Cultural variables in marketing the iPod, website commerce, and service industries

Cultural Variables

Select three products: one personal, one commercial, and another service. Evaluate cultural variables (time, space, concept of self, or others) as they relate to marketing those three. Be sure to support your arguments by examples or case studies.

Personal product: iPod

An iPod allows a user to live outside of time. Instead of sitting rapt by the radio, listening for a favorite song, or in breathless anticipation as to what will be the 'Top of the Pops' like teens in the 1950s, an iPod's playlist is entirely personalized to the desires of the individual user. It can be used whenever and wherever the user wants to listen to songs. An individual selects a playlist of favorites. An iPod creates a musical culture of the individual, not the collective. Using an iPod even disconnects the individual from the artists who author the music. Instead of the concept albums of the 1960s that created a listening experiences, like "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" by the Beatles, an iPod user creates his or her own uniquely personal listening experience and can edit out the songs of artists that are not appealing to his or her taste. The concept of the self inherent in the concept of the iPod is that the consumer has a part in the creation of the musical pastiche, almost like a DJ. The consumer's choice is more significant than the vision of the original artist. The use of an iPod, unlike attending a concert or even listening to a musical album on a stereo, is a fairly atomized experience. This can be seen even in the marketing of the iPod almost as a personal accessory, cute and color-customized and coordinated to the wearer's clothing -- unlike the stereos of the past, where the quality and the ability of the sound to be heard by everyone at a great distance was stressed. Musical integrity and sharpness is certainly a facet of MP3 player's success, but Apple has always focused upon the appearance of its device above all else.

While the iPod's smallness and ease of transport, as opposed to a CD player, allows individuals to be isolated from others, in their own worlds, listening to their own personal tunes rather than connecting with others, the use of an Apple product is also a manifestation of status, a trademark of the ability to afford such a choice product, as the white earphones mark the user as an Apple consumer and indirectly advertises the product, especially if the user is attractive and youthful, fitting the Apple corporation's desired image.

Contemporary service: Personal training

Once upon a time, engaging in physical activity was a necessity, like mowing the lawn, or was fun, like engaging in a sporting activity such as playing a basketball game with friends. While some competitive athletes engaged in weight training in the past, only recently have ordinary civilians have begun to use personal training as a way to 'get fit.' The idea that the body can be perfected with the correct effort shows the new emphasis and concern about health but also a greater emphasis on youth and displaying an attractive personal image in contemporary culture.

The selling of the services of personal trainers indicates how physical fitness has become more scientific and common amongst many age groups, not just young people playing competitive sports at school or professional athletes. The physical spaces of working out have shifted away from informal locations in the community and into personalized and paid spaces, like gyms and personal training 'salons.' The concept of the self inherent in the promotion of personal training reflects a desire on the part of consumers to overcome the limitations of an increasingly obese and sedentary culture, a desire for health improvement -- and also reflects a somewhat selfish interest in personalized fitness and beauty that is disconnected with fitness with a purpose for work and sport.