Above, Jean-Luc Godard's Made in U.S.A.,1966, made in France
Culture as the “impossible exchange”
-French thinker Jean Baudrillard described the “impossible exchange” as that which cannot enter the market. Usually personal things have a value greater than what they could be sold for– a family heirloom, a wedding ring - and are impossible exchanges.
-Culture is an intangible asset that is learned through life experience and in truth cannot be bought or sold. Only the resources of a region can be bought or sold and then if they relate to the intangible culture, such as a postcard, foods, music, crafts and films about an area, they are then cultural goods. These are often called high culture (high value such as fine art work) and low culture (low value such as pop music). Cultural exchange of goods is another way to say trade.
Localization and cultural goods
-Every international business now wants to be global but some businesses are undeniably local and only become international because they export. Localization is recognizing the value of local resources which are traded. Local resources are usually natural resources and special skills.
-Examples include French wine, Saudi Arabian oil, African diamonds, most all agriculture
-Businesses evaluate the following before going from local to international
Determining if there is an international market
Responding to an international demand
Speculating a demand by the success of similar products
Establishing international relations
Starting international marketing and trade
Significance of the “Made in” label and the UPC
-When a localized business becomes international the product leaves its home territory and is often labeled as “made in” It is not required and just serves as an informative and marketing device. It is used to promote a country but also to protect a consumer so they can know the product origin and whether they agree with how a product was made which differs country to country. China has in large ceased with this label other keep it http://www.made-in-china.com/
-In the US, The Federal Trade Commission requires by law that automobiles, textiles, wool or fur made entirely in the US it must carry this label when distributed internationally. No other products are required to have the label but if they desire to promote America they must meet the standards. Some cournties have similar mandates on alcohol and food.
-There are “made in” crimes where people have removed “made in” labels from other countries to sell as their own
-In the 1960’s there was a Japanese town named Usa that labeled their products “Made in USA, Japan”
-The UPC, universal product code started in 1974 in the US, there is also the EAN and JAN for Euro and Japan Article Number, they all simply track inventory and are not mandated but starting in 2005 all US retail stores must be able to read them
-UPC is 12 digits with some variations in the EAN and JAN with either the outer most 2 numbers on the edges or the first 3 numbers indicating product origin. 00 - 09 . USA & Canada, 30 - 37 . Fr
ance, 40 – 44, Germany, 47 Taiwan, 49 Japan, 50 UK and 690-692 is made in China
Read more on "Made in China":
Godard image http://ilovehotdogs.tumblr.com/ and image and statistics www.wikipedia.org
No comments:
Post a Comment