Income Levels

One thing I read in the International Marketing book was about the different "classes" used today to split people up by income level: High Income, Middle Income, Upper Middle Income, Lower Middle Income, and Low Income. Many Latin American countries have emerging middle income families, which greatly affects the way Latin Americans are spending money today. Ad agencies and businesses must rebuild their target audience as one that has a little bit of extra money to spend. There are now more people that go out to shop for more than just their "needs." I suppose an example of that would be the starbucks I've seen here. Starbucks is by no means a necessity (unless you're me, then it very well may be). But the Starbucks here market, of course, to upper middle and middle income families. They have nothing on the outside of the store to entice the customer but the name of their brand. People want to be seen in Starbucks with a cappuccino, they don't need to. Once inside there are a few ads for new drinks, but they aren't "sale" drinks or something you "need to buy." They know you come for a luxury coffee experience and that is what they give to you. If you travel to a lower income area, I would doubt that you'd find a Starbucks. This is why companies and ad agencies must constantly be in the know of which areas hold emerging markets, so they know where to place their stores and how to advertise appropriately.

liquidacións

My host family and I went to Reñaca today to exchange my sister's sweatshirt, and I got to see a different side of shopping in South America, as in outside of the mall. One of the things I noticed the most was all of the liquidacións I saw.
They had these inside the mall as well, but there are so many stores that say "30, 50, 70% off!" In the states we advertise sales, but I felt like we also advertise new lines as well. Here, all I've seen are sale ads to entice people to enter. There could be so many sale signs because it's the end of summer, but I'm not sure of that yet.
One store we visited had a sign in the window saying "Todo 5.999" which really excited my family. We went in to look around and I picked up a sweatshirt that I liked, and asked if it was 5.999. Which I thought was obviously going to be a stupid question because everything was the same price right? But it was actually way more expensive. I don't think I've ever seen an advertisement with such a blatant lie before- if you say everything is 5.999 then everything should be 5.999.
Just a few things I noticed.