Role of the Brands and Mediating Technologies - Coursework Example

ROLE OF THE BRANDS AND MEDIATING TECHNOLOGIES IN ASSEMBLING LONG-DISTANCE FAMILY PRACTICES Role of the Brands and Mediating Technologies in Assembling Long-Distance Family Practices Introduction Currently, customers work under dynamic and diverse environment where family life is done across distances via technologies in a manner unimaginable in the early days. Escalating circumstances like employment commuting, military service and divorce or children staying in their respective universities or colleges, have led to geographic dispersion of families’ networks (Austin, 2009). This reality has risks and the opportunities for products, brands and services available in family life. In such scenarios, families ought to connect via the market place equipment that allow collective practices at ambient distances by use of online gaming, smartphones and social networking. There are designed frameworks, which show how consumption of families responds to separation, consumption practices resulting from technologies across the distances. The framework puts into consideration practice dimensions, motivation, mobilized technologies, separation type and realized potential capacities. These factors forecast the potential trajectory practices under circumstances of extended separation. There are five potential trajectory practices, which emerge, such as heroic quests, no trial, sacred pieces, smooth translations and failed the trail (Austin and De Jong, 2008). The framework’s managerial implication discussion gives suggestions to help companies to use trajectories and act to enhance brand loyalty and use to ensure their brands survive within the existing practices of the family or become an integral part of the practices of the new family. Moving elaborate practices of face-to-face to a technology-mediated dimension requires extra consumer efforts. Organizations make templates for initiating these rituals along distances. The most reliable opportunities for marketers are the provision of mechanisms for translating sacred activities at the time of separation. The translation is done by moving pieces of sacred a long distances. For instance to send a picture text of a chocolate piece while in family movie night may make a distant family member feel being part of the family in a manner that conjure the real emotions that used to accompany the movie-night tradition (Canary and McPhee, 2011). Again, framework proposes that marketers should consider a lot to avoid fixes for individuals from connecting their families. For instance, many flyer programs are offered to the individuals instead of their families, implying that the number of miles earned is to the individual. A good program should be designed to allow members to bring their family members using the miles instead. For example, a student being flown home over the weekend. Families face a lot of difficulties in maintaining their precious family practices when they try to use technologies together with the problems like different levels of the comfort of family members due to diverse technologies, differences in time makes them face a challenge in arranging for an ordinary dinner. It is also a challenge to have a fixed-time practice together with hosts of failed attempts in the event of maintaining their practices. The shared time in families has also become limited and scarce, that family members have to be considerate to initiate an intersection to preserve their sacred family practices (Epp, Schau and Price, 2014). Some families maneuvers to have methods to “do family” through technology like when one texts her parents to relay her highlights and wellbeing, but basically family practices are abandoned, displaced and disrupted as the family struggles to maneuver way to rescue themselves. Many families live in separate situations due to active military service, based on the economic conditions because of extended work commutes, or according to changes in family setting such as empty nest or divorced families. The urge to stay connected with the families occupies most of the resources and time, and other realities of the family challenges the fundamental hypotheses surrounding the familys social networks and provide managers with opportunities to conduct family practices from different destinations. Some organizations have started to address this issue. However, there is a chance for more strategic and systematic solutions for families that stay apart especially when they attempt to overcome barriers in the opening vignette (Gámez-Guadix et al., 2012). Consumption practices that are fundamental to the family life, bonds the family together and helps in defining the family as a unit. Family members conduct some special traditions like mother- daughter outings, sisters having monthly get together or couples playing together video and games constitute unique relationship identities. The practice theory identifies the social in practices. Family practices possess trajectories; this means we can identify shifts, origins and potentialities of each. It is common for brands, products and services to stick to their meaningful family practices as they are found in those traditions, which connect them (Jong, Austin and De Jong, 2008). These brands are called “fortress brands” since they enjoy the immunity of being part of the ritual. Paradoxically, and to the opposite of expectations of many, it is alleged that the family strives to maintain their consumption practices which they value most like having family dinner, game night or holiday traditions. Mostly those traditional activities and the brands associated with them are abandoned in long distance relationships while those considered less important are preserved by the use of various technologies (Mearns and Norton, 2010). In other cases, the existence of these appearing to be mundane practices is an extension of the modalities of the technology offered and with the way, these practices can be transformed. Sacred families lose a lot in technological translation, whereas more practices that are mundane will not be suffering much. Families will tend to stockpile or stock up sacred practices for moments of collocation and continue with mundane practices over the period of separation. Trajectories There are four types of consumption practices that are relevant to managers and families. There are also four types of trajectories for consumption. The kind of consumption practice will influence the trajectories present, but also consideration is put on the ecology of the family’s technology, willingness to attempt, ability to envision and kind of separation as the determining factors (Mustonen et al., 2011). Home Sweet Home Families in the academic literature and the ones in the media portray face-to-face and elaborate practices. Parents tend to focus much on the practices, which they consider sacred such as the ritualized holidays or family dinner that are culturally normatively shaped and loaded. Most families are mindful when they are experiencing separation (Pedro, Ribeiro and Shelton, 2012). Many families have time together for special occasions which include; family dinner, holidays, outings, movie or game nights and birthday celebrations. Parents seem to abandon sacred practices, when forced by circumstances to spend time apart. It is known that families postpone their sacred events until the time they can be able to engage in person, but a few does them while separated. With limited time, many families feel that they have sequenced and compressed schedule to have time together with their members. For instance, a case when the kids are traveling from their school or parents is commuting to catch up with their families for holidays or weekend. Elaborate practices are no more necessary since families only tend to prioritize some practices over the other practices. No Attempt Trajectory Many families tend to have the ‘no attempts, this happens since no one makes a move for the elaborate traditions of the family to occur, due to technology-mediated ways. Families have a greater commitment to the most detailed activities where these traditions have high number of products and brands required for enactments. Some other families do value the following practices in their homes and their members. The practices include birthday celebrations, family game, holidays, movie nights and bedtime stories (Mustonen et al., 2011). Despite this, considerable number of these practices is relegated to face-to-face engagements only. Disruption sometimes challenges families planned consumption practices forcing them to give priority to some other events instead; this is done either through inertia or consciously. Several factors contribute to the lack of transferability of the traditions of face-to-face. Such factors are like; 1. Sacred practices are elaborate with little necessities for enactment. 2. Elaborate practices may not translate to technology-mediated forums since the rigid, time-dependent ant emotionality of the traditions are hard to simulate with the current technology. Cultural templates guides on how to spend time with families together. Many families tend to have time together with their family members during special events in a calendar. Taking to consideration of the impact created by those special days to the family’s traditional practice. For instance during the time of Christmas day many families come together to commemoration the celebrations (Epp, Schau and Price, 2014). During this period of celebration, family members who spent a considerable time apart usually meet and share a lot and get to catch up with their longtime friends. Such events are essential to keeping the family together, since many of those who do not consider joining with their families at any other time of the year they tend to spare time for this event. During Christmas celebrations, children generally get some considerable time with their parents who might be working far away from their families. This aspect brings about some sense of belonging to the members of the family who might have longer before catching up with their families. At the time of Christmas couples gets time to spend together and share a lot during this period, this fosters some sense love and affection the couples. During Christmas celebrations, families usually have frequent meals where they engage in conversations, which in turn represent the traditions practices, which have abandoned, due to the time limit and nature of the people daily life activities. Families usually like to spend their time together, eat from the same gathering and share their experiences in life; this mostly happens during the Christmas day celebrations (Gámez-Guadix et al., 2012). Family members who stay at various destinations from their home places normally travels home during Christmas celebrations day to join their families and commemorate the day together. This gives a chance to those who have their little children to join with them and party together. Due to the advancing technology, many people tend to meet in the social networks or over the phones. This aspect prompts the delay of the face-to-face interactions to be limited and the need to meet becomes less as one talk over the technological medium. Members of the family tend to have different time zones when they are free to go and meet their families, but for Christmas, almost every member gets an opportunity to travel home and join their family members and celebrate together. The families get time to perform traditional practices over this time when their members join during Christmas celebrations. For the kids who spend their time schooling in their respective colleges or universities gets time to meet their family members during Christmas, since during this period all the schools close to allow staff and the students to have a break from that time. The kids get a chance to meet their parents whom they can have dinner together, go outings together or spend their holidays with their brothers and sisters. When people are spending their time in different parts, they tend to communicate using the modern ways of the technology, which is limited due to various reasons (Epp, Schau and Price, 2014). Thus, it is vital to consider the modalities of interactions and how to link up and maintain accurate family practices. A technology has complex ecologies. The existence of one will depend on what others have. Thus, the Christmas day gives a clear opportunity for every member where no one will be limited by whichever factor as far as technology is concerned. The difference in the level of technology with the family members tends to make the consumption practices to be stunted or facilitated by the family’s ecological technology. Conclusion Many families across the world struggle to maintain their consumption practices, this has been difficult due to the difference in their time zones. Though there is the influence of the technology in the families to help them maintain their consumption practices, this has proved inadequate due to the shortcomings accompanying the technology. Many families rely on the particular events, which generally brings the family members together to help them maintain their consumption practices. Such events, which bring people together, are like Christmas, which is widely celebrated and followed by many Christian faithful. Thus, Christian celebration helps family conduct their traditional practices. References Austin, T. 2009. Rethinking documentary, new perspectives, new practice. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Austin, T. and De Jong, W. 2008. Rethinking documentary. Maidenhead, England: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press. Canary, H. and McPhee, R. 2011. Communication and organizational knowledge. New York: Routledge. Epp, A., Schau, H. and Price, L. 2014. The Role of Brands and Mediating Technologies in Assembling Long-Distance Family Practices. Journal of Marketing, 78(3), pp.81-101. Gamez-Guadix, M., Almendros, C., Carrobles, J. and Rivas, M. 2012. Interparental Violence and Childrens Long-Term Psychosocial Adjustment: The Mediating Role of Parenting Practices. The Spanish journal of psychology, 15(01), pp.145-155. Jong, W., Austin, T. and De Jong, W. 2008. Rethinking documentary. Buckingham: Open University. Mearns, R. and Norton, A. 2010. Social dimensions of climate change. Washington, DC: World Bank. Mustonen, U., Huurre, T., Kiviruusu, O., Haukkala, A. and Aro, H. 2011. Long-term impact of parental divorce on an intimate relationship quality in adulthood and the mediating role of psychosocial resources. Journal of Family Psychology, 25(4), pp.615-619. Pedro, M., Ribeiro, T. and Shelton, K. 2012. Marital satisfaction and partners parenting practices: The mediating role of co-parenting behavior. Journal of Family Psychology, 26(4), pp.509-522. Read More