Student Life

Your exam will be multiple choice Exam # 1 Introductory Chemistry Be sure to show your set up for all mathematical problems. Your answers must have the correct number of significant digits and the correct units. I. Chemistry is a quantitative science therefore we must make measurements. All measurements have an uncertainty that we need to be aware of in our calculations. A. We need to be able to determine the number of significant figures in a measurement. For the following measurement state the number of significant figures. (4pts) 1. 1. 000 cm 2. 2. 590 x 10-5 m 4 3. . 020 g 4. 1000 cm 2 1 B. We need to be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide with measurements. Solve the following problems. (4 pts) 1. 3. 02 cm + 5 cm + 0. 002 cm = 8 cm 3. 2. 0 cm x 2. 00 cm x 2. 000 cm = 8. 0 cm3 2. 5. 35 g – 0. 005 g = 5. 35 g 4. 7. 89 g / 5. 2 mL = 1. 5 g/mL B. It is often necessary to convert from one unit to another. This is easily accomplished with the right unit factor. Solve th e following problems. 1. During the last six lunar landings 842 pounds of Moon samples have been collected. What is this mass expressed in kilograms? ( 2. pounds = 1 kilograms) (4 pts) 842 lbs x 1 kg / 2. 2 lbs = 382. 7272727 kg = 380 kg 2. If a 250 mL beaker weighs 95. 4 g, what is the mass in kilograms? (4 pts) 95. 4 g x 1kg / 1000g = 0. 0954 kg = 9. 54 x 10-3 kg 3. If the radius of an oxygen atom is 6. 6 x 10 (5 pts) 6. 6 x 10 –10 dm x 1 m / 10 dm x 109 nm/ 1 m = 6. 6 x 10-2 nm -10 dm, what is the radius in nm? 1 C. Chemists often deal with percent problems. As long as you remember that percent refers to per 100, these problems can be solved. 1. A penny minted after 1982 is composed of copper and zinc only. If a penny has a mass of 2. 07 g and is 2. 50 % copper. What is the mass of zinc in the coin? (5 pts) 2. 507 g x 2. 50/100 = 0. 062675 g of Cu 2. 507 g of penny – 0. 062675 g of Cu = 2. 444325 g = 2. 444 g of Zn (2. 44 g of Zn is correct also) D. Density is a ver y important concept for chemist. The density of a substance can be obtained in a chemistry laboratory. 1. A rubber stopper with a mass of 23. 75 g is dropped in a 50-mL graduated cylinder that has 20. 4 mL of water. After the stopper is dropped in the graduated cylinder, the water level rises to 24. 7 mL. What is the density of the rubber stopper? 5 pts) 2. 375 g / (24. 7 mL – 20. 4 mL) = 5. 523255814 g / mL = 5. 52 g / mL (5. 5 g /mL is accepted) We can make predictions if the density is known. 2. A glass cylinder contains four liquid layers: mercury (d = 13. 6 g/mL), chloroform (d = 1. 49 g/mL), water (d = 1. 00 g/mL), ether (d = 0. 708 g/mL). If a piece of ice (d = 0. 917 g/mL) is dropped into the cylinder, where does it come to rest? Why? (5 pts) The mercury layer will be on the bottom, then the chloroform, then the water, and finally the ether. The ice will sink in the ether layer and float on top of the water layer. If the density is know, we can we can find the mass of a given volume or the volume of a given mass. 3. The density of aluminum is 2. 70 g/mL. What volume will 250 g of Al occupy? What is the mass of a piece of aluminum with a volume of 250 mL? (6 pts) 250 g of Al x 1 mL / 2. 70 g = 92. 59259259 mL = 93 mL 250 mL of Al x 2. 70 g / 1 mL = 675 g = 680 g 2 Using the density value we can indirectly obtain distances that are too small to measure directly. 4. A sample of aluminum foil has a length of 10. 0 cm and a width of 5. 7 cm. If the aluminum foil weighs 0. 234 g, what is the thickness of the aluminum foil? Remember that the density of aluminum is 2. 70 g/mL. (6 pts) Volume of Al = length x width x thickness = mass / density 0. 234 g x 1 mL / 2. 70 g = 0. 0866666666 mL 0. 086666666 mL / 10. 0 cm x 5. 7 cm = 0. 001520467 cm = 1. 5 x 10 –3 cm E. Heat and temperature are two very important concepts. 1. In your own words, please state the difference between heat and temperature. What is a common unit of each? (5 pts) Heat measures the total energy of a sample and temperature measure the intensity of heat or the average heat of a sample. A common unit of heat is a calorie and a common unit of temperature is Kelvin. It is important to be able to convert from one temperature unit to another. 2. Aluminum melts at 1220 F. (You can see why aluminum is not a liquid at room temperature) What is the melting point of aluminum in degree Celsius ( C) and in Kelvin o C (6 pts) (K)? (oF – 32 oF) x 100 oC = 180 oF (1220 oF – 32)(100 / 180) = 660 oC 660 oC + 273 = 933 K o o 3. Give the ions present and their relative numbers in potassium sulfate. a) b) c) d) e) 1K+ and 1 SO42K+ and 1 SO321K+ and 2 SO422K+ and 1 SO423K+ and 1 SO43- 3 4. How many cm2 are in an area of 4. 21in2? a. b. c. d. e. 10. 7 cm2 114 cm2 27. cm2 1. 66 cm2 1. 14 cm2 5. In performing a multistep calculation, when should you round off the answer in the calculator display? (5 pts) In a multistep calculation you should round off the answer at the end of the calculation E. Matter and Energy. 1. We learned four terms in chapter 4, heterogeneous mixture, homogeneous mixture, compound, and element. Please an example of each. (8 pts) An example of a heterogeneous mixture is the earth’s crust. A heterogeneous mixture can be separated into pure substances by physical methods. An example of a homogeneous mixture is salt water. The properties of a homogeneous mixture constant for a given sample. An example of a compound is NaCl. A compound can be broken down into elements by ordinary chemical reactions. An example of an element is Na. An element is a substance that can not be broken down further by a chemical reaction. 2. Match Symbols and Names (10 pts) 1. sodium 2. iron 3. carbon 4. nitrogen 5. phosphorous d c e b a a. P b. N c. Fe d. Na e. C 4 1. Cl 2. Ce 3. Cu 4. Co 5. Ca e c b d a a. Calcium b. Copper c. Cesium d. Cobalt e. Chlorine 3. Give an example for each of the following terms: (8 pts) a. hysical property – Appearance, melting point, boiling point, density, heat and electrical conductivity, solubility, and physical state under normal conditions are all examples of physical properties. b. chemical property – A chemical property of a substance describes its chemical reactions with other substances. The chemical property of sodium states that sodium will react with water to form hydrog en gas. c. physical change – A physical change include changing shape, volume, or physical state. For example when water changes to ice. d. chemical change – A chemical change always involves the formation of a new substance. Gas bubbles from the reaction of calcium with water. Fill in the blanks of the following table Symbol number of protons number of neutrons number of electrons mass number 37 Cl17 20 18 48 Cr3+ 24 24 21 24 Mg 12 12 12 37 48 24 Might not be on test. Ask teacher. Chlorine has two stable isotopes with masses of 34. 97 amu and 36. 97 amu. What is the relative abundance of the two isotopes? a. b. c. d. e. 50. 00% 35Cl and 50. 00 % 37Cl 35. 45% 35Cl and 64. 55 % 37Cl 64. 55% 35Cl and 35. 45% 37Cl 24. 23% 35Cl and 75. 77 % 37Cl 75. 77 % 35Cl and 24. 23 % 37Cl 5 Student Life Your exam will be multiple choice Exam # 1 Introductory Chemistry Be sure to show your set up for all mathematical problems. Your answers must have the correct number of significant digits and the correct units. I. Chemistry is a quantitative science therefore we must make measurements. All measurements have an uncertainty that we need to be aware of in our calculations. A. We need to be able to determine the number of significant figures in a measurement. For the following measurement state the number of significant figures. (4pts) 1. 1. 000 cm 2. 2. 590 x 10-5 m 4 3. . 020 g 4. 1000 cm 2 1 B. We need to be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide with measurements. Solve the following problems. (4 pts) 1. 3. 02 cm + 5 cm + 0. 002 cm = 8 cm 3. 2. 0 cm x 2. 00 cm x 2. 000 cm = 8. 0 cm3 2. 5. 35 g – 0. 005 g = 5. 35 g 4. 7. 89 g / 5. 2 mL = 1. 5 g/mL B. It is often necessary to convert from one unit to another. This is easily accomplished with the right unit factor. Solve th e following problems. 1. During the last six lunar landings 842 pounds of Moon samples have been collected. What is this mass expressed in kilograms? ( 2. pounds = 1 kilograms) (4 pts) 842 lbs x 1 kg / 2. 2 lbs = 382. 7272727 kg = 380 kg 2. If a 250 mL beaker weighs 95. 4 g, what is the mass in kilograms? (4 pts) 95. 4 g x 1kg / 1000g = 0. 0954 kg = 9. 54 x 10-3 kg 3. If the radius of an oxygen atom is 6. 6 x 10 (5 pts) 6. 6 x 10 –10 dm x 1 m / 10 dm x 109 nm/ 1 m = 6. 6 x 10-2 nm -10 dm, what is the radius in nm? 1 C. Chemists often deal with percent problems. As long as you remember that percent refers to per 100, these problems can be solved. 1. A penny minted after 1982 is composed of copper and zinc only. If a penny has a mass of 2. 07 g and is 2. 50 % copper. What is the mass of zinc in the coin? (5 pts) 2. 507 g x 2. 50/100 = 0. 062675 g of Cu 2. 507 g of penny – 0. 062675 g of Cu = 2. 444325 g = 2. 444 g of Zn (2. 44 g of Zn is correct also) D. Density is a ver y important concept for chemist. The density of a substance can be obtained in a chemistry laboratory. 1. A rubber stopper with a mass of 23. 75 g is dropped in a 50-mL graduated cylinder that has 20. 4 mL of water. After the stopper is dropped in the graduated cylinder, the water level rises to 24. 7 mL. What is the density of the rubber stopper? 5 pts) 2. 375 g / (24. 7 mL – 20. 4 mL) = 5. 523255814 g / mL = 5. 52 g / mL (5. 5 g /mL is accepted) We can make predictions if the density is known. 2. A glass cylinder contains four liquid layers: mercury (d = 13. 6 g/mL), chloroform (d = 1. 49 g/mL), water (d = 1. 00 g/mL), ether (d = 0. 708 g/mL). If a piece of ice (d = 0. 917 g/mL) is dropped into the cylinder, where does it come to rest? Why? (5 pts) The mercury layer will be on the bottom, then the chloroform, then the water, and finally the ether. The ice will sink in the ether layer and float on top of the water layer. If the density is know, we can we can find the mass of a given volume or the volume of a given mass. 3. The density of aluminum is 2. 70 g/mL. What volume will 250 g of Al occupy? What is the mass of a piece of aluminum with a volume of 250 mL? (6 pts) 250 g of Al x 1 mL / 2. 70 g = 92. 59259259 mL = 93 mL 250 mL of Al x 2. 70 g / 1 mL = 675 g = 680 g 2 Using the density value we can indirectly obtain distances that are too small to measure directly. 4. A sample of aluminum foil has a length of 10. 0 cm and a width of 5. 7 cm. If the aluminum foil weighs 0. 234 g, what is the thickness of the aluminum foil? Remember that the density of aluminum is 2. 70 g/mL. (6 pts) Volume of Al = length x width x thickness = mass / density 0. 234 g x 1 mL / 2. 70 g = 0. 0866666666 mL 0. 086666666 mL / 10. 0 cm x 5. 7 cm = 0. 001520467 cm = 1. 5 x 10 –3 cm E. Heat and temperature are two very important concepts. 1. In your own words, please state the difference between heat and temperature. What is a common unit of each? (5 pts) Heat measures the total energy of a sample and temperature measure the intensity of heat or the average heat of a sample. A common unit of heat is a calorie and a common unit of temperature is Kelvin. It is important to be able to convert from one temperature unit to another. 2. Aluminum melts at 1220 F. (You can see why aluminum is not a liquid at room temperature) What is the melting point of aluminum in degree Celsius ( C) and in Kelvin o C (6 pts) (K)? (oF – 32 oF) x 100 oC = 180 oF (1220 oF – 32)(100 / 180) = 660 oC 660 oC + 273 = 933 K o o 3. Give the ions present and their relative numbers in potassium sulfate. a) b) c) d) e) 1K+ and 1 SO42K+ and 1 SO321K+ and 2 SO422K+ and 1 SO423K+ and 1 SO43- 3 4. How many cm2 are in an area of 4. 21in2? a. b. c. d. e. 10. 7 cm2 114 cm2 27. cm2 1. 66 cm2 1. 14 cm2 5. In performing a multistep calculation, when should you round off the answer in the calculator display? (5 pts) In a multistep calculation you should round off the answer at the end of the calculation E. Matter and Energy. 1. We learned four terms in chapter 4, heterogeneous mixture, homogeneous mixture, compound, and element. Please an example of each. (8 pts) An example of a heterogeneous mixture is the earth’s crust. A heterogeneous mixture can be separated into pure substances by physical methods. An example of a homogeneous mixture is salt water. The properties of a homogeneous mixture constant for a given sample. An example of a compound is NaCl. A compound can be broken down into elements by ordinary chemical reactions. An example of an element is Na. An element is a substance that can not be broken down further by a chemical reaction. 2. Match Symbols and Names (10 pts) 1. sodium 2. iron 3. carbon 4. nitrogen 5. phosphorous d c e b a a. P b. N c. Fe d. Na e. C 4 1. Cl 2. Ce 3. Cu 4. Co 5. Ca e c b d a a. Calcium b. Copper c. Cesium d. Cobalt e. Chlorine 3. Give an example for each of the following terms: (8 pts) a. hysical property – Appearance, melting point, boiling point, density, heat and electrical conductivity, solubility, and physical state under normal conditions are all examples of physical properties. b. chemical property – A chemical property of a substance describes its chemical reactions with other substances. The chemical property of sodium states that sodium will react with water to form hydrog en gas. c. physical change – A physical change include changing shape, volume, or physical state. For example when water changes to ice. d. chemical change – A chemical change always involves the formation of a new substance. Gas bubbles from the reaction of calcium with water. Fill in the blanks of the following table Symbol number of protons number of neutrons number of electrons mass number 37 Cl17 20 18 48 Cr3+ 24 24 21 24 Mg 12 12 12 37 48 24 Might not be on test. Ask teacher. Chlorine has two stable isotopes with masses of 34. 97 amu and 36. 97 amu. What is the relative abundance of the two isotopes? a. b. c. d. e. 50. 00% 35Cl and 50. 00 % 37Cl 35. 45% 35Cl and 64. 55 % 37Cl 64. 55% 35Cl and 35. 45% 37Cl 24. 23% 35Cl and 75. 77 % 37Cl 75. 77 % 35Cl and 24. 23 % 37Cl 5

Publix

Journal of Business Case Studies – Fourth Quarter 2007 Volume 3, Number 4 A Retailer‘s Steady Growth Strategy: Should Publix Stay National Or Go Global? Bahaudin G. Mujtaba, (E-mail: [email  protected] edu), Nova Southeastern University Erica Franklin, (E-mail: [email  protected] edu), Nova Southeastern University ABSTRACT Publix Super Markets, Inc. is a Florida-based grocery chain which has over 120,000 employees and annual sales in 2005 of $20. 7 billion. Presently, Publix serves over one million customers every day and is one of the largest employee-owned companies in the world.Publix is one of Florida’s premier supermarkets and has responded to most cultural trends in the grocery market-organic foods; natural foods, health foods, ethnic ingredients, prepared meals, etc. Publix has enjoyed great success in the grocery industry and has expanded in many states. With the advent of globalization affecting almost every industry, the supermarket/food retailing in dustry has joined the trend. Domestic and international food retailers across the globe have begun to internationalize at a rapid rate and open operations around the world.However, as you will see, the growth of supermarket chains beyond their home countries has been done mostly by European and Asian companies. With the exception of Wal-Mart, few U. S. food retailers have expanded abroad. Currently there are no plans for Publix to expand internationally but this case seeks to examine the possibilities of Publix making a step toward going abroad and highlights the various factors in the global environment that may directly or indirectly affect the company. INTRODUCTION A of August 2006, Publix was operating 833 stores. Publix operates 642 stores in Florida, 164 stores in Georgia, 37 stores in South Carolina, 27 stores in Alabama, and 13 stores in Tennessee. Publix carries items ranging from food products to personal care and household goods. The company also has their own line of pri vate label goods that span the same spectrum. To better cater to their market and expand operations, Publix has also created new concept stores for its different target markets, Greenwise and Publix Sabor.The Greenwise store features organic produce and natural foods; Publix Sabor caters to the large Latin-American population in Central and South Florida and carries food products highly-demanded by these consumer. Publix has also moved into the restaurant business through their equity investment in Crispers, the fresh salad and sandwich meal concept-restaurant. In addition to the restaurant subsidiary, Publix Supermarkets Inc. , also owns seven other subsidiaries: 1) Publix Alabama, LLC; 2) PublixDirect, LLC; 3) Publix Asset Management Company; 4) Publix Tennessee, LLC; 5) Real Sub, LLC; 6) Lone Palm Golf Club, LLC; and 7) PTO, LLC.In 2001, Publix began online operations for its consumers for home delivery of groceries. However, its Broward County, FL and surrounding areas pilot pro grams failed to meet revenue and profit goals; so Publix Direct discontinued operations in August 2003 just short of two years after it was launched. The core of Publix‘s operations is the belief in doing everything for the customer. The company holds a superior belief that success lies in customer value and employee appreciation.They developed a policy of Customer Intimacy, which means that their guests need an intimate, professional, thorough, consistent, and disciplined method of serving customers that has become a normal way of doing business. See Table 1 for an evolution of Publix‘s growth since its inception. COMPANY EARNINGS In terms of financial success, in some years, Publix has outperformed the S&P 500 Index and the customer Peer Group Index with regards to return on investment. The Peer Group includes A&P, Albertson‘s, American Stores, Bruno‘s, Food Lion, Giant Foods, Hannaford Bros. , Kroger, Safeway, Smith‘s Food & Drug, Weis Markets, and W inn23Journal of Business Case Studies – Fourth Quarter 2007 Volume 3, Number 4 Dixie. Publix announced their 2005 annual results on March 2nd, 2006. Their sales for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2005, were $20. 6 billion. Net earnings for 2005 were $989. 2 million, compared to $819. 4 million for 2004 (Publix Announces 4th Quarter, 2006). Dividends for 2006 were $1. 00 up from 70 cents in 2004 and 40 cents in 2003, which shows that the efforts of Publix‘s associates to increase earnings via customer value enabled the firm to return an even higher profit to its private stockholders.The 2003 dividend was 40 cents per share, up from 33 cents per share in 2002. Publix CEO Charlie Jenkins Jr. expressed his thanks and appreciation to the firm‘s workers for their performance that helped increase value to customers and, as a result of which, ensured good financial results for the year. Year 1930 1940 1944 1950 1957 1959 1963 1971 1973 1974 1975 1980 1984 1986 1987 1 990 1992 1993 1994 1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2005 2006 Table 1 – The Publix Spirit Over The Years Accomplishments First Publix Super Market opened in Winter Haven, Florida.First store known as the ? marble, tile and stucco food palace? built in Winter Haven, featuring such revolutionary retail concepts as air conditioning, wide aisles, and electric-eye doors. Publix bought the 19-store chain of All American Food stores in Lakeland and moved the headquarters to Lakeland. New 70,000-square foot grocery warehouse built in Lakeland. Today this warehouse occupies over 2,000,000 square feet. Publix Employee Federal Credit Union opened in a Lakeland warehouse. Publix opened its first store in Miami and bought seven stores.Publix opened the Southeast Coast Headquarters and Distribution Center in North Miami. Two stores opened in Jacksonville. Publix opened the Bakery Plant and constructed the Produce Distribution Center in Lakeland. Publix sales passed $1 billion annually. Publix open ed Distribution Center and Division Office in Jacksonville. Publix Employee Stock Ownership Trust (ESOT) started this year. Publix celebrated 50 years of shopping pleasure. Dairy Processing Plant opened in Lakeland. Checkout scanning implemented chain-wide.It was during the early 1980‘s that Publix started being open on Sundays. Publix sales passed $3. 23 billion. According to Progressive Grocer, Publix‘s 2. 36% before tax net was the highest of top ten super market chains, 2 ? times better than Safeway – the industry leader. Publix opened its first Food and Pharmacy stores in Orlando and Tampa. Publix opened its Dairy Processing Plant in Deerfield Beach. Publix had 400 stores and 74,000 associates in Florida. Publix announced their expansion plans to Georgia and South Carolina.Implemented a company-wide Quality Improvement Process (QIP) and Work Improvement Now (WIN) tools for fact-based decision-making and employee empowerment. Sales were $8. 66 billion. Publix implemented a chain-wide Customer Intimacy program. Publix has sales of over $12 billion and 120,000 associates. Almost 600 stores in four states. Publix was ranked 132 on the Fortune 500. Charlie Jenkins Jr. replaced his cousin Howard as CEO of the company. Publix began opening stores in Nashville Tennessee. Publix makes initial investment in Crispers restaurant chain Publix develops ? oncept-stores‘-Greenwise & Publix Sabor ; Sales equal $20. 7 billion Publix stock splits one to five. Publix opens walk-in medical clinics at select grocery locations in Atlanta, Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Publix further expands with 6 new store openings between June and August: Huntsville, AL; Atlanta, GA; Jacksonville, FL(2); Sebastian, FL; Palm City, FL. Howard Jenkins, previous CEO of Publix, has been quoted in the past commenting on his company‘s dedication to customer value, ? Publix people have been working hard, preparing for an even grander vision of our future.Earlier in this dec ade, we committed ourselves to a mission to become the premier quality food retailer in the world. We introduced our own quality improvement process and later adapted a discipline of Customer Intimacy, which is helping us to listen more effectively to our customers. All of these initiatives have engaged the resourcefulness of thousands of associates from every area of our company. Together we are discovering powerful new methods for delivering customer value.? 24 Journal of Business Case Studies – Fourth Quarter 2007 THE COMPANY Volume 3, Number 4A key differentiating factor in Publix‘s success formula can be attributed to the philosophy of its founder, Mr. George W. Jenkins who stated that ?†¦ some companies are founded on policy. This is wrong. Philosophy, the things you believe in, is more important. Philosophy does not change frequently †¦ and is never compromised †¦ we attempt to adapt a philosophy in such a way as to allow ordinary people to achieve the extraordinary †¦ to reach higher†¦ to look upon average with disdain.? The philosophy of caring for people has been embedded in Publix‘s corporate culture throughout its stores.Publix associates understand that they are not just in the grocery business but also in the people business. Therefore, taking care of associates, customers, suppliers, and community members is important to Publix people and the communities which they serve. Publix‘s Mission Statement very clearly states that Publix is passionately focused on customer value. Publix is committed to satisfying the needs of their customers as individuals better than their competition. Also, research shows that the majority of supermarket shoppers shop and visit supermarkets on a weekly basis.So, building a relationship with customers is a necessity as opposed to a luxury in order to stay aware of their needs and expectation. Publix associates are encouraged to interact with their customers on an hourly basis. Publix associates constantly attempt to keep their fingers on the pulse of the customer in order to get immediate and local feedback. One of the District Managers in the Central Florida region used to encourage, and in some cases require, his department managers to learn at least two customers‘ names, every day through face-to-face introduction and interaction.This is important because Publix employees serve their own communities and through this face-to-face interaction they can better determine customers‘ needs, wants, and desires faster than any research firm could ever do. KEY SUCCESS FACTORS At Publix, everything they do revolves around pleasing the customer; this is why they have enjoyed the kind of success they have had since the 1930's. Bill Fauerbach, Vice President of the Miami Division, said ? only we can give our customers a reason to shop elsewhere.?The President of Publix, Ed Crenshaw, during his first year in the office introduced four success driv ers for the company. The four drivers are: knowing the business, knowing the product, knowing the customer, and continuously training people. As a result, every department implemented different means of doing a better job with these four success drivers. A philosophy of employee appreciation has been embedded in the culture of the organization; so when the upper echelons visit retail stores, especially during appreciation week, they make it a point to personally see and thank every associate.One obstacle Publix is faced with is strong competition in the supermarket industry. For example, Wal-Mart, now the #1 retail grocer in the world, is opening major supercenters throughout Florida. However, Publix is not willing to concede their customers to the competition. As long as they take care of their customers better than anyone else, they will do well. The new generation of Publix leaders understands that complacency is their number one enemy; therefore they continue to focus and improv e on factors which have made them successful in the past.They further understand that delivering superior customer value is a race without a finish line in today‘s fast-paced world. Therefore, they never lose sight of caring for people, delivering quality products and service, and excellence in everything they do. They understand that people need recognition and sincere thanks for their hard work and commitment to the company. Publix has invested heavily in developing an internal professional development curriculum to develop associates‘ skills and help them assume greater responsibility and leadership roles at Publix.Most employees begin working for Publix at a young age and tend to stay there after college. While a college education is very important for leadership and management positions, Publix provides many continuous development opportunities and on-the-job training for their associates. The philosophy of Publix is not just to satisfy and delight customers one tim e; customers must be satisfied, delighted, and excited every time they visit or shop at their store. Publix associates are taught that customers are their most valued assets whom must be welcomed, cherished, and appreciated.Publix associates understand that if they cannot satisfy customer‘s requirements and meet their demands, the customer will cease to do business with them and may shop with other retailers. They remember that if they, as Publix associates, don‘t offer a great shopping experience for their customers then someone else will. Therefore, besides discussing many other valuable concepts, all retail associates are taught the 10-Foot and 10-Second Rules to help them quickly acknowledge customers. The 10-Foot rule states that one must acknowledge all customers that are within ten feet 25 Journal of Business Case Studies – Fourth Quarter 2007Volume 3, Number 4 of one‘s surroundings and the 10-Second rule states that these customers must be acknowledg ed within ten seconds of entering into the service counter area or the 10-Foot zone. Research in the supermarket industry indicates the factors that affect customer loyalty: ? ? ? ? ? The largest percentage of customers (68%) leave if they perceive an attitude of indifference. Some customers (14%) leave because they feel they can find better quality products and services elsewhere. Customers (9%) shop elsewhere because they think your prices are higher than your competitors.A few of the customers (5%) become friends with people who work for a competitor and take their business there. Some customers (3%) leave because they move to a different area. Publix Associates are also encouraged to use their daily observations, customer feedback, survey evaluation, and other data to improve their jobs, better serve their customers, and make Publix a better place ? where shopping is a pleasure. Publix teaches the principle of ? deliver plus 1%? which states that you must consistently meet your customers‘ shopping needs and then exceed their expectations by improving your service one percent.They believe in positively surprising the customer by over-delivering on what customers value. This principle further states that when you make a promise to a customer, you must be consistent and deliver all the time. It means before exceeding your customers‘ expectations, make sure you are satisfactorily meeting their needs. And if you promise any extra services, make sure you deliver as promised. Finally, Publix rewards top-notch service by implementing an awards program which shows associates how much management values their efforts to provide delightful service to customers.Delightful Service Awards are given for customer service that is over and above the minimum standards listed on the Observation Sheet for the area. Associates are expected to provide great customer service as part of the job requirement. The awards are given to associates who make the extra effort to delight customers who shop at Publix. To receive a Delightful Service Award associates must provide delightful service to a customer in a way that is formally recognized by either the customer, by a ? mystery shopper? who is purposely appointed by district management, or by a member of the store management team.Associates are trained and encouraged to set personal goals for themselves with regards to better serving customers and exceeding their expectations. They are asked to find out what they can do to increase and improve their personal commitment to customer intimacy. They are encouraged and rewarded for setting goals to increase their awareness of customers as well as customers‘ wants and needs. It is through these types of programs and committed people that Publix is able to offer its employees an environment ? where working is a pleasure? nd its customers an environment ? where shopping is a pleasure.? Publix associates‘ success with customers originates from the ir belief that no sale is final or complete until the meal is eaten and fully enjoyed. Then, they have made a positive and lasting impression. Publix‘s guarantee, which every associate is aware of, reads that ? we will never, knowingly disappoint you. If for any reason your purchase does not give you complete satisfaction, the full purchase price will be cheerfully refunded immediately upon request.?These are not just words to live by but they are moral imperatives for retailers which have made Publix the successful and innovative giant it is today. According to Howard Jenkins, member of the Publix board and retired CEO, ? growth is the end result of a simple equation. As each of us continues to please our customers, more customers will look to Publix for their shopping needs. We must never lose sight of exactly what those needs are.? Keeping their sight on the changing needs of their customers and effectively filling those needs have paid big dividends for Publix‘s cons istent growth and achievement over the years.As a result of the its continued efforts to grow through providing superior customer service and developing and retaining content employees, Publix was once again announced in 2005 a ? 100 Best Company to Work for? by Fortune magazine. Publix also received its 13 th award by Fortune Magazine as a ? Most Admired Company.? CURRENT TRENDS IN THE GLOBAL GROCERY INDUSTRY As the business world becomes smaller and firms look to expand their reach globally, managers are faced with the task of developing and implementing plans to make the next step to take their firm into the international arena. As 26Journal of Business Case Studies – Fourth Quarter 2007 Volume 3, Number 4 companies in other industries such as electronics, clothing, and food service have taken their companies abroad, a new trend has begun to emerge within the last decade—grocery chains and supermarkets expanding their companies internationally. The company leading t his trend is Wal-Mart which has expanded mostly to Europe and Latin America. However, this trend has been limited to foreign supermarkets expanding into the U. S. market such as Aldi, Tesco, and Famima. American grocery stores have not been very prevalent in the expansion of the industry globally.Tesco and Famima are looking to bring smaller scale grocery retail stores to the U. S. mostly concentrated on the West Coast in California. Famima, the Japanese grocer will offer Chinese and Japanese items which would be sure to please ethnic food seekers. There are a variety of reasons why some U. S. firms have been prompted to expand abroad. The main reason is because of competition in the form of consolidations of grocers. There are a variety of methods firms in the grocery industry use to reach the global market, the most popular being via acquisitions of smaller stores in the host nation.WalMart and IGA have both expanded their global reach through acquisitions. Tesco has expanded thei r company through the use of joint ventures, acquisitions, stand-alone operations and start-up concepts. Within the grocery industry, traditional grocers are beginning to stock items that normally do not dot the landscape of a grocery store such as non-food items and traditional retailers of non-food items are starting to sell food products. U. S. Grocery stores and supermarkets thinking of expanding abroad also have to contend with the food retailers in the host nations of both local and foreign firms.For example, hypermarkets are well known throughout Europe and Africa and sell lots of goods ranging from home improvement products to frozen foods; a small U. S. supermarket may have trouble competing with this type of store in an overseas market. Also Wal-Mart has introduced their concept grocery ? Neighborhood Center? stores in the U. S. which sell only food products; their strategy abroad involves the large supermarkets, which compete with the local hypermarkets. So not only does a small U. S. grocer have to compete with a local firm, it must compete with other foreign, mainly American firms as well. The rapid growth and development of ? upercenters? as evidenced by Wal-mart‘s grocery industry ascendancy is testament to the viability of hybrid formats (i. e. , grocery and general merchandise). Supercenters‘ sales exceeded $100 billion in 2000 (half of which was accounted for by the grocery side of the store). In another example, domestically, Wal-Mart has begun to add new organic food products to its shelves to attract more upscale buyers that would normally attend specialty organic markets or upscale supermarkets. In addition, the legendary furniture producer Ikea has recently decided to expand it specialty-foods segment and will begin selling the items in its stores.The firm has always sold food products and even operates a few restaurants. Retailers also are starting to develop new concept stores which bear the name and likeness of the parent store but cater to a particular ethnic group or food trend. Publix has their two chains, one Latin-oriented and the other organicoriented. Wal-Mart has also developed and expanded their ? Neighborhood Market? limited grocer concept. Over 20,000 new items are hitting the market every year and understanding the value of each product to each customer is no easy task.Therefore, the value of understanding, anticipating, and determining consumer preference cannot be overestimated. Changing effectively is a matter of keeping up with the demands of consumers, offering more value for the customer‘s dollar, being competitive, and creating raving fans. For example, Publix offers readymade meals which are a growing trend abroad, especially in Asia. Other countries view American brands as a welcome addition to their market place. For example, Japan is a large importer of foreign food supplies and a report out of Sweden recently found Japan as a viable market for foreign investment in food products and supplies.Food safety is becoming a major issue in the grocery industry. According to a Better Homes and Gardens panel study, only 20% of the panelists were very confident that the food they buy is safe to eat. Global activist group Greenpeace, has joined two other coalitions-True Food Now and GE-Free Markets-which are trying to convince two supermarket operators in California to stop using genetically engineered ingredients in their private label food lines. According to NBC Dateline investigation, seven of the nation's largest grocery store chains, operating more than 7000 tores in nearly every state, admitted to re-dating meats and fish after they had reached their original â€Å"sell-by† date. In the food retailing industry, leaders are paying more attention to ensuring that food products are safe and produced in a clean environment. According to the corporate quality assurance lab coordinator at Publix, their associates are constantly looking at all the risk factors associated with food quality, as well as food safety, while attempting to eliminate them. Firms in any industry operating abroad and at home must also be aware of health risks.The ever publicized, bird-flu, can affect how companies conduct operations. In one move, Publix announced that in case of a bird-flu epidemic in America, it would think about providing curbside delivery of goods to customers. In light of the health risks present to retailers and 27 Journal of Business Case Studies – Fourth Quarter 2007 Volume 3, Number 4 their food supplies, supermarkets must also craft procurement strategies to ensure the products selected to be sold in their stores are free from exposure to such elements prior to being stocked on the companies‘ shelves.Natural disasters also play a role in food safety as well. When a natural disaster strikes, cities and neighborhoods are often left without electricity and as a result, food establishments are not able to store their peris hable items because of the risk of spoilage and making customers sick. To counter this problem, Publix has prepared all of its South Florida stores for hurricane disasters by installing generators in these stores as part of its ? Business Recovery Program.?This move is seen as a way for the company to remain open during the aftermath of a storm and continue to serve their customers by hopefully reducing lost perishables inventory and helping to ensure that spoiled and tainted food products are not sold to their customers. Today‘s customers are increasingly more concerned and vocal about the quality and nutrition of the food they purchase. According to research, 70 percent of women and 54 percent of men say they consider nutrition to be an important factor in their consideration of food purchases. Once a niche category, organic foods are becoming increasingly mainstream as small, egional organic food-producing companies have been acquired by major manufacturers. Today‘s n utrition-conscious supermarket shoppers are checking labels as never before. The Food and Drug Administration is requiring that trans fat (trans fats are found in foods ranging from partially hydrogenated oils to fried foods, cookies, pastries, dairy products and meats) content appear on all food labels as of January 1, 2006. Finally, some manufacturers are considering the idea of offering ? functional foods? which are fortified with a growing number of popular herbs, vitamins, hormones and other healthy additives.The days of preparing complete meals at home are becoming a distant memory for most working people living in the United States and other developed nations. Today‘s time poor shoppers are opting for prepared foods such as precut produce, cooked dinners, and prepared takeout foods. Also, 77. 4 percent of the respondents purchase prepared foods to eat at home and 49 percent of those who eat at home said they do so because they are more careful about what they eat. It ha s been said that over 40 percent of all consumer spending on food is for meals that are eaten away from their homes.EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECTING GLOBAL EXPANSION Economic. The economy of the country affects companies if they decide to expand abroad and how they operate. The countries‘ monetary and economic policies could be discouraging to international investment such as currency controls; unstable exchange rates; high external debt, etc. A retail establishment might be affected by unstable currencies which could leave some customers unable to buy the companies‘ products and could hamper repatriation of profits back home. The type of economy a country operates under can also have an impact on foreign firms.For example, command, communist, socialist or market-oriented economies also pose different challenges to the multinational firm, and policies of these various economies will in effect determine companies‘ direction. Socio-cultural. Elements in the f oreign socio-cultural environment will affect decisions to locate abroad. There are various cultural norms that influence consumer behavior, company policies, marketing and product selection such as religion, ethnic norms, etc. The firm must look at new social and cultural trends in the global and country-specific environment and how they affect the market.Some social trends that have emerged in the food industry are healthy foods, organic and natural foods and gourmet take-out. Supermarkets wishing to expand abroad also must take note of regional and country preferences of the consumers in the host nation. What is normally for sale in the home market may be significantly different in the host nation; even more so than the differences in regional areas of the home country. Change is constant and ubiquitous throughout the supermarket industry because customers are becoming more knowledgeable and demanding.In today‘s market-based economy, customers want a variety of ethnic foods that are made with quality ingredients and represent their culture; therefore quality service must be aligned accordingly with the best prices in order to deliver superior value. Political/Legal. One of the biggest factors affecting expansion abroad is the level of political risk of a country and its legal environment. The level of political risk involved and its resultant effect on foreign firms are often taken into consideration before a company decides to locate in a foreign market. A new government may expropriate or nationalize 28Journal of Business Case Studies – Fourth Quarter 2007 Volume 3, Number 4 foreign owned property or all of the companies in a particular industry often with detrimental results to the foreign firm. Also governments sometimes pose through their legal system investment restrictions on foreign firms seeking FDI in their countries. This ranges from disallowing 100% ownership by foreign firms in the host country; mandatory joint venture or strategic alliance agreements; and even restrictions on the building of manufacturing or distribution facilities in the new country. Demographic.This particular factor in the external environment relates to ? who will your customers be Will the same demographic segment targeted by the firm in its home country be present in the host nation, such as income, gender, age, education? Are these consumers accessible? Is there a need or want for the firm‘s particular products? For example, will a traditional supermarket with middle class consumers at home have a large demographic base in a village where poorer customers buy produce from open-air markets? How will the characteristics of the intended target group affect operating strategy?All of the questions must be answered and will directly affect the strategy that a company will take when expanding abroad and even will affect the country of choice for the firm. Technological. The firm needs to look at new trends in the industry or related in dustries that will have an effect on their expansion and operations at home and abroad. There is in fact rapid technological innovation in the food-retail industry that companies are starting to take notice of and adopt. Technology which allows customers to be their own cashiers and checkout their own groceries have been around for many years.However, it is only recently that some food retailers are toying with its implementation as a strategic tool to enhance their competitive position and offer better service to the time-impoverished customer. This is because self-checkout technology, which allows shoppers to scan their own items, offers savings to both the shopper and the retailer along with an added convenience. Self-checkouts can serve only a segment of the market which wants to scan their own groceries and have a debit card to pay for their groceries. Check-out efficiency has also been improved by widespread use of debit and credit card payment systems.CONCLUDING REMARK Publix ‘s history shows that they bought seven Grand Union stores in Miami in 1959 and 19 All American stores in 1945 to expand their market share in the Florida market. According to Publix leaders, currently there are no specific plans for mergers or acquisitions. However, they are not against the idea of acquiring another company that fits Publix‘s culture and philosophy. An executive commented that ? If the right opportunity came up we could acquire another company†¦ we may or may not find another company we like†¦we believe in internal growth, building our own stores.?The supermarket industry is becoming increasingly concentrated as large regional chains such as, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Safeway, and Albertson‘s dominate their markets Publix‘s current strategy is to steadily grow from within and expand the Publix culture throughout its stores across different states in the United States. If they choose not to go abroad, they better be fully prepared to compet e with global firms that will be planning to invade their market in the coming decades. One must ponder on a strategy of Publix going abroad to gain new market share and to gain the relevant experience to compete with global competitors.Or, Publix can simply prepare to protect its territories from foreign retailers that will be competing with them in the United States. What should Publix executives do and how should be they proceed if they are to maximize the value of their stockholders in the long-term? DISCUSSION QUESTIONS ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Is Publix ready to go abroad? Defend your statement selection as thoroughly as possible. Do Publix managers and employees have the experience to compete in global markets? Discuss. What route if any should Publix take to expand abroad? (Think about joint-venture, strategic alliance, licensing, manufacturing, greenfield, etc. If international expansion is not feasible at this time, develop some alternative solutions to Publix growing successfully am id global competitors. Beyond product selection, what other aspects of Publix‘s operations may be affected by going abroad? What other factors in the firm‘s external environment may affect international expansion for Publix? Is it better for Publix to go abroad and compete in new markets or simply prepare to compete with global retailers that will be coming into the neighborhood? 29 Journal of Business Case Studies – Fourth Quarter 2007 Exhibit 1 – Stages of Internationalization Volume 3, Number 4Foreign Sales Office Domestic Sales Direct Exporting Foreign Manufacturing Subsidiary Amount of Involvement in the Foreign Country Exhibit 2 – Consolidated Earnings Publix Super Markets, Inc. Consolidated Statements of Earnings Years ended December 31, 2005, December 25, 2004 and December 27, 2003 2005 2004 2003 (Amounts are in thousands, except share outstanding and per share amounts) Revenues: Sales$ Other operating income Total revenues Costs and expenses : Cost of merchandise sold Operating and administrative expenses 20,589,130 155,681 20,744,811 18,554,486 131,885 18,686,371 16,760,749 126,120 16,886,869 5,059,680 4,231,402 13,577,740 3,869,791 12,275,132 3,613,759 Total costs and expenses Operating profit Investment income, net Other income, net Earnings before income tax expense Income tax expense Net earnings Weighted average number of common shares outstanding Basic and diluted earnings per common share based on weighted average shares outstanding 19,291,082 1,453,729 74,293 22,716 1,550,738 561,582 $ 989,156 7,447,531 1,238,840 35,311 20,860 1,295,011 475,628 819,383 15,888,891 997,978 21,926 27,185 1,047,089 386,156 660,933 172,039,137 176,775,733 184,112,742 $ 5. 75 4. 64 3. 59 30 Journal of Business Case Studies – Fourth Quarter 2007 Exhibit 3- Consolidated Comprehensive Earnings Publix Super Markets, Inc. Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Earnings Years ended December 31, 005, December 25, 2004 and December 27, 2003 2005 2004 (Amounts are in thousands) Net earnings Other comprehensive earnings (losses) Unrealized (loss) gain on investment securities available for-sale, net of tax effect of ($8,484), $419 and $3,174 in 2005, 2004 and 2003, respectively Reclassification adjustment for net realized gain on investment securities available-for-sale, net of tax effect of ($1,692), ($1,348) and ($800) in 2005, 2004 and 2003, respectively Comprehensive earnings $989,156 819,383 Volume 3, Number 4 2003 660,933 (13,510) 668 5,055 (2,695) $972,951 (2,147) 817,904 (1,274) 664,714REFERENCES 1. 2. 3. Appleson, G. (2006, August 14). Grocery chains blur retailing lines as they bottle Wal-Mart. Knight Ridder Tribune, P. 1 Awbi, A. (2006, June 16 Tesco Shifts Focus as foreign business booms. Food & Drink Europe. com. Retrieved August 21, 2006 from http://www. foodanddrinkeurope. com/news/ng. asp? id=68453. Klintenberg, H. (2003). Japanese Food Market Consumer Market Characteristics, and the foreign entr y situation from a Swedish Perspective. Gotenborg, Dept. of Human and Economic Geography. Retrieved August 21, 2006 from http://www. handels. gu. se/epc/archive00003058.Ikea to move into specialty grocery market. (2005, July 11). Food & Drink Europe. com Retrieved August 24, 2006 from http://www. foodanddrinkeurope. com/news/printNewsBis. asp? id=61218 Jackson, J. (2006, April 6). Experts discuss bird-flue response: Publix plan for curbside delivery is an example of how business for the worst. Knight Ridder Business Tribune. Retrieved August 21, 2006 from ProQuest. Mujtaba, B. G. (April 2007). Cross cultural management and negotiation practices. ILEAD Academy Publications; Florida, United States. ISBN: 978-0-9774211-2-1. Website: Ileadacademy. com. Mujtaba, G. B. Johnson, W. , (2004). Publix Super Markets Inc. : Achieving Customer Intimacy. Case 15; pages 375-392. In William Johnson and Art Weinstein‘s book entitled Superior Customer Value in New Economy. Second Edition. CRC P ress. Orgel, D. (2002, June 17). U. S. Supermarket Operators need a foreign policy. Supermarket News. Retrieved August 21, 2006 from ProQuest Database. Pint Sized Imports. Progressive Grocer (2006, May 15). 8, p. 18. Retrieved August 21, 2006 rom ProQuest Database. Publix. (2006, March 2). Publix Announces 4th Quarter and Annual Results for 2005. Retrieved August 21, 2006 from www. ublix. com. Publix. (2006, April 13). Publix Announces Annual Dividend. Retrieved August 21, 2006 from www. publix. com. Publix. (2006). Publix website visited on August 21 2006 at http://www. publix. com 31 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Journal of Business Case Studies – Fourth Quarter 2007 13. 14. 15. Volume 3, Number 4 16. 17. Publix plans natural prototypes. (2005, May 13). South Florida Business Journal. Retrieved August 21, 2006 from http://www. bizjournals. com/southflorida/stories/2005/05/09/daily52. html. Grocer to add flavor with Hispanic themed stores. (2005, March 7).South Florida Busin ess Journal. Retrieved August 21, 2006 from http://www. bizjournals. com/southflorida/stories/2005/03/07/daily5. html. Ideal Media, LLC. (2006). Restaurant Business: Street smarts for the entrepreneur. Retrieved August 21, 2006 from http://www. restaurantbiz. com/index. php? option=com_content&task=view&id=13355&Itemid=93. Publix. (2006). Publix Super Markets Inc. Annual Report to Stockholders: The Character of Publix. Publix (2006, February 6). Publix and the Little Clinic to open walk-in medical clinics. Retrieved September 16, 2006 from www. publix. com NOTES 32

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Marketing Anthropology Essay Example for Free

Marketing Anthropology Essay Anthropology and marketing (together with consumer research) were once described as ‘linchpin disciplines in parallel intellectual domains’ (Sherry 1985a: 10). To judge from the prevalent literature, however, this view is not shared by many anthropologists, who tend to look at markets (for example, Carrier 1997) and exchange rather than at marketing per se (Lien 1997 is the obvious exception here). For their part, marketers, always open to new ideas, have over the decades made – albeit eclectic (de Groot 1980:131) – use of the work of anthropologists such as Claude Levi-Strauss and Mary Douglas whose aims in promulgating their ideas on binary oppositions, totemism and grid and group were at the time far removed from the endeavour of marketing both as a discipline and as practice. Can anthropology really be of use to marketing? Can the discipline in effect market itself as an effective potential contributor to solving the problems faced by marketers? There is no reason why not. After all, it is anthropologists who point out that there is more than one market and that these markets, like the Free Market beloved by economists, are all socio-cultural constructions. In this respect, what they have to say about the social costs of markets, as well as about the non-market social institutions upon which markets depends and the social contexts that shape them (cf. Carruthers and Babb 2000:219-222), is extremely pertinent to marketers anxious to come up with definitive answers as to why certain people buy certain products and how to persuade the rest of the world to do so. At the same time, however, there are reasons why anthropology probably cannot be of direct use to marketing. In particular, as we shall see in the following discussion of marketing practices in a Japanese advertising agency, anthropology suffers from the fact that its conclusions are based on long-term immersion in a socio-cultural ‘field’ and that its methodology is frequently unscientific, subjective and imprecise. As part of their persuasive strategy, on the other hand, proponents of marketing need to present their discipline as objective, scientific, speedy and producing the necessary results. How they actually go about obtaining such results, however, and whether they really are as objective and scientific as they claim to their clients, are moot points. This paper focuses, by means of a case study, on how marketing is actually practised in a large advertising agency in Japan and has four main aims. Firstly, it outlines the organisational structure of the agency to show how marketing acts as a social mechanism to back up inter-firm ties based primarily on tenuous personal relationships. Secondly, it reveals how these same interpersonal relations can affect the construction of apparently ‘objective’ marketing strategies. Thirdly, it focuses on the problem of how all marketing campaigns are obliged to shift from ‘scientific’ to ‘artistic’ criteria as statistical data, information and analysis are converted into 1 linguistic and visual images for public consumption. Finally, it will make a few tentative comments on the relations between anthropology and marketing, with a view to developing a comparative theory of advertising as a marketing system, based on the cultural relativity of a specific marketing practice in a Japanese advertising agency (cf. Arnould 1995:110). The Discipline, Organisation and Practice of Marketing The Marketing Division is the engine room of the Japanese advertising agency in which I conducted my research in 1990. At the time, this agency handled more than 600 accounts a year, their value varying from several million to a few thousand dollars. The Marketing Division was almost invariably involved in some way in the ad campaigns, cultural and sporting events, merchandising opportunities, special promotions, POP constructions, and various other activities that the agency carried out on behalf of its clients. Exceptions were those accounts involving media placement or certain kinds of work expressly requested by a client – like, for example, the organisation of a national sales force meeting for a car manufacturer. Even here, however, there was often information that could be usefully relayed back to the Marketing Division (the number and regional distribution of the manufacturer’s sales representatives, as well as possible advance information on new products and/or services to be offered in the coming year). Marketing Discipline As Marianne Lien (1997:11) points out, marketing is both a discipline and a practice. The main aims as a discipline of the Marketing Division were (and, of course, still are): firstly, to acquire as much information as possible from consumers about their clients’ products and services; secondly, to acquire as much information as possible, too, from clients about their own products and services; and, thirdly, to use strategically both kinds of information acquired to develop new accounts. Marketing thus provided those working in the Marketing Division with the dispassionate data that account executives needed in their personal networking with (potential) clients whom they cajoled, persuaded, impressed and pleaded with to part with (more) money. Marketing Organisation In order to achieve the three overall objectives outlined above, the agency established a certain set of organisational features to enable marketing practice to take place. Firstly, the Marketing Division, which consisted of almost 90 members, was structured into three separate, but interlocking, sub-divisions. These consisted of Computer Systems; Market Development and Merchandising; and Marketing. The last was itself sub-divided into three departments, each of which was broken down into three or four sections. 1 Each section consisted of from six to a dozen members, led by a Section Leader, under whom they worked in teams of two to three on an account. These teams were not fixed. Thus one member, A, might work with another, B, under the Section Leader (SL) on a contact lens advertising campaign, but find herself assigned to worked with C under SL on an airline company’s business class service account, and with D under SL on a computer manufacturer’s consumer survey. In this respect, the daily life of members of the Marketing Note that, unlike the Marketing department in Viking foods discussed by Lien. Department was similar to that of product managers described by Lien (1997:69), being characterised by ‘frequent shifts from one activity to another, a wide network of communications, and a considerable amount of time spent in meetings or talking on the telephone’. Secondly, tasks (or accounts) were allocated formally through the hierarchical divisional structure – by departments first, then by sections – according to their existing responsibilities and perceived suitability for the job in hand. Each SL then distributed these tasks to individual members on the basis of their current overall workloads. At the same time, however, there was an informal allocation of accounts involving individuals. Each SL or DL could take on a job directly from account executives handling particular accounts on behalf of their clients. Here, prior experiences and personal contacts were important influences on AEs’ decisions as to whether to go through formal or informal channels of recruitment. The account executive in charge of the NFC contact lens campaign described in my book (Moeran 1996), for example, went directly to a particular SL in the Marketing Department because of some smart work that the latter had done for the AE on a different account some months previously. Mutual respect had been established and the contact lens campaign provided both parties with an opportunity to assess and, in the event, positively validate their working relationship. There were certain organisational advantages to the ways in which accounts were distributed in the manner described here. Firstly, by freely permitting interpersonal relations between account executives and marketers, the Agency ensured that there was competitiveness at each structural level of department and section. Such competition was felt to be healthy for the Agency as a whole, and to encourage its continued growth. Secondly, by assigning individual members of each section in the Marketing Department to working in different combinations of people on different tasks, the Agency ensured that each member of the Marketing Department received training in a wide variety of marketing problems and was obliged to interact fully with fellow section members, thereby promoting a sense of cooperation, cohesion and mutual understanding. This in itself meant that each section developed the broadest possible shared knowledge of marketing issues, because of the knowledge gained by individual members and the interaction among them. Marketing Practice Accounts were won by the Agency primarily through the liaison work conducted with a (potential) client by an account executive (who might be a very senior manager or junior ‘salesman’ recruited only a few years earlier). Once an agreement was made between Agency and client – and such an agreement might be limited to the Agency’s participation in a competitive presentation, the outcome of which might lead to an account being established – the AE concerned would put together an account team. An account team consists of the AE in charge (possibly with assistants); the Marketing Team (generally of 2 persons under a Marketing Director [MD], but sometimes much larger, depending on the size of the account and the work to be done); the Creative Team (consisting of Creative Director [CD], Copywriter, and Art Director [AD] as a minimum, but usually including two ADs – one for print-, the other for TV-related work); and Media Planner/Buyer(s). The job of the account team is to carry out successfully the task set by the client, and to this end meets initially for an orientation meeting in which the issues and problems relayed by the client to the AE are explained and discussed to all members. 2 Prior to this, however, the AE provides the marketing team with all the information and data that he has been able to extract from the client (a lot of it highly confidential to the company concerned). The marketing team, therefore, tends to come prepared and to have certain quite specific questions regarding the nature of the statistics provided, the target market, retail outlets, and so on. If it has done its homework properly – which is not always the case, given the number of different accounts on which the team’s members are working and the pressure of work that they are under – the marketing team may well have several pertinent suggestions for further research. It is on the basis of these discussions that the AE then asks the MD to carry out such research as is thought necessary for the matter in hand. In the meantime, the creative team is asked to mull over the issues generally and to think of possible ways of coping ‘creatively’ (that is, linguistically and visually) with the client’s marketing problems. Back in the Marketing Department, the MD will tell his subordinates to carry out specific tasks, such as a consumer survey to find out who precisely makes use of a particular product and why. This kind of task is fairly mechanical in its general form, since the Agency does this sort of work for dozens of clients every year, but has to be tailored to the present client’s particular situation, needs and expectations. The MD will therefore discuss his subordinate’s proposal, make some suggestions to ensure that all points are overed (and that may well include some additional questions to elicit further information from the target audience that has taken on importance during their discussion), and then give them permission to have the work carried out. All surveys of this kind are subcontracted by the Agency to marketing firms and research organisations of one sort or another. This means that the marketing team’s members are rarely involved in direct face-to-face contact or interaction with the consumers of the products that they wish to advertise,3 except when small ‘focus group’ interviews take place (usually in one of the Agency’s buildings). The informal nature of such groups, the different kinds of insights that they can yield, and the need to spot and pursue particular comments mean that members of the marketing team should be present to listen to and, as warranted, direct the discussion so that the Agency’s particular objectives are achieved. In general, however, the only evidence of consumers in the Agency is indirect, through reports, statistics, figures, data analyses and other information that, paradoxically, are always seen to be insufficient or ‘incomplete’ (cf. Lien 1997:112). Once the results of the survey are returned, the marketers enter them into their computers (since all such information is stored and can be used to generate comparative data for other accounts as and when required). They can make use of particular programmes to sort and analyse such data, but ultimately they need to be able to present their results in readily comprehensible form to other members of the account team. Here again, the MD tends to ensure that the information presented at the next meeting is to the point and properly hierarchised in terms of importance. This leads to the marketing team’s putting forward things like: a positioning statement, slogan, purchasing decision The Media Planners do not usually participate in these early meetings since their task is primarily to provide information of suitable media, and slots therein, for the finished campaign to be placed in. 3 A similar point is made by Lien (1997. 11) in her study of Viking Foods. Focus Groups usually consist of about half a dozen people who represent by age, gender, socio-economic grouping and so on the type of target audience being addressed, and who have agreed to talk about (their attitudes towards) a particular product or product range – usually in exchange for some gift or money. Interviews are carried out in a small meeting room (that may have a one-way mirror to enable outside observation) and tend to last between one and two hours. 4 2 4 odel (high/low involvement; think/feel product relationship), product message concept, and creative frame. One of the main objectives of this initial – and, if properly done, only – round of research is to discover the balance between what are terms product, user and end benefits, since it is these factors that determine the way in which an ad campaign should be presented and, therefore, how the creative team should visualise the marketing problems analysed and ensuing suggestions from the marketing team. It is here that we come to the crux of marketing as practised in an advertising agency (whether in Japan or elsewhere). Creative people tend to be suspicious of marketing people and vice-versa. This is primarily because marketers believe that they work rationally and that the creative frames that they produce are founded on objective data and analyses. Creative people, on the other hand, believe that their work should be ‘inspired’, and that such inspiration can take the place at the expense of the data and analyses provided for their consideration. As a result, when it comes to producing creative work for an ad campaign, copywriters and creative directors tend not to pay strict attention to what the marketing team has told them. For example, attracted by the idea of a particular celebrity or filming location, they may come up with ideas that in no way meet the pragmatic demands of a particular ad campaign that may require emphasis on product benefits that are irrelevant to the chosen location or celebrity suggested for endorsement. This does not always happen, of course. A good and professional creative team – and such teams are not infrequent – will follow the marketing team’s instructions. In such cases, their success is based on a creative interpretation of the data and analyses provided. Agency-Client Interaction If there is some indecision and argument among different elements of the account team – and it is the presiding account executive’s job to ensure that marketers and creatives do not come to blows over their disagreements – they almost invariably band together when meeting and presenting their plans to the client. Such meetings can take place several, even more than a dozen, times during the course of an account team’s preparations for an ad campaign. At most of them the MD will be present, until such time as it is clear that the client has accepted the Agency’s campaign strategy and the creative team has to fine-tune the objectives outlined therein. Very often, therefore, the marketing team will not stay on a particular account long enough to learn of its finished result, although a good AE will keep his MD abreast of creative developments and show him the (near) finalised campaign prior to the client’s final approval. But marketers do not get involved in the production side of a campaign (studio photography, television commercial filming, and so on) – unless one of those concerned knows what is going on when, happens to be nearby at the time, and drops in to see how things are going. In other words, the marketing team’s job is to see a project through until accepted by the client. It will then dissolve and its members will be assigned to new accounts. Advertising Campaigns: A Case Study To illustrate in more detail particular examples of marketing practice in the Agency, let me cite as a case study the preparation of contact lens campaign in Japan. This example is illuminating because it reveals a number of typical problems faced by an advertising agency in the formulation and execution of campaigns on behalf of its clients. These include the interface between marketing and creative people within an agency and the interpretation of marketing analysis and data; the 5 transposition of marketing analysis into ‘creative’ (i. e. linguistic, visual and design) ideas; the interface between agency and client in the ‘selling’ of a campaign proposal; and the problems of having to appeal to more than one ‘consumer’ target. When the Nihon Fibre Corporation asked the Agency to prepare an advertising campaign for its new Ikon Breath O2 oxygen-passing GCL hard contact lenses in early 1990, it provided a considerable amount of product information with which to help and guide those concerned. This information included the following facts: firstly, with a differential coefficient (DK factor) of 150, Ikon Breath O2 had the highest rate of oxygen permeation of all lenses currently manufactured and marketed in Japan. As a result, secondly, Ikon Breath O2 was the first lens authorized for continuous wear by Japan’s Ministry of Health. Thirdly, the lens was particularly flexible, dirt and water resistant, durable, and of extremely high quality. The client asked the Agency to confirm that the targeted market consisted of young people and to create a campaign that would help NFC capture initially a minimum three per cent share of the market, rising to ten per cent over three years. The Agency immediately formed an account team, consisting of eight members all told. Their first step was to arrange for the marketing team to carry out its own consumer research before proceeding further. A detailed survey – of 500 men and women – was worked out in consultation with the account executive and the client, and was executed by a market research company subcontracted by the Agency. Results confirmed that the targeted audience for the Ikon Breath O2 advertising campaign should be young people, but particularly young women, between the ages of 18 and 27 years, since it was they who were most likely to wear contact lenses. At the same time, however, the survey also revealed that there was little brand loyalty among contact lens wearers so that, with effective advertising, it should be possible to persuade users to shift from their current brand to Ikon Breath O2 lenses. It also showed that young women were not overly concerned with price provided that lenses were safe and comfortable to wear, which meant that Ikon Breath O2’s comparatively high price in itself should not prove a major obstacle to brand switching or sales. On a less positive note, however, the account team also discovered that users were primarily concerned with comfort and were not interested in the technology that went into the manufacture of contact lenses (thereby obviating the apparent advantage of Ikon Breath O2’s high DK factor of which NFC was so proud); and that, because almost all contact lens users consulted medical specialists prior to purchase, the advertising campaign would have to address a second audience consisting mainly of middle-aged men. All in all, therefore, Ikon Breath O2 lenses had an advantage in being of superb quality, approved by medical experts and recognized, together with other GCL lenses, as being the safest for one’s eyes. Its disadvantages were that NFC had no ‘name’ in the contact lens market and that users knew very little about GCL lenses or contact lenses in general. This meant that the advertising campaign had to be backed up by point of purchase sales promotion (in the form of a brochure) to ensure that the product survived. Moreover, it was clear that Ikon Breath O2’s technical advantage (the DK 150 factor) would not last long because rival companies would soon be able to make lenses with a differential coefficient that surpassed that developed by NFC. 5 On this occasion, because the advertising budget was comparatively small, the media buyer was not brought in until later stages in the campaign’s preparations. The AE in charge of the NFC account interacted individually with the media buyer and presented the latter’s suggestions to the account team as a whole. 6 As a result of intense discussions following this survey, the account team moved slowly towards what it thought should be as the campaign’s overall ‘tone and manner’. Ideally, advertisements should be information-oriented: the campaign needed to put across a number of points about the special product benefits that differentiated it from similar lenses on the market (in particular, its flexibility and high rate of oxygen-permeation). Practically, however – as the marketing team had to emphasize time and time again – the campaign needed to stress the functional and emotional benefits that users would obtain from wearing Ikon Breath O2 lenses (for example, continuous wear, safety, release from anxiety and so on). This meant that the advertising itself should be emotional (and information left to the promotional brochure) and stress the end benefits to consumers, rather than the lenses’ product benefits. Because the marketing team had concluded that the product’s end benefits should be stressed, copywriter and art director opted for user imagery rather than product characteristics when thinking of ideas for copy and visuals. However, they were thwarted in their endeavours by a number of problems. Firstly, advertising industry self-policing regulations prohibited the use of certain words and images (for example, the notion of ‘safety’, plus a visual of someone asleep while wearing contact lenses), and insisted on the inclusion in all advertising of a warning that the Ikon Breath O2 lens was a medical product that should be purchased through a medical specialist. This constriction meant that the creative team’s could not use the idea of ‘continuous wear’ because, even though so certified by Japan’s Ministry of Health, opticians and doctors were generally of the opinion that Ikon Breath O2 lenses were bound to affect individual wearers in different ways. NFC was terrified of antagonizing the medical world which would often be recommending its product, so the product manager concerned refused to permit the use of any word or visual connected with ‘continuous wear’. Thus, to the account team’s collective dismay, the product’s end benefit to consumers could not be effectively advertised. Secondly, precisely because Ikon Breath O2 lenses had to be recommended by medical specialists, NFC’s advertising campaign needed to address the latter as well as young women users. In other words, the campaign’s tone and manner had to appeal to two totally different segments of the market, while at the same time satisfying those employed in the client company. This caused the creative team immense difficulties, especially because – thirdly – the product manager of NFC’s contact lens manufacturing division was convinced that the high differential coefficient set Ikon Breath O2 lenses apart from all other contact lenses on the market and would appeal to members of the medical profession. So he insisted on emphasizing what he saw as the unique technological qualities of the product. In other words, not only did he relegate young women who were expected to buy the product to secondary importance; he ignored the marketing team’s recommendation that user benefit be stressed. Instead, for a long time he insisted on the creative team’s focussing on product benefit, even though the DK factor was only a marginal and temporary advantage to NFC. As a result of these two sets of disagreements, the copywriter came up with two different key ideas. The first was based on the product’s characteristics, and thus supported the manufacturer’s (but went against his own marketing team’s) product benefit point of view, with the phrase ‘corneal physiology’ (kakumaku seiri). The second also stressed a feature of the product, but managed to emphasize the user benefits that young women could gain from wearing lenses that were both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ (yawarakai). The former headline was the only way to break brand parity and make Ikon Breath O2 temporarily distinct from all other lenses on the market (the product manager liked the distinction; the marketing team disliked the temporary nature of that distinction). At this stage in the negotiations, the account executive in charge felt obliged to tow an obsequious line, but needed to appease his marketing team and ensure that the creative team came up with something else if at all possible, since 7 corneal physiology gave Ikon Breath O2 lenses only a temporary advantage. As a result, the copywriter introduced the word ‘serious’ (majime) into discussions – on the grounds that NFC was a ‘serious’ (majime) manufacturer (it was, after all, a well-known and respected Japanese corporation) which had developed a product that, by a process of assimilation, could also be regarded as ‘serious’; moreover, by a further rubbing-off process, as the marketing team agreed, such ‘seriousness’ could be attributed to users who decided to buy and wear Ikon Breath O2 lenses. In this way, both the distinction between product benefit and user benefit might be overcome. The copywriter’s last idea was the one that broke the deadlock (and it was at certain moments an extremely tense deadlock) between the account team as a whole and members of NFC’s contact lens manufacturing division. After a series of meetings in which copywriter and designer desperately tried to convince the client that the idea of softness and hardness was not a product characteristic, but an image designed to support the benefits to consumers wearing Ikon Breath O2 lenses, the product manager accepted the account team’s proposals in principle, provided that ‘serious’ was used as a back-up selling point. Soft hard’ (yawaraka hard) was adopted as the key headline phrase for the campaign as a whole. It can be seen that the marketing team’s analysis of how NFC should successfully enter the contact lens market met two stumbling blocks during the early stages of preparation for the advertising campaign. The first was within the account team itself, where the copywriter in particular tended to opt for the manufacturer’s approach by emphasising the product benefit of Ikon Breath O2. The second was when the Agency’s account team had to persuade the client to accept its analysis and campaign proposal. But the next major problem facing the account team was how to convert this linguistic rendering of market analysis into visual terms. What sort of visual image would adequately fulfil the marketing aims of the campaign and make the campaign as a whole – including television commercial and promotional materials – readily recognizable to the targeted audience? It was almost immediately accepted by the account team that the safest way to achieve this important aim was to use a celebrity or personality (talent in Japanese) to endorse the product. Here there was little argument, because it is generally recognized in the advertising industry that celebrity endorsement is an excellent and readily appreciated linkage device in multi-media campaigns of the kind requested by NFC. Moreover, since television commercials in Japan are more often than not only fifteen seconds long and therefore cannot include any detailed product information, personalities have proved to be attention grabbers in an image-dominated medium and to have a useful, short-term effect on sales because of their popularity in other parts of the entertainment industry. At the same time, not all personalities come across equally well in the rather differing media of television and magazines or newspapers, so that the account team felt obliged to look for someone who was more than a mere pop idol and who could act. It was here that those concerned encountered the most difficulty. The presence of a famous personality was crucial since s/he would be able to attract public attention to a new product and hopefully draw people into retail outlets to buy Ikon Breath O2 lenses. It was agreed right from the start that the personality should be a young woman, in the same age group as the targeted audience, and Japanese. (After all, a ‘blue eyed foreigner’ endorsing Ikon Breath O2 contact lenses would hardly be appropriate for brown-eyed Japanese. ) Just who this woman should be, however, proved problematic. Tennis players (who could indulge in both ‘hard’ activities and ‘soft’ romance) were discarded early on because the professional season was already in full swing at the time the campaign was being prepared. Classical musicians, while romantic and thus ‘soft’, were not seen to be ‘hard’ enough, while the idea of using a Japanese ‘talent’, Miyazawa Rie (everyone on the account team’s favourite at the time), was reluctantly rejected because, even though photographs of her in the nude were at the time causing a 8 minor sensation among Japanese men interested in soft-porn, she was rather inappropriate for a medical product like a contact lens which was aimed at young women. Any personality chosen had to show certain distinct qualities. One of these was a ‘presence’ (sonzaikan) that would attract people’s attention on the page or screen. Another was ‘topicality’ (wadaisei) that stemmed from her professional activities. A third was ‘future potential’ (nobisei), meaning that the celebrity had not yet peaked in her career, but would attract further widespread media attention and so, it was hoped, indirectly promote Ikon Breath O2 lenses and NFC. Most importantly, however, she had to suit the product. In the early stages of the campaign’s preparations, the creative team found itself in a slight quandary. They wanted to choose a celebrity whose personality fitted the ‘soft-hard’ and ‘serious’ ideas and who would then anchor a particular image to Ikon Breath O2 lenses, although it proved difficult to find someone who would fit the product and appeal to all those concerned. Eventually, the woman chosen was an actress, Sekine Miho, who epitomized the kind of modern woman that the creative team was seeking, but who was also about to star in a national television (NHK) drama series that autumn – a series in which she played a starring role as a ‘soft’, romantic character. Although popularity in itself can act as a straightjacket when it comes to celebrity endorsement of a product, in this case it was judged – correctly, it transpired – that Sekine had enough ‘depth’ (fukasa) to bring a special image to Ikon Breath O2 lenses. Once the celebrity had been decided on, the creative team was able to fix the tone and manner, expression and style of the advertising campaign as a whole. Sekine was a ‘high class’ (or ‘one rank up’ in Japanese-English parlance) celebrity who matched NFC’s image of itself as a ‘high class’ (ichiryu) company and who was made to reflect that sense of eliteness in deportment and clothing. At the same time, NFC was a ‘serious’ manufacturer and wanted a serious, rather than frivolous, personality who could then be photographed in soft-focus, serious poses to suit the serious medical product being advertised. This seriousness was expressed further by means of ery slightly tinted black and white photographs which, to the art director’s – but, not initially, the product manager’s – eye made Sekine look even ‘softer’ in appearance and so match the campaign’s headline of yawaraka hard. This softness was further reinforced by the heart-shaped lens cut at the bottom of every print ad, and on the front of the brochure, which the art director m ade green rather than blue – partly to differentiate the Ikon Breath O2 campaign from all other contact lens campaigns run at that time, and partly to appeal to the fad for ‘ecological’ colours then-current among young women in particular. This case study shows that there is an extremely complex relationship linking marketing and creative aspects of any advertising campaign. In this case, market research showed that Ikon Breath O2 lenses were special because of the safety that derived from their technical quality, but that consumers themselves were not interested in technical matters since their major concern was with comfort. Hence the need to focus the advertising campaign on user benefit. Yet the client insisted on stressing product benefit – a stance made more difficult for the creative team because it could not legally use the only real consumer benefit available to it (continuous wear), and so had to find something that would appeal to both manufacturer and direct and indirect ‘consumers’ of the lens in question. In the end, the ideas of ‘soft hard’ and ‘serious’ were adopted as compromise positions for both client and agency, as well as for creative and marketing teams. Concluding Comments Let us in conclusion try to follow two separate lines of thought. One of these is, as promised, the relationship between marketing and anthropology; the other that between advertising and marketing. 9 Although convergence between anthropology, marketing and consumer research may be growing, the evidence suggested by the case study in this paper is that huge differences still exist. Marketing people in the advertising agency in which I studied may be interested in anthropology; they may even have dipped into the work of anthropologists here and there. But their view of the discipline tends to be rather old-fashioned, and they certainly do not have time to go in for the kind of intensive, detail ethnographic nquiry of consumers that anthropologists might encourage. If anthropologists are to make a useful contribution to marketing, therefore, they need to present their material and analyses succinctly and in readily digestible form, since marketing people hate things that are overcomplicated. It is, perhaps, for this rather than any other reason that someone like Mary Douglas (Douglas and Isherwood 1979) has been so favourably received. In the end, marketing people aim to be positivist, science-like (rather than scientific, as such), and rationalist in their ad campaigns. They aspire to measure and predict on the basis of observer categories, if only because this is the simplest way to sell a campaign to a client. In this respect, they are closer to the kind of sociology and anthropology advocated in the 1940s and 50s (which would explain their adoption of Talcott Parsons’s theory of action, for example), than to the present-day ‘interpretive’ trends in the discipline, and thus favour in their practices an outmoded – and among most anthropologists themselves, discredited – form of discourse. So, ‘if anthropologists are kings of the castle, it is a castle most other people have never heard of’ (Chapman and Buckley 1997: 234). As Malcolm Chapman and Peter Buckley wryly observe, we need perhaps to spend some time entirely outside social anthropology in order to be convinced of the truth of this fact. Secondly, as part of this positivist, science-like approach, marketers in the Japanese advertising agency tended to make clear-cut categories that would be easily understood by both their colleagues in other divisions in the Agency and by their clients. These categories tended to present the consumer world as a series of binary oppositions (between individual and group, modern and traditional, idealist and materialist, and so on [cf. Lien 1997: 202-8]) that they then presented as matrix or quadripartite structures (the Agency’s Purchase Decision Model, for example, was structured in terms of think/feel and high/low involvement axes). In this respect, their work could be said to exhibit a basic form of structuralism. One of these oppositions was that made between product benefit and user benefit (with its variant end benefit). As this case study has shown, this is a distinction that lies at the heart of all advertising and needs to be teased out if we are successfully to decode particular advertisements in a manner that goes beyond the work of Barthes (1977), Williamson (1978), Goffman (1979) and others. Thirdly, one of the factors anchoring marketing to the kind of structured thinking characteristic of modernist disciplines, perhaps, is that the creation of meaning in commodities is inextricably bound up with the establishment of a sense of difference between one object and all others of its class. After all, the three tasks of advertising are: to stand out from the surrounding competition to attract people’s attention; to communicate (both rationally and emotionally) what it is intended to communicate; and to predispose people to buy or keep on buying what is advertised. The sole preoccupation of those engaged in the Ikon Breath 02 campaign was to create what they referred to as the ‘parity break’: to set NFC’s contact lenses apart from all other contact lenses on sale in Japan, and from all other products on the market. At the same time, the idea of parity break extended to the style in which the campaign was to be presented (tinted monochrome photo, green logo, and so on). In this respect, the structure of meaning in advertising is akin to that found in the syntagmatic and paradigmatic axes of structural linguistics where particular choices of words and phrases are influenced by the overall structure and availability of meanings in the language in which a speaker is communicating. That the work of LeviStrauss should be known to most marketers, therefore, is hardly surprising. Marketing practice is in many respects an application of the principles of structural anthropology to the selling of products. 10 Fourthly, although those working in marketing and consumer research take it as given that there is one-way flow of activity stemming from the manufacturer and targeted at the end consumer, in fact, as this case study shows, advertising – as well as the marketing that an advertising agency conducts on behalf of a client – always addresses at least two audiences. One of these is, of course, the group of targeted consumers (even though they are somewhat removed from the direct experience of marketers in their work). In this particular case, to complicate the issue further, there were two groups of consumers, since the campaign had to address both young women and middle-aged male opticians. Another audience is the client. As we have seen, the assumed or proven dis/likes of both consumers and advertising client affect the final meaning of the products advertised, and the client in particular had to be satisfied with the Agency’s campaign approach before consumer ‘needs’ could be addressed. At the same time, we should recognise that a third audience exists among different members of the account team within the Agency itself, since each of the three separate parties involved in account servicing, marketing and creative work needed to be satisfied by the arguments of the other two. In this respect, perhaps, we should note that marketing people have spent a lot of time over the decades making use of insights developed in learning behaviour, personality theory and psychoanalysis which they then apply to individual consumers. In the process, however, they have tended to overlook the forms of social organisation of which these individuals are a part (cf. de Groot 1980:44). Yet it is precisely the ways in which individual consumers interact that is crucial to an understanding of consumption and thus of how marketing should address its targeted audience: how networks function, for example, reveals a lot about the vital role of word-of-mouth in marketing successes and failures; how status groups operate and on what grounds can tell marketers a lot about the motivations and practices of their targeted audience. Anthropologists should be able to help by providing sociological analyses of these and other mechanisms pertinent to the marketing endeavour. In particular, their extensive work on ritual and symbolism should be of use in foreign, ‘third world’ markets. Fifthly, most products are made to be sold. As a result, different manufacturers have in mind different kinds of sales strategies, target audiences, and marketing methods that have somehow to be translated into persuasive linguistic and visual images – not only in advertising, but also in packaging and product design. For the most part, producers of the commodities in question find themselves obliged to call on the specialized services of copywriters and art designers who are seen to be more in tune with the consumers than are they themselves. This is how advertising agencies market themselves. But within any agency, the creation of advertising involves an ever-present tension between sales and marketing people, on the one hand, and creative staff, on the other; between the not necessarily compatible demands for the dissemination of product and other market information, on the one hand, and for linguistic and visual images that will attract consumers’ attention and push them into retail outlets to make purchases, on the other. This is not always taken into account by those currently writing about advertising. More interestingly, perhaps, the opposition that is perceived to exist between data and statistical analysis, on the one hand, and the creation of images, on the other, parallels that seen to pertain between a social science like economics or marketing and a more humanities-like discipline such as anthropology. Perhaps the role for an anthropology of marketing is to bridge this great divide.