Advertising And Its Impact On Young People Marketing Essay

If we look up the word ‘advertise’ in the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1990) we find the following definition: ‘Make an announcement in a public place; describe or present goods publicly with a view to promoting sales.’ Right after that we find advertisement defined as:

‘A public announcement (formerly by the town-crier, now usually in newspapers, on posters, by television, etc)’

It was Daniel Starch (1926), one of the early pioneers of advertising theory in the twentieth century, who back in the 1920s, reminded us that the Latin root for advertising is advertere. This roughly translates as ‘to turn towards’.

L.E Boone and D. Kurtz, (1998) Advertising is a specific type of marketing that brings a product to the attention of consumers and may be delivered through a variety of media channels such as television, radio, print, billboards, personal contact and the internet.

Advertising is a very effective method to convey the company’s message to its target market. In olden days there was no such concept of advertising because people would only buy products. They were only concerned about the utility of the product. The scenario changed with the passage of time and the marketers started something different. They associated the products with emotions, life style, style etc.

With the passage of time the market got bigger and it was difficult to have one product for all the market so the marketers divided the markets into different groups having different needs and wants. This method is known as segmentation. So the market segment I am going to discuss that’s affected by advertising is the youth.

1.2 Impact on Youth

J. M. McGinnis et al (2006) The term youth marketing used in the marketing and advertising industry to describe activities to communicate with young people, typically in the age range of 12 to 34. More specifically, there is the Tween Marketing, targeting people in the 9 to 13 year-old range, Teen Marketing, targeting people age 12 to 18, College Marketing, targeting college-age consumers, typically ages 18 to 21, Young Adult Marketing, targeting young professionals typically ages 22 and above. Youth marketing strategies commonly include television advertising, magazine advertising and online marketing. Today young people expect to be able to learn about, interact and be entertained by with brands or services targeting them online. Other common youth marketing tactics include entertainment marketing, music marketing, sports marketing, event marketing, viral marketing, school and college programs, product sampling and influencer marketing.

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Advertisers are aware that youths and teenagers are basically passionate and emotional. Advertisers are bombarding them with attractive and mouth watering adverts. Advertisers know youths can easily be targeted because of their nature. They are less likely than others to compare prices or seek recommendations. They buy based upon what their friends are buying, what will make them more popular with their peer group, or what a celebrity whom they admire or respect says they need. They are more insecure and more rebellious than people of any other age group. They know that teenagers’ tastes will change on any given day what’s popular today can be passé tomorrow.

The advertisement industry has a tremendous impact on our youth. What some people see on television, they take for truth. They tell us what to wear (because everyone is wearing it), what to eat (because everyone is eating it), what to do (because everyone is doing it). The advertisers know how to appeal to our senses. They use peer pressure very heavily.” you need to wear these tennis shoes because (add a big name sports star) is wearing them and everyone else is wearing them. You want to be cool don’t you?” You have to have a fast car that can go 120 mph even though speed limit is set at about half that. They have confused our youth with the difference between “need” and “want”.

In order to find out the impact of advertising on youth, a sample of 60 students was selected from London. 30 students were selected from Rayat London College and 30 from the London School of Commerce. The reason was that these colleges are the most popular in London and students studying over here come from distant places from different backgrounds and classes. The environment in these colleges is very glamorous. The research is basically about the impact of casual wear advertisement on youth that’s the reason this sample is selected. These students are influenced by fashion and style and the most important thing is that they fantasize celebrities.

A short and to the point questionnaire was used to collect the data from this sample unit. The result was then analyzed.

1.3 Aims and objectives of the study:

The objectives of the study are as follows:

To know whether students prefer advertised or non advertised products.

To know to what extent students get motivated to buy a product after watching advertisements of casual wears.

To investigate, that how students feel when they use these advertised products?

1.4 Project Scope:

This research is concerned with the whole of United Kingdom but due to limitations it could not be conducted as per the requirement and as such the research is completed by collecting secondary data from internet, newspapers, journals and primary data is collected from London.

1.5 Problem Statement:

Whether and to what extent advertisements of casual wear affect college students?

1.6 Limitations of the study:

Expected limitations of this research can be:

Unavailability of data.

Limited of time.

1.7 Scheme of the Report:

The report will comprise of following sections:

Chapter 01: Introduction

Chapter 02: Research Methodology

Chapter 03: Literature Review

Chapter 04: Analysis and Findings

Chapter 05: Conclusion and recommendations

Chapter 2

Research Methodology

Throughout the research approach section, it is clearly shown and explained about the approach going to be used in tackling direct and indirect research. Methods of data gathering are described in detail, to spot advantages and disadvantages of different methods to be used. The methodologies that the researcher will use for the research are as follows:

2.1 Research approach:

According to Saunders et al (2003) there are three types of principles in research philosophy that are positivism, Interpretivism and realism.

Here I will use the concept of Interpretivism because Easterby- Smith (2002) said that interpretivism is based on the principle that reality is socially constructed and given meaning by the people. Further to choose and follow a method for research is mainly depend upon the personal skills, knowledge, experience of a researcher that how a researcher can use best a method to complete his research.

2.2 Research method:

To choose a methodology for research the meaning and understanding of research methods are very important for a researcher. According to Saunders et al (2003) there are two types of researches,

Quantitative method.

Qualitative method.

Quantitative research method is belonged to numbering while qualitative research method is about the views and perception. Ghouri and Grounhaug (2005) have stated that the difference between qualitative and quantitative research is not of quality but of procedure. In qualitative research findings are not arrived at by statistical methods or other procedures of quantification.

The basic distinction between quantitative and qualitative research is that the quantitative researchers employ measurement and qualitative researcher do not. Therefore the difference between quantitative and qualitative methods and approach is not limited to quantification; instead it is a reflection of different perspectives on knowledge and research objectives.

This research is solely based on the qualitative research.

2.3 Sample Unit

Webster (1985) A sample is a finite part of a statistical population whose properties are studied to gain information about the whole. When dealing with people, it can be defined as a set of respondents (people) selected from a larger population for the purpose of a survey. In research terms a sample is a group of people, objects, or items that are taken from a larger population for measurement. The sample should be representative of the population to ensure that we can generalise the findings from the research sample to the population as a whole.

I had distributed questionnaires among students of Rayat London College and London School of Commerce to carry out the research.

2.4 Sample Size

Bryman and Bell (2007) In any research sample size plays a very important role. The decision about the sample size is not a straight one. It depends on a number of considerations and there is no one definitive answer. Moreover, most of the time decisions about sample size are affected by considerations of time and cost. Therefore, invariably decisions about sample size represent a compromise between the constraints of time and cost.

2.4.1 Absolute and Relative Sample Size:

Bryman and Bell (2007) One of the most basic considerations, it is the absolute size of a sample that is important, not its relative size. This means that a national probability sample of 1,000 in the UK has as much validity as a national probability sample of 1,000 individuals in USA. This means that increasing the size of a sample increases the precision of a sample. A larger sample cannot guarantee precision but it is better to say that increasing the size of sample will increases the precision of sample.

2.4.2 Non-Response:

T.C. Powell’s (1995) posted 143 survey questionnaires to companies for his research. Only 40 questionnaires were returned and of these 30 were usable, making a response rate of 25%. Most sample surveys attract a certain amount of non-response. So to achieve the aim of 50 questionnaires, I have to post 60 questionnaires because there might be 20% non-response.

2.4.3 Heterogeneity:

Bryman and Bell (2007) If i take a sample from a whole country or a city, the population is likely to be highly varied and heterogeneous. But if i take members of a company or of an occupation the amount of variation is less and the sample will be homogeneous. To make the sample heterogeneous i have chosen two colleges in London where the students are from different ethnicity and background. In these two colleges both domestic and international students are studying.

2.5 Sampling Procedure

Bryman and Bell (2007) The non probability sampling will be used for this study. The term non probability sampling is essentially an umbrella term to capture all forms of sampling that are not conducted according to the canons of probability sampling that are mentioned above. Also covering under the non probability sampling is the practice of surveying one individual per organization, often a human resource or senior manager, in order to find out about the organization. One of the advantages of gathering data from a single executive respondent is that it enables a larger number of organizations to be surveyed with a lower investment of time and resources than if multiple respondents were surveyed within each organization. There are three main types of non probability sample.

Convenience sample.

Snowball sample.

Quota sample.

The type of sampling i will be using in my research is convenience sampling.

2.5.1 Convenience Sampling:

A. Bryman(1989) in the field of business and management, convenience samples are very common and indeed are very prominent than are samples based on probability sampling. A convenience sample is one that is simply available to the researcher by virtue of its accessibility. We can take an example of a researcher who teaches at a university business school is interested in the way that managers deal with the ethical issues when making business decisions. The researcher might give questionnaires to several classes of students, all of them are the managers taking a part time MBA degree. The chances are that the researcher will receive all or almost all of the questionnaires back, so that there will be a good response rate.

2.6 Data Collection

Data collection is one of the crucial phases in my research study. It is considered as a right methodology which can help researchers to collect and analyze information’s related to the research objectives. According to Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005) there are two types of data available for research:

Primary data.

Secondary data.

Both primary and secondary methods of data collection are used in the study.

2.6.1 Primary Data:

Sekeran (2003) stated that when secondary data are not available or are unable to help answering the research questions, then the researchers work and collect the relevant data to the research problem. These types of data are called primary data. Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005) further stated that there are several choices about collecting primary data. Normally this includes observation, experiment, questionnaires, surveys and interviews. The main advantage of primary data is that they are collected for the particular project at hand. This means that they are consistent with our research questions and research objectives. In my research the data-collecting tool for primary data is questionnaires. The questionnaires are compromised of questions about the subject of study.

2.6.2 Secondary Data:

Secondary data as defined by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2003), is reanalysing data that have already been collected for some other purpose. They have supported the view that despite collecting new data for the purpose, relying on the Secondary data can provide a useful source from which to answer or start answering your research question.

Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005) stated that there are various types of secondary data. All information’s about secondary data is available from two sources, internal and external sources. Internal sources give us information’s about customer, suppliers, employees, marketing plans and efforts and sometimes, even on the competitors. The researcher cannot accept this information at its face value, although it is free and readily available. External source include publish books, journal and academic articles. They are considered as professional and popular. I will be using external source approach for data collection as a part of literature review of my research investigation.

Chapter 3

Literature Review

3.1 Advertising and the Economy:

“While now central to the contemporary global economy and the reproduction of global production networks, it is only quite recently that advertising has been more than a marginal influence on patterns of sales and production. The formation of modern advertising was intimately bound up with the emergence of new forms of monopoly capitalism around the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century as one element in corporate strategies to create, organize and where possible control markets, especially for mass produced consumer goods. Mass production necessitated mass consumption, and this in turn required a certain homogenization of consumer tastes for final products. At its limit, this involved seeking to create ‘world cultural convergence’, to homogenize consumer tastes and engineer a ‘convergence of lifestyle, culture and behaviors among consumer segments across the world’.”

Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinvention of the “brand image”. For these purposes, advertisements sometimes embed their persuasive message with factual information. Each and every main medium is used to convey these messages, as well as radio, television, newspapers, magazines, cinema, billboards, the Internet, carrier bags and video games. Mostly advertising is put by an advertising agency in behalf of a company or other organization.

Organizations that regularly exercise large sums of money on advertising that sells what is not, firmly speaking, a product or service include religious organizations, military recruiters, political parties, and interest groups. As Non-profit organizations are not the regular advertising customers, and may depend upon free modes of influence, for instance public service announcements.

Advertising Age International (2000) General area of advertising criticism revolves around the role advertising does or does not play in the economy. Classical economics, as a rule, provides very little comfort for advertising. But most marketers believe advertising does indeed make a positive contribution to the economy if by no other way than pumping a great deal of money into the economy. For example, it was estimated that spending on advertising in the UK for the year 2000 would be some 15,798 million euro’s, and in Germany 21,615 million euro’s.

Gay (1992) According to marketing consultants Stan Rapp and Tom Collins, on a typical day, an average American sees over 5,000 advertisements a day.

Berkowitz and Evangelista (1999) According to the Teenage Research Unlimited, teenagers spent $140 billion in 1998, which is 14 percent more than in 1997.

Money spent on advertising has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2007, spending on advertising has been estimated at over $150 billion in the United States and $385 billion worldwide and the latter to exceed $450 billion by 2010. You can judge the importance of advertising in today’s world by seeing the table below. The entire major players in the world have increased their expenditure on advertising since 1998 to 2007.

Top 10 countries by advertising expenditure, 2007

Country

1998

2007

98-07 % Change

US$m

US$m

USA

115,878

163,260

40.9

China

–

76,675

–

Japan

29,653

38,529

29.9

UK

17,649

29,915

69.5

Brazil

10,378

26,640

156.7

Germany

21,342

24,306

13.9

Mexico

4,071

19,036

367.7

France

9,955

14,595

46.4

Italy

6,955

12,257

76.2

Canada

5,394

11,313

109.7

Source: World Advertising Trends (2008)

Appendix 2.1: World Advertising Trends

Though advertising can be considered as crucial for economic growth, it has some social disadvantages. Unwanted Commercial Email and other forms of spam have become so common as they have become a key annoyance to users of these services, not only this it is being a financial load on internet service providers. Advertising is more and more occupying public spaces, for example youth playground, schools which some people dispute is a form of child exploitation.

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3.2 Mobile billboard advertising

Carroll (2008) The mobile billboard industry, as it is known today, began in the early 1990s, following the start of large format digital inkjet printers. These large printing devices made it possible to print billboard graphics in a single large banner. The trucks, which are dedicated only for the use of advertising, were parked or driven in high visibility areas, mostly near convention centers and sporting venues.

The idea of the mobile billboard truck came in 1995, when Delroy Cowan developed mobile advertising trucks with rotating, “trivision” signs. Delroy Cowan’s mobile billboard trucks placed three ads on the each side and the system turning once every 7 or 8 seconds to expose one of the three different ad faces.

The mobile billboard trailer was launched in 1997 in the United States. The reason for mobile billboard trailer was to provide local and smaller advertisers the ability to rent the mobile billboard trailer and drive it by themselves. This method considerably reduced the cost of advertising and makes it affordable for small business to begin using mobile billboards that were usually more expensive and required longer contract terms. This idea allowed users specifically smaller businesses to rent a mobile billboard for a short term or a single day to target crowds for particular promotions.

It is well thought-out concept for getting to the target audience such as the youth, IT oriented and mobile people. It is attention grabbing thus being able to target the young which spends a lot of time outdoor. It is actually the right form of advertising for mobile people.

Mobile billboard is openly exposed to thousands of persons on foot and bypassing car traffic. This powerful and cost effective means ensures considerable brand exposure, as well gives opportunity to get in touch with the target audience and get closer to the point of sale than conventional media.

According to Carroll (2008) the advantages of billboard advertising are:

Cannot switch billboards off like they switch off radio and television;

Cannot bin the billboard like they do newspapers, magazines and direct mail;

Cannot switch the channel like TV viewers usually do while watching commercials.

3.3 Public service advertising

The same advertising method used to encourage commercial products and services can also be used to motivate and educate the public about non commercial concerns, for instance stop smoking, recycle, energy saving, carbon emission, and global warming.

Advertising, in its non-commercial appearance, is a powerful educational means able of reaching and motivating large audiences. “Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes.” Attributed to Howard Gossage by David Ogilvy.

Public service advertising, non-commercial advertising, public interest advertising, cause marketing, and social marketing are different terms for the use of sophisticated advertising and marketing communications method on behalf of non commercial, public interest concern and inventiveness.

In the United States, the issuing of television and radio licenses by the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) is dependent upon the station airing a certain amount of public service advertising. To fulfill these requirements, many broadcast stations in America air the mass of their required public service announcements in the late night or early morning when the smallest percentage of viewers are watching, leaving more day and prime time commercial slots available for high-paying advertisers.

3.4 Media

Commercial advertising media can include wall paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, radio, cinema and television adverts, web banners, mobile telephone screens, shopping carts, web popups, skywriting, bus stop benches, human billboards, magazines, newspapers, town criers, sides of buses, banners attached to or sides of airplanes (“logo jets”), in-flight advertisements on seatback tray tables or overhead storage bins, taxicab doors, roof mounts and passenger screens, musical stage shows, subway platforms and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers, stickers on apples in supermarkets, shopping cart handles (grabertising), the opening section of streaming audio and video, posters, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an “identified” sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is advertising.

Young (2005) One way to determine advertising usefulness is known as Ad Tracking. This advertising research methodology determines changes in target market insight about the brand and product or service. These changes in perception are plotted against the consumers’ levels of exposure to the company’s advertisements and promotions. The idea of Ad Tracking is in general to provide a measure of the joint effect of the media weight or spending level, the usefulness of the media buy or targeting, and the quality of the advertising executions or creative.

3.5 Covert advertising

Dorian (2005) Covert advertising is when a product or brand is set in entertainment and media. For example, in a film, the main character can use item of a definite brand, as in the movie Jurassic Park, where Steven Spielberg took great care to frame a shot that showed the famous Mercedes Benz logo up close. Another example of advertising in movie is In Mission Impossible, Tom Cruise uses Apple PowerBook to communicate with the bad guy (and girl) and ultimately save the day. The movie Minority Report and Transporter displayed cars with the Lexus and Audi logos plainly exhibited on the front of the vehicles. Cadillac cars were used in many scenes of the movie The Matrix Reloaded. Similarly, Omega seamaster watch, Ericsson mobile phone, VAIO laptop computers, Visa credit card, BMW and Aston Martin cars are used in recent James Bond films, most particularly Casino Royale. In the movie Blade runner the film stops to show a coca cola billboard.

3.6 Television commercials

According to American Psychological Association (2006) The average American youth at the moment is exposed to an estimated 40,000 television commercials a year over 100 a day. A team of the American Psychological Association has recommended limitations on advertising that targets children under the age of eight, on the basis of research suggesting that children under this age are unable to seriously understand televised advertising messages and might accept advertiser messages as truthful, accurate and fair. According to a national survey commissioned by the Center for a New American Dream more than 10 percent of 12 to 13 year olds confessed to asking their parents more than 50 times for products they have seen advertised on TV. Susan (2004) Advertising directed at youth is projected at over $15 billion annually about 2.5 times more than what it was in 1992. Over the past two decades, the degree to which marketers have increased efforts to reach younger generation is overwhelming. Juliet (2004) In 1983, marketers spent $100 million on television advertising to youth. Today, they spent roughly 150 times that amount into a variety of mediums and are trying to break into every corner of children’s worlds. Donald (2005) According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, youth are multitasking their way through a wide range of electronic media daily, juggling iPods and instant messaging with TV and cell phones. In fact, they use 8.5 hours of media exposure into 6.5 hours each day, seven days a week which means that they spend more time plugged in than they do in the classroom.

The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective method of advertising, importance can be judged by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime between popular TV events.

Ann (2004) According to a leading expert on branding, 80 percent of all global brands now set up a “tween strategy”. There is generally a background song or jingle with the television commercials that listeners relate to the product.

3.7 Infomercials

Head (2001) Infomercials are program length typically thirty or sixty minutes television productions intended solely to feature and sell a product. Many infomercials are programmed as talk shows for example Bell Atlantic introduced a “sit commercial” in 1992. Infomercials are also known as DRTV (Direct Response Television) commercials or direct response marketing.

The main aim of an infomercial is to create desire purchase, so that the customer sees the presentation and then straight away buys the product through the website or by calling a toll free telephone number. Infomercials explain, exhibit and mostly express products and their features, and usually have testimonials from customers and industry professionals.

3.8 Celebrities

This type of advertising focal point is using celebrity influence, popularity, and attractiveness to get recognition for their products and promote particular stores or products/services. Bhawna & Vaibhav (2006) Commonly called “testimonials” or “celebrity endorsements” this method of persuasion says that customers relate to the person showing in the ad if the celebrity uses the particular product, then it must be good, so I will purchase/use the product too. In today’s world, the use of celebrity advertising for companies has become a fashion and apparent winning formula of corporate image building and product marketing. This phenomenon is reflected by the recent market research findings that 8 out of 10 TV commercials scoring the highest recall are those with celebrities’ appearances. According to the study, conducted by Ana Rumschisky (2009) consumers are prepared to spend up to 20% more on the same product as a result of who is representing it.

Some of the best known celebrities employed for advertising campaigns include Sachin Tendulkar for Pepsi, MRF, Airtel, Female athlete Venus Williams, tennis player for Reebok International Inc, and David Beckham’s endorsement Gillette the list just goes on.

2.2 Modern vs. 20th century advertising

The modern methods of advertising have transitioned considerably from the popular methods used in the last century. Spanning from around 1890-1910, advertisers presented a strictly logos form of advertising for goods and services; a product was presented with a description of its features and specific uses. The main themes in these ads were: quality, usefulness, and descriptions. In the late 19th and 20th century, consumers were buying products. Later in the 1920’s through the 1940’s, a shift in advertising methods moved away from presenting the utility of a product and towards what the product symbolized. This was a transition from a logos approach to an ethos and pathos approach, as popular radio personalities stressed the symbolic importance and value of products over the airwaves. The main themes in these ads were: status, family, health, and social authority. In the early half of the 20th century, consumers were buying what products symbolized.

The 1950’s and 1960’s brought a narcissist approach to advertising, almost entirely based in the realm of pathos, making the consumer feel self-conscious about personal problems that the advertised product could generally solve. Advertisers worked to nearly necessitate the purchase of a product designed to solve a common problem, by playing on emotions instead of presenting a logical reason for purchasing the product. The main themes in these ads were: glamour, romance, sensuality, and self-transformation. In the mid-20th century, consumers were buying personalized solutions to their “problems.” In the 1970’s and 1980’s a popular method of advertising was done through the creation of a culture based around a product or service. Products and services were incorporated into a lifestyle involving specific activities and settings, creating a personal relationship between the consumer and the product. The main themes in these ads were: leisure, health, groups, and friendships. In the 1970’s through the 1980’s, consumers were buying a relationship with a product and a brand.

Today, advertisers are using a variety of these methods of advertising. For example, Wal-Mart’s print ads demonstrate utilit