Can You Hear Me Now?

http://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-usage-how-consumers-are-using-their-phones-and-what-it-means-2013-1

Above is a link to an interesting article I found today about consumption trends in phone usage. Not surprisingly, mobile usage has shot way up. "Mobile is no longer a communications utility, but a media distribution hub" (Business Insider, 2013). There are four content consumption categories in this article that outline what we are doing and why we are spending so much time on the phone, and not just for chatting. You can see in the graph below that mobile is the only category with a positive trend, year after year. 

1. The rise of gaming: Gaming is the largest category in the app store on mobile devices. This category also is responsible for 70% of Apple's top-grossing apps. 

2. Mobile- social synergies: Social networking on mobile is the second largest time suck. Be it Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, or Twitter, we are all doing it. Myself included... 

3. The piggyback rule: Developers are smart, so they develop apps and programs that can be integrated with phone usage, hello Instagram! 

4. Portal Erosion: "No one has succeeded aggregating services via a single app or mobile website. The desktop portal is fading with the advent of mobile" (Business Insider, 2013). 

Consumer - Brand Relationships

After having read Susan Fournier's article, "Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research" I found that I have since been making consumption decisions with the various relationships outlined in the text in mind. For example, when I returned home from spring break I was out of almost everything; groceries, shampoo, paper towels, and laundry detergent. So naturally, I waited till Sunday night to finally drag myself to the grocery store to spend a substantial amount of money (On a college student's budget) for the things I would  need to get me by.

To preface this paragraph I should say that I love the smell of clean laundry and it is actually true that we do all turn out like our mothers. With that said, I have a lasting kinship relationship with Gain laundry detergent. Fournier's article defines a kinship as a non voluntary union with lineage ties. I have always bought Gain for the sole purpose that it was always the brand my mom bought when I was growing up, little did I know that I would develop the same brand preference. A few months ago I was at Costco and was tempted by that gigantic size Kirkland laundry detergent. It was much cheaper and it came in individual packs. I figured it would help me monitor how much detergent I was using per load. After bringing home my economy size Kirkland detergent, I set out to do a load of laundry. After drying that load, I was so disappointed by the outcome of my clothes. Not only did they smell wrong, and by wrong I mean not like Gain, they were also covered in an odd residue... Because I had this experience with Kirkland laundry detergent, I am now hesitant to buy other Kirkland products.

So, on Sunday night when I cruised around Smith's looking for what I'd need, I came to the cleaning products isle and bought yet another gallon of Gain laundry detergent. I suppose using gain gives me this feeling:

Over Developed Egos

In our class discussion, last Thursday we touched on the topics of brand personality versus individual personality. The examples described in class were, Beyonce Knowles and her alter-ego Sasha Fierce, or the band Kiss and the actual musicians that make up the band. To begin the definition of personality refers to a person's unique physiological makeup and how it consistently influences the way a person responds to her environment. We can learn from our textbook that some psychologists find that personality may not be a valid concept, as often times people do not display consistency in their personalities. Because this concept is so common, we as marketers can use this information to our advantage by appealing to consumers in various ways that are related to Freudian Systems. To summarize, there are three parts to this system; the id, superego, and ego. The id functions for the propose of immediate gratification and maximizing our basic desire for pleasure and pain avoidance. The superego is the counterpart to the id, which can be defined as a person's conscious that is responsible for keeping societal rules in check. Lastly, the ego is the mediator between the id and the superego. It functions for the purpose of the reality principle which finds a way to gratify the id in such a way that the outside world will find it acceptable.

One could argue that celebrities such as Beyonce Knowles and the members of Kiss, who have both individual and brand personalities have an over developed ego. Because these celebrities need to find a way to pursue their work in a way that aligns with societal rules, they must make the ego system very seriously. The benefits of having a healthy ego are that it gives these celebrities the ability to differentiate their work life from their personal lives. Having both brand and individual personalities can also act as a defense mechanism against criticism. A brand personality is the set of traits people attribute to a product as if it were a person. Fostering a successful brand personality is of utmost importance in trying to build brand loyalty. If marketers can find ways to appeal to the various personalities of consumers in a way that can satisfy both their id and their superego, they can eventually capitalize on brand loyalty.