Merchants Of Cool Video Questions

1. What is "cool-hunting" and how is it done? What theories and methods of media research are the "cool-hunters" using?

    Cool-hunting is a hunt for a specific personality, and style in the teen culture. The cool-hunters are using interviews, surveys, focus groups, and case studies. All are used with hired help. The hired help mostly being a random sample of teen population.

  2. According to the commentators in the video, why do television, music, and fashion corporations want to understand how teenagers think and what they want?

Television, music, and fashion want to understand teenagers for the soul purpose of getting the teenager to buy their product. Teenager have $100 billion dollars of what is called disposable income. They even get another $50 billion of what is called guilt money from parents. Giving the corporations billions if they can understand the average teenager.

         3. How do MTV executives and other programming and marketing decision-makers characterize their relationship to teen culture? Do they say they are creating it or simply reflecting it?

Look Look is a company many executives and programming get their cool from. They claim to have a close relationship between teens, saying they understand us...; but all they want is to sell their product. They claim they only reflect it but, it's not true. They put it out there in the first place giving us access but, only for us to reflect certain things back showing them what we think is cool.

4. What is the difference between marketing research and human research, according to the commentators in the video? What are the goals of each?

Marketing research is simply what to sell, figuring out how and what and why to sell a particular product. Human research is what the human uses or likes to use, giving specific information to researchers. Marketing researching goals are to find and eliminate specific products and to find what product that specific sub-culture likes. Human research is to find out what and how much the human likes, and how to present the product.

5. Who is giving the most accurate description of the relationship between teen culture and commercialization, the "merchants of cool" or their critics? What role are these institutions playing in the socialization process? Argue for one of these two positions using specific points and examples from the video.

Pretty much it's a little of both. The "merchants of cool" are watching and waiting for the next cool; the critics watch them and then find when and why it's cool. The institutions are suppling the cool, it's what they put out there for us to find and then wait for us to reflect what we like and don't. So, in a way they are creating the description and suppling the fuel to burn the fire. 3,000 advertisements are see daily by many teens. 75 % of teens own a T.V. and 1/3 own a personal computer. The fuel that the companies are suppling is astronomical. Commercials use athletes to promote sprite, this makes kids want to drink sprite. If you think about this it's ridiculous all these companies preying on children for their own benefit. Companies are going a little to far.