Burning Man - Can Consumers Escape the Market?

I found an interesting video on youtube concerning the article  "Can Consumers Escape the Market? - Emancipatory Illuminations from Burning Man" by Robert E. Kozinets.

The article explores the emancipatory dynamics of the Burning Man project. The Burning Man is an a one-week long anti-market event. Practices used at Burning Man are oriented to bring people together like the gift giving ritual, and to distance consumers from the market, and positioning consumption as self-expressive art. According to the interviews in the video; money is the chain enslaving us to society and giving is an image of freedom and promotes openness among people. The objective is to enhance the sense of the community and to support creative expression.

Escape from the market, if possible at all, must be conceived of as similarly temporary and local.

Las Vegas - More Illusion than Reality

Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas?

I went with friends to Las Vegas during the Thanksgiving break. It was my first time visiting this city and I believe it to be my last time as well. We stayed there for 5 days, and I was extremely over influenced. This city is full of temptations to gain the consumer´s interest, especially in terms of sexual senses.

No matter what you do or where you go in this desert city, losing money is most likely to happen. It is not possible to avoid going through the hotels´ casino if you want to go out, and if you find a way through the casinos, fortunately you are confronted outside with a lot of advertisements and offers. All of those offers are focused on sex, gambling, and money consequently. The strategy is easy; people are overwhelmed by influences so they are broken down and temptation triumphs.

The prices for the hotel accommodations are very cheap compared to other cities in the United States, which means a high standard is available for less money. The strategy behind this is hotels give incentives to come to their place and finally the casino earns the real money for the hotel establishment. Anything except the hotel room is awfully expensive.
In my mind, Las Vegas is an illusory world governed by money.

Fifa – Uniting Countries Everywhere

I want to write about a commonly used product in this entry.

My most favorite kind of sport is football, also known as soccer.

I have grown up in a world focused on this game and have spent my spare time exclusively on this activity. I have played football since I was six years old. It has been an important part of my personal development because it is a common denominator, which connects with a variety of people. Another significant aspect connected to this sport are video games such as Fifa.

Fifa is a series of association football video games. The series began in 1993 and it can be played on almost every platform, whereas I prefer to play it on my PS3.

I often experienced that this game is an effective way to connect with people. Since the beginning of my time in Bozeman, I have gotten to know a lot of people who enjoy this videogame as much as myself. I am living in Johnstone and we have a big screen in the lobby, which is connected to a PS3. Johnstone has a large international community, and therefore Fifa has been a way for all of us to connect and become friendly with one another. This unique videogame has brought so many of us together, and it will be a great shame for me to see half of my companions depart next semester back to their universities.

Comment on “Pieces of April“

 “Pieces of April” is an American family drama and independent movie about a girl called April Burns, the eldest daughter of a broken family. She lives together with her boyfriend in a small apartment in New York. She invites her entire family to a Thanksgiving dinner and tries her best to prepare enjoyable dishes. The main point of this movie is about her mother who suffers from breast cancer and this might be her last Thanksgiving.

Katie Holmes plays the lead, April Burns, and acts in the role of a punk, tattooed and pierced girl. She does a good job of a misunderstood daughter, trying desperately to make her family proud without any clue of how to cook a Thanksgiving dinner. However, the preparations pass off with a lot of complications. The major problem for April is to cook the turkey after her oven stops working. She has some troubles finishing her work till she gets help from a Chinese family one floor above her.

At the end of this movie the actual atmosphere of the movie changes absolutely from stress, illness, hate, misfortune to love, acceptance, forgiveness and gratitude to each other. Thus, this film is about second chances and problem solving.

The movie shows how important it is to have family and to share your life with them.

The acting of this movie is quite good, and I like the interactions between the totally diverse people living in April´s building. But I couldn´t follow the idea of her family to pay a visit to their daughter for Thanksgiving because the first impression the movie provides is that the majority of her family hates her. They had a long drive to come to her apartment. Nevertheless, the movie doesn´t answer this question by giving no intentions of her family´s purposes.

Reading Reviews - Online

Will reading a favorable Amazon review make you more likely to buy a certain product? Would an unfavorable review make you more unlikely to buy a product?

“90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users.”  (Econsultancy, July 2009)

A lot of people read reviews and official opinions by other consumers about products they are interested in. They need to be sure about their final decisions. For instance, the reviews at amazon.com are very popular for the decision-making process of people.

The process of purchasing has the following sequence: at first people recognize that they have a problem, and it summons a need for a product. Afterwards, they search for information about product choices. That process is often supported by reviews of other people who already have this certain product and are able to evaluate it subjectively. This product could be an item, a behavior, a holiday destination or whatever.

Consumers try to enhance their rational perspectives while they integrate as much information as possible. People weigh the pluses and minuses of each alternative. With the help of those kinds of support people, think that they have the opportunity to evaluate alternatives in a better way to arrive at a decision.

According to Ariely, consumer comparisons are relative, rather than absolute. They compare something they are thinking of purchasing with similar products. Frequently, they don´t want to choose their first idea, but rather scour the market and use the aid of other consumers´ feedback.

Personally, I am a big fan of online reviews of products. I survey the Internet for appropriate data to make reasonable decisions such as my last decision. I had to decide between the Nexus 7 and the iPad mini. I made an objective comparison between both products in terms of their performance data. The result was a draw (2:2). You can read the entire story in one of my previous entries. Afterwards, I have read a lot of online reviews to make a choice, and they helped a lot.

I have experienced this behavior many times in my life. Another example is when I want to have a holiday, and I have to choose a hotel. I read online evaluations about hotels for my target place, and I am really happy to be able to use this kind of getting information.

I have to be profoundly convinced that my final decision will be the right one, so that my overall feeling is positive after I have bought a product or stayed in a hotel.