The Big Apple

Thursday morning our three marketing classes began our journey to New York City. We had an early start at 6 am, sitting on the bus for around 9 hours, finally stepping foot in the city around 1. On the first day we walked around Time Square, visited Chinatown/Little Italy, and ate dinner in Little Italy. On the second day, our classes broke off into 3 groups of 17 and visited a marketing firm. The three were - Rime, JWT, and B-Reel. I was in the group that went to B-Reel. This place showed all the different aspects of production for large companies. After going to the marketing firms, our group was given time to eat lunch and walk around for a little bit. We finally all met up at Rockefeller center. We were able to go up to the top of it, Top of The Rock. We also went and watched Spider-Man on Broadway. On the third day we visited Carlo's Bakery, then went to group zero and walked around the the memorial there. Then we went to dinner. After that, we were given the chance to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. And on our final day, we were taken on a carriage ride around Central Park, then given a little while to walk around Fifth Avenue.

When the time came we finally had to leave. It was filled with mixed emotions. I personally was glad to come home to see my family and boyfriend, but I was sad to leave because I was having a good time away from my normal life. Now everything is back to normal, and I'm back to stressing about what seems to be literally everything. Soon, it will be time to graduate.

Post One Stop Prom Shop

     After months and months of working towards the One Stop Prom Shop on March 3, 2013, it finally came and went. Members throughout our community came to the Natitorium that Sunday morning to see what all the hype was about. We were attempting to make this bigger and better than last years One Stop.

     The marketing students in our class worked together to make this thing go down smoothly and accomplish goals they set for the event. At this event the Junior students were in change, making sure things went as planned. They made sure all the vendors were in their booths, happy and made sure things were on schedule, such as the morph dances, the fashion shows, the American Commodore dancers, and also the final raffle! The seniors girls were mainly models, also the boys too. Some of the guys helped the juniors with registration. While most of our class were the morph dancers. The rest of our class taped it, took pictures, some even got to model. Our classes colaborated and were able to work smoothly together.

     The One Stop Prom Shop is full of venders that have to deal with prom season which is coming up soon. There were dress shops, tuxedo shops, tanning places, jewlery places, also there were salons and even some senior picture places at the show. Most of the venders had their own deals and raffles to intice people to come to their shops.

     It is nice that One Stop Prom Shop is finally over, but yet it is sad at the same time. Knowing we worked so hard for months to make this event a success. It's a relief at the same time because everyone is exhausted, definitely including our teachers. We all need a break. Everything is about to be different without practicing for the assembly and the show itself.

The One Stop Prom Shop media:
Website: 1stoppromshop.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/1stoppromshop
Twitter and Instagram @ 1stoppromshop
YouTube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/OneStopPromShop?feature=watch

Coverage of the One Stop Prom Shop:
Cuyahoga Falls News Press - Sunday February 24, 2013
http://www.fallsnewspress.com/education/2013/02/24/one-stop-prom-shop-planned-for-march-3#.UTYGQItCZ04.email

Akron Beacon Journal Article - Tuesday March 3, 2013
http://www.ohio.com/news/local/jewell-cardwell-students-partner-with-businesses-to-do-the-prom-hustle-1.378160

Fox 8 News - Sunday March 3 2013 (this also appeared on the 3/3/13 at 10:00 pm
http://fox8.com/2013/03/03/students-create-one-stop-prom-shop

Cuyahoga Falls Patch
http://cuyahogafalls.patch.com/events/one-stop-prom-shop-f19d351d

OSPS Harlem Shake

This is a link to view the One Stop Prom Shop Harlem Shake video, check it out! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynsnTqn35TI

The Harlem Shake became a new craze a week or two ago. This video has one random person dancing with their face covered, with everyone else around acting like there isn't someone dancing. Then once the bass drops, everyone breaks out in random dances. There is a lot going on in these videos.

On Tuesday of last week, one of our IMDD students brought up the idea to make our own video. So we decided the plan for it on Wednesday, then we made the actual video on Thursday in our homeroom period which is a 32 minute period. We finished with quiet a bit of time to spare. Yesterday we finally posted the video. When we came to class today, the views on Youtube so far is 898. The views on the Facebook video is 205. Our One Stop Prom Shop Twitter account gained 15 followers after the video has been posted.

Our video has become viral. This is something that will hopefully have a positive outcome on our marketing. The One Stop Prom Shop is going to be March 3rd at the Natatorium, 11-3.

One Stop Prom Shop

     Again this year, our junior marketing students are working on a project known as One Stop Prom Shop, or OSPS. It is a prom trade show. Even though it is their project all three marketing classes are working together to make this show go by smoothly. Up until March 3rd, we have to market the show, use social media in order to promote it, and deal with the business side of everything.

     This event is to help students from schools all over the area with their prom needs. If you show up at this event you are entered to win many prizes. You could win a limo ride, a free tux, a free dress, flowers and much more. There is an ultimate prize, there is a chance to win a completely free prom! Which makes going to this event more enticing.

     The junior class is in charge of dealing with sponsors, set up and schedule of the event. The senior class is in charge of the game show and social media aspect of this event. They use Twitter and Instagram. Then our class, Interactive Media and Digital Design, is in charge of the assembly, video and promotional events, by going to other schools and promoting it. For the assembly our class created a video to shows s boy working his way to get a girl to go to prom with him. Then the majority of our class are morphs. We found a choreographed dance and recreated it. We will be preforming it at our school's assembly and at the OSPS itself.

     The event is going to be very helpful for prom goers. Everyone should come see it on March 3rd!

Months and Months of Hard Work

     Our class was asked to be part of a large project that Junior DECA has been working on. The project is known as the One Stop Prom Shop. My class was put in charge of running the assembly. In running the assembly we have created a video, dance, game show, and audience involvement. With the assembly, this means we are the final selling point to get people to visit the event.

     Last year, the class before us, danced in their assembly for this event. Though last year they only had three dancers. Our class is going to blow them out of the water, with our twenty dancers. I am part of those twenty dancers. We have created this dance to grab the audiences attention. If we all work together, learn this dance, and give the best show of our lives, so to speak, we can help the goal of the One Stop Prom Shop team - to reach 1,500 people at the event the weekend after.

     Our class was given the responsibility to make the assembly unforgettable. It needs to be the final realization for our school, mainly juniors and seniors, that this event can really help them during the decision making process durng prom season. We are going to create this realization, show the students at our school that it is worth going to.

     I honestly believe we can make the goal of 1,500 people, if not more. We are going to make this assembly an unforgettable time.

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.