Imperialism and the Internet

“Cultural imperialism1，” a term first coined in the 1960s, refers to cultural hegemony, or the domination of other nations. The worldwide spread of consumerism, for instance, is cited as a prime example of American influence. Critics of the US point to the plethora2 of American cultural products available to people in other countries, in particular media such as music, television, movies, news, and technology. They argue that these products replace local ones, thereby threatening the cultures of other nations. With the growing popularity of the Internet, many countries worried about being taken over by US culture have approved laws to control the amount and types of information available to fiieir 10 ! people. Those who oppose such policies state that the leaders of these countries I are going against freedom or progress. However, those in favor of these laws say that they are necessary because their cultures and very identities are under attack.

Herbert Schiller (1919-2000) was a communications scholar. He asserted that although innovations such as the Internet have been praised as democratic， both information and technology are in reality controlled by the rich. This is ! explained in terms of the core-versus-periphery argument. Core nations such as the I United States have political power and economic advantages. Peripheral nations I are poor, so-called Third World nations. According to this idea, information, and therefore influence, flows from the core to the periphery. Third World nations are 20 ; thus unwilling consumers of core values, ideology3,and assumptions embedded ; in the information they receive. Those who believe in the theory of cultural imperialism point to the US television shows and McDonald’s restaurants found worldwide as evidence that influence only flows one way.

But critics of this position consider it far too simple, as it does not account for internal dynamics within societies. Also, they argue, it views culture as deterministic and static4.It assumes people are passive5 and that the dominated cultures will form no opposition. Infact, many believe that “other”groups are not being taken over by US culture and media. Rather, people in other cultures tend to transform the intended meanings to ones that better suit their own societies. Thus, rather than becoming “Americanized,” for example, Asian countries have “Asianized” US cultural exports such as McDonald’s. This transformation can easily be seen on McDonald’s menus in places like India and China.

Other critics of the traditional notion of cultural imperialism state that although cultural imperialism may very well be a factor in the export and consumption of certain US media products, the Internet is unique. The Internet, unlike other media, has no central authorities through which items are selected, written, and produced. Instead, information can be sent from anywhere and by anyone. The Internet allows people to participate in their own languages and to take part in preserving and celebrating their own cultures. Thus, it is argued that growing Internet usage, rather than promoting cultural imperialism, may in fact promote multiculturalism6.

On the other hand, recent research on Internet language use casts some doubt on this last idea. A 2013 study published in the scientific journal PLOS One examined the question. The study determined that of the world’s roughly7 7,000 living languages, only five percent have any chance of becoming viable on the Internet. And an even smaller number—just over 250—are currently established online. Linguists fear this could speed up the loss of endangered languages, and with them, important aspects of culture.

Maybe the question of whether the Internet will overrun your culture will be answered by Schiller’s theories, at least in part. It may indeed depend very much on whether your language belongs to the core or the periphery. If you speak one of the most common Asian Internet languages (Chinese, Japanese, or Korean), or one of the European ones (French, Italian, or Spanish), you are not likely at risk of such a fate8.If you speak one of the sub-Saharan Yoruba languages, however, your culture may be in trouble on the Internet.

Brand Power / Brand Image

A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of these intended to identify the goods or services of a company or other business entity. Another purpose of a brand is to differentiate1 one company from another. One of the most important tasks of professional marketers is branding: creating, maintaining, protecting, and enhancing the brands of their products and services. This has become so important that today nearly all companies and products have a branding strategy.

Brand power refers to the relative strength of a company’s brand in the minds of consumers. It can influence consumer choice of products—even with impulse purchases. Brands are powerful to the extent that they confer high brand loyalty and strong brand associations. They also confer name recognition2,perceived quality, and other assets such as patents and trademarks3 on a company. A strong brand can be one of a company s most important assets. Market research firms measure brand power with brand equity metrics and other statistical research tools. Putting a numerical value on a brand name is difficult，but according to one estimate, the brands of companies like Coca-Cola and Microsoft are worth well over $60 billion.

High brand power provides a company with many competitive advantages. Because consumers expect stores to carry name brands, the companies have more bargaining power when negotiating with retailers. And because the brand name brings high credibility4,a company with a strong brand can more easily launch new products with the same brand name. When a company introduces an additional item with a new flavor, form, color, or package size in a given product category and under the same brand name, it is called a line extension. Companies utilize5 this low-cost, low-risk strategy to introduce new products which will satisfy consumer desire for variety. For example, Coca-Cola used its well-known brand name to introduce Diet Coke, and the Johnson & Johnson brand, originally known for its baby shampoo, was later used to introduce products such as Johnson & Johnson Baby Oil, Cotton Swabs, and Dental Floss.

Another strategy is called brand extension. For example, Honda uses its company name for different products, including automobiles, motorcycles, snowmobiles, and marine engines. This allows Honda to advertise that their customers can fit “six Hondas in a two-car garage.”

Under a third strategy, multibranding, companies introduce additional brand names for products in the same category. This strategy is used to create separate brand images for individual products which may differ in some way from tfaelr other products. For example, Japan’s Matsushita used separate names for its different product families: Panasonic, National, and Technics.

Brand image refers to the ways in which consumers perceive the company and the brand. Because every customer has a different perception about brands, designing a new brand is not simply about designing a logo6

or a name. Rather, the image should send the consumer the correctvisual, verbal, and conceptual message. Therefore, marketers must pay attention to every detail of their brand, even color. Beyond aesthetics, different colors have different implicit meanings, and those meanings are often associated7 with whatever bears the color. The colors used in a brand logo say a lot about the image of the brand. Banks, such as Lloyd’s of London and GoldmanSachs, use black or blue as their representative color precisely8 because these colors are perceived as sophisticated9, wise, serious, and rich. Likewise, most hospitals’ logos include the color green because it is perceived as refreshing, restful, peaceful, and hopeful. Moreover, according to statistics, people tend to prefer rounded brand logos as opposed to angular ones. Therefore, many logos, such as those of Coca-Cola and Tide, use curved lines.

Because consumers often hold long-standing perceptions about brands, brand power can make or break a company’s long-term success. In other words, a brand is like a reputation. As one CEO puts it, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”