Marketing

Marketing

Trends in the media are prevalent, whether you are conscience of them or not. Executives of advertising companies are known to have many techniques to make their advertisement a little more appealing than other products to the valued consumer. These media tools often affect consumers sub-consciously, or unknowingly. Certain methods that are used in advertising can make the consumer develop certain prejudices, expectations, and requirements of certain people in society.

Perhaps the most popular technique of marketing to the consumers is the process of cross-marketing. Cross-marketing is the when one company links one of their products to another company’s product in hopes of selling more of both. A simple example of cross-marketing is advertising a certain car wash at a car dealership. The car wash hopes that their ad in the dealership will convince new car buyers to take their cars to their wash to get their cars cleaned. The car dealership then will make a deal with the car wash to get their new cars washed for free, for giving them business through the ad in the dealership. The car wash will benefit by getting new customers. The car dealership will benefit by having perfectly clean cars for free for their valued consumer.

In Becky Yerak’s article on commercialexploitation.com, she discusses the newest, most controversial real-life example of cross-marketing between Pepsi and Apple. Just recently, Pepsi has placed twenty-five cent coupons on their soda cans that can be used to buy mp3s for the new Apple iPod. This specific deal between Apple and Pepsi has worked out particularly well for both companies. “The iTunes deal, launched during the Super Bowl, drove Pepsi's site visits up 50 percent, iTunes' up 117 percent and contributed to the music category's 7 percent growth from January” (Yerak 1.) Apple and Pepsi chose to cross-market together because both of these companies aim their ads and products and vulnerable teenagers.

Perhaps the most subjective type of person to these media “traps” is the typical American teenager. The typical teenager has their eyes and ears open to new and improved products that are often filled with non-fiction ideas. Teenagers are the hottest consumer demographic in America. In Brian Garden’s synopsis of media giants, he says, “At 33 million strong, they comprise the largest generation of teens America has ever seen--larger, even, than the much-ballyhooed Baby Boom generation. Last year, America's teens spent $100 billion, while influencing their parents' spending to the tune of another $50 billion.” This quote exemplifies a very strong statement. It states that American teenagers have developed almost a “spending gang” that enjoys spending money on new age products. This quote is relevant also because it states that American teens and their parents are responsible for $150 billion worth of purchased goods.

You are probably asking yourself ‘How do media giants come up with appealing ads for teenagers, where the definition of cool changes from day to day so rapidly?’ The answer to that very complicated question is actually very simple. Companies like MTV, Abercrombie, and other “teen-appealing” establishments hire employees that are responsible for interacting with teenagers to find out the next “cool” thing. PBS representative Dee Dee Gordon describes the job of a “cool hunter” in the following quote; “I think they're looking to us to be kind of the eyes and ears of youth culture. It's a difficult job. You can't understand