A Viewing of the Movie Chiefs - Essay Example

?DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER SCIENCES AND RETAILING PURDUE A viewing of CHIEFS Source: Photo, http www.amazon.com/Independent-Lens-Chiefs/dp/B0013J5SE0, April 15, 2013 Add Your Name CSR 332 (00) - Cross Cultural Marketing Dr. Thelma Snuggs and International Retailing Add submission date A Viewing of the movie CHIEFS A Viewing of the movie CHIEFS is a program sponsored by the NAECC. The program was held on March 8th 2013 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. I. Detailed Summary of the viewing of the movie CHIEFS. Beaver C’Bearing is a star player for a remarkable high school basketball team called The Chiefs. What makes this team remarkable is the high school is found on the Wind River Indian Reservation. The students that attend this high school have many obstacles to overcome in their lives. The reservation is a place of high poverty, high unemployment and high rates of substance abuse. It is the type of environment that keeps people from succeeding in life. Yet, this remarkable high school basketball team seems to find a way to win every year. They have won five state championships against much larger, well-funded schools. One of the secrets to the success of the team is their dedicated coach Al Redman. The movie focuses on Beaver C’Bearing and the work he and his coach put into winning. It shows that the boys on the team succeed by working hard to hone their skills and by working together. The movie shows that unfortunately, the lessons learned on the basketball court often do not translate to life on the reservation. Much of the conversation in the movie centers on players that were once great but have failed to have successful lives. II. Relevance of the movie CHIEFS to Marketing There is a lot of relevance in the movie CHIEFS to cross cultural marketing. One of the aspects of culture that was displayed in this movie of Native American culture seems to be the aspect of a focus on shared ownership of public goods. The Chiefs basketball team belongs to the reservation. It occurs to me that this is truer for this community of Native Americans than it is for the typical American community with a more Euro-centric culture. The Chiefs literally belong to the community, no one person or group has more of an interest in them than anyone else does. That is why everyone leaves the reservation to go see the Chiefs play their games in the playoffs. What this means for marketing is that any attempt to market the mystique, culture or logo of the Chiefs would have to be done in a way that benefits the entire community. If any one single individual or group were to try to monopolize access or attempt to brand the Chiefs in a way that excluded the community at large, I believe that this person would have a difficult time succeeding. This team is truly the heart and the soul of the Wind River Reservation in some ways. It is more than a source of pride, it is a public good, and therefore the public will have to be supportive of any marketing efforts involving the team. III. Personal Reaction to the viewing of the movie CHIEFS. I really enjoyed the movie and the crowd that had gathered to watch the movie. I really got caught-up in the stories of these basketball players and how difficult their lives were. I never felt sorry for them, because they seemed so determined to succeed at basketball. I felt that the writer and director of the film did a great job depicting the challenges Beaver C’Bearing and his teammates faced, without sensationalizing the challenges they face off the court. At times, the movie was sad, but always made me feel as though in the end the people on the team would somehow, against all the odd succeed in life and in the game of basketball. I could not help pull for the team in each one of their games, even though the players were flawed and imperfect people. Right to the end of the movie, I believed that these people were going to win. I wanted them to win because it appears as though they were dealt such an unfair hand by fate and by their circumstances. However, I liked the fact that the players met their challenges with determination, not self-pity. The CHIEFS is really an inspiring movie. IV. The event was held with the aim of helping student learn marketing and the importance of culture in the arena of marketing. The event was entertaining as well as educational. I liked getting together with other students to learn something new. Bibliography Chiefs on Independent Lens, PBS, 2007 DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER SCIENCES AND RETAILING PURDUE UNIVERSITY A viewing of More Than Fry Bread Photo Source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2073616/ April 12, 2013 A Viewing of the movie More Than Fry Bread A Viewing of the movie More Than Fry Bread is a program sponsored by the STEW. The program was held on April 12th 2013 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. V. Detailed Summary of the viewing of the movie More Than Fry Bread. More than Frybread is a movie that is shot in the style of a documentary but is really fiction. It is similar to old movies such as Best in Show and This is Spinal Tap. The movie is about a fictional frybread competition held in Arizona. Each of the 22 Native American tribes are to send a representative to this state competition to see who will represent the tribes of Arizona in a national frybread competition in New York City. The movie follows the exploits of five competitors with larger than life personalities. They are all supremely confident in their abilities to bring honor to their tribes by conquering the other tribes in the frybread competition. The fictional World Frybread Association is featured prominently as are the ever-present frybread security officers. At the end of the story, a moral is presented that shows the value of friendship as well as the value of culture and the importance of humor. VI. Relevance of the movie More Than Frybread to Marketing This movie has huge potential for marketing throughout. So many of the competitors and characters are quirky individuals with great lines, many could become memes on the internet. I can see a future for merchandise that would be very popular with the Native American community as well as other Americans that see the show and value the humor. I can see a potential for Frybread Security T-Shirts, hats and key chains. The merchandising potential for this film is immense. All sorts of products, from frybread flippers to “official” frybread recipe books (all with the same basic ingredients of water, flour and yeast) could be sold as novelties. What makes all of this so attractive from a marketing standpoint is the unique nature of the film. More Than Frybread has the potential to be the next Napoleon Dynamite from a marketing perspective. The appeal is to a subset of our society, but actually it is something anyone with a sense of humor can appreciate. VII. Personal Reaction to the viewing of the movie More Than Fry Bread. This movie was hilarious. I must admit that some of the jokes went over my head. I wrote these off as inside jokes between Native American tribes. But the film was so honestly presented that even when I was not sure of the meaning of a joke, I had a good idea what they were talking about so I didn’t feel as though I was out of place. I spoke with a Native American friend after the showing and she said that even she didn’t get some of the humor between tribes, but enjoyed the movies anyway. I liked the fact that Native Americans were featured in a movie that was funny. So often we dwell on the plight of the Native American, focusing on injustice and poverty, that we sometimes place this entire group of people into a category that requires us to view them somberly. It was very enjoyable to see Native American actors poking fun at some aspects of their own culture, just like Americans that are not natives will do. VIII. Movie night is a chance to learn about how marketing is affected by culture. I like the idea learning this way as opposed to just sitting in the classroom. The movie was educational as it was also fun. Bibliography Holt, Hamilton. More Than Frybread, 2011. Read More