Branded
...strategy if you think about it. . Rather than have an outsider try to extract the get surveys, focus groups, or outside research of teen purchasing behaviors, these companies use ‘insiders’ who have an in-depth knowledge of what their peers like. The two-fold aspect of this is that the same people collecting this data are advertising the product through personal use. Companies merely need to give their product away to these opinion leaders, whom through use of the free merchandise convey the message that the product. By doing this, companies have chosen their trendsetters to report back what’s being used/worn/seen by their fellow peers. Before reading this book and taking my marketing class I had never heard of such a concept. But I personally think it’s brilliant. And obviously works if so many companies are now doing their entire trend setting research this way. Another part of this book I found quite interesting and shocking at the same time was how they talk about self-concept as a leading factor for companies take into consideration when using teen-insiders. The way teens see themselves and how they think others see them is basically what teen marketing is all about. And of course, image plays a huge roll in product selection. I could not believe my eyes when I read that there are pro-ana (pro-anorexia) websites that actually accept and embrace the idea of this eating disorder, showing images of nearly skeletal women as “thinspiration.” Sadly the idea that “image is everything” is stronger than ever among teens, as I can relate to as well. Teenagers (especially young girls, including myself) are very conscious of body-image, and by advertising clothing draped loosely over skinny models marketers are Page 3 setting body-fat standards that most teens cannot meet and unfortunately will cause a good percentage of girls to downward spiral into an unhealthy lifestyle. My favorite chapter titled Logo U talk about brand name importance of colleges. The book compares the most popular and prestigious colleges to the most popular brand of shoes. It talks about how kids place more importance on the name of the university than on the real education. When searching for colleges for myself I ran into this problem. Except, almost the opposite problem as most kids according to this book. All my life I had attended “prestige’s” private schools. When it came time for me to choose a college my parents of course pushed a little for me to continue on with my private school education and the majority of colleges I did apply for were private. On the other hand I myself was kind of tired of the whole “private school scene” and wanted to experience something different, that’s what going to college is all about, right? So, as well as applying to the “prestige’s” private colleges, I applied to two CSU schools. When it came time for me to make my final decsision I choose the school I felt the most comfortable with and after visiting nearly every school I was accepted too I felt I wanted to give SSU (a “non-prestige’s” school) a try. In all honesty, for a good majority of professions, including th...