10 Things I Hate About You
Project Report
Prepared By :
Kristina Dorough
Jacqui Lafon
Humberto Lepelch
Suzanne Price
Mo Saad
Supriya Sharma
Prepared For:
Marketing 312 – Section 001
Submitted:
April 2009
Prepared For:
Professor M. Martin
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PLOT…………………………………………………………………..
pg 1
CHARACTER ANALYSIS …….…………..………………………..
Katrina Stratford …………………………………….………..
Bianca Stratford……………………………………….……….
Cameron James…………………………………….………….
Patrick Verona …………………….………….……………….
Joey Donner …………………………………….……………..
pg 1-3
pg 1
pg 2
pg 2
pg 3
pg 3
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR …..……………………………………… pg 4-10
Learning theories …………………………………….………… pg 4
Problem recognition …………………….………….………….. pg 4
Family life cycle …………………………………….………….. pg 5
Heirarchy of needs …………………….………….…………… pg 5
Decision rules ……………………………………….…………. pg 6
Motivational conflict ……………………………….………….. pg 6
Adopter categories ………………………………….………….. pg 7
Reference groups …………………………………….………… pg 7
Motives ……………………………………….………………… pg 8
Advertising…………………………………………….………… pg 8
Product placement ………………………………….………….. pg 9
Self-concept ……………………………………….……………. pg 10
PLOT
10 Things I Hate About You is a romantic teen movie based roughly off of William
Shakespeare’s play the “Taming of the Shrew”. The movie centers on Cameron, a new
student at Padua High, who falls madly in love with a girl named Bianca. It is widely
known that Bianca is not allowed to date, and neither is her sister Katarina (Kat), the high
school rebel who emulates the “shrew” from Shakespeare’s play. To appease Bianca’s
whining about not being able to date, Bianca and Kat’s father changes the rules: Bianca
can date if Kat has a date.
When Cameron hears this, he schemes to find a date for Kat, so that he will have a
chance to date Bianca. Joey, the high school pretty boy, is also interested in Bianca for
superficial reasons. With the help of his friend Michael, Cameron covertly enlists the
services of Joey to try and find Kat a date by making him think that he would be the one
to date Bianca. This introduces Patrick, the mysterious bad boy of the school. Joey pays
Patrick to pursue Kat and take her out. This plan obviously falls apart when Kat finds
out, but only after she has fallen in love with Patrick, and Patrick with Kat. As one can
only imagine this teen movie is filled with product placement, catch phrases, and
marginal acting. It has everything from Prada backpacks to Fender guitars, but under the
surface, all facets of consumer behavior are in the works.
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Katarina “Kat” Stratford
Katarina Stratford, played by Julie Stiles, is a white eighteen-year-old nonconformist,
“antisocial” female soccer player who likes “Thai food, feminist prose, and ‘angry, girl
music of the Indie-rock persuasion’.” She is against any form of high school rituals, such
as dating or going to prom, since she believes it’s “a stupid tradition.” She likes to speak
her mind and does not mind making people upset or angry at what she thinks. She is very
independent and believes that many people are consumed with their “meaningless
consumer driven lives.” Although Kat is from an upscale neighborhood in Seattle,
Washington (Singe I), she stills drives an older car and does not buy the “in” fashion or
music. Kat likes to read books such as the “Bell Jar” and “The Feminist Mystique,”
showing that she values the freedom of expression and learning for the sake of learning.
According to VALS, Kat is a thinker and an achiever, very work-oriented and in control
of her own life and lives of people around her.
Bianca Stratford
Bianca Stratford, played by Larisa Oleynik, is a successful, popular, preppy sophomore
who is very worried about maintaining her flawless image. She is white, and is supported
by her single father, yet lives the life of an upper-middle class American. At the
beginning of the film Bianca is attracted to the clean-cut, materialistic, Joey Donner, yet
when she realizes how shallow he really is, she looses interest. She is socially oriented
and considers brand-name items as part of her extended self.
Bianca’s primary VALS
category would probably be “achiever” because she respects the status quo, and she
values prestige products.
Cameron James
Cameron James, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is a white sixteen-years-old student.
He is clean-cut and very polite. Coming from a military family, Cameron has attended 9
schools in the past 10 years. He wears loose button-up shirts with either jeans or khakis
and is attracted to beautiful, somewhat innocent girls. He is optimistic and feels that
people are inherently good-natured. Cameron values postponed gratification and hard
work for self-oriented values, and he values change, risk taking, and problem solving for
environment-oriented values. His two VALS categories would probably be “maker”,
because he feels that he has control of his environment (chasing Bianca) and “thinker”
because he wants to behave in a way that is consistent with his role in life.
Patrick Verona
Patrick Verona, played by Heath Ledger, demonstrates the true meaning of the word
“badass”. Viewed as the kid who “sold his liver for car speakers” and “ate a live duck”,
most students of Padua High School actually fear Patrick even though he’s no bully.
Being a senior at Padua High, it’s safe to say Patrick is an eighteen-year-old male in the
(Single I) stage of the household life cycle. Cameron, whose sole purpose in the film is to
win Bianca’s affection, utilizes Patrick’s tough-guy personality. Patrick’s role in
Cameron’s operation was simply to win over Kat.
Joey Donner
Joey Donner, played by Andrew Keegan, is portrayed as an eighteen-year-old white male
public high school student living in the suburbs of Seattle, Washington. He is in the
younger stage of the household life cycle (Single I). Joey can be characterized as uppermiddle to upper-upper class based upon his clothing and slick-styled hair. His affluence
and wealth is demonstrated when he ostentatiously pulls into school parking lot in his
flashy red sports car and when he pays Patrick over $400 to date Kat. Joey is depicted as
a promiscuous, self-centered Casanova who only associates with those deemed to be
“cool” and relishes in sexual cravings, valuing sensual gratification, particularly in terms
of Bianca in which he attempts to prove that “no one is out of reach” for him.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Learning theories
Learning theories are used to condition or change a persons cognitive processing so that
they will perform a specific task. Operant conditioning is conveyed in the film when Joey
convinces reluctant and disinterested Patrick to date Kat with the promise of a payment in
return - “would you be willing to make it your problem if I provide generous
compensation?” Classical conditioning can be seen through the interaction of Patrick and
Kat. Patrick used low-involvement strategies to talk to Kat when she is already in a good
mood. The more the two talked, the more Kat attributed her happiness to Patrick being
around instead of her being happy for another reason. Soon, Kat become happy every
time she saw Patrick since she was conditioned to think that he makes her in a good
mood. Modeling can be seen when everyone is at Bogie’s house for a party and seeing
one person drink a beer and be happy about it, thus other people drink beer and feel good
about it.
Problem recognition
Almost every character in the film exhibits problem recognition since most high school
students experience a discrepancy between a desired state and an actual state, resulting in
the need for a decision process. For instance, Bianca longs for her freedom, which is
continued to be thwarted by her over-protective father. She desires to be able to date, but
is unable to until Kat does. Both Cameron and Joey want to date Bianca, but are unable to
due to the aforementioned problem. Thus, this prompts them to devise a plan in order to
find Kat a suitable match so that Bianca can date which is the central plot of the movie.
Family Life Cycle/Family Decision Making
The Family life cycle looks at a rank organized by a person’s age, marital status, and the
presence of children. Kat and Bianca family is an example of the (Single Parent II) stage
of the household life cycle since the family consists of only their father, Walter who is a
doctor, and the two girls. Within the family, Walter is the Decision Maker since he calls
the shots and a great example of this is when he says “I'm down, I've got the 411, and you
are not going out and getting jiggy with some boy, I don't care how dope his ride is. My
momma didn't raise no foo'!” Another example is when Walter says, “What are the two
house rules? Number One: No dating till you graduate. Number Two: No dating till you
graduate.” Family decision making shows how the families interact to make decisions.
Given sibling seniority, Walter makes Kat an Influencer over Bianca’s social life. This
can be derived from the following quote “Kat's not going, you're not going!” Walter is
the decision maker, since he ultimately has the last say in what his daughters do.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Every character in the movie has to satisfy some portion of Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs: safety, psychological, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization, to continue
to fulfill the next level of motives. Every character’s psychological motive is fulfilled,
e.g. food, water, and sleep. Focusing on Kat, she needs to fulfill her the esteem motive.
She does not care about belongingness, but desires superiority over men and wants
people to respect her. Bianca on the other hand needs to fulfill her belongingness motives
since she strives to be accepted within the “popular crowd” since she “happens to like
being adored, thank you,” and wants to date since it is what is expected within the group.
Joey is also in need of fulfilling his belongingness motives since he looks for
compliments and wants everyone to accept him as a hot model, not just a student.
Decision rules
Decision rules, the overlying rules to how people make decisions when put into a
situation in which many alternatives are being looked at, are not only used when
purchasing a product, they are used everyday in our normal lives. First decision comes
when Bianca has to choose between Joey and Cameron. It is apparent that at first she
used the lexicographic rule to choose because she chose Joey purely on the attribute of
popularity. Since this was her most important category, Joey was the choice from the get
go. However as the movie progressed she realized that this was not the right choice, she
was experiencing “post-purchase dissonance” in a sense. Bianca then changed her rule to
the compensatory rule, as well as changed her rankings of her categories. At that point
Cameron was the choice because he was smart, funny, a sweet guy, as well as “cute”.
Another example is when Kat has to choose between going to the prom or not. On one
hand she wanted to go to meet the guy, Patrick, who she has fallen in love with and on
the other hand, she did not want to go because she was the rebel of the school and wants
to uphold her values. In this case Kat used the Conjunctive ruled based on her choice; she
ranked going to the prom and meeting Patrick more important than upholding her status.
Motivational conflict
Motivational conflict occurs when there is a conflict between motives. The Stratford
father, Walter, goes through a motivational conflict of avoidance-avoidance when
deciding how to let his daughters date, yet still be protected. The father does not want to
make the decision on how to let his daughters date and has two undesirable outcomes that
could occur: his daughter is mad at him or that his daughters are dating. Cameron also
goes through a motivational conflict strategy of approach-avoidance when deciding
whether or not to pursue Bianca. His approach outcome would be that he got to date
Bianca, the girl he liked, and his avoidance outcome was that he would have to try and
get Kat, the man hating antisocial, a date. Bianca had an approach-approach motivational
conflict when trying to choose whom to date, Joey or Cameron. Each guy had positives
and ether choice would be good for Bianca.
Adopter categories
Kat is somewhat the anti-social type, engaging in limited social interaction with her
peers. She is very reluctant in terms of accepting situations and is a firm believer of her
ideals. Therefore, her dogmatic personality characterizes her as a laggard – “I don't like to
do what people expect. Why should I live up to other people’s expectations instead of my
own...I'm a firm believer in doing something for your own reasons, and not someone
else's.” Kat’s younger sister Bianca, on the other hand, is very socially active and more of
a risk-taker. Bianca, in this case, would be deemed as an innovator since she is shown to
be quick to adopt ideas and trends for the sake of popularity. Essentially, this is based on
Bianca’s high regard for how she is perceived by others and her desire for admiration by
her peers.
Reference groups
“Over there you’ve got your basic beautiful people…Jocks…to the left we have the
coffee kids… these delusionals are the White Rasta…Cowboys…these are your future
MBAs- we're all Ivy League accepted…[and] the “don’t even think about it” group.” All
these different groups at Pauda High School represent the reference groups that different
people look to and face when making a consumer choice. Reference groups are
influencers on peoples purchase decisions and behavior. Different characters have
different reference groups: Kat is influenced by other feminists, Bianca by the popular
kids, and Michael by the future MBA’s. Throughout the movie, certain characters
reference groups made them want to look a certain way, do a certain thing, or buy a
certain product.
Motives
Manifest/Latent Motives are perhaps the most clearly demonstrated marketing topic in
this production. Patrick Verona is a perfect example of a consumer with latent motives.
Given his hard outer shell, Patrick is seen as the typical “tough guy” of his high school,
yet in spite of his appearance, Patrick is actually a charming young man who values
morality and respect. This is seen when he denies a kiss from Kat, who was too
intoxicated to make wise decisions. Bianca is another example of a consumer with Latent
motives. Her quest for high school stardom has made Bianca quite the brat, yet her Latent
motives are demonstrated when she denies Joey for Cameron. An example of this is when
she delivers a crucial blow to Joey’s groin after he punched Cameron in the face.
Manifest Motives are very abundant in the film as well. A clear example of a consumer
with Manifest motives is Kat, displayed in her conversation with Patrick when she says,
“I don't like to do what people expect. Why should I live up to other people's expectations
instead of my own?” Joey also shows latent motives when he too proudly showcases his
values and pays Patrick to date Kat for the sole purpose of getting with her sister Bianca.
Advertising
Advertising is important to get your point across, and in the movie Cameron advertised
his party perfectly. Cameron wanted to throw a party to get Kat and Patrick a place to
meet so they can hit it off. The flyer that he used to get the word out used multiple
attention factors to make the flyer attractive and an attention getter. First Cameron made
the flyer a yellow color so it can attract more attention since warm colors are more
arousing than cool colors. Secondly he used movement as to get the initial attention.
Cameron took a stack of flyers and threw them down a flight of stairs; this movement
attracted a lot of attention of the consumers to look at the flyer to see what was going on.
Lastly Cameron used high intensity on the flyer itself to maximize the attention, it had
big font that said “free beer”. Advertising was also shown in the infomercial shown while
the girls father, Walter, is watching TV. The infomercial was for spray to cover your bald
spot and Walter is has a bald spot. It showed the use of the product and how positively
affected Walter was while watching. It does not shop him buying the product, but
purchase intention seemed more than likely due to the infomercial.
Product placement
One of the most used marketing tactics used in the film was product placement, when a
product is erroneously placed within a scene with the sole purpose of getting people to
recognize the product. This is exhibited in several scenes by strategically placing branded
items throughout the movie. It may not come across as advertising but when seeing the
product one automatically recognizes the brand.
In one of the first scenes of the movie Cameron is getting a tour of the high school and
while walking through the “quad” a Tully’s Coffee kiosk with several students located
around discussing coffee. Another, very obvious use of product placement, is when
Patrick is in dentition the teacher monitoring is walking through the aisles of students.
Then the camera moves to a student’s desk where there is a bag of Cheetos and the said
teacher “confiscates” them, obviously for his own consumption. Another not so obvious
use of product placement occurs when Bianca is walking with her friend to class and they
are discussing their Sketchers shoes and Bianca’s Prada backpack. An interesting aspect
of the film is that it comments on the issue of pre-marital sex, but not on the underage
drinking which takes place during the party. Therefore, the product-placement of
Budweiser in the hands of underage drinkers at a high school party seems inappropriate.
Self-concept
Self-concept, the totality of an individuals thoughts, feelings, motives, and ideals, has a
major role in the overall film. There is a constant theme of Bianca wanting to be in the
“in crowd” while Kat is always saying she does “not care what people think.” Kat’s
private self and social self are mostly identical, which can come across as unusual. Kat’s
attitude, lack of manners, and her overall personality gives cohesiveness to her social self
and private self. Bianca, on the other hand, likes being “adored” and this shows her ideal
self along with her social self. She wants everyone to like her and she will do what she
needs to do to have this. She has an expensive extended self since she “like’s [her]
Sketchers, but [she] loves [her] Prada backpack.” There is an obvious closeness between
the Prada backpack as a symbol of Bianca and as an object. Joey’s self-concept would be
described as predominantly independent due to his tendency to be self-contained,
individualistic, and egotistical nature. He defines himself in terms of his personal
characteristics.