<< back to main I am driven to learn more about the management of hi-tech products in a wide array of arenas. My extensive experience in researching consumer cultures and products on the Internet has sparked this genuine interest in me. Below are some of the examples of phenomena I have examined. These center around hobbies of mine, such as automobiles and sneakers. To some it may seem silly to study these markets, but I contend that if one can understand how products and ideas sell in esoteric markets, one can better understand how to sell products and ideas in any market. I desire to learn more about these intricacies from the hi-tech company perspective. Why is there a prevalence of threads about punk rock, skateboarding, underground hip-hop and tattoos on the Volkswagen Enthusiast forums at http://www.vwvortex.com ? How did this influence VW to start packaging guitars with certain vehicles, and how did this influence customers? Was this marketing tactic connected to the forum discussion I participated in with former VW President Len Hunt about young peoples' perceptions of VW at VWVortex.com? On some car forums, why does there seem to be a correlation between certain brands of cars and certain colognes? Why is it that certain themes seem to reappear every few days? Why is it that on one forum about hip-hop, the majority of posters endorse Nike sneakers, while on another forum about hip-hop, posters seem to endorse DC skate shoes? Even more intriguing is what sparks people to start discussing skate shoes on the formerly mentioned forum, and what sparks people to talk about Nikes on the latter mentioned site. On the sneaker forum http://www.issofurms.com, there is a thread where users share their latest purchases. For many of these people, consumption is their culture, and while generalizations can never be made, there do seem to be recurring patterns of products that are purchased by this group. If companies' R&D teams and advertisers knew more about how to exploit these connections, it could drastically impact their prosperity. The mass media influences shaping these intricacies, and the way that these issues create cultural meanings and trends are very compelling to me. More compelling to me is learning about how these phenomena can boost profits for advertisers who market their products through email, on the internet, mobile phones, and newer, hybrid style media (such as YouTube videos being used at TV ads). I am fascinated by the fact that different users will be presented with different ads depending on the frequency at which they use the medium to research the product. In a hi-tech world where profit can be made by marketing virtually anything, the mentality of every target audience (and the connections they have with other groups and lifestyles) must be explored and taken seriously.