Project Reflection

After working on this group project, I believe the most important skill I gleaned from it was how to small gain insights from a group and then how to apply them to a product. After listening to class lectures, we learned tools on how to best gain insights from a segment. We learned how to do things such as surveys, photo collages, focus groups. However, only through the application of these concepts to our project did I really learn how to do so. I now better understand how to approach a subject and ask him questions. We learned from our mistakes in our first surveys and made our next surveys more detailed and less leading. In interviewing subjects, I learned how to keep the subject on tract in his answering. However, our segment in particular seemed to not want to answer questions very thoroughly as they were all restless and carefree young boys. Thus, we had to put together the very limited responses of our segment along with our own hypothesizes and academic research in order to gain full insights. For example, we would get very short responses on the surveys like my backyard is “too small”. In interview, one boy imagined a product where you could push a button and the neighbors’ fences went down into the group, creating one giant backyard. At first these responses from our segment seemed unhelpful. However, we had to combine these types of answers with other information we got from our segment, like that they spent time in the street and in the front yard, in order to make a complete insight. From the combination of these small insights, we came to the conclusion that these boys (although they couldn’t articulate it well), wanted a product that could make their backyard seem bigger. Thus, we took this insight and created our product, Wii Vision. We used this insight in making our product because we made sure that one of the features of it was portable. That way they could move it between the front yard and backyard, making their whole yard seems bigger. Also, because of the virtual reality aspect of our product, the kids will feel like their backyard is bigger. Before this project, I didn’t realize that we would have to build upon multiple insights to get to one main, complete insight we could actually use.

Also, this project helped me understand better how groups work together when creating a new product and using their creativity. In other group projects in college, most of the team work was analysis, writing, or presenting. However, this project was different because we had to put our heads together and brainstorm. It was interesting to learn about creativity in class but it was even more interesting to learn about in within my group. For example, our group allowed our discussion to be very free and flowing so we just bounced ideas off each other for awhile. It was interesting to see how the idea for our project was built upon all of these ideas. We started off thinking that we could create a fort that could be easily moved around and put in the garage. Then we decided to have the fort be sponsored by a video game. Then we decided that insight we should have an electronic aspect to the fort. From their, one of my teammates threw out the idea of including some aspect of virtual reality. Then our product was formed.

I do believe that working with my group continued to my learning. It was a way for me to apply what I learned in class to a real life situation. I think this was really good experience for me, as in my future career I will be in similar situations. I also really enjoyed getting to know my teams and learning about their perspective. I also thought it was helpful that you had in class work days. This was helpful because it was a chance for us to ask you questions about our project. Lastly, I liked how the project was set up. It moved in stages with was a good learning experience because I had not done a project like this before. Without any direction, I think we would be lost of how to even start. However, you gave us guidelines on how to approach the project, starting from the big picture and then narrowing it down to a well-thought out product.

What can menus tell us, other than whats on the menu?

I decided to choose to respond to Renee Chu’s blog about food and it turned out to be very interesting. She looked at how geographic location and cultural differences impact the types of food restaurants provide. Grocery stores and restaurants must gain insights from the people in their community about their food preferences. The vast difference in the selection at restaurants signifies the importance of catering to the needs of your customers. It is an unmistakable truth that humans don’t like change. Thus, if they saw something strange in their grocery store, they probably will not buy it (unless they are an adventurous foodie who watches the Food channel a lot). If stores and restaurants don’t cater to the needs of their local consumers, they will definitely be carrying a large inventory of unsold foods.
Reading through Renee's blog, I found her discussion of the different foods carried in Asian McDonald’s extremely interesting. I had no idea they would use green tea flavored ice cream in their McFlurry’s. The taste buds of Asians must be tremendously different than mine because green tea ice cream and Oreos sounds pretty gross to me. But this just shows the extreme differences in preferences between locations and cultures. Even though McDonald’s is an American brand, it must have to go through extensive market research to gain insights about the people in the thousands of locations it places its franchise. I recently traveled to Italy and the McDonald’s there offered a caprese salad on their menu. I would have never expected that healthy dish on a McDonald’s menu, but I guess Italians are so used to having this offered at every restaurant that they would be upset if it wasn’t offered at McDonald’s.
Renee looked at the differences in food in three different locations—Texas, Chicago, Asia, and California. These locations are all very far apart and thus obviously the preferences of their inhabitants are different. However, I have found that even in the same city, the types of food changes based on the neighborhood they are in. For example, I’m from Houston which is an incredibly diverse city. In an upper class neighborhood, the grocery stores will have a large section of organic items. This is because the consumers of the food in these groceries stories lead a more luxurious life where they have time to focus on things other than paying the rent and feeding their children. They have time to read the newspaper and other articles to learn about the benefits of organic food. They are also more conscious of their health, so they will be more inclined to try to reap these benefits. And of course, these consumers have the money to pay the premium prices of organic food. But just a mile down the street from this fancy Houston neighborhood, you can find grocery stores in, for example, a Hispanic part of town that sell almost no organic food. This is because these neighborhoods are generally lower income areas so they can’t afford the premium prices. It is interesting to go into these groceries because you can learn so much about the different culture foods. For example, on Thanksgiving the HEB carries barely any turkeys. This is because HEB has discovered that having turkey on Thanksgiving is not a very popular tradition for the Hispanic community. Instead, you will find a whole freezer of pig’s heads which the people use to make Baracoa for the occasion.
Also, driving home from the beach this weekend, I started thinking about how Dairy Queen is only in small towns. There seemed to be a Dairy Queen “Texas Stop Sign” in every single small town we drove through. I was thinking to myself that they should really put a Dairy Queen in the city because I absolutely love their Blizzards (even though I think they are probably the worst thing for you ever). But after pulling over and indulging in a tasty Blizzard and reading the menu, I realized why Dairy Queen’s aren’t in the city. From looking at the items on their menu, it is clear that their target demographic is country folk. There is fried catfish, steak fingers, and chicken fried steak sandwiches. These are all very down-home cookin’ type of meals. Also, the names of the items on the menu are clearly targeted towards country people. For example, there is a hamburger on the menu called the “Belt Buster”. This name wouldn’t fly in the city where everyone is so concerned with their weight. Even people who frequently go to fast food restaurants and thus probably aren’t super fit would probably stray away from a burger called this. The name “Belt Buster” reminds you of how many calories you really are consuming when eating the burger. However, DQ does quite well so it must have figured out through research they people in small towns are as concerned with the diet frenzy.

Outline-Barbie

-Introduction
-Thesis: Mattel used various methods to gain insight into what their customers wanted from Barbie as their wants and needs changed through new social movements, ideas, and increasing competition.
-Tracing the changes through different eras
- The beginning: 1950’s
-Feminist Movement
- Civil Rights Movement
- Current time
-Gaining insights: Barbie's beginnings
-Ruth Handler saw her daughter liked giving her dolls adult roles but most dolls for infants so found a gap in the market
- Found a German doll that represented what she wanted to produceàgave it to her daughter for a test
-The Conservative 50’s
-Types of insights gained
-Very conservative society but found women had the urge to be empowered
-Barbie was a working woman but still very fashionable and alluring to men
- Faced problems that society wasn’t ready for this
-Too promiscuous
- Had breasts and sexy eyes (before dolls had no womanly form)
- Barbie had a job (empowered)
-First toy with marketing strategy based mostly in TV
- Feminist Movement
-Barbie had many new occupations (empowered women)
- Girls and their mothers had the need to have a role model of a strong woman who could make a living for herself
-Body shape changed
-Minority’s fight for equality and its effect
- Realized they had to fulfill a need from the minority community
-Introduce a black and Hispanic Barbie
-Current time:
-Competing with sexier Bratz Dolls
-Keep their image? Or grow from the success of these edgier dolls
-They won’t the lawsuit so what are they going to do next?
-Competing with increasing types of toys and electronic toys
-Dolls with no special features so no longer catching the attention of customers
-Harder to capture the imagination of this generation
- How try to fix this?
- Add new electronic/web based accessories to keep up with the times
-Barbie Girl’s virtual world
-Video/Computer games
-Barbie accessories and dolls related to Barbie movies
-Conclusion
-Mattel has changed Barbie’s marketing strategy throughout the times to reach the customers of new generations
-What I have learned from this study?
- Impact of social movement on brand strategy
-Mistakes a company can make in its research of customers needs
-Application to customer insights
- The importance of understanding the every-changing needs and wants of a customer base in order to keep a brand strong for more than 50 years
-Questions
- Is it geared enough towards gaining insights—I’m afraid that it is just about their marketing strategy
- I’m worried that I won’t be able to find enough sources on this. There was one book at the library that looked good but that was about it. Do you know of anyplace I can look?
-Do you think this set up is okay? I just think there were so many changes and additions to Barbie over the past 50 years so I didn’t know how to categorize these changes

Outline-Barbie

Ÿ Introduction
o Thesis: Mattel used various methods to gain insight into what their customers wanted from Barbie as their wants and needs changed through new social movements, ideas, and increasing competition.
o Tracing the changes through different eras
§ The beginning: 1950’s
§ Feminist Movement
§ Civil Rights Movement
§ Current time
Ÿ Gaining insights: Barbie's beginnings
o Ruth Handler saw her daughter liked giving her dolls adult roles but most dolls for infants so found a gap in the market
o Found a German doll that represented what she wanted to produceàgave it to her daughter for a test
Ÿ The Conservative 50’s
o Types of insights gained
§ Very conservative society but found women had the urge to be empowered
§ Barbie was a working woman but still very fashionable and alluring to me
o Faced problems that society wasn’t ready for this
§ Too promiscuous
§ Had breasts and sexy eyes (before dolls had no womanly form)
§ Barbie had a job (empowered)
o First toy with marketing strategy based mostly in TV
Ÿ Feminist Movement
o Barbie had many new occupations (empowered women)
§ Girls and their mothers had the need to have a role model of a strong woman who could make a living for herself
o Body shape changed
Ÿ Minority’s fight for equality and its effect
o Realized they had to fulfill a need from the minority community
o Introduce a black and Hispanic Barbie
Ÿ Current time:
o Competing with sexier Bratz Dolls
§ Keep their image? Or grow from the success of these edgier dolls
§ They won’t the lawsuit so what are they going to do next?
o Competing with increasing types of toys and electronic toys
§ Dolls with no special features so no longer catching the attention of customers
· Harder to capture the imagination of this generation
§ How try to fix this?
· Add new electronic/web based accessories to keep up with the times
o Barbie Girl’s virtual world
o Video/Computer games
· Barbie accessories and dolls related to Barbie movies
Ÿ Conclusion
o Mattel has changed Barbie’s marketing strategy throughout the times to reach the customers of new generations
o What I have learned from this study?
§ Impact of social movement on brand strategy
§ Mistakes a company can make in its research of customers needs
o Application to customer insights
§ The importance of understanding the every-changing needs and wants of a customer base in order to keep a brand strong for more than 50 years
Ÿ Questions
o Is it geared enough towards gaining insights—I’m afraid that it is just about their marketing strategy
o I’m worried that I won’t be able to find enough sources on this. There was one book at the library that looked good but that was about it. Do you know of anyplace I can look?
o Do you think this set up is okay? I just think there were so many changes and additions to Barbie over the past 50 years so I didn’t know how to categorize these changes

Gaining Insights through Facebook

Before taking customer insights, I was aware that companies used social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to glean information in order to learn about customers or target new ones. However, through this class I have learned more about how companies actually do acquire insights through research and what they can be used for. As I was procrastinating last night and clicking around through my Facebook, I wondered, what could a company learn about me if they could have full access to my Facebook profile and how accurate would their assumptions be? Obviously, the types of insights these companies would gain would mean different things and hold different amounts of value depending on the types of company and what it is trying to do with the insights. However, I thought it would be interesting to look into what types of things a marketer might learn about me from such a superficial social networking site.
Through looking at the information section of my profile, they could learn my basic demographics. They would know what school I went to, where I was from, my age, and my major. I don’t believe this is incredibly useful in gaining a total insight into my behavior; however, it would probably be useful to see if I fit within their simple target demographics. Also in this section, marketers may look at my interests. Without looking further into my profile, a marketer might actually believe that some of my main interests are cookies, pretty days, and sarcasm. These clearly are not my main interests in life, but rather a lame attempt at trying to fill up space when I completed my profile. This interests section may seem like it would be an easy way to find out more about me, but in reality, it shows the weakness of using social networks to gain insight. A marketer would need to delve further into my profile and make further analysis in order to gain more helpful insight about me.
I think that my photos would probably be the most important aspect of my profile that could give marketers insight into my behaviors and needs. This is because even though I may write about my interests on my profile, my true interests can be found through looking at my photos. My photos are glimpses into real aspects of my life. They depict me in my real environment. From my photos, a marketer could learn that I like going out to eat a many different types of restaurants by looking at the different decors and types of food in my photos. They could also learn that I like to travel and I value both my family and friends. Marketers could also learn about the types of clothes I wear and they types of social activities I do the most. A limitation with my photos would be the fact that they are mostly from social events or special occasions. Thus, there are no photos of my in my normal environment during the week when I’m studying, eating, or watching TV.
In reality, marketers don’t have completely this unrestrained access to my profile because you can chose the kind of privacy restraints on your profile. I have chosen to make it as private as possible so markets could only see my name and school if they searched for me. This is a limitation in gaining insights from social networking sites. For example, they couldn’t gain the deeper kinds of insight by analyzing my photos. However, companies do have access to some of my basic information and they use this to try to target their advertisements on the correct profiles. This is obvious to me because the advertisements on the side bar of my page are clearly related to the types of written information on my profile. These advertisements, for example, use the name of my university and the fact that I am even in college to post ads that are targeted to UT students in particular or students in general. However, sometimes using this limited information can lead advertisers to the wrong people. For example, I am inundated with ads for tanning salons. I assume this is because I am a college girl in Texas. Unfortunately for Aruba Tan and Darque Tan, I am not a fake and baker. Thus, their strategy of cleaning superficial information from my profile wasted their advertising dollars.

Getting to the Core

The segment about Dr. Rapaille’s three step technique to find out the true wants and desires of customers was very interesting. I had not really thought that market researchers took such a deep look into the psyche of the consumer. It was also very interesting that Dr. Rapaillle had a background in psychology of autistic children. He said that his background helped him in consumer research because he was used to finding out the thoughts of people that couldn’t talk. He belivs that consumers as a whole are like autistic children—we don’t articulate what we really want.
Dr. Rapaille’s technique was used in order to decode human behavior. He said that if a consumer is placed into a regular focus group in which they were asked direct questions about why they liked the product, what they thought of when they were told different words, and so forth, they wouldn’t actually be able to articulate what they really felt. Consumers don’t usually say why they really did buy a certain product. Therefore, Dr. Rapaille delves into the human unconscious to try to break past reason to the “primal core”—where the real reason for purchasing lies. In the first stage of his technique, he just asks regular focus group type questions. For example, he asked them what they thought of when they read the word “luxury”. He says that he only goes through this step to get the subjects warmed up and to get them conformable with the process. After this session, he lets the subjects take a break. When they return, he asks them to tell a story as if they were a four year old from another planet. He does this in order to get the subjects into a different mindset. He wants them to stray away from reason and stop being logical. At this point, they don’t understand what they are doing anymore as this is not a typical focus group question. However, Dr. Rapaille wants his subjects to be confused. The subjects again break for a moment and when they return, there are no more chairs in the room. This again serves to disorient them. He then tells them he wants them to go back to the very first time they experienced luxury. He turns off the lights and then turns them back on in order to simulate the subjects going to sleep and waking up. He believes that when you wake up, you remember things from your past you might have buried before. They then write down these memories of their first experience with luxury.
Dr. Rapaille does all of these odd things in order to discover the reptilian hot buttons that propels us into action. He believes that this reptilian code always win because we are so driven by our primal core. Once he is able to discover the code, he is able to share it with their clients whom believe in his advice and think that discovering the primal desires that drives consumers is the only way to achieve success in their products. Unfortunately the video doesn’t say what Dr. Rapaille finally discovered in his attempt to find the code for luxury. It said that various marketers of high end products had paid a great deal in order to be given his advice, so they couldn’t release the information.
After learning about the marketer’s vision for Song Airlines, I was excited. I would love to fly an airline with organic food (instead of the “meat” other airlines sometimes serve). I am a huge fan of Kate Spade, so flying with flight attendants in Kate Spade uniforms would make me feel like was part of something so chic. Thus, I immediately googled the airline and was sad to learn that it had failed. However, after thinking about it, I realized that I was probably a small majority of the population that would have really enjoyed the airline. The markets said they were targeting a specific type of woman, however, I think it was wrong to base an airline of only a woman. This is because many women travel with their families. Therefore, the husband and children are not going to appreciate the stylish uniform of the flight attendants and the children do not even know what organic means. In my research, I also learned that you had to pay for the meals—the men wouldn’t be too happy about that. Thus, I could see how Song had trouble being successful, mostly when it was in competition with JetBlue. I think that JetBlue’s vision is appealing to a larger number of people. It still has the feeling of being modern with their logo, interiors of their planes, the interesting snacks they serve, and the ability to watch satellite TV in the sky. However, it also gives the feeling that is it efficient and is not too feminine that it discourages male travelers. Overall, I thought that Song’s vision was interesting however there target market just wasn’t big enough.

Malcolm Gladwell and Gaining Insights

I really enjoyed reading the excerpt from Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink because it didn’t just lay out rules of how to conduct market research, but he delved into the things we should be weary of when doing so. It is a human tendency to get so caught up in what task is at hand that you forget to look at the ways you are executing the task poorly. Through reading the excerpt, I gleaned two main lessons about how to better gain insights with your customers.
The first lesson Gladwell teaches is that there can be problems with the outcomes of market research that result from the context of the research. One of the examples he uses to illustrate this point is the Pepsi Challenge taste test of the 1980s. By just looking at the result of this taste test, market researchers believed that Pepsi was more appealing to consumers than Coke. However, there was a problem with the context of this taste test. First, the test only allowed the taster to consume a small portion of a can. This didn’t allow the taster to decide on whether he or she liked the overall taste of the entire serving (which was important because consuming a full can a Pepsi is too sweet for some). Second, the test was done in a testing facility, which was not the context a person would normally be consuming a soda. Gladwell stresses that the contexts of market research really can affect the outcome.
One way I can see that this lesson used is in performing market research on a personal item such as toilet paper. If a person is stopped in a grocery store and asked to decide which toilet paper brand is softer and more durable if given two comparable brands, the results are probably not going to be predictive of the preferences of the total consumer market. The main reason for this is that the context of the test is affecting the outcome. First, the consumer is asked to feel with their hands the texture of the toilet paper. The feel of the toilet paper on your hands is not going to be the same as on your rear end. Furthermore, your hands may favor a quality of the toilet paper that your bottom may not. Secondly, the testing is in the store not in a person’s home space. The location of the test will definitely change the outcome. In this case, market researchers can begin their research with in store tests, but must be aware of the context. I think it is important that they then perform tests where they actually let a testers use the toilet paper in their home to gain a better insight to their true preferences.
A second lesson from Gladwell’s article is to not always trust a consumer’s first impression because it is human nature to sometimes dislike the “unusual”. Gladwell gives the example of the Aeron chair to describe this lesson. When the chair was first placed in a market research test, consumers disliked the chair, calling it very ugly. However, it eventually became one of the best selling chairs in history. The reason for this initial consumer response was because the chair’s design was very unique and unlike anything the consumers had seen before. Gladwell suggests we should take a consumer’s first reaction to a unique product with a grain of salt as they often confuse the shock of the newness of the product with dislike. I believe human tendency comes from the fact that people don’t like change even though it may be best for them. Thus, as marketers, we must convince our customers that the change really is for their own good.
One way I think this lesson could be applied to a current product is with new lines of cars. Cars are products that consumers keep for a long period of time. Thus, they get used to their design and feel. When their old car gets run down but they were happy with the experience of the car model, they often go back and buy the new version of their previous car. However, car designs often change after a few years. Thus, many consumers are initially not going to like the new design because it is different. For example, my mom had owned the boxy model of the Suburban for about seven years. When she went to buy a new Suburban, the design had become much more rounded. At first, she hated it. However, with time she began to like it and even began to see that it was a better looking car than her old one.
Overall, the lesson Gladwell is trying to teach us is to delve deeper into our product research. We can’t just focus on one aspect of the product or test in only one way. We have to form well rounded ideas that draw from all different aspects of the consumer experience.