Cultural Variables Select Three Products:

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.

Commercial Product: the website

One of the most notable innovations in commercial life today has been the birth of the Internet and the invention of the marketing website. Websites allow corporations to sell and advertise their products 24/7. Consumers can shop the Internet while at work or at 12am in their pajamas. This constant accessibility increases the chance that consumers will engage in impulse buying. However, it also allows consumers to compare prices on different sites. This means that businesses must price their products more competitively, and offer a wider array of products so they will not see loyal customers shift to competitor sites with better (and more attractively displayed) selection. Businesses can also sell their product on websites such as Amazon.com that act as portals for a variety of enterprises.

Even smaller businesses have seen their lives transformed by the web. Once upon a time, certain small, local businesses sold only to the community. Now, an artisanal chocolate maker in Switzerland or a maple syrup producer in Vermont can use a website to sell their product to individuals all over the world, provided they have an attractive website that is easily searchable. Access on a page more than geographic access is more vital to succeed in today's market. The use of websites takes selling products and consumption out of real world space and time, and transfers the act of advertising and purchasing into the realm of the image -- products are no longer tactilely experienced in the real world. On a website, the image a product projects may have more value than its sensory experience for the consumer.

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.