Spike TV

My favorite cable network would have to be Spike TV. Most of the shows on Spike TV are targeted at males. These shows include Manswers, 1000 Ways to Die, UFC Unleashed, Trucks, and Horsepower TV. It is easy to see why the network is very popular among males. Most of the commercials seemed to be targeting males as well. Spike TV has a lot of commercials for action and horror movies I noticed. Most of the commercials advertising movies were only about thirty seconds long. I assume young men in general watch the largest amount of action and horror films. There was also a lot of supplements and excersie equipment that was being advertised. The commercials promoting excercise equipment happened to be up to two minutes long. Other commercials promoted products including Axe, Iron Gym, Progene (testosterone pill), and Synthia 6, which is a muscle building supplement.

The commercial that was played the most was trying to promote UFC 109, a cagefighting event for sale on paperview this weekend. This happened to be during UFC Unleashed, which is a compilatation of past cagefighting bouts. Spike is a good place for these commercials since not many women watch the sport. Many of the commercials were promoting mens health products. It is probably very effective promoting muscle building supplements during a cagefighting event, where the fighters are in top shape. The show gives men an ideal self image and the commercial promotes products that help achieve those results. In general, most of the commercials were targeted only at men on a station with the objective of attracting the most men viewers.

Advertising Objectives

The marketer for this ad did a good job identifying a very common problem with vacuum cleaners. I'd say the communication objective was to reach buyers who have experienced the common problem of their vacuum cleaner losing suction power. This ad did a great job reaching me because all of the vacuums that I have owned in the past had lost most of their suction power very quickly. I'd be willing to guess that sales for Dyson would increase after ads like this because it identifies an ongoing problem with related products. Both Communication and Sales objectives would be important for this particular ad.

In this BMW ad I believe that the objective of the marketer clearly was to steal some of Audi's customers. Audi and BMW are two very competitive automobile companies located in Germany. Audi and BMW cars are similar in many ways so comparative advertising works well. Personally, I'd take either or for a car. However, now that I have seen this ad I'd rather have the BMW since it was world car of the year in 2006. Another communication objective may be to get the message out that BMW offers excellent quality. Comparing them to Audi is effective because most people tend to think of Audi as a high end car. Now those people may think of BMW as a better all around car than Audi. Winning a world car of the year award is much more difficult than winning South Africa car of the year award. Again, increasing sales would most likely be an objective as well. Giving BMW a better image may also be the marketers objective.

Environmental Influences

There are five different environmental influences on consumer behavior. Each influence impacts consumer behavior in a different way. Throughout my post I will describe each of them, explain how they impact consumer behavior, and will also provide an example

Culture is the broadest and most abstract external factor. The textbook states that culture is the "complexity of learned meanings, values, norms, and customs shared by members of a society." There are many cultures throughout the world and each one has a different impact on consumer behavior. For example, McDonalds was able to expand globally by studying eating habits of different cultures. Take a look at the website to see how McDonald's menu varies around the world. http://triffer.com/practical-travel/budget-travel/mcdonald%e2%80%99s-strange-menu-around-the-world/

Cultures are made up of many smaller groups of people who have different beliefs, values, norms, and patterns of behavior. These smaller segments are known as subcultures, and are often based on age, geographic, religious, racial, and ethnicity. People who live in a very cold region could be considered as a subculture. Snowmobile dealers would need to pay close attention to subculture. For example, it would not make much sense to place an Arctic Cat dealer in a warm southern state.

Social classes refer to a segment of society in which people share similar lifestyles, values, norms, interests, and behaviors. Level of income is often used to determine ones social class. People with more money usually buy nicer things. Therefore, it wouldn't make sense to place a Lamborghini dealership in a small city consisting mostly of middle class people. It would make more sense to put the dealership near a very large city where there is a larger upper class. Take a look at the locations in this Lamborghini dealer directory. http://www.autodealerdirectory.us/lamborghini

A reference group is a group of people whose attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, opinions, preferences, and values, are used by an individual for judgmental purposes. One can be heavily influenced by a reference group without being a member. For example, I might go out and purchase a "Easton Synergy" hockey stick because all of my favorite professional hockey players are using it.

Situational determinants also affect consumer behavior and there are three different types. The specific usage situation, the purchase situation, and the communications situation all affect perceptions, preferences, and purchasing behaviors. Situational determinants are very important in advertising. For example, a commercial advertising hair care products for women would be most effective if it were used during a "chick-flick," which would allow the commercial to reach the desired target market.

Introduction

My name is Chris and this is my first time making a blog. It took a while for me to figure out how to enable cookies and javascript, but I finally made it! I'm from Marshfield and I am going to school for business management and marketing. Both of my parents each have over 20+ years of sales experience, so I guess you could say that I have a lot to live up to! So far I have enjoyed almost all of my classes and am really excited about this semester.

Every morning I start my day off by brewing a pot of coffee and analyzing the stock market. Working and school occupy most of my time although I do have every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off, which allows me to catch up on homework. I love to travel and intend on doing more as I grow older. If anyone has any recommendations on where to visit, don't be afraid to let me know. I also like to mountain bike and have been to Standing Rocks on numerous occasions. During the summer I spend most of my free time golfing.

Although I am not terrible at operating computers, I am not very familiar with blackboard or blogging. I have never taken an online or hybrid course until now, but look forward to learning new things. I like the fact how all of the courses I'm taking pertain to my field of study unlike the UW system. It is also nice that all of my classes will transfer to Lakeland University if I decide to pursue a bachelors degree. Anyways, I look forward to a great semester!