Global Village Essay -- Sociology, Global Culture

A decade into the 21st century and the world is increasingly being recognized and branded as a â€Å"global village.† Questioning whether conventionality across America’s once diverse and sundry cities, and the globalization of American ideals, habits, and products throughout global society is favorable in today’s rapidly changing world, Virginia Postrel and Philippe Legrain present their arguments, respectively. In Virginia Postrel’s â€Å"In Praise of Chain Stores† she argues that even though American cities are becoming more and more identical, that there are immediate advantages to this current transformation. Philippe Legrain’s â€Å"Cultural Globalization is Not Americanization† questions the idea that America’s culture is having such a profound impact on the rest of the world that other countries are losing their own unique identities. Virginia Postrel’s â€Å"In Praise of Chain Stores† and Philippe Legrain ’s â€Å"Cultural Globalization is Not Americanization† successfully defy generalities and assumptions of the effects of the American economic machine and the United States’ prominent social grasp on the world through their use of similar rhetorical appeals in support of their arguments. In this paper, Postrel’s and Legrain’s challenges of orthodox views of American culture through their strong logical reasoning and impressive examples and supporting evidence will be thoroughly compared. First a detailed summary of each of the author’s work will be given so that the major points of both essays can be specified. Next a comprehensive point-by-point comparison of each article will be given on how both works challenge common beliefs, if they revise any stereotypes, and the rhetorical strengths and weaknesses presented by the authors. â€Å"In Prais... ...ness to the rhetoric of Postrel’s article. Philippe Legrain also uses many Logos appeals to support his claim. He provides a plethora of citations, and second opinions to support his position on Americanization. Instead of ignoring the elements of the argument in contrast to his own, he shares every premise of what globalization and the spread of American culture may be. As a characteristic of Americanization Legrain explains that â€Å"Another American export is also conquering the globe: English†¦Language is often at the heart of a global culture† (Legrain 519). As for Ethos, Legrain’s authority on globalization is valid as he was once an advisor to the World Trade Organization and has written extensively on the subject. Legrain’s way of argumentation contrasts with Postrel’s and her Ethos deficiency, but the two articles do both have a privation of Pathos appeals.

Nacirema Paper Essay

It has been rumored that are extraordinary beings on another familiar planet close by our home of Nacirema, and it is our goal as the Interplanetary Nacirema Research Center team to investigate the situation. We plan to focus our trip on the specific coordinates that the University of Connecticut campus lies on, and being the curious creatures we are, we plan to delve into specific areas within this concentrated area. We will be studying the way both males and females conduct their everyday lives in terms of living, learning and communicating. Through our research, we plan to lighten up the mysteries about this foreign species and enable ourselves to communicate and interact with them according to their cultural norms. We launch our research in a lively part of campus where the residents will meet with each other and eat a meal of their foreign cuisine, the Student Union. This area is always populated with all different kinds of people who conduct their meetings amongst each other in close quarters like there is nothing to hide. It is here that we made a great discovery which we believe will apply to all parts of campus; we observed a separation in habits based on gender. The males eat their food and associate with each other in rather barbaric ways, hardly breathing before taking the next bite of food. In contrast, females seem to almost nibble at their food as if they weren’t even hungry. After observing this lack of similarities between genders while eating, we are now curious to see how it applies to other settings. The earthlings of these coordinates have taken a special liking to the area surrounding the north campus quadrangle. The residents of this particular area have certain characteristics that separate them from the rest of the campus in a way that has never been observed on our home planet. Everywhere you look there is someone participating in either some sort of barbaric activity or just lying around looking like some sort of statue. It does seem, however, that there is a division in personalities based on the gender of the earthlings, much like what has been observed in other parts of the campus. The males of the community run around wearing shirts that hardly cover half of their torso and throw objects at each other as if it was some sort of fun activity. Additionally, they refuse to stop looking at the females like they are trying to impress them or something. Despite these oddities, the females are an even more foreign species and observing them just sends my mind into even more confusion. These females just gather in large groups and instead of socializing with each other and conversing about their lives, they just lie down and do absolutely nothing. It is truly a spectacle. According to my observations, it seems as if the only thing they are interested in is lying in the sun and tanning their skin. In lieu of this behavior by the females, the males just insist on prancing around trying to get their attentio n. It will definitely take more observation to understand why the earthlings of this particular location act the way they do. We decided to continue our research in the gymnasium to figure out how the humans behave in a more isolated environment of working out and conditioning. Once again there seems to be more differences than similarities between the two genders while working out. The males tend to lift weights to build muscle and work on their â€Å"beach body†. Males were constantly caught looking as themselves in the mirror and flexing just to see how good they looked. Once again it seems as if there main goal is to use all their energy impress the females no matter what they are doing. On the other hand, the females seem to go to the gym just for the purpose of running and losing weight. It appears that the females’ mindset is that it doesn’t matter how skinny they are, they still think they need to lose weight. Our studies of this strange setting yielded more important information concerning the behavior of the humans and hopefully will lead to more effective studies in the future. Based on these observations, it is evident that we are not on our own planet of Nacirema and the beings of this planet are not like us at all. However, much has been learned from our trip here about the personalities and motives of these residents. Nonetheless, I believe that based on our findings we will not be making a trip back here until we have prepared ourselves enough in the ways of their strange, strange culture.

Marketing to the Bottom of the Pyramid

The concept of the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) market was originally developed by C.K. Prahalad in â€Å"The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid† to highlight a large potential market made up of a large segment of the world’s population that has, until recently, been an ignored market segment among multinational companies. In an age of increasing global competition and near-saturation for some products in more mature markets, this multi-cultural segment, made up of people from all parts of the world that earn less than two dollars a day, can generate significant revenues and be profitable for companies who have developed appropriate strategies for reaching this market segment. Among the issues related to BOPMs are establishing appropriate distribution channels, developing and pricing products that have value for those in these markets, and finding creative ways for financing. In terms of financing, this would include not only that related to the purchase of a product for those with relatively low incomes, but would also include strategies for financing business initiatives on the local level. Perspectives Stakeholder would include the local populations that make up the BOPMs. Cultural considerations must be a key component of product development and advertising. Care must be given that products will not harm those to whom they are marketed. Also, companies are stakeholders in that new strategies including BOPMs may be important ways for a company to grow organically. In extension, many large multinational firms are public-traded companies. As such, shareholders are the owners and increasing shareholder value is a goal. Discussion †¢ Ethics of marketing certain products to people in the BOPM. †¢ Issues related to distribution channels. It seems that companies marketing to BOPMs must think beyond the traditionally accepted distribution channels. Many people in BOPMs live in remote, harder to reach, areas. †¢ Issues related to advertising. Television and radio advertising are one approach, but may not be the best way to reach the target market. Action/Recommendation Distributions Channels A successful strategy for marketing to these segments would include more direct marketing, with people getting paid on commissions. For retailers, marketing efforts should be geared toward lower volume sales in smaller stores. In contrast to what we are accustomed to in our domestic market in which we shop in large retails stores where the prices per unit decreases as the product size increases, BOPMs would require a different approach. These markets would require smaller, possibly individual-size products that could be purchased for a relatively small amount of money for people that probably do not have credit and do not have a significant amount of money on any given day. Product Development In addition to the size of products offered, other important factors need to be considered. In terms of packaging, climate is important—products may be offered in small, more or less open-air stores in hot climates, for example. More important for products that have a technical component, consideration also needs to be given to the level of features available. Whereas some features ,such as battery capacity—important as noted in the case for those without reliable sources of electricity—may be critical for product success, others may not be useful and my unnecessarily increase the price or the complexity of the product.