Business to Business Marketing

There are many different types of organisations:

Institutional oganisations:

• Not for profit
• Community-based organisations

Government organisations:

• Health
• Environmental protection
• Education
• Policing
• Transport
• National defence and security

Commercial organisations:

• Distributors
• Original equipment manufacturers
• Users
• Retailers

All of which are working alongside one another to supply each other with all the different elements required to make their businesses a success. The main method for businesses to do this is through personal selling, often taking the form of a sales person pitching the relevant information to the other business. Business to business marketing is vast as there are so many of them and so many different elements that contribute to a business such as the manufacturer, the distributer and the supplier, and B2B transactions will tend to be of higher value but fewer transactions than B2C (business to consumer), and because of this it will make it highly important for B2B to keep hold of their customers, which in turn means that they must work harder on building a relationship with their customer.

We were set a task in lesson today to look at three different companies: Coca-Cola, a financial software company and an MRI scanner manufacturer. Working in groups we were to consider the number of potential customers to each company. For example starting with coca cola in the UK alone they potentially have around 50 million customers whereas a financial service software company have hundreds they will consist of all banks, mortgage lenders, loan companies and building societies. however the MRI scanner manufacturers comes in with the fewest customer being 1 which is the NHS. In terms of marketing the fewer customers you have the more you are going to get to know your customers on a more personal level.
Each different company will use different stages of Kotlers buying decision process mentioned in previous blogs. for example coca-cola use thre out of the 5 stages: Need recognition, evaluation of alternative and purchase. The other 2 companies will use all 5 stages in the process.
we then looked at which FTPEPS applied to these individual companies, broken down this is Finance, Time, Performance, Ego, Physical and Social. It would seem that Coca- cola had none of these, whereas the MRI scanner had all of them indicating the major difference between the B2C company and B2B company.

Becuase there are few substitutes for B2B the demand for products is likely to be more inelastic. this means it will be harder to simulate sales through price cuts and promotions etc but it also m,eand that the marketer can set the price. So the bottom line is if a business needs a product then it needs a product therefore no matter what the price the product is essential.

Culture

Three essential components come together to make culture;

1. Beliefs - processes that reflect our knowledge and assessment of products/ services.

2. Values - an indicator, which is used as a guide, for what, is an appropriate behaviour.

3. Customs - modes of behaviour that are culturally approved ways of behaving in certain situations.

The core of a culture is formed by values. They are broad tendencies for preferences of certain state of affairs to others (good-evil, right-wrong, natural-unnatural). Many values remain unconscious to those who hold them. Therefore they often cannot be discussed. Values can only be inferred from the way people act under different circumstances.

The Terpstra and Sarathy Cultural Framework help marketing managers to assess the cultural nature of an international market. It is very straightforward, and uses eight categories in its analysis. The Eight categories are Language, Religion, Values and Attitudes, Education, Social Organizations, Technology and Material Culture, Law and Politics and Aesthetics.

The anthropologist, Clifford Geertz, defines culture as a “historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols…by means of which men can communicate, perpetuate and develop their own knowledge about and attitudes towards life.”

Good examples of different cultures are the HSBC adverts they show the different cultures and rituals around the globe please click on the links

HSBC 1

HSBC 2

HSBC 3

• Society's perception (meaning the way the society wants you to behave, here the factor of pro and anti social behaviour is appointed).
  
• An individuals family values (For example, some families are independent and do not interfer in one another's lives. However in some familes their lives are connected with one another and would consult one another whilst doing anything like taking a decison regarding their life).
  
• Society's values and attitudes (integrates with society's perception)Community learning (basically learning how to behave in socity by observing other people's behaviour in socity).
  
• Communal or collective memory (meaning memorising the behaviour conducted by others in society and performing that form of behaviour in the next scenrio)
  

Culture is a complex concept, this is shown in the brief descriptions above. Culture is very difficult to define. Ralph Linton (1995) states that ''culture is the configuration of learned behaviour and results of behaviour whose component elements are shared and transmitted by members of a particular society.''

Social Class

Krech, Crutchfield & Ballachey say that social class is a division of society made up or persons possessing certain common social characteristics which are taken to qualify them for intimate, equal status relations with one another, and which restrict their interaction with members of other social classes.

Once upon a time society was only split into 3 class systems as the majority of people were of working class and therefore regarded as lower class, then there were the middle classes and a tiny minority of upper class. Nowadays though society can be split into as many as 8 classes: poverty, upper lower class, working class, lower middle, middle middle, upper middle class, upper class and luxurious upper class. This can be compared to an animal pecking order whereby the people at the upper end of the hierarchy have better access to resources such as education, housing and consumer goods. People will try to improve their social ranking by moving up the order whenever possible. We tend to have a desire to improve our social ranking and to let other know when we have done so by bragging about it, and this can often be at the core of marketing strategies.

 

It is important, however, to note that when measuring social class, the measures were designed for the typical ‘nuclear family’ mentioned in one of my previous blogs, with a male wage earner in the middle of his career and a female full time homemaker. It also does not take into consideration subjective social class for example the class someone identifies with but may not belong to.

 

By taking a survey at quizfarm.com I was able to answer a series of questions to establish which class I fell into. The results were that I am Upper Middle Class. 

 

Social class will be important to the marketer because the place that we have in the social structure reflects on how much money is spent and what it is spent on. For instance social class is a better indicator of purchases that have a symbolic aspect but low to moderate prices for example cosmetics or liqueurs. Income is a better indicator of purchase behaviour for non-symbolic, high expenditure products e.g. fridge freezers. Both social class and income data are needed to predict behaviour with expensive and symbolic products such as cars and homes.

 

But is income a sufficiently good indicator of social class? Personally I feel that its not just income that determines your social class but where you went to school, how you were brought up, where you grew up, where you live, what hobbies you have, possibly your level of intelligence, the list could go on!!

Have a look at these links:

• The frost report-social class 
  
• Social class sketch
• Understanding class (i know this guys voice is boring but it is interesting)

 

Marketing To Children

Pester power.

"Pester power" refers to children’s ability to nag their parents into purchasing items they may not otherwise buy.

"The emergence of a child-centered society in which parents prioritise the wants and needs of their children means that many parents are focused on pleasing their children". Mintel [online] 2008 

Piaget states that children are working through an intuitive phase. This is where the child will have an intuitive grasp on some logical concepts, but will still only be able to focus on one aspect of an objet whilst ignoring others.

A study conducted by the Center for a New American Dream in 2002 produced statistics that reinforced the marketers belief in pester power:

• American children aged 12 to 17 will ask their parents for products they have seen advertised an average of nine times until the parents finally give in.
• More than 10 percent of 12- to 13-year-olds admitted to asking their parents more than 50 times for products they have seen advertised.
• The nagging strategy is paying dividends for kids and marketers alike: 55% of kids surveyed said they are usually successful in getting their parents to give in.

In terms of marketing, this may mean that a child will pick up on the most desirable aspect of a product and not pay attention to any other detail, which a parent obviously would. The image above depicts Piaget's four stages of cognitive development. These demonstrate the intellectual abilities of a child and highlight that children are not little adults, in fact, until they reach the age of fifteen they are incapable of reasoning as an adult.

Take a look at this: Buy Me That!!

 

Family Decision Making.

Purchase behaviour is substantially determined by the nature of the family.

You may never have thought about it before but there are many different types of family:

Nuclear Family- father, mother and children who live together

Extended Family- nuclear family plus relatives such as grand parents, aunts, etc

Family of Orientation- the family you are born into

Family of Procreation- the family you marry into

There can be a number of changes to the family structure for example single parents as there is an increase in the number of births out of marriage, 1 out of every 7 families are one parent families. There is also an increase in step families so the nuclear family is being challenged by the 'horizontal' family of step children and step parents. 

The average household size is 2.4 people in 2001, however it has seen a dramatic increase in one person households from 12% in 1961 to 28% in 2001. Often within every household there are 2 main breadwinners and the employment rate of women is one of the highest in Europe and one quarter of married women work 30 hours plus.

A family's values needs are mostly affected by the number of children, their ages and whether one, two or more adults are employed outside of the family.

So who keeps track of the family bills? it is thought that in traditional families the man earns it, the women spends it…the way it should be right!?

However, unfortunately, in the modern family there is more shared participation. It is thought that newlyweds will share the decision of how the money is spent, and as time goes by one spouse or the other will take over these responsibilities. Cultural background will impact the dominance of husband or wife; husbands tend to be more dominant in decision making amongst couples with a strong Mediterranean ethnic identification. Even in northern Europe, the traditional pattern of ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles is still fairly strong. When it comes to men and women and decision-making, traditionally some buying decisions were made by one spouse. For instance men would choose the car, the telly and women would be in charge of decorative decisions, and things like holidays were made jointly. However of recent times there has been evidence of role change with men taking more of an interest in household affairs and woman making joint decisions on products such as cars.

Knowing who the decision maker is, is of high importance to the marketer because they need to know who they are to target and whether or not they are to target a single spouse or both. In some cases though they may be targeting the children however, as research shows that many family purchases other than toys are influenced by children. Children tend to be heavy TV viewers so are likely to be exposed to more ads than other groups and therefore influenced more.

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Take a look at this link: Wife is the decision maker while husband is an obedient follower. This gives an insight into what people really think about the decisions in the home and often backs up the theory mentioned above.

Generational Marketing

'Your only as old as you feel'

The era that a consumer grew up in immediately creates a bond with the millions of others that were also born into that era. As we grow older our needs and preferences change and that is often in unison with other people of the same age. A consumers age gives influence to his or her identity and then also on their spending patterns. The method of marketing to a specific generation is affecting the way that we promote and sell products, therefore in order for a marketer to appeal to diverse age subcultures they must understand the characteristics of key age groups such as:

Millennials: or Generation 2001ers, born after 1980-

It is thought that todays teens are recasting the image of youth from downbeat and alienated to upbeat and engaged. Millennials are held to higher standards than adults apply to themselves, they're a lot less violent, vulgar and sexually charged as the teen culture older people are producing for them, and it is thought that over the next decade they will totally recast what it means to be young and in time they could emerge as the next great generation.

Baby Busters or Generation Xers: born between 1965 and 1980-

This age group includes people, both in and out of higher education, whose taste and priorities are beginning to be felt in fashion, popular culture, politics and marketing. They are thought to still live at home and so have more discretionary income and products mostly bought by them are beer, fast food and cosmetics. They can be targeted with advertising that is entertaining but not if it takes itself too seriously. Vice president of Marketing for MTV said: "You must let them know that you know who they are, that you understand their life experiences. You want them to feel you are talking directly to them".

Baby Boomers: born between 1946 and 1964-

Boomers represent a major economic force in many developed markets and due to their sheer size have tended to reshape each phase of life as they have have passed through it. Important drivers such as spending power, attitudes towards retirement and health/fitness as well as living trends and travel are focused on. attention is paid to their impact on specific markets and their impact on retail trends.

Mature Citizens: born between 1909 and 1945-

Populations are aging due to the fact that people are living longer as a result of medical advances, rising disposable incomes and increased awareness of health and nutrition. They tend to be more set in their ways, more frugal and less hedonistic and more likely to save than to spend freely, however, like boomers they do intend to enjoy their retirement.

I am part of Generation Y. We are typically children of affluent baby boomers. My generation is entering its student years or embarking on their professional careers. Many are still single, very technology-driven, fashion-conscious, status-aware, keen to spend and not affraid of credit (as i have just found out when my card was refused and i realised i had reached my overdraft limit ahhhhhhh! oh well not to worry!) And they have high expectations of themselves and others. Market focus on cosmetics and toiletries, consumer food service, and alcoholic drinks (All the important things then!)

Age cohorts are groups of people with similar ages who have had similar experiences, therefore they experience many of the same memories and have the same cultural heroes. Marketers will often target products or services to one or more of these age cohorts and they will use different campaigns to attract different age groups, and to differentiate these campaigns they will use different media, images and prices.


Take a read of this article: Power of Generational Marketing

Groups

Group influence and consumption.

A group is defined as two or more individuals who:

• share a set of norms
• have role relationships
• and experience interdependent behaviour

Groups influence the socialisation process or to put it another way they influence what we learn and how we behave. We all belong to groups, we pick up things by watching how those around us behave and we try to please them by doing those things to. This is because we have a desire to fit in and often go to great lengths to do so. It is this that influences our purchase decisions, because our preferences are shaped by the groups that we belong to. We can be influenced by team-mates, colleagues, friends, family, or even famous people who we have never met. There are many different groups that can influence purchase decisions as you can see form the diagram below:



Groups can have a huge impact on the products that we buy, for example, Burberry unfortunately picked up a lot of bad press for being associated with "chavs" it became associated with people who did bad things, therefore the A-lister who once purchased this famous and distinctive brand were put off greatly and sales in the UK for burberry dropped significantly. You can have a read of these articles to find out more: Burberry versus the Chavs.

And Burberry has shaken of its chav image.

Likewise someone of a lower class can be influenced by a product which is marketed to be luxurious and extravagant and therefore they would aspire to have this product to be seen by others as a little classier perhaps. It could be that "chavs" thought by wearing a fake version of Burberrry they were seen to be more up market.

Aspirational groups are often used by marketers because they use highly visible, widely admired and idealized figures, a good example are the following adverts:

• Gillette Fusion
• Gillette- David Beckham
• Sharpies
• Virgin Mobile

Maslows hierarchy of needs includes the need to belong, to have love, friendship and to be accepted by others. Marketers and advertisers use 'belonging' as a pivotal message in ad campaigns. We look to our reference groups, our colleagues/neighbours, for influence on purchase decisions on things such as brands, things that may give us a sense of status, luxurious goods. If marketers can create a strong brand image and market at the correct group then it is more likely that a person will then pass on to their reference group how they feel about a product and how much they like it, therefor it will have a better chance at succeeding tin the market. Likewise our peers can have a huge influence on our purchase decisions, by what is regarded as 'cool' or not. We look to the behaviour of others to provide a guide and to reassure our self-evaluation. Consumers tend to be selective about whom they use as benchmarks and in general, for social comparisons, people tend to use a Co-ordinated Peer, or a person of equivilant standing. Take a look/listen to this, i found it very interesting: Social Influence Marketing.

Values

Involvement, Values and Attitudes

The objective of today's lecture was to learn and understand how a persons level of motivation and degree of involvement affect their behaviour and furthermore understand how that persons values and attitudes also affect their behaviour and then to show how a marketer can exploit this and use it to their advantage.

Values are defined as the the ideals, customs, institutions etc of a society toward which the people of the group have an affective regard. These values may be positive such as cleanliness, freedom or education, or negative such as cruelty crime or blasphemy.

"If we believe our overall values drive our behaviour, then we should be concentrating on the important, underlying motives that drive consumers to make product or service choices rather than simply product attributes" (Reis and Trout 1985).

When it comes to marketing and linking this with consumer involvement, values will have a greater impact on those products which require high involvement this is because people have specific terminal values or end states and many of the products and services purchased will help to attain that persons value related goal, that could be any of the following according to Kahles list of values:

1. Self respect


2. Excitement


3. Being well respected


4. Self-fulfilment


5. Sense of accomplishment

1. Warm relationship with others


2. Security

1. Fun and enjoyment


2. Sense of belonging

For example being well respected for some people can mean having the latest gadgets i.e mobile phones and cars, and these people believe that the high end goods will gain respect. Alongside this people may then feel a sense of accomplishment once attaining these goods they have aspired to. Research shows that in 1967 the most important value to people was to develop a meaningful philosophy of life with the least important being to become an expert in finance and eccomerce. Whereas in 1985, a mear 18 years later, the most imprtant value to people was to be well off financially and the least important being to clean up the environment. But why is it that we have become a world obsessed with money...perhaps people are getting to carried away with their aspirations that they are concentrating to much on the materialisitc things in life rather than the really important things in life such as family etc.

Personally my values have been shaped through the different stages in my life and through the different experiences i have gone through, which is how it will work for most people. Everyone will have different values and different orders of importance for things in their lives. My family and friends impact my values on security, sense of belonging and warm relationships with others, and if my relationships with family and friends change then subsequently so will my values. With this in mind i believe that along with our values changing over time so do the ways in which we make purchase decisions.

Below is an advert which i feel shows sense of accomplishment:



Click on the link to see an advert that shows a sense of belonging: The AA Vintage TV ad.

Below you will see the VALS framework. VALS is 'a marketing and consulting tool that helps businesses worldwide develop and execute more effective strategies. The system identifies current and future opportunitites by segmenting the consumer market place on the basis of personality traits that drive consumer behaviour'. So the aim of the VALS test is to measure the underlying psychological motovations and resources that many consumers share that predict each groups typical choice as consumers.



After taking the VALS test myself the results showed that i am an innovator. Innovators are said to be successful, sophisticated, take-charge people with high self-esteem. They are a very active consumer, and their purchases reflect cultivated tastes for upscale, niche products or services. Image is also important to the innovator, not through power or status but as an expression of taste, independance and personality. Their lives are characterised by variety. Their possesions and recreation reflect a cultivated taste for the finer things in life. For me this is weirdly funny because when my mum asks me to justify why i spend so much money on nice clothes, shoes, etc i reply with "Its because i like the finer things in life".
My secondary type is the experiencer, motivated through self-expression. A young, enthusiastic and impulsive consumer. Experiencers are avid consumers and spend a comparatively high proportion of their income on fashion, entertainment and socialising. This would be spot on for me!! Take the test for yourself by following this link: The VALS survey.

Gift Giving.

Is gift giving always an involved decision?

Do you dread the thought of birthdays and christmas' because you just dont know what to buy people year after year. I know i do.
Going back to buyer involvement in purchase decisions, we generally have low involvement for essential goods like bread or milk, and high involvement for more expensive goods such as cars, houses etc.

But do we really put so much thought into what we buy people, how much involvement do we really have when it comes to purchasing gifts. Laurent and Kapferer (1985) argue that a consumers level of involovement will be affected by four components:

1. Importance and Risk (FTPEPS)
2. Probability of making a bad purchase
3. Pleasure value of product category
4. Sign value of product category

According to involvement scores for various products conducted by Laurent and Kapferer, items such as clothes and perfume have high involvement because the importance of perceived risk is high and also because the probability of making an erroneous choice is also high!! Symbolism as a value driver will play an important part here as certain brands, especially with clothes and perfume, carry with them certain perceptions and status. Therefore these purchase require high involvement as there are many factors to consider by the gift giver.



Danziger (2004) believes that gift giving is about emotionally connecting giver and recipient and that the goal is to achieve a special feeling by communicating a message to the recipient. However problems can occur when the giver and the recipients value drivers are different.





Gift giving is right brain dominated (emotional) (Which could possibly be the reason why men get it so wrong because their left side of the brain is dominant!)
More often than not though its the experience that counts when it comes to gift giving, for example when shops offer gift wrapping services and things like scented beads in your bag at La Senza etc.

Skip to the end of this clip below (about 6.00 minutes in) this shows that perhaps when it comes to gift giving its the thought that counts!!

Heuristics, Memory and Nostalgia

Tricking people out of their buying habits!

Heuristics:

As we have looked at previously Kotler's buying decision process has 5 stages. But do we really take into consideration all of these stages with every product we buy? My answer is no we dont, we couldnt possibly, otherwise we would spend most of our time standing in shops unable to make up our minds. To make decisions simpler for consumers we often employ decision rules that allow us to use certain things as substitutes for others. Assumptions can be subtitutes, like assuming that you will get exactly what you need at a particular shop so you wont even take into consideration any of the competitiors. This then serves as a short cut, an easier route to come to a conclusion. Consumers often fall back on Heuristics. Heuristics are defined by solomon as "mental rules of thumb that lead to a speedy decision" for instance buying the most expensive product would suggestto you that it will be the producty of best quality, or buy the same brand as you bought last time bacause you know you liked it and therefore is a safe option, or buying the same products or brands that you grew up with in your own household. This is something i notice myself doing alot of the time. I will buy tetleys teabags because its what i have always drank at home! Kotlers buying decision process assumes optimisation rather than satisfaction, but when buying heuristically it is the other way around, it is satisfaction that is focused on rather than optimisation, as previously mentioned when shopping in a supermarket it is not optimisation we are looking for but rather those goods that have satisfied us in the past. We will often use fast and frugal heuristics-"making quick decisions when there is a lot of choice" (Williams 2001). The ways in which these fast and frugal heuristic decision are made are by the following:

• Recognition-(you are more likely to buy the one you know than a new model)- Branding
• Minimalist-(recognition plus one random criteria- works for low involvement e.g. recognition plus nice label)- Advertising
• Take the last-(use the last criteria applied to a similar situation)- Habit
• Take the best-(assesses the options in order of perceived importance of criteria-still only uses one reason)- Branding/USP.

Memory:

"Learning is the acuisition of knowledge, and memory is the storage of internal representations of that knowledge" (Blakemore 1988)

Basic learning principles are at the heart of many consumer purchase decisions. this is important to marketers as consumers are seen to be complex problem solvers who learn rules and concepts by watching others. We learn when we are not even trying to- incidental learning. We recognise brand names and remember jingles even though we do not use those specific products ourselves. Learning is an ongoing process, much like perception, because we are constantly exposed to new stimuli therefore changing our behaviour accordingly.

"Every time an advert or commercial appears, the objective is to have the reader or viewer learn something...and remember what he learned" (Britt 1955). This is crucial for businesses because an advert which is not remembered means they then have a product which is not remembered therefore not bought, and so the brand will be at a loss.


Memory involves a process of gaining information and storing it over time until it is needed. Studies assume that memory has am information process approach, much like a computer does. Whereby information is input, processed and output for later use. Memory is thought to take place in 3 stages:

• Encoding- information is entered into the memory
• Storage- information is retained in memory
• Retrieval- Information stored in memory is found as needed.
  

All of our memories are locked in our heads and are kept in our heads until we are prompted to recall these memories. It is this information that we have locked in our heads that marketers rely on. We keep our thought on what we have learned about a product or service and this is what we use in situations where a purchase decision must be made. During the buyer decision process this internal memory is combined with external memory to allow different brands to be indentified and evaluated. We will use our memory to look back on our previos thoughts and experiences so, when it comes to Kotler's buying process, if we have previously been satisfied by a product then the information search won't have to take place again whereas if past experience tells us that we were not satisfied with the product then an alternative brand may then be chosen.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is described as "a bitter- sweet emotion, where the past is viewed with both sadness and longing" (Soloman 2008). In relation to marketing, advertisers stir up memories from youth with the hope that those feelings they are cungering up will relate to what they are selling today. Sometimes a stimulus is able to bring about a more weakened response- spontaneous recovery which explains why we have strong feelings when we see or hear things that we havn't for so long. This links in with the 5 senses- Music, Images, Smells, Touch and Taste can all evoke memories of the past. Here are some adverts using nostalgia:

Enterprise Week.

We had a very interesting week this week with talks from some of the best in the business.
The first talk i attended was headed up by 8 experts in the industry of PR, advertising and media:

• Ivor Peters
• Jamie Matthews
• Andrew Canter
• Don Cowley
• Steve Cox
• Allan Rich
• Jayne Barr
• Rob Laurence

It was a question and answer session and was put together to try and explain whats next for the industry taking into consideration the current climate. The clear feelings expressed by the panel were that the current recession should be seen as an opportunity rather than problem. Alan Rich believes that "a well run business will always come through a recession" the business will survive because the employees will really know and understand their business. He explained that at times like this businesses should focus on brands that willbe most likely to survive and concentrate the budget on these brands, to be sure of success. He thinks all you need is enthusiasm and not just for the job but for each other.
Ivor Peters explained "there is no solution because there is no problem". He went on to say that clients will always be lookking for 3 key things:

• Measurement-(very important in current climate)
• Accountability-(transparent with brands/clients)
• Innovation- (the stand out factor)

He believes there is a huge opportunity with recession and that there should be  move into integration. Communication is of the highest importance- the brand and message must be conveyed to the consumer.

There was a lot of focus on the fact that the future is digital. By this i mean that digital marketing, online and internet marketing, is going to come to the foreground in the future. Jamie Matthews believes that there will be a change in balance of power, and that digital, PR and Sales promotion will become shorter term in terms of brand building.

Andrew Carter believes that advertising companies are now looking at where the fit into the digital world, he believes that "brands must keep abreast of whats going on" and that companies such as advertising will have to "evolve and adapt to survive"

Jamie Matthews went on to say that he believes it is about Content in conjunctoin with:

•  Contact- where the message is being place
  
• and Context- relevance/are the consumer ready

He believes that by following the above structure this will then go on to create a powerful message.

An interesting fact from him was that in the 70's it took just 3 ads to get a message across to the consumer however nowadays that has risen to 117 ads! This is because we become 'immune' to advertising perhaps because we are exposed to so much of it every day.

Steve Cox then added that posters are the fastest growing medium outside of the internet, this is becuase it is a big medium where everyone will see it and it is difficult to stop people seeing it. 

Talking and listening to experts in the business it seems that to survive and get into the world of marketing, the following points will stand you in good stead:

• Capitalise on digital
• Look more on the internet: read blogs
• Be sharp and have an innovative mind- think outside the box
• Be imaginative
• Make yourself indispensable to the industry 
• Have a good attitude
• Be confident
• Have the ability to express yourself.

Gender

The Difference Between Male and Female!

It is believed that ways to impress a woman involve the following things:

• Compliment her
• Respect her
• Honour her
• Cuddle her
• Kiss her
• Caress her
• Love her
• Stroke her
• Tease her
• Comfort her
• Protect her
• Spend money on her
• Wine and dine her
• Buy things for her
• Listen to her
• Care for her
• Stand by her
• Support her
• Hold her
• Go to the ends of the earth for her

And ways to impress a man include the following:

• Show up naked!
• Bring food!

When i first read the above statements i couldn't help but laugh as i think it is so true.

However the point behind this being that male and female brains work in very different ways. It is thought that women are more emotional and more sensitive and caring than men are and women take more into account than men do, little things are more important to women than they are to men. This is because the limbic system/emotional brain is larger in women. If you have time take a look at the video below.

In class today we were shown a series of charity adverts and asked to respond on how we felt after watching them:

• Bernardos
• Cancer Research
• Give Blood

The question being did these adverts tug on the heart strings. After watching them would they convince you to donate to that particular charity. The general consensus was that females in the class felt more sympathy and related more to the adverts and were more empathetic than the males in the class. This could therefore mean that they would be more willing to donate to the specific charity. Research has shown that women tend to use both sides of their brain whereas men tend to only use the left hand side of theirs, making them more directly to the point. This is an important piece of information when compiling a marketing campaign. The marketeer will have to understand the differences in the male and female brain processes to accuratley target either group. For instance, take a look at the picture below:




When asked to look at the picture for a few minutes then asked to remember what was in the room, men would typically be able to tell you where a desk was or the location of a cabinet. whereas a women would be able to tell you the more intricate details such as a vase of flowers the pattern of the decor, the colours, if there were pictures on the walls. If you take this into consideration when thinking about advertising it possibly shows that women would prefer prettier wore detailed adverts that carry a story whereas men would prefer just to see the product and know what it does so being more to the point. Going back to the charity advertising , because of the emotional side of the brain women are the primary caretakers of children because of their ability to bond more than males, (See article: Male and Female brain differences.) This article also states that 70% of carers for the elderly are women, women tend to have more friends, and they have a larger nesting instinct than men. All of this information should be taken into account when it comes to charity advertising as they can use the fact that women have a greater concern for others than men do to gain donations and to have a successful campaign.
Relating this to direct mail and how genders respond to direct mail, women tend to respond more to a conversational style, a more emotive style, they will spend the time to sit down and read through an advertisement, whereas a male would prefer to simply be told the facts in a straight forward mannor. The conversational style is often found in mailshots for charities. Women will also respond well to images and strong colours whereas men wont really take this into consideration when reading a mailshot.

A clip below showing how the different sexes brains work!! The girls like to know all the little details, whereas the guys are just straight to the point!



Follow this link to see a womans ideal of the perfect man: After Eight Advert

Schiebe and Condry (1984) examined advertisements according to product type and found major gender differences in the values promoted in advertisements. Advertisements which are aimed at women heavily stress beauty and youth, and those aimed at men emphasise physical strength and valued ambition. Take a look at this: