Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Articles of Global Issues
Topic: Financial Crisis
Sources: Economist + Rolling stone
Economist: http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14530394
The G20 Summit, solutions to prevent another Financial Crisis, fixed bonus for executives etc.
Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover
Perfect Contrast to the Economist; Rolling Stone: "It is not about the money, it is about the power"
Internal & External Synergy Precis
Internal & External Synergy
the Simpsons Movie
Précis
The Simpsons movie was released on the 27th of July 2007 in America and displays great examples of Internal & External Synergy. The Budget for the movie was 75 million USD, but having a gross revenue of 527 million USD. The movie was produced by 20th Century Fox, a company owned by News Corp.
There is an example of Internal Synergy when different companies with different brands, who are all owned by a corporation, work together concerning the same project. The Simpsons movie was produced by 20th Century Fox, which is a company owned by the Media Giant News Corp. Other companies, who are owned by News Corp, were also involved in the Simpsons movie such as Fox Music, a brand of 20th century. They created the Soundtracks for the movie, which were sold simultaneously to the movie in the cinema. The last example of Internal Synergy is the Times magazine, which is also a companies owned by News Corp. They wrote more than 10 articles, including reviews and rating about the film. Some people say that most of the content was bias, making News Corp benefit from movie greatly. The Articles appeared in May and ended in September. The last, but most important area is the Simpsons in TV. Again, a brand of 20th century fox, called Fox Broadcasting Company, has the right to show the Simpsons on TV.
External Synergy is based on the same theory as internal synergy, differentiating in terms of having different corporations working together. Again, in the case of the Simpsons movie, there are many companies/corporation, who got the license from 20th century to use the Simpsons in their campaigns. One great deal was made with Electronic Arts (EA), which are owned by Vivendi Universal. EA created a “Hit’n’Run” game simultaneously to the release of the movie. The next great deal was made with McDonalds, which included the Simpsons in their Happy Meal, during the release of the movie in the cinemas. The Toys are the key area in which McDonalds uses the Simpsons to allure the customers. In February 2007, four months before the new movie was released Harper Collins created a special edition book about the Simpsons. Again, this was a great move, in terms of advertising the movie in form of a book. Similarly, Microsoft created also a limited edition of their product, the Xbox 360. This was released on May 2007, one month before the movie came out. The idea here was to sell the Special Edition with the Simpsons game from Microsoft in one package. Last but not least, Toywiz owns the rights to create the Simpsons toys for the characters in the movie. Toywiz sold all the characters in specific scenes, which occur in the Simpsons movie.
This precis is exactly one page in length and has a hook and introduction in the first paragraph and one paragraph, explaing internal Synergy and one explaining external Synergy. All paragraphs follow the rules of "writing a paragraph" and the entire "essay" is based on one idea as well.
Monday, September 21, 2009
How did jeans stay cool?
2 paragraphs
Starting in the early 20th century, cool increasingly shaped the lives of people. Specifically the teens have created a great market field that buy the idea of cool. For this reason, giant Media corporations have started to research the idea of cool in order to sell these ideas to the teens. In Merchants of cool, the people have mentioned the cultural blending between a product and a lifestyle. For example, Sprite has linked their product with Hip Hop, in order to make the product represent a lifestyle. MTV was the second corporation, which used Sprite and broadcasted it on TV. By externally synergizing, the two companies used their ideas to advertise their company with cool, which creates a huge market field, because Hip Hop in general is considered cool. The reason for this is that media companies such as MTV or the producer Dr. Dre have made the rappers and hip, cool. Again, teenagers, who then drink sprite, consider them very "ghetto" or "hip hop". Similar to Merchants of cool, No Logo explains the same concept, in which Nike and Tommy Hilfiger brought into the Hip Hop scene. Again, hip hop is the key area, which is considered cool. Tommy Hilfiger, for example, adapted their clothes to the Hip Hop scene, by making the clothes more “baggy”, because similar to the idea of Sprite, something that links to Rappers or ghetto is considered cool. The teenagers see these rappers as their "idols", who they look up to. By wearing "baggy" clothes, the appearance of the teenagers of close to one of a rapper; cool. The term is known as bro-ing; the adapting of a product to make it more “Ghetto/Hip Hop”. Both, the Merchants of Cool and No Logo seem to show that cool is the best and most efficient way to sell a product successfully.
By using the same method, both the Merchants of Cool and No Logo explain another way that companies use to sell their product; Brand Identity. This means that a company’s entire philosophy, and as a result their products are based on a certain lifestyle. In No Logo the company “Vans” is the best example, because they sell the ideas of skaters and snowboarders to the public sector. This means, that the company uses this concept to both advertise and make their company cool. Again, this leads into the mainstream that cool sells best, because teenagers base their whole life, meaning attitude and actions on being cool. In Merchants of Cool, companies identify themselves as cool, by using a product and connecting it to the company. The idea of the Midriff is the best example, describing this procedure. They take the “model”, which then leads into a standard for many teenage girls. By using this model like figure, the companies can sell products, using this idea. Teenagers buy these products, in order to feel more like their idols. This is the best method for companies to market their products, buy tighing it to an "idol". In general, the idea of "sex sells" is introduced by the companies, because again, this is one f the best ways to sell a product. The reason for this is that anything that has something to do with "sex" seems "disrespectful" and therefore is considered cool. Companies in general, use ideas or philosophies, in order to make the products more interesting and cool. Again, this is te best method to sell the products in the public sector.
No Logo Review/Main Points
Key Elements:
- Kids will pay to fit in.
- Nike and Tommy Hilfiger became cool by buying into the Hip Hop Scene.
- Bro-ing
- Brand Identity - A certain brand that identifies itself to a certain lifestyle, culture.
- Everything is made up of lifesyles. Go with or without the mainstream
- Companies can only rely on cool, which are young people. So they got young people hired in the company
- Kids only buy brands,

