Cibella Jesse 2/11/07 103EX5Cibella Introduction: My research proposal is that car labels have different effects on the perceptions people have of you. People would 90% of the time choose A Jaguar over a Toyota. A Mercedes Benz over a Prowler and a Roles Royse, the car you drive has a great influence on peoples perception of you. In this world labels make who you are. Personality plays very little role anymore. The car you drive will definitely effect how people treat you.
Research Methods My research consisted of two things: the first was an online survey taken by 15 students raging in ages from 16 and up. Some of the questions asked included gender, age, education received, and if they had a drivers license. The other questions asked were what type of car would you rater drive, if money was the only reason that they were driving their current car, and if they think they look at people differently because of the car that they drive. Then came the open ended questions, three open ended in total: What type of car do you currently drive, what car would you drive if price was no option, and do you think that car ads on TV and in magazines give you a certain idea of the car company and the type of cars that they make? Why/ or why not. The second type of research I used was an observation/ interview of two nineteen and one twenty-three year old males and their reaction to three different car commercials. The first ad was for a new Toyota truck, the second for a Ford truck, and the third a Kia. (The ads shown for this experiment are available on DVD upon request). Findings: The findings of the survey are as follows:
Gender Male Female Total: Age Under 16 16-18 19-23 23 and over Total: Highest level of education received? Still in High School High school Graduate High School and some College received College Graduate Total: Do you have a Drivers License? Yes No Total: What type of car would you rather drive? Toyota Jaguar Mercedes Benz Prowler Roles Royse Total:
6 9 15
0 6 8 1 15
2 0 12 1 15
13 1 14
1 4 7 3 0 15
Are you driving your current car because it was the only one that you could afford Yes 9 No 6 Total: 15 Do you think you look at people differently by the type of car that they drive? Yes No I don't know Total:
4 9 2 15
What type of car do you Currently Drive? 1993 Chevy lumna Ford Focus 1991 Mercury Tracer My mom's Saturn mini van Chevrolet trail blazer 1987 Jeep Cherokee Hyundai Tiburon 1996 Plymouth voyager '85 Toyota Camry, Her name is Christine Black Honda Element Yellow Aztec Biotch! 1998 Ford Windstar "Northwoods Edition" Pontiac Sunfire None Number of Records: 15 What type of car would you like to drive if price was no option? classic corvette (1970s-1980s) A Bug Convertible Recent Mustang a convertible thunderbird Mitsubishi eclipse 2007 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Land Rover a Mercedes convertible a '58 Plymouth Fury...that I had fixed up myself BMW Z3 Roadster A Yellow Mini Cooper Biatch! 1998 - 2006 Jeep Wrangler with lift kit. or 2007 Ford Fusion Any kind of BMW Porsche 911 Number of Records: 15 Do you think that car ads on TV and in magazines give you a certain idea of the car company and the type of cars they make why/ or why not? A car company will spend their advertising dollars to sell what they believe the public wants. Many companies are known for a particular model such as Ford and their trucks. yes, because they are always trying to one up the car they already make, trying to make it better within their own consistent style
they keep throughout all their cars No because each company has a different outlook on the types of cars they make. Like GM makes certain cars but car adds don't show that when they are selling a car...There is a lot more behind car ads on TV's than what types of cars they make. I dunno, I don't really know anything about cars what so ever so I would just have to trust what the car company told me! sometimes, they can tend to get annoying no because in commercials every car is rated no. 1 in crash test ratings yes, like jeep makes cars that can go in anything, thats how they advertise them No because there selling the type of car more then the name of the company yeah but i don't know why Yes I do. I think that car ads for the luxury cars try to create very prestigious ads cater that themselves to the upper-middle and lower-upper class. While the ads geared towards college students (such as Scion) show a more of a night life kind of atmosphere, the car is always involved in something fun. No, I think that all car commercials tend to look the same and I don't know what type of car from another No, they could say it's an amazing car..then it blows up...and kills 800 people...and then they blame it on the terrorists. Yes, but certainly not an accurate one... every car advertisement portraits the vehicle in the best possible light. Therefore even the most useless, impractical, unreliable, piece of engineering is in fact the most amazing thing ever to grace the surface of the earth. Cars are also marketed to specific demographics, for example an SUV is advertised as a perfect grocery retrieval vehicle so it will appeal to families, when in fact it was designed to be driven off the paved roads and in extreme conditions. I think pretty much all the car ads say the same thing. They give you no idea about how well the car runs or anything. They just talk about how great their cars are and try to make them look good. yes they show that their car is better and faster than everyone else's Number of Records: 15
The second form of research was a lot harder to report. I measured their reactions to the ads. The first 19 year old I will now refer to as #1, the twenty-three year old will be #2, and the other 19year old will be #3. #2 seemed to be intently listening at both truck commercials when asked why he responded "I have a small sedan now and I hate the way it handles in the snow so I am actually looking for a truck" #1, and #3 did not like either truck commercial but when asked about the KIA commercial they responded that it seemed like a neat car but are confused at what the word Rondo means. When asked if the company names made a difference, all three responded with the basic statement of I know that Ford is known for long lasting and Toyota is known for their innovations but KIA I do not think is known for anything in particular. What this Means: This means that my original hypothesis was wrong and that car labels affect everyone. Most people say that car labels do not affect them and that they would like nice cars, but they do not look at people differently at people because of the car that they drive. A few people admitted that they did look at people differently by the car that they drove but more often then not they said they did not or they didn't know. Car labels do not effect people as much as I originally expected.
Conclusion: The research that I have done for this paper has proven that, even though to some people labels do make a lot of difference to other people labels make no difference at all. One person did choose the Toyota over the other cars in the survey, and proved to me that labels did not matter. In the ads I learned through my survey and my observation that most people know what ads are trying to do by showing their cars in the best light and under the best conditions and are therefore know how to respond to the ads claims.
Appendix 1 (copy of survey that students took online)
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Gender Male Female Age Under 16 16-18 19-23 23 and over Highest level of education received? Still in High School High school Graduate High School and some College received College Graduate Do you have a Drivers License? Yes No What type of car would you rather drive? Toyota Jaguar
Mercedes Benz Prowler Roles Royse Are you driving your current car because it was the only one that you could afford Yes No Do you think you look at people differently by the type of car that they drive? Yes No I don't know What type of car do you Currently Drive?
What type of car would you like to drive if price was no option?
Do you think that car ads on TV and in magazines give you a certain idea of the car company and the type of cars they make why/ or why not?
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