Blog 10: The Humbling Project

For most of my life I have been a "big picture" thinker. I day dream most of the day about inventions and new products or cool advertising campains. Usually, my ideas are things that I would want or things that I would buy if I saw them in the store. Needless to say, I was thrilled when we were assigned a project in which the objective was to design a new product or service for a segment of a population. After choosing the "empty nester" demographic, I immeadiately thought about products I would love when I am an empty nester. I pictured bird feeders with motion sensor cameras to capture images of the birds that come to feed when you are not at home. I pictured a backyard movie theater with projection on your house. But as the ideas flowed in, the project came to a surprising stop. Segmentation: Our first update was titled segmentation.
The first thing this project taught me was a useful brainstorming approach. Even though I like to jump into the big idea step of the process, I now understand a way to develop creative products that fit the needs and wants of the consumer. As we learned about our segment, through research methods and then evaluating our findings, we discovered facts about the target population. These facts uncovered the unmet needs of empty nesters, and from there we could develop a service that met those needs. Our final service idea was both creative and useful and something that the population actually wanted!
Another thing the project taught me was unfortunatley how easy it is to bias reasearch methods and results to meet the stereotypes you form in your head. Countless times, I would look at the our findings and be so inclined to change the results because I couldn't believe them. I believe this is where many inventors and product designers find themselves in a pickle. It seems easy to invent something that you would like even when you are trying to get in the mind of someone else, because, afterall, you still have your mind too. But, it is way more difficult to remove your mind from the equation. I had to humble myself in this case and realize that although I am a brilliant marketing major at the McCombs School of Business, I am still just a twenty-one-year-old who knows very little about what adults want and need. Our final service, backyard parties thrown for empty nesters and their friends, would never be something I would think of had we not gone through the research method. And even though it is still not the most cutting edge service, it fits perfectly with what they are looking for!
Working with a group on this project helped keep us accountable for actually responding to the data we were collecting. Without the group accountability, I think it would be much harder to keep myself from skewing the results to fit a product that I wanted to design. We had to learn the process together and each of our ideas came together at the end to produce the final service.
Working in this group project was much different than many of the other projects I have done in other business classes because it did have a more creative element. WIth a more creative element, there are more ideas flowing and more opportunities for regection of ideas. One things we had to all cope with was taking all ideas into consideration and seeing if we could use them in the final project. Many times we could not, and I learned that it is more difficult for me to take constructive critism on creativity than most other areas of my life. It was a very important lesson learned, and I have also learned that not all of my ideas are the best or most creative or most relevant. It was a humbling experience, and I am glad I learned it now!

Blog 9. Terra Burger: What were they thinking?

Right in between Madam Mam’s and Pipe Plus, there is a piece of real estate on Guadalupe St. that can’t seem to find the perfect fit. Restaurants come and restaurants go, and none of them seem to make a lasting impression on the fifty thousand college students that occupy the forty acres of UT campus five days a week.
As I thought about what I believed to be the perfect addition the “drag,” I noticed yet another effort to revive the space: Terra Burger. Terra Burger specializes in organic burgers and promises to offer only the freshest meat and produce supplied by certified organic local farms. This seems like it would definitely appeal to the whole foods eating, whole earth wearing population in Austin, but does Terra Burger realize it is located in the middle of a college campus?
My question for them: What makes you think that college kids will pay seven to eight dollars for an organic burger? College students are stereotypically not concerned with their health and more concerned with their bill fold. What about the Terra Burger is going to make a penny pinching college student spend a few extra bucks?
Maybe they are hoping that because it is located in Austin, it will draw in health conscious customers from all over the city. But there are few parking options on the drag, making it a pretty big hassle to get to the burger joint if you are not just passing by.
Maybe Terra Burger believes that there product tastes better than any competitor. Still, organic and healthy food typically has a negative correlation with a person’s belief that the food will taste good. Despite the facts, hamburger lovers with see a healthy burger sitting next to a greasy burger from Dirty Martins and assume the later will be way more satisfying. I think Terra Burger will have a problem getting this market to try their product.
Furthermore, I believe many health-conscience Austinites are either vegan or vegetarian. Although Terra Burger has several vegetarian options, I believe a burger joint can not rely on vegetarians to pay their bills.
I think that Terra Burger was looking for a place to expand their franchise. They saw Austin as the healthiest city in the nation. So it seems like the perfect place to expand their healthy mission. They noticed the heavily populated University of Texas campus and thought it was no brainer. Still, after roaming the streets of campus for nearly 4 years, I’d be surprised to see a Texas Fiji grab an organic burger for lunch. I’d be surprised if the longhorn athlete, who can rarely get enough calories in their stomach to make up for the ones they’re burning, would choose the healthy option. If the freshman girls who still have the metabolism of an elementary school student decided to suddenly start buying organic, I wouldn’t believe it. No student on scholarship who is paying for their education is going to pay a few extra dollars for the healthy choice.
Terra Burger probably has a market in Austin. But maybe they need to relocate to the Dell campus, where health conscience business professionals who don’t have time to exercise but have the money to spend on healthy living are looking for a place to eat out for lunch.
And for now…we will continue to find the missing link to the drag.

Blog 8: Outline- I don't even know the line-up

Music Festivals: I Don’t Know the Line-Up

Introduction:
As I jammed out all weekend long, the world outside the gates of Austin City Limits slipped away. I forgot about writing papers and reading articles. I forgot about air conditioning and breathing clean air. I forgot that a scoop of Amy’s Ice Cream does not always cost five dollars.

I go to ACL for far more than the music. I go to ACL to see 65,000 people come together and enjoy something awesome. And we enjoy the atmosphere that encompasses all of Zilker Park. A park that I was playing volleyball in last month and will be viewing Christmas lights in next season, has, for the moment, been completely transformed.

Only in its sixth year of existence, ACL has already drawn in thousands of customers that pay hundreds of dollars for one ticket. And other music festivals just like it exist all over the country. Each one exists in a different city, possibly in a different month, with thousands of different people who all have one thing in common: they are paying to see, smell, feel, taste, and listen to one unforgettable weekend.

Thesis:

It is the music that brings us to music festivals for the first time, but it is the experience that keeps us coming back.

I. Sounds- Live Music

i. Background and history of live music and music festivals, concerts

ii. Psychological effects of loud music

iii. Actions as a result of listening to live music


II. Sights

i. Apparel of customers

ii. Things to do in addition to listening to music
a. Shopping
b. Promotion teams, free hand outs

iii. Various traditions at festivals
a. Find your friend flag

III. Tastes

i. Beer
a. Sponsors
b. Numbers of cans
c. Prices

ii. Food
a. Sponsors
b. Common menu items available
c. Favorites
d. Prices

IV. Smells

i. Marijuana
a. What it smells like
b. Associations with live music and pot
c. Reasons for smoking at concerts

ii. Sweat
a. What it smells like
b. Explain exhaustion from spending several days at music festival
c. Heat- discuss seasons and reason for dates of several festivals

V. Feelings

i. Ease
a. Commute to and from the festival
b. Readily available ATM’s and water fountains

ii. Community involvement
a. Being with a crowd of people who are enjoying what you are
enjoying
b. Picking up trash/ recycle program
c. Ability to be a volunteer/seeing volunteers as approachable
members of community

iii. Safety
a. Security Guards
b. Tag your Kid services
c. Police Officers
d. Water Stations
e. Patrol entrance by wristbands

iv. Fun

Conclusion:

If you don’t know the headliner, it doesn’t matter anymore. There is much more to the music festival experience than the list of bands playing. Days of research and planning help design the perfect weekend for the customer. The sounds, sights, tastes, smells, and feelings make it perfect and unforgettable. And although it is the music that brings us to music festivals for the first time, but it is the unforgettable experience that keeps us coming back.

Blog 7: Airline Industry in for a Crash?

The airline industry is puzzling. Many would consider the ability to fly an incredible luxury. Airplanes give you the ability to meet friends and family for holidays, to travel the world, or to vacation anywhere. Others would consider airplanes a necessity. They are needed to travel to and from work, to meet clients in Hong Cong, to deliver goods to developing countries. So this is what I don’t understand: how an industry that is both a luxury and a necessity is failing to make any money.

The answer, I suppose, is that the airline industry is both capital intensive and labor intensive. They rely on extremely expensive machines that need frequent repairs and a lot of maintenance. And there are hundreds of people ensuring that each flight goes according to plan, well, at least as best they can. Furthermore, airfare prices are incredibly dependent on fuel prices. YIKES!

And, how can an airline compete when fuel prices are skyrocketing and consumer income levels are dropping? How can an airline make customers believe that the service they are providing today is actually worth two hundred dollars more than the same service they provided at Thanksgiving last year? There has to be a way that airlines can add to the perceived value of a flight.

It all comes down to the customer experience, beginning with the level of service they provide. So, I started thinking about the most important things when I travel.

1.) Take off on time. There are few things that are more annoying then boarding an aircraft 30 minutes before a scheduled departure time, and then sitting at the gate for an extra hour while someone is dillydadying around with the engine. I love that they are keeping me safe, but isn’t this something they could have addressed while I was trying to kill an hour waiting for my flight to board. After all, I was instructed to get there at least two hours before my flight and security surprisingly only took 20 minutes today! I’d appreciate faster maintenance on the ground; whether that means more or brighter mechanics, I’m not sure.

2.) Don’t lose my baggage! There is nothing that screams "I'm never flying on American again!" more than if they lose my bags!

3.) Cheap. No matter what, I’m always going to look for the cheapest fair. But I think that is just because no airline has jumped out at me and caught my attention enough to say: "Hey! The guy over there WILL get you to Chicago, but he WON'T do it as safe, as efficiently, as hassle-free as I will!" That might just be worth the extra penny!

4.) If bad weather is coming or they are expecting a delay...let me know before I leave my hotel/house. If I'm vacationing in New York City and my plane is going to be two hours late, I'd rather have those two hours to enjoy the beauty of central park than the inside of terminal E at Newark.

Maybe my requests are a little too much to ask. But I think that airlines need to significantly consider ways to improve their systems. A first mover in this industry could seriously benefit from an innovation that put them ahead of the others. Otherwise, it's looking like we may be searching for new ways to travel as the airline industry continues to lose. But I don't know if any of us are really ready to let go of our flying freedom.

Blog 6. A Blog about a Blog

A Blog about a Blog. An interesting concept to say the least. I honestly have not got caught up in the whole “Blog phenomenon” until I started writing this one for class.
Blogs are completely different than journals because they are not only for the eyes of the author. I think that when we write things that we know others are going to read, we use a subconscious filter. Although blogs allow us to express our ideas, thoughts, and opinions, they also give us an opportunity to show ourselves in a light that we’d like to be seen in. Blogging allows authors to become someone they are not when authors create a persona for their blog.
This makes blogs both a good and a bad source for gaining insights into the customers mind. From one point of view you think you can learn a lot about the superficial ideas and thoughts of consumers.
The topic I researched on “blogsearch” was the Mercedes Smart Car. I have recently taken my name off the waiting list for the Smart Car after going back and forth on the purchase decision for several months. I want to see what other consumers thought about the car to help in my post non-purchasing process.
J-Bigg had some interesting things to say about the smart car in his blog called “The Starving Artist Speaks”. Other than wanting to “shoot [the car owner] squarely in the teeth,” he mentioned how much he hates the car by explaining that “the few dollars [he’d] save on gas [isn’t] worth [him] looking like a b!@$# in an Urkel car.” Immediately, I begin making my assumptions about this “J-Bigg” character. I see that he is concerned with his image because he doesn’t want to be seen in a funny looking car, and this conclusion leads me to believe that he is also creating an image for himself in his blog.
He has so many bad things to say about the car, but a lot of it is more of the reflection of how is own views clash with the cars purpose. He understands that it gets great mileage and helps save the environment, but to him, he doesn’t care about things that will happen after he dies.
This blog shows a perfect example of why it is important to know your target market. If you can classify bloggers like J-Bigg into different segments, you can hypothesis about what you’d hope they would say about your product and then compare to what they actually say about your product. You can use this as a test to see if you are meeting there needs and wants like you planned. In this case, we can guess that a non-environmentalist, very self-image obsessed consumer would not be interested in the Smart Car. And the blog confirms that assumption.
The other blog I read concerning Smart Cars was Chuck Doud, writer for the Madera Tribune. He explained his experience driving past a smart car on the highway. He noted its incredible speed capabilities, but also how unsafe it looked. He explained having a discussion with his adult kids about smart cars. They seem more interested in the Smart Car because it is eco-friendly and saves oil.
It is interesting how many consumers have opinions about a product they don’t own and maybe have never even used. Both reviewers of the Smart Car had so much to say about something that that they hadn’t given a chance themselves.
Marketers can look at these insights and see possible fears or issues their potential customers have with their product. That way, companies can design marketing plans that address those fears.
Marketers should also look for common themes and trends in blogs about their products. They should address the negative themes and reinforce the positive feedback because it has obviously already created a buzz of its own.

Blog 5. Ideal Friend Connections

"If the world worked exactly the way I wanted it to, here's how time connecting with my friends would look/feel/be..."
My first thought was football. Ideally, everyday would be Sunday, and I would watch about nine hours of football with my friends and family. I can’t think of a better way to connect with people than when you are rooting for the same team. You experience every emotion together because when your team does good, you feel good together, and when your team does bad, you can cry on each others shoulders. In my photo collogue I included a picture of Tom Brady in the Super Bowl because this is one of my favorite events of the year. This is the day when even non-football fans will agree to celebrate the sport over a pot of queso and a bag of Tostidos. I also included a picture of “college football” because I love going to Longhorn football games with my friends. Finally, I included a quote about my favorite professional team, because ideally, all of my friends would be Texans fans.
Also in my photo collogue, I have several pictures of friends laughing together. In my opinion, this is one of the most important aspects of a friendship. The first time I laugh with someone, I feel like I have bonded with them. Again, it relates to experiencing the same emotion. Plus, laughing is fun, and I love to laugh with people. I even love when people laugh at me because it is a signal that we are enjoying each others’ company.
I added pictures of sand volleyball and tennis because I love being active with friends. In both of these sports you can not play without at least one other person. Some of my favorite memories in high school and college are from ultimate Frisbee or mud football games. Also in college, I have loved playing intramural sports. Ideally, I would have the opportunity to be on a sports team with all of my friends. When friends compete together, you immediately connect with each other because you are working towards the same goal. Also, you want friends on your team to perform well, and it is fun to set up victories for them.
The picture of the Ferrari and the mustang convertible stress the “ideal” aspect of this collogue. As much as I would love to be carpooling in one of these sports cars, it doesn’t really matter when you are riding with your friends. Times spent in cars, whether on road trips or just on the way to school, are often some of the best times with friends. I love playing games in cars or listening to music really loud with the windows rolled down. Carpooling is not only good for the environment but also good for a friendship.
I added several pictures and words about nature and conserving the environment. I love enjoying Mother Nature with my friends. If I were going on a hike, I’d rather do it with someone than by myself. I think that nature is way more enjoyable when you have someone to enjoy it with. For some reason, a sunset is far more beautiful when you have someone confirming that they think it is pretty too. I also like to travel and explore the world with friends. Once again, experiencing new places and cultures by your self is not as exciting as when you have someone with you to react to new surroundings. The cut-outs of the earth, the panda, the fruit, the wind farm, and the sunflower represent that saving the world is important to me and most of my friends. Therefore, they represent how friendships are sometimes formed because of a common interest. I am drawn towards people whose passions are similar to mine. Ideally, I would connect with my friends because we share the same values.
There are several words that say “gifts” or “give” and there is a picture of a puppy opening a present. These things represent an ideal world of giving to others more than your self. Ideally, giving to your friends would always be better than receiving something from them.
I added the words “to hold” and “hugs” because touch is my love language.
I had originally planned on having some sort of order to my collogue. I wanted to have different corners representing different ideas. But as I began pasting, I realized there really is no order in any of my friendships. In each relationship, there is a unique way of connecting with someone. Ideally, I said that I wanted to connect with my friends in all of these ways, but that might get a little boring. It is great to have some friends to watch football with and some to “just chill” with and some to save the earth with.

Blog 4. Austin City Limits:More than Just the Music

As I jammed out all weekend long to the tunes of some of my favorite bands, the world outside the gates of Austin City Limits slipped away. I forgot about writing papers and reading articles. I forgot about air conditioning and breathing clean air. I even forgot that not all tacos cost five dollars.
The first band I saw on the big stage was “Vampire Weekend.” I had never heard any of their music but it only took one song before I warmed up and began to dance along with the crowd. They are a youthful band that has a beautiful happy-go-lucky sound to it. However, it struck me as particularly odd to look to stage left and see a woman signing along with band. I turned to my father and shouted above all the noise “Why would a person who is deaf want to come to a music festival?” He replied to me, his foolish and naïve daughter, while still bouncing to the beat, “What’s not to love?”
That is when I realized that I go to ACL for far more than the music. I go to ACL to see 65,000 people come together and enjoy something awesome. I love seeing a six year old girl get in line behind the seventy year old man that is standing behind me as we all wait in line to get our airbrush tattoos. I love seeing what people wear or what people dare not to wear. And the sights cover all of Zilker Park. A park that I was playing volleyball in last month and will be viewing Christmas lights in next season, has, for the moment, been completely transformed.
I love the feel of heat, both from the sun and the other bodies that you are crammed up against. I love the feel of the amplifiers. It is like they are shaking my soul one drum beat at a time. I love when I have no idea how I am still standing because my legs feel like it would be better if they were just cut off.
I love the smell that is left on you when you leave and that you can only really smell when you get home. If live music had a perfume, it would smell like that: a mixture of beer and sweat and pot.
It is the music that brings us to Austin City Limits for the first time, but I think it is the experience that keeps us coming back. There are almost no lines and check-in is flawless. Safety is above all else, as security guards will immediately assist anyone who is publically intoxicated out of the park. Furthermore, there is a tag-your-kid booth to keep children and parents together. Free t-shirts are distributed to anyone that can collect a trash bag full of recyclable beer cans and water bottles; therefore, guests are actually doing the festival clean-up while they help the environment. The shuttle system has been perfected. It seems like the people at C3 have thought of everything, so I’d be interested to see what people at the festival wrote in the “Austin City Listens” suggestion boxes.
I’m also interested to further explore the customer experience at ACL. Only in its sixth year of existence, ACL has already drawn in thousands of customers that pay hundreds of dollars for one ticket. They pay to see, sit, smell, feel, and sometimes even listen to one unforgettable weekend.
I plan to use articles and reviews from past festivals, a novel written about the festival, and talk to customers themselves about their concert experiences. I’m interested to see how this festival compares with others, and I’d like to hear some of the negative feedback for the festival. I’d also like to research more about the behind the scenes operations and what it takes to put on an event that is this huge.
One article I have found was written after the 2004 ACL festival. It is from the Austin American Statesman: http://www.austin360.com/xl/content/xl/acl2004/aclhistory.html