Final Reflection and Blogging

Blogging - A blog is a type of website usually maintained by an individual with regular updates regarding a specific subject or topic.
Here are some of the benefits of blogging:

• the consumer and citizen are well informed regarding the subject or topic.
• blogs have potential to help with the development of the business or organization, blogs also help to develop stronger relationships and brand loyalty with its customers as they interact through blogging.
• blogs are a great way of sharing knowledge within the organisation.
• blogs are a great way of gaining feedback from readers, which obviously helps to improve for the next time.
• blogs can build up the profile of the writer, showcasing the talent and expertise.

I have enjoyed blogging, it has really helped me understand this subject (understand the customer) I wish i had made a blog straight after the lecture as this would have helped me more throughout the year.

This video talks about what a blog is.

Memory & Nostalgia

Defintion - "memory refers to the proccessors that are used acquire, store, retain and later retreive information. there are three major proccesors involved in memory, encoding, storage and retrieval."
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 family and friends a sentimental yearing for the happiness of a former place or time. (Dictionary.com)

In our lecture we started off by doing a activity basically caroline our lecturer had a shopping list on the board she asked us to look at the list and said try and remember them but don't write them down. She asked us to then write down which of the things that we remembered there were 10 list of things i got 7 out of 10 the funny thing was that none of us got 10 out of 10!!!

We also did a music quiz we had to name the brand for example the M&S advert caroline played the ad we were not allowed to look we had to guess which ad the music represented. This ad was the summer one it had alot of memory connected to it for me, it reminded me of summer and gave me a happy feeling, it was interesting to know that people in my class had the same feeling as i did. This ad was using nostalgic triggers which actually worked.



"Learning is the acquisition of knowledge and memory is the storage of internal representations of that knowledge." (Blakemore, 1988)
"Without memory we would be servants of the moment ..... relying on reflexes.... civilisation itself is the ditillation of human memory"

The Memory Process

EXTERNAL INPUTS - ENCODING (information is placed in memory) - STORAGE (information is retained in memory) - RETRIEVAL (information stored in memory is found as needed.

Nostalgia and the 5 senses - Music, Images, Smells, Touch, and Taste.

(I have prepared a mood mood but don't know how to upload it, i will try to find out and will do so.)

Social Class

Social Class can be difined as"as the division of members f a society into a hierarchy of distinct status classes have either more or less status." (Difintion from Consumer Behaviour SCHIFFMAN)

Socail class can also difined as "status hierarchy in which indivuals and groups are classified on the basics of esteem and prestige accuired many through economic success accumulation o weath." (Defintion from business. dictionary.com)

Social Class is a division of society made up of persons possessing certain common socail 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. (Krech, Crutchfield & Ballachey in Dubois 2000)

Measuring social class

• Great britain
• ABC1 C2 D E
• A - upper middle class
• B- middle class
• C1- lower middle class
• C2- skilled working class
• D- working class
• E- lower class

In our lecture we were talking about socil class, we then had to get into groups and talk about one specific group we we asked to talk about upper class, we had to create a mood board related to what things they may be into, what thier lifestle is like what people they may be assocaited with, etc. here is a pci of the mood board that we prepared for our upper class people!!

we felt that this type of social class would maybe read the guardian, most likely to have gone to university, have a very nice luxury car, they may have interests in different types of animals such as tigers instead of dogs and cats, we had a picture of perfect teeth on the board the reason being for this was because these types of people have enough money to spend on teeth and they have to maintain looking good as they have a reputation to keep. We felt that they would also have a lovely house with contempory furniture and a big garden. They may even have an interest for horses, they may read gracier mazagine rather than OK!! For me this was a very fun activity to do, it was nice to find out about other peoples class and cultures.

Caroline our lecturer showed us this video which i enjoyed watching!! its a good laugh!!!!

Family Purchasing

"Family can be difined as two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption, who reside together." (Defintion from Consumer Behaviour SCHIFFMAN)

Family plays a integral role of influencing our purchasing behaviour as a child the choices are determined by parents based upon safety and need of child consideration. similarly the child influences the the decision making process realetd to the whole family like colour or family car, etc.

The family purchasing process can be examined from four perpectives:

• Power Structure
• Decision Making stage
• Family Culture
• Role Structure

Like societies families are also structured of roles and each family member occupied his or her role. For ex gender role preferences reflect culturally determined attitudes towards the role of husband, wife, mother and father in each household. preception of these roles based on gender affects the decision making process and household decision making process.

Group Influence and Consumption

Cultural - Social - Personal - Psycholigical - BUYER

Here are some defintions of the family:

• Nuclear family - father mother and children who live together
• Extended family - nuclear family plus other relatives such as grandparents, aunts, etc.
• Family of orientatation - the family you were born into
• Family of procreation - the family founded through marriage

I feel that every family is different everyones needs and wants are different to others, i feel that it all depends on the number of children there are in the family what ages they are, what careers the parents have, etc. For example My father was the only one working, My mother was a housewife, still is, I' am the last child i have older siblings, i remember when i was growing up we would all make decisions together if we were to buy a new TV we all get a say as to which one we like.

Self Concept and Personality

"Personality - a persons unique make up which consistently influences the way the person responds to his or her environment" What is personality, personality has been approached by theorists in a variety of ways, some have emphasized the dual influence of heredity and early childhood experiences on personality development. Others have stressed broader social and environmental influences and the fact that personalities develop continuosly over time." (Consumer Behaviour, chapter 5 SCHIFFMAN)

The big five scale of personality type -

• Openness to experience
• Conscientiousness
• Extroversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism

"Self concept - the beliefs a person holds about his or her own attributes and how he or she evaluates those qualities". (Soloman, 1999)

"people see themselves as they imagine others see them."

In this lecture we had an interesting activity to to, we had to choose a brand and prepare a presentation of a mood board images based on their advertising. We had to have picture's of what lifestyle this brand member would have, for example the tyoe of house, car, make up, jewellery, social life, etc. We decided to choose Chanel.

Enterprise Week

Enterprise Week was held at the bucks new uni, the events took place for over two weeks different days for different programmes. This was a very exciting opportunity for students to get an idea of what life would be like after their degree's, it was also good for students who felt maybe the degree they are doing isnt qiute right for them, there were people to help them decide which direction they may be best to head in. All different types of people came from different organisations and job sectors to educate students about the field that they work in for example what qualifications are needed, skills, experience, etc.

Enterprise week also gave us students the opportunity to get involved in fun games and activities such as, the apprentice challenge, doughnut selling challenge, all linked in with marketing for example pricing the doughnuts, advertising, place to sell, etc.

Susan Jones Director of enterprise week at bucks new uni ws quoted saying "this years enterprise week will be a great experience for everyone taking part, there will be a host of opportunities for both business people and would be both entrepreneurs and we look forward to the involvement of indivduals and local businesses across the region".

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Segmentation, targeting and postioning comprise a three satge process, we first determine which kinds of customers exist select which ones are best off trying to serve and finally implement our segmentation by otimizing our products, services for that segment and communicating that wehave made that choice to distinguish ourselves that way.

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning are marketing tools are by a company, to get competitive advantage in the market. They help the company to differentiate its product offering that of its competitors ensure that the same reaches the exact market profile for which is intended. Market segmentation is the process of dividing the market into similar groups according to the charactestics intended for the product at hand.

Targeting - is the process of selecting the most lucrative market segments for marketing the product. positioning involves the formulation of a definitive marketing strategy around which the product at hand would be finally marketed amongst the target audeince. (CBS Business Network)
Market Segment defined: Divison of the total market into smaller relatively homogeneous groups.

Great advice from this lovely gentleman!!!

"The focus of the marketing concept is consumer needs, at the same time recognizing the high degree of diversity among us, consumers reseachers seek to identify the many similarities or constraints that exist among the peoples of the world." (Consumer Behaviour, SCHIFFMAN)