Marketing
Class
By William F. Munn
Suggested
Grade Levels: 7th - 10th grades
Suggested
Subject Area: Social Studies, Civics
Learning
Objectives:
- Students
will be introduced to the concepts of role, status, and
social class in America.
- They
will be able to use various criteria devised by sociologists
for determining class ranking and discuss the validity and
appropriateness of these criteria.
- Students
will be able to discuss role, status, and social class and
apply these terms to their surroundings.
- Students
will practice research, questioning, discussion, and writing
skills.
Standards
List:
This
activity addresses the following national content standards
as outlined in the National Curriculum Standards for Social
Studies (NCSS):
Topic:
Social Groupings: Function and Influence on Behavior: Apply
concepts such as role, status, and social class in describing
the connections and interactions of individuals, groups,
and institutions in society.
It
also addresses the following national content standards as
outlined by McREL, accessible at http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/:
-
Behavioral Studies. Standard: 1. Level III: Middle School/Jr.
High (Grades 6-8).
Level IV: High School (Grades 9-12). Understands that group
and cultural influences contribute to human development,
identity, and behavior.
-
Behavioral Studies. Standard: 2. Level III: Middle School/Jr.
High (Grades 6-8).
Level IV: High School (Grades 9-12). Understands various
meanings of social group, general implications of group
membership, and different ways that groups function.
-
Language Arts. Standard: 8. Level III: Middle School/Jr.
High (Grades 6-8).
Level IV: High School (Grades 9-12). Demonstrates competence
in speaking and listening as tools for learning.
Tools
and Materials:
- Students
will need internet access.
- The
teacher should provide magazines which contain a variety
of pictures of houses, cars, clothing, in contemporary America.
- Students
will need scissors, paste, poster board or a large classroom
bulletin board.
Time
Needed:
Two 45 minute class periods should be allotted for the activities.
One 45 minute class period should be allotted for the final
presentations.
Strategy:
- To
introduce the lesson, the teacher should cut out four "face"
pictures from a magazine. The pictures should represent
men, women, African- American, European, young, old. These
pictures would then be posted on the board. Students would
be asked to guess whether the person was rich, poor, what
kind of job they have, what kind of house each person might
live in. Time permitting the teacher could make this a matching
game by cutting out pictures of cars, houses, clothing etc.
and ask that students match the object with person. Students
should record their observations and the reasons for their
choices in their journals. The teacher should be ready to
introduce the concept of stereotyping as students share
their observations with the class.
- Students
should play the game "Chintz or Shag" found at http://www.pbs.org/peoplelikeus/games.
- After
playing the game students should be divided into small groups
in order to discuss the outcome of the game. Were the results
a surprise? Students should speculate on the criteria used
in the game. What was its basis? Do they agree with the
results? Why or why not? What does it mean to be "middle
middle" class or "nouveau riche?" Who is the term "old money"
referring to? Do the students think they can tell what class
somebody is by looking at him or by looking at his living
room? Where might Americans in the uppermost classes live?
People in the lowest classes? To what extent is class in
America defined by what you own? Students may record their
reactions in journals.
- Students
should then work in small groups to prepare a list of criteria
for the "middle middle" class of their community. Are people
in their community judged by what cars they drive, which
sports they play, or what sorts of clothes they wear? The
teacher may wish to prompt students with questions such
as: What is typical behavior in the community? Is there
a kind of car that most families drive? Are there certain
stores that most people go to? Are there particular sports
that many people play? Is there are difference between the
richest people and the poorest people in their community
in terms of what they own (types of cars, houses and clothes)?
The students should work together to come up with agreed
upon criteria. The teacher may want the class to discuss
to what extent the criteria are stereotypical or determined
by advertising. Students should follow up their own thoughts
about class in their community by visiting Claritas
at the PRIZM web site, which allows them to type in their
zip code and see data about their community. Students can
have a discussion comparing their perceptions with the real
data.
- After
looking at the PRIZM zip code data, the teacher should encourage
group discussion about how advertising companies might use
this type of information to create ads that target specific
audiences. For example, the site gives a list of things
people in certain clusters are likely to do, such as "watch
Nightline" or "drink Pepsi Free." How would knowing about
these consumption patterns change the marketing strategies
of advertising companies? If advertisers know that a certain
community is likely to "shop at T.J. Max" or "read Gourmet,"
how might it affect what products they market to that community,
or where they put their advertisements? Students should
also be encouraged to talk about how consumption patterns
relate to class are there certain magazines, cars,
foods or clothes that are considered more upper or lower
class than others? Why do they think this might be so? Do
advertisements reinforce the social class status quo, change
it, or have no affect at all? Can they think of examples?
- Working
in small groups, students should pick one of the clusters
in their zip code, as described on the PRIZM site, and develop
an ad that targets that community (the clusters have names
like "Young Literati" and "Hard Scrabble"). They should
pick an item such as basketball shoes or a brand of soft
drink, and plan a campaign around the product. Students
should use the criteria they established in step 4 and the
information the PRIZM site provides about income levels,
professions, and consumption patterns as they decide what
product people in their selected cluster might buy. They
should also consider the PRIZM information as they decide
how to pitch their product to the cluster, considering things
like the price of the merchandise, a good setting for the
ad, and what language to write the advertisement in. When
they finish, they should be ready to explain how they integrated
the criteria established in step 4 and the PRIZM data into
their plan.
- The
results of this activity would be reported to the whole
class.
Assessment
Recommendation:
- The
teacher may choose to evaluate the students on their responses
in their journals.
- The
lists prepared by students and the quality of their presentations
may also be evaluated.
- Student
presentations may be evaluated on how well they integrated
the criteria into their advertising campaign.
Extensions:
- The
teacher might direct students to the Claritas web site at
http://www.claritas.com/.
This is the company that sponsors PRIZM, and it provides
marketing information to businesses. Students could discuss
what the company does and why.
- Introduce
the concept of capitalism as an economic system. Have students
research the difference between a market system (as found
in the USA) and a command system (as found in the former
Soviet Union). Explain that the American economic system
is a market system and that stimulating demand through advertising
is a fundamental part of the way the American economy works.
Students can further explore how forces of supply and demand
in a market system answer basic economic questions, such
as what to produce; how to produce; and for whom to produce
through a lesson on demand at supply, found at http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/Dem_Sup/demand.htm
- Students
might want to take a look at various web sites and attempt
to determine what is being marketed to who and why. They
might also tape TV commercials and look at the same thing,
or use magazine ads.
- The
issues discussed in this lesson are addressed in a slightly
different but fascinating manner at www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/diag/diag.html
The site has very well done chronology of consumption issues
in western society.
- Students
could check out the phone book for advertising departments
of local newspapers, radio, and television stations. A guest
speaker could be invited to the class in order to discuss
the targeting of media in the students' locale.
- The
teacher can explore the web site, "Great Ideas for Teaching
Marketing," at http://www.swcollege.com/marketing/gitm/gitm.html
for further extension activities.
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