Working on this Insight/Experience Audit and Prototype group project has allowed me to better understand how to gain and evaluate insights of a market segment. Before I did this project, I had never used photo journals or focus groups as methods of gaining insights. I had only done one-on-one interviews or surveys in the past to obtain and analyze general quantitative data. I had also never focused on researching how the market segment feels and behaves in one location in past projects and research papers. My group compiled the results from the photo journals into a table to find consistencies and outliers in our market segment, 14-15 year-old girls. We only gave the girls a small amount of guidance for the photo journal so this method gave the girls a chance to interpret our questions in their own way. We divided up the responses we received by question asked (favorite item, least used item, most used item, take out item, wishful item) to make it easier for us to analyze the data. This project gave me the experience of actually going through the process of comparing the answers each of our respondents in our market segment gave us. We also checked to see if their responses were consistent with the predictions we had made earlier in the project. Half of the girls took a picture of their TV as their favorite item. This was not surprising to us because we predicted that would probably happen. Surprisingly, all but two of the girls who participated said that their fireplace was their least used item in the family room. We did not expect that response. The most used item that the participants took a photo of matched our predictions of something that gives them comfort and relaxation. The majority of them chose to photograph something that you could sit on. We were able to find a trend in the take out item category even though most of their responses were very different from one another. Most of the items photographed as take out items were either very old, belonged to someone else, or do not belong in the family room. The focus group allowed us to observe the girls in a different environment where they were able to brainstorm ideas and bounce ideas off of one another. We were able to discover that these girls enjoy electronics, would like less parental control and more freedom, and they like to talk a lot.
As a result of working on this Insight/Experience Audit and Prototype group project, I have gained a better understanding of how to create a prototype that addresses the needs of our chosen market segment. In past group projects, I never had the opportunity to actually contribute to developing a product or service that meets several needs of a market segment. This experience was very beneficial for me personally. As a business student, every research paper and project are so structured that they limit my creativity. I like the fact that this group project challenged me to tap into my creative side. In order for us to fine tune our prototype, Blabber, for our market segment, we tried to make benefits of Blabber that were relevant to the insights we gained from our gaining insights and evaluating insights phases of the project. I learned how to make these important connections. For example, we found that 14-15 year-old girls like to have a sense of belonging to a group. Thus, we created the group chat feature on Blabber in order to allow our market segment to share their thoughts with all of their friends at once.
After hearing the instructions at the beginning of the semester, I was very intrigued by the uniqueness of the Insight/Experience Audit and Prototype group project. I was curious to see who I would be matched up with for my semester-long project. I met my teammates and everyone was very friendly. My teammates were great. The diversity of my group contributed to my learning and my enjoyment of the course material. I love working with people who are different than me, and my team consisted of several different cultures. Everyone in my group had a unique personality and background. This benefited my group because we all were able to contribute our different perspectives and ideas to our project. The professor gave my group a great set of guidelines to go by that had the right amount of structure. We knew what we were doing but still had enough flexibility to be creative. Also, the professor was open to answering any questions that we had along the way, and this helped clarify what we were trying to understand. This project was not only beneficial for me to grow as a future marketer but it also was a whole lot of fun. By far, this project was one of the most interesting ones I have ever had the opportunity to be a part of.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Blog #9 - Response to Seth's Blog
Seth Godin made numerous valid points in his blog titled “Poisoning the well” that he wrote on April 3rd of this year. He gave some examples of situations in which “selfish short-sighted marketers” irritate people. I am tired of receiving 20 junk e-mails each day and I believe that whoever is reading this has also had similar irritating experiences. Seth makes the argument that “marketers have spammed, lied, deceived, cluttered, and ripped us off for so long, we’re sick of it.” I completely agree with his argument. He also touches on the fact that the public has become so upset with the bombardment of advertisements surrounding each of us each day that we have become very skeptical of advertisements and marketers’ intentions. I know that I do my best to ignore the majority of advertisements that I actually see, and I am almost certain that I have become immune to many forms of advertisements.
According to Seth, “selfish short-sighted marketers ruined it for all of us. The only way out, I think, is for a few marketers to so overwhelm the market with long-term, generous marketing that we have no choice but to start paying attention again.” I concur. Marketers need to get away from making sorry attempts at quickly driving up sales. If their advertisements irritate customers, then it is very likely that the consumers will ignore future advertising attempts from the respective firm. I have learned from my Customer Insights class that it is absolutely critical for marketers to do their due diligence and gain insights about their specific target market first. If they did this, I believe that they would realize that making a positive impact on potential consumers is the key to eventually developing a long-term relationship with them.
There is a wealth of evidence from several current forms of advertisements that supports the thought that marketers must have discovered this issue when analyzing the negative results of certain sneaky advertising tactics. Many marketers have recognized the problem at hand and are taking some proactive actions to try to restore the respect of the public. These actions are by no means typically reasonable. Many times marketers of companies are have having to pay a huge amount of money in order to successfully reach their target market.
Super Bowl advertisements really exemplify this fact. The Super Bowl is one of the most watched events and is a prime opportunity for companies to reach their target market when the majority of their target market is expecting it. This is an example of a time when people are completely open to hearing out advertisements. There are many people who are watching the Super Bowl specifically to watch the advertisements for some form of entertainment. Unfortunately this year, NBC actually had to fill advertising spots with their own commercials for one of the first times in history due to the poor economy and high cost of each advertisement spot.
Another expensive, yet fairly effective form of advertising that is respectful of the public is product placement. When products are incorporated into a movie or TV show, people are not very likely to be offended. I actually prefer receiving the message this way because I get to see my favorite characters using products that I may potentially like without feeling like I am being deceived. It is very important for marketers to realize that product placement must not be overwhelming or used too often.
As we can clearly see from these two examples, marketers are definitely making attempts at being accepted again by the general public. Now the question is: how long it will take for us to “start paying attention again” ?
Seth Godin's Blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/04/poisoning-the-well.html
According to Seth, “selfish short-sighted marketers ruined it for all of us. The only way out, I think, is for a few marketers to so overwhelm the market with long-term, generous marketing that we have no choice but to start paying attention again.” I concur. Marketers need to get away from making sorry attempts at quickly driving up sales. If their advertisements irritate customers, then it is very likely that the consumers will ignore future advertising attempts from the respective firm. I have learned from my Customer Insights class that it is absolutely critical for marketers to do their due diligence and gain insights about their specific target market first. If they did this, I believe that they would realize that making a positive impact on potential consumers is the key to eventually developing a long-term relationship with them.
There is a wealth of evidence from several current forms of advertisements that supports the thought that marketers must have discovered this issue when analyzing the negative results of certain sneaky advertising tactics. Many marketers have recognized the problem at hand and are taking some proactive actions to try to restore the respect of the public. These actions are by no means typically reasonable. Many times marketers of companies are have having to pay a huge amount of money in order to successfully reach their target market.
Super Bowl advertisements really exemplify this fact. The Super Bowl is one of the most watched events and is a prime opportunity for companies to reach their target market when the majority of their target market is expecting it. This is an example of a time when people are completely open to hearing out advertisements. There are many people who are watching the Super Bowl specifically to watch the advertisements for some form of entertainment. Unfortunately this year, NBC actually had to fill advertising spots with their own commercials for one of the first times in history due to the poor economy and high cost of each advertisement spot.
Another expensive, yet fairly effective form of advertising that is respectful of the public is product placement. When products are incorporated into a movie or TV show, people are not very likely to be offended. I actually prefer receiving the message this way because I get to see my favorite characters using products that I may potentially like without feeling like I am being deceived. It is very important for marketers to realize that product placement must not be overwhelming or used too often.
As we can clearly see from these two examples, marketers are definitely making attempts at being accepted again by the general public. Now the question is: how long it will take for us to “start paying attention again” ?
Seth Godin's Blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/04/poisoning-the-well.html
Monday, April 13, 2009
Blog #8 - Extended Outline – RFID at Wal-Mart
Concerns: Due to many other projects that were due at around the same time and celebrating Easter in San Antonio, I was unable to make this outline as detailed or as “extensive” as the example you posted.
I. Introduction
a. Thesis – Because of the controversial and novel nature of RFID implementation, Wal-Mart should strive to instill confidence in the public by educating the public about how they can greatly benefit from the new emerging technology and about the safeguards Wal-Mart has put in place to protect the privacy of its customers.
i. Wal-Mart’s Past and Current RFID Situation
ii. Wal-Mart’s Interest in RFID
iii. RFID Limitations
iv. My Recommendations
II. Body
a. Wal-Mart’s Past and Current RFID Situation
b. Wal-Mart’s Interest in RFID - Several Potential Benefits
i. Large reduction of out-of-stocks/decrease shortage
1. Enhance consumer’s shopping experience by improving on-shelf availability.
Increase consumer loyalty and satisfaction.
ii. Decrease shrinkage in the supply chain
1. Greatly reduce costs
iii. Higher labor productivity
iv. Better data quality
c. RFID Limitations
i. High Cost per tag
ii. Large Size/form
iii. Privacy
d. My Recommendations
i. Importance of Ethical & Privacy Considerations
1. Placement of Safeguards - Ensure that the customer’s privacy is secure and reduces the anxiety of its customers
ii. Communication of Benefits to its customers
1. Enhance consumer’s shopping experience by improving on-shelf availability.
Increase consumer satisfaction.
2. After RFID systems are more widely adopted by other retailers, Wal-Mart’s cost savings will be passed on to its customers in the form of even lower prices.
III. Conclusion
a. Thesis – Because of the controversial and novel nature of RFID implementation, Wal-Mart should strive to instill confidence in the public by educating the public about how they can greatly benefit from the new emerging technology and about the safeguards Wal-Mart has put in place to protect the privacy of its customers.
b. What I Have Learned From This Study
i. It’s important for Wal-Mart to do its due diligence because its image and reputation depends on it. Wal-Mart’s successful implementation of RFID systems is critical in order for the public to accept the new technology and for other large retail chains to be able to use RFID tags. The large increase in demand of RFID tags will drive down the price of each RFID tag and will lower RFID-related costs for all RFID-enabled retailers.
c. Application to customer insights – how understanding the needs of customers means being able to provide a better customer experience.
I. Introduction
a. Thesis – Because of the controversial and novel nature of RFID implementation, Wal-Mart should strive to instill confidence in the public by educating the public about how they can greatly benefit from the new emerging technology and about the safeguards Wal-Mart has put in place to protect the privacy of its customers.
i. Wal-Mart’s Past and Current RFID Situation
ii. Wal-Mart’s Interest in RFID
iii. RFID Limitations
iv. My Recommendations
II. Body
a. Wal-Mart’s Past and Current RFID Situation
b. Wal-Mart’s Interest in RFID - Several Potential Benefits
i. Large reduction of out-of-stocks/decrease shortage
1. Enhance consumer’s shopping experience by improving on-shelf availability.
Increase consumer loyalty and satisfaction.
ii. Decrease shrinkage in the supply chain
1. Greatly reduce costs
iii. Higher labor productivity
iv. Better data quality
c. RFID Limitations
i. High Cost per tag
ii. Large Size/form
iii. Privacy
d. My Recommendations
i. Importance of Ethical & Privacy Considerations
1. Placement of Safeguards - Ensure that the customer’s privacy is secure and reduces the anxiety of its customers
ii. Communication of Benefits to its customers
1. Enhance consumer’s shopping experience by improving on-shelf availability.
Increase consumer satisfaction.
2. After RFID systems are more widely adopted by other retailers, Wal-Mart’s cost savings will be passed on to its customers in the form of even lower prices.
III. Conclusion
a. Thesis – Because of the controversial and novel nature of RFID implementation, Wal-Mart should strive to instill confidence in the public by educating the public about how they can greatly benefit from the new emerging technology and about the safeguards Wal-Mart has put in place to protect the privacy of its customers.
b. What I Have Learned From This Study
i. It’s important for Wal-Mart to do its due diligence because its image and reputation depends on it. Wal-Mart’s successful implementation of RFID systems is critical in order for the public to accept the new technology and for other large retail chains to be able to use RFID tags. The large increase in demand of RFID tags will drive down the price of each RFID tag and will lower RFID-related costs for all RFID-enabled retailers.
c. Application to customer insights – how understanding the needs of customers means being able to provide a better customer experience.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Blog 7 - Facebook
Facebook’s selling of private information from its users’ profiles to advertisers is a very controversial subject. This exaggerated even more when Facebook’s advertisers use this personal information as “consumer insights” and customize advertisements directed toward each individual Facebook user. The way in which Facebook’s advertisers collect users’ personal information has several privacy implications.
Without having to read any articles about this issue, I have been able to identify this issue as a regular Facebook user. I am not naive and neither are my friends. I assume the majority of Facebook’s users are similar to my friends and me. We all noticed the change on the website because it was so very obvious. Facebook never disclosed what it was doing with users’ profiles and personal information.
I understand that I use the Facebook website absolutely for free and I am grateful for the many benefits it provides to me. Some of these benefits include being able to chat with other users, send mail to other users, view other users profiles and their pictures (who have given me permission to view them I might add), create my own personalized website, post pictures and comments, post status updates, and view status updates. I also am able to use cool applications such as events, movies, top friends, etc.
However, I feel that Facebook should have sent out an e-mail to its many loyal users in order to explain what it was doing with our personal information. It also would have been nice if they had put in plain words why they legally were able to do this.
Facebook’s advertisers never requested access to my personal information from me or any other users that I know of. We can assume that each advertiser simply paid Facebook a very large amount of money to have exclusive access to observe and collect personal information from users’ profiles. As a loyal Facebook user, I feel betrayed by Facebook because I feel as though my personal information just went to the highest bidder.
From a profit standpoint, it is understandable why Facebook sold its users’ personal information to advertisers willing to pay a substantial amount of money. Yet, I do not feel this gives Facebook the right to do this in such a sneaker manner. As a very large networking website, Facebook should treat its loyal customer base with courtesy and respect. It all goes back to ethics. Facebook just got greedy and doesn’t seem to have any ethics plain and simple.
What really frustrated me and my friends who use Facebook regularly was when we noticed that the advertisements went from being generic to being personalized to what we each said in our profile that we liked and enjoyed doing. That is when we realized that Facebook was not only secretly selling our personal information and access to our profiles without our consent but was also allowing these advertisers to direct their advertisements to us directly on Facebook.
I don’t believe any of the advertisers are to blame for this situation even though they definitely contributed to it. Social networking websites have a wealth of information on it that are considered the “holy grail” of customer insights to marketers.
I am blaming Facebook for neglecting its users and not having business ethics. We were never given explicit knowledge of what Facebook was doing with our information, we never explicitly consented to Facebook allowing marketers and advertisers access to our personal information. I would have more positive feelings about Facebook if I had been given a notice about what was going on behind the scenes and had given the option to opt out. Unfortunately for Facebook, neither of these two things was done and now Facebook has many of its 175 million active users angry at it.
Without having to read any articles about this issue, I have been able to identify this issue as a regular Facebook user. I am not naive and neither are my friends. I assume the majority of Facebook’s users are similar to my friends and me. We all noticed the change on the website because it was so very obvious. Facebook never disclosed what it was doing with users’ profiles and personal information.
I understand that I use the Facebook website absolutely for free and I am grateful for the many benefits it provides to me. Some of these benefits include being able to chat with other users, send mail to other users, view other users profiles and their pictures (who have given me permission to view them I might add), create my own personalized website, post pictures and comments, post status updates, and view status updates. I also am able to use cool applications such as events, movies, top friends, etc.
However, I feel that Facebook should have sent out an e-mail to its many loyal users in order to explain what it was doing with our personal information. It also would have been nice if they had put in plain words why they legally were able to do this.
Facebook’s advertisers never requested access to my personal information from me or any other users that I know of. We can assume that each advertiser simply paid Facebook a very large amount of money to have exclusive access to observe and collect personal information from users’ profiles. As a loyal Facebook user, I feel betrayed by Facebook because I feel as though my personal information just went to the highest bidder.
From a profit standpoint, it is understandable why Facebook sold its users’ personal information to advertisers willing to pay a substantial amount of money. Yet, I do not feel this gives Facebook the right to do this in such a sneaker manner. As a very large networking website, Facebook should treat its loyal customer base with courtesy and respect. It all goes back to ethics. Facebook just got greedy and doesn’t seem to have any ethics plain and simple.
What really frustrated me and my friends who use Facebook regularly was when we noticed that the advertisements went from being generic to being personalized to what we each said in our profile that we liked and enjoyed doing. That is when we realized that Facebook was not only secretly selling our personal information and access to our profiles without our consent but was also allowing these advertisers to direct their advertisements to us directly on Facebook.
I don’t believe any of the advertisers are to blame for this situation even though they definitely contributed to it. Social networking websites have a wealth of information on it that are considered the “holy grail” of customer insights to marketers.
I am blaming Facebook for neglecting its users and not having business ethics. We were never given explicit knowledge of what Facebook was doing with our information, we never explicitly consented to Facebook allowing marketers and advertisers access to our personal information. I would have more positive feelings about Facebook if I had been given a notice about what was going on behind the scenes and had given the option to opt out. Unfortunately for Facebook, neither of these two things was done and now Facebook has many of its 175 million active users angry at it.
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