EOC Week 4: Advertising is Based on Happiness & Dissonance

As a teenager, what was your desire of need? It could’ve been a game system, the most popular piece of fashion, money, etc. Well, mines were a video game. When I was the age of 18, I always wanted this video game called Saints Row 2. I played the first version when I was at a friend’s house back when I was in high school. Even though it was relatively close to Grand Theft Auto, the whole concept of the game provoked me to get it. When I got the game, I was the happiest man on earth. I used to sit in front of the TV for hours and play the game like there was no tomorrow. It wasn’t your natural game. The challenges you had to face were highly challenging and the fact that you were flexible to about anything was phenomenal. Being able to play the game and beat it made one of the happiest experiences with gaming.

As well as happiness, I also had the times where dissonance came into the picture. I remember back when I wanted Pokémon cards because it seemed like it was the biggest thing to get into as a fourth grader. I begged my parents to allow me to purchase the cards and start a collection. It took them a century before I actually bribed them into buying the cards but they did. I was the happiest nine-year-old on the planet but I felt something was wrong. By the time I got the cards, everyone in my neighborhood stopped collecting them. I tried my hardest to keep my pride but that didn’t last very long. Everyone on my block kept calling me lame, a loser, stupid, and every other insult you can generate. Eventually, I didn’t want the cards anymore.

EOC Week 3: Internet Privacy vs. Marketing Research

Internet privacy for marketing research has their ups and downs. “Marketing is managing profitable customer relationships” (Marketing: An Introduction, pg 5), as we all know.  I understand that conceiving private information on the internet helps construct a relationship between the customer and the market, but some information is going too far. Internet based websites should only market through the internet so why would they need my home address for?

Facebook, “the world's largest social network” (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=facebook&st=Search), “had been improperly sharing the data with advertisers and Web tracking companies” (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/facebook-admits-to-privacy-issue-and-makes-fixes/?scp=2&sq=internet%20privacy&st=cse). This issue is an outrage! Facebook has absolutely no right to share private information to advertisers and Web tracking companies. The site was developed to communicate with friends, family, businesses, and other miscellaneous reasons; not to exploit personal information to third party sources.

However, I do understand the reasoning behind such acts.

EOC Week 3: Making Money For Good

The Hot Topic Corporation stands tall with 680 mall-based locations in the United States and Puerto Rico. By the end of January 2010, they had a net income of $11.9 million and a sales income of $736.7 million. Hot Topic may not be the highest selling retail corporation but it’s on the rise to do so, especially since they’re giving back to the community as well. The “Hot Topic Foundation has granted more than $5 million to charitable organizations throughout the country” alone (http://community.hottopic.com/content/charities). They sell multiple branded clothing, CD’s, jewelry, wallets, purses, and more. The products advertise creativity, a passion for music, humor, personality traits, etc. on each design; overall a love for art. Their foundation is to “enrich kids' lives by enabling them to express themselves musically and artistically!” (http://community.hottopic.com/content/ht-foundation). By doing so, they allow teens and young adults to not feel condensed with life. Why take everything in life so serious? Why not express how you feel apparel wise and not physically?

Even though many people view Hot Topic as “the devil” (http://www.viewpoints.com/Hot-Topic-Online-Shop-reviews) with demonic products, Hot Topic isn’t only looking out for their customers, but for charity organizations as well. They support organizations such as Chicago’s International Children’s Film Festival, Little Kids Rock, Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), Mind Institute, Inner-City Arts, Big Thought, IFP Chicago, Chicago Humanity Festival, Rock Against Cancer, Spy Hop Productions, Footlights Inc., Carolina Studio Corp., KIPP Bayview Academy, Grammy Foundation, and Notes for Notes. For every transaction they encounter, they ask the customer if they want to donate to charity and give you a cool little gift bag along with a card that you can get stamped for future discounts. The Hot Topic Foundation is well on its way to successful marketing value.

EOC Week 2: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

“The tentacles of the recession have reached into the videogame industry, a business that was long considered downturn-resistant.” (Yukari iwatani Kane, Videogame Makers Can’t Dodge Recession, The Wall Street Journal). However, a few game consoles remain on top of the game. A couple of game consoles do well in both market share and market growth; a few does well in one of the other. The battle broils down between Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and Mobile. Even though it’s obvious that people are more familiar with Xbox and Playstation, the Nintendo gaming console still manages to be on top. “The Nintendo DS stayed well above everyone else for the majority of the year” (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/01/looking-back-at-2009-console-sales-and-ahead-to-2010-trends.ars). According to Ars Technica, Nintendo remains on top with the DS and Wii, followed by Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console, then Sony’s Playstation 3, 2, and PSP.

The Wii is high in market share and market growth, the Playstation is high in market share but low in market growth, PC games are low in market share as well as market growth, but mobile gaming are high in market growth and low in market share.  Mobile gaming is the next best thing to hit the market.

EOC Week 1: Excellent Customer Service

 I was at the mall this past Saturday looking for an outfit to wear out that night. I usually shop at H&M because they have many stylistic products with excellent value. As I was looking at this button up, this lady sales associate approached me and told me that I would look really good in that shirt. Usually when a sales associate says that to me, I automatically think she’s trying to land a sale. I told her I wasn’t trying to buy the shirt because it wasn’t my style of clothing. She said she understood me and she does that a lot. From this point forward, we were having general conversation. The hysterical part about it is the fact our conversation didn’t have anything to deal with fashion or any type of apparel. She was telling me what she does on the weekends, the school she goes to, her career and long term goals, etc. I ended up buying a belt and when I was walking out the door, she stuck her hand out so I could shake it. She said it was nice to meet me and she hopes to see me again. I’m thrilled and because of how she incorporated her personality into her customer service skills, I’m willing to go back and shop more and hope I can see her again. She established a good customer relationship with me and “customer relationships and value are especially important in today’s tough economic times…” (Marketing: An Introduction, pg 2).

EOC Week 1: My Voice

What is there to voice about web design? Well, what is there to not voice about it? There are various fields under the design concept. There’s graphic design, interior design, fashion design, web design, and much more. I've been working within the web design field for quite some time. My knowledge towards web designing and scripting are phenomenal. Not only am I an excellent web designer, but an excellent coder as well. There’s an unexplainable rush of adrenaline as soon as you construct a website or design of some sort. You’re constantly giving yourself a creative workout. Once you open a document in Adobe Photoshop, you begin to develop a rush of questions. What are the main topics and/or products of the website? How do I want the user to interact with the website? How can I make the website user friendly? What am I going to do to accomplish that? As you start to develop these questions, you begin to figure out how to work them into your design; giving yourself a creative work out without having to pay a monthly fee for 24 Hour Fitness. It’s all about success. As I was always taught, the most successful people are the best of people.