Shopping has indeed become the target of incessant promotions these days as attested to the presence of point-of -purchase promotional efforts. This advertising method displays ads alongside the merchandise it is promoting or at the checkout area. Constantly bombarding consumers with advertisements could lead to shoppers reaching a certain point of saturation. It would in turn cause them to rebel and demand peace and quiet while shopping.
The shoppers may have had enough of advertisements and its false promises. They may end up rebelling against the rise of consumerism, perceived deception in advertisements, offensive stereotypes, and advertising clutter. The overall level of advertising in America is very high. In studies conducted, it was found out that Americans are exposed to over 500 commercial messages a day (Bovee and Arens, 1995). Network prime time shows 24 percent promotional material, consumer magazines allocate 50 percent advertising, and many newspapers carry 64 percent advertising (Television Commercial Monitoring Report, 1995; 1994/1995 Magazine Handbook, 1995).
The resulting effect is what we termed as “commercial clutter”. Consumer Reports cites "commercial clutter" as one of important issues that "should take center stage on the national agenda" (Consumer Reports, 1996). Advertising clutter could possibly lessen the effectiveness of individual ads and advertising in a particular media. Research shows that ad clutter can have a dangerous effect on ad recall or recognition (Webb and Ray, 1979; Mord and Gilson, 1985).
It is easy to see that at some point, consumers may re-think their shopping patterns and begin to consider alternative. If this happens, stores that offer "counter market" or those that offers hands off shopping environment could be seen as a viable alternative in the future.
Consumers tired of the constant advertisements could be looking elsewhere for people or firms that could do shopping for them. Also, the need to maximize the use of time could also contribute to the need for hands off shopping. This is not a new concept actually since most of us have availed of delivery services in purchasing products or food such as pizza, fast food, milk, newspapers even groceries.
As the shopping needs of people evolve and the stress on time management has become more pronounced, stores that offer hands off shopping environment could actually be a welcome alternative to conventional shopping.
Is it still practical to consider people 55 and older as one consumer market? Why? Why not? Suggest some approaches to further segmenting this age sub-culture. Also give recommendations for the types of products that could benefit from each of the approaches you have suggested.
No, it is not practical to consider people 55 and older as one consumer market. This is so because people even in same age bracket have different needs and capabilities. What works for one does not necessarily work for the other. Demography is not the only way to segment markets. Even more important to marketing objectives are the factors such as the differences in buyer attitudes, motivations, values, patterns of usage, aesthetic preferences, and degree of susceptibility.
It is not good to rely primarily on demographic breakdowns alone. Segmentation analysis should be done in order to choose the strategically most important segmentations and then to design brands, products, packages, communications, and marketing strategies around them.
The demographic idea revolves around the premise that differences in reasons for buying, in brand choice influences, in frequency of use, or in susceptibility are caused by the differences in age, sex, income, and geographical location. But this is usually not true. As pointed out earlier, markets should be scrutinized for important differences in buyer attitudes, motivations, values, usage patterns, aesthetic preferences, or degree of susceptibility. These may have no demographic correlatives. Above all, it must never be assumed beforehand that we know the best approach to a given market. This is the fundamental rule of segmentation analysis. All ways of segmenting markets must be given due consideration. Only then can selection of the best methods that have the most important implications for action can be done. This process of choosing the strategically most useful mode of segmentation is the essence of the marketing approach.
Consider, for example, companies like Procter & Gamble, General Motors, or American Tobacco, whose multiple brands sell against one another and must, every day, win new elections in the marketplace:
These companies sell to the whole market, not by offering one brand that appeals to all people, but by covering the different segments with multiple brands. How can they prevent these brands from cannibalizing each other? How can they avoid surrendering opportunities to competitors by failing to provide brands that appeal to all important segments? In neither automobiles, soaps, nor cigarettes do demographic analyses reveal to the manufacturer what products to make or what products to sell to what segments of the market. Obviously, some modes of segmentation other than demographic are needed to explain why brands which differ so little nevertheless find their own niches in the market, each one appealing to a different segment.
