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Trends within Irish Society.
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Since the 1950’s Ireland as a nation has been changing both culturally and economically. We
as nation have gone through periods of declineLI9 during the 1980’s and regeneration in the
early 1990’s, but in the last fourteen years (length of an economic growth-decline cycle) this
period know as the “Celtic Tiger Era “ushered in rapid changes in Ireland economy led to
greater increase in economic prosperity, an explosion in travel and a complete modernisation
of the communication sector. During this period, Irish culture changes leading to an
emergence of new trend with in sociality- the most evident trends are the move away from
the catholic religion due to the image of the church being soiled by clerical abuse scandals,
secondly- Ireland now has a culture of immigration rather than emigration, thirdly- the main
streaming the image of “Sex” within a once very catholic sociality as well as using “Sex” as a
marketing tool, for example the wonder bra advertising with Dita Von Tesse (see Appendix),
fourthly- the changing trends of women in Irish sociality leading to several sub-cultural
trends, for example- Tribalism in the Irish Youth, the Cash- Rich, Time-Poor Lifestyle, the
return to Irish culture.

During this research project, I am going to focus on six main trends in Ireland and how
marketing has nurtured these trends by investigating companies who have capitalized on
these new Irish trends.

1. Changing trend of women in Irish culture and the Beauty Myth

2. New trend in car marketing
3. The Cash- Rich, Time-Poor Lifestyle (Fast food and changing trends in food
consumption)
4. Tribalism in the Irish Youth
5. Being Irish is good
6. E-marketing (focusing on Bus Eireann)
7. The softening of the Irish Male

In 1922 Irish women were given the vote but not the right to work outside the home and any
woman working outside the home were treated as cheap labour, barred from a whole range of
jobs and, in the civil service and semi-state companies, forced to resign if they married.
Totally dependent on their husbands, married women were Stuck for life, as divorce was
forbidden. Single mothers, widows and deserted wives faced dire poverty and the Catholic
Church ruled all aspects of their lives from contraception to the right to choose. In 1935
thing were changing, a bill was introduced by the Free State Government to curtail the right
of Irish women. The conditions of employment bill was the government attempts at
improving working conditions and did in the short term contained positive and forward
moving provisions, but section 16 of the bill would allow the government to prohibit the
employment of women in certain industries (any industries seen as a male environment-
armed forces, policing sector) and to fix a proportion of women allowed in industries, but in
the last seven decades this culture of duel equality has all but disappeared, from the 1970’s
when Liberation movement was set up and the amendment of the defence act in 1979 and the
policing act in 1959 allowing women to join. This change in trend when it came to women
has led to an explosion in “female only advertising and marketing” even though both sexes
don’t benefit equally from the economic boom, women earnings from full time work is still
82% of their male counter parts but aside from that women’s economic activity rate increased
by 12% between 1980 and the late 2000, this increase double in the early to late part of the
2000’s.

As a consumer, women are exposed to over 2000 ads a day sell a range of products form cars,
holidays to beauty products. The female image is almost always one that fits the “Beauty
Myth”, this means tall, thin, tanned and most of all young. The result of being exposed to
these images has led to women believing that their bodies are inadequate; these advertising
sell the belief that by buying these products they can attempt to fit the image. Unrealistic and
repeated media imaging can be bad for young women’s health leading to eating disorders.
This new trend in advertising has led to us believing are bodies are just another piece of
merchandising. Women’s bodies and beauty products are completely interchangeable in the
view of the advertising world. Women live under pressure in all aspects of their lives and
not just from the beauty sector e.g. in the current climate- women face the problem of finding
ways to feed their families on a limited budget. They search for balance between
affordability and a balanced diet. On the other hand, women who work outside the home face
the problem of “Time Management” or constraints. In this situation more and more
manufactures and/or marketing companies are producing products to help save time and
energy for women, who are squeezed between work and family responsibilities. The most
marketed solution to this problem and has nurtured the trend is the fast food industry-
stopping for fast food seems easier and more convenient than rushing home to cook a family
meal after a long day at work. There are a number of companies, who pro-actively advocate
this trend but the most out spoken is KFC with its “Mum’s night off meal” combining
quality, fast food with the time saving aspect of feeding a family or what is called the Cash-
Rich, Time-Poor Lifestyle, another company who has changed its marketing trend to fit in
with this culture is “Uncle Ben’s or Masterfoods”. Uncle Ben’s is the leader in the Irish rice
market with over 45% of the market share with a value of 13 million euro. The acceptance of
rice as part of an Irish diet has clearly indicated a new trend in Irish societies eating habits.
Up until the boom era, 80% of Irish meals contained potato’s, however with the change in
people’s lifestyles and the fact that people now travel more their tasted have become more
exotic. Coupled with the immigration trend- which has lead to Chinese, Indian and Asian
takeaways opening, giving the Irish people the option to be adventures. Uncles Ben’s has
become a leading brand on the Irish market by ensuring quality in all aspects not just the
product, they ensured that all of their products were balanced but were convenient as
consumers have less time to cook, the preparing of a main meal has decreased from 40
minutes in 1970’s to 20 minutes today. Uncle Ben’s reposed to this by launching a range of
meals that only take 8 minutes. Masterfoods met the changing trends in Irish lifestyle with
nutritional foods.

A part from food and beauty products, increasingly women are becoming more responsible
for the larger buys not just the “White Appliances” but for houses and cars. Women now
account for 49% of drivers on our national roads and the percentage of women buying a new
car by themselves has increased from 68% to 70% in one year, which has led to car
manufactures now focusing on both sexes. In other words, more women than ever before are
buying new cars. In a market that's breaking sales records each year, the power of the female
car consumer is growing rapidly.

This new trend shows how crucial it is for car makers to communicate productively with a
highly influential audience, who are easily detracted. “Holden's regional manager for sales
and marketing for Nissan Ireland “It’s the hardest type of advertising there is," he says,
"because you're essentially trying to reach a disinterested audience."

Cars now represent independence and freedom for women. Women have strong emotional
connection with their cars, not just viewing them as a way to travel form work to home but as
an extension of their personalities and their standing in sociality. A leading marketing
research company in the automobile sector- IPC, carried out research for Aston Martin and
found that out of 7500 women sampled- the most important factors to buying a car was-
image, price and safety.
As a business the car marketing sector is a well oiled machine, but as already stated from the
age of the model T has practised the technique of selling to the male audience with the unique
selling point of “Get the Car, Get the Girl”, but this has all changes. Nissan the seventh
largest supplier with sales of 3223 thousand units in 2006, has changes the male only focus
by using the image that sex sells message by enlisting Kim Cattrall from sex and the city to
front their new campaign for the female audience as she has the image of independence, sexy
man eater (see appendix 5).

As we can see there is a direct link with the changing face of women in sociality and the
emergence of new trends, Tribalism in the Irish Youth or latch key kids has come to the fore
in the last ten years due to the fact that now both parents work outside the home. With this
new trend, clothing companies as well as sports manufactures have created “Tribes” this
grouping of youths together by what they are interested in and their hobbies. This type of
marketing adopts positive and empowering language focused for the youth market. Nike for
example created a campaign to include young athletic girls in to sports using the slogan
“Girls Rule” on t-shirts and running shoes which would finally let girls in on the game. This
type of advertising has become more accessible to marketers- a more leisure options has
emergence with the introduction of Social networking sites such as Bebo, MySpace,
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter which has changed the teen media landscape meaning that
businesses can directly target prospective and existing customers. This uses of technology
has led to the emergence of the E-marketing trend. As a trend it has become a valuable part
of the marketing process, it is essentially the most important part of the communication
strategy. It is estimated that seven out of ten business deals start due to an internet search and
that 36% of Irish consumers regularly buy product/ services online. Irish consumers now
expect businesses to develop their E-marketing strategy so that it delivers their message and
brand value effectively. A businesses website is its most valuable marketing tool. In today’s
modern world people expect the website to be updated and interactive, an inactive website
creates negative image of the product/service. E-marketing enables a business to reach
customers and decision makers quicker and more cost effectively than traditional methods,
e.g. mail shot. An Irish owned organisation who has successfully navigated this new trend is
Bus Eireann. They believe that E-marketing involves driving prospective customers to your
website to buy online, in other words influencing the consumers purchasing behaviour. As
already stated 36% of Irish consumers buy online products and/or services but it is interesting
to look at the current trend of online shopping in Ireland to understand the scale of this trend.
The greatest concentration of online consumers live in Ireland with 52% of them lying in the
25-34 age group. Bus Eireann identified this trend and built an E-marketing strategy, which
targeted new and existing customers. They developed national student campaign “Just Flash”
(see appendix) including online competitions and SMS up-dates. Bus Eireann has
continuously monitoring this strategy and has measured the results since its launch in
September 2008- they now sell more than 1500 tickets on Twitter alone.

In conclusion, consumers go through six different lifestyle trends –

I. Living Life to the Full

II. Life on the go
III. Making a difference
IV. Quest for health and wellness
V. Smart Shoppers
VI. The Real Thing (I care where it comes from and how it was made)

All of these have led to new trends such as Fair Trade, The softening of the male (when
compared to their predecessors is the modern male a wuss) and many others. The final trend,
I have researched has no connection to the lifestyle trends but to culture. “Irish Traditions”-
despite Ireland’s rapid modernization due to her global position (Between the USA and
Europe) there is a deep and abiding sense of Irish Traditions. As a nation, we continue to
value and take pride in our history, heritage and culture. “Keeping it Real” is the new
dynamic trend emerging from Ireland unlike other Europen countries, who are trying to
rediscover their heritage, Ireland is trying to preserve our culture. The Irish are embracing
modernisation while working hard to maintain our traditions and way of life-e.g. Irish music
such as the High Kings and Bord Bia.

Finally in my opinion, anything can lead to a new trend- for example, In 2009, there were
6,847 recorded Burglars which was an increase of 556 on 2008. This new trend has led to
people increasing home and personnel security such as Eircom phone watch, CCTV etc and
finally, in the current recession the return to education or the continuation of training has
become the new dynamic trend, since 1965-2003, there has been a growth of 592% in the
third level student population. Over 73,000 extra places were taken up in 2003/04, as
compared with 1990/91. This represented an increase of 105%. So in conclusion there will
always be new trends.
Appendix
1. Wonder Bra Add. 2. Tribalism

3. The Beauty Myth

4. The softening of the Irish male

5. The new car marketing trend.

Bibliography

www.cso.ie

www.nissianireland.ie

www.masterfoods.ie

www.buseirean.ie

www.bordbia.ie
 Referencing

“Since 1965-2003, there has been a growth of 592% in the third level student population.
Over 73,000 extra places were taken up in 2003/04, as compared with 1990/91. This
represented an increase of 105%.” www.cso.ie