Competitive Marketing Area - Essay Example

Advertising differentiates the customers from the attractive from the unattractive as well as the socially acceptable and the socially unacceptable. Marketing campaigns became a great factor in influencing society’s overall perception which often dictates that self-worth and social acceptance are equal to a consumer‘s purchasing power.
Joseph Turrow’s article entitled Targeting a New World shows how firms use target marketing to reach their markets and propagate their message. On the other hand, the detrimental effects of marketing on people’s minds are shown in Dan Cook’s Lunchbox. Hegemony. These two articles reflect how marketers shape the body image of customers through the use of advertising and how advertising leads to the deterioration of our self-worth.

Joseph Turrow describes how marketers are diverting their efforts from mass marketing to target marketing where specific advertising messages are geared to capture a specific audience. This is done by tailoring a program that is suited only for the target market while signaling the wrong people to go away. Target advertising, which aims to separate individuals in different media communities, equates the purchasing power of customers to their self-worth. It can be seen that in this type of community, only those who can pay will be provided for while those who cannot afford to pay will be treated as outcasts.

The separation of communities according to their lifestyle will also encourage individuals to discriminate against those who do not belong to the same media community. This individual will perceive that his “lifestyle” is superior while other people are inferior, hampering the possibility of knowing other people outside their circles. According to Turrow, “It will allow individuals in their personally constructed worlds, separated from the people and issues they don’t care about or don’t want to be bothered with” (18). This separation also erodes mutual dependence and appreciation of other people.

Lunchbox Hegemony proves how marketers have succeeded in promoting a consumer culture among children. This article shows how targeted marketing as described by Turrow works. Cook acknowledged how children’s minds have become a playground for marketers who design specific products for their self-expression. Business organizations were able to instill in children’s minds that acceptability in a peer is equated to the possession of branded toys. They see that their belongingness in society is indicated by their Barbie dolls or Pokemon cards. In this type of mindset, we can see how the purchasing power of an individual determines his or her self-worth.
We, as customers, become prey to these marketing stints as we try to alienate ourselves from those who do not share our “lifestyles.” The final message is that we should not fall prey to advertisers. Self-worth is not measured by purchasing power. Read More