Ikea vs. La-Z-Boy: Quality or Quantity? The last time you purchased a piece of furniture, how much thought and research did you put into it? If you’re like most Americans, you probably compared a few similar items and decided to choose whichever was cheapest. Considering this, then in order to be successful, a furniture company should simply offer cheap prices for a wide variety of pieces. In today’s furniture industry there are many companies to buy from, no matter what piece of furniture one is looking to purchase.
Lessens need to purchase “hard copy” of these. * Other competitors; Circuit City, CompUSA, Amazon.com, even Wal-Mart, Target, etc. * Possibility of losing customers to wholesale business. I think that for the most part Best Buy has lived up to their mission statement, because they are at the intersection of technology and life. I believe this to be true because they offer some of the newest technology in their store and it is place where people can actually interact with salespeople in real life.
Paragraph1- In “Attention Shoppers: Your Dreams in Aisle 3,” Sharon Zukin points out that fact that there is so much ease in the way that shopping is done these days. We can shop any time of day or night, anywhere even if we don’t have a lot of money. She states that most critics blame us for buying stuff that we do not need, calling it “Affluenza,” and that the more money we have, the more we spend. Zukin also says that market researchers and mangers will try to identify what kind of things we buy as well as our spouses, brothers, parents, and even our pets and sell it to us. Finally, Zukin argues that whether study consumer guides or push wire carts from a warehouse club to mall, we’re searching for our dreams and we cannot be blamed if we find them in stores.
In creating a campaign to reach a companies target market, the factors that the company usually discusses to reach people are the type of commercials that will be shown, what channel the commercials will be shown on, what areas advertisements will be placed, what magazines advertisements will be placed in, and what public figures will be placed in these advertisements. In creating their target markets do some of these companies purposely market in a certain manner to make sure their clothes will look less attractive to certain races? Hollister and Against All Odds are two very popular stores found in malls across America. Though these two stores tend to be located only a few yards away from each other in most malls, when walking into each store it feels like two opposite worlds. Hollister is looked upon as “the white man’s store”, while Against All Odds is looked as “the brown man’s store”.
In the past, the imprint from a person’s homeland was distinctive and obvious, you could tell where that person was from just by the way they dressed or acted. However, in current times mass culture and production have spread the epidemic of “likeness” across America. The media glorifies the mainstream products of clothing and ways of life, which most Americans today are consumed by. The people tuning into what Sanders refers to as “the global community” want to have the most popular products and be doing what is “cool” in today’s mass culture. This is affecting the regional differences because most of the people across America are wearing the same clothes and doing the same things.
When it comes to comparing and contrasting Commercial and Fashion photography, Commercial Photography sells a product and Fashion Photography sells a lifestyle. Fashion and Commercial photography are usually in the category of Advertising Photography and the reason being is that both Commercial and Fashion foremost try to sell a certain product. Commercial photography predominantly sells a product so as the emphasis of the whole photoshoot is directed toward the product. Which means the lighting, styling, and the background are usually very plain. In many catalog shoots the model is standing in front of a white background wit a light above the camera and to either side of the camera, and the model wears very natural looking make-up.
The emo subculture is not only about the music and fashion, it is also a way of thinking. Emos have a negative and dark view towards life, they are pessimistic and they feel part of a larger group of emos by seeing the world from this point of view. They rather see problem than opportunities and they are often confident that their view of the world is the correct one. By putting the human before themselves and by in majority being very trustworthy, the emos can be seen as friendly and nice, but they live in their own little world. Since emos has a special way of fashion, there are some brands in particular that they wear.
Contrary to what we found in the literature review, the utilitarian purpose seemed to be a very prevalent motivation when we asked consumers why they shopped for second-hand clothing. As stated in the findings, all participants saw utilitarian value in shopping in second-hand stores for clothes. Moreover, four of the respondents mentioned a factor that fell under the utilitarian motivation as their primary motivator. Several also stated that it was a question if they needed anything. On the other hand, the question of need could also be seen as a barrier to purchase if need is not existent.
An example of this is like buying name brand verses buying genetic brands at the super market. Buying clothes at Express verses buying it at Wal-Mart, its clothes but the quality of the clothes is different. The cost of something is what you pay for it after the company making it add it profit. The decision on paying for it requires on the need and the benefits of the product ones buying. The last decision making principle is the rational people.
Advertising is one of the most compelling messengers in a culture that can influence an adolescent. In the article by Kilbourne, she starts out by making a great point. She says, “ Adolescents are new and inexperienced customers- and such prime targets.” I agree with her statement because in many movies, magazines, and television shows targeted towards teenaged viewers, the “ideal” body type is constantly portrayed. I’ve noticed that in many cases, it’s the main character whom everyone envies because of her beauty. In magazines, the “ideal” body type is always on the cover so teens wont be able to miss it.