Nostalgia

Memories, memories, memories...



Think back to when you were a child. Or when you had your first pet? Made your first friend at 'big school'? Smiling yet? 

Solomon (2010) suggests that nostalgic triggers help the consumer relate back to their original identity when current situations threaten to change the environment. With that kind of emotional reaction to a product, marketers can entice the consumer back into the past with feelings of joy and youth. A particularly emotional television advert was created by John Lewis in 2010. The advert was played during economic recession, when people tend to be more nostalgic, and emphasised the brands heritage as it has been a part of peoples lives for many years (Marketing Week, 2011). The effectiveness of the advert is also enhanced with the use of colour and music to grab attention. The song is very emotive and relates to consumers in different segments, whilst the use of red as a main colour evokes love, warmth and romance. Smell could also provoke stimuli with the birthday cake images and the outdoor scenes in the country, showing an idyllic lifestyle

Brands that use nostalgia to provoke consumer stimuli have products which will have affected people throughout their lives. The desire for nostalgia by the consumer is intensified because of the lack of predictability and opportunity in current society (Blake Project, 2010). When reflecting back on childhood there was always an element of risk with new experiences and challenges, presenting excitement in a yet to be explored world. Examples of these brands are Cadbury's, Marks and Spencer and Coca-Cola.

Marks and Spencer captured the imagination of the consumer by going 125 years back in time to when the company was created. No-one from that era is alive anymore so the feeling is traditional yet vibrant and, by casting Twiggy as the persona of the advert, the older generation can remember back to when she was a young, enigmatic model  in the 60's. One of the first sentences spoken is that the M&S "changed us Brit's lives' forever, bringing in a taste of the exotic", which re-vitalises the brand image and brings an element of risk to the consumer by "changing their lives forever".  Other adverts that create a nostalgic scene using props are those for Audi and Cadbury. By creating a childish play set with car races and old vehicles, the consumer can easily relate back to when they had enormous fun playing with toys, and who doesn't remember sitting at school waiting to have their hideous uniform photos?



Self Concept

One man's rags is another man's riches...

Solomon (2010) describes how 'props' are important to the [gender] role which we play, props that vary across 'constellations' of products and services. He defines self-concept by "people see themselves as they imagine others see them", and also that, as part of that image, jewelery, shoes and clothes also have an impact. By creating these roles for men and women, marketers can launch their products at the category of people that they think the product will have greatest impact in an environment where people are becoming less satisfied with what they already have.


Research conducted by K. Hamilton and L. Hassan (2008) has shown that there is a strong link between the 'social role' and the 'self' and that other consumers influence the construction of personalities. This could be interpreted as peer pressure, when the circles that we travel in are affected by everyone in it, also other groups around it, and we are influenced into buying things our 'self' wouldn't normally consider. An example of this would be celebrity fitness DVDs, showing the 'before' and 'after' footage, almost what 'we' do and could look like, to fit in, if we bought this DVD.

Consumers can also strive to achieve their desired social role and so, through the acquisition of possessions, they can symbolize their personality through what is expected, a theory known as symbolic self-completion (Gollwitzer et al., 1982). This theory links to Solomons theory of having props to create an image, and the 'constellation' of products is effectively the the symbolic personality for the consumer.

Personality

"The inner psychological characteristics of individuals that lead to consistent responses in their environment"

(Jobber, 2010)

Perception is involved in every aspect of human life and affects judgements, awareness and social effectiveness. People differ in how they perceive the world because of differences in interests, values and motives, aka personality (Myers-Briggs Foundation, n.d.). There are so many factors that influence a development of personality starting from culture and class, to family, beliefs and lifestyle. Each personality is unique however can be categorised into sub-groups using research based indicators. The most well known psychometric test was developed by Myers-Briggs, which has consequently helped others to develop similar methods of deducing personality types. After taking the test, each candidate is given a 'type' that will describe certain traits (click of the picture above to see different outcomes). A few tests are listed below if you fancy seeing your own result:

http://www.mypersonality.info/personality-types/

http://www.personality100.com/page/registration/userreg.xml

https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/personality/

The relevance of personality in marketing and consumer behaviour all comes down to branding. The effectiveness of a product with the targeted audience relies on whether the company has selected the most suitable consumer for it's goods. This is very relevant to brand personality as the consumers characterise the brand on how it is perceived (Jobber, 2010) and the more the consumer can identify with the product, the more likely it is that they will purchase it. J Aaker (1997) developed the "Big Five" which differentiated brands into product categories; Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication and Ruggedness.The brands below carry very a distinctive personality and image:

Other research into personality shows different methods for categorising people, which even relies on body size like the work by William Sheldon in the 1940's (see Figure 1). More experimental work into personality relating to body size is from Ayurvedic medicine in India which is at least 5,000 years old (Neill, 2005). This research may not be the most accurate of determinants but it is interesting to see what early scientists thought created a personality.

Figure 1



Gender

Depiction of men and women in advertising

The way marketers create campaigns for specific products has developed significantly through research into sex-types, and it is apparent that relevant message content appealing to gender social roles influences consumers more. Society has created goals that are typically male or female, agentic and communal, and expects each role to apply these goals in life.  Agentic goals are stereotypically male, where self assertion and mastery are traits, whereas communal (female) considered to foster harmonious relationships (Solomon, 2010). For example, women are more likely than men to elaborate on certain message cues that require limited attention and also make greater use of these cues to render a judgement (Myers-Levy et al., 1991). However, according to 'She-conomy' (2009), only 3% of advertising creative directors are women, and, astonishingly, 71% of women feel they are only targeted for beauty and cleaning products.

The above video is a chocolate advert from the 1990's, starring a woman on a train who is given a 'Secret' chocolate bar to look after by a mysterious gentleman, with the storyline carrying links to an Agatha Christie novel; Murder on the Orient Express. The setting is on a luxurious train and with danger and romance adding character to the scene it is obvious that the intended audience is women. With the use of music, clothes and script, a scene can be developed where the female character is portrayed as sexy, smart and an important role in the story.

Appealing to the male audience is a completely different kettle of fish! With a male's receptiveness being less than a woman's it is not a surprise that the same statement can be applied to advertisement (Market Leader, 2009). The Heineken advert below emphasises the difference between the gender roles and plays it's message via simplistic humour to enhance desirability of the drink (Marketing Week, 2010).



In general, male orientated adverts seem to be devoid of emotional depth and hidden innuendo's and contain only one or two features (Moss, 2009). Plain colours, dominant, powerful language helping men to create decisions based on partially digested information and "content without clear benefit is regarded as a waste of time" (Euro Effies on WARC, 2009).

A hidden, almost secretive, message lies behind many female advertisements, to help continue the illusion of women being mysterious creatures. Colours like pink, peach, white and purples infuse the marketing communications with feelings of freedom and glamour. The text tends to be minimal, but voice overs create stories that women relate or inspire to.

Below are some more examples of gender orientated campaigns:

Male:



Female:

Androgynous:



Boys vs Girls

Gender Research



Sex is a biological fact however gender is a learned behaviour (Mayne, 2000). Men and women are taught, through socialisation and mass media, what to look like and how to behave. This coaching starts from an early age as children are influenced in what is typical male or female behaviour. Men are, stereotypically, forward thinkers, leaders and breadwinners in the family, whilst women are the home-makers, cooks and child bearers with slim figures and pretty faces (see below Jell-O ad). These sex roles vary with culture, age or sexuality (Chandler, 2001) but are socially accepted as normality in many environments.

 

Jell-O, 1970 (All American Ads of the 70's)

Masculinity or femininity are not biologically determined traits and vary culturally, but stereotyped characteristics for each gender are also known  as sex-types. Possessing a mixture of male and female characteristics is described an androgyny and there is a distinction between sex-typed and androgynous people (Solomon, 2010).

Finding out which characteristics people have can be assessed using different tools like Bem's Sex Role Inventory (BMSI) or even the BBC's Sex I.D. profile test.

Men and women process information differently based on their distinguished gender identities, so therefore sex (biological) and gender (social) hold important implications for the consumption of advertising (Hogg et al. 2003).

Equality vs. Equality

Over the past 30 years the argument of equality for women has been at the forefront of the Western culture. Feminists would have us believe that women are the same as men and deserve the same opportunities and treatment, however mentally, and anatomically, we are different. With women expected to hold 60% of wealth in the U.S. by the end of 2010 and 95% of household purchasing decisions (CBS Business, 2007), marketers and organisations must continuously refocus campaigns to reflect this statistic in order to capture this wealth.