. As Solomon says 'Recent research by one of the major UK teaching unions, has found that children who cannot afford to buy the latest brands and fashions face bullying and ridicule by their peers. as well as isolation and exclusions.' The quote also says how teachers have found that marketing campaigns on children have had a significant influence over the past few years.  (Solomon M, Bamossy G, Askegaard S & Hogg M, 2010).


Mintel states that men find it more difficult to say no to their kids more than women and that it is harder to say 'no' to children aged between 15-18 (Mintel, 2010).


Mintel also states that less children are participating in some sort of physical activity in their spare time as the figure has dropped by 6% between the years of 2006 to 2010 whereas, children are enjoying their time on the computer more (increase of 2% over the same period). (Mintel, 2010)


The same Mintel report shows that since 2008 the rate of children saving their pocket money has significantly increased by 21% between 2004 and 2010 (Mintel, 2010). This means that they are spending less money on sweets and magazines than before. This could be for many reasons, one being that in 2008 the credit crunch came around and parents were forced to give children less pocket money, this theory could be accepted as Mintel found that in 2008 children saving their money jumped up by around 22% from the previous year (Mintel, 2010).


Solomon states that children are now the decision makers in many aspect of daily life. For example when a mother is doing the weekly shop they often ask the children which breakfast cereal they want or which sweets to buy. This is giving the children a responsibility, which in turn is making them grow older quicker. (Solomon et al, 2010).


To conclude this posting, I feel that although the government are being strict on marketing to children, marketers are still going to be clever and find ways to entice children into buying products that are up for sale. 


Reference List:
Mintel, 2010, Toy retailing UK, [Online], Mintel, Available at: http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=480969, [Accessed 20th March 2011]
Solomon M, Bamossy G, ASkegaard S & Hogg M, 2010, Consumer behaviour a european perspective, 4th edition, Harlow, Pearsons Education LTD.
Yahoo News, 2011, Boy kills mother over playstation, [Online], Jeffery Van Camp, Available at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20110216/tc_digitaltrends/boykillsmotheroverpla ystation_1[Accessed 18th March 2011]

Groups - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly...

What is a group? Dictionary.com gives this definition: 'any collection or assemblage of persons or things'


All person belongs to some sort of group, be it a social group to a charity organisation. This topic is also closely related with values and self esteem. 


A 'group' can only be created with two or more individuals who; share a set of norms, have role relationships and/or experience interdependent behaviors, for example people who go to the pub with the same group of people at a set time on a regular basis. This is also an information group to belong, being in a social group like this can boost ones self esteem, as Solomon explains humans need to be respected by others in order to respect themselves, this is outline in 'Maslow's Hierarchy of needs' Every person fits into this hierarchy it starts off with the lower levels of needs such as water and sleep and goes up to the self fulfillment stage where doing something for others or for your self can lead to self fulfillment. 


This interdependent behavior is very common in schools, as children settle into their own groups of friends and mix outside of school as-well. However, this can cause gang behavior outside of school hours, which can cause anti social behavior issues. Even though anti social behavior can be caused by people of all ages, elder people have a negative perception of gangs of youths and so called 'hoodies'. Although there are no official statistics to prove this, many people are petrified of the 'yob culture.'


Today in the UK there are many different types of dissociative groups that many people would stay away from, yet people are pulled into these groups through peer pressure. These sets of people cause problems through binge drinking, drugs, violence and other criminal activities. In the High Wycombe area the highest crime from the list above is anti social behavior, followed closely by 'other crimes', which include shop lifting, drugs offenses and criminal damage. (Police.com, 2010)


There are many different reasons that people join groups, for example an aspirational group is one that people want to join as the group does good within the community or has a high status in different areas, for example in business or in a social aspect.  Above, I have covered the negative aspects of group and gang culture. Below, I will look at the positive side of groups and motivation groups from weight loss groups such as weight watchers to charity groups who work to help other people less fortunate. 


There are many charity organizations large and small in the country who do good things. From the focus groups which we carried out last month for another piece of coursework, it was found that people preferred to give to charity organizations which affected them personally, rather than being persuaded by a TV advert. This was a group of people who wanted to help others, but at the same time wanted to know what their money was going towards, prior to donating. 


People can communication to groups in many ways, from fact to face, to over the internet. This is something which many companies are using to communicate with their publics. When joining a commerce website the customer is asked a series of questions such as, age, gender, area of residence etc... this is then used by the company to group their customers and can then group them further by the previous purchases. For example a DVD rental company can email a group of people who often rent comedies or horror films when a new release is available. This is direct mail where it can be sent to only the people they know are interested in the products. This can be done on a personal level to engage the consumer at a deeper level. 


To round this posting off, it is noticeable a person may copy a group of others if in an enclosed space such as a lift or car after a few minutes in order not to stand out. This is simply to fit in and not to look different from the others in the vicinity. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge6wmDfsHXA


The video above explains the video perfectly as people join in just to fit in. This is what groups are about. People fitting in...


Reference List:
Police, 2010, 'crime rates in High Wycombe', [Online] Available at www.police.uk,  [Accessed 22nd Feb 2011]
Solomon M R, Bamossy G, Askgaard S, Hogg M, 2010, Consumer behavior a european perspective, 4th ed, Harlow, Pearson's Education LTD 

Values - What do they mean to us?

What are values? Is it linked in the way a person acts? Do they change as life goes on? Where do we get them from?


There are a lot of questions there and in this posting I will be giving answers to each of them as this subject is, one that is very, complicated and contains many different factors. 


Dictionary.com describes values customs. This is true as they are both interlinked. Our customs and values are closely related as they are both taught by parents when we are growing up. For example; not leaving the dinner table until everyone is finished, and respected elders and other peoples opinions. 


Every single human being has their own value system that is unique to them. This is one of the many things that makes each person different. Just because each person has different values does not mean that they are not a good person, its simply they way they prioritise the things they feel are important in their lives. In today's diverse world, people prioritise things differently, from their health to their family.


Values can be affected by various different aspects of everyday life. This can also be linked to the posting on self concept, where an attitude towards a person can affect their self esteem. 


In my life there have been many things that affected my values, although some have not affected me personally, they had made me think about certain things in life. For example when the Tsunami hit, in 2006, I felt some sadness as people had lost everything. This then led me to lead less of a materialistic life and made me open my eyes and be thankful for what I actually had in life. This disaster was somewhat personal for me as I had visited Thailand some years earlier and had seen the conditions that these people had to live in. 


Another example of how my value system changed is one that is very personal, when two members of my family died in the same week. This then led me to think about living each to the fullest, as nobody knows what is around the corner. 


Therefore, I feel that it is acceptable for values to change as life goes on. As a child our values come from our parents and up-bringing. However, as we get older and surroundings and friends change we pick up different beliefs that we may not have thought about or deemed important before. 


Having taken a VALS test it shows that I am an experiencer and a maker, the two most opposite sections in the results table. As an experiencer it shows that I am experiencing new things in life and learning new things whilst being a maker and having a hands on approach to the way I live my life. Strangely, this is somewhat true!


Having looked at Kahle's list of values from 1983, I would choose the following factors, that I feel affect my life from the list:

1. Self Respect, If you can't respect yourself - nobody else will
2. Being Respected - Being respected will lead back to the Self Concept posting as being respected helps build a persons self esteem
3. Warm relationships with others - If a person is able to have a friendship or more with another person it can give a sense of belonging and/or a sense of happiness. This is something that can be related back to Maslows Hierarchy of Needs.  

The next section is the laddering technique, also know as the 'means-end chain model', which is all about asking one question - why? As a child I got told off for asking why too much, but now I have a good response if it were to happen again! 


Laddering is a projective technique where people end up with a terminal value which is a persons preferred goal in life, this could be anything from world peace to family security. Laddering is something that helps marketers to identify the links between functional product attributes and desired end states. 


An example of laddering is below:

The above example is one that represents someone who does not want to drink due to the after affects. 


Solomon describes laddering as ' Consumers are helped to climb up the 'ladder' of abstraction that connects functional product attributes with desired end-states.' (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard & Hogg, 2010, p204), having interpreted this I understand it can only work if the information of the products is available for the consumer to make their own mind up.


MECCAS - Means end conceptualization of the components of Advertising Strategy.  This is where researchers can find information used to develop an advertising strategy, by identifying elements such as:

• Message Elements - This is where specific features are represented
• Consumer Benefit - What good will using this product do?
• Leverage Point - How will the message trigger terminal values by linking it to the specific features?
• Driving Force - What is the end value that the advert will focus upon?

 (Solomon et al, 2010, p206)

A good advert that describes difference cultural values are those produced by HSBC. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSLPEwvVvN0&feature=related
The above advert shows the different meanings between the


Reference List:


Solomon M R, Bamossy G, Askgaard S, Hogg M, 2010, Consumer behavior a european perspective, 4th ed, Harlow, Pearson's Education LTD
Dictionary.com

Nostalgia

Don't you just love that trip down memory lane once in a while?

Nostalgia: 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)

To this day I still check whats on the channels i used to watch as a kid just to see if there is anything on that would take me back my childhood... Sadly the channels are filled with boring new shows that make no sense... Such as Ben10. What happened to all the old classics???

Above is my nostaliga board that shows my childhood happiness... This was slowly taken away as  I grew older, to a point where Christmas just felt like another day...

I remember when I was younger and ill I always used to ask my mum for Calpol (not the orange one - I didn't like that) I still sometimes wonder if that stuff would cure me today. Therefore my nostalgia of being ill was looking forward to my next dose of calpol.

Solomon describes Nostalgia as  'a bittersweet emotion where we view the past with both sadness and longing' (P264, Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard & Hogg, 2010) This is a very good statement as it says that people are able to look back on their life and reflect on a certain period with a positive or negative thought depending on the event.

The Hovis bread advert is a perfect example of how nnostalgia can be used in advertising. The advert shows how the boy runs through the town with his bread and see's his life before him... From watching the soilders marching off to war to being in the middle of an inner city riot. The advert ends by saying 'As good today's as its always been' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADrsqat4j1M)

The nostalgia behind the advert is showing that the boy has gone to get the bread and took the scenic route through history.

The coca-cola Christmas advert brings back a lot of memories for a lot of people as it is represented with the start of Christmas. For many people this advert helps them get into the Christmas spirit, therefore they will be able to make the link to their childhood where they were excited by Christmas.

Having Read a WARC case study on Revels it was found that the initial advert in 1999 was scrapped as did not have the required emotions to trigger nostalgia.  The report says that at first people were commenting on the flavours that they really didn't like, but after venting this hatred they were just as keen to point out the flavours that they liked. (Warc,2001). This lead to a change of flavours taking out the coconut, peanut  and the galaxy counter sweet. This means that each bag could contain up to four flavours and luck will choose which revel you will eat! As the WARC report says its like playing eeny, meeny, miny, mo!  (http://www.revels.co.uk/home/default.aspx)

'Targeting memory is something that is very important for marketers today. If the marketing comity are able to targeting the memory, by appealing to one of the five senses, they maybe be able to trigger a nostalgic reaction thus, enticing the prospective customer into purchasing the product. They best way for marketers to succeed in this is by doing face to face tests. As the public are able to feel the product and can think about if they have felt anything like that before.'


There are many types of learning that are used, which are very complex. The different types are cognitive, observational and behavioral; below I will explain each of the three;

• Cognitive Learning Theory: This theory looks at people as problem solvers, who use all information possible in order to be the best that they can. This means that what we think we know may not actually be what we think it could be. 
• Observational Learning: This is where people conduct themselves by thinking about what they have seen. For example people who watch a film may act like a character if they really feel affected by this person. Below is a table of components of observational learning. 

(P250/251, Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard & Hogg, 2010)

Reference List:

Solomon M R, Bamossy G, Askgaard S, Hogg M, 2010, Consumer behavior a european perspective, 4th ed, Harlow, Pearson's Education LTD

WARC, 2001, Revels, eating revels is a risky business [Online] Warc, Available at:

http://www.warc.com/Content/ContentViewer.aspx?MasterContentRef=c8874131-c414-4066-aeb4-e4989970a420&q=revels  [Accessed 14th January 2010]

Personality or Self Concept... Which comes first?

Its the chicken and the egg situation all over again!! 

I believe that your self concept affects your personality because personality is only the make up you apply on the outside. Self concept is what's inside.. People who may come across as shy may actually have something else hidden in their past that stops them from speaking out. Maybe a relative always put them down as a child? Maybe they were bullied at school? And therefore this has had a big impact on their self esteem and then onto their self concept. 

Personality is something that is constantly changing with your surroundings.  For example people who are married to a dominant partner will not really have a say in many things even though if before they got married they were very out going. This is their self concept that has deteriorated because their personality has been forcefully changed. This is the worst thing to do to a person as they will not be able to stnad on their own two feet and eventually become dependent.


Personality: the visible aspect of one's character (Dictionary.com)

Self concept stems deep down into the individual persons beliefs and how they put them into use in the real world. 

In my opinion it is the self concept that makes a personality... Everyone is different in how they apply their self concept and their personality at different times. For example the clothes people wear could play a factor in that persons self esteem at this times, where as another time, it could be like talking to another person, this is what is known as a multiple personality (Solomon,Bamossy,Askegaard & Hogg, 2010) where people act in different ways at difference times and around different people.

This is known as 'self esteem advertising', there are many factors other than clothing that can affect the way a person presents themselves, for example younger people who smoke may possible think that they look good smoking at a young age, or that it boosts their image within their social peer group. This is a big problem in the world today as this type of peer pressure can lead into different avenues which are extremely dangerous; from taking drugs to committing crimes.

Peer pressure also comes into this scenario as Solomon points out, 'teenagers who are members of high-status groups have a higher self-esteem than their excluded classmates.' (P144, Solomon et al, 2010). This  statement is very true yet it is extremely simple, for people to understand. 

Jack Canfield is an American motivational speaker who hold events across the globe, in the video link below he speaks about positive thinking altering ones self-esteem. One comment that he made which I found very interesting was although being made redundant is a bad thing, but the end of one job holds a promise of a new beginning. When I first him this comment it made me stop and think that everything happens for a reason... Some spiritualists say that our lives are written, others disagree. Hearing this comment makes inclines me to believe the fact that our lives are written even more than previously. 

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7hBoa75YRs)

However, there are two big influences of self-esteem, this is the real self and the ideal self. The real self is our real appraisal of the qualities we have or in some cases do not, where as the ideal self asks the questions: could i earn more money? Or Am I worthy of that position? (Solomon et al 2010). This shows that many people doubt may doubt themselves and their skills at crucial times in their careers that could potentially affect the rest of their lives. This is where Jack Canfield's work comes in again telling people that positive things will happen if you have a positive outlook on life. 

Reference List:

Solomon M R, Bamossy G, Askgaard S, Hogg M, 2010, Consumer behavior a european perspective, 4th ed, Harlow, Pearson's Education LTD

Gender Differences

There are many different factors that make men different from women. It is these differences that make a marketers job harder than it already is as they need to try to make a campaign for the appropriate target market.


The main different between the two is when women are able to look into things deeper than men. (The video below shows the perfectly as it shows how Rachel goes into a lot of depth about her special moment where was Ross is just more interested in the pizza. Pizza or Rachel... Touch choice!!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGoC8FTLKSI


This happens because men have a so-called 'nothing box', where guys can simple go and empty their minds and just act dumb... This quote is backed up by this video: "The Nothing Box" (AKA. Men's vs. Women's Brains). 


The term 'boy racer' typically stems from when younger male drivers modify their car with lights, exhausts and turbo chargers to boost their ego and their self-esteem as many younger drivers in this category tend to have competitions as to who's car is the best. 

There are many texts about gender differences and this helps explain how men and women are different from one and other in many different ways.

One generalisation is that men do not speculate over things for very long where as women are more likely to examine marketing communications. For this reason marketing stimulus for women has more information where as the men's equivalent has more pictures but less words. Most fragrances or skin products follow this rule and can be compared as they have marketing plans for both sexes.


Even mobile phone manufactures are starting to get their companies involved in this, as they are now making phones in different colours. As a result the colours help aim the products distinctly at the different genders. This gives the company the opportunity to see which colours are popular and if the female gender are interested in the types of phones that are directly aimed at them. 


Armani Code for women:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_jpvpFwnwg
This product is a good example as the fragrance for women has a imprint on the bottle where as the men's one is a plain bottle.


Armani Code for men:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzg4kzFx66c&feature=related
The advert is plain and simple and straight to the point which shows the differences the product even thought the branding is the same.


The fragrance and cosmetic industries are good examples of different gender marketing as they can offer a product in two different versions and use two different marketing campaigns to sell these products. Therefore the cost to advertise these products increases dramatically, so it is important for the marketing agencies in-charge of these contracts to get the campaigns right the first time round. 


Solomon states that there was a time where men had to 'men' where the 'macho man' was the only acceptable way to be. However in today's market L'oreal state that the male skin care, is the largest growing sector, as in Europe 24% of men younger than 30 use these products. (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, Hogg, 2010)


As there is a Mintel report for Men's Toiletries, it shows that there is a big increase in usage of the products that fall under this category in the last 8 years. The report which was conducted in 2008 shows that many men started using these products to enhance their appearance. Figure 23 of the report states that the majority of men use the products  in order to be attractive of the opposite sex. This number is consistent through the UK, except in Yorkshire & Humberside(something which I could not find an answer too...), where the number drops significantly. (Mintel, 2008)


A more up to date Mintel report from 2010 shows that 38% males tend to make the purchase of these cosmetic products in boots. (Mintel, 2010) Having looked at the boots website and comparing prices Boots are often running buy one get one free promotions on skin care products from shaving foam to after shave balm (Boots, n.d). Many men use these products on a daily basis, therefore it is for this reason that I feel Boots is market leader in this field. 


Reference List:


Boots, n.d, Mens skin care products, [Online], Boots, Available at: http://www.boots.com/en/Men/Skincare/ [Accessed 14th Jan 2011]


Mintel, 2010, Beauty retailing - UK, [Online], Mintel, Available at: http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=479768 [Accessed 14th Jan 2011]


Mintel, 2008, Men's toiletries - UK, [Online], Mintel , Available at: http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=227679/displaytables/id=227679, [Accessed 14th Jan 2011]


Solomon M R, Bamossy G, Askgaard S, Hogg M, 2010, Consumer behavior a european perspective, 4th ed, Harlow, Pearson's Education LTD