Blog 6

In the world we live in today, advertisements bombard us at a daily average of 500 per consumer. There are little to no venues that do not have some sort of poster, billboard, or company sign on it. Marketers are continuously trying to find new ways to engage the consumer to become interested in their company’s products. The new wave of this future is social media and internet content.

Before I go on to write about social media content used by companies, I should state that I have had little experience interacting with companies from the consumer side. I do have companies that I enjoy shopping with more than others, but I have yet to follow any of them on Facebook, even though I do recognize that there are promotional benefits of following them. I do have some experience managing a Facebook company page that was actively engaged in keeping consumers up to date about company products and promotions. But, I digress and will take a broader point of view about social media.

Companies focus more on social media content rather than on most other outlets these days. Social media has become more interactive and more personal, not to mention more focused. For example, I recently interviewed with Ford and when I interviewed with them they had their own Facebook Careers page. Everyone who is working with Ford or interested in working with Ford could connect through that web page and learn more about the company culture. Through this web page Ford has built a platform for employees and potential employees to communicate over. It is more focused and centralized towards the specific target.

Continuing with Ford, they have a general company and product Facebook page as well. This is a great way to target and personalize their content towards their specific audience. Unlike, TV commercials, billboards, and magazine ads the Facebook page was actively sought out by interested consumers who are motivated to learn more about Ford’s products. The groudswell text talked about this and how company’s can capitalize from this. Ford has tapped in to a free advertising platform that may in fact target more interested consumers who actually seek out to “Friend” Ford through Facebook.

Ford also uses the Twitter platform to keep its followers up to date. This also allows customers to keep updated on all aspects of the company, including product innovation and current promotions. I have yet to identify the difference between Facebook status updates and Twitter Tweets. In class we talked about the fact that Facebook lets people and companies to post up videos and pictures, and Twitter allows the leader and followers to consistently keep consumers and the group up to date.

Companies and other users also run blogs. These blogs may used to generate interest and conversation about a product or company. Other people who really admire the company may create a blog over the company. The difference between the blog and other social media content is the content involved. The blog is more in depth and content filled. It also allows followers and other bloggers to read and comment on that blog through a thread. With anything you read, especially blogs, you should read it with a bit of skepticism and check the sources.

It is the responsibility of the company to make sure that everything that is posted on the social media site is regulated. Just as it could be beneficial for consumers to formulate a positive brand association with your company it could also hurt your brand image. It could be a public-relation dream or nightmare. Companies need to be aware and manage the information released because just as social media content could help generate added revenue it could also hurt a company’s revenue.

Blog 5

First word: RADIO

Radio is an entertainment object. It has everything from music to talk show segments to information commercials. The radio has been around longer than the television and has lost its popularity due to TV and recently iPods. There was originally just the AM band, whose signal could reach stretches of geographical lands but the trade-off was sound quality. The FM band was later discovered and this band had a great increase in sound quality and here the trade-off was range. Until recently those were the only two bands available on radio. The introduction of the new satellite radio combined both sound quality and vast range. With satellite radio there is the drawback that one has to pay a fee in order to listen to the radio. FM and AM bands would receive their funds through advertisements; satellite radio had no advertisements but still needs to produce revenue, hence the subscription fee. There is also the introduction of HD Radio, which claims to have found a hidden band beyond FM and has no subscription fee.

As far as the product itself, it has come a long way since its earlier product design. Radios are both portable and fixed these days. They are also much more than just radios, they have CD slots and iPod docks for further music enjoyment. They also serve as alarm clocks to start your day off. They have increased their practicality and user-friendly options with programmable settings and volume control and volume boosting functions.

Second word: MIRROR

A mirror is a reflective object. It is usually placed in a restroom, bedroom, or living space. People use it for its grooming attributes. I have also seen mirrors that have a built in television monitor in them so that you can keep up with the game or what have you. Mirrors can be small or big as well as fixed or mobile. Mirrors are found on transportation vehicles for safety.

List:

1)      Mirror with a built in radio. The mirror would have a side panel where you have the same buttons on any other radio. The buttons would be touch sensitive and water resistant, with built in speakers on all four corners.

2)      Compact mirror that doubles as a radio with headphone jacks.

3)      A radio with a reflective side panel that serves as a solar powered energy source.

4)      A mirror shaped as a radio, etched with knobs and colored in.

5)      A stain glass designed radio (not really a mirror).

6)      A radio with digital clock display, whose numbers are mirror pieces.

7)      A radio with a mirrored touch screen panel.

8)      A radio with wireless speakers that have mirrored faces.

9)      A shower mirror with built in radio.

10)  A mirror with built in radio with decorative design on the mirror, more for a living space location.

One viable product is the mirror with a touch panel and built in speakers. There is a product like that already exists in fact. The compact mirror with a built in radio could exist it’s very possible. A radio with a reflective side that serves a solar power energy source could exist, although it would need an alternative energy source because what if through the night it fails and one misses the alarm. The decorative stain glass radio and radio etched with design and color could very well already exist. The radio whose digital clock is made of mirror pieces could exist but it might be break with the movement of the analogs, make them shatter resistant. A radio with a mirrored touch screen panel is a real option. A radio with wireless speakers that act as mirrors also could work, they need to be plugged in to an electrical outlet. The shower mirror already exists. A decorative mirror with a built in radio could be done.

Blog 4

Axe: The Axe Effect

People buy products for various reasons. The most logical reason we buy products is to satisfy our most basic needs such as food, shelter, and health. The larger reason we buy products is to complete the missing gap in who we are and who want to be. We have been taught to believe that we are incomplete and unable to become that which we want to be without certain products. Now that being said, all advertising plays on this to a certain degree: you want to jump higher and run faster, buy Nike; you want to be envied and stand out from the others buy an Audi; you want to attract girls and make them uncontrollably attracted to you buy Axe.

Since hitting the US market in 2002, Axe has taken the anti-perspirant and deodorant market by storm. Axe has reinvented body spray with a refreshing and entertaining marketing campaign aimed at 18-24 year old males. With the help of ads that are aimed at men’s eagerness to attract women, Axe continuously refreshes their perspective on the mating game. (Business Wire)

The ads unveiled by Axe are, in all honesty, funny to some and offensive to others. They are funny to exactly who they are aimed towards: men. They do not have to appeal to everyone because Axe is not targeted to everyone. Certain women do find the advertisements to be offensive and crude. They do portray the male as the more coveted one while women are an item at his beckon call who have merely their sexuality to offer men and if he chooses to, he could go through women as quickly as he wants. However, another interesting point is that women do buy this product for their partners. Perhaps the advertising is not so crude and offensive and in fact when already in a stable relationship, the women do like to use their sexuality in a different way or perhaps they just like the way it leaves their partner smelling.

Axe has capitalized on the old advertising strategy – Sex Sells. But if this is a well known advertising strategy why didn’t Old Spice or Degree rush to market first with this marketing campaign. It could have been any number of reasons including:

-Different Target Market

-Set in marketing campaign

-Didn’t predict a market shift

Any of these could have been a reason why the competitors did not act while Axe did. Axe saw a new way to advertise body spray and deodorants and it paid off well for them as they became the industry leader in both categories. Axe has created something simple, general hygiene, and transformed it in to a channel with the potential for acquiring more female mates for men. Sex does sell and Axe has proven that with body spray and a good marketing campaign (let’s not forget that).

As I mentioned before, advertisements are aimed at helping consumers attain that certain aspiration that they long for, even if it is the advertisers who create that false sense of need. Axe saw that male users would associate scent with increased likelihood of sex and they focused their campaigns around it. These advertisements focused on the link between what males are and who they wish to become. The large population of males between 18-24 are constantly looking for a partner and wish they could chased by several females at any given time. In society, the more partners a male has the better it is and more of a man it makes him. Axe has given him the golden ticket to transform in to what he wants to be - irresistible to females. The axe effect has undeniably led 18-24 males think that Axe is the missing piece between who most men are and what most men are capable of becoming.

Link for Business Wire:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2007_April_18/ai_n27205464/?tag=content;col1

 

Blog 3

When thinking about customer experience, it is prevalent in just about any purchase we make. I never really thought about grocery shopping as an important customer experience – I thought it a habit. But that habit must have initially started as a trial and then somewhere in my purchasing process became a habit. Now where I shop for something as routine as groceries has become a staple for something far greater that just habitual.

I shop for my groceries at HEB and have done so for years. I would help my dad shop for groceries back when I was still living at home and he would always shop at HEB as well. Maybe I enjoy shopping for groceries at HEB because I grew up shopping there with my family. It could represent a subconscious emotional tie that I have every time I walk in to HEB and shop. It’s a nostalgic feeling that reminds me of my childhood.

HEB has developed related and emotional strategic experiential modules. It appeals to my desire of self and to culture. The company itself has done a good job marketing itself as a “Texas” brand built on different emotional ties. HEB knows what it is to be from Texas. It portrays its commercials in that light that it understands our customs and traditions and wants to be a part of them. As far as emotional modules, some of HEB’s marketing campaigns have family celebrations where the food is purchased from HEB. Other commercials revolve around family ideals that help to strengthen that bond that reminds consumers like me of HEB, family, and groceries – They go hand in hand.

Aside from the emotional connection that HEB has established with me, there is also the sensory experience I feel when I step in to an HEB. The well-lit environment, the colorful and refined building structure, the smell of the bakery section, and the look of the visually appealing fruit section all tell me that the environment is great. All those factors appeal to my senses and evoke a strong tie of HEB and myself.

One of HEB’s recent competitors that given a fight in the grocery industry is Wal-Mart. Growing up, I always knew Wal-Mart as a discounted store where you could get clothes, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and house ware. It wasn’t until I was older that they started to expand and set-up a grocery section. I have never really been appealed to shop for my food at Wal-Mart, half based on the fact that I grew up getting food at HEB and getting clothes at Wal-Mart and half on the fact that Wal-Mart is a discount store and their food quality is lower than HEB. Not to mention the fact that until recently Wal-Mart’s environmental appeal was lower quality, that is the lighting and building structure as well as the mess you are sure to find in the clothing and toy departments. That is what I associate with Wal-Mart, discounted goods and not quality food.

In closing, customer experience is present in any shopping experience we have. Whether it’s grocery shopping, such as in this article or it’s something grander like car shopping. The experience is crucial to obtaining customers for that business. Because HEB has instilled the messages of sensation, affection, and cognition experience modules I identify with the brand and undergo a more holistic customer experience when purchasing from HEB. When you develop that tie with the brand and customer relationship strengths you trust that brand will deliver a great customer experience no matter what. That will keep me going back to HEB for years to come.

Blog Post #2

The persona I will create on is that of adulthood. The persona adulthood is arguably the longest and most critical persona of the five identified. It is in this persona where most average healthy consumers spend the majority of their lives. They work, they gain disposable income, and they consume products and services. They are a critical persona to any marketing and product development team.

I will focus on myself and how I view myself and others similar to me. I will also view myself as an outsider, maybe a close personal friend who knows me and my tendencies. The persona will be multi-faceted and complex, it will even be contradictory at times. Personas are not rational and not logical at all times. Personas are human, personas are you and me.

The persona for me will include numerous things:

-          A 22 year old male who is a fifth year student at The University of Texas. He will be graduating soon with a marketing degree, and is somewhat uncertain about what the future holds after graduation.

-           He is the first in his family to go to college, and soon to be first college graduate from his family. He is the oldest in his family and has set a path for his younger siblings to follow.

-          He is good at preparing for school, but does like to procrastinate and wait until the next day to start. He does always complete his work on time and prepare for exams properly. He is disciplined in his studies when he absolutely has to be.

-          He is a sports fan. He follows the Longhorns sports and has season football tickets. He tries to make it to other sporting events but never has. He enjoys tailgating with his friends before heading off in to the stadium. The Texas sun is brutal during football season but that has no effect on him, he will go to the game on Saturday.

-          He lives off campus in South Austin with two roommates. He enjoys living with friends rather than on his own. He has his own room with his own amenities. He cooks on occasion but for the majority of his meals he microwaves the meals. Nutrition is big for him so he eats healthy but does indulge in sweets every now and then.

-          Health is important him. He spends 4-5 days a week exercising. Health problems run in the family, and he wants to stay away from those complications. Exercise and proper eating are preventative measures taken to minimize those chances.

-          He spends about 3 hours a day watching TV or movies. He does not like the commercials, so instead of waiting for the show to come back on what he does is skim through the other networks and find something else to watch while the other show is on a commercial break.

-          As far as spending money, he is a conservative shopper. He buys what he needs most of the time and buys things to indulge in on lesser occasions. He buys new clothes maybe three times a year, he is more than happy to wear the clothes he has now. If the clothes still fit and do not have tears they are perfectly fine. He spends more money on food than anything else. He eats out twice a week at restaurants, so that means that he eats in a lot of the time.

-          Social media is a nice tool to have, but he is not addicted to it. If he goes days at a time without checking Facebook it is fine. On the subject, Facebook is the only social media platform that he is on – it’s more than enough.

Blog 1

When looking to make purchases I never really focused on design of the product and how that design influenced my purchase. I never thought about where that design came from and what may have inspired it. I also never really thought about the subtle, and yet other not so subtle, differences between object designs. The lecture over industry design and the different philosophies that have been used in designing products was quite intriguing.


I particularly enjoyed the philosophy by Dieter Rams, “Good design is a little as possible.” Apple has completely encompassed that in their design approach and I have always found their products to be the most aesthetically pleasing ones and that not just limited to technology, but in general. Although I also found Eero Saarinen’s philosophy of designing based on context of the next larger element intriguing. Apple is designing their products with these two philosophies in mind.

Whether looking at the iPhone, iPod, or iPad they look great because they are sleek and simple. They are great stand alone products but they are contextually designed to mesh well with each other and with the Mac Computers. These products have a similar sleek design, but more importantly they fit in well together based on the context of technological design.

When choosing which design philosophy to incorporate it could be difficult to gauge the audience when testing them with new design ideas. Just like in “Blink - Kenna’s Dilemma” the story about Herman Miller’s new chair Aeron. It was a new radical looking chair that received poor aesthetic reviews by initial testers. It turned out that the reviews were not necessarily poor because the look was bad, but rather that the design was different from what they were familiar with. The testers misidentified their notion of bad with unfamiliarity which caused the low aesthetic reviews. The design philosophy you choose may be met with some resistance in the beginning but it may not always be because it’s poor, but rather that it is in fact unfamiliar to consumers.

First entry

This is the initial script test.