Targeted Audiences and Exclusionary Ads

I'm reading, recently, about the advertising industry, and how businesses use promotional techniques to target their audiences and entice them to buy. Specifically, companies use:

• advertising: paid, non-personal comunication used by identified sponsors to persuade or inform potential buyers about products;
• personal selling: person-to-person selling;
• sales promotions: one-time, direct inducements to buyers; and
• public relations: communication efforts directed at building goodwill (Ebert & Griffin, p. 296).

Targeting audiences involves finding groups of people, with similar wants and needs, that will likely show interest in the company's products. Companies "segment" the market for their products by identifying the types of customers that are likely to buy a given product. Then, they adopt different strategies specifically geared for these distinct market segments.

Members of market segments share certain characteristics which are likely to influence their buying habits. The most common influences on consumer behavior are:

• geographic variables: where one lives - this may or may not matter;
• demographic variables: age, income, gender, ethnic background, marital status, race, religion, social class - these very likely DO matter;
• psychographic variables: lifestyle, opinions, interests, attitudes.

Psychographic variables are the most important to marketers, because these are the qualities about us that can be influenced. Marketers can "educate" their audiences about their products, or add benefits and features to the products, to make particular people more likely to buy particular products. Demographic and geographic variables, on the other hand, are NOT easily changed - we are what we are, and most people stay where they are (pp. 297-8).

How does this apply to US (NALC Branch 214 members)? Check out the campaign literature for Election 2005. Do candidates appeal to particular audiences? Do they target their messages to only certain groups (individuals who share common "psychographic variables")? In other words - are they inclusionary, or exclusionary. Do they unite us, or divide us?

I find it odd that I received NO literature from the alleged incumbents, for the second campaign season in a row. Do they regard me as unworthy of interest, or unlikely to buy what they peddle? Are my opinions, interests, or attitudes beyond their reach, or my lifestyle beyond their pale? What does this say about them - that they want to persuade only certain types, or include only certain members, or inform only those they choose? What kind of Unionism excludes its members? It's your call, and your vote. Choose wisely, for we ALL pay the price of the results...