Culture and Marketing Strategy

Ad Description

The advertisement located on the company's weekly ads site, displays, and describes various products on the Carrs-Safeway Supermarket shelves. According to the ad, Safeway has been servicing Northern California since 1926, therefore creating a long-term connection and trust with relative customers. In the ad, the company displays various food items, commonly purchased fruits, berries, and meat. The appeal in colors and diversity are practical examples of customer preference approach. Grapes displays come in three different colors i.e., red, green, or black, for the consumer to choose from. Apples in the picture are described as large Honeycrisp, mostly linked to its delicious and appealing red color. Lastly, the advertisement also invites customers to a national pasta day event to explore more of Safeway's products. Attached are the respective prices for all displayed food items, set explicitly as club price. The advertisement contains short and concise details specific to the consumer preference on quality, quantity, and price. I specifically selected this advertisement as it was new to me, and it was well orchestrated and visually created to appeal to the consumer in buying the displayed products.

Underlying Assumptions

The first assumption about the consumer is that they are members of the club, and they have access to the online weekly ad center. Meaning that they are technological able and exposed to acquire and take advantage of weekly events and price changes compared to competitors. The authors also assume that consumers love the variety and have different tastes and preferences in purchasing fruits. This is evident in the color diversity also explained in the advertisement. The authors also assume that readers and the target group are visually able to comprehend information in the advertisement, and they have the financial capacity to purchase the items. The authors also make various dietary assumptions about the target consumers in aspects of nutrition and food quality, as depicted by the steak description. They assumed that consumers would comprise of a literate group, which values and appreciates food quality to meet family or individual nutritional needs. This relates to a typical American, who is potentially able to buy, has enough knowledge about food, especially fruits, and their importance, and appreciates market diversity (Bradley, 2005).

Nevertheless, the consumers are assumed to like purchasing cooked food, based on their economic and social aspects. The culture i.e., society, appreciates beef steak, which is sold cooked to cater to the perceived market, where they do not necessarily have to cook again. The food is also suitable for daily schedules as takeaways, e.g., lunchtime meals.

The advert is effectively integrating consumers through social media and other digital platforms to display the quality and variety they can experience at their Safeway Supermarket stores. Assumptions that most target group members are literate positively promote the advertisement, who are also financially able to acquire the identified items. They are also the quality and healthy-conscious individuals who are aware of dietary impacts on health and even their bodies' nutritional requirements. The color appeal displayed in the advertisement effectively aligns with the target group's high aesthetic taste. The majority of the population has advanced nutritional knowledge about fruit variety, components in each one of them, and the relationship between respective colors and levels of nutrients it contains.

Excluded Consumer Groups

The main excluded consumer groups were the illiterate or groups that have limited access to the internet. The Northern California society is composed of more than 98% literate groups that have regular access to digital media and the internet. The English language has been used in the advertisement description: it is the most widely spoken language in Northern California, also the United States. Therefore it provides a better base to reach the targeted group, excluding Non-English speaking groups (Rao & Kurtz, 2015). The remaining percentage mainly comprises of the elderly and unemployed, both groups which have limited interests in digital illiteracy or have the inadequate financial capacity to either access or utilize internet-based media. This advertisement would not be of appeal to the native tribes since their diets are strictly restricted to households and have little taste for both diversity and physical food appeal. Moreover, they comprise of a lesser percentage of the working population in Northern California, which limits their financial power to purchase the advertised products.

Evaluation

From statistics, California comprises diverse cultures, with 73% White, 15% Asian, 6.5% Black, and the rest are Native Americans and Pacific Islander Tribe (CIA Factbook). The advertisement is culturally appropriate and tends to promote the eating habits and behaviors of most of the population. Only less than 2% of California's population has strict dietary behaviors i.e., Native Americans and the Pacific Islanders. The rest are literate and financially empowered to choose their preferred food and also able to purchase them. Levels of education and literacy, have facilitated the development of American feeding habits and financial capacity. The White majority's cultural values on aesthetics and quality food are emphasized in the advertisement. They appreciate quality, well-cooked foods, or fruits that have great nutritional relevance in individual and family levels. Both intrinsic and extrinsic values of the target group are achieved through the advertisement: self-satisfaction through improved dietary practices, which also impact health and appreciation of diversity, individual knowledge, and competence. Extrinsic factors of social competence in dietary standards, financial power (status), and conformity with the larger population. English speakers are also reached through language competence in the advertisement. According to Bloch (2016), numbers i.e., premium prices, have also been used to communicate to the target population.

References

Bradley, F. (2005). International marketing strategy . Pearson Education.

Rao, C. P., & Kurtz, D. L. (2015). Marketing strategies for reaching minority markets. In Minority Marketing: Research Perspectives for the 1990s (pp. 1-7). Springer, Cham.

Bloch, F. (2016). Targeting and pricing on social networks. The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Networks , 776-791.