Workshop 1: Marketing Tools

After a very long and relaxing 4 months off, reality is back and has hit us hard at our very first Advertising and Branding workshop. By using new brainstorming techniques/ strategies learnt in the lecture the day before, the group was given the choice to investigate and brainstorm the strengths and weaknesses of one of the following areas: The Duncan of Jordanstone cantina, DUSA (as a whole) and the DCA.

After choosing 'the cantina', we cracked on by using SWOT analysis to identify what we felt the cantina lacked and benefited. We all quickly jotted down on post-it notes, what we personally felt the strengths and weaknesses were and collaborated them altogether on a large sheet of news print and reviewed as a team. These were then split up into catagories to make things more clearer to view and to overall find where the biggest flaw lay. We then voted a spokesperson to then announce our pitch to the rest of the class.

Hard at work

Result

Our findings showed that the main problems were the pricing and quality of food that the cantina had to offer. Although the pricing of certain foods and drinks were reasonable, the range and quality were not on par. The cantina opening times also created an issue to those who stay in the art school late to carry on work. If the closing time is half 4 and the art school closes at 9, then there is no way of getting a bite to eat. As well as fixing the pricing and quality issues that struggle to make us students happy, 24 hour vending machines with fresh food could solve the hunger if the cantina is still unable to stay open that little bit later.

Assignment 5

Do you ever find yourself browsing through your local newspaper, favourite website, or even listening to a regular radio station and wonder why all the adverts blaring at you are for random unnecessary products/services? The way every single person approaches everyday life revolves around the aspect of word of mouth marketing. The word of mouth epidemic is the spreading of information from one person to another in a very quick and short amount of time. This information is passed through a vast amount and variety of situations such as telephone, SMS, emailing or simple blogging/tweeting. My findings from semester 1 involved the idea that certain brands and services sell themselves through a more interesting and bazaar story, intend of an experience. For example, the rubber soles of Keith Richards (lead guitarist of the Rolling Stones) saved his life during an electric shock whilst on stage. In the 90's, Hush Puppies sales blew the roof and a trend had set. Word of Mouth marketing is that simple.

Throughout the numerous lectures, assignments and seminars of semester 2, I have gained and experienced new design methods and techniques which have helped with the workload of my Graphic Design studies. Having experienced these design methods, it is fair to say that they all gain a great deal of information when looking at the research/investigation side of things. Some methods do work more successfully than others though. For my research proposal, I would like to investigate the personal interests and lifestyles of both close friends and those unknown. This investigation will allow me to experience the word of mouth epidemic in a more hands on, one-to-one situation. Using the method of interviews, I will be able to find out a range of products/services/styles etc these people use/have to teach and spread the genius within the word of mouth marketing.

My research will start with the beginning of a mind map, stating down the key things I aim to achieve in the centre of the page. At the top, I will write down a few personal experiences of word of mouth marketing that I can bounce off of the interviewee incase they cannot understand the point I am trying to get across. Next, I will write down a structured set of questions in which I will ask everyone alongside a few follow up questions of a topic I know they can relate to (if interviewing someone I already know). I feel if I make my interview questions simple and easy for myself to read, then I will create a more laid back and comfortable atmosphere resulting in better answers. A main concern by using this method is the idea that if the questions are just being thrown at the interviewee, it may only result in simple yes or no answers. I want to give them the opportunity and time to respond with hope of also asking a few questions of their own to develop the conversation. Alternatively, if I can relate to any returned questions or answers, then it can create a connection between the both of us as we look back on past 'crazes'. I do not intend to write up each persons answers on neither paper or computer. From personal experiences, I always feel an awkward and tense atmosphere when someone interviewing you stops talking for a few minutes to write down the sentences I had just said. To solve this problem, I tend to record each conversation by using any form of recording device. Group interviewing has always been a successful method to bounce and retain information of one another on a chosen topic. Every month or so I work for a market research group which involves an hour or two of my time to sit in a lounge styled room with five other people, the interviewer, two microphones and a large mirror window taking up half of the room. The group contains individuals of both mixed age, gender and race. The research groups range from a large amount of companies such as Carling or Miller beer who come in to investigate what their next step should be in terms of either advertisement, taste or even product packaging. The style of these interviews only have one difference to the way I wish to perform my technique. When investigating such topics like the unnecessary amount of money spent on trends and products, my interviews will consist of groups of the same age and gender. This will effectively create a connection between each of the individuals to reflect back on these events and with hope, understand the concept of why they actually bought the items. It will also be interesting to see if each person regrets such purchases or following such trends.

Word of mouth marketing, I feel, can only be successfully analysed in the form of interviews. The idea of observing individuals to collect information about the certain trends, products they buy, nightclubs visited and early day crazes can be very difficult. The only way in which I would tackle this method of research can only be through the visual analysis of photographs or the observation of the persons home environment. Although I am a very forward and confident guy, I would still not find myself snooping through ones personal belongings. Assignment one of semester two gave me an insight to 'judging a book by its cover' and making a visual analysis of those I had never met before. Having done the experiment now and the results being almost 100% correct, I still do not feel it is the best way to collect information. 

Having experimenting with other methods and taking each outcome fully into consideration, I can only relate back to the successful interviewing technique. Each human speaks on estimate average of between 2000 and 10,000 words a day. Communication is the key to everyday interaction with one another and whether useless or very informative, we use it as a tool to pass information from one to another. The method of interviewing depends solely on communication, and without communication, their would be no word of mouth marketing.






ACTIVITY 5B



5 BOOKS I WOULD LIKE TO READ OVER THE SUMMER:

- Interactive Media: The Semiotics of Embodied Interaction - Shaleph O'neill
- Ethnology: the fundament ethnical problems, the primary ethical groups - A.H. Ken
- The Lucifer Effect - P.Zimbardo
- Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
- More than a name: An introduction to branding - Melissa Davis and Jonathan Baldwin



5 THINGS I WOULD LIKE TO DO TO MY BLOG:

- Create a new design layout for a fresh year next year
- Make each post more visible and easy to read for the each visitor
- I would like to write more about the work in my Graphic Design modules
- I want to touch up on previous assignments even though the semester is done
- Connect with more followers so I have a greater number of people viewing my work

5 PEOPLE I WILL CONTACT OVER THE SUMMER:

- Any local graphic design companies
- Ewan Sneddon to help him out with a logo design for his new landscape business
- Dundee Law School Clinic to develop initial designs for the Clinic badge
- Dave Reid who is working as a junior graphic designer for Schuh in Edinburgh
- My course mates to make sure I am not slacking with work over the summer

Assignment 4

On a more alternate route from assignment 3, we are asked this time to engage with one individual and to interview them on a chosen question. This field of research was more up my street than being analytical with an overall service such as the Mecca Bingo posted previously.

Although the chosen interview candidate had to be someone I rarely or do not even know, I feel made things that little bit more exciting as I could overall reflect and identify any similarities between them and myself. Using the interview question, 'What object do people treasure the most? Why?..... I then developed this into 9 related questions to get the most out of my candidate as possible.

1 - What is it?
2 - What does it look like?
3 - What does it do?
4 - Who do you trust with it?
5 - Who got you it?
6 - where did you get it?
7 - When did you get it?
8 - Why is it most valuable to you?
9 - Why do you have it?

Firstly, I  recorded the answers I would have written if being asked the question and the results are as follows:

1 - My Volkswagen polo
2 - It is a silver  08 Volkswagen polo MATCH with 3 doors, alloy wheels and slightly tinted windows.
3 - Its get me from point A to point B/ drives
4 - I only trust my family with the car
5 - My father got me it
6 - I got it at the Arnold Clark dealership on Crow Road in Glasgow
7 - I got it in Summer 2009
8 - It is most valuable to me as it is the most expensive thing I own and if I ever damaged it or lost it etc, my dad would probably kill me.
9 - I have it to travel around places, to get to work and to get me from Glasgow to Dundee


MIND MAP:

 I then chose to interview a guy on my flatmates course Adam and his answers are as follows.

1 - His old guitar
2 - It is a 'Woods of Bolton' sanded classical guitar
3 - It plays the most 'beautiful music ever' and makes him very happy inside
4 - He only trust those who are capable of playing a guitar well
5 - It used to be his dads guitar before it was passed down
6 - Found it in the attic
7 - Got it when he was 10 years of age
8 - It is most valuable as it has been more of an education adventure as his dad has taught him things on it and it is not the most pricey guitar in the world which also makes it special.
9 - It makes him happy. He also keeps ahold of it as the songs he has played on it reminds him of certain/ special memories.

Adam's answers came to a shock to me as a few of them had a more personal and emotional meaning. For example, question 3 makes me think that his guitar is a very well made classical guitar,... but that might not necessarily be true. He identified before that the guitar was a very old beaten up guitar the he personally sanded it to make it his own. The sound from it may be the most horrific sound ever!!... but the fact that it is his and he has personalized it to be his own might make the 'most beautiful music ever' in his eyes only.
The idea the guitar was passed down from his dad presents that it may be a family air lume. The guitar creates a connection and family bond as each member passes it down as well as teaching songs along with it.
Finally, the excitement Adam gets when he plays it, I feel, is the most important aspect to consider. The songs he plays and learns, reminds him of certain times and happy memories he will hold on to forever.
Lastly, the

Overall, I feel my interviewing technique worked well due to the structure in which I wrote and asked the questions. My candidate never felt under pressure whilst being asked the questions, which I hope made my interview very calmed and relaxed. I most definitely will be using this strategy to develop my design work in the very near future.

Friends of the Earth Broadsheet

Myself and the rest of year 2 graphics have been given as a new assignment of the second semester to research and investigate given charities. Carrying on in old graphics tradition, we were to pick the charities from a hat to determine the workload for the rest of the semester. Unsure at the time and still unsure now wether I was lucky enough to have been given the 'Friends of the Earth' charity.

The brief has been divided into 3 parts consisting of a moodboard, an A2 broadsheet and a 3d typographic model which has to eventually be presented in an exhibition on the 18th of March. Whilst researching (through moodboard) the mass amounts of campaigns and rights in which the Friends of the Earth organisation is part of, made things difficult to narrow down an element to focus on. Environmental justice, I feel plays a very large role within the works and priorities of the organisation, especially throughout the Friends of the Earth Tayside which is the most local group to me.

The images below present the final 2 broadsheets that I am still deliberating over.

Horrible beer, great advert

Carling have released once again an older commercial from about 2007. The originality and vague relevance to the beer itself, I feel, is what makes it soo good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7AM49svaGQ&feature=related

Assignment 2 - images

Assignment 2 was a fun and pretty simple continuation from the previous assignment when looking/analysing photographs. The main focus within the images was most importantly about what images say/don't say and how/what texts portray the meanings. The topic was still a relation back to the theme of semiotics previously explored in semester 1. 

As this assignment was also a group project, I decided to keep in contact with the girl I met throughout assignment 1 as I felt we communicated and overall worked very together. The jist of the project was to basically pick three random images (text free) and to present them to a group of non art related or design studies students. We used www.sxc.hu and clicked on the 'Randomizer' link to produce us with images neither of us had any relation to. The chosen students were then asked to come up with a story from the three images. The three images could be used in any order whatsoever and could be the weirdest and craziest story ever as long as the 3 images were related in some sort of way. 

After experiencing a wide range of feedback, myself and my partner added a forth image and a word to go along with it. Using this material, we then chose a story of our own in which we hoped the viewers could then come up with the same or as similar of a story as possible.

the images are as follows...

Our main topic was the idea of the time passing quickly through life and the added word 'four' at the bottom was to relate to the four seasons within each year.

I chose to ask my flatmates to write me a story each as they all study different courses and share separate interests from one another which I felt could bring an interesting result.....

Eamon Keane - 3rd year Law student

- The story is about a guy going on a walk one winter. He was old. He was reminded of a summer he spent in the Caribbean. When he thought back on all these years, he realised how much time had gone by.......and for the first time in his life, he realised that he was dying of age and the image coming to his head was the leaves dying on Autumn trees. He gazed out on the landscape and realised there is four seasons in life and he is now entering the autumn of his existence. 

Eamonn Mccann - 3rd year Dentist

- The story is one much similar to Bernards watch. There is a man who has the gift of time travel. He is an adventurous and very quiet young chap who seeks for new experiences. His most favourite thing to do is to time travel throughout the four seasons to pick up on new discoveries. 

James Kinane - 2nd year Medicine student

I hear there is four seasons. My favourite thing to do in Winter is ski and the beach in summer. In Autumn I like to look at the pretty leaves.

For an experiment I also asked my flat mate Ross Bloomer who is a 3rd year Illustration student, to see if he could come up with anything more creative or if his intake on these images matches the stories of students in other course sectors. 

- The story is about a guy who felt he never had enough time in the world. 4 seasons past, he noticed the leaves changing colour and longed for a day where he could live in an island where time did not exist.

Semester 2: Assignment 1

Our first design studies assignment of the semester was to be paired up with someone from the class who you had no previous encounters with.
Having been paired up with a partner and showed no communication whatsoever, we were then to exchange photographs of ourselves from a range of ages and/or if possible a photo of our room. Using this information, the next stage was to guess/predict your partners personality, tastes, influences and general lifestyle.


My perception of my partner were as follows:

 

Conclusion = Definite party and social animal!

- Loves to interact with people even from an early age. 
- A very family orientated person as it looks like she is having a great time baking with her sister or     other family member.
- The Image of herself and friends sitting down watching tv, shows that she perhaps enjoys a socialising pre beverage before going out in town or suchlike.

- I assumed she enjoys to travel as one of her photos looks like a summer trip in another country.
- She certainly loves to dance (especially in the pole dancing photo). I also get the impression that when she is either sober or had a drink in her, she still likes to let loose and have a great time.
- The old school photo continuous my perception that she loves to socialise and takes a lot of care in friends.
- Perhaps she played a large role within her school?- I also feel that she is not quiet and shy. 
- Her interaction with classmates identifies she thrive in team building activities and is not afraid to take lead if need taken.

- The dramatic changes in hair colour and style implies she follows fashion and is definitely not afraid of any dynamic style changes.
- Her dress sense has definitely changed from the younger photos to the more recent ones. The plain coloured clothes from her childhood photo has a contrasting image to the recent, more adventurous and trendy clothing. Her trilby hat strengthens my point too.






Having met up after analysing our photographs separately, we both discussed what we assumptions were made correctly and which were just cheek!
Thankfully for both of us, nothing too bad was said and no offence was taken. 
The only correction that could have been made was the fact that she never played a large role throughout school such as prefect or house captain.....but was still very outspoken and spoke her honest opinions which I completely respect.


All round lovely girl and privileged to meet her.


................I guess at times, a book can be judged by its cover.