hi there,
The q&a of the chapter of Cultural Economy isn't finished yet, but it will be there asap......Here are the other ones though:

Tybout, A. & Carpenter, G. (2001) Creating and Managing Brands In: Iacobucci, D., (ed.) (2001) Kellogg on Marketing (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)

This chapter focuses on …brands. The author explains the concept of a brand, for example how to build and manage it. Therefore, he distinguishes three types of brands, namely functional brands, image brands and experience brands. My question in relation to these three types is:

Does Internet enable the blurring of the boundaries between the three types of brands? In other words, does Internet enable every type of brand to become an experience?

The author gives several examples of experience brands, like Disney (with its themeparcs) and Starbucks (with its experience of taking your mind of hectic things while drinking one of their coffees). Examples of image brands are Coca Cola, Nike, etc. (brands creating images by focusing on who uses the brand, page 86). However, we saw that Coca Cola is wanting to create an experience for their consumer by means of Cokemusic.com. Probably many other brands are using the participation of their consumers to create an experience and thereby hoping to strengthen their image and functionality. Therefore I wonder if the distinction between the various types of brands still accounts on the Internet. If so, are there new types of brands created? If not, how does the blurring of the boundaries between different types of brands effect their impact on the consumers? These are interesting question to think about and discuss.

Dafermos, G. (2003) Blogging the Market: How Weblogs are Turning Corporate Machines into real Conversations

See: opensource.mit.edu/papers/dafermos3.pdf

In this text weblogs and their characteristics are the core topic. According to the author weblogs 'envisage a hierarchy circumvention mechanism, which empowers knowledgeable employees to indulge in conversations with the market rather than communicating solely by means of marketing pitches and press releases that besides have limited effectiveness in a connected market economy.' (page 2). I am wondering if this accounts for weblogs all over the world. Thus,

How is the function of weblogs related to cultural (in the context of different countries) identity?

The author names various examples that corporations promote their image with the use weblogs. However, these are all American examples. I think that American companies receive more 'status' among American people than companies do in the perspective of European people. Therefore, I think weblogs are also used differently in different countries. For example, weblogs are less popular in the Netherlands than in America. The weblogs that are used in the Netherlands are personal websites, which do include what the blogger had for breakfast (in reference to page 47). Is it just a matter of time and will weblogs develop in the same way in the Netherlands as they do in America? Or, are there cultural differences at stake that influence the developments and effects of weblogs?