Advanced Marketing: Shopping as a Key Part of Christmas - Essay Example

Advanced Marketing Table of Contents Introduction 3 Association of Christmas Values with that of Western and Christian People 4 Shopping is a Key Part of Christmas 5 Christmas-‘An Unfulfilled Search for Fulfilment’ 6 Implications for Huang Yimming’s Entrepreneurial Endeavours 7 Christmas Focus in China 8 Drivers of Chinese People to Pursue Western Tradition 8 Conclusion 10 References 11 Bibliography 13 Introduction The essay that is structured is based on a case study with regards to the eve of Christmas and values associated with it. The prospect of advanced marketing in spreading of Christmas value outside western culture will be depicted in this essay. Over the years, celebration of Christmas Eve has evolved from one culture to the other. However, tradition has remained one common aspect in the Christmas celebration in every culture. The values of Christmas in western culture and among the Christians are enormous and are spreading all over the world. The essence of value spreading is primarily the beliefs but another essence is also present that has helped in this process. Shopping, over the years, has become an integral part of Christmas celebration. Along with people’s shopping, outlook of marketing for producers during the eve has also grown over the years. The essay will also deal with entrepreneurial endeavour of an entrepreneur who wants to create a Christmas market in Chinese tradition where people are not much familiar with this trend (All about Popular Issues, 2011). Association of Christmas Values with that of Western and Christian People Christmas is taken to be at the peak of consumerism in the culture of western countries. The celebration of this occasion has evolved throughout the years and has become an occasion that encourages people to provide gifts to their loved and dear ones. The initiators in this occasion are specially children who requests gifts and their parents provide them gifts in the guise of Santa Claus. Involvement of family members is the most important feature in the Christmas occasion. In marketing sense, parents, by involving themselves in providing gifts actually involves themselves in giving brands. People hunts for gifts for their family members and their friends much earlier than the festive actually begins. In the present era, people eagerly look for innovative gift ideas that can best create happiness among their loved ones. Apart from general gifts such as chocolates, clothes, candles, showpieces and books, people also buy music pieces, electronic gadgets, custom jewellery and several other such things to gift their near ones. However, in the western culture, whether the Christmas gift is materially precious or not does not matter (Shuvalina, 2010). The feelings of the person providing the gift are perceived much more valuable than its price. Christmas has evolved as an occasion where sharing of feelings among family members takes place through the sharing of gifts. In the western culture, Christmas is said to be conventionally associated with the western culture and Christians but is also enjoyed by the non-Christians as well. Religious values and special prayers lighten up individual’s minds that reinforce their relationship with God. Apart from instigating spiritual beliefs, Christmas also perpetuates a bond among individuals and thus brings them closer. In the western culture especially, Christmas is perceived as an ideal occasion that extends involvement of family relations and enlarges intangible aspects of theory of gift giving (Clarke, 2006). Shopping is a Key Part of Christmas Shopping has evolved as an essential part of Christmas as people nowadays, are more inclined towards buying gifts for their beloved ones. Instincts of the people to shop more have made the occasion a “grand celebration of consumption”. With the arrival of Christmas, season brings holiday mood for consumers and creates an increase in the pattern of consumption among the people. People exchanges gifts and enjoy through partying, thus increasing the consumption level. Corporate not only use their left over budgets on advertisement but also create special budgets for spending in advertisement. These actions are intended towards welcoming New Year. Holidays in this period extends from around 1 week to 3 weeks due to the coinciding of Christmas with New Year. This period is again coinciding with financial year ending, thus resulting in excessive consumption of corporate budget. All these situations naturally results in ‘all-times highs’ of advertisement expenditure (Media Trends, 2011). Consumption also satisfies abstract needs inclusive of social, personal and cultural elements that connects specific meanings to objects of consumption. The consumption objects symbolise lifestyle, taste and identity. Consumption is generally a universal function that defines the consumers’ self-concept and symbolises their connection with the society. There are even certain individuals who value experience of consumption more than possessions. For various people, consuming through providing gifts is a means to create tangibility from bonds among individuals which can only be felt but not seen. Such pattern of consumption among the people incorporates pleasure and self-gratification of the world among consumers that arise from certain activities which persuade lifestyle, taste and identity. Consequently, Christmas is generally termed as an experience of consumption and is signified as at the peak of consumerism in the cultures of western economy. As Christmas occasion is viewed as an object of consumption, activities of gift selection and gift giving are also argued as objects of Christmas consumption. Expression of relationship between parent and child is an important activity and selection of gift items is influenced by the degree of the relationship. Christmas is therefore an activity of involvement for few while it is not for the others. It is for this reason that the act of exchanging gifts at Christmas is a form of consumption that raises several involvement levels (Hirschman & LaBarbera, 1989). From the above discussion that describes festival of Christmas as a grand celebration of consumption, it has been found that gift giving phenomenon in Christmas is a means that symbolises ties of societal relationship. The festival of bonding exhibits both secular and sacred meaning. The festive period arrives not only as depiction of bonding among family members and friends but also it is perceived as a season where marketers can reap the most benefits from the market. Though spending on advertisement for promotion reaches its year long height, the results obtained after the successful promotion is also enormous. In generic sense, the consumption pattern increases because parents desire to provide the best possible gift to their children and vice-versa. Since people prefer to seek the best gift ever for their loved ones, the search remains an unfulfilled approach. Christmas-‘An Unfulfilled Search for Fulfilment’ Belk & Bryce (1993) had defined the activities of people during Christmas as an unfulfilled search for fulfilment. This is because people desire to provide the best gifts to their loved ones and this perception increases their urge to search more and more (Belk & Bryce, 1993). The gifts that people share during Christmas create joy and happiness that lasts for long time. The season of Christmas comes only for few days in a year and the whole world gets filled with excitement for Christmas parties, dinner reunions and most importantly presents. This is the reason that people are found busy visiting shopping centres with the aim of making their gifting ideas a reality. People want to express themselves and their feeling for their loved ones by gifting them those gifts that are the most precious for them. It does not really mean that the costliest gifts are the most valuable. People know the fact well that money cannot buy happiness and bonding. This provides rise to the unfilled search for fulfilment. Since people search for better than the best gift for their loved ones, they tend to remain unfulfilled from their choice of gifts. The speciality of this season is that people wants to provide each other and themselves a chance of understanding and live in love and peace with each other (Parker, 2011). Implications for Huang Yimming’s Entrepreneurial Endeavours Huang Yimming, a Christmas specialist who sells Christmas presents in the world seeks to establish a domestic market for Christmas in China which is his home country. The entrepreneur is of the view that level of difficulties in developing markets in foreign countries is the same as that of local markets. Huang decided to develop a domestic market of merchandise for western Christmas in his native land, China. This he did with the support of local officials who are interested in promoting domestic trade. This section has been incorporated and is aimed towards discussing the implication of Huang’s move towards developing domestic Christmas market in China. For determining implications, evaluation of Chinese people’s perception of the festive celebration is essential. This is because market is determined by customers’ moves; and customers’ move is dependent on their perception. Christmas Focus in China Chinese people hold strong bond with their family relations and they buy gifts for them during the festive of Christmas for strengthening the bonding more. Parents there provide presents to their children so that the children do not feel neglected. The concern of Christianity does not prevail in the Chinese market during Christmas in spite of the fact that only 2 percent of Chinese population are Christian, thus people still celebrate the season in full swing. Thus, there are no religious reasons that impact the purchase behaviour of the Chinese. In recent years, there has been a greater focus on Christmas Eve in China, especially among young people according to whom Christmas is a fashionable and important day of celebration. Young people just find the occasion an energetic way of enjoyment and having fun. These findings about the Chinese people’s perception of Christmas depicts that there prevails a growth market in the country. It implies that entrepreneurial endeavour of Huang Yimming is a good move on the part of business growth. Drivers of Chinese People to Pursue Western Tradition It is believed that Christmas is celebrated in China because of historical reasons. The day of this occasion is provided as an official holiday in the country. According to views of a doctor in China, the country has gradually accepted the culture of western economy after the Reform and opening Up policy in the year 1978. This is interpreted because before that year, Christmas was only merely an academic term in China (Lu & Melik, 2010). It has been observed that people who celebrate the day were those who were mostly born after the year 1980. Over the years, China has evolved as the world’s factory of manufacturing Christmas gifts for the entire world. Christmas gifts offerings in the local market are intended to boost consumers demand. Huang Yimming’s move of creating the domestic market is factored to high-scale economic growth in China (Lu & Melik, 2010). Moreover, Christmas is more celebrated among the young generation in China who accepts western values and visualises them as fashionable. Huang has decided to target a market that is already prevailing in Chinese economy. The only influence from his side that is required is advanced marketing. Throughout Christmas season, shopping centres in China need to be well decorated with large scale activities of promotion targeted towards the Chinese consumers. According to predictions of analysts, China is presently on the course of hitting its ambitious target growth of 8 percent. The National Bureau of Statistics reported that in the year 2009, annual GDP growth has risen from 6.1 percent during the first quarter to 7.9 percent in second quarter. Huang has taken up challenge of developing that market niche in domestic segment of China and considering people’s perception of the festive and prevailing growth prospect, implications are positive (Branigan, 2009). Conclusion The festival of Christmas is more about sharing and caring rather than just celebrating. Christmas is strongly associated with family bonding and values. Originated from the western culture and tradition, it has effectively reached almost every nook and corner of the world. Chinese market has been analysed with respect to perception of local people about the occasion. It has been found out that Chinese people perceives the occasion as a trend of sharing feelings and caring for their loved ones. It is prominent that they hardly know the facts of Christmas and most of them never care to know that even. However, their greatest concern during the festival is bonding among themselves that develop during celebration phenomenon. All these traits of the festival are an opportunity for Chinese exporters of Christmas gift items in the domestic market. Entrepreneurial endeavour of Huang Yimmimg has been appreciated throughout the essay and his move has been supported by several domains of the Chinese market. References All about Popular Issues, 2011. Christmas Facts: Traditions. Christmas Facts. [Online] Available at: http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/christmas-facts.htm [Accessed March 17, 2011]. Belk, R. & Bryce, W., 1993. Christmas Shopping Scenes: From Modern Miracle to Postmodern Mall. International Journal of Research in Marketing. Branigan, T., 2009. Chinese Christmas Exporters Hit by Global recession. Guardian. [Online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/aug/14/china-exports-christmas-toys [Accessed March 18, 2011]. Clarke, P., 2006. Christmas Gift Giving Involvement. Journal of Consumer Marketing. [Online] Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/promo/xmas/christmas_gift.pdf [Accessed March 17, 2011]. Hirschman, E. C. & LaBarbera, P. A., 1989. The Meaning of Christmas. Association for Consumer Research. [Online] Available at: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/display.asp?id=12181 [Accessed March 17, 2011]. Lu, H. & Melik, J., 2010. China Succumbs to the Glitz of Christmas. BBC World Service. [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11991079 [Accessed March 18, 2011]. Media Trends, 2011. Effect of Religious Festivals on Advertising. News Letter. [Online] Available at: http://www.mediawareonline.com/newsletter/Email.htm [Accessed March 17, 2011]. Parker, M. J., 2011. What People Do During Christmas. Ezine Articles. [Online] Available at: http://ezinearticles.com/?What-People-Do-During-Christmas&id=3420389 [Accessed March 18, 2011]. Shuvalina, 2010. Christmas - A Glorious Occasion. Resources. [Online] Available at: http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/133511-Christmas-A-glorious-occasion.aspx [Accessed March 17, 2011]. Bibliography China Economic Review, 2011. A Close Christmas. Cer. [Online] Available at: http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/cer/2010_10/A_close_Christmas.html [Accessed March 18, 2011]. The Independent World, 2009. Chinas Wholesale Market: Christmas Starts Here... News. [Online] Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/chinas-wholesale-market-christmas-starts-here-1799303.html [Accessed March 18, 2011]. Watson, B., 2009. China’s Domestic Market Could be the Recession Buster We need. Daily Finnace. [Online] Available at: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/chinas-domestic-market-a-recession-buster/1518963/ [Accessed March 18, 2011]. Read More