User:Tsweeney617/Influence of mass media

Introduction
The making of consumer culture was not an overnight process. Media in relation to consumption also wasn't an immediate thing either. The media that is seen today is vastly different than the late 1920s when media started to be used as an advantage. Mass consumption was looked at to have gone hand-in-hand with mass media after WWII when all one saw were advertisements to buy more. Advertising became a new norm that you could see everyday, wherever you went. Not only did advertising open up new job opportunities for those in the marketing industry but it also dramatically raised profits for companies. Media was the new way rather than word by mouth to buy something and became sort of a trend. The way products started to be advertised, known as "lifestyle branding" became a huge resource for companies to be able to target a certain demographic and sell to them directly.

History of Mass Media
Until after World War II mass media was never really a concept and wasn't taken advantage of because the proper channels didn't exist. When the economy was struggling the government and companies had to find ways to advertise for more consumption and what it could do for the economy. Companies started using ads to their advantage and they were able to reach a broader audience, this wasn't just for selling products it was also to spread news faster and keep society informed. During the late 1920s the radio was adopted by FDR as a means for communication with the American people, but nobody was quite sure if it would stick. Until the 1930s around 40% of every American family owned a radio, and only a decade later that number doubled to 83%. Not only were radios used to have live broadcasts of news but families were able to listen to a wide variety of dramas, talk shows, comedy, music, and educational programs as well.

During the housing boom, working-class citizens now had access to the luxuries that the white-collar families had. Now there was this new mass audience that was more informed, inclusive and more domestic. For America the radio was the first truly mass medium that people believed would draw Americans together and keep everyone informed. During WWII the radio was a way that news channels such as NBC and CBS could have a broader coverage of not just domestic affairs but international ones as well. As the war ended television would soon take over as sought-after electronic. Radios were not only a new way to listen to shows and music but was also a way to stay informed about politics and local news. The radio during the 1940s had a huge impact of the decision making for voters and after FDR's presidency there was no way to win without campaigning on the air. As the 1950s came around the television would soon take over and become the main mode of receiving information about politics and shows in general.

Producers saw mass media as their chance to grow their company so not only did this raise the profits for those companies but a higher desire for advertisers and marketers to raise the profitability and profile of their company. Postwar advertising jobs went up by $3 billion from 1955 alone which raised the visibility of the profession. By the 1960s many more families had access to televisions and were basically claimed as a “selling machine in every living room.” Research also found that at the end of the 1950s TVs were the source of more than half of all revenues in advertising firms and that came from television ads.

By the 1970s mass media influenced a big change once companies started to utilize advertisements. This market segmentation would take place that of mass markets and find the maximum potential that the market holds to find their direct audience. Many companies started finding that they could do exponentially better if they found a target audience and create products that satisfied those customers’ needs. This change over time in the sense that companies used to make a mass amount of products for everyone but now they are finding that if they make specific products for a specific audience they can make more profit. Everyone has a certain type of taste and desires so what producers were finding out was that if they made those specific products they could have higher profits without making too much of one thing. By the 1970s producers use psychographics so that they can understand the lifestyles, behavioral traits, and buyer attitudes to figure out their consumer profiles. Producers started figuring out that they could make more money off of a smaller audience and have more “life-style branding” rather than everyone just having the same thing. So now the market was centered around the idea of tactics that idealized lifestyles and mainly centered around commodities. During this time, marketing as we know is completely shifted and now it is more similar to what we see today, as more target marketing. So now more analytics go into marketing from categories like social class, culture, race, etc. A lot of studies were being made that provided important information linking motivational research and social class categorization in marketing. With this, they were able to have some more “precise tools for identifying and catering to segments of consumers” (301 ). What consumers were interested in directly reflected what was being produced by the late 1970s giving the consumer more control over the market and what to buy.



Gender In Relation to Media
During WWII women were left to take care of their families and do the shopping. During this time women became the main consumers and controlled the market. Producers saw this and utilized it to their advantage. Companies knew that women controlled what their families consumed so many of their advertisements were targeted at them. They used the idea of the "American Housewife" a lot that went hand in hand with the American Dream. Advertisements reflected the industries desire to keep women as the target in the public realm while still making sure they maintained a certain level of femininity. Stores used specific ads to bring the type of customer they wanted in and used different gendered stereotypes to reach their target audience more. With this birth of the consumer culture women became the main target of marketers because they figured out that companies had to change in order to adapt to the new idea of women controlling the industry. The industry was mainly male-dominated but while their husbands were off at war women needed to perform different roles that increased their presence in the business realm. In the 1920s women gained a new type of access to politics and business that they never had access to before. Still the male-dominated industry was not willing to change as easily and they continued to control the the industrial world. Even thought women were thought of to have made up at least 80% of the market they still had no control over what was being sold to them. Men even controlled magazines that were targeted at women, for example the "Ladies Home Journal" who was run by Edward Bok even said that men had no idea how to run a woman's magazine because they had little understanding of their needs. Advertisers drew upon all of the traditional conceptions of women being more domestic and acting emotionally rather than rationally limiting them from entering "a mans world." Female interests and perceptions drove the consumer market because advertisers realized that a majority of the time they managed the household purchasing. Media at the time was creating a certain standard of beauty which led to women building their personal identity around the influx of beauty products, brands, and new technologies. In order to weather the markets climate advertisers had to adapt to the consumers needs and figure out what experience would get their target public to keep coming back.

The 1930s allowed women to take over their male counter parts jobs because there was nobody else to fill those vacant jobs while WWII was still going on. While the roles flipped during the 1930s American society still strongly believed that women should still pursue the traditional feminine ideal of a white domestic housewife. Advertisements played a big part in telling a woman what she should buy, how she should dress, or even how she should look. These ads ranged anywhere from soap advertisements to cooking and always portrayed woman as the stay-at-home mom that typically did the cooking, cleaning, and shopping. The typical white domestic housewife was the main target of many 1930s advertisements and marketers knew that advertising is more likely to succeed when it appeals to a larger audience. While white domestic women were a large group of consumers this left out a lot of other consumer groups including minorities and those in the lower class.

Then vs. Now
Advertisements today always have a deeper meaning and are usually targeted at a specific audience for maximum reach. The tobacco industry is a good example of this because specific products they make because they know it will reach a prime audience. All of their products like Juuls and Puffs are now fun flavors that make people even more addicted to them without really knowing the health side effects behind them. This is just one example of target marketing but many companies use certain demographics to target their audience directly to know what they want. Now companies put out testers of certain products to see if they will be popular before they make too many. During midst of the age of mass consumption products were just made in masses just to be made rather than carefully creating something they know will all be bought.