Slowly does it (the need for marketers to recognize the need to accommodate “slow culture”)

Article Type: Abstracts From: Strategic Direction, Volume 27, Issue 7

Chmielowski A.Admap, January 2011, Vol. 46 No. 1, Start page: 10, No of pages: 3

Draws attention to the fact that, while marketing has become increasingly preoccupied with the pace and complexity of modern life, and the need for instant gratification and faster connections to others, there are areas of life where deep-rooted rituals, values and ideas are a fundamental part of what anthropologists term “slow culture”, where the quality of life is best enjoyed at a pace which is dictated by the consumer rather than the producer. Examines three areas where a fast approach to understanding human behaviour has been taken, but which merit a slow culture analysis (television and entertainment, narrative, storytelling) with particular reference to the case of China where both the “fast culture” and “slow culture”may be seen to be operating in parallel. Illustrates these points with particular reference to the personal video recorder (PVR) and the Internet that have made the passive uninterruptive experience of TV an anachronism. Concludes that it is possible to learn from how the ritual of storytelling has changed and where, in China, modernity is seen not as “foreign”, but as part of Chinese tradition.Article type: ViewpointISSN: 0001-8295Reference: 40AE489

Keywords: China, Culture (sociology), Marketing models,Marketing philosophy, Marketing planning, Marketing strategy, Marketing theory,Strategic marketing