From: "Paul Marsden" <PaulMarsden@msn.com>
To: "memetics" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: New Meme papers
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 13:07:08 -0000
On the heels of Sue Blackmore's The Meme Machine, another more modest
contribution to empirical memetics appears this month (March 17th) in the
Advertising Industry Journal
'Admap'.
Marsden, P and Bollen, J (1999) Help Advertising Evolve: Clone Customer
Thought Patterns. Admap Vol 34. No. 3 p37-40.
In this paper we show how Adaptive Hypertext Networks can be used to
construct a virtual clone of the associative semantic network of a customer
group. By managing and stretching brands so that they fit this structure,
it should be possible to engineer brands that have a superior 'memetic' fit
to the market - increasing the effectiveness of brand management and product
positioning It should also be possible to evolve and test 'Super Brands'
inexpensively using the Darwinian algorithm in this virtual environment.
The method might also be used to extend Atran's work on core memes.
An analytical framework for EA (evolutionary advertising) is presented.
Johan and myself are working on a follow-up paper, and I am currently
working on a case study on the BMW brand with Keith Crosier of Strathclyde
University (Assistant Editor of Marketing Intelligence and Planning).
Other meme papers out this month include the editorial of the New Scientist,
and a paper by Sue Blackmore
New Scientist (Editorial) (1999) Blame it on the Memes. New Scientist No.
2177
(March 13) p.3.
Blackmore, S (1999) Meme, Myself, I. New Scientist No. 2177 (march 13)
p40-44
and of course.
Blackmore, S. (1999) The Meme Machine, Oxford, OUP, ISBN 0-19-850365-2
Paul Marsden
Graduate Research Centre in the Social Sciences
University of Sussex
e-mail PaulMarsden@msn.com
tel/fax (44) (0) 117 973 2051
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission:
http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/
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