How the companies are using the Anti-globalization movement
Did you
know what the cool hunters are? Did you accidentally notice lately any
advertisements with radical themes or the latest fashion that demonstrates
symbols of revolution impressed you? When anti-globalization becomes a mass
movement it’s easily noticed by the brand companies that they don’t want to
loose a share from any part of the consumer pie…
Cool Hunt. The chase of modern trends
Let’s assume for a moment that you
are a big international company that produces things like outfit, refreshment
drinks or even music-mostly aiming to people of young age. In today’s market
just by distributing a product is not enough- even if it has already succeeded.
The promotion of products has reached a point where is considered as a dynamic
system. One day a product sells like fresh cakes and the next day fades away
like if it had never existed. Therefore, a continuous attachment to the
consumers is necessary in a way that will keep people’s interest high. Here is
where the Cool Hunt is involved.
The whole idea started on the early nineties when Corporate Marketing
Consultancies Like Sputnik, L. Report and Bureau of Style begun carrying out Market research on behalf of
Brand companies like Absolut, Reebok and Levi’s in a totally novel way. The
research included photographing, video shooting and interviewing with persons
and acts considered to be “cool” at the moment. The whole plan was to use the
results not mostly for developing new products but rather for promotion of the
same product. “The idea looks simple in the beginning. Every one could go out
in the streets and come in contact with young persons making general
conclusions about their trends. Although, how do you know they are the “right”
ones? Have you been inside their closet? Have you traced their daily path? Did
you hang out with them?”
In an interview of Malcolm Gladwell-stuff writer in the New Yorker and
also writer of the Tipping point-with heroin a young Cool hunter- recently made
to a movie- says: You must be really an expert to interpret the trends of the
youth today. It’s not enough just observing, you must fully understanding how a
trend is crated…to be cool is valuable for the marketing because they are able
to understand that that the message transferred out there is largely enhanced
if the receiver is the kind of person which will put the standards of what is
cool….Cool hunting is to detect, understand and finally use.”
A small example of cool hunting in
practice is the following: Did you notice lately any ads-mainly in university
campuses-of the Energy drink brand, Red Bull asking for young people to work as
“Student Brand Manager”? “.. Are you ready for action?
Party-studies-Travelling, now you can have it all! You only must: be university
student, very open and social person, know when, where n’ what is happening..
Red Bull awaits you for unique action!
This is a typical example of how a big international brand carries out a
cool hunt in local level, using as a medium the very same young persons and
paying almost nothing-comparing to the profit gained.
Hunting the cool character of the Anti-commercial
But,
ok, fine. Some institutes doing market research and selling the data to big
companies, so they can sell their products in a better way. No big deal, except
of the sad conclusion of the intention abusing the very same way of life of the
modern urban youth. Movements like the one of Anti-globalization-with a clear
anti-commercial character- hardly could be related and be effected by market
research and other tricky brand crap… Perhaps apparently, it’s true.
Nevertheless the world of Brands does not care about ideology-even if this
ideology stands against them. Whatever is considered “cool” today and owes a
mass character can be used so products can be sold. And the cool hunt is
directly involved to it.
The Dutch institute Signs of the
Time like the previous ones, carries out market research and afterwards sells
the data gathered in the form of “data packets”, to companies interested. Most
of the times the customer is the one that points out the theme and market
analyzed. The head manager of the institute is a Sociology Lecturer, Carl
Rhode, and most of the employees are nothing but post-graduate students. In the
period of summer 2001 a Cool Hunt campaign was carried out all over Europe,
called “The Cool Summer Hunt”, hunting “the most interesting persons, places,
products and attitudes….
The interesting about it is that one
of the research subjects was the Anti-globalization movement…
From the web page of the institute
we read:
“The
new anti-commercialism. Electrohippies and hacktivists all over the world
unite.
What
is the wider picture of new rebels in Europe?
How
to adapt to the new mood?
Faking
that you are also concerned is not enough.
Generation
SEARCH is far too smart and clued-up.
Young
people protest against the
branded
universe they have
to
live in. Though, at the same time,
they
love many of the branded
products
it offers. We are definitely
not
going back to the anti-capitalist Sixties!
Nevertheless,
anti-commercialism is on
the
rise and takes unexpected turns”
This presentation is as a “first taste” for the customers of the institute that would be interested to buy the research data. As it was mentioned before, cool hunting is not only info accumulation of modern trends but something that intents to get into the very true spirit of the “subject” analyzed. In the same web page it’s made clear:
Cool
hunting is different from trendwatching.
Trendwatchers
discover and describe trends.
If
they are good they also analyse the trends and put them in a comprehensible
social cultural frame of reference.
Cool
hunters do the same. They also go with the flow of trends.
But they participate far more deeply into it.
They really blend in.
Interpreting all the above to the conditions of the Anti-globalization movement he have: Young people-cool hunters beginning from entering into the “mood” of the movement and reaching out to (pseudo-) participate in activities-like demonstrations and speeches-with the purpose not of course to spy and record faces and practices of ideology, but moslty to isolate the “cool” characteristics of these persons. What kind of clothes, what kind of hairstyle what kind of music, what kind of attitude, what kind of life style in general…All this pretty tied up in a data packet ready for sale to the prospective customers-companies...
Very interesting was also the presentation of the “Cool Summer Hunt”
results in a lecture given inside the Research center of the multinational
company Unilever. The company is customer of the institute and owes products
like ck perfume, washing machine detergents, Ola-Algida ice creams, calve
mayonnaise etc. In the lecture, among the several subjects presented was the
important role of utilizing celebrities in the promotion, the importance of sex
in the advertisements etc. When the Anti-globalization analysis was presented,
a number of slides were shown of pictures from demonstrations and web pages
dealing similar thematic. Emphasis was given to the so-called ad busting-the
alteration of ads transforming them to anti-commercial message- and to the kind
of music most popular between the fans of the movement. Also attention was
given to its philology with references to books like the one of Naomi Klein, No
logo. Oxymoron is that the same book deals hot material for the activity of
multinational trends in Third World countries…
If the institute above is still
analyzing the recent results, about the movement already in other parts the
practical application of anti-commercially promoting products has begun.
In an advertisement of the outfit
brand GAP, shown mostly in the U.S. the scenario was like this: Scenes-fidelity
low, like shooting with handy camera-similar like the street fights in Seattle.
Music backround from sampled Kid Rock song. Plan cut, troubles happening, you can hardly see people with colorful
clothes and hair, plans from fires, shops smashed, panic, and then: “Hate us
because we are beautiful…GAP”
Similar ads have also appeared in
European TV in promotion of products like milk (!) and of other kinds (Radio
spots etc).
All the above are already outrageous enough. In one hand we have a selling- buying of “products” which are nothing but human behavior research, deals between Institutes-secret agents and companies-multinational empires seeking out not for land but for the profit. On the other hand we have the disgusting attempt of gaining even from the “radical part”. The question now that could really set aside all the above is. Could this kind of abuse really influence and deceive?
A kind of answer “No way, we can not be cheated by this kind of tricks”
maybe it’s not enough. We shouldn’t forget that the exploitation is not on the
field of making anti-commercial products but mostly on the anti-commercial
promotion of every product suitable.
It would be a big lie to say that
consumption does not involve every each one of us. Maybe we should ask our
selves when was the last time we spent money for something that could express
our “radical” feelings. Even if it was music, clothes or publication. From the
Che t-shirt to Rage against the machine, from Doc martens to the big book-mal,
from the alternative video clips to the rasta hair paints. Sounds a little bit
out of reality? Hope so…
In the end of the Malcolm Gladwell interview it’s mentioned between others: “..The end of the cool hunt is the kill. The procedure of discovering the cool kills cool. The one that previously had adapted it, watching it now being adapted by everyone else, finally abandons it and almost run to the opposite direction…” In this statement could be confronted the following. Anti-globalization movement is another prey of the trend exploitation? It became massive so easily as it can be exploited and abandoned afterwards like an impermanent fashion? If it’s so, then pretty soon will be decorating the brand’s room of trophies. But if not, if it really stands outside that game-where it’s seen by the profiteering perspective- then maybe the next turn will be a surprise, a hunt trap for the hunter its self with the prey prepared to attack. And maybe the prey is also capable of mangle.