Source

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1300/J073v07n03_04
This is an academic article applying "Importance Performance Analysis" to a ski area in Switzerland. It discusses different aspects of this ski area as they relate to the management's business model

Blog Post 4-Food and Community

                                                                                                                                           Ben Massey

These two essays show how food is intertwined with certain communities. “Breaking bread with spread” describes the inner workings of a San Francisco jail and how “spread”, a jail house conglomeration of food, functions as a social crux. Inmates use portions of meals, edible gifts from the outside and any food they can find to create different spreads, usually with the help of just a microwave or boiling water. The spreads have evolved to represent a “rebellion” of sorts from prison food the inmates consider bland and unsatisfying. While reading I couldn’t help drawing a connection to dorm life. Sometimes I feel “imprisoned” by Sodexco’s food and I cherish the ability to make dinner in my room that is not only tastier but empowers the feeling of freedom from the mundane day to day cafeteria feed. Cate also describes how the spreads function as a social rallying point, certain inmates always cook together and buying/selling of spreads pulls different groups and individuals together.

O’Donnell’s essay connects food and communities as well, but in a much different setting, the emerging Chinese city of Shenzhen. While the spreads of San Francisco relate relatively small groups of inmates, O’Donnell discusses how food is tied to different generations in the world’s largest country. On one hand there is an older generation who value the socialist ethic and on the other are the young emerging Shenzheners wrapped up in the self-interest of hybrid capitalism. O’Donnell writes, “Old Shenzheners nostalgia for socialist meals competes with New Shenzheners commodified appetites (pg. 38)” The older group values small government issued meals and the ensuing sacrifice for the “greater good”. The younger Shenzheners view this socialist rhetoric as old and outdated, preferring instead to bow to the capitalist notion of fulfilling self-needs as the highest priority. The rapidly expanding, high end, bars and eateries of Shenzhen are a product of this new notion of food. This is very much representative of the “westernization” of Chinese culture away from its humble traditional roots.

Food holds a special place for everyone. Inmates in the city of brotherly love have found their own type of community centered on jail-cooked treats. Traditional Shenzheners hold small bland meals of cornbread and state-issued rice in high regard as a means of supporting their country. These essays have shown me that certain meals hold more value that just nourishment and that this value can become a social rallying point for just a couple of people or an entire generation.  

Classmates Blog

As I read though Nick's blog the 5th paragraph caught my attention. It is describing an ad for a upper-scale steak  joint in Chicago. He made the point that "Wildfire does not have to advertise, their food and reputation does that for them." I immediately latched on to that quote as it was very similar to a point I made in my short essay, that McDonalds and Heinz do not need to advertise their brand because they are already household names. Because all three of these food establishments already have recognition they can focus their advertising on other aspects; the atmosphere of the meal for example at Wildfire or the "fit" version of ketchup. It is true that brand recognition is one of the most important themes in marketing and these three companies all understand that.
http://847cuisine.blogspot.com/2012/04/advertisements.html

Straight American Food

These ads convey two of the most Americanized food products, McDonald’s sandwiches and Heinz ketchup. Both could be considered staples of an average American diet and the ads reflect centralized values of American society, health and knowledge. Appealing to a person’s identity can be one of the strongest marketing strategies. McDonalds and Heinz employ this by relating to who the viewers think they are or who they want to be. Primarily these ads convey the impression that if you are smart you eat McDonalds and if you are healthy you use Ketchup.

I stumbled upon the ketchup ad while searching the internet and it immediately caught my eye. It has a simple and elegant design that highlights the partially eaten tomato occupying dead center. Beneath the vibrant green and red it reads “No Sin” and “more tomatoes less sugar”. This print ad is directed towards consumers who are health conscious, but not ready to give up their favorite brand of ketchup. Product recognition is very important for generating sales and Heinz Fit Ketchup, still has the brand name but is supposed to be healthier than original ketchup. The irony is that ketchup is not a part of a healthy diet, but can be made to look the part by labeling it “fit”. Food advertisers use other words like “skinny” or “slim” to the same effect. Similar to the McDonalds ad, the actual brand they are trying to sell occupies only a small portion of the area, overshadowed by a graphic designed to capture your attention. This is a benefit of being a multi-national chain; McDonalds and Heinz are already recognizable companies and don’t have to devote the whole ad to emphasizing their brand.

The McDonalds ad I chose employs very interesting imagery. I chose it because it is very different that most fast food ads I have seen. It is not emphasizing health or product quality as is usually the case with fast food.  A hamburger is stylized as a stack of different books each cleverly colored and named to match an ingredient. A cursive M occupies the lower left and on the bottom it reads, “A sandwich for experts”. Through this ad McDonalds is conveying the message that “experts” eat McDonald’s sandwiches and if you are an “expert” you should too. This ad throws the common conception of McDonalds on its head. It tries to portray a sophisticated image of the golden arches, despite the fact that many American’s would never associate sophistication and McDonalds. In today’s highly stratified society, education is directly equated with success. This ad successfully appeals to an audience who yearn to feel “educated” or “smart”. Both this and the Heinz ad rely on the premise that if you use this product you will feel better about yourself.  The designer of this ad also chose the font to match the theme of intelligence. Using cursive evokes imagery of the upper-class and elegance as oppose to the mundane or regular of print.

These ads speak volumes about food cultures and values in America. The “fitness” value can be seen in almost every food isle today.  Americans place great value in foods that are supposed to be healthier. Labels such as “0-trans fat” and “less than 100 calories” are commonplace. Most Americans do not know what trans-fat is and can’t differentiate between simple and complex carbs.  They place their trust in the product and assume that it simply must be better because that’s what the packaging says. The irony is that most of the products that rely on “health advertising” are the very foods a health-conscious eater would avoid. You never see labels on lettuce or fruit telling you how healthy they are. This kind of marketing is so prevalent today because it is so successful. Everyone wants to be fit, but not everyone wants to give up Heinz ketchup.

By analyzing ads a consumer can see deep into a company. How they wish to be seen, who they market to, and most importantly what value their products hold. You can also peer into society’s food culture and values and how companies employ these to entice customers. Heinz and McDonalds are food giants in America and these two ads show they are experts at appealing to consumer’s identity. As long as there are people who believe that “experts” eat at McDonalds and that Heinz’s new ketchup is “fit” then ads like these will keep showing up and will keep being successful.

Everyone Loves Chips

Freedman and Jurafsky’s research make deep inroads into how language and culture are connected. What their work suggests is that there is a distinction between the language used by the higher socio-economic classes and the lower ones. Food advertisers take advantage of this distinction by marketing specific brands to each class through use of class-specific diction on the packaging. One of the most interesting points they made is the connection between health, class and food advertising. It is a well-documented fact that members of a higher demographic usually lead much healthier lives. Freedman and Jurafsky postulate that more expensive chips employ diction such as “natural” or “zero trans fat” on the packaging while less expensive chips forgo phrases such as those. The chips then appear healthier when really all chips are similar in healthiness despite who they are marketed to.

The methods Freedman and Jurafsky’s applied to potato chips can be used with almost any mass-marketed product. I could imagine it being used with diapers and other baby-care products. Similar to potato chips, diapers are a necessity for both upper and lower class families. I would suspect that the findings would correlate with their previous study in that different brands employ varied diction and word complexity to appeal to different socio-economic classes.

The geography of food

                                                                                                                                    Ben Massey

                                                                                                                                    4/1/12

                                                                                                                                    WRITT 1133

                                                           

            There was a time when food was just a means to an end, a way to achieve nourishment and keep living. Had we all lived 1000 years ago we would be more worried with providing the next meal than analyzing its significance in our life. As our concept of food has evolved so has the role it plays for each of us. For me food holds a significance relating to its geography, food represents a connection to the earth that has become unique in modern society. This connection is often taken for granted or overlooked and is even being destroyed by the advent of processed food. This significance food holds for me stems from my family, my mother in particular.

Karen Massey, my mother, has always held food in a special place. She was a professor of nutrition and currently works as an extension agent, a sort of free consultant working with farmers and ranchers. Growing up I was never as grateful as I should have been considering I was able to relish in a healthy home-cooked meal every night (college has made this a scarce novelty). Whenever a new meat or vegetable made its appearance on the table Karen would make its origin and journey to our plates well known. By doing this every night I gained a special appreciation for a variety of foods. Palisade peaches are softer and sourer than the rest and Routt County beef is the tenderest (due to its very short travel time from the ranch to our freezer). Each food I consume fosters a connection to the land can’t be found anywhere else. In every bite you can taste the soil and air of a meal’s former home. After sampling enough fruits and veggies from across Colorado I was even able to taste the distinctness in “mountain grown” produce west of the continental divide and “plains grown” towards the east.

The connection is becoming harder and harder to find today. I first noticed it as I moved to Denver last fall with a multi-thousand dollar meal plan in my pocket, which could buy nourishment but not real food. Processed food is taking over American diets. Not only is it unhealthy but it lacks what I love most about food, a story. When you eat a bowl of cereal or a fruit rollup there is no connection to earth, just the sugary rush and ensuing dental harm. No one worked night and day to bring that high fructose corn syrup to your table. Is the convenience of processed food worth the loss in value? For me the answer is a resounding no, however many people could care less.

The distinctness of a food’s geography is most apparent while traveling. It is easy to overlook the minute differences between American crops, but less so when comparing traditional Japanese food to American cuisine for example. Sampling food from other cultures is always an interesting experiment and one begins to associate that taste and smell with a locale. Spain, will always remind me of Tapas, an appetizer dish filled with different combinations of vegetables, seafood, cheeses, olives and many other ingredients. When I sampled a tapa bar while traveling in Spain the taste became inextricably linked with soil, sea and livestock of Europe. The taste of tapas prepared with Spanish food will always taste more authentic than the same dish made elsewhere. The same holds true for American food, a burger made in America tastes like America. I had the opportunity to eat a hamburger in Mexico during spring break. As I scoffed it down like a true American I could immediately taste tartness in the meat that didn’t belong in my concept of a burger. The bun also possessed a floury quality as if the baker accidently dropped it in a barrel of the white stuff. In all it was nothing like a good ole’ American burger I love so much.

Food can taste good, bad or just plain bland (aka Sodexo), more important than the taste however is how the food connects you to a place. Food reminds us of home and of foreign places far away, food fresh out of the ground oozes of local nitrates, soil and even atmospheric particles. These combine to give a unique geographic taste that is impossible to reproduce. Next time you eat, give the food a second thought. Ask yourself, where did this come from and what peculiarities give this meal personality? When you genuinely care about the food you eat it becomes more than food. It is a timeless memory, reminding you of places once visited and long forgotten times. That is the true value of food.

Ahn and Nicholson

These two pieces dug deep into each author’s connection between food and real life. Both authors began their narratives reminiscing about their parents, spurred by a connection with the food they were eating. Ahn, holds vivid memories of his mother’s cooking and its connection with Korean culture. After his parent’s death Ahn reconciled with Korean cuisine that symbolically “filled the void” his parents had left. Nicholson connected “white” foods to his mother because of her peculiar preference for them. While we may find this habit strange, Nicholson writes about it with a sort of detached indifference, as if it were a totally normal condition.

Both authors also connected food with their cultural backgrounds. For Ahn Korean food represented his childhood and Korean culture which he hopes to pass on to his son. When he first moved to America he detested it, preferring his new friend’s American cuisine to his parent’s traditional food. This resentment stemmed from Ahn’s assimilation into American culture at a young age and the inevitable backlash towards Korean culture. For Nicholson white food, particularly Cheshire cheese, symbolized Britain, where his mother grew up.

These essays got me wondering what kind of food I symbolically attach to my parents. I thought and thought but for the life of me I cannot recall any food off the top of my head. As I read though Ahn and Nicholson again before writing I realized that both didn’t know how much a type of food meant to them until they were tasting, smelling and experiencing it. Then they could turn its significance into words. Next time I have a fleeting memory or feeling while eating I am going to take a second, sit back and wonder, what significance does this hold for me?