Ms. Klein was on CSPAN last night. Came up just a bit short on
the problem
being capitalist production methods tout court being the source of the
problems.
Ian ==============
Pardon my redundancy redundancy....
Ian
*******************
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> > [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of alex lantsberg
> > Sent: Monday, February 28, 2000 12:06 PM
> > To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com; pulp-culture at Infothecary. org
> > Subject: brand bombing
> >
> >
> > http://www.thestar.com/back_issues/ED20000117/money/20000117BUS01b
> > _FI-ROSEMAN.ht
> > ml
> >
> > Just sick of Nike- Author foresees backlash against hip logos, brands
> > CLUB MONACO and Roots move from clothes into home furnishings.
> > Starbucks puts out a magazine called Joe and Microsoft has an
> > on-line journal,
> > Slate.
> > Ralph Lauren markets designer household paints, Nike launches a
> > swooshed cruise
> > ship and auto-parts giant Magna opens a theme park.
> > This is what happens when brand names rule the world.
> > To understand how branding drives the global market, you couldn't
> > ask for a
> > better guide than Toronto writer Naomi Klein.
> > No Logo: Taking Aim At The Brand Bullies (Knopf Canada, $35.95),
> > is a weighty
> > tome, almost 500 pages of facts, charts and passionate argument.
> > Klein, 29, admits she didn't understand branding herself when she
> > started the
> > book four years ago.
> > ``I thought it was the same as advertising,'' she says. ``And I
> > didn't see the
> > connection between labour issues and brand marketing.''
> > She immersed herself in management books such as The Circle Of
> > Innovation by
> > U.S. guru Tom Peters, an ode to the power of marketing over production.
> > And she travelled to Asian free trade zones to watch factory
> > workers make the
> > finished products of our branded world: Nike running shoes, Gap
> > pyjamas, IBM
> > computer screens, Old Navy blue jeans.
> > While visiting a factory near Jakarta in Indonesia, she quizzed
> > the workers on
> > what brand of garments were being produced.
> > Turned out the label was London Fog.
> > ``A global coincidence, I suppose,'' writes Klein, who was living
> > in a 10-storey
> > warehouse in Toronto's garment district on Spadina Ave.
> > Her landlord had made his fortune manufacturing London Fog overcoats.
> > ``I started to tell the workers that my apartment in Toronto used
> > to be a London
> > Fog coat factory but stopped abruptly when it became clear from
> > their facial
> > expressions that the idea of anyone choosing to live in a garment
> > building was
> > nothing but alarming.
> > ``In this part of the world, hundreds of workers every year
> burn to death
> > because their dormitories are located upstairs from firetrap
> sweatshops.''
> > As she embarked on her journey of awakening, Klein came to the
> > realization that
> > successful corporations produce brands, not products.
> > Nike was the model for others in not owning any factories and having its
> > products made by contractors overseas.
> > ``Whoever owns the least, has the fewest employees on the payroll
> > and produces
> > the most powerful images, as opposed to products, wins the race.''
> > Such companies establish emotional ties with their customers -
> > the brand as
> > experience as lifestyle.
> > The Body Shop markets an ethical and ecological approach to
> > cosmetics. Nike Inc.
> > aims to enhance people's lives through sports and fitness. International
> > Business Machines Corp. peddles business solutions.
> > Brands extend their reach into the schools, the arts and culture
> > at large, until
> > very little unmarketed space is left.
> > At almost every university in North America, advertising
> > billboards appear on
> > bicycle racks, on benches, in hallways linking lecture halls, in
> > libraries, even
> > in bathroom stalls.
> > And all over the world, universities offer their research
> > facilities, and their
> > academic credibility, for the brands to use as they please.
> > Here Klein turns confessional. As an activist caught up in
> > identity politics in
> > her University of Toronto days, she didn't notice the stealthy
> > creep of branding
> > into the universities.
> > ``I'm proud of the small victories we won for better lighting on
> > campus, more
> > women faculty members and a less Eurocentric curriculum,'' says Klein.
> > ``What I question is the battles we North American culture
> > warriors never quite
> > got around to.''
> > But today's anti-corporate activism, evidenced by the Battle in
> > Seattle, makes
> > the author hopeful.
> > Devoting the second half of her book to the attack against
> > branding, Klein says
> > the movement is in its early stages but will have staying power.
> > Why? Because corporations have lost the suit of armour that used
> > to protect them
> > from widespread antagonism - their job-creation role.
> > With the conversion of full-time jobs into part-time and casual
> > work, companies
> > have created a population of workers who don't see themselves as
> > lifers and are
> > free to engage in guerilla politics.
> > ``The more ambitious a company has been in branding the cultural
> > landscape, and
> > the more careless it has been in abandoning workers,'' she
> > argues, ``the more
> > likely it is to have generated a silent battalion of critics waiting to
> > pounce.''
> > Klein infuses her writing with pop culture references to make it
> > more accessible
> > to younger people. But her impressive analytical and writing
> > skills will impress
> > business readers, too.
> > In one of my favourite chapters, on ``brand bombing,'' she
> > explains a local
> > phenomenon that puzzled me. How did Starbucks Corp., which had
> no cafés in
> > Toronto, suddenly have 100 or more?
> > The company uses a clustering strategy, saturating an area with
> > stores until the
> > competition is so fierce that sales drop even in Starbucks
> outlets. (Klein
> > includes a graph showing the drop in same-store sales over five years.)
> > Even while cannibalizing its own stores, Starbucks nevertheless
> > takes market
> > share away from independent coffee shops and reaps a long-term
> > branding goal.
> >
>