The report will give a brief overview of the marketing mix and then analyse and explain the influences and patterns of consumption through individual psychological behavioural concepts.

Socio-economic groups C2, D and E (see graph below).2.5Place Pot Noodle is readily available from supermarkets, shops and even specialist vending machines.  Media advertising is inclusive of television, cinema, poster, radio and even kebab-wrappers.2.6PromotionPromotions create the perception of added value to the product, which can influence buying behaviour. Money off coupons, competition prizes and instant wins are amongst the promotional techniques used.  The current promotion is ‘Win a tasty holiday’ (As promoted at Tescos, May 2004).3.0Patterns of consumptionTime and energy are factors that can influence behaviour (Henley Centre 2000).   Consumers are not always ‘involved’, decisions are often dependant on time, energy, experience and the type of purchase.  This rationalises that purchasing will not always be an informed decision, but one that may satisfyce dependant on the cost and risk of the product. Pot Noodle is an fmcg, which is a low price and low risk purchase that can be consumed quickly to satisfy hunger.  The Grocer (cited Brassington and Pettit, 2000 pp116) stated that “70 % of consumers purchase something that can be eaten immediately” To support this pattern of consumption hot water dispensers have been placed in the forecourts of convenience stores, which has led to increased sales (Unilever Best Foods).The established brand is attributed with high levels of consumer awareness recognised for the simplicity and quickness of a hot pasta snack.  Research has revealed that 50% of purchases are unplanned and made on impulse (Unilever Best Foods).  3.1Routine problem-solvingInvolved decision-making for this good type is minimal but marketers can aim to induce habitual purchasing from their consumers.  This can be associated to Ehrenberb and Goodhart’s three-stage Routine problem solving model, incorporating Awareness, Trial and Repeat purchase  (see fig 2).Brassington and Pettit (2000) suggest that increased awareness of the brand and product will lead to a trial of the product (post-purchase evaluation).  If satisfaction is achieved from the trial it can increase repeat purchases to increase the chances of the purchase to become Routine and Habitual.  To promote the awareness of Pot Noodle marketers continuously generate awareness and reinforcement of the product through advertising.4.0Psychological InfluencesMotivation, Personality, Perception and Attitude are individual psychological influences, these can be relevant in consumer purchases of Pot Noodle.  These factors can be used to generate awareness and habitual purchasing through marketing activities and will now be discussed in more detail.4.1MotivationThe motivation behind purchasing the product is the need to fulfil hunger.  Pot Noodle advertisements can be associated with motivational drives to make the consumer remember or invoke a memory when they see the product.   Summer 2002 Pot noodle launched its“ misbehaviour campaign” snack as a risqué food (Unilever Best Foods). Ross Diamond (2002) describes one of the adverts from this campaign.“The ad opens with a TV spot showing a dull, middle-aged man bored with his home life and with his wife, who offers only bland unadventurous food (for which, read bland unadventurous sex). Our man is clearly craving spicier satisfactions, and we follow him round a series of back-street shops, discreetly asking for something harder and more unusual. After several outraged refusals, he eventually finds a woman willing to give him what he wants. We join the couple in a dingy backroom where the man is seen guiltily revelling in the depravity of a Pot Noodle: the slag of all snacks. Other campaign slogans include ‘Hurt me, you slag’ and ‘Sounds dirty and it is”The use of soft porn imagery within the advert reflects the individual basic behavioural need of sex and hunger.  The symbolism of sex can be reflected in motivational theory that stimulates and grabs the attention of the selected target market.The advert can be corresponded with the Freudian theory of motivation.  This is based on individual libido, broken down into three psyches of the id, ego and super-ego.  Freud argued that the id is the human psyche that drives individual motivation to maximise pleasure (Dubois 2000).  This psyche has strong traits of the oral stage of development, which seeks immediate gratification and satisfaction.  Advertising indicates that Marketers of pot noodle identify this motivation through the association of the male character needing the immediate fulfilment of his need of hunger as he would his libido.  4.2PersonalityGroups that have similar personality, traits or characteristics can be segmented for target markets.  This can help the marketer to generalise the prediction of the consumer behaviour expected within the group.  Understanding group personality enables the marketer to create a message that is relevant and associative to traits, lifestyle or characteristics of the individual.    This can influence behaviour or the act of purchase through attitude and lifestyle association for that personality. 4.3PerceptionPerception of the product describes how the individual perceives and understands the information or message that is given by the marketer.  The individual can interrelate perception with previous experience of the product or motivational needs.    The message and information communicated to consumers can influence perception and make consumers act to purchase the product. To help make the message heard and understood by the target market the message needs to be filtered thorough mass advertising. This can be achieved through the three theoretical processes of selective attention, selective perception and selective retention. 4.3.1Selective attentionTo grab consumer attention the message or advertisement needs to be of relevance and interest to the individual (Brassington and Pettit, 2000).    4.3.2Selective perceptionInterpretation of the message needs to be consistent with the norms and beliefs held by the individual about the product (Brassington and Pettit, 2000).   The expectation of emotion for the Pot Noodle adverts would be to humour. Consumer belief is that the product is cheap and dirty, this message is reinforced through advertisements.  As stated by Unilever "For our new advertising campaign, we did quite a bit of research with our target audience. As a result we are talking some real truths about Pot Noodle - in the world of snacks it is considered to be cheap and dirty. This has led us to develop a true identity for the brand."Unilever have adopted and reinforced a brand image, which is consistent and acceptable for the target market.4.3.3Selective retentionSelective retention is related to how people can remember or recall the product after the advertisement (Brassington and Pettit, 2000).  This should be achieved through reinforcement of the packaging design and logos and semiotics (the use of symbolism) (Ross Diamond Ltd). The quirky connotation of humour and sex can invoke a memorable emotional response.   This encourages the association of these emotions or feelings towards recognition of the product.  Innovative advertising through Semiotics of food pornography borders on the norms of cultural acceptance (Greg Rowland 2004), this strategy has produced an advert recognition rate of 74 % (Unilever Best Foods).4.4AttitudesAttitudes can influence the consumer to purchase a product.  The marketer can build on attitudes through advertising that persuades cognitive and Affective attitudes.   These will now be discussed.4.4,1Cognitive attitudesPot Noodle is not as bad and unhealthy as consumers believe, as quoted by Amanda Wynne of the British Dietetic Association (cited Western Mail 2004) "As part of a balanced, healthy diet and lifestyle, where people take some exercise, Pot Noodle is fine. And as its main ingredient is noodles, which are full of carbohydrates, it's pretty healthy too.” This displays how marketing can influence and establish consumer’s beliefs about the product (Brassington and Pettit, 2000).  Pot Noodle wanted to be differentiated and the ‘dirty and you want it’ message gives a specific appeal of the target market.4.4.2Affective attitudesMarketers of pot noodle utilise affective attitude to signal positive and negative feelings that invoke emotions for the consumer (Brassington and Pettit, 2000). Pot Noodle is consistent with the norms and beliefs of its product. The advertising tells the consumer that the snack is bad but the guilt can be legitimised through the reward of excitement through the satisfaction of consumption (Western Mail, 2004).5.0Targeting Group SegmentationThe primary target market for pot noodle is the 16-24 year old male (Unilever Best Foods). Mintel Market Intelligence (2002) reported that Snacking-on-the-go was prevalent 15-34 to the age group at the highest rate of 17%.  This Youth subculture portrays similar attitudes and feelings that can be used for targeted communication, which this group would be likely to sympathise or associate with.  Within this group Pot Noodle has identified that its product supports the lifestyles of students living in halls of residence who are more supposed to want food which is inexpensive, quick to make, and needs no special preparation or utensils (Western Mail, 2004).  Branding, images and aspirational groups are strong influences to the under 25 demographic age group (Dubois 2000).  The digital agency Glue London (2004) have developed a long-term online solution for pot noodle by designing a multi-page website.  The website depicts the lifestyle image that pot noodle shows through its advertising and gives the consumer involvement with interacting games and Membership (potnoodle.co.uk). This gives the consumer affiliation to the group and direct marketing opportunities through membership to continually build on brand awareness and be responsive to the needs and wants of the consumer.  Appendix 1 shows two screen dumps from the Pot Noodle website.Characters like ‘big Dave’ and Caprice have been used in advertising campaigns as a form of Aspirational group influence (Unilever Best Foods).Pot noodle is claimed to be the favourite food by 44.6% of 11-19 year olds (Unilever Best Foods).   It is a source of food on the go, popular with growing teenagers that many parents would describe as forever hungry. Mintel (2003) reported that purchases for Pot Noodle was highest amongst women and families.  This suggests that family lifestyle; children and teenagers influence the decision-making process for the purchase of this product.Public Relations have been aimed at the younger demographic market through the yearly Pot Noodle "Write a Radio Commercial" Prize. The competition targets secondary school students with the brief "to write a wacky 40 second radio ad - complete with sound effects, voice-overs, etc" (Real-event.com).   The Public relation campaign creates positive product awareness through schools, parents and children.  Building brand awareness and feedback of the perspectives and beliefs of the product in this age group. 6.0SummaryPot Noodle is a low cost and low value product. Effective branding and packaging is consistent with a product mix to meet a diversification of consumer needs. The product has a reputation of a cheap low quality product this feature is exaggerated with the semiotic use of soft pornography. Marketers have continuously promoted their product through advertising that associates motivation and perception of the target market.   Decision-making is not generally an informed decision for this good type.Problem-solving theory would indicate that Marketers’ strategies place emphasis on building awareness and reinforcement of the product to influence patterns of purchase to become habitual.  Research has revealed that 50% of consumer purchases are unplanned and made on impulse, which indicates a successful marketing strategy for habitual purchasing.Marketing activities can build beliefs and shape attitudes through the message and information communicated to consumers.  Advertisements used are relevant and associative to traits, lifestyle or characteristics of groups that the target market associates with.  To influence perception and make consumers act to purchase the product.  Pot Noodle won the Campaign of the Year from Marketing Week Effectiveness Awards 2003, for effective and innovative advertising (Mad 2003).  Prevalent success is evidenced from the 95% market share of the instant hot snack market.  Marketing campaigns have maintained market leadership by building customer loyalty through anticipating and satisfying their customer needs and wants profitably (Golab et al pp164). ReferencesBrassington F, Pettitt S (2000) Principles of Marketing 2nd ed, Harlow: Financial Times Pitman.Diamond R  (2002) New Statesman, A dirty business: Ross Diamond is amused by a very English brand of tasteless irony, August 5, 2002, available at http://static.highbeam.com/n/newstatesman1996/august052002/adirtybusinessrossdiamondisamusedbyaveryenglishbra/ accessed 03/05/2004Dubois B (2000) Understanding the Consumer, Dorchester: Pearson EducationGlue London, Pot Noodle puts emphasis on net with Glue Digital, 4th March 2004 www.gluelondon.com accessed 01/05/2004Golab S, Horton P, Leake M, Magee T, Rooney P, Wood G, Advanced GNVQ Business, London: Financial Times PitmanHenley Centre (2000) Leisure in the new Millennium Barclays and Joint Hospitality industry congress report by The Henley Centre July 2000Mad [online] Marketing Effectiveness awards 03 Campaign of the Year available at http://www.mad.co.uk/publication/mw/awards03/categories/campaign.html accessed 03/05/2004Mintel Market Intelligence (2003) Noodles-UK- July 2003 available at http://reports.mintel.com/sinatra/mintel/searchexec/type=reports&variants=true&fulltext=+The+Lunch+Foods+Market+-+UK+2004+/report/repcode=C923&anchor=accessC923 accessed 10/05/2004Potnoodle [online] available at www.potnoodle.co.uk, accessed 01/05/2004Real Event Solutions, The Pot Noodle "Write a Radio Commercial" Awards available at www.real-event.ie/potnoodle.htm accessed 01/05/2004Ross Diamond Ltd , Semiotic Case Study: Pot Noodle, available at http://www.semiotic.co.uk/case-study/pot-noodle/ accessed 01/05/2004Unilever Best Foods, History of Pot Noodle available at http://www.ubfoods.co.uk/product/savoury_pot.asp accessed 01/05/2004Western Mail (2004) , Just add H2O, 19th March 2004, available at http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0750expats/nostalgia/tm_objectid=14067775&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=just-add-h2o-name_page.html, accessed 03/05/2004 Appendix 1 Pot Noodle website Entry into the site This shows the Unilevers Direct marketing opportunity and affiliation by group membership