Hyde 1 Jaclyn Hyde Professor Zipfel English Composition 102 6 December 2010 Think back to the last time

you were exposed to an advertisement: a radio commercial, a computer pop-up, a billboard, an ad in this mornings newspaper. This exposure probably occurred within the last hour. With each passing day, our world becomes more and more consumed with businesses marketing their goods to us through the seemingly limitless advertisement medias. The issue of how many advertisements a person is exposed to in a day is debatable, but according to the Media Dynamics publication, Media Matters, the average adult, whether he notices or not, has exposure to about 600 to 625 advertisements daily. I believe that we currently live in a technological era: technology is continuously improving and changing the way that people interact and live their lives. It is the job of marketers to keep up with, and take full advantage of, the ever-changing technologies. So my question is, how is the change in technology altering the way businesses market their goods and services? You may be asking yourself why anyone would voluntarily choose to research business and marketing trends. You may even be dreading having to read this paper. But the reason I selected this topic was to spread my genuine interest to you. I have known for a while that I wanted to major in business but what I did not know was the specific aspect of business that I wanted to study. After researching the different facets, I decided on marketing. My experience as a thespian is actually what helped me make my final decision. I have been acting my entire

Hyde 2 life; the sense of comfort and belonging I feel when I am entertaining audiences on stage is irreplaceable. I wanted to use the skills I gained through acting in my career and the more I thought about it, the more I could relate acting to marketingboth use creativity and expression to engage and make an audience believe the character being portrayed or the idea being sold. So here I am now, with a major that I know will fascinate me, yet one that I do not know much about. Through my research, I want to find out how different factors, such as the economy and technology, affect companies and how marketers work to accommodate changes. I find it tremendously interesting to see all of the different ways businesses advertise and get their name out to the consuming public. Because we live in a world in which technology is so highly valued, it is crucial in the business world to learn exactly how companies are using technology to their advantages. Without even reading the statistic I included in the opening paragraph, anyone would agree that advertisements are a huge part of our daily lives. Even when the consumer doesnt realize it, companies are sending them messages all day long. For example, I normally do not pay attention to the banner advertisements or pop-ups that appear on internet sites as I am browsing the World Wide Web. However, a couple weeks ago as I was researching, a colorful advertisement marketing Coco-Cola popped up on my screen, I glanced at it but did not think much of its appearance. About ten minutes later I found myself opening a can of Coke that I had in my refrigerator. This made me laugh because I realized that I had subconsciously done just what the Coca-Cola Company wanted me to do. This acknowledgement actually furthered my interest in researching advertisements on medias like the internet. I do not think that many people realize how powerful advertising can be. The human brain can be so easily affected by one small subliminal message that a company sends via a flashing picture on an internet site or

Hyde 3 the name of a company on an electrically changing billboard. The effect that advertising has on an economy is tremendous and my initial interest in this topic drove my desire to learn more. I do not know a great deal about how businesses alter their marketing strategies to keep up with technology. All of my knowledge on this topic comes from what I see first-hand as a consumer. I am an adamant fan of music, and I experience the effects of advertising when I turn on the radio only to hear long commercial breaks or when I have to watch a thirty second advertisement before the music video starts playing on YouTube. I see some ways in which businesses market their goods or services using technology, but only from a consumer standpoint. I only know about the topic through my own experience of being a customer of countless products. What I really want to get from this I-Search paper is a sense of how businesses operate more from a producer standpoint. I want to see what external forces cause a business to create a new type of advertising media. In my opinion, a companys success is equally attributable to the quality of its product and to how well it advertises. It is a common complaint among consumers that companies bombard them with far too many advertisements. With information overload being an issue, I would like to learn just how companies make themselves stand out among their many competitors. I also want to research new ways that companies are advertising in the changing technological era, with the emergence of new technologies such as Twitter and iPhone applications. After determining my question, analyzing why I chose the topic, and figuring out what I hope to gain from my research, I was ready to begin my researching journey! Shortly after I was assigned the I-Search paper, my Business Fast Track class covered the chapter on marketing and consumer behavior. Starting with reading this chapter was the perfect

Hyde 4 way to begin my research on my topic, how technological changes affect the way businesses market. It provided me with a core understanding of the definition of marketing and how businesses have learned to market their goods in a successful way. In order to know how marketing tailors to the shifting economy, I should have a basic knowledge of how marketing has evolved over time, which is exactly how chapter 12 of the textbook, Better Business, written by Mary Anne Poatsy and Kendall Martin, begins. According to the book, the Production Concept Era lasted from the Industrial Revolution until the 1920s as one of the first forms of marketing. The idea of this approach was that a good product would sell itself. From the mid-1920s to the early 1950s, however, companies began to realize that this approach was no longer very effective as technological advances resulted in a production increase that was greater than the consumer demand. Marketers took action with aggressive selling strategies; these tactics took place after the production of the product was complete. The time between the 1950s and the late 1990s was known as the Marketing Concept Era, which labeled the era when companies altered their efforts from finding the right customer for a product to producing the right product for a customer and doing it better than the competition (Poatsy and Martin 339). It was during this time that businesses began to alter their goods and services to meet the changing demands of their customers. This led to the current era, the Customer Relationship Era that focuses on catering solely to the wants and needs of the customer and establishing a relationship with them in order to ensure repeat business. These eras suggest why it is so important to modify marketing strategies in order to appease and maintain good relations with customers. The chapter goes on to explain how the marketing environment influences the technological environment by stating that successful marketing requires use of the latest technologies to reach and satisfy target

Hyde 5 customers wherever they may be (Poatsy and Martin 349). The textbook includes the example of how companies can use computer databases to expand their customer relationship. All of the information I found in chapter 12 was beneficial to my research, but the statement that I found most valuable was one that served as a reality check for me and that slightly varied the way that I planned to continue my research. On page 338, Poatsy and Martin state that today, many people associate marketing with selling or advertising; however, it has become much more than that. Going into my I-Search paper, I had planned to just research advertising techniques that companies use in the media, but now I know that I have to delve much deeper than that. Marketing is all about advertising and selling a product, but what goes into this process is much more complicated than it seems. Rather than just finding a means to sell a product, the business has to go above and beyond to satisfy their customers and to create an enduring customer relationship. This idea is furthered by the description of the marketing process, which is much more intricate than simply convincing a customer to buy an idea or a product. The steps in the marketing process include identifying a market need, conducting market research and developing a marketing plan, identifying target customers, implementing the marketing mix of product, price, promotion, and place, and finally nurturing customer relationships. Reading chapter 12 in Better Business was a great launching pad because it not only provided me with crucial information about my topic that I did not otherwise know, but it also gave me insight to what kind of research I should be focusing on. We were given time in class to work on our I-Search papers in the Langsam Library so after my initial research, I knew that the library would be a good place to conduct the next part of my research. I started typing in key words and phrases to browse the online UC Library Catalog for books pertaining to my topic. While browsing the librarys databases, I typed a number of

Hyde 6 phrases into the search engine, such as changing technology affects marketing, advertising in technology, and changes in marketing. Every key phrase that I searched came back with hundreds of results, but none that I thought would be of much use to me for my I-Search paper. I tried narrowing my search to just marketing or just advertising or just technology, but even that did not result in the information that I was looking to acquire, which was a book that would give me statistics and examples about how technology is changing the advertising world. I decided that it would be a better use of my time to look elsewhere. For me, the Google search engine was my next best guess for finding useful information related to my topic. Unsure of where to start, I began looking up different, interesting statistics that pertained to advertising and technology. I had always heard that the average person is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements every single day, so I went to Google to find out if this absurdly large number was actually a true statistic. I know that there is a tremendous amount of erroneous information on the internet so finding a credible source is crucial to writing an I-Search paper. I browsed through a number of websites, but some of the websites included contradicting information on the actual number of advertisements that a person is exposed to. I was not satisfied with my research until I found a PDF file that I knew to be reliable. The file claimed that 3,000 exposures was an exaggerated number and that experts have not actually agreed on one specific number. Various researches have been conducted to figure out the actual number, but many were from the 1950s through the 1970s. I found the number that I went with and included in the opening paragraph, 600 to 625 daily advertisement exposures, in a 2007 Media Matters report. I did research to find that Media Matters is a reliable, non-profit research center that is dedicated to analyzing and correcting misinformation in the United States media.

Hyde 7 It was about this point in my research where I began to become distracted. Facebook is usually to blame for the majority of my homework distractions. But with marketing still on the mind, I started to notice things that I otherwise had not paid much attention to. When I logged into my account, I saw on the right side of the screen some picture advertisements. One ad was promoting cookie-cutters that were in the shape of Greek letters. The picture included a cookiecutter in the shape of the Greek letter, Theta, which is the sorority that I just joined. I was wondering how Facebook knew to include that specific picture until I remembered that I had just added Kappa Alpha Theta to my interests section. I became intrigued and the distraction actually ended up becoming a valuable part of my research. I began looking around the website to find out how companies can advertise to specific audiences on Facebook. Again using Google, I found one website after another, the sole purpose of which was to show businesses how to market their companies using Facebook. On the actual Facebook page, however, is where I found the most useful information. With over 500 million users, Facebook is the largest social networking website, according to the Top Ten Reviews website. As a note of comparison, a little over 310 million people live in the United States. If you took the entire U.S. population and added 190 million people, that would be the Facebook community, which just goes to show how big networking sites have become. In my opinion, a company would be crazy not to advertise via Facebook. The social networking site not only provides a wealth of potential customers, but it also allows businesses to target a very specific demographic. I now know how the advertisement for the Greek letter cookie-cutters appeared on my screenthe cookie-cutter business bought the space on Facebook to advertise their good and specified that only female college students who have indicated that they are in a sorority will see the advertisement. From the negative distraction that turned positive, I gained a deeper insight into my topic and learned

Hyde 8 that in this high-tech world, companies have to use all of their resources to make the most of every marketing opportunity that they have. Through this research, I was becoming more and more knowledgeable about my topic and decided that it was time to ask an expert. Being a marketing major, I did not find it difficult to find an expert to interview. I asked my Business Fast Track professor, Marianne Lewis, for her personal insight on how technology is changing the way businesses are conducting the way the market. Her knowledge on the subject was apparent in her response. Professor Lewis claimed that technology is forcing companies to change the way they manage marketing for two reasons. The first reason she provided was that a real challenge has emerged in the form of information overloadpeople getting too many advertisements via junk email, pop-ups, sides of buses, television. Professor Lewis stated that getting peoples attention is increasingly difficult in this high-tech world. Her second reason is that technology is making it possible to target in much more customized or personalized ways. Lewis gave the example of Kroger Plus Cards. Each time a consumer scans his Kroger Plus Card, Kroger has access to how often that customer shops at Kroger, how much he spends, and what he usually buys. Kroger can use this information to send out coupons that are specifically related to the customer. Along the same lines, according to Professor Lewis, Google is now letting marketers target web advertising by specific search words, zip codes, and other consumer-specific means. Marianne Lewis concluded that information overload and marketing customization are changing the world of marketing. Since it is harder than ever now to grab the attention of potential customers, companies need to devise ways to reach out to consumers without being overbearing or obsessive.

Hyde 9 The difficulty of getting customers attentions led me to think about ways that companies could subliminally slip their advertisement into a technological media that a consumer would already be engaged in. My research process took me back to the Google search engine where I found many websites that featured lists of product placement examples, but many of the websites did not seem overly credible. As a result, I looked through my Better Business book again to see what information I could find on this recent advertising trend. Low and behold, I found exactly what I was looking for in chapter 14: the placement of products in TV shows, movies, and video games where they will be seen by potential customers has become much more common (Poatsy, and Martin 406). The book provides the example of the movie Iron Man, in which the superhero drives around in an Audi R8. This placement gives viewers a positive image of an Audi, a car suitable for a superhero. As Marianne Lewis said in my interview, it is increasingly more difficult to catch the attention of consumers in this growing high-tech world. The short attention span of modern consumers may have been the driving force behind the invention of digital video recorders, also known as DVRs, that allows television viewers to record shows and then fast-forward through commercials. Because consumers are missing out on the advertising exposures that come from commercials, businesses have to look for other ways to keep their products in the public eye. So in essence, new technologies, most notably DVRs, have driven product placement on television. This is a perfect example of how businesses realized the change in technology, devised a plan to combat the change, and followed through to market their goods in an innovative way. I will admit that I have been dreading writing this paper since the very first day that Professor Zipfel told us about it. I did not go into the I-Search with a positive attitude, but I can honestly say that this I-Search has made research papers so much less intimidating for me.

Hyde 10 When I was talking about this paper with my friends today, I may have even admitted to them that I actually kind of enjoyed writing this paper. After much ridicule, I took my statement back, but secretly I still meant it. Thinking about doing research can seem so overbearing and boring, but by breaking it down and taking the time to reflect on the actual research process, the I-Search made me more comfortable and confident in my abilities to combat such a seemingly difficult type of paper. Besides instilling confidence in me, this I-Search paper has greatly furthered my knowledge on my topic and on my major as a whole. I truly feel like I have a greater understanding and respect for the marketing field. As I learned, marketing is so much more than just advertising a product: marketing is identifying customers, working to make a product more attractive, and creating strong customer relationships. Through my research, I found countless examples of how a change in technology forces companies to change their marketing strategies. In order to be a successful marketer, I have learned that I will have to stay on top of the latest technological trends and use my creativity to take advantage of said trends. Even though I went into this I-Search with a negative attitude, I am coming out with nothing but positivity. I now know much more than I did about technology and marketing and I overcame my trepidation about research papers.

Hyde 11 Works Cited Facebook. 2010. Web. 9 Nov. 2010. <http://www.facebook.com/adsmarketing> "How to Use Facebook for Business." HubSpot, Web. 11 Nov 2010. <http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/docs/facebook_for_business_ebook_hubspot.pdf>. Lewis, Marianne. Personal E-mail Interview. 10 Nov. 2010. Our Rising Ad Dosage: Its Not as Oppressive as Some Think, Media Matters, Web. 15 Feb. 2007. <http://ams.aaaa.org/eweb/upload/faqs/adexposures.pdf> When searching for the number of advertisements that the average person is exposed to on a daily basis, I found that very few experts agree on the exact number of exposures. This website tries to disprove the common claims and show, through precise surveys, that more reliable data does exist. The myth that an average person is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements a day is stated in this to be an extreme exaggeration with no actual evidence. Another myth disproved is 1,518 daily exposures; that number was actually meant to portray the number of advertisement exposures for a family of four but journalists jumped on this and wrongly claimed that it represented the exposures for one individual people. The tone of the file is informal and seemingly conversational, perhaps maybe to counter the statistical aspect of the file. The intended audience is academic because it includes a great amount of research that can be valuable to anyone. The PDF file itself is not very long but it does provide information about daily exposures, how many exposures to advertisements go ,unnoticed and also different media forms that the advertisements take.

Poatsy, Mary Anne, and Kendall Martin. "Marketing and Consumer Behavior." Better Business. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.

Hyde 12 Mary Anne Poatsy and Kendall Martin do a remarkable job at writing Better Business, a book that is easily understandable yet still full of crucial information. Chapter 12, the chapter that most of my information came from, presents five sections that each focus on a unique aspect of marketing, including marketing fundamentals, marketing tactics, the marketing environment, marketing research and planning, and consumer behavior. As it is a school textbook, the intended audience is obviously students. The information is basic enough for those students who have had no prior business experience, which leads me to believe that the intended audience is not just any students, but first-year business majors. Better Business is written in an objective third person point of view because the readers do not care to know about the authors opinions about marketing, but instead are interested in the facts and examples that the authors provide.

"Top Ten Reviews." Social Networking Websites Review. Tech Media Network, 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2010. <http://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com>. When looking to find whether or not Facebook was the largest social networking website, the Top Ten Reviews website answered my question. The site is consumer-oriented and provides lists and also comparison charts for anyone to access. The motto of this website is we do the research so you dont have to. The intent is to provide free information to people who want quick results without having to do the research themselves.

United States. Department of Commerce. US and World Population Clocks. 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2010. <http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html>.