Studies have shown that modern culture - with its emphasis on acquisition of material things - has actually made us less happy than we were in times of far less abundance. Now corporations are slipping their consumption-heavy messages into every aspect of life, even textbooks in public schools. The result is a childhood obesity crisis, skyrocketing consumer debt, and the privatization of nearly every aspect of public life.
B-M offers the full range of PR services including government relations, crisis management, issues and reputation management, brand building, product marketing, and communications training, to name a few of the twenty services listed on its web-site. These services are delivered by seven ‘practice’ areas within the company: advertising/creative, brand marketing, corporate/financial, healthcare, media, public affairs and technology.
Building brands is at the core of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide's activities. The company emphasizes it uses a holistic approach to brand building, touching every contact point a consumer might have with the brand. It could be the packaging, merchandising, and advertisements on billboards, television, radio or the Web. The company even uses public relations to create a more conductive environment for the brand.
De Beers is the world's largest supplier and marketer of diamonds -- effectively only a semi-precious stone since the opening of the diamond mines in southern Africa in the late nineteenth century. They employ sophisticated advertising strategies to create demand for a product with little or no intrinsic value or worth, which cannot easily be resold by the consumer.
Nike is the world's leading supplier of athletic shoes, apparel and sports equipment with revenue in excess of $16 billion USD in 2007. Operating in more than 160 countries around the globe Nike and is subsidiaries can be found in most shoe retailing stores. In addition to manufacturing their products Nike also runs a chain of retail stores known as Niketown.
Office Depot is the second largest office supply and products retailer (behind Staples). The company has over 1,600 locations globally and opened its first Florida store in 1986. Multiple states have investigated or canceled contracts with Office Depot for various questionable pricing schemes.
3M is a leading manufacturer of adhesives, tapes, and a variety of industrial and medical products. There are six divisions: consumer and office supplies; industrial and transportation, electro and communications (connecting, splicing, and insulating products); display and graphics (specialty film, traffic control materials); health care (dental and medical supplies, and health IT); and safety, security, and protection (commercial care, occupational health and safety products).
Delphi primarily makes various automobile parts. The company's technology is also sold for computing, communications, consumer electronics, energy and medical applications. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2005 and soon thereafter began operating as "debtors-in-possession" under court supervision, with the expectation of emerging from bankruptcy sometime in 2008. The company is a former division of General Motors (GM), separated in 1999.
The Walt Disney Company was founded by brothers Walt and Roy Disney on October 16, 1923 as a small animation studio and grew into an empire. It currently has active interests in studio entertainment, parks and resorts, consumer products, and media networks.
The Unilever Group consists primarily of Unilever NV and Unilever PLC and is one of the world’s top makers of packaged consumer goods and sells products like deodorants, fragrances, soap, margarine, tea and frozen foods all over the world. Unilever controls subsidiaries in at least 90 countries and is one of the world’s top food firms.
The Kroger Co. operates retail food and drug stores, multi-department stores, jewelry stores and convenience stores throughout the United States. The Company also manufactures and processes some of the food for sale in its supermarkets. It reported over US$60 billion in sales during its most recent fiscal year and is the top grocery retailer in the country and third-place general retailer in the country, behind Wal-Mart and The Home Depot.
