The Incoming Business World

A large part of this class is working with businesses out in the community. We have finally started with this project. We were told to go and get the contact information of ten businesses. With all this information, we sent out letters hoping the businesses would want our work. With these people contacting us wanting our services, we are to begin working on drafts of the products desired.

For my business that I am working for, is actually my teacher. She is in need for two business cards. One for a school usage, while the other one is almost a personal use. This project is going to be some-what challenging. Especially working for my teacher, it is going to be difficult. Knowing that she will be trying to teach me and be a client at the same time will possibly be difficult for her. I don't want to let her down. I hope I am able to show her my full potential while working for her.

The Yearbook Competition

The next project we worked on was creating a yearbook design. I believe this was the hardest project yet. With our design having the possibility of being seen by thousands of people when published, this piles the pressure on to our class. This design is harder than it seemed.

With this design we needed to incorporate the title "Every Ending is a New Beginning". It may not seem like it could be challenging to think of a design, but it actually is. Most of the class decided to bring in tigers into their designs. I did the same.

This was challenging for me because the title doesn't bring me anything specific for ideas. The tiger was the simplest way to go with this. Simple is sometimes better than complicated.

The Black Friday Fight

Friday, November 23rd is the busiest day in the shopping world. Millions of people make time to sit outside waiting for the stores to open. In the past, many stores would open very early Friday morning, while this year, things are changing. Some stores are opening Thursday evening. Some people sit outside stores waiting hours upon hours, usually in the cold, in order to get great deals the stores are providing. It has become a tradition for some.

I am not going Black Friday shopping is year. I never have gone. My mom does not like shopping in general and there is no way that she would fight thousands of people on Black Friday. I don't know if I would ever want to go shopping on Black Friday, I might want to try it at least once in some point in time.

Black Friday got its name because in the marketing world it deals with profits for retailers. It is a "red" means the loss of "black" benefits.

This years changes in Black Friday are different than expected. The three changes are one, mobile shopping has increased. This has become strategically important. Two, consumers shopped at online retailers more than in recent years. Finally, retailers need to focus on what the consumers want. Focus on them and their product desires.

Since last year you can see a change in the way retailers act towards their customers. They are willing to help you find what you are looking for. Also, they are better at marketing whant the consumers want, narrowing down the amount of places the consumer can go looking for items. It seems like it is almost a specialization. Retailers are providing ads that are more appealing to buyers. They are giving away incentives. Also, the stores are giving shoppers the same deals online as they do in stores. They are working to create good customer service in stores as well, on this busy and stressful day.

The students of my class were assigned to create a letterhead for themselves and a classmate. While making this business letter, it was difficult to decide what my letterhead should be. The one I chose the design another student created for me. I like the colors and the design. I personally believe it is easier to create something for someone else than it is to create something for yourself.

This letter was not difficult to write. I have been a strong writer and this was rather easy. This is going to be a start to many things to create.

Attention Grabber.

Our most recent project we have done in class this past week is to establish a brand identity for ourselves and a class mate. We had to come up with a a logo, supporting graphic(s), a color scheme, supporting text font, and headline font.

For myself, I enjoy bright colors. I do not have any specific designs that I like for a supporting graphic. The most difficult thing was for me to figure out the logo. I am not usually very picky about things, but for some reason I was especially picky when it came to this project. I believe it is because this logo will be on everything I create from here on out. I can be picky about fonts too. I was rather picky with that also.

For my class mates brand identity, they wanted a cursive type of font for their logo. Their color scheme was going along with their business card - blue and grey. She wanted to have a basic font for their supporting text, while her headline font a simple but different text. She had no preference for a supporting graphic so I just put a design under her initials.

I enjoyed making the brand identities. It was frustrating at times, but once I got into the swing of things I was on a roll. I cannot wait till we start on more designing projects.

Thank You Card.

This is my Thank You Card. I made my card very simple. I understand how to use photoshop, but I don't think it needs to be overwhelming in order to get your thanks across. I used different forms of brushes to make my card. I can't wait to continue expanding our creativity.

Carrot Attractions

As I read this article on carrots becoming the new junk food, they continued to work towards the change in packaging. They thought of commercials and other ways to get attention. But when it came down to it, the company Crispen had done research to see how students snacked after school- they usually went straight to the pantry and cupboards instead of the refrigerator. They believed that the focus should be redirected. Instead of having the idea of "anti-junk food" it should become the opposite, "carrots the new junk food".

In my opinion, as a consumer, I don't believe that this article is worth it. In the article it talks about wanting to change the packaging in order to have a way to get peoples attention in order to sell more. Though some people may think the new packaging is a good way to target a certain audience and that it might work in raising sales. I believe the targeted audience by the looks of the package would be teenage boys.

Branding and packaging are becoming a part of the marketing business. The new packaging of baby carrots looks good. It is a change and will get peoples attention. If the companies put these new bags into vending machines it will get peoples attention. They won't expect fresh vegetables.

I think this new packaging will help get peoples attention, though I don't think it will attract the people who already like and eat carrots. I am one of those people who like carrots and if they were available in vending machines I would definitely buy them. While the new niche is something that will be figuring out who is now starting to buy carrots. The new packaging is intended for one proposed audience.

I believe this article was dull. It really only talked about how they wanted to change the packaging and how they needed to increase the sales, even though the sales didn't necessarily decrease. It kept repeating the same things over and over again.

Olympic Sponsors

I read an article in IMDD titled "Brands Winning Big at London Olympics". This article talks about the 1996 Olympics and how Nike took over the games. With this incident the Olympics promoted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to come down on the marketing ambush.

In the 2012 Olympic games, Social Media Networks are starting to effect the game. The spectators were possibly going to be limited on wireless network and also the size of the camera would be limited; while the athletes are not allowed to comment on other competitors performances.

The Halo Effect is the when a person admires a person just because of all the recognition that person as received. Michael Phelps is a perfect example. Everyone believed he would do wonders at the games, when most of the time he didn't do as well as he hoped.

The Brand Equity in the Olympic games is when the a company uses a brand name on everything they do. Some athletes only buy Nike shoes. They always use that brand and other brands do not get the attention of others with the more popular athletes having the popular brands.

Nike's "Make It Count"is a way to get spectators into the action with Olympic athletes. If someone would tweet their goal, then hash tag "Make It Count" they would become part of something more. Nike isn't actually sponsoring any of these people, but they still are affecting others around them.

I think sponsors should have restrictions, but not complete restrictions to the point it is complicated to work with. While the sponsors should behave and not try to work around the system.

Life in IMDD

Many things can change your life, some for good others for the worse. I am in a program called Interactive Media and Digital Design. This class will have a major impact on my life when it is time for me to step out into the real world.

My life has changed a lot since I have become part of a Marketing Class. With a class like this we will learn all the basics of marketing, design, and all of the components that come along with it. This class is good for helping students learn about the real world before the actually arrive in it after graduation. One can learn about all the key pieces of information that is shown throughout everyday life. Once you learn new things, they will stay with you - since you see most of them daily throughout your lives. With this class we will learn to come out of our comfort zone in order to accomplish upcoming tasks we are asked to fulfill.

I am looking forward to all of the new things I will come across with while being in this program. This program will be beneficial for me later in life.