Make Your Way 5, Schulbuch mit Audio-CD und CD-ROM

Read the text and discuss the questions below. You may be as critical of the text as you like! 8 The topic “consumption” plays an important role in the daily lives of children and teenagers. They care a lot about their image. No matter if at school or in their circle of friends, they want to be accepted and respect- ed, be in fashion but also stand out from the crowd. The motto “fine feathers make fine birds” quite frequently influences their attitude to- wards life and the nature of their social networks. Brand-name products are used to be part of the peer group or as a means of self-realisation. The marketing industry has long been aware of the purchasing power of young adults (the future working population!), but also their power in influencing the buying decisions of their parents. This becomes particularly clear in the area of entertainment electronics since products like these are usually too expensive to be bought only with pocket money. It goes without saying that marketing experts use this knowledge to target this young market more directly. But don’t wrongly think that teenagers are an easy target for advertising campaigns. They are far from being non-reflective and thoughtless in their buying deci- sions. As studies show, impulsive buying behaviour ranks low, they often know exactly what they are looking for. For a marketing strategy to be successful it thus needs to get to the reality of teenagers’ lives as closely as possible – by delivering the message: “We understand you, we know exactly what you need!” to stand out from the crowd: aus der Masse herausstechen fine feathers make fine birds: Kleider machen Leute to be an easy target: leichtes Ziel/leichte Beute sein it goes without saying: es versteht sich von selbst Teenagers, consumerism and advertising Do you agree with the key messages of the text? • Do you like its tone? Why/Why not? What factors influence your buying decision • when shopping? What do you think clothes say about a person’s • personality? 176 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv