StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Evaluation of frontline the merchants of cool - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Student's Full Name: Professor's Name: Frontline - “The Merchants of Cool” (An Evaluation Essay) 20 January 2013 (estimated word count = 1,401) Introduction The power of marketing can be viewed from different perspectives, either as a source of inspiration, influence, and guidance, or in more crude terms, as a form of “brainwashing” in which it tries to mold the minds of viewers, consumers or target market or audience…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER91.8% of users find it useful
Evaluation of frontline the merchants of cool
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Evaluation of frontline the merchants of cool"

Download file to see previous pages

However, marketing is admittedly not that simple or easy, as consumers are quite fickle. They can change their minds readily, by following trends and whatever is considered as “cool.” Marketeers and advertising professionals can focus their efforts only on a particular sector or segment of the population, to achieve maximum effect. One can direct all marketing and advertising on middle-aged individuals, for example, for these are the people who are at the peak of their earning capabilities, at the prime of their careers.

Or one can focus on youths which is also fast becoming a significant sector because of its huge spending power. Teenagers are the hottest consumer demographic today, at 33 million strong with a buying power of about $100 billion by themselves alone, and by influencing parents, can still command another $50 billion to spend. I will argue in this paper that the comparison made by media critic and professor Robert McChesney likening this population segment as a massive empire to be colonized, an intellectual equivalent to Africa, is not very accurate.

Discussion Teenagers as a separate demographic segment came into prominence only recently as family incomes rose during the last few decades. Teens today have more pocket money when compared to earlier generations due to this rising affluence brought by a good economy and a continued globalization in teen culture has a marked influence on how this sector came to the attention of professional marketeers. Teen lifestyle became a distinct marketing category that deserves all the attention from marketing and advertising professionals because teenagers' big spending power on consumer items is a crucial factor when selling items like CDs, films, television programs, clothing, jewelry, shoes, books, music, sports, and many other items.

In a certain but limited sense, this is probably what Prof. McChesney referred to as a moral equivalent of the vastness of the African continent at the turn of the previous century, when it was ripe for the taking and exploitation. The teen demographic sector provides a vast opportunity for the purveyors of youth culture, food, fashion, fun, beauty products, activities, etc. because of their huge spending power in absolute dollar terms. Teenagers in a way had become a legitimate sector as part of an American consumer polity (Lee & Zhou 102).

However, the comparison of this teen demographic sector to the African continent is not very appropriate, as it is a bit of an exaggeration because of one key difference. In the time of British colonialism and imperialism, the colonized peoples of Africa were in no way able to offer some form of resistance. It was largely a one-way relationship, in which the British held all the cards, so to speak, with the African peoples in a very weak position in the relationship of colonial power and colonized people.

The colonial encounter in Africa was that of inequality, the British from a position of strength and the Africans in a weak position (Asad 16) but this is clearly not the case when it comes to the teens in terms of marketing. The youth today have a voice or choice, in which they

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Evaluation of frontline the merchants of cool Essay”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/english/1466284-evaluation-of-frontline-the-merchants-of-cool
(Evaluation of Frontline the Merchants of Cool Essay)
https://studentshare.org/english/1466284-evaluation-of-frontline-the-merchants-of-cool.
“Evaluation of Frontline the Merchants of Cool Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/english/1466284-evaluation-of-frontline-the-merchants-of-cool.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Evaluation of frontline the merchants of cool

Violence and Aggression in the National Health Service

Based on the National Audit Office Report (2003), there are at least 116,000 cases of reported violent and abusive incidents within NHS in the UK during the periods of 2000-2001.... With a figure like this, the need to formulate and develop strategies minimising the impact of violence and aggression in healthcare settings is extremely significant and an urgent matter....
23 Pages (5750 words) Essay

What Are the 4 Myths of the Modern Age

Charles Colson describes the four myths of the Modern Age.... The first myth is the goodness of man.... This myth makes people think that they are essentially good and absolves men of the responsibility of sin by substituting the term sickness for sin.... The second myth is the promise of the coming Utopia which proposes that that good governance and the tools of politics can produce perfect men....
14 Pages (3500 words) Essay

Impact of internet in marketing

Global business is being reconfigured by the Internet, which has emerged as a key marketing platform for businesses in both developed and less developed countries.... There is no telling what other human activities will Internet-related commerce may encompass but many businesses are already discovering the benefits of online transactions....
20 Pages (5000 words) Essay

Marks and Spencer Food Division SWOT Analysis

The paper "Marks and Spencer Food Division SWOT Analysis" discusses that the Marks and Spencer Group is primarily involved in the retailing of clothes, food and home products.... Clothing products include women's wear, men's wear, kids clothing and lingerie.... hellip; Brands create a consumer expectation with their consistency and uniformity of service and quality....
25 Pages (6250 words) Case Study

Merchants of Cool

The… That is the principle of the PBS Frontline documentary “the merchants of cool”, which makes an alarmingly undeniable case for the alteration of teenage Shopping Consumerism Merchants of Cool More than all cohorts in the past, contemporary teenagers and youth are not free to produce a genuine culture for their own.... That is the principle of the PBS Frontline documentary “the merchants of cool”, which makes an alarmingly undeniable case for the alteration of teenage culture by its immense commercialization....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Computer Sciences and Information Technology

The paper "Computer Sciences and Information Technology" discusses that simply put customer journey is actually a customer journey.... This journey is calculated from when the customer clicks or logs in to the site to the exact moment the customer receives the car.... hellip; The plan was timely executed and the establishment was a work of art (Safko and Brake, 2012)....
15 Pages (3750 words) Coursework

Short Answers on Merchants of Cool

"Short Answers on merchants of cool" paper states that having studied the teen generation for years, the merchants know to reflect the teen desires.... Since the teen generation is easily influenced, marketers create advertisements that provide readymade 'cool' taking away their power to choose.... They have to adopt attitudes that teenagers perceive as 'cool'.... 4) Marketers have embraced the anthropological approach to study and analyze the teens' trends in their search for the next cool thing....
1 Pages (250 words) Assignment

Situations and Scenarios in Yacht Management and Marine Insurance

From the paper "Situations and Scenarios in Yacht Management and Marine Insurance" it is clear that making the decision for declaring general average (GA) needs a discussion on the scope of the term GA.... GA is based on the concept of equity and the underlying logic is based on shared risk....
37 Pages (9250 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us