...Marketing Communications Memo PSY/322 October 7, 2013 Mary-Lynne Ament | Toys Inc | Memo To: | Management | From: | | Date: | October 7, 2013 | Re: | Educational Toys | | | | | Introduction In marketing communications there is no doubt that demographic and psychographic information is very important. In developing and creating a new line of educational toys for children aged 7-10, demographic and psychographic are going to play a major role in who Toy Inc should market to as well as what products to market. While educational toys are a great learning tool, I am going to look into a “toy” that can be used in different ways. I will go into what types of demographic and psychographic information will be the most beneficial to the organization and help create a great product to market to consumers. Marketing Objectives I will work for Toy Inc and look at what the needs of our consumers are. As well as survey the market to see what the needs are for a specific group of consumers. Because my position is creating a new line of educational toys for children aged 7-10 I must have a good understanding of our demographics. Looking at the market it must be divided into different segments based on common interests (Schiffman, L. G. and Kanuk, L, L., 2010). The key demographics that will be looked at are age and gender. When marketing educational toys, one will have to be aware of the age and gender as both boys and girls of different ages work at different...
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...five-year-old girl named Riley went viral. Standing in a decidedly pink toy aisle she laments, “Why do all the girls have to buy pink stuff?” Riley is not the only one questioning the ways in which toys are gender-stereotyped and marketed, and some go so far to argue that, in addition to shaping gender identity, it in contributes to gender inequality. [additional discussion/framing main questions of the paper etc] Gender, not to be confused with sex, which is biologically defined by reproductive organs, may be understood as a socially constructed range of characteristics that pertain to and differentiate between masculinity and femininity. To further clarify, “male” and “female” are sex categories,...
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...1Gendered Toys: A New ApproachGendered Toys: A New ApproachElena Roque RodriguezCentral New Mexico Community College 2Gendered Toys: A New ApproachQuestions:Girls’ Toy 1Girls’ Toy 2Boys’ Toy 1Boys’ Toy 2Neutral 1Neutral 2a. Where in the store were the toys?Designated toy areaDesignated toy areaDesignated toy areaDesignated toy area Toy area-beginning/end aisleToy area beginning/end aisle b. Was the area for the toy designated in some way by the store management?(e.g., games, girl’s toys, boy’s toys, sports, etc.)Yes-toy located in “pretend play” toy aisleYesYes Yes YesYesc. What is the toy?Barbie STEM KitFirst Responder Backpack SetSuper Sense Spider-ManScience Academy-Gross Body LabFisher-Price Mega Bloks-Elephant ParadeOsmo Genius Kitd. What color(s) are in the packaging?Pink with some shades of blue as background, neutral grey for some trimLandscape portrait-blue sky and green grass on back. Front-blues and grey trim, aqua color and purples. Red, blue and light blue for background.Black with red trim and white lettering. reds, blues, yellows...
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...Introduction The issue of gender stereotyping is a prevalent global concern. When people apply gender assumptions to others, regardless of evidence to the contrary, they are perpetuating gender stereotyping. Many people recognize the dangers of gender stereotyping; yet continue to make these types of generalizations. Traditionally, the female stereotypic role is to marry and have children. She is to put her family's welfare before her own; be loving, compassionate, nurturing, and sympathetic; and find time to be sexy and feel beautiful. The male stereotypic role is to be the financial provider. He is also to be assertive, competitive, independent, career‐focused, and always initiate sex. These sorts of stereotypes can prove to be harmful; they can suppress individual expression and creativity, as well as hinder personal and professional growth. Children learn gender stereotypes from socialization. Gender socialization is the process where children learn to develop behaviours regarding what constitutes being a male or female. Beginning at a young age, parents, school, peers and the media highly influence the gender behaviours children replicate and ultimately internalize. My compilation of media entries focuses on the progression and adaptation of gender stereotypes in the media. Over time, perceptions of gender roles have changed, causing the media to modify traditional marketing tactics to conform to them. I chose to organize my entries into three sections....
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...SUBJECT: Toys and Gender Roles FOCUS: Do pre-school aged children pick toys that relate to their gender? BACKGROUND: Children are born without the knowledge of gender roles. It is something that is taught to them. As they grow, they become more familiar with who they are and their gender. When a child reaches an age to choose a toy out of many toys to play with, what do they choose? Kohlberg’s study (1966) found when children can identify themselves correctly as male or female, they begin to value activities that are consistent with their gender identity. (Smetana. Letourneau. 1984) There are many theories regarding gender learning and the differences in children’s toy preferences. Per Liben and Bigler “a gender schema can be considered...
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...choose to buy. Colors distinguish a thing from the other. Colors determine our emotions. Pablo Picasso once quoted, “Colors like features follow the changes of the emotions”. Do you feel happy in a yellow room? Does the color blue make you feel calm and relaxed? Artist and interior designers have already proven how color can dramatically affect moods, feelings and emotions. Color is a powerful tool when it comes to communication and can be used to signal action, influence mood and cause physiological reactions. How color affects the effectiveness of the business? Marketing is a science of satisfying human wants and needs. When this filed acquires the principles of color psychology, it would be a great help for the marketers influence consumer behavior. Since color is an n important factor in the visual appearance of the products as well as in brand recognition, color has become important to marketing. Color is a very influential source of information when people are making purchase decision. This paper aims to answer the questions-How colors influence consumer behavior? How...
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...favourite colour is, and chances are she'll shout "pink". Toy aisles and clothing rails are packed with this shade, but is nothing but pink for girls harmful? How different it was in the early 1900s, when blue was for girls and pink for boys. Any colour so long as it's pink | The Women's Journal explained it thus: "That pink being a more decided and stronger colour, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl." DressMaker magazine agreed. "The preferred colour to dress young boys in is pink. Blue is reserved for girls as it is considered paler, and the more dainty of the two colours, and pink is thought to be stronger (akin to red)." Rkgnifnviovn hree years ago, while she was on maternity leave, Ros Ball and her partner, James, began a diary of their children's lives. Their daughter Josie was three and their son Clem three months old. They wanted to record the moments when their children were made aware of gender stereotypes; when they were directed towards a view of the world in which girls and boys inhabit separate, rigid spheres of pink and blue – the first sphere passive, pretty and gentle, the second aggressive, active and strong. The results were tweeted under the title Baby Gender Diary, and Ball, a broadcast journalist who lives in London, couldn't believe how much there was to write about. On the first day, they went to a pantomime with a toy stall, where Josie's older male cousins directed her straight...
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...people receive as a kid affects the way people view things as they grow older. When people think of kid’s toys, people do not really think much more beyond the surface of the toy. Toys are some of the first things kids interact with, which means the messages that these toys send to the kids are impactful and will leave an impression on them. Boys and girls’ toys enforces multiple ideologies on how boys and girls should act and be. When going to any type of toy store, people can clearly see difference between the toys for girls and the toys for boys. Even the simplest of toys are separated by gender just because of the color scheme that it holds. Legos are simple toy blocks, but they have two separate sets, one for girls and one for boys. The appearance of the toy, the activities of each set, and the packaging of the toy reinforces stereotypes and the connotative meaning of boys and girls. One difference between the girl and boy Legos are their packaging. The packaging of the girl and boy Lego sets are almost completely different. The boy packaging has dark colors, such as blues, blacks, greens, yellows and reds. Some of the boy packaging also has just boys playing with the Legos on the front of it. When it comes to the boys’ Legos none of the colors are bright and colorful, but the girls’ Legos...
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...Memorandum To: National Toy Manufacturer From: Marketing, Inc. Date: September 3, 2012 ------------------------------------------------- Subject: New line of Educational Toys for kids aged 7-9 Introduction Marketing, Inc. has been hired to create a new line of educational toys for kids aged 7-10 years old. Marketing, Inc. will help National Toy Manufacturer (NTM) develop a marketing communication plan for the new educational toys. For Marketing, Inc. and NTM to be successful, Marketing, Inc. will focus on two key areas, demographics and psychographics of the target population. It is often stated that while demographics determine consumers’ needs for products (e.g., males and females need and buy different products) and the ability to buy them (e.g., income), psychographics explain buyers’ purchase decisions and the choices they make within the buying options available to them (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2010). Marketing, Inc. will use age and income as its two demographics and buying motives and values as its two psychographics for this marketing communication plan. Demographics Demographics offer four reasons why they are the core to almost all segmentations; (1) demographics are easy to classify people and can be measured more precisely than other segmentation basis; (2) cost effective way to locate and reach specific segments because most of the secondary data compiled about any population is based on demographics; (3) demographics enable marketers to identify business...
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...Angelica Garcia Instructor Albright English 101 18 April 2015 Rhetorical Analysis of Pillow Pets According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (2005), the average child watches about four hours of television a day and sees more than 20,000 commercials each year. "In 2000 alone, U.S. toy companies spent more than $837 million on advertising their products." (Shah, 2010, ). Pillow Pets have been around since 2003 (http://mypillowpets.com/about/), and have steadily built their brand through carefully crafted advertisements which appeal to children of all ages and genders, as well as their parents. "What began with the simple goal of transforming a simple stuffed animal into a functional item for children has grown into an amazing jungle of popular retail and wholesale products." (http:/mypillowpets.com/about/) The widespread allure of the Pillow Pet is the key to its success, as evidenced by their successful internet commercial. It hits all the right notes, including the "Four Ps" of marketing which include product, place, price and promotion. (Calvert, 2008, p. 206) The ad incorporates "production features like lively action and sounds designed to grab a child's attention" (Calvert, 2008) For example, consider the upbeat, female voice used in describing the Pillow Pet. The marketer's message is delivered loud and clear, via a pleasant female voice, possibly of a mother who knows what a child wants and needs, who also understands that parents need justification to buy a...
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...Radzikowski Gender Inequalities Our society is plagued with many inequalities, these inequalities range from education to wealth, yet I believe one of the most prominent forms of inequality today is aimed towards gender. Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or negative perceptions of individuals based on their gender. As of 2012, the World Economic Forum ranks the United States 22nd in terms of gender equality out of 135 countries. America often employs Gender stratification causing the ranking of the sexes in such a way that women are unequal in power, resources, prestige, or presumed worth. For my essay I shall explain the three most prominent forms of gender inequality: Childhood, society and professionalism. Gender inequalities have large-scale consequences for society, as long as we continue to perpetuate gender inequalities men and women will never be considered equal. In the 1800’s during America’s farm economy, women enjoyed and lived equally with men on a family. Farm men and women typically did different jobs men did heavy field labor, woodwork, repairs and worked with large edge tools. In contrast women preformed food preservation and clothing preparation, a farm family could not survive without the skilled labor of both men and women, and in this sense men and women's contribution to the economy of the family farm was equal. Furthermore children were raised and nurtured by both men and women, there were no prescribed roles or expectations of the genders. In a...
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...Semiotics: Signs, Syntax, and Linguistics Describe Advertising Mickey Mouse ears, sleigh bells, snowflakes, dog houses, mail boxes, and stop signs; chances are you know at least one of these things if not more. How do we describe them? In what way are they described to us? And above all How do we recognize and accept these things? The theory of semiotics aims to explain how we recognize these symbols in our lives and, more importantly tries to describe the way we communicate to, with, and around objects. The theory of semiotics has been around since the late 1800’s. A Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure developed the theory and explained it early on as the use of language and how certain symbols and objects obtain meaning. The theory or science of signs and their meanings became known popularly as semiotics. Language is something of a system of mutually defining entities. Saussure distinguished between diachronic and synchronic linguistics. Simply put the use of linguistics defines objects and the way that we, as a culture, see and describe the world with which we interact. From its inception the theory of semiotics has been useful in regards to all different aspects of communication. It can be used to examine persuasion, social interaction theory, media cultivation and penetration theories as well as interpersonal communication. This wide range of applications for this theory make it particularly pertinent to the discipline of communication. Large companies...
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... 3.8 Revenue Stream 10 4. Plan 11 4.1 Marketing Plan 11 4.2 Operations Plan 12 4.3 Financial Plan 14 4.4 Risk Management Plan 16 5. Organization Structure 17 5.1 Top Management Team 17 5.2 Key Personal 17 6. Proposal 17 6.1 The ‘Ask’ 17 6.2 The ‘Offer’ 18 1.1 Company KidzCraft is a Kids Entertainment Company which provides a solution for kids belonging to the middle and lower section of the society to play and learn at an affordable price. KidzCraft also runs a chain of Day Care Centers which provides a solution for the working parents and increases the interactivity among children from a very tender age which improves their overall personality. 1.2 Product KidzCraft has a range of products and services for children 1. Toy Retail. 2. Toy Rentals. 3. Day Care Centers. 4. Kids Entertainment. 5. Events for Kids for their overall development. 2.1 PEST Analysis 1. Political The Political situation in India has so far been very good for new industries. It has further provided many subsidies for new industries further in certain states like Gujarat are inviting new players to enter their state. 2. Economic The Indian toy industry has shown a double digit growth rate for almost a decade, as the population is increasing the demand for toy is also increasing in proportionate with the increase in the number of children. Moreover the Indian Toy industry is facing heavy competition from the Chinese toy industry. Thus KidzCraft is going to exploit...
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...various criteria that impacts market selection. Creating a consumer driven marketing strategy is imperative for companies inspiring to be or are successful. “Companies today recognize that they cannot appeal to all buyers in the marketplace or at least not to all buyers in the same way (Armstrong & Kotler, 2011, p. 174).” Consumers vary in age, location, income, nationality, social class, gender, family size, education, religion, and many more variables. Thus companies are straying from mass marketing and focusing more on target marketing (2011). Market targeting is the process of evaluating each market segment’s attractiveness and selecting one or more segments to enter (2011). It is a critical piece that aids with the segmentation, differentiation, and positioning of the consumer driven marketing strategy. Each member of team b reflected on their personal experiences of market targeting. For example, two team members are mother’s, although the ages of their children vary, each mother at one point was targeted with the age and life-cycle stage from a company like Toys “R” Us. Some companies use the age and life-cycle segmentation, since consumers needs drastically change with age. For Example, Toys “R” Us primarily target babies to teenagers, most likely an adult will not be featured in their flyers that state, “I’m a Toys “R” Us Kid.” As Team B assessed the data of the consumer driven marketing strategy in chapter six, most points were relatable either personally or...
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...Koji Tanaka Susan Fae Carder MKT333 Section1 10/21/2013 Case Study #5 – LEGO Discussion Questions: 1. Do you think LEGO should try to compete with more technologically-advanced toys? Why or why not? Yes they should. World has been changing as technologies improved. People needs are expected to be higher to the point where the technocracies are matched. For example, TV gamers had to get together in one game machine to play the game ten years ago. Now days, they are able to match a game through internet without being together. 2. Identify briefly the marketing mix (4Ps) strategies for LEGO. Product Lego is almost unique as a brand in that the positive associations consumers have with it start to form at a very young age, such that when those children become parents themselves, they are very well disposed towards it. This is a huge asset, but also a big responsibility for the brand. It is important to remember that all the activities are generic and therefore could vary between industries. LEGO was among other things, saved by entering into strategic partnerships with companies such as Lucas Arts and Warner Bros, who hold the licenses for Star Wars and Harry Potter respectively. Place A change in any of these factors can create new opportunities or threats, which the organization will have to corporate to create a successful business. Since the LEGO group is a multinational organization then it is important that all relevant countries will be analyzed to give a...
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