Global Popularity of Brand Playboy Research Paper

Global Popularity of Brand Playboy - Research Paper Example The beginning of Playboy was seen in 1953 by owner Hugh Heffner, at that time known as ‘Stag.† The approach was to offer a magazine for men that included nude female models, journal articles and fiction. The first issue was focused on pictures of the celebrity, Marilyn Monroe and sold an average of 53,991 copies within a few weeks. From here, Hefner began to work with Eldon Sellers in Chicago for enhancing the trend of the magazine. To enhance this, the models were combined with the different components which added to the brand of Playboy, including the Playboy bunny, which was known for being placed in the magazine in a discreet area for men to find. The height of the magazine circulated into the 1970s as the main magazine with the specific content. After this time, pornographic videos, â€Å"Penthouse† and other magazines focused on specific audiences began to compete with the magazine. However, it continues to sell an average of 2.6 million magazines per month.T he intimacy of the magazine led to the development of merchandise, specifically because the magazine wasn’t able to produce the images outside of the magazine. The development of the playboy bunny was able to add into this image in the 1970s to lead to the popularity of the magazine. The merchandise includes t-shirts, caps, household items, cards, cosmetics, jewelry, mobile phone accessories, mugs and posters. However, the merchandise continued to be sold because it worked as a way of advertising the magazine and the overall ideology of the brand. Most of the merchandise grew in the 1980s and 1990s and was introduced globally, specifically to make a defined understanding of the brand name in relation to the magazines which were sold2. Current Condition of Playboy The merchandise which grew into an international brand not only went through a rising popularity. The Playboy brand was known for a continuous rise and fall in the amount of merchandise available to those interested in the brand. After the 1970s, the brand declined because of the other competitors which began to offer the same type of magazine and which combined other options for sales with the Playboy brand. This pushed Playboy into building the brand identity through the merchandise and allowed them to move back into popular rankings at a global level. Today, the concept of adult entertainment has been reinvented through the concept of Playboy, specifically because of the decline which occurred in the 1970s. The Playboy brand has built a stronger reputation with the use of technology and the Internet. At the same time, the merchandise which is available is growing in popularity. It is noted that this is linked specifically to the economic turns. When the economy was booming in the 1980s and 1990s, the magazine was popular and the merchandise worked as a brand identity. However, the downturn in the economy has led more to finding the merchandise and alternative Internet sources for the Playboy magazine. This exchange was combined with the understanding of the Playboy identity as well as what the cultural values and norms are in terms of the entertainment3. The current trends as well as the changes in the economy have