Marketing+and+Psychology

I'm going to stream line my research by collecting articles regarding MARKETING and psychology and then apply my findings to street teams. I am doing this since there is not much scholarly information on the topic of just psychology and street teams.

Deconstructing Consumer Confidence
Dan Ariely http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/predictably-irrational/200808/deconstructing-consumer-confidence

This article addresses the lack of confidence sweeping across the country concerning economic stability and how this lack of confidence affects spending. The author believes that we have been conditioned to be "gloomy" because of the successive number of crappy events that have happened eerily close to one another i.e. the dot com bust, the banking crisis, the housing market crash ECT. This is relevant to my topic because it addresses consumer mistrust of corporations and the omninmous "other" that always seems to be advertising to us. At this point, street teams become a very attractive option to marketers who want to gain the trust of potential consumers.

 = How Consumer Psychology Created the Zhu Zhu Hamster Craze = Kit Yarrow, Ph.D.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-why-behind-the-buy/200912/how-consumer-psychology-created-the-zhu-zhu-hamster-craze

The majority of this article provides obvious or irrelevant information for my topic. However, the section titled "PR and Social Media" provides a vivid description of the pathway the creators of the Zhu Zhu Hamster, Cepia, took to grow the product. In this case, advertising to children was not enough. A community of what the author describes as "mommy bloggers" had to get behind the product to ensure its success. A series of hamster parties and free give aways created enough of a buzz for the toy to be talked about across the internet. This network of "mommy bloggers" represents the trustworthy connection one would hope to receive through word of mouth from a good friend. I am hoping to relate the use of blogs to street teams for they represent a cyber version of the guerilla marketing.

**VERB™ — A Social Marketing Campaign to Increase Physical Activity Among Youth** Faye Wong, MPH, RD, Marian Huhman, PhD, Lori Asbury, Rosemary Bretthauer-Mueller, Susan McCarthy, MPH, Paula Londe, MD, PhD, and Carrie Heitzler, MPH http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1253475/

This article is especially helpful because it outlines an entire campaign through a very thoughtful and detailed report. The VERB campaign is addressed in the article as a marketing strategy and is analyzed through the subtopics of product, placement, promotion and price. The campaign and advertising tactics used are provided. These are incredibly helpful to my topic because I can reference a first hand account of the motives and strategies used for a successful and powerful guerilla marketing campaign. A portion of the campaign employed "street teams" though I use that term loosely. They could be considered "advocates" more than street teams but the concept is still the same. In essence what the guerilla marketing portion of the VERB campaign aimed to do was break down the fourth wall between advertisers and 'consumers', in this case American tweens, to create a trusted relationship that would then foster involvement in the VERB campaign. I can apply this to my research of the psychological perspective of street teams by analyzing the tactics used to gain trust and support for the campaign.

Strawberry Frog
Your Friendly Neighborhood Global Advertising Agency http://www.strawberryfrog.com/

I've been familiar with Strawberry Frog for a few years. The now global agency specializes in grass roots marketing and community building. This is the agency that made drool cool in the UK to promote a cell phone brand. There are several examples of their successful use of street teams on their website. I will specifically look more closely at their work under 'Cultural Movements,' 'Social Media,' 'Intercultural Movements,' and 'Community Strategy and Building.' After explaining the marketing tactics used I will apply what I know about psychology to address how it played a part in the success of the campaign. I will also use images and videos from this site to provide illustrative examples of the work of street team marketing.

Street Teams: Band Promotion and Marketing
Video http://www.ehow.com/video_2384663_street-teams-band-promotion-marketing.html

This is a short, non-scholarly video that I will use when introduces my topic. It is helpful because it provides concise information on the basic, simple nature of street teams as they relate to promoting music.

Guerrilla Street Team Guide
Jay Conrad Levinson, Brad Lovejoy http://books.google.com/books?id=kH6bfYv-g1cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=street+teams&hl=en&ei=CpqkTdeMJKrg0gGnoL3kCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=street%20teams&f=false

I found this book using a Google Book Search and the majority of the chapters are available online. The chapter break down contains guerrilla street team marketing break down, the mechanics and strategies of street teams and what the authors refer to as weapons of street teams. A section of the book is dedicating to personality traits, both of those working within the street team and of those who are the subject of the marketing. The book is written fairly simply and I will most likely only use the description of street teams in my web site.

Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers
Allisa Quart http://books.google.com/books?id=wCbvBUzOCJMC&pg=PA40&dq=street+teams&hl=en&ei=CpqkTdeMJKrg0gGnoL3kCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CFcQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=street%20teams&f=false

A small section of this book is dedicated to peer-to-peer marketing including first hand accounts of teens involved in street teams, their reasons why and the effect it had on them as individuals and members of a group