Blog 5

Many people today connect digitally through the web transferring infinite amounts of data. From bank accounts to personal pictures, the use of electronic devices have given notice for ethical boundaries when it comes to marketing and personal data. For example, one of the most common information mobile phones are gathering today is location. GPS technology has enabled users to get location/direction information, use social media to check into places, and share personal information on where one is going. As mentioned in Apple, Google Collect User Data, findings showed that “some of the most popular smartphone apps use location data and other personal information even more aggressively than this —in some cases sharing it with third-party companies without the user's consent or knowledge.” This can be very dangerous in terms of ethical behavior for marketing companies. The precise data collected of personal information for long periods of time can bring one to question, why? Why do these companies need and store this information?  Are users protected? Will this data be sold to third parties?  These concerns are important factors marketers need to keep in mind when asking for and using people’s information. If people stop trusting their information being available, they will no longer provide it and will intern only hurt these data thirsty marketers. What relates to me most is the information I make public through Facebook and Twitter.  I personally would not mind marketers gathering information I make public for research, however a boundary must be created as to what extents they go to.  I look at public information as more of a ‘user beware’ sense. It should be common sense that whatever information you make public on your Facebook or Twitter is public to anyone in the world. Settings on privacy will give you higher levels of privacy. Facebook and Twitter both declare this clearly in their Privacy Policy:

“Our Services are primarily designed to help you share information with the world. Most of the information you provide to us is information you are asking us to make public. This includes not only the messages you Tweet and the metadata provided with Tweets, such as when you Tweeted, but also the lists you create, the people you follow, the Tweets you mark as favorites or Retweet and many other bits of information. Our default is almost always to make the information you provide public but we generally give you settings (https://twitter.com/account/settings) to make the information more private if you want. Your public information is broadly and instantly disseminated.”

-          Twitter Privacy Policy

“Choosing to make your information public is exactly what it sounds like: anyone, including people off of Facebook, will be able to see it. Choosing to make your information public also means that this information:

·         can be associated with you (i.e., your name, profile picture, Facebook profile, User ID, etc.) even off Facebook

• can show up when someone does a search on Facebook or on a public search engine
• will be accessible to the games, applications, and websites you and your friends use
• will be accessible to anyone who uses our APIs”

-          Facebook Privacy Policy. 

A new trend which marketers are gathering data through is Apps.  When downloading different apps on your mobile phone, you are inadvertently supplying marketers and developers with one of the most wanted commodities in today's economy: personal data.  These mobile apps can gather numerous amounts of data that marketers will use in numerous ways to target their audience. The article, Selling You on Facebook  by Julia Angwin and Jeremy Signer-Vine describes how the “appetite for personal data reflects a fundamental truth about Facebook and, by extension, the Internet economy as a whole: Facebook provides a free service that users pay for, in effect, by providing details about their lives, friendships, interests and activities. Facebook, in turn, uses that trove of information to attract advertisers, app makers and other business opportunities”. (Angwin and Signer-Vine) This vast market for data is and will become a researcher’s primary focus on collecting data in a quick and low cost way. For this reason I believe that it’s the user’s responsibility to protect what information they want to keep private. I also believe that major social media providers like Facebook and Twitter need to be better protected against any unethical marketing behavior. One particular instance that comes to mind is the “Girls Around Me” Iphone app. This app accessed public location information from Facebook check ins and Foursquare Check ins to find the location of nearby women, and even view their Facebooks, Twitters, etc. This absurd and unethical behavior is the kind of protection we need from marketers who want to distribute data. “In the absence of data-usage laws or norms, some tech companies feel unconstrained about using information in new ways that can seem creepy.” (Angwin and Signer-Vine) This app obviously created an outrage as women don’t like to be stalked by random creepy men.

Another way many markets will indirectly obtain Facebook information through their software by asking users to “Sign in with Facebook”.  For example, “Apps are required to ask people's permission to access their Facebook data. But the way they ask plays on a fundamental human tendency—namely, that people who see frequent warnings come to disregard them. Science has a word for this: habituation. Habituation occurs when people become accustomed to simply pressing the "yes" button when faced with an alert or warning.” (Angwin and Signer-Vine) When another program such as Pandora or Pinterest is logged in through Facebook, that program has direct access to all the information you provide on Facebook.

Overall, I think it is imperative that users of digital media stay aware of their public information and are informed of all privacy policies. Marketers need to be sure not to cross and ethical boundaries when obtaining data because in the long run, a loss of trust by users will completely demolish their efforts.

Selling You on Facebook  by Julia Angwin and Jeremy Signer-Vine

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303302504577327744009046230.html?mod=e2tw

Blog 4

After reading How to be Creative, the first thing I thought is ‘am I creative?’ I honestly don’t even know how to answer that question. Obviously I haven’t made any huge innovation or I’d be famous, but at the same time I don’t think I’m dull and unimaginative.  The article states that “creativity is a skill” but it does not clearly define how to acquire that skill. In fact I found the article very scattered as to “How to be Creative”. You can either waste time and play ping pong and wait for your imagination to take off or you can work hard because “all great thinkers are great workers”.  Should I try to be creative at my expertise or approach a new territory as a beginner? From what I learned in this article, is that there are many ways to be creative, and that it depends on your situation and how you handle it, and that we have to trust ourselves. I believe that while creativity may be a skill one can acquire, the actual inspiration and motive someone has is what defines creativity.  Along with that, what one defines as creativity is ever changing. Creativity changes over time; what it means to us today is completely different from what is means fifty years ago or a hundred years ago. Personal experiences can change creativity and bring out various and new ideas.  Some people find creativity in art and architecture while others find creativity in science and technology. I personally am most likely to find creativity in business through innovation and technique.  The creativity in business is actually very interesting to me and I believe that it is the key to be successful. Haydn Shaughnessy’s Forbes article on “Why Is Creativity More Important than Capitalism” brings together my view on creativity through the more business minded world. The chart below presents interesting data on the outgrowth of creativity over capitalism, scientific progress, and technological progress.

(http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2012/02/20/why-is-creativity-more-important-than-capitalism/)

These findings make me want to determine what makes someone creative? Why is there such an outstanding growth in creativity over other progresses? I think that as more people explore and go beyond what they perceive is the norm, creativity is maximized.

 1.      What are your personal experiences with individual creativity? Have you had times when you felt especially creative or, even, especially uncreative?

I feel like when I was younger I was much more creative than I am now, probably because I let my imagination do the thinking. Also, my dad has always been an invention geek and is creating little things here and there. He has definitely impacted me and my ability to think outside the box. However, as I’ve grown I’ve been geared more towards an environment based on relevance and practicality. As an accounting major, creativity is not a key skill focused on.  I have actually not even heard that term used in any of my accounting classes. After reading this article I want to learn on how I can bring creativity to the accounting profession.

2.      What are your personal experiences with organizational creativity? Have you worked at companies that felt or behaved in ways that made them more creative or, even, especially uncreative?

Unfortunately I have never worked at an organization that has made me feel creative. I was a teller at Wells Fargo for 2 years and then I did accounting internships at Deloitte and Temple Inland. With my past experiences, everything has to be done by the book. Rules and guidelines need to be followed and there is little grey area. “Creative accounting” is actually a negative term in the profession because it means you’re finding a creative way to understate costs and overstate earnings.   "Creative accounting" in this sense is the root of a number of accounting scandals. This may be the reason you don’t hear the world creativity in accounting. They want you to stick to the books and the rules, not find a creative loophole to avoid paying taxes.  While there are so many negative connotations attached to creativity in the accounting organization, it is important. If it wasn’t for Enron we wouldn’t have SOX and the higher standards of internal auditing. At some point, someone’s creativity caused an economic disaster, in which the accounting profession was able to learn and modify the current standards.  Creative accounting would be even more beneficial if ethical people figured out these schemes and created ways to protect it from happening.  Creating ways to protect our economic future through accounting can be something to focus on as a positive view to “creative accounting”.

3.      Do you think you, as an individual, are even capable of being creative by yourself? And, better yet, do you think a group within an organization is capable of being creative?

Yes, I believe everyone is capable of being creative. It just depends on if the person has the drive and motivation to do something with their ideas that makes the difference. I also believe a group within an organization has the ability to be creative. Ideas often bounce from people to people, and the more diversity there is in a group, the more potential there is for ideas to develop.

4.      What do you think about this article and the way this author describes different creative types of problems and, thus, different creative processes? Should we trust ourselves just to know or sense when we need one type of approach versus another?

As mentioned early, I think this article is not about how to be creative, but more about ways different people are creative. I do believe that we should trust ourselves when it comes to creativity and not be confined by the approach someone else thinks we should approach. Everyone should have a mindset of creativity and strive to be creative in what we do.

Blog 3 - Paper Topic

While brainstorming ideas for my project and looking at various articles online about Consumer Behavior, the corner of my eye noticed the “30% off at Banana Republic” advertisement. I quickly clicked on it completely forgetting everything I was doing and spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out what to buy. That’s when I realized that 1. I am addicted to online shopping and 2. This is exactly what I want to write my paper on.

- Idea for the topic: I want to study the consumer behavior related to online shopping in the clothing/retail segment. After doing some quick research I found that online shopping has become the third most popular internet activity, even more popular than catching up on news and entertainment. I want to learn if there are certain types of people who online shop more than others, or if it becomes repetitive after trying it once. I want to research into the influencing factors contributing to online shopping consumer behaviors. How well does your education or income level play in the realm of online shopping? Do people with less time on their hands shop online more, or people who are lazy and rather not go to a mall? Are people willing to shop online at stores they normally shop at or are willing to try new places online first? I have many questions about this topic which will help me lead to analyzing the insights necessary to market to online shoppers.

- Why is this topic interesting to you? This topic is very applicable to me and my lifestyle. I actually shop online more than I shop at the mall. I shop online almost anywhere from Old Navy to Zara to Asos. (Zara creating an online system was a really good day for me). I have various reasons I shop online vs. at the store such as convince and availability. I want to research deeper into why some people shop online more than others, and why some people even prefer it to going to the store.

- What is the connection to the gathering and identification of customer insights and/or the design of valuable customer experiences? I feel like online shopping is all about attracting a customer to your website with products they already know they like. Having valuable customer insights about peoples behavior while online browsing can help determine why people buy what they buy online. I would like to so online shop-alongs with people who buy clothing items online and see if their habits are similar to others. Gathering this information can help determine if certain items are more likely to be purchased online verses others. For example, I believe it’s easier to buy shoes online verses a pair of jeans because shoes usually fit the same each time.  Customer insights about online shopping can help develop a dynamic sense of what people feel and how they react. Without being able to try on the item or touch how it feels, customers make online purchases. Why are people trusting of online shopping if you can’t even use half your senses when making a purchase?

- Cite and briefly describe at least one article that is related to your topic (this can be either an academic article or trade article, at this point).

http://analogik.com/articles/227/analysis-of-consumer-behaviour-online

This report was conducted by Dejan Petrovic which outlines behavioral characteristics of customers who shop online. The report was conducted on young adults ages eighteen to thirty four who were shopping for a mobil phone online.  According to research, there are four distinct groups with different intentions:

-       Exploration

-       Entertainment

-       Shopping

-       Information

The research also showed that a higher education and level in technology can be an encouraging factor.

I want to conduct a similar research except for online shopping for clothing. By studying external factors, demographics, personal attitudes, product quality, website quality, and personal intentions, I will be able to determine valuable customer insights.

Blog 2 - Qualitative Research of Online Social Behavior

Social media is a great way for marketers to build customer relationships in today’s modern environment. Social media is a great way to make initial contact with prospective customers and strengthen relationships with existing customers. Connecting through social media can also help improve customer retention by consistently providing marketing through the users daily social life. Some social media sites marketers target are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

Traditionally marketers have taken a more quantitative approach to measure their business operations matters. For example, businesses will measure the number of followers on Twitter, number of “likes” on Facebook, and amount of traffic driven to the websites. While these measures are very useful in determining important information, it lacks the relationship aspect qualitative measures can achieve. A large number of “likes” on your Facebook page can give you a false belief that people like your company, when in reality half those people might not even know what your company does. These limitations from quantitative metrics can be fixed with qualitative measures of people’s attitudes and feelings about the company. Some examples of qualitative measures include customer satisfaction, brand awareness, and individual impact, observations of behaviors, and targeting through interests. 

For example, if was targeting my group project persona for Nordstrom’s, I would ask the person to follow and like my Facebook page, send out reminders for new collections and sales, and ask for feedback on these new items. The main goal for Nordstrom would be to interact with my persona on Facebook, not simply just “like” the page.  I would want my persona to follow Nordstrom on Twitter and find ways to do promotions for her to RT Nordstrom’s. For example Nordstrom can Tweet “RT if you love the new J Brand collection” I would hope to catch my persona’s attention as J Brand is the new popular jeans she may own or want to own, thus getting the word out to her followers as well.

King Fish Media has done statistical testing on the marking of Quantitative and Qualitative data through social media. The results are shown below. (http://www.kingfishmedia.com/Portals/51063/pdf/kfm-social-media-usage-2010.pdf)

Results show us that customer relationship and identification of new customers if one of the key benefits derived from good social media strategy. Also, the research shows that the method companies use to contact their customers for marketing campaigns the most is by direct dialog.

A more well-rounded view of the target customers through social media can offer many great benefits to marketers.  It will help us develop a connection with the customers by targeting their personal needs and individual characteristics.  The ability to captivate an audience through social media is extremely possible with the new generations becoming dependent on these tools. Markets can gain dynamic insights, levels of interest, and key personal information to see what drives the brand. While there are many advantages to qualitative research, there are a few disadvantages. Quantitative analysis through social media can be labor intensive since a continual connection must be made worldwide at all times of the day making it time consuming also. In addition, the methods used may not be accepted by the public or find their results to be invalid or biased. 

Overall I think the best approach to reach a consumer is though both quantitative and qualitative marketing through social media.

Persona- Jason Smith

Jason Smith is 38 years old and lives in Austin, Texas. He is American born and lived in Texas most of his life. Jason graduated from the University of Texas and went to grad school at New York University to study Interactive Telecommunications. Jason is married to his college sweetheart and has two baby boys, ages four and eight months. He is currently a software engineer and helps develop software for new social media.  For example, he helped develop the Facebook game, Farmville. His job keeps him really busy and it’s a battle for him to find work life balance. Jason makes a reasonable income for him and his family to leave a healthy and comfortable lifestyle. His short term goals include buying a new house to give his kids more space to grow up in, reach a new breakthrough at work, and spend more time with his children.

The empathy map below a good overview of Jason and the information below gives a more detailed overview. 

1. What does he or she think and feel?

Jason is always thinking about his family and kids, they are the most important things in his life. Common thoughts are surrounded on the healthy, happiness, and pains of his kids. The second thing Jason thinks about is work. Jason is consistently working on new projects hoping that it will be the next big thing. Sometimes work can get very frustrating because projects he works on for weeks will be thrown out. Every time Jason gets in his car, he wishes he had a new one. Jason definitely wants to get a new car so he is always thinking about what he will get next.

2. What does he or she see?

Jason loves to see his kids when he comes home from work, it is something that gets him through the day. Jason regularly is surfing the web all day keeping up with current events and researching for the best innovations in computer technology. When he is not spending time at work or with his kids, he loves to watch football and catch up with his friends. Sometimes when he has a little extra time on his hands, Jason loves to take a jog around Town Lake.

3. What does he or she say and do?

Jason is a very enthusiastic and optimistic man. He always talks about the importance of a healthy lifestyle and enforces that lifestyle on his children. He loves to compliment his wife and take her out to weekly dates. At work he likes to strive for success by motivating himself and the ones around him. He constantly asks for ways to improve and takes and advice and criticism seriously.

4. What does he or she hear?

Since Jason is at work for most of the day, he is constantly hearing the words of his co-workers. His boss is usually complimenting Jason on his work and asking him about his new ideas. At home his kids always ask him to play and his wife is asking him to do this and that!

5. What are his or her pain points?

Jason really has a hard time finding work life balance. He wishes he had more time with his kids, the weekends alone just don’t seem like enough. Jason also wishes to achieve a higher standard at work to get a better salary.

6. What does he or she hope to gain?

Jason really wants to move into a new house where his kids can have more space to grow up in. But before he does that Jason needs a new car because the one he has now is going to give out soon. Jason knows to afford all these things he is going to need a bigger savings account and/or a higher salary.