The Hindu Business Line : Celebrities are commodities

Who is a celebrity? “A person whose name has attention-getting, interest-riveting, and profit-generating value.” With this definition of Rein et al begins a chapter titled ‘The Economy of Celebrity’ in Stardom an d Celebrity: A Reader edited by Sean Redmond and Su Holmes ( www.sagepublications.com).

“Celebrities are developed to make money,” opens Graeme Turner, the chapter’s author, in a matter-of-fact manner. “Their names and images are used to market films, CDs, magazines, newspapers, television programmes – even the evening news.”

Repulsive it may sound, but celebrities are commodities to the agents or managers, that can be flogged to extract the maximum returns. There is also a close relationship between celebrities and the consumption of commodities, observes the author.

“Stories routinely present the celebrity as a model of consumption practice and aspiration for the reader … While these stories can represent the commodity consumption of the celebrity as spectacular and exorbitant, they can also use their consumer behaviour as a means of constructing their every-dayness, their similarity to ‘us’.”

The essay also talks about the contributing sub-industries that the celebrity industry supports, such as entertainment, communications, publicity, representation, appearance, coaching, endorsement, and legal and business services.

Informative discussion.

Competition audit

Market Opportunity Analysis: Text and Cases Robert E. Stevens et al

Competitive market-mix audit is one of the best ways to evaluate the marketing performance of a company and its competitors, write Robert E. Stevens et al in Market Opportunity Analysis: Text and Cases ( www.jaicobooks.com). The audit should be comprehensive, independent, and periodic, the authors advise. “The results of the audit should be a clear comparison of the company and its competitors, which shows relative strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats. Other possible outcomes include the detection of inappropriate objectives, obsolete strategy, ill-advised use of resources, and other needs for revising the direction of the company relative to competition.”

The book explains another technique to study competition: product positioning; that is, ‘the placement of a product in terms of consumers’ perceptions of it relative to other products’.

Starter guide.

Waiting-list era

Advertising & Marketing in Rural India Tej K. Bhatia

Rural India is not just any emerging market, but it is approximately 2.5 times the US population, writes Tej K. Bhatia in the second edition of Advertising & Marketing in Rural India ( ww w.macmillanindia.com). “Prior to economic liberalisation, there was little incentive to advertise. Even if a business did so, advertising was so mind-numbing and lacklustre that villagers remained unmoved. This period of Indian advertising is affectionately called ‘waiting-list era’. It was a sellers’ market.”

A book you can’t wait to read!

D. Murali

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com