And We're Graduating :(

Prior to entering this class, I wasn’t sure what to expect. As with all business classes, one thing I knew to expect was a group project. As with all group projects I thought we may be given a client and come up with a marketing strategy for the company. However, this wasn’t the case for Consumer Insights as we were able to do something a little more fun. We were given the task of creating a product for a researched segment.

There were many things to be learned from this project. I’d say the biggest takeaway I had was the process of taking insights and developing a product. It seems that most products are created without the insights of customers ever being examined therefore leading to poorly developed and researched products which end up flopping. This project led us down the right path, however it wasn’t the path we took. I found myself immediately doing the stupid thing of thinking of products primarily based on assumptions of our segment. However, this was immediately shot down by Mr. Walls as he overheard us talking about product development at our first group work session. This was how we learned to continue down the established path for our product development. It was also a great lesson learned in that at the end we had to show how our insights connected to our product. This made our final product prototype be a product that our consumers may want.

I think the second most important thing I learned was learning to work in a group. While every other business class requires group work, it seems that this class forced the group to get along more than usual. I believe this is because we all have creative minds and wanted to create the best product possible. In other classes there are strict guidelines to follow which take away from the creativity of many students. However this project gave freedom to students which in turn created conflict within the group. The project therefore was a great lesson in compromise. We all had good ideas, and we all wanted to see them followed through. However because it was a group, we were forced to compromise. I really didn’t enjoy this part of the project, but in reflection it was a good lesson to learn in both group work and humility.

In my initial introduction to my group I was a bit worried. We all came together, and I didn’t know anybody from the get go. Another problem was that many of us were graduating seniors and therefore the amount of effort being put in by each member would be reduced because of senioritis as well as people being preoccupied with job searches and grad school applications. Then as we began to get into the heart of the project, I saw immediate conflict with some of the members because of my personality. This is usually a cause for problem because I have a strong personality in which I joke a lot to relieve tension. However, some students are hard workers that don’t have time for a jokester such as me. It was great to learn how to handle other personalities though. As it was also nice to learn about insights along the way. I feel that working with the group didn’t contribute much to my learning the material as much as other factors did. I felt that the teaching was great, as well as the background knowledge gained from other classes. It seemed that while this is an elective, it tied in a lot of what I’ve learned in every other marketing class and will most likely contribute to my future career endeavors. I also feel what I learned is really helping as I come along with developing my paper.

A reply to Candace (The BIG DANCE)

So the NCAA is long gone. Texas was ousted, something that was inevitable, and all the hooplah of the tournament and all other shenanigans are gone. Simply said, it was disappointing for yet another Texas team to be ousted. Why are these feelings as a sports fan so relevant? Well as many people do besides me, fans create affiliations with their teams/schools and feel their hardship. How does this work from a marketing standpoint?
I came across my friend Candace Lee's blog about Nike and its Air Jordan Brand commercials. The blog discussed the NCAA Tournament and the commercials that were aired during the tournament. This time, a time when CBS decides to air nothing but basketball games even at the expense of the local news broadcast. I am a huge college basketball fan and love that CBS decides to air all of these games. I'm sure it also gives marketing professionals, brands, and companies to air numerous ads in the hopes that they will create sales or brand awareness.

Candace mentioned the ad that features Carmelo Anthony and the Syracuse Orange as they defeated Texas. The ad mentions the exact date, and highlights of the game. Did this bring back bad memories? Yes it did. Was it effective? Yes it was. With every team that wins, there is a team that loses. So the commercial did frustrate me because Texas happened to lose that game, but at the same time it brought back memories of why I love college basketball. The game of college basketball is built around the fact that any team can win the tournament. Every year there is a "Cinderella" team that comes from nowhere to wreak havoc on the "Major Programs". This is why I love the tournament. The commercials just added to this in that they provided a nostalgic moment at which I was brought back to certain times when I was exposed to certain clips.

Candace then went on to mention that she didn't like the Ray Allen ad. While I agree with her that the ad was ineffective because it didn't provide the same nostalgic moment that I had with other ads, I do feel that it was effective. Ray Allen is a part of the Jordan Brand team. He wears Jordan shoes and at one point in his career was considered to be the "heir" to Jordan. He is also the star of one of the greatest basketball movies, starring as Jesus Shuttleworth alongside Denzel Washington in "He Got Game". Therefore, I felt it was very effective because it touched on something. These great games that we see in the NCAA Tournament are reflective of the future stars that we will see in the NBA. However I do feel they could have done a better job in making the game more relevant. Maybe that game was his highest scoring in his college career. Maybe that game meant the difference between making it to the "Big Dance", and being sent to the dreaded NIT tournament. Therefore, I believe that the ad was good, but could have been more effective and in line with the other Jordan Brand ads.

All in all, I can't wait until next March, the greatest month of sports.

Crossfit - Forging Elite Fitness

The percentage of obese Americans has grown from 13% to 31% in the past 40 years. This alarming statistic has widened the market for products and services to possibly reduce this growing trend. People want to be fit and healthy, but many of us are stuck in a rut of monotonous “globo” gym fitness routines and boring workouts. Some of us are also burdened by our own lack of knowledge of fitness and healthy eating habits. Many have tried to tap into this largely saturated market through products they claim work. However, many have grown weary of these products and feel that none work.

Thesis: Crossfit is a relatively new fitness regimen that is gaining wide acclaim throughout the fitness community. Through the use of marketing, I want consumers to realize the benefits of Crossfit and gain motivation to participate.

My background in fitness
Years of lifting weights (style)
Athletic background (years playing basketball)/teaching at basketball camps
Time spent doing Crossfit
Experience as a trainer

Crossfit – What is Crossfit? (Source: Crossfit Journal) (Source: myself (Level 1 Certified Crossfit Trainer)

I. Background of Crossfit – How it started
Definition of Fitness

II. Fundamental ideologies behind Crossfit
Constantly varied, functional movements, at high intensity
Definition of intensity as defined by Crossfit

III. Nutrition element of Crossfit
Paleolithic diet
Zone diet
Paleo-zone diet

IV. Training Crossfit
My experiences both as an athlete and trainer

V. 2009 Crossfit Games and other local Crossfit competitions

Current market situation
“Globo” gyms –
Gold’s gym, World Gym, Bally’s, 24 Hour Fitness…
What these companies do and whom they cater to.

P90X –
What P90X is

Other Fitness/diet programs
Different fad diets
“Magazine” workouts

Application to Consumer (source: surveys, data research)
What is the consumer looking for when thinking about exercise and nutrition
How can Crossfit be that for the consumer?
A look at what Crossfit HQ is doing now?

Differentiation and association becoming key
How Crossfit is different
Consumer perceptions of Crossfit
Crossfit Results
Crossfit Community

Marketing myself
Using Crossfit to market myself for the summer as a trainer
Differentiation by association
Developing a Crossfit community

At the buzzer! Swish!

Three seconds left, and the clock is ticking. Fake left, fake right and there are only three seconds left on the clock; he dribbles left and pulls up for the game winning shot.

The scenario played out every March. Cinderellas, Mid-Majors, upsets, blowouts, lottery pick, buzzer beater, Selection Sunday, conference championships, seedings, local pools, Bracketology, bracket, and diaper dandy. All these and many more are some of the words that can be heard during March. Even those that aren’t avid sports fans will fill out a bracket. Some will pick teams based on color, some on research, and some will just check to see what picks our President made and they will copy those. How does a sport like college basketball consumer the American consumer audience for such a short period of time? How have the words March Madness affected the insights of consumers?

Being that I love sports, I was never really amazed at the draw of the NCAA Tournament. It was just the culmination of every of sport in that we would eventually crown a champion. However, it had a different feel. I can always remember laying in bed watching 8 games in a row. I’d watch each of these games without even knowing any player on the team, but each game was important for my bracket. All picks would lead to the immortality of beating your friends in the local pool that was made. Everyone thought they knew how to pick the upsets. In fact, because the games usually fall just after Spring Break, I constantly found myself making picks based upon many different factors. I began to think of myself as a college basketball Bracketologist. I thought I could dissect games and pick a winner.

It’s March Madness! Every game matters, and on any day anyone can win, but how does this apply to consumers. Well because the NCAA Tournament has become a big part for almost everyone, even those who don’t follow sports.

How does this relate to consumers? Well it consumes then. The reason I’m writing this blog is because I began to notice how many businesses take “March Madness” and use it to sell their product. A nice salon was advertising “March Madness” prices. I saw local car dealerships advertising their “slashed March Madness pricing”. It seems every company tries to do their own take on “March Madness”. How does this affect consumers? It just reinforces the brand “March Madness”, which in the beginning was a reference to the volatility of the NCAA Tournament. Every year a Cinderella almost wins the Championship. Every year there are upsets and other wild results to this month of sporting events. Every year there are teams that make me pull my hair out because they are bracket busters. All this excitement reinforces the brand “March Madness”. How do those that have never experienced a college basketball game reinforce the brand?

The brand no longer represents college basketball. After writing this blog, I have found that while the words “March Madness” originated because of college basketball, they have come to take on this other meaning; A meaning that evokes feelings of spring time. This in turn represents slashed prices and good deals. So as a consumer I’m happy, but as a sports fan I’m a little disappointed. I want everyone to be able to enjoy March Madness for what it is. The greatest month of sports.

Reptilian! THE CHEESE IS ALIVE!

This isn’t part of any of the questions or assignment, but I just loved “Do you feel accepting when you eat bread, do you feel lonely when you eat bread?” That comment just resonated with me. It made me worry about what was to come. As marketers are we supposed to be a bit zany asking off the wall questions. When I think of bread, I think carbs. Then even nuttier was “the cheese is alive!” I just had to get that off my chest because it was a little weird and made me question why I was watching this video.

Now to begin with Dr. Rapaille, his way about interrogating consumers and gaining insights is very different from the traditional method of asking “do you feel accepting when you eat bread?” He begins his three step method by going after the brains cortex. He asks the individuals in his different focus groups to take a look at a word, such as “luxury” in the video, and then say words that they feel are associated to this word. He asks them to come up with words that they think of when they hear the word “luxury”. I would call this the cortex step. The narrator describes the three steps as through reason, past emotion and finally to the primal core where Rapaille feels that all purchasing decisions lie. Therefore the first step is to blatantly ask the consumer. He says that people want to show how intelligent they really are. Then he explained that in the next step he wants to get into the emotions of the consumer. He asks them to tell them a story like he was a 5 year old. He says that this works because the consumers no longer try to be logical, but rather they try and explain a story to a 5 year old. This plays into the emotion of the consumer and starts slowly progressing away from the logic. This is one step closer to discovering the underlying rationale behind consumer purchases. In the third step he begins by placing them back in the room with only pillows occupying the space. He then emphasizes searching for the reptilian code. Here he tries to tap into the primal instincts of humans. He believes that consumers make their choices based on primal instinct.

When looking at the reptilian code for the example given which was luxury, I began by going through the first step of the process. Some words that came to my mind were costly and elite. I didn’t go through the second step, but I ended up realizing that my primal code for luxury is prestige and the way a product will make me look to others.

Song Airlines was a very interesting concept. As I’ve written in different blogs, I have this new found passion for organic meals. While watching the piece on Song Airlines, I became confused about who the company was. However, when they mentioned Jet Blue, I immediately knew that company. I never had even seen the commercial that was featured in the movie. However, I did enjoy watching the marketing consultant as he sped through ideas that he felt would convey the message of the airliner. I also liked that they referred to themselves as guerilla marketers. They felt they were the underdog. This showed in their showing of the commercial. They were going after a niche market and usually the niche company is the underdog to larger companies, in this case Jet Blue and other larger major airliners. Some things I didn’t like were the things they were offering. At the time of release of this move, which was around 2004, organic food wasn’t large enough, and didn’t have a large enough market base to propel Song Airlines in that respect. I also didn’t like the way they were going about competing with their competitors. They had to show points of differentiation that were relevant to people who would fly. In the airline business, an empty seat is lost money, and I don’t feel that with their offerings they could legitimately compete with any other company. They would have had to substantially increase price in order to cover the cost of their services which didn’t serve a large enough market to begin with.

I really enjoyed the Persuades because it made me think a lot of what I do as a consumer. It also gave some good views as to the way marketers go to attempting to persuade the consumers to spend money. BIG MONEY!

Kenna? Who's that?

Prior to reading this case, I had never heard of Kenna. I’m not sure if that is because I’m not a music junkie or because I only listen to certain types of music or something else. Therefore it was interesting to get through the read to gain an understanding of both sides of the pendulum. As I got through the reading, I found myself on the Top 40 side of Kenna’s dilemma. I would not give his music love because he isn’t popular and because he doesn’t get publicity from any channels that I trust. I mean that the social influencers out there that would usually push music that I may listen to, aren’t doing so with Kenna. I’m not opposed to new bands, soloists, or styles of music, but after some reflection, I have found that I’m most likely going to be turned on to such things because of social influencers such as friends, family, blogs, and websites.

My question throughout the reading was “why do I behave this way?” I hoped that in understanding why I behaved this way, I would gain a better understanding of the consumer. The end of the article explains that consumer behavior is much like expert behavior in that we arrive at the same end outcome. However experts combine different elements of scaling attributes, while regular consumers are unable to do this.

So what major lessons can be taken away from the article? I think the major takeaway is that you can’t judge a book by its cover. I mean that you can’t take your first test sample consumer report and decide to scratch a product or service simply because the test sample wasn’t positive. The article discussed many instances where product testing proved to be a sorry indicator of product success. The Pepsi/Coke example and the Aeron chair example were just a few that showed that sometimes tests can go awry. This lesson is shown in many other instances as well. An example I can give of an initial bias is with the Kenna music. When I entered class this past Wednesday and heard a song of Kenna’s, I was a little annoyed. I wasn’t sure what kind of music it was and I didn’t like it. However, after listening to it in my own environment, I found myself enjoying the song. This is because I normally didn’t enjoy music in class. It wasn’t the right place for me to be listening to music. However if I hear a song of Kenna’s in my car, I’m sure I would continue listening instead of just tuning it out. This covers my initial lesson and flows through into my second major lesson the article teaches.

The author of the article makes a small but major conclusion. There is more to a product than just the quality of the product. The packaging becomes the product. In the article, many different products were cited on how they grew or declined in sales solely based on their packaging and their perceived quality in the subconscious human mind. Since I was introduced to Kenna in a setting that I was where I normally wouldn’t hear good music, I was turned off. No offense to Mr. Walls, but I didn’t think that I would be listening to the same array of music as my Professor. Therefore, my subconscious alerted me that this song “packaging” wasn’t where I liked it and it tarnished Kenna or the brand. If I had discovered Kenna on my own, I would have felt a deeper connection to the musician as I usually do with such artists that I find through my own channels.

Therefore, I find it very important when considering the consumer that we look to these two major lessons from the chapter from Blink. Because we as consumers don’t always know what we want and will therefore be turned off by new, innovative, or just plain weird products, it is important to consider other factors besides consumer test markets before deciding to progress or scratch through a product release. I also think that when considering a product, we should not look at pure quality of the product, but also the brand and packaging associated with the product. When purchasing grooming or hygiene products I find myself continuously buying products that are dark blue or black in package color because I associate this with “man” products. I never buy products that are pink or purple in packaging because I don’t think I share the same characteristics as the users of this product would. Therefore it is important to consider more than just the “taste” of your product. We must consider the environment, packaging, branding, and subconscious consumer mind that sifts through these factors when coming to a purchasing decision.

Are Organic Products beneficial?

As I have stated in my previous blog, I just became a Crossfit Certified Trainer. This is very exciting for me because I will now be able to teach Crossfit movements to others. The benefits of Crossfit are amazing and some are referring to it as one of the most effective ways to get fit. After doing Crossfit workouts for over a year, I have become very in tune to the fitness culture and the different topics that come up from day to day. Along with Newsweek and Sports Illustrated, the Crossfit website and Muscle & Fitness are regular reads for me. It seems that with the growing trend of obesity in America, all four of these magazines have either begun or have been focusing on diet. In fact, at my certification I learned that nutrition and diet accounts for 80% of body composition while exercise will make up for the remaining 20%. So while I’ve been working out for over 6 years, I’ve been doing it all wrong by focusing on the small 20% and ignoring the 80%.
I stated in the past blog that I have started reading up on organic foods and their possible benefits. My first experience with an article about organic foods was a small article that discussed the possible side effects of some pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. They said these chemicals could possibly cause the body to overstore fat. At the time, I didn’t care about organic foods, because they were pricey and because I was on the “bodybuilder” diet. I would eat as much tuna, chicken, meat, and bread as I could. As organic products became more popular my curiosity of their benefits grew. Then I began talking to my brother who had switched to a diet consisting more of organic foods. He would send me links to articles, references, studies, and all different sorts of media that explained and proved their benefits. However, my HEB was still selling non-organic products.
Due to the fact that I wanted to become a trainer, I began reexamining my diet. I wondered if a meal consisting of burgers and fries was really beneficial. I was still exercising like a nut, but if I wanted to maximize my power output, I would have to start changing the fuel I was using. This led me to Whole Foods. I began browsing the store, and I was faced with the paradox of choice, organic products for more money or regular products for what fit my budget. Was the added value of organic products actually realized when eaten? Was it all a scam in order to grasp this niche market by tricking them into thinking that organic products had added health benefits? Were people buying these products for social or actual health benefits? All these questions began to come to mind and I began my research by looking into the benefits of organic beef, chicken, pork and grass fed beef. The results of much of my research led me to begin to feed into the organic craze. I was buying food purely from Whole Foods, and eating at restaurants that served cage free chickens and organic vegetables.
The study or research I want to conduct will look into organic products. I want to find out who their customer base is. I want to see if these customers fit into some sort of demographic or lifestyle segment. I also want to see what kind of marketing is done by the retailers and wholesalers of organic products. I also think it would be interesting to see how Crossfit views organic products and whether fitness enthusiasts realize the health benefits of organic products. Due to the fact that I am a certified trainer, I want to know if the recommendation of organic products to my clients, or customers would be a reasonable recommendation and whether these clients would find the benefits that I list and research are enough to get them to pay the extra money. Is the price of organic products reflective of their perceived benefit, social benefit, or actual health benefit?

Here's an article I found on the abc News website: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/story?id=3353401&page=1

I also found this article courtesy of Google Scholar. It discusses who consumes organic foods in the UK: http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/Insight/ViewContentServlet?Filename=/published/emeraldfulltextarticle/pdf/0701040314.pdf