Carrie's World

The PBS documentary The Persuaders brought up a marketing strategy that I had never heard of: psychographics. Merriam-Webster defines psychographics as "market research or statistics classifying population groups according to psychological variables (such as attitudes, values, or fears)." To my understanding, marketing staff use psychographics as a sort of profile for their target consumer. An example of this is "Carrie," who is mentioned in The Persuaders and was Song Airlines' target. She is described as a basic, relatable, American mother. Learning about Carrie and Song Airlines' desire to single out a specific kind of person to be their customer made me think, "Do I fit into any company's psychographics?"

 As a teenage girl, there are a lot of products that are targeted specifically towards my age and gender group. Various shoe, clothing and cosmetic brands all seem to gravitate towards young female consumers. But this gets me to wonder if I am truly these companies' ideal consumer. Yes, I am a girl and I am 16, but am I THE girl that these companies want to attract? And if I am not that girl, am I still "allowed" to buy that product?

 It's sort of harmful to create these psychographics because they put people in a box. Maybe because one doesn't seem like the targeted consumer of a product, they'll feel like they shouldn't buy it and thus, the company loses business. Of course, every company needs at least a vague idea of who their customers are going to be. But must they be planned out down to their job and how many kids they have? Brands need to toe the line between appealing a target group, while still welcoming those who don't fit in that profile. Nobody should be afraid to buy a certain product just because they're not the Carrie that the company is looking for.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Booksmart

Image
Today, I watched the movie Booksmart . It's the story of two teenage girls who want to make the most of their last night before they graduate from high school. I enjoyed this movie because I felt that it defied so many of the stereotypes Hollywood has established for the typical teen chick-flick. This movie showed a healthier (though still exaggerated) view into teenage life than most. For example, in a lot of high school-centered movies, there are mean girls who are portrayed as dumb and shallow. Thankfully, that cliche doesn't really exist in this movie. The female characters in the movie actually support and guide each other. While many elements of the film are dramatized, it portrays friendship in a realistic way. The two main characters, Amy and Molly, don't have the perfect friendship, but they fight about real emotional issues, instead of over boys or popularity or the stupid stuff we see so often in teen movies. The girls aren't dumbed down for our entertai...
Read more

My Relationship With Media

Image
I would honestly say that I'm kind of addicted to media. More specifically, my phone. Apple recently added a new feature to their phones where it shows you how many hours per day you spend on your phone. And it shocked me to find that I use my phone for up to six hours a day. That's a whole quarter of my day behind a screen. And that doesn't even account for the time that I use to watch Netflix or YouTube on my laptop. This made me think about how essential media has become to my life. I use it every day to stay connected to the world around me. Whether that be talking to friends or family that I don't get to see on a daily basis or looking at the news online to stay informed.  I feel like the internet (which is definitely the most prominent form of media in my life) is often viewed negatively by older generations, and I definitely understand that aspect. Social media can be very harmful to teens, especially ones who star...
Read more

Mental Illness LOL

"I'm so depressed." "I just had a mental breakdown." "Just had my third anxiety attack of the day." These are all phrases I read (in some way, shape or form) on social media almost every day, and they are most often said by teenagers or young people. There's often an "lol" or "ksjdksksjk" added to the end of these expressions, as if it's a casual thing that they're used to happening to them. These phrases are also often played off as jokes or funny little anecdotes. I admit that I have said these things in person or on social media in a casual way to make them seem less dark than they really are. But I've realized that this is actually a harmful way to handle teenage mental health. From the articles we read in class, I learned how quickly and dramatically teenage anxiety levels are rising. It was alarming to hear that more teenagers deal with mental health problems now than ever before. And as these problems are be...
Read more