The Spread of FOMO

Even before reading the chapter this week, I already had an interest in learning more about FOMO. Now, for those who don't know what FOMO is, it's an acronym for fear of missing out. I know that a lot of people including myself experience FOMO. I knew I had it, but never knew exactly what it was called or that other people experienced it.

I first heard of FOMO through one of the YouTubers I follow. She did a whole video about how she overcame her FOMO and tips for combating it. She emphasizes how social media has impacted how and what we do.

I think that FOMO didn't exist nearly as much as it does now. Social media has really impacted the way communication works. Instagram is specifically a hot spot for FOMO because of all the places people post that they are visiting and all of the "candid" photos groups of friends post. I think that FOMO is almost a form of depression that needs to be taken more seriously. People need to understand that just because someone else is doing something cool, you don't need to sit and be sad about it, go and do something.

I sometimes find myself in the position of feeling some type of FOMO. But there comes a point where it's obvious that instead of just being on social media all the time, you should go out and do something. I think that maybe our brains just have trouble remembering that not everything on social media is completely true. Like I mentioned before, I know people who stage their "candid" photos specifically for Instagram. We shouldn't be taking photos for Instagram though, we should be taking photos for the memories. Real life memories, not made up ones. 

The Best Co-Branding Ideas with Girl Scout Cookies

In Chapter 11 we explore the ideas of social class and lifestyles. In order for companies to broaden their reach into different social classes they often times they will attempt co-branding. Co-branding is a strategy where two companies team up to promote two or more items. In my personal experiences, I've seen a lot of co-branding.

Through my elementary, middle, and high school years I was a Girl Scout. Girl Scouts of course are known for their famous cookies. Some of the classic cookie flavors are Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoil, Tagalongs, and Do-Si-Dos. Although the cookies are pretty famous they have in the past few years ventured into quite a few co-branding agreements. All of the photos are some of the ones I have personally seen (and some I've personally tried).  

I find it interesting when something so iconic can venture into new sectors. The cookie sales aren't ass great as they used to be due to more health conscious consumers, increased prices, and the lack of Girl Scouts. I was one of four Girl Scouts in my high school, that's it. 

As you can see from the photos, the iconic cookie flavors have spread to everything from milk flavorings to candy bars! I consider many of these to be a little too far fetched for me, but someone must have purchased them.

Co-branding is such a good idea for companies that may have a little bit of a struggling time. For example, cookie season is only February through April when I sold them. This leaves a whole year with no cookies to sell. Troops had different types of fundraisers for the rest of the year, but the cookies could've been so much more. That's why I think they rolled out with all of these co-branding ideas over the year. It makes people remember the nostalgic feeling of eating a Girl Scout cookie and if it's not in season, then they can still get their fix.

Influence Marketing - Letting the Children Win

This weeks chapter was all about subcultures. There are so many subcultures that we could dive into and the people within them find themselves very influenced at times. One of the biggest influences in many families are the children. Specifically, children often times are the driving factor when it comes to impulse purchases. As we learned in this chapter, children are very much so a part of the decision making process. Today, I'm specifically discussing influence marketing - parental yielding. This is when a parent says no, but after a while the parent tends to surrender to the request of the child.

Recently, I was a local family friendly festival. There's food, games, little booths, music, and more. There's great atmosphere and beautiful weather. As I was walking around, I wondered who would spend the extreme amounts of money on the light up toys, small snacks, or light up cups. Shortly after wondering this, the answer became very apparent.

A child sees another child with cotton candy and almost instantaneously you'll hear a cry that says something along the lines of, "Mommmmm, I want cotton candy". The mother would of course reply that the child didn't need that, but of course a child is very persistent and continues to beg and plead for cotton candy. If I were to have followed this little family around, soon I'm sure I'd realize that the mother gave in to the temptation of which her child presented her with.

Although this doesn't always apply to children who want sweet foods (because some parents have defenses like offering pre-packed snacks) it is a common trend. Some parents just don't know how to handle children, or children just know how to push their parents' buttons. So, who really makes the decisions around here?

Queuing Theory at Disney World

I absolutely love Disney. There's fun rides, amazing food, and magical surprises. What isn't to love? Well, along with a large theme park comes long wait times. I'm not talking about half an hour, I'm talking about how I waited over an hour to ride a ride that was maybe a minute long. Some would say I'm absolutely crazy to be doing such a thing! An hour?! For one ride?! Well, I'm not as crazy as some people who wait over 250 minutes to go on Disney's latest ride opening. 

Although Disney is notorious for crowds and wait times, they are also one of the kings of queue lines. The queue is the line you wait in before boarding a ride. Often times at lower budgeted theme parks the queues are just chains that zigzag you all around before getting to the actual ride.

Disney has figured out that if people feel like they've waited less time than they really have, they will be more satisfied. This plays in to one of the newest buyer behavior terms I've learned called queuing theory. Queuing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines and the how that effects the perception of how what you were waiting for was. I'm applying that to Disney's wait lines today.

Now to show you what I mean by Disney being the king of queues, here are some great examples. Peter Pan's Flight is considered a classic Disney World ride. It may be one of the shortest rides in the park, but people love it. Recently, Disney redid the queue line for this ride and it's much more immersive than the previous queue. Here's a video showing you the new interactive and immersive queue line and the ride itself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K-o8MfkiAQ . 

In this chart you can see that the average wait time, even on the slowest of days at the Magic Kingdom, is just under 50 minutes! So, what keeps people waiting in these lines?! The beautiful queues. As you hopefully saw in the video, the interactivity and diverseness of this queue in particular applies to children and adults. If it weren't for these added bits and pieces of magic, no one in there right mind would wait for this ride longer than 20 minutes. Here's a list of attractions with the longest wait times at Walt Disney World: http://knowdw.com/lines-guide/longest-lines-disney-world/.

I also saw in a vlog (video blog) that I was watching recently that Disney had to go to some more extreme measures to please guests. A few weeks ago, a new ride in Epcot opened. It is called Frozen Ever After and is based off of the hit movie Frozen. The first day it opened it was only opened to those who had made a Fast Pass reservation for it. Fast Pass is basically a way you can avoid having to wait in line. Well, Disney made too many Fast Pass reservations and the lines got so backed up that the wait line was outside of the entrance to the ride. To combat this feeling of wait, Disney decided to offer everyone a free candy bar. Who doesn't love candy?! This calmed guests as they looked through that immersive queue as well.

To sum this all up, Disney is the kind of queues. This is due to the fact that they know if a queue is more interactive, it will feel like they didn't wait as long as they had. If people feel like they waited less time than they did, then they will have a better perception of the ride they just rode. 

Can Marketers Really Change Attitudes?

Malls are plastered with advertisements yelling sales, clearance, 50% off, save now, buy now! As overwhelming as these might seem, we've actually become quite used to them. Advertisers are always attempting to change our attitudes about products and brands. I think that even though we have somewhat become numb to these plastered advertisements everywhere, they still work. That's right...the techniques work. Whether it be impulse buys or something else, they work. Here's some examples of how marketers can change our attitudes.

 The words "limited edition" appear on everything from collectible coins to different flavors of Oreos. Although we see a full shelf stocked full of these special lemon Oreos, we often feel like that this is our only chance to buy them. This is an example of a technique called scarcity. Scarcity is when people are more likely to be attracted to items when they aren't readily available (or don't seem readily available). Now, that I think about it, there's probably no regulation on who can put "limited edition" on packages. Marketers are clever people.

Marketers can change our opinions and attitudes when they feature special celebrities, good-looking people, or transformations in commercials. All of these are some of the ways that marketers secretly change our attitudes. Limited Edition makes things seem luxurious. Are Oreos luxurious? To some people they may be, but was that before or after the marketer?

Body Image & Consumer Behavior

Body image has become a really sensitive topic in the past few years and it's at a point where it has escalated too far. Little girls should not have to worry about what their bodies look like. They should be having fun outside instead. As Americans, we consumer so much more media than we did a decade ago and that's effecting children and adults too. Children specifically are using observational learning when looking at ads of skinny models. If they see skinny models everywhere they will start to think that that's the only way.

Recently I've been seeing body image as a trending topic on the news. I remember hearing that some studies show that children as young as 5 are saying that they have issues with their bodies. I thought the world was starting to make progress with the body positive movement. I have some articles below that share this rising trend. 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/14/europe/uk-london-bans-negative-body-image-ads/

http://motto.time.com/4378414/blogger-tiffany-brien-stomach/

As consumers, we are very influenced by what we see. Marketers know this and will play this to our weakness. Having fresh pizzas out on display means you're more likely to buy one. Same goes for body imaging. If you are on your favorite online store and see a woman that is your size modeling the clothing, you're more likely to consider it for yourself rather than if a smaller sized woman was wearing it.

I think that America has a lot of work to do when it comes to body images. We have bans on cigarette ads being near schools, but why not ban body shaming ads from children television networks? Hopefully, we will keep moving towards body positivity!  

Short Term, Long Term, and Memory Keeping

This week we learned about learning and memory. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of memory that included long term and short term memory. The difference between short term and long term memory are relatively easy to understand. Short term memory (STM) is basically a small capacity that we have to hold the information that we are currently processing. Long term memory is (LTM) is how we retain information for a long period of time. Things will more from short term to long term through elaborative rehearsal.

With all of these memories going into short term memory and then long term memory, how can we be sure that we remember them? I think that often times as consumers we buy into things that will help use remember our most amazing memories. For the most part, people will assume that his means cameras. It's not only photographs that help us remember though. There's wristbands from that concert, or t-shirts from our childhood's that don't fit anymore, or the pamphlet from the amusement park you went to.

There is a whole section of craft stores dedicated to memory keeping and I personally bought into it. Recently, I saw an article (cannot find it now, but if I do I'll link it) that said that this generation (my generation) will have taken the most photos compared to any other generation, but we're printing out a minuscule amount of those photos compared to what our elders did. This generational difference shocked me. As a consumer who does scrapbook, why don't the younger generation participate in this "grandma" labeled hobby? Personally I think that scrapbooking helps with memory keeping immensely. Scrapbooking can be as easy as slipping printed photos into albums or as hard as writing down a fun story for every photo (before you forget).

I believe that scrapbooking also has the power of nostalgia. Nostalgia is the bittersweet emotions you feel when thinking of or looking at an old memory. Physically printed photos are not a thing of the past quite yet, but maybe they will be. This trend in consumer behavior consisting of not printing photos may just change our memories too. There is a special vividness that I feel when my memories seem to come flooding back when I look through my scrapbooks and I truly wish everyone could experience this feeling.

In the Age of Rich Media

In today's day and age it seems like everything is constantly changing and evolving. The newest trends and buzz words seem to be new everyday. Today we're exploring rich media. Rich media is defined as the use of animated gifs, video clips, and more in order to grab consumers' attention.

Rich media offers companies a way to come up with new and original content that can really get consumers to stop and look. I am currently at an internship with my local tourism office and recently have started designing gif ads for them. I have never really dove into rich media as I did this summer.

Although the box ads are small, I have found that even just by changing up the colors to make it appear somewhat "flashy" can easily gab a viewer's attention and get them to click. I have an example gif that I created below.

I think that rich media will eventually expand from just gifs and movie clips to even more involved things like Snapchat filters and other social outlets where the buyer tends to find new things (such as Snapchat filters) exciting.

 

I know that some apps like Musically are becoming very popular. I've never used it, but it might be a great platform for some companies. I think that companies that develop their own apps are smart, but only if they are done well. It sparks my interest that so many YouTubers are developing their own apps under their name. For example, Andrea Russett recently revealed her app called Andrea Russett in the App Store. She's definitely not the first YouTuber to do so, but I could probably name at least 5 more who are starting to explore this adventure. Will these sort of personal apps start to become more popular? Maybe, but as rich media develops more and more it will be evident that people are always ready to consume something new. 

Defending Against Gripe Sites

Gripe sites can come in all forms, but sometimes people take it a little too far. In case you don't know what a gripe site is, it's a website used by people to voice their grievances against a company. Some of the most famous gripe sites include Mitsubishisucks, starbucked, and boycottwalmart. 

While gripe sites aren't nearly as popular as they were a few years ago, companies have started to become smarter when it comes to preventing these types of things. Protesting the name of their company is important. Several companies including Xerox, as mentioned in the text, identifies how they prevent from gripe sites.

One important thing that a large company should do is to buy any domains that could be a gripe site. For example if Apple was looking in to buying some possible gripe sites, they would probably look into iphonessuck, applesucks, appleisawful, and more. They would want to make it difficult for anyone to create a gripe site in the first place. A dun fact is that almost 1/3 of sites that end in the word "sucks" are gripe sites.

It is recommended that once the company buys these sites that they shouldn't just leave the site empty. If a visitor goes looking for a gripe site, and find some that are blank, that may make them more inclined to make an actual gripe site. To avoid this, it's recommended that the companies use it as a platform to answer people's questions or respond to their grievances on their own terms. I feel like most companies would not go this route because it would be a lot to maintain on top of their already existing customer service sector, but I can see where it would be valuable.

Overall, gripe sites can be very annoying to companies. Some companies have even gone to court over gripe sites. Companies should be aware of gripe sites and how to prevent them.

Cultural Values of the Netherlands

I have some friends all over the world, the Philippines, Australia, India, and the Netherlands to name a few. I decided to pick a culture that I don't know that much about, hence the title of this blog post. The Netherlands is a small country in Europe.

Cultural values are an important factor when it comes to how consumers make decisions and how marketers plan to market different products to different regions. Some of the core values (according to my friend Marloes) are egalitarianism, freedom of speech, and persistence. I will go into these more in depth below. Core values are defined as a general set of values that uniquely define a culture.

Marloes believes that egalitarianism is an important core value because the Netherlands has historically been a refugee place for many different types of people. A prime example are Jewish people as well as those of Muslim religion and those who are homosexual. In times of need, the Netherlands was a refugee for these people. Now, the Netherlands still carries this value in other ways as well. For example, children are raised without the stereotypes of gender bias. This plays a major role into consumer behavior. For example, if Marloes went to a store and saw an advertisement for a specific product meant for baby girls only, it would be peculiar to her. It's important to note that the people of the Netherlands are very accepting people which is why it's one of their core values.

Like the United States associates freedom as a core value, the Netherlands associate freedom of speech as a core value. As a very Democratic country, the Netherlands are very open to what people have to say. This can result in some what Americans might think of as crazy ads, which are normal to those in the Netherlands. They are open to all sorts of ideas and if an artist thinks an ad would look best in a sort of artistic format, they wouldn't be put off by it. Some might say the more artistic ads are more effective.

The last core value I will be discussing to it's relation in consumer behavior is persistence. Marloes explained that people in the Netherlands are very determined to get/do what they want. She said they won't give up unless they've tried every angle. I think this is important to note when discussing consumer behavior because this could very much so effect the market. With such a headstrong group it might be harder to advertise to them than it would be for a lazier group. Overall, all cultures are different. There may be similarities, but every culture has different core values that influence their decisions. 

Movies and Consumer Decisions

Everyone loves a good movie, but how do we choose which movie to see each time we go? Do we just spin a roulette wheel or pick a name out of a hat? No, we pick a movie based on different decision processes.

These decisions can fall under three categories, cognitive decisions which are the "ideal" decision making process, habitual decisions which are when there is little or no conscious effort made, and affective decisions are driven by emotional responses.

There are five steps to the cognitive decision making process. These steps are listed in the photo below. Now, when you think let's pick a movie to watch, you will most likely not think through these five steps. If you do go through these five steps...it must take you a while to pick a movie! Although you may not go through this process every time you want to watch a movie you'd be surprised how many of these steps you sometimes go through!

Sometimes you''ll realize your bored and need a form of entertainment (#1). Then who can go and watch a movie without reading a review?! (#2). There are always so many options when considering a movie (#3). I know I'm not the only who gives the movie a review in my head after I've seen it (#5).

After reading the definition of habitual decision making you're probably thinking,"when have I ever done that with movies?" Well, if you're anything like me, you have a thousand cable channels and nothing is on. You flip through the channels and you see a movie is on. Then, you switch the channel over without a second thought about the title or what it was about. This doesn't happen too often to me, but it definitely has and I'm sure you can relate.

I think that applying affective decisions to movie selection is very interesting. When you watch previews I believe that the consumer must feel something in order to want to watch the movie. For example, as they recently released the Beauty and the Beast trailer (see below), it evokes this sense of nostalgia and wonder. You know you've heard that music before and you're drawn in. It only take a few seconds for someone to want to see it. If you're a Disney fanatic like me, you are more likely to just choose a Disney movie because of the emotional attachment. 

Overall I think that consumers don't often think about why they choose a movie, other than, "it looks good", but there's more to it than that!