what would happen in the a world without a brand

Can you imagine a world without brand or differentiation?, Can you eat a chocolate bar that has nothing written on it's package other then "chocolate"?. No one could imagine a world without a brand, why? because we trust them, like them, and live with them. There are millions of brand around the world today, whether it's food, clothing, games, electronic devices or drugs, even you walk along the street you will see at least one sign of brand shopping mall. They have become one of essential idea in our lives, we see them everyday in TV, computer, work place, books, everywhere we take the step.

Let's hypothetically there is no brand exist in the world, what would it be like?, first of all when you go shopping and buy the T-shirt for example, they will be all same without the logo, and any websites you visit or magazines you read, there will be no taste of variety. Is this mean it is disaster? or crisis?, you can't only say it's bad, because without brand for example there would be no level of difference, which as everyone wears same type of cloth or buy same type of materials we will all look equal. Because even in high school many people wear different clothes and some people wear fancy clothes whereas some people wear normal looking clothes, when they wear those kind of different clothes they feel in different ways and looks other people in other perspective, but wearing all same clothes can make those people feel in the same and in other terms cooperate each other.

On the other hand there would be a lot of negative sides without a brand which first of all as many things would appear same, people will not have many choices with the product they buy. As most things will come from one idea, people would get bored easily and would not go for shopping or tour. In addition there would be no more advertisement around us, because most of the ad is for brand, without brand there would be no advertise. Is this mean bad?, well there are tonnes of company who makes profit through the advertising and if there is no more, it means there is not much business running, which means people would not have a jobs. Millions of people today have a job related to the advertising, therefore no brand will make insane rate of unemployment.

Likewise brand has become essential part of our life, without them we could not survive. Also without us, the consumers brand will not survive as we are the one who makes them profitable. But it's not that we should love the brand and keep being persuaded by them, it is always our problem to make things in right order.

Reflection on the course

It's almost end of the semester! I can't believe we are almost done for the english media studies. Actually I'm really sad that I'm writing this course reflection, however throughout this course I really had learn many things about media. Starting from conspiracy theory, media speak, media triangle, manufacturing consent, media myth, stereotypes, Brands and products, and etc. Even most of the thing were really new to me, they were interesting to learn, for example when we learned about the lunar landing conspiracy, I was really surprised and wonder, if that is really false information that is created by the media. Those kind of lessons helped me change my perspective towards the media.

Out of all the most important thing I learned from this course is the 6 main thing about media: everything is a construct, what is said is only half of the story, media is our reality, Everything comes down to money, whoever owns the biggest megaphone wins, monkey see money do. These were our main elements used through the course, they helped us to connect to main idea that each unit tried to tell us. For example when we learned about the racial stereotype, by watching a movie crash, we could connect to the idea that "whoever owns the biggest megaphone wins" that we are used to see all those stereotypes due to the effect of media, because even that movie was created by the media, it is them who has power and make us to see what they wants us to see. Likewise those were really helpful element for me to learn many things about media, and even I don't take English media again these concepts will guide me and sort of give right perspective towards media

I remember when ms Meret talked about the blue and red pill we could take like in Metrix, that if red pill offers the truth and blue pill offers to quit, I think it was good choice for me to choose the red pill and had chance to see the truth. This course worked as my shield to be free from slavery by media and now I could clearly see media in right perspective, I hope many other people in the world realize this fact as many of us are surrounded by the media and we should remember it is our responsibility to see through curtain beyond the media.

What makes brands so powerful? why can't consumers resist them?

What do you see first, when you go to shopping mall to buy some clothing? Is it the price tag on the product or Is it the brand logo? People buy the products based on what brand they are, and they pay the price that they think it worse. So what makes the brand so powerful? What makes people attracted and addicted to the brand? Well it’s not just good product that makes the brand unique and trusted, but there are more things behind it that we can’t see.
First of all we know brand is an idea, for example all the famous brand like Nike, Mc donald,Coca Cola, and etc have their own idea represent them. Many people do not realize how powerfully this brand idea impact us, thus they don't understand why they can't resist them. The reason brand idea is so powerful is that it affects our emotions, before I further explain this, I just want to clearify one thing that is our wants vs needs. Basically need is something we have to have, that we can't live without it. A good example is food and clothing, they are essential supply for us whether we like it or not, we need them.On the other hand want is something we would like to have, but which we could live without them, for example is latest fashion clothings, new cell phone that we desire to have. If you compare this with product vs brand you can conclude that product is our need and brand is our want. Why? ok try think this way, choco chip with a brand name and no brand that would be sold in different places what makes you think different about both product? isn't both choco chip helps you from hunger?. Obviously it is brand that makes you favor one product over the other because it plays with our emotions.

So how does brand plays with our emotions? Basically most of time we see the brand through the advertisement, therefore it is main element that brand uses to get their idea across to us. For example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGx4E8w5VHg&feature=related the commercial of budweiser which is beer, shows the story of horse which wants to be a real carriage pulling horse, but it can't as it is too weak. Then the dog comes along to help the horse, which it gives the horse special training over night and day and finally after year, that horse becomes big strong carriage pulling horse and at last scene shows how the dog and the horse looking happily at each other. Until then the budweiser itself does not appear on the ad, so what would be purpose of the ad?. The real purpose is to get their idea across to the audience, the message they want to us to absorb. What would be the message in this case? well it is clearly friendship, basically what they are saying is "by having the budweiser you can have good friendship with others ". They want to give a consumer emotional benefit of friendship when we have their product. All these kind of messages are indirect message, which we will think unconsciously when we see the brand. The ad doesn't tell you like "You will for sure have good friendship if you buy our product!", because they know that they don't have to do that to convince us.

Likewise when they give those kind of emotional benefit to us, that is when it creates our desire, our wants. People who seeks good friendship like shown in the ad will buy the budweiser to seek for good friendship, people who wants rich life will buy the brand that gives the emotional benefit of rich. Like I said before wants are something that we desires to have, which is not something that is necessarily needed. People want is unlimited unlike the need, we keep search for it, so if that want is created in our minds there is no limit to our want how much we will spend on the brand. That's how they play with our emotions

Sadly most of times we don't even realize what brand is trying to tell us, and most of the time we don't think deeply about the ad, then we wonder why we can't resist them. We should look things in more clear and different perspective, that media is our window!. They can put things the way they want us to see, they are the one with the power not the audience, remember the term "whoever owns the biggest megaphone wins". So we are responsible for ourselves to look things in right ways. I'm not saying that every ad is telling lie, but things doesn't work as what media tells us. After all it is our choice to see the right thing and put things in right order.

What do you see first, when you go to shopping mall to buy some clothing? Is it the price tag on the product or Is it the brand logo? People buy the products based on what brand they are, and they pay the price that they think it worse. So what makes the brand so powerful? What makes people attracted and addicted to the brand? Well it’s not just good product that makes the brand unique and trusted, but there are more things behind it that we can’t see.
First of all we know brand is an idea, for example all the famous brand like Nike, Mc donald,Coca Cola, and etc have their own idea represent them. Many people do not realize how powerfully this brand idea impact us, thus they don't understand why they can't resist them. The reason brand idea is so powerful is that it affects our emotions, before I further explain this, I just want to clearify one thing that is our wants vs needs. Basically need is something we have to have, that we can't live without it. A good example is food and clothing, they are essential supply for us whether we like it or not, we need them.On the other hand want is something we would like to have, but which we could live without them, for example is latest fashion clothings, new cell phone that we desire to have. If you compare this with product vs brand you can conclude that product is our need and brand is our want. Why? ok try think this way, choco chip with a brand name and no brand that would be sold in different places what makes you think different about both product? isn't both choco chip helps you from hunger?. Obviously it is brand that makes you favor one product over the other because it plays with our emotions.So how does brand plays with our emotions? Basically most of time we see the brand through the advertisement, therefore it is main element that brand uses to get their idea across to us. For example,

2010년 3월 21일 일요일

Gender stereotypes (where we see them the effects)

What does it mean to "act like a man"? in our society or what does it mean to be "ladylike"? Do all men act tough, strong, and not cry because they are naturally like that?, Do all woman be gentle, nice, cross their legs and weak because they are born with it? or do they act like that because they were taught in that way?. I'm not going to spend my time doing the nurture verses nature debate,but I just want to clearify one thing that media does stereotype a gender. In all kinds of media including movie, cartoon, magazines, newspaper, and etc the gender is continuously being stereotyped and we could see those effects from all kinds of media that surrounds us.

If you see in all those TV advertisement of household products, cooking utensils which gender is used? Isn't it most likely to be women?. On the other hand If you see advertisement of sports it is most likely to be men. It is not that only women uses house hold products or only men enjoys sports, but why does media shows us in that way? Media just purposely gives those images to our mind. In addition even if you see the famous olden cartoons like mickey mouse, ninja turtles, Flintstones those cartoons portray each gender so differently. male cartoons portrayed as more brave, strong, tough characters than female ones who are represented more as weak, vulnerable, useless characters. We should not forget that cartoons are mostly for kizs or young people, so when young people continues to see those images over time what would they think? Is it media who made us act as men, or women.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nIXUjzyMe0

On the other hand what make us think that certain behavior is not appropriate for our gender, have you ever done something that you think it isn't appropriate for your gender, for example if you're a guy you know it is not usual to cross your leg while you are sitting, or if if you are a girl you know it is unusual to open your legs wide while you are sitting. Then does people criticize about something that isn't appropriate for your gender? sure they will, even your closest natives like parent would criticize your actions. On the other hand would media criticize? I think this is more obvious answer because they are the main one who does all the gender stereotypes. Likewise because of that some boys or girls would had to hold back the thing that they wanted to do.

Sometimes there are cases where the criteria of gender roles are not followed, where women act strong, sporty and brave and men act weak, sensitive and vulnerable. But as soon as this criteria is not followed the people and media tend to criticize. Gays and Lesbian could be one of big example where criteria of girl should like boys and boys like girls is violated, media itself does not directly critize of them, but clearly they discourage people's opinion toward gay and lesbians. What I personally think is that as sex is not same as gender, it is people own free will to act out their gender. I'm not saying that people can be gays or lesbians if they want to!, but I just think that nothing can be pressured or forced. Even if you are a girl and you're very good at physical skills, it should be your freedom to do something that is related to physical skills, as that area could give more opportunities of success to you. What you do should not only be based on gender.

Baby X is one of big example we learned in class. Where Baby X learned to do both girls and boys roles in school, as we see first time children in school dislike baby X as it was so different from what they've seen. But eventually at the end most children favored X, where the girls started to follow something that boys do and boys started to follow something that girls do. In fact gender stereotype could be just one big boundary that media has created and we have just followed that boundary because it seems right. But we should remember again that everything is a construct and there is no neutral zone. We should be the one to decide what is right and wrong not the media.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq6Ct8IA5cY

How stereotypes in media impact our reality

As we are living in a mdia world, we tend to see many stereotypes by media. What do we feel when we see those stereotypes? or do we even recognize what is being stereotyped? If we carefuuly look around us, we can find tonnes of things that are being stereotyped, starting from gender, age, job, race, looks and position in family in fact media may not be able to exist without stereotype. Maybe we could unconsiously think that what is being stereotyped is our reality because we have heard it so many times, it is accepted myth. There are some examples: "All Asians are good at math", "All black people are athletic", "White people are higher class", these are some common stereotypes that media uses to make us see certain groups of people. It might be based on truth, and it could be justified by using statistics. However statistics don't assure anything about a person

The main concept applies again, that "media is our reality", as we always surrounded by media and we look through by media as our window, when media stereotypes it is obvious that we are the one who as the audience will be mostly impacted. Then how does it impact our reality? For example lets say a business company wants to hire an accountant who should be good at math calculations, and lets say hypothethically that they interviewed two people, one is a Asian guy and one is white guy with blond hair, both had same education at same university. we can apply two kinds of stereotype that "All Asian are good at math" and "Blonds are dum" when the employer has these kind of stereotypes in mind who is he going to choose? obviously it will be the Asian guy, but in reality is this true?There is no reason that the Asian guy should be math genius or Blonds should be dummer because of that trait. Also there is no fixed genetic prove that shows how different race of people act.http://www.helium.com/items/671652-the-impact-of-stereotyping
but if the owner of company really trust those stereotypes, the business would be dominated by the Asians then any other races. Likewise stereotype could impact our reality; such as job opportunities, how you being treated in society, the way we eat, way we dress and etc.

So Is stereotypes effect our reality in only bad ways? overall there are 2 types of stereotypes they are either positive or negative stereotypes. Stereotypes like Asians are good at math, black people are athletic are the positive stereotypes which gives the good images and perspective towards the group. On the other hand there are negative stereotypes like Blonds are dum, old people are smelly and dirty which gives bad image and perspective towards the group.So is this acceptable to allow stereotype to impact our reality in such way? I personally will say "no" because what I think that make person to be different from one another is the each individual's environment and situation rather than looking each people based on physical appearance.

We can apply the concepts here that "what is said is only half the story", even we have some specific information to certain group we stereotype, it is not everything we know about them, we only base on the knowledge that we absorbed from media. But even some steretypes are based on truth, there could be something more behind it. For example "Asians are good at math" but as many people know one of the famous mathematician in the world was German Albert Einstein, also there are many famous mathematicians from europe such as Blaise Pascal(french mathematician), Carl Friedrich Gauss(German mathematician). So can we say stereotypes are based on full source of information? or is it only based on half story?
see the video=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOZd11Mcej4

Whether we like it or not media is still going to stereotype, and we will continue to see them, because stereotypes benefits the media. But it makes us feel limited and traped, so in order to fight those stereotype we should know who is working behind it, the media. "Whoever owns biggest megaphone wins" we should remember that most things are owned by one huge group and continues to give same message over and over again, there are no counter culture. We should be the one who should prevent media to impact our reality in certain way.

my media consumption

Every day in English Media class, I learn something new that is somewhat shocking and interesting. So far we have learned quite a lot of things about the media. However the key factor that I must not forget is that all media is a construct and thus there are no accidents in the media. When I heard "all media is a construct," I was surprised even if it wasn't something new to me. Every day while I was surrounded by media, I didn't really think deeply about its existence.In real life, we are all living in 21th century we are in a media world. So many thing we see, hear, do such as TV, computers, radio, newspaper and etc are part of the media, therefore we are all impacted by the media. Media influence what we talk about and it even influence our thoughts, this applies even what media tells is a false. At the very beginning of the course we learned about the conspiracy theory, which is a term that has come to refer any tentative theory. There are some famous conspiracy theory we did in the class: Neil Armstrong lands on the moon, 911 and JFK. I personally didn't know that any of these worldly famous events had the conspiracy theory, as most people know these were world's famous event and incident and most people believes it really did happen, why? For example for Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, how can we sure that Armstrong really landed on the moon even we didn't actually saw it, what is fact that create our beliefs towards these events. Isn't it the media? that why we trust that Neil Armstrong actually landed on the moon or 911 terror that WTC 7 fall down, why do we trust them?. Actually when I watched the conspiracy theory about the Neil Armstrong, there were many valid reason that justified the conspiracy. Therefore we can't 100% sure that media always give the truth, maybe it is only one version, essentially there are multiple truth and it is always affected by the bias. It just troubles me to realize this truth because, media is something we are living in most of the time and supplies us the most information and if this blinds us from the truth what could we really trust and rely on?
On the other hand recently this week miss Meret taught us 6things that we must know about the media:
1.As said everything is a construct
2.What is said is only half of the story, it means for example in some website there are articles that tells about the benefits of using ethane, but it doesn't really states the negative fact about it even there are some negative facts in contrast to the benefits, so what media states may not be all the information it should have, some of it might not be presented.
3.Media is our reality,our most common portal into world is media. For example when we think about the Africa, the common image that comes to our mind is something such as green grass,and wild animals. Even we haven't been to Africa that is the reality we know, but on the other hand there are some different images of Africa that we have never seen, such as high rised buildings that creates some image of developed country. So if media show only those kind of undeveloped side of Africa, we will never know the other side of image that is totally different as media is only common portal into the world that we can't see.
4.Everything comes down to money, Everything we see or read everyday has a price tag which everything costs money. For example, some of the advertising we see on the TV costs thousands and millions of dollar. So media basically is not something that pops out from nothing.
5.Whoever owns the biggest megaphone wins, The key word used convergence which is combination of all these different media into one operating platform. In media basically most things we see, hear comes from one voice. I learned in class that one of famous organization Time Warner owns almost every media, therefore we only hears and see from their side. This is mainstream media that there is no room for counter culter.
6.Monkey see, monkey do, We all believe what we are originally, totally free thinkers. We want to believe that our initiative is totally our own, but nothing is further from truth.As I learned from lesson it is shocking and surprising to see the reality of media. I want to state question that "What can we do" despite of this reality, can we reshape the media as we want to?. To answer this question I will have to know more about the media. As now what I know about the media is only cover page of the book.