Kids And Cell Phones - Essay Example

Kids and Cell Phones al Affiliation Kids and Cell Phones Brief Scenario The case scenario identified a thirteen year old daughter returning from school and alleging that she has no friends due to the fact that she does not own a cellphone. Taking the situation from the marketing perspective, it was disclosed that there are apparently four players in the scenario, to wit: (1) a decision maker; (2) a beneficiary; (3) a facilitator; and (4) an accommodator. In this regard, it is thereby required that each player would be appropriately identified, in conjunction with their respective motives.

Finally, the question – should the little girl get the phone? – would be ultimately responded. Four Players The decision maker is identified as the child’s parent and the grandparent. The parent would ultimately be the final decision maker; but since the grandpa indicated that he would buy one for the granddaughter, it would be considered that as the proposed buyer, a say in the decision-making process was pledged. As the decision maker, one identifies from a marketing point of view that the product which is the subject of discussion is a cellphone, the most demanded technological gadget in contemporary times.

Decision making skills include “(1) identifying the possible options; (2) identifying the possible consequences that follow from each option; (3) evaluating the desirability of each of the consequences;( 4) assessing the likelihood of each consequence; and 5) making a choice using a "decision rule" (Furby & Beyth-Marom, 1992; cited in Scott, n.d., par. 2 ). The decision question is whether to buy a cellphone or not for the thirteen year old girl. Here are the alternative courses of action: (1) To purchase a cellphone for the daughter: Pros: it would presume that by purchasing the cellphone, she would be considered ‘in’ or among the crowd of students in her class who own their respective cellphones; thereby, she would not be considered an outcast.

Cons: it would entail cost to purchase the cellphone, including loading it and other non-monetary costs such as the potential time that the child would spend texting, instead of studying; it could potentially contribute to low academic performance. (2) Do not purchase the cellphone for the daughter: Pros: No costs would be spent; including non-monetary costs and potentials for lowering the academic performance due to the time to be supposedly spend using the cellphone; Cons: The daughter might continue to lose her morale and be considered an outcast in class; which could also be the cause of low academic performance.

Another player, the beneficiary is the child. At her age, she is already considered a teen-ager where peer acceptance is deemed a relevant factor of her academic life. Evaluating the scenario from her point of view, the following repercussions are to be expected: (1) The cellphone is not bought: Pros: The beneficiary sees no advantage if the cellphone is not purchased since she would continue to be an outcast. Cons: She would continue to feel bad as an outcast and could potentially affect her academic performance in terms of low morale. (2) Purchase the cellphone Pros: She would be extremely happy; she would be considered ‘in’ and not an outcast and could actually improve her academic performance for being grateful that the cellphone was purchased for her.

Cons: She might spend too much time using her cellphone that her grades might be jeopardized. The third player is the facilitator. A marketing facilitator is defined as “someone who helps out in a …transaction but owes no responsibilities to the buyer, the seller, the lender, or the borrower” (Facilitator, 2012, p. 1). In this particular scenario, a facilitator is the external provider of cellphones. The objective of the facilitator, as the term suggests, is to facilitate the purchase transaction and to generate profits.

As such, from a marketing perspective, it would be to the best interest of the facilitator to recommend that a cellphone be purchased for the 13-year old child. Finally, the accommodator, just like the facilitator, is an external party (Accomodator, n.d.) but could accommodate the request of the child, which was to have unlimited text messaging. This means that the accommodator is the service provider. Likewise, it would be to the best interest of the accommodator to offer additional services, not only confined to unlimited text messaging, but other contemporary and updated services that would generate greater profits from their points of view.

Recommendation The ultimate goal of marketing is to provide services or products that would satisfy the demand or need of its clientele. Therefore, the clients in the scenario are the decision-makers and the recipient. In evaluating the pros and cons of the alternative courses of action, it could be deemed to the advantage of all concerned to purchase the cellphone for the daughter subject to some defined conditions. Taking that the parents and grandparents want only the recipient to be happy, satisfied and not be considered an outcast, the only option actually is to accede to her request.

However, since as the child’s care givers, it is also their paramount concern that her academic performance would not be jeopardized as a result. Therefore, an internal agreement among the parent/grandparents of the child should be forged that the cellphone would be purchased provided that her grades would not be lowered and her academic performance be compromised. In so doing, they could agree that at any point that her grade suffers due to excessive cellphone use, they, as parents/grandparents would have no other recourse except to forfeit cellphone use until she is more responsible and mature to recognize that academic performance takes precedence more than anything else.

References Accomodator. (n.d.). Retrieved from 1031 Exchange Glossary: http://www.1031x.com/1031exchange.cfm Facilitator. (2012). Retrieved from The Free Dictionary: http://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/facilitator Furby, L., & Beyth-Marom, R. (1992). Risk taking in adolescence: A decision-making perspective. Developmental Review, Vol. 12, 1-44. Scott, D. (n.d.). Decision Making . Retrieved from University of Arizona: http://ag.arizona.edu/sfcs/cyfernet/nowg/sc_decision.html