Cazbar’s Blog

“Coca Cola sees itself less as a soft drink bottler and more as an entertainment company that actively shapes as well as sponsors sporting events, concert, movies, and television series” Page 152

Life is too “clutter[ed]” and full of options for our attention to be brought to something that does not target our interests from as many angles as possible. Coca Cola joins the many brands that have now taken on the “convergence strategy” approach. This “strategy” aims to provide the “total entertainment package” and find a common ground for content providers and sponsors. 

Henry Jenkin’s finds this common ground through the commercial jargon of “The Loyals” and “The Fans.” The loyals are the viewers that are dedicated to a certain series, they watch it religiously and are interested in the show/series beyond the actual episode. In ‘television world’ these people are called fans, however, without knowing it, their interest in a show makes them the perfect target for marketing campaigns that have lost their effect on the new “empowered” audience. 

Advertisers use these “loyals” to successfully build “brand communit[ies]” through effecting the consumers/viewers “touch points” and building long term relationships between them and their brands, rather then focusing on one off purchases. This means that brands tune in to the “loyals” loyalty  and interact with them via the shows that they are “fans” of. This can happen through product placement, advertising or interactive television, such as voting for their favorite contestant on American Idol. After all, we are always reminded that “every vote counts” and this makes us feel appreciated and heard. We are more likely to believe a ‘friend’ or someone that cares about us, then a faceless brand. 

Brands such as Coca Cola have recognized peoples “touch points” very well and have established themselves to be one of the biggest brands in the world through branching out into all fields that interest their target market of 12-24 year olds. Cokemusic.com attracts young people interested in music, there are concerts and bands and recording opportunities available, this makes consumers forget that they are dealing with a brand (especially a soft drink brand) and associate the name of Coca Cola with whatever that find interesting in their market. Some will associate it with music, some with skateboarding, and others with parties, whatever it is, a “brand community” has been established and there is trust. 

With “affective economics” the way to go now, advertisers are dealing with the television consumer market on an entirely different level. If it is through building communities, they must not speak their brand but speak what the consumers want to hear from the voice of the brand. When it comes to telivision campaigns it is not too easy to be evasive of commercials and most people are too media savvy to fall for the old commercial tricks. Brands now speak through the voice of the shows, hence The Loyals meet The Fans. This is how the  content providers and sponsors found their common ground, it the shows job to lure the audience with things of interest while the sponsors intertwine the ‘boring’ stuff such a way that it does not over shadow the show but grasps the loyals ‘loyalty.’ Nothing works in one dimension anymore. 

I can finally let it out….

It’s not creepy that this friendly Irish man has a blue couch set up on the side of the street and is offering everybody and anybody to sit on it and talk about their problems to him, especially not the group hug with the school girls. It’s absolutely normal, in Kleenex world. You can join this caring, giving, sharing world if you buy Kleenex and wipe away your lonely tears with their product, and only theirs! 

Bibliography

Jenkins, Henry. “Buying Into American Idol: How we are being Sold on Reality Television” In Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York NYU Press, 2006. 59-92

Caroline Savransky

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“On going reports suggest links between mobile phones and teen prostitution and crime, and a new term was coined…to refer to high school girls dating middle aged men for cash” pg. 122-123

No, Mizuko Ito never elaborated on these riveting discoveries of the consequences of mobile phone use amongst teenagers. Never-the-less a clear image has been depicted of our “undisciplined, foot-loose, mobile phone wielding”  generation and how we take advantage of the “promiscuity of social contact.”

Much like all other theories on the psychology and apparent senselessness of modern youth, Mobile Phones, Japanese Youth, and the Re-placement of Social Contact tries to uncover the complexities involved with the joy of mobile phone use amongst young people. 

Ito’s research uncovered that our appreciation of mobile phones stem from the fact that many teenagers and young adults still live at home and are within ”adult controlled institutions.” Mobile phones allow young people to contact each other without their parents or siblings interfering. It took me a moment to process the depth of wisdom encountered with this theory, all those years of research truly amounted to a revolutionary ideas. 

The text looks far too deep into the matter of mobile phone use. The fact of the matter is mobile phones where created, the creators saw the marketing potential the device had with young people and began to target youth with enticing prospects of being able to communicate to friends when not right next to friends. Youth liked this because school, homework and parents controlled when they could be with friends, and mobile phones allowed them transcend this and still communicate. It’s fun, easy, cheap and ‘sneaky’, qualities youth look for in activities. 

Perhaps we do have an un-healthy dependancy on them, but perhaps society should also stop pressuring youth to keep up to date with the latest technology and trends. Yet. something tells me it’s too late for that. With “no talking on mobile phone” signs in all Japanese public transport and general phone etiquette in place in all public arenas, mobile phones are quiet well embedded within society already and it is definitely not the youth in charge of this. 

Bibliography

Ito, Mizuko. “Mobile Phones. Japanese Youth, and the Replacement of Social Contact.” In Ling, Rich and Pedersen, Per, Eds, Mobile Communications: Re-negotiation of the Social Sphere. London: Springer- Verlag, 2005, 131-148.