Pop culture icons and artifacts



What is Popular Culture?  
A specific group what welcomes and shares similar thoughts and ideas.  Example: Fandom (A community of like-minded fans of a television show, movie, or comic book).

Relevance of pop culture in a business environment?
Businesses that make their living selling products to fans and fandoms have to pay attention to trends, supply and demand, and popularity of the icon they are basing their product on.  If a company is going to produce action figure toys based on a popular comic book or movie character then they need to research the market.  The company has to decide which fictional character they are gambling their sales on.  This week may be all about Wonder Woman, but will next month be the same.  To be ready with stock a company has to plan ahead.  Research can be done to see which character movies are planned to release in the near or distant future.  Toys can be created and timed to sell during the future movie release.  Pop culture is transitory and can change, so  it takes a good business person to plan around the changes.

Pop culture artifact?
An artifact is something that represents an item or idea that is popular to a chosen group.  In this case, the recognizable portrait of each superhero above, is a well recognized icon to fans of movie or comic book superhero. 




Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 16, 2017 at 8:25 PM

    I completely agree that fandom is a huge pop culture. I, for one, am a huge Batman fan, so I understand this topic completely. It is very important for businesses that deal with fandom to be on top of what is going on in the world around them. Like you mentioned Wonder Woman is huge right now, but not too long ago it was Batman with the outcoming movies of Suicide Squad and Batman vs. Superman. Staying on top of what is in the now, is the only way for companies in this profession to stay in business. I like that you mention that toys can be created. This is a huge way to drawn in customers and revenue. Especially when the movie is just released. I agree that the image of a superhero is a very important artifact. People know about superheroes and who each one is even if they are not highly into superheroes. This was a very good post and a great topic to choose!

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  2. Christophe MbomndaAugust 19, 2017 at 7:26 PM

    Nice work. Honestly, i must admit i learned a new word (fandom). Thank you. Aside from that, i agree with you. As you mentioned, it is absolutely important for businesses, or inventors to be aware of the trends out there. Another point i noted is when you mentioned that trends are constantly changing, and it requires some planning to get the right product or service out there at the right time. I can describe pop culture as a means of generating demand so that a product or service can sell an a desired price tag.

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  3. UnknownAugust 19, 2017 at 7:28 PM

    I agree with you that everything in this world has its own fan base. We have people that love rock climbing, racing cars, or as you stated people who love a certain tv show, movie, or comic book. I for one have always been a big fan of Batman and what he stands for. The reason why is because Batman does not have any super powers, but you and I could easily achieve what he has through perseverance. Although Batman is my favorite superhero I am only part of a fandom for the Christian Bale Batman. I can not handle Adam West, Ben Affleck or any other actor for Batman. I think fandoms are pop culture because they are just gathering people together who all like a common subject, which is typically what is popular at the time. The examples you gave were great because as you stated studying pop culture allows you to decide when to create the toys. Thank you very much for your post!

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  4. Pop Culture through Bry's EyesAugust 20, 2017 at 6:50 PM

    Interesting Pop culture topic/artifact to choose. I think that you hit every point on the head especially the point about how the businesses need to be on top of their game when it comes to producing action figure toys that resembles these different superheros that seem to be popular every other week. Knowing that these businesses do their research to stay on top of the latest comic book character that is airing next, I wonder how they predict what character is still going to be relevant even when other characters are coming out after them. Example Princess Elsa from the movie Frozen. Even though she is not s superhero "persay" she is very popular and still relevant months after being release even though other things have came out after her. I wonder how businesses know what and how much to produce and when it would all die down. Great job though, I enjoyed reading your blog.

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