Learning, memory and nostalgia

My definitions:
Memory:
This is anything from someone's past which is remembered, this could be a significant event or simply a smell or a sentence.

Nostalgia:
Is something (smell, country, event, picture, etc) that reminds one of past events during childhood in which make them want to go back and re-live those moments.

Web Definitions:

Memory:
-something that is remembered
-the cognitive processes whereby past experience is remembered
-the power of retaining and recalling past experience;
-the area of cognitive psychology that studies memory processes;
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Nostalgia:
A sentimental yearning to return to an earlier time remembered as happier or more pleasant, or a former place evoking happy memories; a longing to experience again a former happy time; as, a nostalgia for the brotherhood of the Woodstock music festival; a nostalgia for the comradeship of one's college friends.
http://define.com/nostalgia

My Mood Board achieving nostalgia:



Above, my board shows a lot of my childhood, growing up around asia as well as Dubai. Most of my strong memories come from living in Indonesia and seeing the poverty as well as eating the food there. The Jakarta riots of 1993 was a big thing as my family and I had to evacuate the country. Some of my memories are of places in England where my family live, Devon. We used to stay in Beacon Lodge and go to pebble beach.

Reactions to feeling Nostalgic:
Sometimes people's emotions can change. Being nostalgic can bring about happiness, anger, regret or even sadness. Another thing is that people's accents or the way they speak may change. Their tone of voice too may change to suit the mood of the memory.

Nostalgic Advertisements:



This advert here, is targeted at older women and men with middle incomes. The reason for this is that it is John Lewis, which is considered expensive to other department stores. The music in the background - Sweet Child of mine was written by the Guns N Roses in 1987, which is around the time they were a child. The children unwrapping presents creates a sense of childhood fun as they remember opening their presents and how much more en-joyful christmas used to be as a child.

This second advertisement too is nostalgic to people aged 40 and above.



In this advertisement, the background music is a clear reason for being nostalgic. The song is Claire by Gilbert O'Sullivan and was released in 1946. The little boy running around freely in the sea and on the beach brings people back to the days as a child where they used to have fun without televisions and technology. Later, we see the boy run to hug his mother for and with full force, hits his head on her chest; luckily her breasts were there to protect his head. This is linked with the car's airbag and how driving freely, you can still be safe.

Values

In my own words i would say that values are a persons set of objectives and beleifs on how they should behave in everyday life. Different groups of people have a different set of values which is why people act differently to each other.

"beliefs of a person or social group in which they have an emotional investment (either for or against something); "he has very conservatives values"

wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Values can motivate people. If someone's values are to loose weight; they would exercise and eat healthy. Another example could be someone wanting to do well in life. this means that they will study more, and socialise less.

Kahle's List of Values (1983)
1. Self Respect
2. Excitement
3. Being Well Respected
4. Self-Fulfilment
5. Sense of accomplishment
6. Warm Relationship with others
7. Security
8. Fun & Enjoyment
9. Sense of belonging

Time line for myself:
-During my lifetime i remember...

-The date of Diana's Death in 1997


-The Jakarta Riots in May 1998 as i was living there and had to evacuate the country.



-The September 11 (2001) Attack on the twin tower buildings in New York.


-The December 6th 2004 Tsunami as I was living in Indonesia at the time and had some of my teachers and my head teacher on holiday in Phuket and had experienced the Tsunami, however, luckily survived.



VALS Survey:
From taking this test I have been said to be an 'Innovator' as my Primary VALS and an 'Experiencer' as a secondary.
The primary VALS shows my dominate approach to life.

Innovators
Innovators are successful, sophisticated, take-charge people with high self-esteem. Because they have such abundant resources, they exhibit all three primary motivations in varying degrees. They are change leaders and are the most receptive to new ideas and technologies. Innovators are very active consumers, and their purchases reflect cultivated tastes for upscale, niche products and services.

Image is important to Innovators, not as evidence of status or power but as an expression of their taste, independence, and personality. Innovators are among the established and emerging leaders in business and government, yet they continue to seek challenges. Their lives are characterized by variety. Their possessions and recreation reflect a cultivated taste for the finer things in life.

Experiencers
Experiencers are motivated by self-expression. Young, enthusiastic, and impulsive consumers, Experiencers quickly become enthusiastic about new possibilities but are equally quick to cool. They seek variety and excitement, savoring the new, the offbeat, and the risky. Their energy finds an outlet in exercise, sports, outdoor recreation, and social activities.

Experiencers are avid consumers and spend a comparatively high proportion of their income on fashion, entertainment, and socializing. Their purchases reflect the emphasis that they place on looking good and having "cool" stuff.

Below is the VALS framework

Group conformity, opinion leaders and peer pressure

A group is any number of entities (members) considered as a unit
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

A group is an important part of a human's social life. They can be from just two people or they can be cery large. They are highly rewarding to their members and sometimes to a society. Sometimes groups can cause danger.

http://www.infed.org/groupwork/what_is_a_group.htm

A prime example of a group is what is known as a 'Chav'.



A 'chav' is known to wear burberry, hats, tracksuits, excessive amounts of gold jewellery, walk funny, curse a lot, get children at ridiculously young ages and drink a lot. Above is a stereotypical image of what a chav is said to look and act like.

There are many different types of groups:
Abscribed - the group one is born into
Reference - is a group looked to for lifestyle
Acquired - Is one which is joined or moved into
Aspirational - This is a group one apsires to belong to. Perhaps a group someone looks up to
Dissasociation - A group someone would hate to belong to. e.g. 'Chavs'
Contrived Formed for a specific purpose - This includes unions and committees.
Associative - What group someone realistically belongs to such as college friends and neighbours.
Peer - These are people of equal standing like school student or a regular contact

My Group Types:
Abscribed - A middle class, close family who act in a acceptable manner.
Acquried - New university friends group
Aspirational - Fashion groups of people such as models and fashion designers including Chloe, JackWills, Topshop, Christian Dior
Dissassociation - Chavs and Glam Rockers
Contrived - Used to be part of sports teams such as basketball, touch rugby and athletics
Associative - My classmates and the people i work with

Here is an aspirational advertisement:



The reason as to why I had chosen this ad is because firstly the product (perfume) is called 'the one' which already makes peopel aspire to be 'the one'. Secondly, during the ad the model looks to be having fun although it looks to be hectic, getting all the attention, famouse due to the paparazzi and she is also attractive which makes me aspire to live her life and be like her.

Different products make people associate them to specific groups. A prime example of this is someone wearing the labels Ralph Lauren or JackWills are said to be upper class posh people, where as someone wearing Lonsdale and Burberry are considered to be living in counsil flats and are chavvy.





and






Every group has expectations of behaviour which include the way they act, what they wear and what they do. Peer pressure can affect different groups in different ways. Some groups may pressure people to buy more luxuries and branded things such as a blackberry, Chanel bag and a nice sports car. Other groups on the other hand can pressure people to drink, smoke, or even act in violence.

Gender Differences in Buyer Behaviour

It is known that women think with more about beauty as well as being young, where as men are more concerned with strength, power and ambition. When women look at advertisements they want to see beauty and fashion, where as men want to see humour.
Below is a link to an article in WARC about what women and men want usually see when it comes to toiletries advertisements.

http://www.warc.com/ArticleCenter/Default.asp?CType=A&AID=INDEXSEARCH89213&Tab=A

"62% of the 247 case studies targeting women are for the food, household, retail, toiletries and cosmetics categories. However, these accounted for only 26% of the 240 male-targeted case-studies."

This backs up the theory that men are less concerned about beauty and looking young and clean.



This advertisement is clearly targeted to women as it includes beauty and keeping young. The fact that Twiggy is being used as the main model proves the age group of women the product is targeting at as Twiggy is known to be a famouse old time super model back in the day.

"Male-targeted case studies were focused on the drink, motor, leisure and entertainment and food categories (68% of case studies). These accounted for only 30% of female-targeted case studies."

Here, proves that women are not that interested in ads about technology, cars and alcohol.




Here is an example of a manly advertisement, showing the muscles and the scent.


Here is another link to an article on WARC on how women are the most targeted for advertising in the worl and the differences in the way that men and women think: http://www.warc.com/ArticleCenter/Default.asp?CType=A&AID=INDEXSEARCH85802&Tab=A

"This may mean that women can better access different parts of the brain and different 'thinking styles' when it comes to problem-solving or assessing a situation. Where male thinking is likely to be focused in the logical left cortex, females may use more emotional and intuitive parts of the brain in combination with more reasoned approaches."

Here, it shows why most advertisements are targeted at females and it is simply due to the fact that women use more parts of their brain oppose to men.

Below is a link for a video from YouTube of a car advertisemnt and how just from looking at it, it is clear to see that it is meant for men.



The reasons why this advertisement is ideal for men:
-Includes the masculinity of fast and beefy cars which attract them
-Includes the sense of competition as men are highly competitive individuals
-Includes a top male role model which is Lewis Hamilton
Finally, -Includes humour of the men falling down as well as in the sauna room.

Nothing in this advertisement was vain or about beauty in any way, apart from the beauty of the car 'Mercerdes Benz'.

Facebook Analysis:
The first Female is Nicola Hayes.

Current Display picture:



No. Of Friends: 586
Status:She currently has no status
How she uses Facebook: She doesn't tend to use it that often, and only to speak to friends. It is clear she does not use it to look for men or attract attention

The second female friend is Rosemary Cleave. Below is her current display picture:



No. Of Friends: 881
Status:has just bought a complete sushi making set!!! First step towards Valentines day plans!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
How she uses Facebook: She uses it clearly to talk to her girlfriends as most of her recent comments are from girls. Her display picture however shows that she is trying to attract both male and female as it is not a common, everyday picture. It too shows how females are usually vain compared to men.

The Third girl is Kathryn Hoare.



No. Of Friends: 324
Status:i blame iplayer
How she uses Facebook: Most of her comments are from college friends, however, she does have a lot of recently added friends which means she has possibly met a lot of new people recently.

The first male is Dami Odumosu



No. Of Friends: 484
Status:is in a real great place right now!!!
How he uses Facebook: He seems to be using it mainly to talk to his boy mates, he too however has a lot of recently added friends. His display picture shows his more vain side as he is posing for the camera, but it too shows humour with the face he is pulling.

The second boy is George Mickaël Essien McCann.



No. Of Friends: 631
Status:is addicted to some1 thier kinda like crak but with nicer hair!
How he uses Facebook: George too is mainly talking to his guy mates. His display picture proves to be a very masculine one with him drinking as well as tensing his arm muscle, at the same time it too is vain.

Finally, the last boy is Adam Sewell



No. Of Friends: 887
Status:He currently does not have a status
How he uses Facebook: Currently he is mainly talking to girls, and his whole page is showing new friend requests. His profile picture also is very masculine showing football. It seems he is trying to show off his ability, skill and accomplishment.

Using facebook is it clear to see that everyone mainly uses it to talk to friends, however with the use of their display picture, both genders are trying to impress and show the best of them.