I'm assuming that we all had a grain (or bucket) of skepticism while watching "Merchants of Cool." I didn't really agree with the focus on rationalism and research/focus groups.
In Six Characters in Search of an Author the Father says "But a fact is like a sack; when it's empty, it won't stand up. To make it stand up, we've got to put reason and feeling into it to give it body" (226)
Are we losing the "big idea" with all the focus on the specifics? The market researchers tried to discover new trends to market by asking about everything from dating to clothing (khaki pants, anyone?). Maybe it's just the simple idea of the "indie" brand that implies individuality and being "special." (Apple over Microsoft, Google over Yahoo! etc.) After all, we are the "I-Generation"...
Thoughts?
Grace Yuan
3 comments:
The merchants of cool are trying to discover the trend setters who will lead the trend when the marketing strategies successfully make something 'hot'. While some marketing companies try to find a unique style or the new fashion icon, others study ordinary teenagers to develop a strategy that can appeal to the ordinary teens (after all not everyone is wannabes or fashion followers).
I believe that the focus on individual's own style became more important because after studying the general mood of the teenagers for a while, all the marketing companies have the bases/big ideas on what is likely to be the next 'cool'. Therefore, they are trying to pick up a special trait of some teenager and mass-produce it to start a trend.
(Jennifer Park)
Well, first I think that need to take into account that this video is a 'little' outdated (seeing as Brittany Spears's latest song isn't 'Oops I Did It Again.')
I do think that some of these methods may not be as effective as the video tries to make them sound. For example, I don't think that it is efficient to try to guess which teenagers are trendsetters just by what they're wearing (remember the gas mask).
I do think that they are being too specific when doing their research, especially in those groups where they make the kids circle or x things out. To try that method with such a small group just does not make sense to me. I just don't think that it can really be representative of the majority of the teenagers in the US.
I agree with Mary that the "merchants of cool" may be focusing too much on specifics in their research.
Yet why do they choose to work with such specifics instead of the "big idea"? Because this strategy works to some effect, excluding instances such as the gas mask. As Jenn suggested, trends must start with a small, specific instance. Where else would this specific instance originate, if not from some random teenager?
If market researchers limit themselves to specifics because this strategy has worked most efficiently for them in the past, then perhaps they have not lost the "big idea". Thoughts?
(Janet Lee)
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