Advertising: Past and Present Paper

Advertising: Past and Present Paper

Changes in life styles and market environment have had a direct impact on goods and services produced, expenditures, and the consumption process. There are different levels of family purchasing decisions. On a broad level, the allocation of resources must be specified — for example, what portion of the family budget goes to food, clothing, recreation, and travel. The product selected for analysis is Coca-Cola.  During the last century, this product becomes one of the most popular drinks in the world. The ad produced during 1960s depicts several friends having picnic.   

The ad produced during 1960s vividly portrays culture and personal values of people. This ad portrays a person-centered culture in which young people have considerable impact on the family purchase pattern. Many products and services purchased by families are related to people’s wants and needs, and to the kind of situations and environments families desire for their young. Purchasing patterns vary greatly with the number of people involved. Such reactions are reflected not only in the types of clothes and food, but also in such major purchase decisions as the location and type of the home, and the kind of art objects and furniture. Children will continue to exert a significant influence in our culture. Their future impact on purchases is likely to be even greater because of numbers-an increasing number of people are reaching marriageable age. During 1960s, Coca-Cola products are becoming a more important part of consumption. A large proportion of products and services is purchased and consumed at a considerable distance from home. Therefore, transport to and from services is significant, and people become increasingly dependent on efficiently organized transportation systems. Many products involve direct contact between the person who furnishes and the person who receives them (Lance and Woll, 2006).

Today, Coca-Cola’s advertisement appeals to needs and wants of consumers more that ever. The latest advertisement appeals to emotions of women and young girls who follow healthy behavior patterns and want to be thin.  There are decisions concerned with the specific item to be purchased within each broad category — the kind of meat, produce, or clothing. The ad portrays that aspirations and expectations are linked directly to consumer motivation, behavior, and achievement. Indeed, the desire to achieve is a strong factor in economic accomplishment. There is something in the customs, institutions, and motives of men that accounts for substantial achievement in some areas and lack of achievement in others. In marketing situations consumers appear to adjust their levels of aspiration. With an increase in income and achievement of certain objectives, they seem desirous of moving up to higher levels of consumption. Often they exceed the income levels they had originally anticipated. Then, having shifted their levels of aspiration upward, they become dissatisfied with their products and environments (Lance and Woll, 2006).

The analysis of two ads allows to say that the target market has not been changed dramatically. The core of target group is young people who follow healthy behavior patterns. The main changes took place in cultural norms and perception of products. New learned needs become important, and an upward adjustment in goals occurs that continues as higher incomes are realized. A direct link exists between corporate concern with company and brand images and consumer concern with the self. Whereas corporations react to enhance the former, consumers act in an effort to embellish the self. Therefore, the greater the consistency and parallelism are among product image, store image, and desired consumer self-image, the more likely it is that favorable purchase (Burns and Martine 2002). In terms of social environment, changes affected family life cycle. The latest ad portrays individualization and importance of self-image while the ad of 1960s portrays interpersonal communication and close relations between friends. For 1960s, family decisions must also be made on the specific purchase within each class (Kotler and Armstrong 2008).

In contrast to 1960s, modern legislation and business rules are based on strict moral principles and health concerns. For modern woman, the self-image concept refers to what each individual sees in herself, her perceptions. The consumer perceives his “true environment” as affording opportunities or restricting his actions and development, either of which affects his self-image. Within his phenomenal field, he attempts to satisfy his needs and achieve his goals, including the important goal of maintaining and extending a favorable self-image. The modern consumer seems to accept those experiences and opportunities that are deemed favorable to his self-image and to reject, alter, and ignore those that are not. Self-image is a function of societal norms. Group membership and group belonging relate directly to self-esteem and favorable self-image; acceptance and the grant of status by various organizations embellish the phenomenal self. The ability of groups to foster the development of more favorable self-images encourages belonging; the ability of products, symbols, services, communications, and other aspects of the marketing program to enhance the self-image encourages consumption behavior. One of the bases for understanding consumer behavior in its psychological and sociological dimensions, the self-image concept adds an important perspective to economic theories of consumption and is directly related to motivation. Consumption experience is itself a learning process. Past buying decisions and choices give an individual good information on possible outcomes. Even the perceptions of various goods are subjected to change on the basis of experience and influence future actions and concepts. Most psychological theories concerned with learning focus on rather simple situations. Many deal with rats and learning in a maze (Schaefer, 2006).

In sum, changes in culture, life style and ethical principles affect the message and images of Coca-Cola. Consumer behavior is complex process, so buyer motivation, a key component of consumption, is the stimulus inducement or purpose in a certain desire. Its energizers are drives, including the visceral, activity, aesthetic, and emotional drives. Two different theories of human motivation are need primacy and behavior primacy. The hierarchy of motives (needs), a positive theory of human motivation, explains motivation in terms of prepotency of motives -psychological, safety, love, esteem and self-actualization. Mechanistic stimulus-response theory should take into consideration the significant impact of intervening variables. Concepts of aspiration levels, images, cognition, and vector analysis add to our understanding of human behavior. People seem to aspire to goals that might be attained — that are just outside their immediate grasp. Once goals are achieved, higher aspiration levels spring up. Purchasers experience brand, product, price, quality, company, and store images. They are particularly concerned with their own self-images — actual and desired.