No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs by Naomi Klein
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Book Reviews of No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs
Book Review: Well thought out and provacative.
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this to be somewhat of a depressing book. I never really understood the full concept and ramifications of "branding." What you may think is a tiring sequence of commercials and have a more nefarious background. Naomi Klein paints a rather bad image of the corporations on how they exploit third world nations to their own gain. Free Enterprise zones sounds really good but usually end up being a place where corporations can skirt laws about unionizing, worker safty, and the environment.
I remember reading the issues of the garmet industry 100 years ago and yet many of the same tactics are in play today. What is sad is the fact it can go on because the people wish to have their trinkets and cloths for the cheapest rate possible.
I thought was interesting is the effort of branding and I don't know if it was a factor but to develop and defend a brand; it would make sense to shed production to "free enterprise zones" to where you can reduce your labor costs to .23 an hour. The savings allows for further marketing efforts.
One thing that disappointed me was the truth of the efforts of the Kenyan marathon runners attempting cross country skiing. Rather then being people who thought "I would like to try this" it turns out to be nothing more then a marketing stunt by Nike.
Much of the book delves into Nike and Phil Knight. Basically he can be labeled as the poster child for sweat shops and branding.
A surprising revelation was Kathie Lee Gifford and her act of contrition over the fiasco of her clothing line using sweat shops. She actively tried to to change things while the saintly Michael Jordan simply shrugged and said his job was shooting hopes and not politics when confronted with Nike's actions.
I found the section about Shaq and Nike interesting. I remember when Shaq entered the scene and many thought he was the successor of Jordan for Nike. It turns out Shaq decided to develop his own brand and studied a little marketing and when Nike found he wasn't going to fall in line, they decided against him.
I have often heard and argument in defense of sweat shops. Basically, they improve peoples lives by giving them options they would not have. After reading Klein's descriptions of "free enterprise zones" I don't understand how indentured poverty is better then poverty.
The final chapter on culture jamming and the efforts of people to show the seedy sides of corporations was interesting and it gave a small sense of hope after reading the doom and gloom of the previous chapters. I used to think the WTO protesters were nothing more then anarchists who were just want to trash the area where ever they went. However, through Ms. Klein I have a different view point.
All too often the phrase of power and corruption comes into to play. When great money is at hand the "moral" system changes to suit the needs of money. Often you hear the free market argument of if you don't like what the company does, go to the competitor. The problem is they are doing the same thing. When Nike fell from grace, the competitors rose to take it's place in the same actions.
The chapter does make the case that the best way to make a company act in a "moral" standing they often like to portray is to bring attention and educate people to the ramifications of their purchases. It can be a powerful weapon as a quote in the book pointed out "It can take 100 years to build up a brand and 30 days to knock it down."
There are many defenders for corporations but people should think about a comment in the book where it was said Nike thinks you are worthy to purchase their shoes but you are not worthy to make them.
All in all this book is a "must read" no matter what side of the argument you stand. It is a well thought out and provocative to read.
Book Review: Modern Manifesto in Defense of Citizen Public Against Corporate Fascism
Summary: 5 Stars
EDITED 22 Oct 07 to add some links.
Preliminary note: there are some really excellent reviews of this book that I admire and recommend be read as a whole.
Although I have reviewed a number of books on the evil of corporate rule disconnected from social responsibility such as democratic governance normally imposes, books such as Lionel Tiger, "The Manufacture of Evil," and more recently, John Perkins, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" and William Greider, "The Soul of Capitalism," this is the first book in my experience to actually focus on the pervasive process of branding and the spread of corporate control (into schoolrooms and chambers of governance), and also focus, with great originality, on the emergence of an active citizen-based opposition to corporate dominance.
In terms of lasting effect, the most important value of this book to me has been the identification of the World Social Forum as a "must attend" event. I plan to do so.
The bottom line in this book, at least to me, is that government has failed to represent the public and sold out to special interests. The author notes how the US helped derail a United Nations effort to establish, in 1986, a transnational oversight body to help avoid the "race to the bottom" and develop standards of equal opportunity and human rights for labor. Other books, such as "The Global Class War" have focused on the emergence of a global elite that works together to exploit the public and the workers, and that is a part of this story.
The author is very forceful in singling out Microsoft as an exploiter of temporary labor, and goes on from there to highlight both the sweatshops overseas and the "temp" gulags here in the USA, not least of which is Wal-Mart, where other books give us great detail.
I learn for the first time about "culture jamming" and the rise in activists who seek to out corporations, I am reinforced in my view that corporate facism is rampant in America, and I am much taken with the quote on page 325, from Utah Philips, to the effect that those killing the earth have names and addresses.
I am inspired by the author's discussion of "selective purchasing" as the ultimate means of bringing corporations to heel. WIRED Magazine has explored how bar codes can be used to connect potential buyers to all relevant information. Whereas before I have advocated information about water and oil content, now, instructed by this author, I believe it should be possible to also acquire information about labor content (hourly wages, benefits or not, cost paid to labor for the item) and source of capital.
Over-all the book discusses the broken relationship in the triad between the people, the government responsible for representing them, and the corporations that exploit them as consumers and employees and stockholders. I put this book down reflecting on how much power individuals actually have, and how little they know about how to use it.
See also:
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century
The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
Book Review: The best marketing book ever written?
Summary: 5 Stars
Simply put, this book is a masterpiece. It's not your typical marketing consultant book by any stretch of the imagination, after all, Naomi, is not of the Zyman, Reis, or Trout family of marketing writers. Those guys write about Positioning, Focus, (excellent works by the way) and how the only thing that matters in marketing is selling more things to more people more often. After reading Zymans "The End of Marketing as We Know It", you'd think there was nothing more important this world than getting people to consume until they explode or go bankrupt.No Logo takes an entirely different tack. Branding, yea, it gets it due here. Most companies in the US don't make anything anymore. They build brands; they don't build products. Nike, whatever companies made the clothes on your back, or branded the computer you're reading this review on didn't sell you a product. They sold you an image. Maybe they sold your kids an image you finally broke down and bought at the expense of something else.
Cash strapped schools are great place to set the brand hook early. The kids might come home wired and fat from the Taco Bell lunches and Coke machines around every corner, moving one step closer to diabetes or heart disease every day. These days maybe we should just be happy the brand are there to step in and help out where public funding no longer makes the grade. As long as your kid isn't like Mike Cameron who got suspended for wearing a Pepsi shirt to school on "Coke day", there is nothing to worry about, right?
It's intuitive from the consumer side, particularly when we look around and see all the "stuff" we have for which there is really no need. Brands rule, branding "works"; it gets people to buy more stuff more often at increasingly higher prices, often required to offset the cost of the branding campaigns.
That's great unless yours is an industry that has or is in the process of outsourcing production of the actual material goods to an "Export Processing Zone" and your job entails some part of the production process. If it can be made in an overseas sweatshop and shipped back over here, chances are it will be in the not to distant future. It'll be interesting to see what effect the move to the brand based company has on the current and future economy of the US.
So maybe you think it's crazy (or not) that companies here spend billions just create images and perceptions to drive demand for products made elsewhere. Image becomes everything, however, an image can also be extremely fragile. People in glass houses don't throw rocks anymore, the lawyers protecting those fragile brands do. Sometimes it's shutting down fan sites or user groups on the net or trying to block the dissemination of informational leaflets that may not paint an ideal rosy picture of the brand. As was the case with McDonalds in the McSpotlight case, some times the brands take a beating. The glass house comes crumbling down. Sometimes it just takes a few brave sould to stand up for what they believe in.
No Logo will make you think. It might arouse a passion deep within to get involved and look for a ways to bring about change or affect your future career (hint - the money is in brand marketing!). It ought to be required reading for any student of marketing, if for no other reason to provide a sense of balance and awareness of how marketing and branding fits into the business process these days.
If ya like No Logo, you might also be interested in:
** The Age of Access by Jeremy Rifkin
** The Divine Right of Capital by Marjorie Kelly
** Unequal Protection by Thom Hartman
and on the more pro business side
** "Positioning", a classic by Reis and Trout
** "Focus", another outstanding marketing book by Al Ries
Book Review: A deep and complex look at the modern predicament.
Summary: 5 Stars
In No Logo, Naomi Klein investigates and extrapolates on the growing political trend of "brand-based activism". Through her own experience, travels, interviews and research she puts together an amazingly engaging and poignant book. Within these pages, Klein illuminates the ambiguities of modern dissent, the interconnectedness of predicaments the world over. From the "reclaim the streets" parties in Europe which demonstrate for the need for open public space, the struggles of garment workers in the Phillipines and elsewhere, unable to earn enough to live, unable to organize, unable to achieve a decent standard of human dignity, merely used because they have nowhere else to go, used as cheap labor... to the shock tactics of Greenpeace and the infamous McLibel trial, and so on. We begin to see the web connected, how many small movements are fighting common enemies, fighting for common goals. How none of it is easy, or even easily definable, except citizens continue to find themselves protesting the largest symbols of corporate greed and unaccountablity. At the same time as major corporations strip themselves of workers and contract out production to sweatshops, they bolster their public image, attempting to transcend the idea of being manufacturers, to being about "sport" about "life". They seek to be visible everywhere and incorporate everything into their identity. Images like the Nike logo, or the "golden arches" become more than the products of the companies, and in more ways than the companies intend. They become symbols of power. They symbolize many of the grievances many have over the suffering and poverty and power of the "free trade" ideology. Of the WTO, IMF and the whole host of anonymous international organizations making the political decisions that effect us all. But it is these ever-present logos which are most readily attacked, precisely because it is they which wish to come into our homes, to be worn on our chests, to have us feel a part of them. It is these super-brand identities that have the most to lose in public relations. It also makes it easier for people to get involved in world politics, when they make clear connections with the clothes on their own backs, it comes home to people. But No Logo, is also about much more. And Klein is rather neutral in her treatment of the many groups of dissent and "adbusting" which she covers. She recognizes that there are not easy answers and doesn't offer any manifesto. What Klein does is clearly illustrate the current political predicament, in all of its ambiguities and inconsistencies. Is it a mass movement burgeoning? Or a vast fragmented set of movements? Are we witnessing a movement against manifestos and blanket answers all together? Or is it merely another passing fad? Can the current tide of dissent manage to break free of its ties to being "against" to being "for" concrete goals, or is something less tangible sought? Read No Logo and think about these questions and many others. Klein's book is a valuable resource for anyone who cares about real democracy and real equality and the possibility of a better future. But it is not for the reader seeking simple affirmation of their own desires and beliefs.
Book Review: The Huge Phenomenon of Branding
Summary: 5 Stars
Over the past few years, branding has become a huge phenomenon. And it hasn't just occurred in the United States. Branding has scaled the globe and is found almost everywhere in the world. Why is this? In the book, No Logo, Naomi Klein searches for these answers. Starting in the late 80's, management theorists developed an idea that would change the concept of products forever. Instead of just producing products, multi-national corporations would primarily produce brands which were images meant to conjure up feelings and sentiments. In order to do that, corporations needed to find ways to sell their products to consumers. By increasing expenditure in advertising and inventing eye-catching slogans and pictures, people were more likely to buy these consumer goods. This formula proved very successful and has only gotten better for corporations.However, as corporations merge together, they often become too strong and powerful. When this happens, it seems that no one can stop them. Money is of prime concern which means that they will do anything to stay at the top. They don't care about exploiting workers of 3rd World countries or even their employees at home; all they care about is making a profit. But it's not just about making billions of dollars that worries people. As Naomi Klein states, "this corporation obsession with brand identity is waging a war on public and individual space: on public institutions such as schools, on youthful identities, on the concept of nationality, and on the possibilities for unmarketed space" (Klein, p.5).
I really enjoyed Naomi Klein's book for several reasons. It is clear that she put a lot of time and effort into writing this book. I learned a great deal about the real world of advertising and marketing and how corporations have tried to incorporate brands as not just products but a way of life. So far they have been hugely successful. With her use of examples, she shows how brands have taken over peoples' lives. Not only are people consumers of products, they are constantly bombarded with colorful images and brand names wherever they go. And in an attempt to expand and get bigger, corporations are shutting down individual businesses around the country. As a result, people are forced to buy from these corporations and their brands.
People working for these huge corporations are also getting paid less. As workers are becoming poorer, the people at the top of these corporations are becoming filthy rich. It is a pretty sad world we live in. However, I have to admit that a good ad makes a product more appealing. I also can't deny that I have been tempted to buy brand products because they are well-known. But in order for corporations to lose their power and influence over consumers, people must take action. I suggest that reading No Logo is a good start.