The stories of an indigenous plant biologist can shed quite a lot of light on Western culture of consumerism and advertising as the means of selling as opposed to offering resources. The reading has helped learn that the current focus on continuous profit increase and the enhancement of consumerist attitudes reduce the efficacy of customer service and the extent of understanding between a customer and a producer. Therefore, the core lesson to take from this reading is that the efforts of entrepreneurs to build a genuine rapport with their clients must be encouraged and actively promoted. At the same time, the article admittedly avoids addressing the obvious issue of profit generation as a crucial aspect of running a successful business. Nonetheless, the idea of an item or a product being a gift ay alter people’s perceptions of the sue of goods drastically by minimizing the extent of consumerism and increasing the perceived value of products (Kimmerer, 2022). As a result, opportunities for reentering the land in our perception of and approaches to consuming goods will become possible, with the perception of the land morphing into that one of an extraordinarily valuable and finite resource. Having received a gift of flower from my grandmother’s garden, I have challenged the concept of consumerism several times, yet eventually resorted to the traditional consumption framework.
The link between race and marketing strategies might seem tenuous to the uninitiated. However, delving further into the issue, one will recognize the link between the concept of race, the associated stereotypes, and the approaches to marketing deployed in the current sociocultural environment. According to Wailoo et al. (2022), the logic and needs of the market, which are shaped to a notable extent by sociocultural factors, dictate the approaches that market researchers adopt in their efforts to cater to the target demographic. As a result, stereotypes, as well as honest attempts at catering to the unique needs of a specific racial, ethnic, or cultural group, surface in multiple marketing strategies and campaigns. Wailoo et al. (2022) offer the story of menthol cigarette marketing as a glaring example of racial stereotypes and perceptions affecting the development of a marketing campaign. Remarkably, recent marketing campaigns do not demonstrate as egregious examples of racial biases in their approaches due to the current focus on multiculturalism and racial sensitivity (Wailoo et al., 2022). Therefore, current marketing frameworks aimed at generating long-term profit tend to refrain from obvious racial biases and stereotypes in their framework.
The concept of neoliberalism as Connell (2010) explains it has percolated into nearly every facet of the Western world. Implying the shift toward free market and the associated concepts of uninhibited trade ad cross-cultural collaboration, neoliberalism has been defining the relationships within the global community, shaping people’s lives noticeably. One of the statements that Connell (2010) makes in his writing stands out particularly: “Neoliberalism is a missionary faith: it seeks to make existing markets wider and to create new markets where they did not exist before” (p. 23). The specified assumption is especially peculiar to me since it suggests that the expansion of neoliberalist ad globalization-oriented ideas is bound to continue in the future, fueling itself as the economic expansion, as well as the cultural, and the technological ones reinforce one another. Personally, I can attest to the fact that neoliberalism has affected my life in a rather substantial way. Specifically, it has expanded the range of academic and economic opportunities for me. Offering a chance to explore international education options and collaborate with future business partners on a cross-cultural level, neoliberalism represents mostly a positive trend.
References
Connell, R. (2010). Understanding neoliberalism. In S. Bradley & M. Luxton, Neoliberalism and everyday life (pp. 22-37). McGill-Queen’s University Pres.
Kimmerer, R. (2022). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions.
Wailoo, K., Boulton, C., Piety, T. R., & Rosa-Salas, M. (2021). Pushing cool: Big tobacco, racial marketing, and the untold story of the menthol cigarette. University of Chicago Press.