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!