College Report: Business Management with Marketing & Pop Culture

This report provides a detailed analysis of the impact of pop culture on branding and its influence on the purchasing behavior of millennial consumers. The study explores the evolving landscape of marketing approaches in response to this demographic, examining the role of pop culture in shaping brand authenticity and consumer preferences. It investigates the factors influencing millennial buying behavior, including personal, psychological, and societal factors, and how brands leverage these insights to connect with young consumers. The research design employs semi-structured in-depth interviews with both marketers and consumers to gather qualitative data, providing insights into the relationship between pop culture and branding strategies. The report also addresses the importance of ethical considerations in branding and how brands can align with millennial values to enhance their appeal. The conclusion offers recommendations for marketers to effectively engage with millennial consumers through pop culture-integrated branding strategies. Students can find this assignment and similar resources on Desklib, a platform offering AI-powered study tools and past papers.

Running head: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT WITH MARKETING
Business Management with Marketing
Name of Student:
Name of College:
Authors Note:
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BUSINESS MANAGEMENT WITH MARKETING
Abstract
Millennial are people who were born between 1980-2000 and they are also known as generation
Y who would be entering their adulthood. These young adults are sharper in intelligence, highly
social and focus on marketing with vast outlook due to more availability of information and
shared experiences that is easily available everywhere. As such millennial and young adults have
huge impact over society and as they have increased purchasing power so they are significant
consumers for businesses and understanding their distinct features as well as preferences that
shapes their purchasing behaviour has been chosen in this study. Specifically the focus of this
study is to understand the impact of pop culture over branding as well as understand their
influences over young adults in context to their purchasing behaviour. The study has attempted
to reveal needed and subsequent nature of marketing approaches that have been reshaped in
response to the selected demographic. A semi structured in –depth interview had been selected
for collecting data and interviews will be conducted with 15 respondents from both marketers
and consumers side. Also with help of literature review and value of research a generalised
portraiture of millennial has been presented to reveal impact of pop culture on branding and
influence over millennial purchase behaviour.
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Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Research Questions.....................................................................................................................................4
Research Aim and Objectives......................................................................................................................5
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................6
Research Design and Methodology.............................................................................................................9
Time-scale.................................................................................................................................................10
Value of Research......................................................................................................................................11
Limitations.................................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion and Recommendations...........................................................................................................11
References.................................................................................................................................................13
Appendices................................................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
In this paper a detailed analysis has been presented to understand the pop culture’s impact on
branding and influence over young consumers purchase behaviours through discussion of
literature review, identification of research design and methodology and time scale for research.
Also value for this research study has been identified along with limitations to give a better
understanding.
Research Questions
According to Lazarevic (2012) advertising is contemplated to be the classical form of pop culture
amongst the consumers and this had since earlier times revolutionised the manner the products/
services are being marketed or sold through the idea of mainstream popularity. As such
consumers act to get inclined to products or brands that are endorsed by their preferred
celebrities and hence pop culture has become a source for promoting products/services. It has
considerable affect on behaviour of consumers depending on the manner the mass media
advertises the products/services with use of celebrities or prominent personalities. Significantly,
teenagers and youth tend to get inclined by what they observe from others, particularly from
those who are hugely popular. Some consumer’s infact go to extreme lengths to get the product
endorsed by their favourite superstars or celebrities and claim to experience sense of happiness,
fulfilment feel after they possess the product they have sought for. Mostly the youths and teens
are impacted by this marketing force where business tends to appeal consumers better as per
their demographics and pop culture.
For instance several vampire books had successfully been sold since the release of Twilight saga
in movie theatres and in most of the bookstores specifically in young adult fiction category it
could be found that selves were mostly occupied with various novels on vampires. Young adults
are yet in the phase where they sought after for things or people who they aspire to be and
consumerism and pop culture has given young adults a niche they could be comfortable with.
As such the research question for this paper is:
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How does Pop Culture Impact Branding and influence the millennial young adult Consumer
base’s purchasing behaviour?
Research Aim and Objectives
As stated by Straker and Wrigley (2016) to sell products or services to any consumer it is
essential to interpret their behavior and understand their thinking, actions, purchase intentions to
find new opportunities to engage and interact with target audiences. This is specifically even
more significant of Millennial and young adults as they are the newest target market for various
brands due to the fact that they have high purchase power, disposable income and they continue
to strive the demand. As such it is essential to evaluate this generation of consumers to develop
proper approaches to engage them and motivate their purchase behaviors. There are almost 79
million Millennial in US i.e. around 25% of population and they exceed baby boomers by around
3 million. Earlier size of baby boomers was significant force to drive consumerism because of
purchase capacity and now retirement. The size of baby boomers made it convenient to influence
society and catch attention of marketers seeking to capitalize on them, but now millennial have
overruled with their large population that has equal or even bigger influences considering
differences of money, education and acceptance of ideas.
As stated by Patsiaouras (2017) even in UK the millennial make up 1/4th of population and is
forecasted to reach to 17 million by 2019 and a wide range of behavior and assumptions have
characterized these young adults between 16-34 years, so to understand their purchase intentions,
behavior patterns it is important considerably to understand their consumption for products. Also
to develop a better outreach and understanding of implications of pop culture and influence over
branding and purchase behavior of young adults this study is focused to examine the theories of
consumer behavior and their influence on purchase intentions to interpret impact of pop culture
on branding.
The research objectives that are determined to answer the given research question are:
 To examine the change in marketing approaches over past few years to interpret
implication of pop culture on branding
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 To evaluate specifically millennial consumers purchase behavior and recognize the
elements that drive their decision making procedure
 To identify relationship between the manner a brand influences consumer base through
conventional marketing approaches by integration of effective pop culture marketing into
brand strategy and identify the manner these targeted sales promotions towards millennial
enhance sales
 To establish an interpretation of the manner the present and future impact of strategic
branding on consumer and market base will be able to drive marketers success
Literature Review
According to Kennedy (2017) young consumers and millennial are massive in size not only in
US but together throughout the world and because of this vastness this generation is being
focused by marketers as a necessity rather than optional decision. Also, financial reasons are an
element that has driven businesses towards focusing on millennial as this generation has around
300 bn USD of spending power of which 62.7 bn USD is unrestricted. Also millennial are
recipients of around 41 trillion USD wealth inheritances from earlier generations. So young
adults seek for areas and scope to invest or spend whether it is product, service, society,
environment or political causes. As such businesses have real possibilities to target for millennial
financial resources available with right action and approach. Also as stated by Erdemir (2016)
businesses are inclined to focus on millennial and young adults as they reflect trend setting
cultures due to their distinct personalities, characteristics, preferences and specific purchase
patterns as well as due to the fact that these millennial have super influence on spreading word
about brands throughout social networks and other channels. This means that other demographic
groups are exposed to new thoughts of young adults which can impact buying behaviour,
preferences etc. Further the scattering of information and distribution level in modern globalised
society is encouraged and promoted by millennial and they have significant power to affect
behaviour, values and beliefs of distinct people in society and due to this huge influence over co-
members of society and elder generation, many consumerism decisions are focused on behaviour
and expectations of millennial as a standard to spread to mass consumers.
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Factors influencing buying behaviour of millennial
As stated by Rippé, Weisfeld-Spolter, Yurova, Hale and Sussan (2016) in order to promote a
product effectively it is necessary to interpret buying behaviour so that strategic approaches and
marketing efforts are channelized adequately to create influence so as to generate persuasion for
purchase. As such marketers study and evaluate behavioural process and patterns to market
products effectively to target consumers by decoding the psychology behind consumers,
identifying their response to strategic stimulators and by meeting their perception and interest
related to a product. According to theory of marketing principles personal factors like self
concept, lifestyle, psychological factors such as attitudes and learning and societal factors like
education, status and finances drive the purchase behaviour of millennial.
Fig: Factors influencing purchase behaviour
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Source: Research gate (2018)
Millennial and branding
Millennial are not very keen on advertisements as they do not prefer marketers to exploit them
with gimmicks, so authenticity of branding is key driver that influences their purchase behaviour
and decisions. According to Vaux Halliday and Astafyeva (2014) the authenticity of brand is
characterised by brand attributes and actions, high quality, endorsement of brand by popular
celebrities that talk of experiences followed by relatable and appealing advertising content. So
pop culture can be seen as enabler to determine authenticity of brand as it gives millennial
confidence to believe in promises of brand by hearing their favourite superheros or celebrities
who are real people sharing and talking of the brand and its features. This positively influences
the purchase behaviour of young consumers.
Secondly young people and millennial are sensitive to ethical purchases and brands that promote
human rights and engaging ethical buying content are preferred by these group of consumers as
they tend to prefer brands that promote ethical values (Vaux Halliday and Astafyeva 2014). So
brands that use pop culture through endorsing celebrity to talk of brand’s associations and efforts
made towards environment and community concerns tend to influence millennial and motivate
positive impact over their buying intentions as young consumer consider brand ethics and values
while deciding their purchases for products.
Example, H&M endorsed celebrities to celebrate Earth day in 2015 with their H&M Garments
Recycling campaign which encouraged young consumers to get engaged with initiative and
impacted their behaviour towards sustainable fashion future and their purchase intentions to
select more sustainable fashion options (PR Newswire 2015). H&M endorse celebrities like
Jessica Alba, Olivia Wilde, Solange Knowles, Victoria Justice, Dakota Fanning, Maggie
Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Lopez, Miranda Kerr, Kate Mara, Emmy Rossum, and more in their
advertising and marketing campaigns to appeal young consumers with pop culture by using
favourite personalities with different backgrounds to get closer to this group of consumers and
influence their mind and build increased brand awareness.
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Source: Author
Research Design and Methodology
The empirical examination and study of a generation like millennial is a problematic aspect
because the idea itself includes tension amid its qualitative and quantitative nature, as
generations are separate by both qualitative experiences and following quantitative attributes
such as age, time space that vary depending on topic of research. Due to the level of current
research topic only qualitative side of millennial and young generation consumers will be taken
into consideration while conducting empirical study. The data collection method that will be
selected is semi structured in-depth interviews where data will be collected through one-to-one
personal conversations and interviews would answer pre defined questions (Tobi and Kampen
2018). However as it will be a semi structured interview so rather than having defined set of
questionnaire beforehand, the researcher would only draw areas or topics for conversation to
occur around research questions and as the interaction will develop the flexibility would be given
to interviewer to deviate from interview structure in case need is seen. This methodology and
research design is very resourceful; as it will result in to gathering different and deep established
data responses covering around research topic and question and yet would present few specified
challenges of appropriate findings presentations and conclusions drawing.
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The research study will consider two groups of respondents due to significant nature of both
business respondents and consumers presence to understand deeply both ends of communication
and impact of pop culture over branding as well as on behaviour of millennial. This will help to
get a complete picture of changing purchase behaviour of millennial by getting opinions from
both marketers and buyers. The choice of respondents will include 5 millennial, 5 marketers and
5 consumers to be chosen for interview and this choice is made based on level of involvement
with millennial.
This research design and methodology will enable to draw multi dimensional data from semi
structured interview through interview guide rather than exact questions to be formed beforehand
the interviews is conducted (Ridder 2017). The interview guides will be based on theoretical
findings of research study and will cover topics of millennial as consumers that will reflect
questions describing their wants and expectations, marketing communication and channels to be
utilised for this particular demographics. Also it will cover factors that influence millennial
choice of brands such as ethics and environmentalism that largely shapes their purchase
behaviours in the modern society.
It will even cover findings on financial dimensions of millennial that influences purchase
behaviour and their buying decisions as well as loyalty. Interview guides developed by marketers
and consumers will be targeted at covering same questions from two different aspects of
marketing communication, thus aiming to get clean, unbiased data which will help researcher to
eventually analyse, present and apply the research findings. The interview will be conducted and
responses will be recorded with consent of respondents.
Time-scale
Proposal submission 15/11/2018
Literature Review 20/11/2018
Methodology 26/11/2018
Interview group: conduct, transcript, evaluate 06/12/2018
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Questionnaire design 18/12/2018
Data analysis 28/12/2018
Completion of draft 07/01/2019
Final report presentation 12/01/2019
Research submission 16/01/2019
Value of Research
A summarised interview result from both marketers and consumers will be presented with vast
analysis of responses from the whole data gathered to add meaningful information and value to
research so that a better piece of study is presented that draws on data to better interpret
implementation of research findings. Also the research study that will be presented will help to
give comprehensive holistic perspective at main elements that need to be considered when
millennial consumers are to be targeted by marketers as their buying behaviour is undergoing
significant structural changes which in this research will be studied and identified exhaustively
as well as outlined to give better picture and add value to research study.
Limitations
Due to particular methodology applied for data collection i.e. semi structured in-depth interview
used for analysis of empirical finding , it will have considerable limitation for researcher as
number of respondents studied will be limited to gather appropriate, unbiased and effective
insights. Also time and cost of carrying the research is a limitation.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Thus it can be concluded that with help of this detailed study on millennial consumers a deeper
understanding of their behavioural preferences, buying patterns and purchase behaviour that
influences their decisions have been interpreted to relate these factors significantly with effective
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marketing approaches for branding and promotions with focused approach on selection of
communication and advertising tools. This understanding and meticulous examination has
helped to understand marketing activities towards millennial which can be even utilised in future
prospects. As brands that engage young and millennial consumers through endorsing popular
personalities tend to leave long impressions and impact on their perceptions that drive their
buying intentions and actions. So it is recommended that pop culture’s use of celebrities
effectively can help to attract customers and increase brand image so it has can be used as
popular strategic approach to promote a brand through appearance of well known personality so
as to build relationship between celebrity through pop culture and brand that is powerful enough
to differentiate from rivals and develop value in branding to attract a large base of young
customers and their purchase behaviours.
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