Beauty

The movie American Beauty bears the name of the most popular in the USA brand of roses. The roses are present in the picture everywhere. They are like a scarlet ribbon running through the canvas of the narration, each time concentrating audience’s attention upon themselves as upon the stereotype of American beauty. This is not a story about empty cellophane bag flying in the wind. This is not a saga about a masturbating wimp American man. And even not about that that life is a shit and women are you know who. This is rather the story of stereotypization of mass conscience that reached global proportion.

This is a story about that that our life as any reality is a mosaic with different patterns – sometimes even ugly and detestable. Some of us see the life lines interlacing as a stifling web and others see it as roads running away beyond the skyline. Overall, American Beauty is a film about the life of an average American family, and problems experienced by each member of this family. And in this case it does not matter is the family American, English, French or any other as it was already mentioned the stereotypical conscience became global.

Movie plot is simple enough and, to certain extent, hackneyed. To tell the truth the beginning of the picture evokes feelings of boredom as you expect a typical tearful story of jerk husband, stinker wife, their daughter suffering from loneliness and lack of understanding and their neighbors – a bit screwed guy, trading drugs and practicing voyeurisme with his video camera, his father, colonel retired, who hates homosexuals being himself a latent homosexual. However, the way all this story is presented makes this movie different and distinguished.

American Beauty is impressive for the fact that there are no right or guilty characters in the story. For example, Lester (Kevin Spacey) is not a dull, horny jerk, he is rather an average man who could not achieve in this life anything or even establish a normal family, where al least someone would understand and support him. His wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) is not a stinker or a whore; she is a simply unhappy woman, which tries hard to bluster way out of difficult life “I will sell this house today, I will sell this house today…” (Carolyn), but fails.

And their daughter Jane (Thora Birch) is not a wicked child dreaming of killing her parents but rather a poor little girl, who feels awfully lonely and seeks for someone to understand her. The central event of the film is the moment when Lester is trying to free himself from the chains of commonness and dullness of the life surrounding him. He quits his well-paid position and starts working in McDonald’s and going in for sport. But the outward manifestation is not the point; the point is that Lester got free inward.

He ceased being afraid of his wife, he has got that job which does not give you satisfaction and where you have to lick the boots of your boss is worthless. These changes made Lester feel free and happy! “I feel like I’ve been in a coma for about twenty years. And I’m just now waking up. ” (Lester) But this is the moment when an inevitable end had to come. Lester is killed. Any person from his surrounding could have done it. Daughter Jane, who could not stand his lusty stare at her classmate: “I need a father who’s a role model, not some horny geek-boy who’s gonna spray his shorts every time I bring a girlfriend home from school.

”(Jane); wife Carolyn, who hates him as she regards him as a sluggard and loser; Jane’s friend, Ricky (Wes Bentley), whom Jane asked to kill her father; Ricky’s father, crazy about patriotism and fascism colonel, who believes his son to have an affair with Lester; and even Lester who feels good and likes his new life. Why not to die at such a moment? To leave this world with pleasant emotions… I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me … but it’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world.

Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst … (Lester) The movie is masterfully shot in all respects. Young film director Sam Mendes has demonstrated fairly good sense of humor and style. Take for example red rose-petals emerging as soon as Lester gets absorbed in his erotic fantasies. Red petals serve as unambiguous, though delicate euphemism of orgasmic feelings of the main character. This cross-cutting image looks very nice though till the end of film it becomes exuberant and starts irritating.

And finally the empty bag fluttering in the wind is like a key symbol of the film. It is noticed by Ricky through his camera lens, who looks at the world only in this way, through his camera, as it makes reality to be accepted easier. “Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember… and I need to remember… Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in” (Ricky) Ricky, as a real artist, sees beauty in the things which are seen by others as ugly.

This is, as a matter of fact, the notion of “American beauty”, the world, which you see beyond U. S. model through this or that stimulating means. American beauty is a McDonald’s, but not as a place where you come to gorge fast, sooner as a place of inner freedom. This is a bright scarlet car, of which you dreamt all your life but had not bought because there were more “useful” things you had to buy. In the long run, American beauty is your inner freedom, freedom in mind and not under the canopy of Star & Stripes flag. Bibliography American Beauty. Dir. Sam Mendes. 1999. DVD, 2002.

Qualitative market research was very effective in the development of Pearl and Beauty. This is because the very core foundational concept of a deodorant that doubles as a beauty product was arrived at after running a series of market studies. Qualitative market research identified the unfulfilled need experienced by consumers and enables Nivea to capture the opportunity and develop a product that would answer this need for the consumer.

This gave Nivea a competitive edge as none of its competitors had at the time identified this emerging and high potential market for the deodorants market. After the identification of the opportunity, Nivea again relied on qualitative research during the development of the product, by seeking from potential consumers of the product what exactly they wanted to gain from the product under development. These insights ensured that the product that was developed was relevant to the market for which it is intended.

The market research thus saved the company from a situation that was described by B2B international in which the an idea for the development of a new product occurs to or is presented to the chairman of the organization and being part of his duties of directing the company, he is full of enthusiasm for the idea, but owing to the nature of their work and the structure they cannot engage in the project in detail. Thus the responsibility for the marketing of the new innovation falls on the marketing manager and his staff (American Productivity & Quality Center, 2008).

The marketing department is at a risk of being engaged in finding out ways of how the products will be sold rather than first determining whether there is a market for the product. After the basic idea on the product has been identified, product concepts are formulated that seek to capture the insights of the consumer in the product. These concepts are then presented again to the market for research into the ones that have the greatest appeal to the consumer.

This indicates to the company the concept combinations that have the greatest support from the consumers and thus the ones that would work. Qualitative research carried out in different countries was a good indicator to the company on the kind of response that it could expect from the market. To ensure that the results from the concept testing were not biased, the concepts with each person being asked to consider one concept, eliminating the possibility of the respondent’s response being influenced by the presence of variation.

Qualitative market research when it was used to assess the effectiveness of the product design and packaging, it not only gave the company a indication of what the consumers would want to associate themselves with in a deodorant, but also enabled the various relevant departments of the company to make projections of expected sales volumes, the optimal selling price and what they should expect as far as switching behavior to the new product would be. After the product concepts and designs have been identified and tested, the product can now be produced.

This initial product to subjected to further testing, by asking potential consumers to compare the deodorants that they currently use with the new product while at the same time withholding information relating to the manufacturer of the same to avoid bias. This is done to evaluate whether the product has actually delivered on the promises made on it that is to reflect the desires of the consumers. They were asked to try the product for a week and write a diary on the use which they then presented to the company.

The results showed that the company had done a commendable job in turning the consumer’s needs into a real product. Some of the respondents actually indicated that they would be willing to switch from tier current brand to the new product if it was up for sale. Like most multinational companies, Beiersdorf had several other products on offer, and therefore to ensure a better impact on the consumers, it had to place its new product in a special positioning, so as to relate the product fully with the target market.

Pearl and Beauty was specifically targeted at young, trendy and sophisticated women and therefore by using brand positioning the company was able to establish Pearl and Beauty as synonymous with the deodorant market in the minds of this target market. This was further boosted by the uniqueness of the new product which curved a niche in the deodorant market for Nivea. Qualitative market research was also used to shape the form of advertisement that would make the largest impact.

This was done by formulating several ideas and presenting them to the target market for evaluation before adopting them in the advertisement campaign, the feedback of which enabled the company to decide which of the available ideas gave the best value for the resources committed to it. After everything has been finalised and the product launched, the company can use the consumer’s views to find out whether the consumers are actually using the product, whether they appreciate it and why they would purchase it.

Several strategies may be employed towards this end such as electronic point of sale tracking and consumer panel data which provide useful information on the trend of the product purchases throughout the launch and even the life of the product. Insight obtained from this analysis can then be used in the formulation of future products by the company.

CONCLUSION

So in conclusion it can be seen that the market research is an inseparable part of any product development.

Every company must obtain enough consumer insight which will help it in the development of the concepts of the product. Qualitative research is also of absolute importance in the development of new product as Beiersdorf did with its Pearl and Beauty brand.

References

American Productivity & Quality Center (2008). Market research for new product development. . Last retrieved from the World Wide Web on 09 April 2008 at www.apqc.org/portal/apqc/site

When we are watching South Korean TV series, it is not hard for us to notice that many actors and actresses seem to have flawless and youthful faces, most of which are characterized by large eyes with double eyelids, well-defined noses, fair skin and small chins. However, these perfect faces are not natural but the creations of the plastic surgeons. Undergoing plastic surgery to get attractive faces is not exclusive to the celebrities in South Korea; instead, it is surprisingly popular nationwide.

According to WordAltas, it was reported that South Korea ranked third in the total number of cosmetic procedures in 2015 around the world, with 1,156,234 surgeries had been undergone, and around 20% of the women between the ages of 20 and 49 claimed to have had at least one cosmetic procedure in their life. (Pariona)

South Korea is well known for its plastic surgery craze now, but at the very beginning, plastic surgery was not meant to be a way for people to pursue beauty in South Korea. It was after the Korean World War that first plastic surgery was provided by the American occupational forces to repair the wounds of the maimed war victims. Around 1970s, the plastic surgery began to be applied for the pursuit of beauty, and plastic surgery industry came into being, with surgeons going abroad to learn from plastic surgeons in Europe and the United States.

However, undergoing plastic surgery for better appearance had not been widely accepted in South Korea, and profoundly affected by Confucius’s teachings, many people held negative attitude to this practice at that time. But this still could not stop plastic surgery from being popular——in the past decades, the South Koreans’ attitude towards the plastic surgery have become increasingly optimistic and plastic surgery have gradually become commonplace in South Korea.

The huge shift of the public’s attitude towards plastic surgery is obviously not by accident; the plastic surgery craze in South Korea nowadays is closely related to the following factors: the economic growth, the social atmosphere, the development of the plastic surgery industry.

The economic growth in South Korea has provided material conditions for plastic surgery craze. In1960, the GDP per capita of South Korea was 158.237 US dollars while the world average GDP per capita was 450.724 US dollars. (World Bank national accounts data). South Korea was such a poverty-stricken country that people there had to strive for their basic necessaries and the pursuit of better appearance was dismissed.

However, nowadays, because of the industrialization, South Korea has great achievements in economy, being the eleventh largest economy in the world. Given that most South Koreans do not need to worry about basic material conditions and have more money in hand, they tend to drift their attention to their appearance and thereby show more willingness to undergo plastic surgery for beauty.

Besides the material conditions, the social atmosphere in South Korea also stimulates the South Koreans to undergo plastic surgery. In South Korea, people place immense importance in appearance and they believe that outstanding appearance plays an importance role in finding a lover and a promising job in a strongly competitive society. Knowing that the plastic surgery can improve people’s appearance, the South Koreans see undergoing plastic surgery as an investment and a shortcut to success.

For example, it was reported by VICE that parents usually make their children undergo plastic surgery after they graduate from high schools so that their children can be more confident and have a brighter future.(Standen) Besides, different from the situations in China, where many people are ashamed of acknowledging having undergone the plastic surgery, in South Korea, people see undergoing plastic surgery as common as wearing makeup and they can even share their experience in undergoing plastic surgery with their friends in public.

Moreover, in recent years, as the entertainment industry in South Korea develops, K-Pop have gain overwhelming popularity among South Koreans, especially the younger ones. Attracted by the flawless faces of the K-Pop stars, many South Koreans have undergone plastic surgery, in the hope of being as good-looking as those K-Pop stars. Having been immersed in such social atmosphere for a log time, the South Koreans tend to be accustomed to plastic surgery and become obsessed with it.

While the social atmosphere in South Korea creates large demand on the plastic surgery, the plastic surgery craze still cannot come into being without the development of plastic surgery industry. It is noteworthy that the quality of the cosmetic surgery in this country is generally high because of the highly qualified and experienced plastic surgeons. In South Korea, it is said that surgeons in Korea had to go through practice after practice, where only the top 1% who graduate from medical school become qualified surgeons. (Plastic surgery in Korea)

This, to some extent, boost the confidence of South Koreans in undergoing plastic surgery. Moreover, the prices of undergoing plastic surgery are relatively low in South Korea. According to THE NEW YORKER, although the cost of procedures and services in South Korea varies tremendously, but it is common to pay a third of what it would cost in the United States.(Marx) In order to further expand the market, many plastic surgery hospitals invest large amount of money to advertisements. People can see advertisements promoting various cosmetic procedures almost everywhere in South Korea, which, to some extent, lure people to undergo plastic surgery.

Therefore, with advantages of high quality and affordable prices, the prosperous plastic surgery contributes a lot to the craze for plastic surgery in South Korea.

In conclusion, the craze for plastic surgery among South Koreans is mainly caused by the prosperity of economy, a distinct social atmosphere, and the development of the plastic surgery industry.

Although the plastic surgery craze has brought billions of dollars revenue to South Korea,(Bon) it will cause many social problems sooner or later, one of which may be the vicious spiral of undergoing plastic surgery—if all South Koreans were to undergo plastic surgery and have better appearance, some people would have to undergo plastic surgery again so that they more good-looking than those who have undergone plastic surgery once; as this situation continue to worsen, people may eventually lose their own personality and have no idea who they truly are. Before things go bad from worse, it is necessary for the government of South Korea to control this craze for plastic surgery.

Works Credited

1. Amber Pariona. WorldAltas, Apr. 25, 2017, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-number-of-cosmetic-surgery-procedures-by-country.html,
   Accessed to 24 June 2018
2. Camille Standen. VICE, May. 14, 2013,https://www.vice.com/gr/article/avnb7z/south-korean-parents-are-making-their-kids-get-plastic-surgery Accessed to 24 June 2018
3. The World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=KR&view=chart, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?view=chart Accessed to 24 June 2018
4. Patricia Marx. THE NEW YORKER?Mar.23,2015, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/23/about-face, Accessed to 24 June 2018
5. Sarah Bon. THE RICHEST, Jan.16,2018, https://www.therichest.com/expensive-lifestyle/billion-dollar-industry-to-be-plastic-surgery-in-south-korea/ Accessed to 24 June 2018

As Michael K. Hayes comments in Architecture Theory since 1968, a typology to emerge in the mid eighteenth century was a return of architecture to its natural origins, an example of the primitive shelter. This return and respect of nature was interestingly enough occurring across art, literature and landscape design simultaneously and internationally. It was as if people were warily eyeing the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and entered into a love-hate tolerance of the machine age with the concepts of nature playing a reassuring role throughout these social and industrial evolutions.

In reference to nature, the sublime countered many perceptions of the tamed environment through poetry, painting, national parks and urban design. The term “sublime” was first used to describe nature by British writers taking the Grand Tour of the Swiss Alps in the 17th and 18th centuries. The sublime was meant as an aesthetic quality in nature that was both beautiful and terrible, horrible and harmonious, appreciating the unexpected and dangerous forms found in nature that had been avoided in literature and art through the concepts of a more tamed and friendly environment.

German philosopher Immanuel Kant reflects on the concept of boundaries between beauty and the sublime in his Critique of Judgment written in 1790. Distinguishing between the differences of beauty versus the sublime, beauty is connected with the form of the object, respecting the object’s boundaries whereas the sublime is found in a formless object, boundless, unfamiliar and unexpected.

The Romantic Period revealed a shift from the picturesque paintings of a controlled and safe landscape to paintings depicting the grotesque and beautiful as found in works such as Frederic Edwin Church’s Cotopaxi , oil on canvas 1826, an opposition to the classical ideals of perfection. The concept of sublime evolved through the machine age with a sense of self-forgetfulness, an awe-inspired feeling of well-being and security when faced with an object or place of superiority.

It is a realization of unavoidable suffering that is to be accepted and that the difficulties in life will never be completely resolved. The terrible, beautiful and inescapable sublime resonated with the social instability found in the Modernist period. These two movements faced suffering brought about by the consequences of the Industrial Revolution. Inescapably crowded cities meant survival was dependent on the proximity to work. Leisure was a little afforded luxury. As John Mitchell much later on discusses in his ook What Is to be Done about Illness and Health (1984), the attributes of a healthy life is a clean and safe environment, time for rest and recreation, a reasonable living standard, freedom from chronic worries, hope for the future, an adequate level of self-confidence and autonomy, and finally to have a worthwhile and fulfilling job. These well-being concepts were absent for many low and middle class families working in factories during the machine age and were threatened by social injustices of modern times.

Throughout difficult times experienced in the Romantic period up through present day, the order and at times chaos of nature remained a constant influence in the perceptions of design and life. It would seem our societies distanced themselves from primitive nature through perfect geometry of the Classical movement, imitated nature through the rusticity of the hut and embraced the sublime during the Romantic period.

It was as if a return to the most basic and natural state gave a sense of control over the uncontrollable, “the forest/city was to be tamed, brought into rational order by means of the gardener’s art; the ideal city of the late eighteenth century was thereby imaged on the garden” The acknowledgment and connection of the roles of nature throughout our design history offered an outlying and abstract zeitgeist: a continuing spirit of admiration, reverence and fearful respect of our natural surroundings as they are impacted by our industrial and socially changing cities.

This is the kind of perception that dove is advocating for every person. Dove does not only specify beauty product consumer but every person’s judgement and self-esteem. This commercial gives one a reminder to have a self-check of how much of the worldly standards has one become a victim of already? Or how much effort of self-growth has one pursued. True, this commercial has done so much to a person’s critical thinking and to a person’s self-esteem.

This however, still gives you the question, why would a beauty product, who wish, to smoothen your skin and reduce the large opening facial pores would criticize any person’s idea of beauty. This is an irony and perhaps an oblivious inconsistency. Perhaps, “dove” as a product and as a company, is not the rightful person to correct the perception of people. Perhaps, this is a fallacy of wrong authority. There are more credible sources as doctors in psychology or sociology that can better more criticize and make a statement on a person’s definition or stereotypes of beauty. But this is a hidden mistake.

Most people do not even entertain the idea that “dove” is a line of beauty product and could be counterfeiting their statement in this commercial. The real question is that, how much of the commercial is true? And how much of the people behind the commercial is being true to what they are doing? Why would this company campaign for a “real beauty workshop” for girls if it will not quit in its business of making people’s skin whiter and fairer? Also the idea of having the people to go to their campaign workshop gives them the light that the world needs rescue and that they are the rescuers.

The subtle claim of that statement would be that if a girl goes to this workshop, her entire image or idea of real beauty would be changed and that she will become a better person after the workshop. This may not be the case, as a single person or a portion of the society may not produce the needed change in the world’s perception. Also, how much of the truth in the actual workshop would be revealed? Would it continue to cover the light that “dove” is a beauty product and that it continues to earn billions in making women’s skin fairer and smoother, and in turn described as beautiful?

How much of this campaign is an assured success? These are the questions that one would pose to the entire people that would go or perhaps one should question as to the credibility of this advertisement. Because the advertisement’s approach was emotional rather than more rational, the people’s response to it is more subtle. This may be one of the most unquestioned approaches of media advertisement. One can manipulate the audience in to whatever steering one would like to pursue and in turn will get away with it without question.

On the other hand, one may be very vocal about campaigns against one’s perception of beauty through beauty pageants for example and repeatedly, a candidate is asked the classic question of what beauty is and a classic answer would be that it is in the eye of the beholder and outrightly, criticize the people who continue to worship women who are slimmer, whiter and smoother. This would be a similar picture of what is going on in this commercial.

References

American Psychiatric Association (APA), 1994. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. Washington, D. C. , American Psychiatric Association. Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc. , 2006. “Statistics: How Many People Have Eating Disorders? ” <http://www. anred. com/stats. html> (accessed 2 December 2006). Ice, Susan, 2006. “Statistics. ” Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy, and Action <http://www. eatingdisorderscoalition. org/reports/statistics. html> (accessed 3 December 2006). National Eating Disorders Association, 2006a. “Anorexia Nervosa. ” <http://www. edap. org/p. asp? WebPage_ID=286&Profile_ID=41142&gt; (accessed 27 November 2006).