Postal Service Might Produce Strayer University C

Please respond to the following:

• Go to the United States Census Bureau’s Website and explore the American FactFinder, located here. Take note of the market segments (population, age, business and industry, education, housing, income, origins and language, poverty, and veterans). Examine the differences in the decision-making between the segments. Propose two ways that marketing managers can use the differences to their advantage.
• Go to the United States Census Bureau’s Website and explore a table of your choice from the 2014 National Population Projections: Summary Tables, located here. Determine which external factor has the greatest impact on social class. Predict two ways that social class will affect consumer behavior in the next ten years.

And please respond to this peer posting:

Marketers take great pains when deciding their path to leverage a product. They look at every possible demographic to pinpoint how their campaign should flow and progress. Long term sustainability is always the goal and a successful marketing campaign can make that a reality. Being able to read the demographics properly and implementing the right plan is key. Starting by narrowing down the intended customer base can help. Not all consumers are going to buy what each company is selling. Not everyone will see the need to purchase a brand new sports car, for example, so the target audience needs to be clear from the very beginning. Precious resources can be squandered on groups that will never have any intention of patronizing an organization. Building a successful campaign that will speak to the intended target audience can save time and money and in turn make sure it is spent on the intended consumer base and allow for maximum exposure. Once the client base is recognized, the next step of gearing the advertising correctly can begin. Not all forms of advertising will speak to everyone. Figuring out what is going to cause the greatest exposure for a product can make all the difference. The demographics that are studied can help to decide this. If the intended audience is millenials, for example, you are not going to use snail mail to promote your product. These materials are going to end up in the trash and not yield any results. Marketers are going to take full advantage of social media and blast their products this way. Social media will attract the client base and get the attention they are craving. On the other hand, if the audience is a group of senior citizens, calling their landline or sending colorful advertisements through the postal service might produce favorable results. Analyzing the data before a plan is put into place can help to alleviate any disappointment. Knowing your audience and gearing the campaign toward those in question can mean the difference between success and failure.

Social class is defined as a division of a society based on social and economic status. It is sad to know that the zip code that a child is born into can have a profound affect on the outcome of their life. In my opinion, the greatest external factor that impacts social class is your economic status. There are so many different stresses that can cause issues, but a person’s economic status, I feel, can cause the most problems. Money does not wash away all worries, but it can help to alleviate some of the tension that everyday life brings. I can personally attest to this. When I first went to visit my college of choice, I was so young and naive. I had committed to the university and my mother scraped together the money to pay my deposit. When the counselor reviewed my financial documents, he advised that I would be better suited for a less expensive school. The embarrassment and disappointment I felt at that point I will never forget. I had worked so hard on my GPA and SAT scores to get accepted at a top school and to be judged based only on economics was devastating. I will never forget that lesson that I learned and vowed to prove them wrong. My wish would be that no young person that wants to better themselves would ever be told their dream is unattainable because of a temporary number on a sheet of paper. That figure does not have to define an entire life.

Social class will always cause an impact on consumer behavior. Sadly, I believe this will never change. The haves and the have nots will forever be defined by their bank accounts and this will determine their buying habits. I do feel that social media and influencers and their input will only grow in the future. The internet plays a huge role in today’s economy where sales ultimately are allocated. Buyers give great attention to the products they see online and therefore may try to earmark what funds they have available to more specific companies, other than spending their money without any influence. Many consumers feel that they are possibly able to reach another social class just by purchasing a popular brand, even if it is not in their normal price range.

Hawkins, D.J., Mothersbaugh, D., & Best, R.J. (2016). Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing Strategy (13th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.