The Coca-Cola Product
Takes over the World
Introduction
Mirroring the world’s condition with reference to our postmodern consciousness is something that is borderless, encompassing, limitless and even groundless. This consciousness pasted into our mind is an offshoot of the proliferation of modern science, political and social trickeries, and more so economical maneuvering of most powerful elites and multinational organizations across the continents. This phenomenon recognizes no frontiers not only geographical but cultural. This is best known as globalization.
One of the contestants in an International Speech Contest held in London, four years ago, was a college student studied in one of the prestigious universities in the Philippines took the grand price when she impressed the jurors of her provocative, critical and intellectual sharing of ideas about the topic on globalization. She entitled her speech A Borderless World. It speaks of a world wherein everything is in constant communication. Distance is no longer an adversary for two loving individuals who are separated a thousand miles away. The advent of the new technology and the spontaneous growing of a homogenous consciousness bridges people closer to their families, friends, and loved ones. This is the world that is borderless—a world that strives to be homogenous.
Globalization defined
This construct renders a vast meanings and definition derived from various scholars of various disciplines. For a sociologist globalization must have something to do with the process of influencing the society to adopt a certain behavior, attitude, habit, or way of life. This takes in different forms like media, lifestyle, food, and technology. Simply put, this phenomenon becomes a detrimental tablet for one’s culture. But for an economist, globalization is driven by the interpenetration of the advanced capitalist countries and in particular by the intensification of transfers among great economic regions of the world. Moreover, products, supplies of goods produced by multinational companies can able be share, penetrate and compete with the local markets.
The vast definitions of globalization make us puzzled and logically inferred that absolute is non-existent insofar as a definitive meaning of globalization cannot be comprehended and capsulated.
In the book, Articulating the Global and the Local: Globalization and Cultural Studies, Ann Svetkovich and Douglas Kellner defined globalization as “a code word that stands for a tremendous diversity of issues and problems and that serves as a front for a variety of theoretical and political positions (1997).” This in a way served as a substitute term for modernization and continues as a legitimating ideology for the westernization of the world, cultural differences, and struggles.
Svetkovich and Kellner (1997), think that this phenomenon gradually replacing concepts such as imperialism, thus displacing focus on domination of developing countries by overdeveloped ones or on national and local economies by transnational corporations. In this discourse about globalization, its functions and concepts are important in understanding the phenomenon which in nature a theoretical construct which varies according to the assumptions and perspectives in question. In this context, Svetkovich and Kellner would like to treat globalization as a term used to describe the ways global economic, political, cultural forces are rapidly penetrating the world in the creation of the “new world market, new transnational political organizations, and a new global culture.” Furthermore, globalization involves a dissemination of new technologies that have tremendous influence and impact on polity, economics, culture, society and in our daily life. New technologies such as communication instruments become the primal tool in creating a world, though, has frontiers, tremors to collapsed borders, inflicting and creating global cultural village wherein everyone defined his culture as universal and one. The diversity of culture, on the other hand, is neither protected nor preserved, rather the fundamental project of globalization is to collapse all barriers in order to form one single unit of culture—a new global culture.
Hence, globalization brings forth the consciousness of reconstruction, deconstruction and rehabilitation of what was present in civilizations lone ago.
Cultural Imperialism: A Review
Before we step-out into the concept of cultural imperialism let us allow ourselves to recall our basic understanding of imperialism in general.
We understood the concept of imperialism in the context of capitalism. Way back in ancient period, imperialism became a no new concept, from the Greek, Persians, and Romas alike, imperialism has become a way of life. However, the fruition of the concept which attracted philosophers and social thinkers were brought by Karl Max in his Das Capital wherein he elaborated and consequentially, critique the operations of the capitalists and the economic form dominated the whole of Europe, capitalism. However, capitalism stands strong and was not able to faint down by Marx, it was become an incessant subject for criticism. Following the doctrine of Marx, Vladimir Lenin and John Hobson were few of the thinkers inspired by Marx brilliance of interpreting economy. It is with this development of thought ranging from Marx to Lenin and Hobson where imperialism became the center of attraction.
The notion on imperialism cannot be derived elsewhere but to the idea and concept of capitalism. We are drive to think that when we speak of imperialism or even an attitude of being imperialist, we are led to imagine someone that desires to monopolize resources or products or even to think of an empire, we immediately think of something grandiose, a towering infrastructure, skyscrapers and etc. Imperialism then is something to do with manipulation, subjugation, domination, and monopoly of something. This is not a school of thought rather a consciousness, a way of life situated and inculcated in the minds of all the capitalists.
So what then is cultural imperialism?
In the article Cultural Imperialism: An American Tradition, Julia Galeota cited Herbert Schiller in clearing out the definition of cultural imperialism. For Schiller, “the sum of the processes by which a society is brought into the modern world system, and how its dominating stratum attracted, pressured, forced, and bribed into shaping social institutions to correspond to, or even to promote, the values and structures of the dominant center of the system. (2004).” Thus, cultural imperialism involves much more than simple consumer goods; it involves the dissemination of ostensibly American principles, such as freedom and democracy. Though this process might sound appealing on the surface, it masks a frightening truth: many cultures around the world are gradually disappearing due to the overwhelming influence of corporate and cultural America.
Putting this in mind, we are led to realize something greater about these phenomena: globalization and cultural imperialism. With this prevailing concern, I attempted to give myself a challenge to analyze these constructs putting into contexts and try to validate the arguments raised by scholars regarding these. Hence, I took a great leap to look at in particular the role of an American product, like Coca-Cola in proliferation of their culture through interpenetrating strategies in the various locales.
We asked ourselves why Coca-Cola became so successful in penetrating and influencing the local consumers to buy and drink their soda. How does the Coca-Cola company creates advertising and marketing strategies in order to have a great appeal to the audiences at the same time buyers? How, the glocalization of the products serve as an effective technique and strategy to attract the local buyers?
This could only be answered in three ways: Economy, Media, and Culture.
Coca-Cola: In economical perspective
It is to be considered that one of the major commodities in the world is soda, aside from the universal solvent which is water; soda becomes a substitute as a drink. Coca-Cola in this line became successful in launching and introducing their product to different continents specifically, Latin America, Africa, and North America. This success was brought by the open trade and exchange products between countries, and now was become more open due to globalization. Coca-Cola became effective in implementing an early global marketing tactic to penetrate and eventually influenced the indulgence drives of the people. As Julia Galeota analyzed it, Coca-Cola became innovative and unique in bringing and introducing to people their products. Furthermore, the reason why people are easily attracted to the American product is just a matter of marketing, she reiterated:
“It is easy enough to convince Americans of the superiority of their culture, but how does one convince the rest of the world of the superiority of American culture? The answer is simple: marketing. Whether attempting to sell an item, a brand, or an entire culture, marketers have always been able to successfully associate American products with modernity in the minds of consumers worldwide. While corporations seem to simply sell Nike shoes or Gap jeans (both, ironically, manufactured outside of the United States), they are also selling the image of America as the land of “cool.” This indissoluble association causes consumers all over the globe to clamor ceaselessly for the same American products (2004).”
Coca-Cola Advertising Campaign
Coca-Cola used the available communication tools in bringing to people their products. Media in this contemporary times place a great importance. In this Age of Information we only rely on the information given by media institution even though we recognized their inability to bring an objective and impartial stories, we do nothing but to be “hooked”. Nonetheless, we still manage to purify information and bring the residue in trash. This becomes an influential tool which Coca-Cola used in order to effectively influence the consciousness of the consumers. Again, let me quote Julia Galeota (2004):
“An early example of this global marketing tactic was found in a Coca Cola commercial from 1971 featuring children from many different countries innocently singing, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony/I’d like to buy the world a Coke to keep it company.” This commercial illustrates an attempt to portray a U.S. goods as a product capable of transcending political, ethnic, religious, social, and economic differences to unite the world. “
In the same vein, this product can bend into a local taste by using local personalities to promote the product like for example, in India, a Coke commercial was done by a local Indian personality named Hrithik Roshan, a Bollywood star, appeared last 2000. The same was made in various continents like Africa, Latin America and Asia. Coca-Cola used the local personalities or even their legua franca in order to situate and connect themselves in their looking way of life. Like in Columbia, what they did was to make commercials using Castillian as the medium used in order that audiences can be able to relate with them. As to the content of Coca-Cola’s commercials, they are not only labeled as aesthetically sophisticated but promote values and local culture. The commercials are driven not for profit but by promoting certain ideology. The ideology is embodied in the whole package of commercial, however, to question what ideology it promotes is a difficult task to examine and evaluate.
The Sociological Perspective: Glocalization vis-à-vis Globalization
It is in this level wherein cultural issues raised. Now, Coca-Cola with their prevailing regulations and vision-mission, are not spared from suspecting of promoting Americanization or global culture. Though, Coca-Cola adhere much on promoting values and culture of certain locales, inevitably, it would suspected as a disguise of what is really the real intention and purpose. Basically, consumerism and economic profit are two major concerns of any multinational company like Coca-Cola. If people are drawn to the consciousness of being consumeristic, nevertheless, profit soars high.
Moreover, let us not treat this extremely negative; however, let us try to see both sides of a coin.
Globalization brought America into the apex of the world, the rest became subordinates. American products can easily access to various continents, introduced them, and eventually penetrate their market. In their process of interpenetration, companies like Coca-Cola are taking risk to study the core of one’s country—that is the Culture. Only when culture is penetrated and known to foe can successfully inflict such phenomenon. What seems top be lucid between global and local is the force in which the global terrain influences and even structure ever more local situations and ever more strikingly.
Another focal point in the discussion of globalization is the emerging trend of another concept: Glocalization.
The concept of glocalization originated in Japan. The term was modeled on Japanese word dochakuka which originally meant adapting farming technique to one’s own local condition. The English translation was attributed to Roland Robertson, a British/American sociologist. According to Wordspy, glocalization means “the creation of products or services intended for the global market, but customized to suit the local cultures (http:/www.wordspy.com/words).” In this sense, Coca-Cola serves as an agent not of westernization but of preserving indigenous culture. Why? Simply because, Coca-Cola adopted such concept of indigenization of the products in order to suit the needs of local culture. Conclusion
The issue of globalization and cultural imperialism matter so much so that each individual should be aware of. Its importance does not only rely on theories that proved to be true and valid or just because it was then brought to light, but on how we become vigilant and conscious about it. This academic endeavor serves not only to comply with the requirements rather to shed light and knowledge to all of us who are consumed consciously or unconsciously by this prevailing phenomenon.
Coca-Cola on the other hand, as based on my analysis does not primarily promote globalization rather economic profit and cultural values with the locales where they are located. Glocalization becomes an effective remedy used by Coca-Cola to make its image good and credible so much so that consumers will patronize them more and love them much.
References:
Cvetkovkh, A & Kellner, D. (1997). Articulating the Global and the Local. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
Galeota, J. (2004, May-June). Cultural Imperialism. The Humanist, 22
Rothkopf,D. (1997). In Praise of Cultural Imperialism. Foreign Policy,107
Khondker, H.H. (2004). Glocalization as Globalization: Evolution of Sociological Concept, vol.1 No.2
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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