Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

The youth market
At the other end of the spectrum, the youth market has also become more affluent and poses 
new opportunities for marketers. Fashion and music industries have been quick to recognise 
this new-found affluence.
Figure 3.4 
The 
social and cultural 
environment
Demographic
change
The grey market
Multi-ethnic
societies
The youth market
Changing lifestyles
and living patterns

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THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
Related to this youth market has been the emergence of ‘generations’. The ‘Generation X’ 
consumer is cynical, world-weary and hostile to business values and traditional advertising 
and branding, and will reject many conventional product offers. The pay-off in understanding 
the values and preferences of this type of consumer has been substantial for companies such as 
Nike in clothing and footwear and Boss in fragrances and clothing – these consumers react pos-
itively to pictures of athletes vomiting on their sports shoes at the end of the race, and Nike’s 
advertising copy: ‘We don’t sell dreams. We sell shoes . . . Don’t insult our intelligence. Tell us 
what it is. Tell us what it does. And don’t play the national anthem while you do it.’ Marketers 
are also now targeting ‘Generation Y’ (or Millennials), and anticipating how ‘Generation Z’ 
will consume. Generation Y was entering the workforce in the mid-2010s and is the one that 
mostly populates social media channels and as such possesses substantial influence. These 
consumers also react differently to advertising appeals than their parents, the baby boomers 
(Loroz and Helgeson, 2013) and have different communication preferences (see Figure 3.5).
Multi-ethnic societies
Many Western societies are becoming increasingly multi-ethnic. In the United Kingdom, 
for example, by 2011 ethnic minorities represented 12.1 per cent of the population, and 
forecasts predict the number will reach 20 per cent by 2051. This group spends some £10 
billion a year, and includes many socially mobile and affluent groups. As well as being a 
target for specialised products and services, ethnic minorities are increasingly vocal about 
what they object to in conventional marketing and advertising. For example, some brands 
have been labelled as ‘ethnically insensitive’, such as Persil’s TV advertisement showing a 
Dalmatian dog shaking off its black spots, or McDonald’s TV advertisement showing a 
stereotypical young black man listening to very loud music while driving. On the other hand, 
some marketers have earned praise for being ‘ethnically sensitive’: for example, BT’s radio