Merchants of Cool

Today’s media in general is much more immersed in the lives of people. The media sets the trends of today’s culture by the images it puts in magazines, ads and TV. What we see in the media subconsciously tells us or makes us want certain things to keep up with the trends of today's society.

The first type of tactic that is used by marketing teams is narrow casting. Narrow casting is a type of advertising geared specifically towards one type of audience, not towards the general public. There are many examples of ads that are describes as narrow casting. One example if this is ads talking about “protecting your nest egg.” These ads are really talking about people who are going to retire and want to protect their 401k for retirement. These ads aren’t geared towards anyone 0else except people who are getting ready to retire. Another type of of advertising is “branding/ creating a culture around a brand." One example of this type of advertising is an ad that i saw on TV a few months ago, which talks about how BMW has created its own subculture, become part of pop-culture. This ad shows how much the brand "BMW" has become so much part of our lives in many aspects. BMW AD

Another technique that is used by companies is called "cool Hunting." Cool hunting is a technique used by companies where they pay analysts to interview and talk with focus groups to find out what they perceive as cool in today's society. The talk with the group about what they think is cool and not cool, where they think trends will go etc. The companies pay the individuals a few hundred dollars to come in and talk with their analysts for a few hours . For the company that is not that much money to spend when the will be making hundreds of thousands of dollars off this information.

Another type of Marketing is product placement. This is another major marketing technique that companies use. This basically refers to the place where companies chose to place their products or ads. For example. candy companies choose to place their products at the check out to make the consumer think that its a last minute thing that they can get before they are done shopping.

Right now, I think these types of marketing aren't going to go away anytime soon. I think that companies will refine these types of advertising and maybe copme up with some new ones. I don think the public will direct hich way the media turns and i think that the media will decide the trends of our culture in the future.