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.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
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
-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
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
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
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.
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.
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