The most significant learning from this class was that in order to really try to understand the customers and what they are thinking, I must first try my best to abandon my pre-exciting thought about them. Often times, I was too confident in myself and my opinions that even before I conducted the research on my target, I was sure that prototype of the customers I made was accurate. For example, our project was on wealthy high school teens and their use of back yard. Since I was once a high schooler from a rich neighborhood myself not long ago, I thought the activities that these high schooler will engage in their backyards should be about the same as what I used to do. For my experience, we seldom used our backyards, and when we did, it was for parties or use of drugs. Therefore I thought the backyard still serves the same function to today's rich high school teens as a outlet for specific and often rare occasions. But I was completely wrong. It turned out that today's wealthy teens make almost daily use of the backyard and are really trying to make their backyards into another living room by bringing more indoor technology to the outside. When I was in high school, this kind of tendency was completely missing. I learned a good lesson that I should not impose my experience excessively when I am trying to create a persona. I remember this was one of the main point that was highlighted during the class in discussing about creating persona as well topic covered by our guest speaker (Kate?, her name was I believe). I remember she was telling us to always look for “extra ordinaries” and “surprises” and perhaps she meant that it is indeed these surprises are the ones that show the key insight of the customers of which we were previously unaware of and can be an important factor leading to creating a successful products for them.
I also realized the progress of the technology and how this advancement is impacting the people today. We need to stay updated in technology if we want to target the young/ upcoming generations. I was absolutely surprised how much technology these teens have these days. For example, I did not get a cell phone until during the middle of my high school while the teens are having not just cell phones but those that are top brand (such as iphone) as early as since they were in middle school. They have their own flat screen TV and DVD players in their room ( something my family bought while I was in high school). It became clear to me that technology is developing at even faster pace than when I was in high school and that younger generation are even more sensitive to the changes in technology and have stronger desire for the newer, better technology than people of my age. Furthermore, these teens seem to want to have technology around them the whole time probably because they are comfortable with these items, or shall we say, that the products of technology makes them feel comfortable of the environment. All the teens that we interviewed stated that for improvement of their backyards, they would want to have more technology incorporated (such as bringing out better sound system, TV, etc) and many of them listed activities such as being of the cell phone or being on the computer as one of the main activities they do at backyards.
I am usually a shy man around the strangers so it is usually hard for me to speak in the beginning. As the time went on, I became more comfortable with my teammates and started to state more opinions that I thought and hope were valuable to the group. I think that I should correct myself on the initial hesitation to participate, because I have so much ideas and it is just that I am not comfortable enough in the environment to speak out and up. Comes down to it, it is all just matter of “getting over” the nervousness or the fear of speaking up. I do absolutely believe that the more natural I become, the better contributor and team member I become so, I must constantly challenge myself to be actively engaged from the beginning. I also felt as if my demeanor and postures gave my team members negative impression in the beginning. I was not speaking very much and on top of that, I probably looked very lazy due to how I stand or talk or walk, that these actions might lead my team members to think that I did not care too much about the project, which was not the case. I think that in addition to try to overcome my fear/discomfort more, I will try my best act less-lazy at least in the beginning.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Web Feedback
I think the company should focus on the feedback/ customer review online that will be extremely valuable for a simple reason: opinions of customers are more influential than advertisements by the company. There is an important reason why customers’ opinions have so much more convincing power. Going inside the customer psychology or creating the persona types(as we have learned in class), I believe that the shoppers feel more secure to trust these opinions since they are the potential buyers of the product and these comments are left by the other customers. In other words, they share a “group” mentality in which shoppers look after each other by reading and commenting on the products. To them, the sales company is an outsider whose advertisement can be seen as biased and not thorough which is true in many cases and thus adding even more value to the customer opinions.
If company can quickly respond to the critical reviews, for example by fixing the problems of a product that are often mentioned on the rating websites, then it can create a bridge between the shoppers and the outsider(company). If the shoppers know that the company can back up the problems, then its product will gain more trust and the sells of this product will increase as a result. Furthermore, reacting to the criticism indicates two things; first, the company has an good customer service and second by fixing the problems, the commentators can now tell other potential buyers on the web that now there are no more shortcomings of the product.
To summarize my point about the dynamic and direct communication between the shoppers and the company (which is creating an experience), first I stated that customers' opinions have strong influence on potential buyers. To turn this into positive for marketing and sales, the company should create communication experience for customers by actively reading the reviewers opinions and try to respond as quickly as it can. The effect is that it will make company more trustworthy and less of an outsider in shoppers' eyes, as well as allows negative opinions to be corrected.
This can also help company gain insights since it will know clearly what the users like about the product and what do they not like about it. It is impossible to predict all the advantages and disadvantages of a particular product; therefore reading the reviews by common users give company a better idea on how to improve.
One type of social media that comes to my mind is Amazon; it has such a variety of items that even people who do not shop at the website go there to read the reviews. The reviews on this websites are really powerful (since Amazon is widely used and give readers a sense of objectivity and legitimacy) for they are read by so many people. I would recommend a company to read the reviews on widely used shopping site like Amazon, and try to build a communication with those who leave the comments.
Personally, I wanted to buy a Sony TV in Best Buy since it was on a special price that was cheaper than in Amazon. However I went to Amazon to read the reviews to see if this will be a good product or not. When I started to go down the reviews, I was initially inclined toward not buying it since many users complained about a auto-brightness adjusting feature of TV that made coloring of TV rather strange. But as I read more and more recent reviews, people were saying that the Sony have fixed this problem and the TV is an excellent item. This helped me make up my mind to buy the TV.
Often times what common people think is more important and powerful than opinions of experts since experts' reviews are excessive in amount and too technical in terms used. A lot more often, the shoppers simply want to know what is good about the product and what is bad about it.
I used the google blog to search Nike and I really liked it a lot. I felt these blogs just right in length, neither too long nor too short and I was able to go through a lot of them. Considerable amount of blogs did not look too organized on appearance but unlike the selling websites that has low quality design, I trusted more on what the bloggers said since I believe these reviews are objective. When I just typed in the word “Nike” most of blog at the beginning of the list was about the product on the list, which is nice since it will keep me updated and would let me know what is coming from the brand that I am interested.
I was not too sure how to exactly use the ZIietgest website. When I typed in Nike on each of the option links, I got statistical graphs and data. I assume this has to do with financial aspect of the company…? Not sure. But so far I like the google blog search better.
If company can quickly respond to the critical reviews, for example by fixing the problems of a product that are often mentioned on the rating websites, then it can create a bridge between the shoppers and the outsider(company). If the shoppers know that the company can back up the problems, then its product will gain more trust and the sells of this product will increase as a result. Furthermore, reacting to the criticism indicates two things; first, the company has an good customer service and second by fixing the problems, the commentators can now tell other potential buyers on the web that now there are no more shortcomings of the product.
To summarize my point about the dynamic and direct communication between the shoppers and the company (which is creating an experience), first I stated that customers' opinions have strong influence on potential buyers. To turn this into positive for marketing and sales, the company should create communication experience for customers by actively reading the reviewers opinions and try to respond as quickly as it can. The effect is that it will make company more trustworthy and less of an outsider in shoppers' eyes, as well as allows negative opinions to be corrected.
This can also help company gain insights since it will know clearly what the users like about the product and what do they not like about it. It is impossible to predict all the advantages and disadvantages of a particular product; therefore reading the reviews by common users give company a better idea on how to improve.
One type of social media that comes to my mind is Amazon; it has such a variety of items that even people who do not shop at the website go there to read the reviews. The reviews on this websites are really powerful (since Amazon is widely used and give readers a sense of objectivity and legitimacy) for they are read by so many people. I would recommend a company to read the reviews on widely used shopping site like Amazon, and try to build a communication with those who leave the comments.
Personally, I wanted to buy a Sony TV in Best Buy since it was on a special price that was cheaper than in Amazon. However I went to Amazon to read the reviews to see if this will be a good product or not. When I started to go down the reviews, I was initially inclined toward not buying it since many users complained about a auto-brightness adjusting feature of TV that made coloring of TV rather strange. But as I read more and more recent reviews, people were saying that the Sony have fixed this problem and the TV is an excellent item. This helped me make up my mind to buy the TV.
Often times what common people think is more important and powerful than opinions of experts since experts' reviews are excessive in amount and too technical in terms used. A lot more often, the shoppers simply want to know what is good about the product and what is bad about it.
I used the google blog to search Nike and I really liked it a lot. I felt these blogs just right in length, neither too long nor too short and I was able to go through a lot of them. Considerable amount of blogs did not look too organized on appearance but unlike the selling websites that has low quality design, I trusted more on what the bloggers said since I believe these reviews are objective. When I just typed in the word “Nike” most of blog at the beginning of the list was about the product on the list, which is nice since it will keep me updated and would let me know what is coming from the brand that I am interested.
I was not too sure how to exactly use the ZIietgest website. When I typed in Nike on each of the option links, I got statistical graphs and data. I assume this has to do with financial aspect of the company…? Not sure. But so far I like the google blog search better.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Smarter than Computer
I believe that War-Mart is making the successful conversion on its data. I am actually impressed by their data gathering in that they not only collect enormous amount of data, but more importantly they can make connections between different data. The article talked about how Wal-Mart can “predict” the demand and I believe this is possible largely due to the fact that its reseachers can relate random data and identify a trend or a general personality of the shoppers.
The excellence in Wal-Mart data gathering is that it has both width and depth.
Width for its technolgy enables the collection of large amount of data needed and depth in its researchers’ ability to accurately analyze and string these data into trends. As a result, it can predict the future demand of the customers and supply the demand faster than other retailers, giving them a competitive advantage.
For example, during Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart was able to predict the servere damage of Hurrican and insufficient government rescue resource and tie these two with Lousiana’s low income population. The result was that during the first few weeks when the hurrican hit the state, the company was able to send off trucks with sufficeint food supplies to the refugees since it has prepared for this moment long before. All the other retailers, such as Target or K-Mart, as well as nation’s rescue teams had ran out of food supply and Wal-Mart is the one that actually sold its supplying materials to them so that they can go sell foods to refuges
Less dramatic but similar experience also happened to myself approximately 4 to 5 years ago when Hurrican Rita hit Houston area. I remember walking down the store and comapred to Target and Kroger that I went, Wal-Mart had the most amount of supplies. In addition, it was having sale on the items that were appropriate such as board games, cards, and other products which can be used to kill time when electricity runs out and the only soucre of light is ran by batteries.
Regarding the privacy in collecting data, I can not say that what Wal-Mart is doing does not completely bother me. I think the biggest issue is not so much about your privacy in life, since it is big deal to let the market researcher know what type of daily purchases you make or what type of location you would like to go, etc. These are not top-secret information and therefore I would have no problem in sharing them. However, it is rather a uneasy feeling to have someone else track down the record of you without you even knowing. The action Wal-Mart is taking can be essentially regarded the same as that of a stalker among many people's minds.
But there is important fact to remind ourselves. Behind the actions of perhaps controversial data-gathering, the intention of the company is to serve us better by studying us in details. If someone is trying to do something nice to me and he is putting a lot of effort in learning what I like, I do not have problem with him not reporting his actions to me. This is essentially what Wal-Mart is doing; studying our life habits or purchasing patterns so that they can provide more useful material to us at the same time making benefit off of our purchase. We should consider Wal-Mart's extensive data-gathering as more of a mutual action rather than stalker, who usually gathers information for the benefit of himself and potentially uses it against you.
Therefore if we look the intentions beyond those actions, the data-gathering of Wal-Mart, although it can raise a few eye-brows at times, can be approved. More specifically and as we have learned in class, the Wal-Mart is trying to create accurate persona of its customers. The company wants to know more than just what is selling well and what is not; it also wants to know the general personality drives these purchases so they can provide more items that they belive will be favored by the same personality as well. I feel as if Wal-Mart wants to get to “know” its customers by creating the real-life image of me and people like myself. If the company is taking actions on its own to make my shopping life better, I, as a male especially, have no problem with it.
The excellence in Wal-Mart data gathering is that it has both width and depth.
Width for its technolgy enables the collection of large amount of data needed and depth in its researchers’ ability to accurately analyze and string these data into trends. As a result, it can predict the future demand of the customers and supply the demand faster than other retailers, giving them a competitive advantage.
For example, during Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart was able to predict the servere damage of Hurrican and insufficient government rescue resource and tie these two with Lousiana’s low income population. The result was that during the first few weeks when the hurrican hit the state, the company was able to send off trucks with sufficeint food supplies to the refugees since it has prepared for this moment long before. All the other retailers, such as Target or K-Mart, as well as nation’s rescue teams had ran out of food supply and Wal-Mart is the one that actually sold its supplying materials to them so that they can go sell foods to refuges
Less dramatic but similar experience also happened to myself approximately 4 to 5 years ago when Hurrican Rita hit Houston area. I remember walking down the store and comapred to Target and Kroger that I went, Wal-Mart had the most amount of supplies. In addition, it was having sale on the items that were appropriate such as board games, cards, and other products which can be used to kill time when electricity runs out and the only soucre of light is ran by batteries.
Regarding the privacy in collecting data, I can not say that what Wal-Mart is doing does not completely bother me. I think the biggest issue is not so much about your privacy in life, since it is big deal to let the market researcher know what type of daily purchases you make or what type of location you would like to go, etc. These are not top-secret information and therefore I would have no problem in sharing them. However, it is rather a uneasy feeling to have someone else track down the record of you without you even knowing. The action Wal-Mart is taking can be essentially regarded the same as that of a stalker among many people's minds.
But there is important fact to remind ourselves. Behind the actions of perhaps controversial data-gathering, the intention of the company is to serve us better by studying us in details. If someone is trying to do something nice to me and he is putting a lot of effort in learning what I like, I do not have problem with him not reporting his actions to me. This is essentially what Wal-Mart is doing; studying our life habits or purchasing patterns so that they can provide more useful material to us at the same time making benefit off of our purchase. We should consider Wal-Mart's extensive data-gathering as more of a mutual action rather than stalker, who usually gathers information for the benefit of himself and potentially uses it against you.
Therefore if we look the intentions beyond those actions, the data-gathering of Wal-Mart, although it can raise a few eye-brows at times, can be approved. More specifically and as we have learned in class, the Wal-Mart is trying to create accurate persona of its customers. The company wants to know more than just what is selling well and what is not; it also wants to know the general personality drives these purchases so they can provide more items that they belive will be favored by the same personality as well. I feel as if Wal-Mart wants to get to “know” its customers by creating the real-life image of me and people like myself. If the company is taking actions on its own to make my shopping life better, I, as a male especially, have no problem with it.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Party-Rocks
With Asian blood running through my every vessel, I won’t lie: I love to sing. And I believe so do the Americans when they are drunk. So why is Karaoke not as popular in U.S. unlike practically the entire Asian nations? Why aren’t more people enjoying their weekend nights in Karaoke box where they can rock the mic's and shine?
The problem is not that they don’t like Karaoke. Music is universal. It appeals to everyone and every race. I have seen my White friends pouring their souls out singing, most of time in horrifying off-pitch voices, when they are happy, drunk, or both. Latin people do not just sing, but they go onto the floor and dance when their songs are played. Middle Easterns love music so much that they make movies that are 3 hours long during which actors and actress basically sing and dance the entire time. Blacks? Shoot, they don't even need to hear the music; they straight up air-rap all the time. You see, music is in our DNA.
It is the location that is problematic. Just as we learned in class, let us create a typical UT college student persona to take closer look. A young, active, and maybe bootylicious 20-years old male/female UT students would love to go party on the weekends. He/she would ether go to 6th street or West campus parties. It is unlikely that our persona will go away from the parties and down to north of Lamar where Karaoke district is located. Also driving will be the necessary mean of transportation. And in Texas, you drink, drive, and go to Jail. Finding designated drivers would be pain-in-the-butt.
Solution to the location problem….. drum roll please for the new innovation….. is to provid digital Karaoke systems to TVs (like pay per view for a boxing match) so young people can sing at their houses. The product name will be Party-Rocks. The idea is that, if people enjoy Karaoke but just aren’t willing to drive to a place away from parties, then why don’t we move it right into the parties? Before I explain this innovation in more detail, let us first remember this is possible today due to how advanced technology has become. First we will digitalize all of songs into “mother system”. Then we set up sub-systems, like game counsels or HDTV devices, to TVs at apartments and houses. People can request songs through this device which sends information back and then receive requested song inputs from “mother system”. Consider how advanced online gaming has become, to simply send and receive songs will definitely be fast and effective. The charge will be in pay-per-hour for the time from when the user activates his account to when he closes it.
Further, since the majority of the process is digital or machine work, the cost will be minimum. This means that we can spend more money into research on what type of songs will be favored (which will also be cheap thanks to advancement of technology and Internet). We can also take advantage of low cost by often playing with the prices and do promotions to analyze and determine the most profitable price.
In addition to being innovative, Party-Rocks is also creative in a marketing sense that it combines participative games like “Guitar Heroes” or “Rock Bands” with party settings. These games mentioned are wildly popular among young people. But whenever I played, I have always felt that setting was too somber. Try to finish this sentence: I was playing legendary hard-rock songs in full blast while I was……..sitting on a couch during a day-time when it is fully bright outside. The experience was just anti-climatic. Although the game itself was fun, I felt the setting could have been better. Yet, it is also anti-climactic in a reverse way to play games if you are drunk in a party and try to have some “high” time.
My idea is to implement Karaoke into partying settings. Americans love “Rock Bands” and “Guitar Heroes” and also love to drink. Karaoke is an upgrade of these games to a more live-like setting that will be suited for parties. And singing and drinking would be positive reinforcement to one another. If you are drunk, you wouldn’t be shy to sing your hearts out. And if you are having good time, then you would drink even more, and afterwards go sing more. Your fun multiplies every time you go through this cycle of sing-drink-sing. The party ends as a blast for everyone and with it being success, more orders for Part-Rocks follow the next weekend.
It will be a smashing hit.
The problem is not that they don’t like Karaoke. Music is universal. It appeals to everyone and every race. I have seen my White friends pouring their souls out singing, most of time in horrifying off-pitch voices, when they are happy, drunk, or both. Latin people do not just sing, but they go onto the floor and dance when their songs are played. Middle Easterns love music so much that they make movies that are 3 hours long during which actors and actress basically sing and dance the entire time. Blacks? Shoot, they don't even need to hear the music; they straight up air-rap all the time. You see, music is in our DNA.
It is the location that is problematic. Just as we learned in class, let us create a typical UT college student persona to take closer look. A young, active, and maybe bootylicious 20-years old male/female UT students would love to go party on the weekends. He/she would ether go to 6th street or West campus parties. It is unlikely that our persona will go away from the parties and down to north of Lamar where Karaoke district is located. Also driving will be the necessary mean of transportation. And in Texas, you drink, drive, and go to Jail. Finding designated drivers would be pain-in-the-butt.
Solution to the location problem….. drum roll please for the new innovation….. is to provid digital Karaoke systems to TVs (like pay per view for a boxing match) so young people can sing at their houses. The product name will be Party-Rocks. The idea is that, if people enjoy Karaoke but just aren’t willing to drive to a place away from parties, then why don’t we move it right into the parties? Before I explain this innovation in more detail, let us first remember this is possible today due to how advanced technology has become. First we will digitalize all of songs into “mother system”. Then we set up sub-systems, like game counsels or HDTV devices, to TVs at apartments and houses. People can request songs through this device which sends information back and then receive requested song inputs from “mother system”. Consider how advanced online gaming has become, to simply send and receive songs will definitely be fast and effective. The charge will be in pay-per-hour for the time from when the user activates his account to when he closes it.
Further, since the majority of the process is digital or machine work, the cost will be minimum. This means that we can spend more money into research on what type of songs will be favored (which will also be cheap thanks to advancement of technology and Internet). We can also take advantage of low cost by often playing with the prices and do promotions to analyze and determine the most profitable price.
In addition to being innovative, Party-Rocks is also creative in a marketing sense that it combines participative games like “Guitar Heroes” or “Rock Bands” with party settings. These games mentioned are wildly popular among young people. But whenever I played, I have always felt that setting was too somber. Try to finish this sentence: I was playing legendary hard-rock songs in full blast while I was……..sitting on a couch during a day-time when it is fully bright outside. The experience was just anti-climatic. Although the game itself was fun, I felt the setting could have been better. Yet, it is also anti-climactic in a reverse way to play games if you are drunk in a party and try to have some “high” time.
My idea is to implement Karaoke into partying settings. Americans love “Rock Bands” and “Guitar Heroes” and also love to drink. Karaoke is an upgrade of these games to a more live-like setting that will be suited for parties. And singing and drinking would be positive reinforcement to one another. If you are drunk, you wouldn’t be shy to sing your hearts out. And if you are having good time, then you would drink even more, and afterwards go sing more. Your fun multiplies every time you go through this cycle of sing-drink-sing. The party ends as a blast for everyone and with it being success, more orders for Part-Rocks follow the next weekend.
It will be a smashing hit.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Irresitablility
The passage first proved that your expectation can shape your actual experience and then went on to show how strong this influence can be.
The beer, coffee, and coke experiments proved that the expectation strongly influence the processing of the information in the brain, thus affecting the resulting judgment. A participant's body (mouth) first sensed a particular product (taste of beer, coffee, coke), brought the sensory back to brain and brain processed the information during which their expectation intervened. This intervention influenced the handling of the information taken-in, and as a result expectation put its direct imprint in judgment on whether the product was “good” or “bad”.
But that wasn’t it. Turns out, expectation does not just affect how people process sensory stimuli. It is strong and active enough to drive people into actions even when the stimuli are insignificant or absent.
Compared to experiments mentioned, the experiments involved in math test and scrambled-sentence were much more performance-focused. In these cases the expectation of participants drove them to act certain way. For example, look at participants who read the old words. After reading these words, they did not just felt old but they actually went on to act like old people and walked slowly. Important thing to realize is that when they walked slowly to home, they were not responding to any kind of outside stimuli. There were no “because” or “in-response-to” in these actions. Simply, their expectation continued to drive them to act like old people. Similarly, women who were reminded that they are Asians did not just “felt” confident when informed of the math test but actually went out to perform at high level as well.
In summary, expectation not only affects the processing of information taken in but also brings out actions in people.
And how does this relate to marketing?
Now we are finally getting to the meat of this discussion. Ok, the summary that you just read, it’s freaking important to marketing. It is so sooo freaking important. So I’m gonna say it one more time.
In summary, expectation not only affects the processing of information taken in but also brings OUT actions in people.
Just think about it. You can like a product but still not buy it. What this passage is saying is that expectation or assumption is powerful enough to stir people into action. If you translate this in a marketing terminology, strong positioning or imaging can make a product irresistible to not purchase. It is almost like the product is a strong magnet in the center and it attracts people towards it. That she could not sit home still, has to get into the car to go to the mall just for that one store where the product sits, left her young kid home alone but she swears it will only take 5 minutes, walks straight into the store once inside the mall, knows where exactly the product is within the store, picks it up, pays, holds it up next to her face and she lets…..
a bigggggggg sigh of relief at last.
This lady probably will go on stare at her newly purchased perfume or nail painter for at least next 48 hours. While she is only a persona that I created, we all have had similar experiences like her. Once, I spent sleepless nights thinking about an Express jacket. When I first saw it, I fell in love at first sight. High-class looking but also perfectly jazzy. The diamond design in black and grey was, ahh, speechless. I went back every day to look at it since it was too expensive. Then finally one day, I took out all of my courage and fortune to go buy it. I distinctively remember the moment I walked out. I held up the bag, feeling like Alexander the Great raising his sword to signal the victory.
Psychology that went through my mind prior to purchase was something like this: “Oh man, I am gonna look so good on it. I will look fly with this jacket”. Today, I do not worship this jacket like I used to. I still think it is an excellent cloth, but it has lost that “expectation” value. Before the purchase, I expected myself to look perfect with this jacket. Between today and yesterday, nothing about the jacket itself has changed: still same design, same quality, and same comfort level. But it was my expectation that made the all the difference: it is still likable jacket today, but it was irresistible jacket yesterday.
So going back to the first point I made: you can like a product a lot but still not buy it. Important lesson learned and needed to be incorporated in marketing is that quality alone cannot sell a product. As marketers, we want to help customers project and visualize the interaction between the product and them. We need not only emphasize the function and quality of the product but more importantly, the relationship between the customers and the product.
Look at hair-dye example from our class. The product sales dramatically increased in mid 1900s when advertising started to focus on the massage that women with dyed hair are beautiful AND high-class. It was not just about quality of the hair-dye. There was also a relationship; that the product was going to let these traditional women to make bold statement to the world that they are not afraid to express themselves. Similarly, I thought the jacket was going to make me like , in high school terminology, a “pimp”. Advertise so that customers will think they will have a good time with the product. If we can guide them to expect that the product is the perfect fit for their lives, then we just made a good product into a magnet product.
Oh and I want to add one more point for the sake of thoroughness. There was also a point in the passage which I thought was old cliché but nevertheless very important: that perception determines the experience. This point we heard over and over in marketing classes. “Perception is the reality”, “How you see it is how you feel it”, or “Imaging is more important than quality” etc. The lesson here is that we have to make good impressions to our customers. If they think what we offer is good, then they are more likely try to validate themselves and their minds will try to convince that their experiences with our product are positive.
I remember eating at a Chinese restaurant called Ming’s Cafe. They served my food with a paper dish. Man, I didn’t even want to tips after seeing that. I automatically assumed that this place offers a crappy Chinese food intended for non-Asians. The food, of course, did not taste good. A few months later in a party, and I was hungry, I saw huge plate full of chickens. When I put them in my mouth, the feeling was satisfactory. The dish, of course, came from Ming’s Café. Sounds familiar anyone? Perception is powerful, y’all.
The beer, coffee, and coke experiments proved that the expectation strongly influence the processing of the information in the brain, thus affecting the resulting judgment. A participant's body (mouth) first sensed a particular product (taste of beer, coffee, coke), brought the sensory back to brain and brain processed the information during which their expectation intervened. This intervention influenced the handling of the information taken-in, and as a result expectation put its direct imprint in judgment on whether the product was “good” or “bad”.
But that wasn’t it. Turns out, expectation does not just affect how people process sensory stimuli. It is strong and active enough to drive people into actions even when the stimuli are insignificant or absent.
Compared to experiments mentioned, the experiments involved in math test and scrambled-sentence were much more performance-focused. In these cases the expectation of participants drove them to act certain way. For example, look at participants who read the old words. After reading these words, they did not just felt old but they actually went on to act like old people and walked slowly. Important thing to realize is that when they walked slowly to home, they were not responding to any kind of outside stimuli. There were no “because” or “in-response-to” in these actions. Simply, their expectation continued to drive them to act like old people. Similarly, women who were reminded that they are Asians did not just “felt” confident when informed of the math test but actually went out to perform at high level as well.
In summary, expectation not only affects the processing of information taken in but also brings out actions in people.
And how does this relate to marketing?
Now we are finally getting to the meat of this discussion. Ok, the summary that you just read, it’s freaking important to marketing. It is so sooo freaking important. So I’m gonna say it one more time.
In summary, expectation not only affects the processing of information taken in but also brings OUT actions in people.
Just think about it. You can like a product but still not buy it. What this passage is saying is that expectation or assumption is powerful enough to stir people into action. If you translate this in a marketing terminology, strong positioning or imaging can make a product irresistible to not purchase. It is almost like the product is a strong magnet in the center and it attracts people towards it. That she could not sit home still, has to get into the car to go to the mall just for that one store where the product sits, left her young kid home alone but she swears it will only take 5 minutes, walks straight into the store once inside the mall, knows where exactly the product is within the store, picks it up, pays, holds it up next to her face and she lets…..
a bigggggggg sigh of relief at last.
This lady probably will go on stare at her newly purchased perfume or nail painter for at least next 48 hours. While she is only a persona that I created, we all have had similar experiences like her. Once, I spent sleepless nights thinking about an Express jacket. When I first saw it, I fell in love at first sight. High-class looking but also perfectly jazzy. The diamond design in black and grey was, ahh, speechless. I went back every day to look at it since it was too expensive. Then finally one day, I took out all of my courage and fortune to go buy it. I distinctively remember the moment I walked out. I held up the bag, feeling like Alexander the Great raising his sword to signal the victory.
Psychology that went through my mind prior to purchase was something like this: “Oh man, I am gonna look so good on it. I will look fly with this jacket”. Today, I do not worship this jacket like I used to. I still think it is an excellent cloth, but it has lost that “expectation” value. Before the purchase, I expected myself to look perfect with this jacket. Between today and yesterday, nothing about the jacket itself has changed: still same design, same quality, and same comfort level. But it was my expectation that made the all the difference: it is still likable jacket today, but it was irresistible jacket yesterday.
So going back to the first point I made: you can like a product a lot but still not buy it. Important lesson learned and needed to be incorporated in marketing is that quality alone cannot sell a product. As marketers, we want to help customers project and visualize the interaction between the product and them. We need not only emphasize the function and quality of the product but more importantly, the relationship between the customers and the product.
Look at hair-dye example from our class. The product sales dramatically increased in mid 1900s when advertising started to focus on the massage that women with dyed hair are beautiful AND high-class. It was not just about quality of the hair-dye. There was also a relationship; that the product was going to let these traditional women to make bold statement to the world that they are not afraid to express themselves. Similarly, I thought the jacket was going to make me like , in high school terminology, a “pimp”. Advertise so that customers will think they will have a good time with the product. If we can guide them to expect that the product is the perfect fit for their lives, then we just made a good product into a magnet product.
Oh and I want to add one more point for the sake of thoroughness. There was also a point in the passage which I thought was old cliché but nevertheless very important: that perception determines the experience. This point we heard over and over in marketing classes. “Perception is the reality”, “How you see it is how you feel it”, or “Imaging is more important than quality” etc. The lesson here is that we have to make good impressions to our customers. If they think what we offer is good, then they are more likely try to validate themselves and their minds will try to convince that their experiences with our product are positive.
I remember eating at a Chinese restaurant called Ming’s Cafe. They served my food with a paper dish. Man, I didn’t even want to tips after seeing that. I automatically assumed that this place offers a crappy Chinese food intended for non-Asians. The food, of course, did not taste good. A few months later in a party, and I was hungry, I saw huge plate full of chickens. When I put them in my mouth, the feeling was satisfactory. The dish, of course, came from Ming’s Café. Sounds familiar anyone? Perception is powerful, y’all.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
My top 10 revealing traits
I am a young, fun, and sometimes dangerously attention-loving but most of times deeply humble person. Now I know that last part sounds a bit strange, but believe me it's true. These are some, but not all, of Z's core definition. A marketer with a good insight would be able reach to these aspects after correctly analyzing my hint characteristics. To help you develop into that insightful young marketer with full of bright future ahead, I will sacrifice myself and do something that will make me feel very naked. I will list 10 traits of me that can guild you to my core values. OK, I'm ready to take off.
The Sunglasses
Let's first take a look at the sunglasses that I am wearing in my facebook profile picture. (http://www.facebook.com/RikQQQQ?ref=profile) It is aviator sunglasses that are popular these days. But what's special about this item is that it has a bright white frame that instantly catches people's eye. The style of the glasses can lead you to think that first, I am fashion-conscious. It also says that I want to be different from the group since they are unlike other aviators. And finally the striking appearance of sunglasses tell that I like the attention.
The Picture
Also the picture itself is self-revealing. I am holding a protest sign and the description of picture reads “Protested Iranian election for no passionate reason. Call me Riqqim” (my nickname is Rik QQ) This picture is the first thing that people will notice when they visit my website. In other words, this is how I want to introduce myself to my internet friends, suggesting what kind of person I am. Nothing offensive to my Iranian friends but I went protest out of utter curiosity. And I was the only one smiling in a very angry crowd. I stood out because I didn’t quiet look like Iranian, nor American in their sense.
Family
I am not gonna lie, I love to hang out with my mom. My dad is also a cool guy and we have four dogs in my family as well. These days when I go home for the weekend, I would stay at home all the time. It is not because my friends and I are not cool anymore. I just like my home more than ever now. So yeah, I go to mall with my mom all the time. Feel like it's back in the middle school.
My Odyssey
Bought in 2001 when our family migrated to America , I now drive this dark green van. Segmentation-wise, this will confuse marketers because they can’t put me into a young group who likes sports cars or fancy performance items, even though I am sensitive to the trends. Anyway, what's visually striking about this car is that the left side is extremely dented from a pig that basically ran into it and tackled my car as if he was in football field. Also, if you examine closer, it is composed of different greens, predominantly dark one mixed with oddly lighter one, because we used wrong green to paint the scratches from pig-attack. The final blow came in when the sound system broke down a few years ago. And I drove this car to go celebrate 3 year anniversary with my girlfriend.
Bo 'Ai Elementary
The school was built by an American in heart of mountain villages that is out of nowhere in China. I went there twice already to teach English. Condition-wise, it was terrible, especially for those girls who didn’t prepare for their periods and growing armpits. But I loved the every single seconds of the no-shower, no-meat, not-so-great-sleeping life I spent there. This is where I actually recevied oppotunity to experience how rewarding it could be to pass on something to other people. I am now organizing group to go back next summer.
EU
That is my goal. Bo Ai' was what stirred my passion of serving others and this is where I hope to be one day. It sounds strange for a marketing major, but I want to help people in third world country one day as a doctor. I always tell my friends that when I am too old and can’t work anymore, I will come back to U.S. , sit in the office and collect my $$$.
Homeless
That is what’s happening to me right now. Homeless with my cousin, sleeping at friends’ place. I get horrible sleep at nights and pray everyday that school doesn’t get any busier. Now why I go through this? It is because the good deals are opening up since the school started. People would normally pay $700 or so for their own rooms but now you can rent the entire apartment for that amount. So yes, I like good deals, and I can tolerate a lot for it. And, I would not tell this to my cousin because he would kill me, even though the living is a bit terrible, it is also an exciting experience to move around and live with different friends every 4 days.
Free samples
I am the kind of person who appreciates a good free sample. Not just a wimpy sample that lets you try only a whiff or a crumb of the goods but one that really lets you experience it. It is just so much fan trying different things at store like HEB. I do try to avoid the crowd and go during late night since it does not look very good to some people. I feel like it makes me more confident when buying something because I have tried it and know I will like it. Free trials, samples, and demos usually turn me into a loyal customer. My favorite free sample is honey-roasted peanut butter.
Shopping
I love shopping. I don’t think this makes me feminine or anything, I just happen to care about how I look and have great confidence in my style. I don’t understand how most guys I know are content to wear the same generic t-shirts and jeans everyday. I can relate more to the cultures in Asia or Europe where girls and guys are encouraged to be expressive with their fashion. To me, style is reflective of my identity and personality. When I shop, I always look for things that are unique. If everybody wears it, or it can be bought in any store, I usually reject it. It has to have a special design, interesting color, or some other quality that catches my eye.
Diet
I also love eating. However, I have to be careful when indulging because I have a family history of diabetes. This means I stay away from foods high in fat, sugar, sodium, and cholesterol. I also favor natural or organic foods, foods high in fiber, and lots of fruits and vegetables. The habit of eating healthy I developed has become almost obsessive these days because I look at nutritious values of everything that I put in my body and don’t touch anything that’s unhealthy. Believe me though, that this is actually a very good obsession. One thing everyone has noticed is that I eat grape fruit all the time.
So let’s take a look at my personal behaviors. I like things that are in 2 opposite spectrum of “trendiness”. At the one end, I like something that is not just trendy but also very unique even among the popular trend. On the other hand, I drive a van that can earn me prom king only if I drove it in 1950s and like to hang out with my mom. I think this tells that I like to be unique in my own and hate to be categorized into a group. To segmentate me would be a difficult task because I hate to be put into a group. Instead just I prefer the randomness of life so the best bet to appeal to me is to produce bunch of very unique items or ideas. Also I care for lives of others so if you are with organization with good cause, you will strongly attract me. On the other hand, I would never join a military to kill other people. Finally I just want to say that all I did in the blog was talk about me, me, me which made me feel like I am a rich stuck-up girl.
The Sunglasses
Let's first take a look at the sunglasses that I am wearing in my facebook profile picture. (http://www.facebook.com/RikQQQQ?ref=profile) It is aviator sunglasses that are popular these days. But what's special about this item is that it has a bright white frame that instantly catches people's eye. The style of the glasses can lead you to think that first, I am fashion-conscious. It also says that I want to be different from the group since they are unlike other aviators. And finally the striking appearance of sunglasses tell that I like the attention.
The Picture
Also the picture itself is self-revealing. I am holding a protest sign and the description of picture reads “Protested Iranian election for no passionate reason. Call me Riqqim” (my nickname is Rik QQ) This picture is the first thing that people will notice when they visit my website. In other words, this is how I want to introduce myself to my internet friends, suggesting what kind of person I am. Nothing offensive to my Iranian friends but I went protest out of utter curiosity. And I was the only one smiling in a very angry crowd. I stood out because I didn’t quiet look like Iranian, nor American in their sense.
Family
I am not gonna lie, I love to hang out with my mom. My dad is also a cool guy and we have four dogs in my family as well. These days when I go home for the weekend, I would stay at home all the time. It is not because my friends and I are not cool anymore. I just like my home more than ever now. So yeah, I go to mall with my mom all the time. Feel like it's back in the middle school.
My Odyssey
Bought in 2001 when our family migrated to America , I now drive this dark green van. Segmentation-wise, this will confuse marketers because they can’t put me into a young group who likes sports cars or fancy performance items, even though I am sensitive to the trends. Anyway, what's visually striking about this car is that the left side is extremely dented from a pig that basically ran into it and tackled my car as if he was in football field. Also, if you examine closer, it is composed of different greens, predominantly dark one mixed with oddly lighter one, because we used wrong green to paint the scratches from pig-attack. The final blow came in when the sound system broke down a few years ago. And I drove this car to go celebrate 3 year anniversary with my girlfriend.
Bo 'Ai Elementary
The school was built by an American in heart of mountain villages that is out of nowhere in China. I went there twice already to teach English. Condition-wise, it was terrible, especially for those girls who didn’t prepare for their periods and growing armpits. But I loved the every single seconds of the no-shower, no-meat, not-so-great-sleeping life I spent there. This is where I actually recevied oppotunity to experience how rewarding it could be to pass on something to other people. I am now organizing group to go back next summer.
EU
That is my goal. Bo Ai' was what stirred my passion of serving others and this is where I hope to be one day. It sounds strange for a marketing major, but I want to help people in third world country one day as a doctor. I always tell my friends that when I am too old and can’t work anymore, I will come back to U.S. , sit in the office and collect my $$$.
Homeless
That is what’s happening to me right now. Homeless with my cousin, sleeping at friends’ place. I get horrible sleep at nights and pray everyday that school doesn’t get any busier. Now why I go through this? It is because the good deals are opening up since the school started. People would normally pay $700 or so for their own rooms but now you can rent the entire apartment for that amount. So yes, I like good deals, and I can tolerate a lot for it. And, I would not tell this to my cousin because he would kill me, even though the living is a bit terrible, it is also an exciting experience to move around and live with different friends every 4 days.
Free samples
I am the kind of person who appreciates a good free sample. Not just a wimpy sample that lets you try only a whiff or a crumb of the goods but one that really lets you experience it. It is just so much fan trying different things at store like HEB. I do try to avoid the crowd and go during late night since it does not look very good to some people. I feel like it makes me more confident when buying something because I have tried it and know I will like it. Free trials, samples, and demos usually turn me into a loyal customer. My favorite free sample is honey-roasted peanut butter.
Shopping
I love shopping. I don’t think this makes me feminine or anything, I just happen to care about how I look and have great confidence in my style. I don’t understand how most guys I know are content to wear the same generic t-shirts and jeans everyday. I can relate more to the cultures in Asia or Europe where girls and guys are encouraged to be expressive with their fashion. To me, style is reflective of my identity and personality. When I shop, I always look for things that are unique. If everybody wears it, or it can be bought in any store, I usually reject it. It has to have a special design, interesting color, or some other quality that catches my eye.
Diet
I also love eating. However, I have to be careful when indulging because I have a family history of diabetes. This means I stay away from foods high in fat, sugar, sodium, and cholesterol. I also favor natural or organic foods, foods high in fiber, and lots of fruits and vegetables. The habit of eating healthy I developed has become almost obsessive these days because I look at nutritious values of everything that I put in my body and don’t touch anything that’s unhealthy. Believe me though, that this is actually a very good obsession. One thing everyone has noticed is that I eat grape fruit all the time.
So let’s take a look at my personal behaviors. I like things that are in 2 opposite spectrum of “trendiness”. At the one end, I like something that is not just trendy but also very unique even among the popular trend. On the other hand, I drive a van that can earn me prom king only if I drove it in 1950s and like to hang out with my mom. I think this tells that I like to be unique in my own and hate to be categorized into a group. To segmentate me would be a difficult task because I hate to be put into a group. Instead just I prefer the randomness of life so the best bet to appeal to me is to produce bunch of very unique items or ideas. Also I care for lives of others so if you are with organization with good cause, you will strongly attract me. On the other hand, I would never join a military to kill other people. Finally I just want to say that all I did in the blog was talk about me, me, me which made me feel like I am a rich stuck-up girl.
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