A Reflection

I am not sure what to really call this idea, but one of the most important, and definitely most interesting, concepts I understand better as a result of the group project is that the target demographic is not always who the marketer must target. An obvious way that this idea was manifested was the issue of the purchase decision maker. Although our target market, 14- 15 year old girls, do have a small amount of disposable income from an allowance or babysitting jobs, they were not the ones who would ultimately decide whether or not to buy our product. That power rested in the hands of their parents. In the end, they would decide if our product was a worthwhile investment. This was a challenge for us because teenage girls are notorious for fighting parental authority. Ironically, the room we were assigned represented this clash of wants and needs perfectly. The girls we interviewed saw the family room as place of relaxation and comfort where they could engage in leisurely activities like watching TV. At the same time, though, the girls detested spending time in the room because it was a public area that lacked privacy. In the family room, they had to follow their parents’ rules of “no food on the couch,” “no TV until homework is finished,” or “no feet on the coffee table.” Our product had to strike the right balance between the teens’ desire for freedom and the parents’ desire to retain control over their child’s actions without offending either group.

However, that was not the end for us. We had to take that targeting problem a step further. Our insights proved that 14-15 year old girls’ perceptions of themselves were different from who they actually were. Many of the girls we interviewed conveyed their attempts to be independent by dictating what items they felt should and should not be in their family’s common room. They pointed out particular pieces of furniture as “ugly” or “pointless” and communicated their disgust for their father’s mini bar or their younger sister’s toys strewn about the floor. However, as we analyzed these findings, we discovered that the underlying desires of our demographic were, in fact, the opposite of independence. More than anything, they wanted to fit in with their peers; they wanted to take certain items out of the family room because they were embarrassed by them when their friends came over. We realized, from our research and from personal experience, that our target market is motivated by self-image and following all of the right trends. Whether they would admit it or not, teenage girls are victims of groupthink and are most apt to do whatever their friends do. Also, to them, they are the single most important person in their lives, which is normal for an age group with little responsibility or concern outside of their social group. Actually, this mentality is probably applicable to college students too, including me. So in addition to creating a product that would appeal to our target market and their parents, we also had to consider who our target market perceived themselves to be. Our product had to be something that would help them relate to their friends while simultaneously making them think they are being innovative and independent.

I really did enjoy this project. At first, I was skeptical because our group did not seem to mesh well. I felt like there were people who were determined to choose the age group they felt would be best and others that really could not care less. But as time passed, our meetings became more productive as we became more acquainted with each other’s personalities. We discovered that we each had different strengths, and that recognition made the process of the project more efficient, as each of us naturally gravitated to what we did best. You as an instructor were very helpful; the guidelines were very straightforward but still allowed for creative freedom along the way. It was great to get feedback from you after we turned in every step so we knew exactly how we could improve the next time around. Overall, this project was a unique way to gain customer insights; it helped me shape my way of thinking, and if I was ever faced with a marketing dilemma in the future, I definitely feel that I would go about it in this way. As one of my group members mentioned, though, I think the overall objective of this project should be kept a secret until some of the insights were gained. That way, we would not have been so focused on the project and tailored our research questions in a way that could have presented a bias.