Merchants of Cool

“Merchants of Cool” was interesting… but not all that surprising. It discussed the concerns of the market industry targeting a specific age group: teens. Basically, the video expressed the extents to which corporations are willing to go to in order to understand teens and how they can market to them.

They start out in a focus group, where kids are paid to sit and discuss their likes and dislikes. Teens want money, and have information about what they think is cool and uncool, so companies trade their money in exchange for input from the youth. However, it’s hard to identify how effectual this method really is. The clips that they show exhibit teenagers who don’t even seem the least bit interested in the questions being asked… it appears that the marketers have already lost them.

The next segment discusses “cool hunting.” I think this is a slightly more effective tactic. This is where researchers go out and look for cultural leaders. They seek out people who are the trendsetters among their subculture. Once they identify what the forward thinkers are doing, they can sell it back to all of the individuals who seek the styles of the forward thinkers.

However, this brings up the issue of the “paradox of cool hunting.” As soon as a new, marketable trend is identified, and it starts to catch on, the individuals who were once setting a trend have to move on to something else. As soon as people pick up on something, the concept becomes uncool. This means the faster cool hunters find a trend, the faster they will force people to move on.

Some other interesting parts of the film included the section on MTV. It is amazing how much contact their industry has with America. The idea that five conglomerates control pretty much all of the media that teens come into contact with is disturbing. That means that the shows, the music, the news, the products, and the people are all connected. Everything is being sold… from the same owners.

One important aspect of the show is that these marketers are doing “market research,” not “human research.” They are not trying to understand teens in order to relate to them on a personal level. They simply want to understand what drives teens to buy specific products. They want to know what they need to do in order to influence people to buy their specific product.

It is strange that as a result, companies have to “hide” their advertising in order to actually reach the public. If the marketing comes through, the product doesn’t sell as well. This concept can be applied to the Dove videos. If people watch these videos, and they don’t feel as if a product is being pushed on them, the advertising has a higher modality. However, this makes it difficult, because now it is becoming more and more difficult to understand the motives behind many of the media sources we come into contact with everyday.