http://bigthink.com/amped/struggling-to-stay-relevant-incorporate-these-cultural-marketing-concepts
This article automatically appealed to me because of the marketing project that we've been doing; I thought perhaps this article would have some degree of relevance to our project, and perhaps give us some ideas as to how to proceed on this topic. While I can't say that this site would be overly helpful to us, although perhaps another individual could come up with a convincing argument in its favor, it is certainly a very interesting piece. The article itself entails four strategies that modern corporations use to capture the attention of today's internet-addicted consumers.
The first strategy, which deals with timing, strikes me as being extremely important for any company aiming its products at teenagers (which we are not, hence my previous statements). The article states that when to state something is more important than where or how. I do not necessarily believe that this is the case now; however, I do believe that sooner rather than later, this will become the case, based on the way our society is progressing, with our ever-increasing demands for instant gratification and lack of patience in virtually every sphere. A problem I have with this section of the article is that it mentions only how timing influences the way companies react in lieu of a tragedy, rather than how timing influences our opinions in our everyday lives; which I feel is more than slightly unhelpful.
The second strategy, the use of symbols, is more applicable to our society today than the importance of timing. The symbols, in this case, are the popular captioned pictures known as Memes, which have been circulating around the Internet for the last few years. The idea that the Memes that a person enjoys speaks volumes about their personality is fantastical, and yet incredibly simple. And I personally have no doubt that it is actually true. If you think that marijuana should be legalized, you won't enjoy a Meme about how people who share your views are idiots. Perhaps this isn't the best example, but the point is the same. Thanks to Facebook, anyone in the world, including marketing agents at big-name companies, can see what Memes you like, and derive conclusions about your personality from that. No doubt, as the article suggests, there are marketing agents working round the clock at corporations across the globes, trying to analyze what a person's taste in Memes says about their personality.
I personally have multiple problems with the third section of the article, entitled "Hunch Farming." In this section, the author claims that "Science is confirming the power of the collective conscious and intuition. For example, social chatter spiked globally in the period leading up to the 2011 tsunami and before 9/11, like birds instinctively warning the forest of a predator." That's nice, author. Would you mind telling us where you got this information of yours? If a scientist told you that your head would explode if you didn't pour molten lead down your shirt, would you believe them? The lack of credibility in this section astounds me. Beyond this, the author fails to explain what "hunches" are. Does she mean in the "I have a hunch," sense, or the "I'm hunched over" sense? The author fails miserably in conveying whatever point she was trying to make in this section.
The author's fourth section, on the importance of a target audience's mood, is much more credible, largely owing to the fact that the author acknowledges that this technology is only in its infancy and very expensive so far. She cites Toyota's use of mood reading technology to keep drivers in a better mood. In this case, the author doesn't act as though she has a comprehensive knowledge of the topic without presenting evidence necessary to prove this point. She explains how this will most likely become an important factor in determining consumer choices at some point in the future, and I'd be inclined to believe her.
Well, I doubt that this article would be any help to us in our marketing campaign. However, it's certainly a tribute to the importance of credibility in anything publicly published.
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