CB Reflection

      When I first came to this class I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.  I thought it would just be a boring class that I would have to endure just because it was a requirement.  I was completely wrong though.   

     One of the biggest things that I have learned is that marketers not only use the obvious information about their target market, like where they live, their income, or age, but they also use how those people define themselves through expression and possessions, and also through their lifestyles.  With all of this information, they can create more personalized ads that relate more to the consumers.  I never really thought about why I had liked a particular ad when it was on TV, but now I realize that those marketers that created the ads formatted it in a way that I would like it and think about it.  

     Another part of consumer behavior that I had never really thought about until after this class was how we use objects to represent us.  Even though it may not seem like we do, we buy products that we feel describe who we are and we them display them to the world.  These objects shape the way we buy things for our whole lives. 

     Although I am a marketing major, I really did not know all of the aspects that went into being  a successful marketer.  Seeing some of the processes that we went through in class to see different ways people think and buy things I know I will use later on in my career.  The Nielson Claritas model is one that I have already used for my Advertising project so I could see the demographic of people in a particular zip code.  The VALS system is another tool I can use later on because since it places people into categories based on many different aspects of peoples lives, I can target to specific groups.     

     Overall, I really enjoyed this class because I have found so many tools and ideas that I can bring with me in the future.  Now knowing the way marketers project their ideas to their consumers makes everything a lot more clear to me.    

Reference Group Ad

     There are a lot of ads out in the market today and they all try to reference a particular group in order to appeal to those certain people.  This Hyundai ad focuses on the associative as well as the aspirational reference groups.

      The associative reference group is one that people want to associate with or which they want to belong.  In this ad, there is many people of different "average Joe" jobs such as a group of guys playing basketball, police officers, and what appears to be factory workers on their break.  These people are examples of the average person that this ad says the average person can have this luxury car.  The slogan in the ad is "What if we made luxury available to everyone.  Would it still be called luxury? Or maybe we have made a new word for it.  Oh, here's one, Hyundai."  This is talking about how making this car available to everyone makes everyone happy, in every class. 

     This ad is also referencing the aspirational reference group because it is assumed that all of the "average Joes" want to live luxury.  Because of that statement, advertising this car towards those people who want the luxurious life that others may have is not that hard to obtain.  The average person can have a jump start on their very own luxurious life if they buy this car because it is affordable yet still has all of the accommodations that a very expensive car would have.