4 Pleasure Analysis (Spoon-fed)

Demographic profile
Young career driven mother of one boy. Lives an urban and trendy lifestyle. I've listed the 4 pleasure and group the analysis of purchasing a Spoon-fed based on the following rationalization.

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Physiological
1. Toughness of plastic allows the product to be used for a long time.

2. By not looking like a conventional utensil, she feels proud that she is getting something different for her son.

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Psychological
1. With her child keeping the utensil in his pencil case, she will not need to remind herself or her son to remember to wash the utensil as her son uses the pencil case at home.

2. With an option to customize the utensil, she feels that she has a unique item, aligning with her passion of being an early adopter.

3. Antibacterial properties (cap and plastic material) gives her an ease of mine that her child is eating more hygenically and will not fall sick.

4. Creating more value to a utensil will ensure that the utensil will not paid more attention to and not be misplaced.

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Sociological
1. Following the latest trend, she is send as an early adoptor, being different from other mothers who opt to purchase what is already on the market

2. As a trend setter, she gets to introduce the product with friends to buy for their own children to use, thus feeling a sense of satisfaction of sharing something new

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Ideological
Mothers want to be responsible for the world that her child will live in 50 years later, thus by using Spoon-fed, she (and the child) will feel that they have contributed to preserving the environment by using Spoon-fed which promotes sustainability.

Marketing Colour (DSLR Cameras)

I've always been intrigued by new brands that emerge into the market, especially those that try to compete against a really saturated market. For example, what if there's a new giant fast good chain or a soda brand that is going to compete against Mcdonalds and Coca-cola? How is it possible from a business perspective? One example which caught my attention is the Sony Alpha DSLR.














By entering the market late (and also not being a camera specialist), I found that it was really a bold and courageous effort to compete against the market leaders of Nikon and Canon. I can't think of any other brand than Sony who would have the resources to rock the boat.  

DSLR Camera (Digital Single Lens Reflex) Timeline
Nikon launched 1999
Canon launched 2000
Sony launched 2006

Personally I am a Canon user (although I'm using an Olympus at the moment), but I am impressed with what Sony has done so far after half a decade and I believe the numbers speak for themselves. What I appreciate most is what they have done with the choice of their colour.












By just referring to the colour positioning, to me it implies that Sony has taken the best features out of Nikon and Canon and created the perfect camera. Beyond the actual functionality of the camera, I reckon that colour plays an enormous role as colour speaks its own language.

Thumbs up for Sony, all the best Kazuo Hirai for his new stewardship.

Ethical Marketing

In our modern society today, again I am about to mention that the landscape for businesses have become so much competitive. People are creating new ways everyday to differentiate their products from the others. Above the functions and benefits of a product, the experiential aspect has only began to emerge since the turn of the new century and we have seen some great examples.

One example of a business that lives and breathes by its ethical marketing principles is TOMS, the American based One for One shoe company. Its ethos is simple; with every pair of shoes purchased, they give a new pair of shoes to a child in need.

Lately I have been struggling to connect the dots as to how ethical marketing could be connected to the consumers by explaining how ethical marketing could involve the consumer to make an impact. My initial thoughts were as blank as to only claiming that my brand is ethical and is friendly to the environment, but how could I go beyond that?

We all know that there are children around the world that are suffer, especially children. In the case of TOMS, by communicating the health benefits that children and adults alike will gain from having the soles of their feet covered by using UNICEF's data—Every year, nearly 10 million children under the age of 5 die from largely preventable causes. This statement in turn goes a long way to imply that users can literally save a life of someone by preventing a deadly infection due to the cause of having nothing to protect their feet.

To summarize, it is important to understand user's values (most importantly the one that touches the heart), then using numbers (through research) would only mean something to them!

You see a gorgeous girl at a party

A lighter view on understanding the world of marketing in layman terms.
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You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and say, “I am very rich. Marry me!”
That’s Direct Marketing.
 
You see a gorgeous girl at a party. One of your friends goes up to her, points at you and says, “He’s very rich. Marry him.”
That’s Advertising.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, “Hi, I’m very rich. Marry me.”
That’s Telemarketing.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You get up and straighten your tie; you walk up to her and pour her a drink. You open the door for her; pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, “By the way, I’m very rich. Will you marry me?”
That’s Public Relations.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. She walks up to you and says, “You are very rich.”
That’s Brand Recognition.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, “I’m very rich. Marry me.” She gives you a nice hard slap to the face.
That’s Customer Feedback.

Market Segments

Lecture notes with Prof Myung Kyu Lee

Youth market

usually the entry market (mainly in car markets)
Strategically the most important segment
Especially for building long term customer loyalty
Habit is formed when one is young

Strategy:
Dream building/challenge/participation — Giving incencentive
Experience — Fast culture
Speed — Fast fashion

Silver market

Average age of the world is increasing, life expectancy is longer

TONK (two only no kids)
OPAL (old people with active life)

Designers can approach this through Universal Design (designing for everyone)
i.e. OXO Good Grip (designer made it for his wife who was suffering from arthritis)

Isetan departmental store has a Funeral service departmental for the Silver market

Kids market

World population growth is decreasing rapidly
Parents end up having either 1 or no kid
With 1 kid, they spoil the kid with everything!

Microtrends

Gold Miss market — Financial independent women who pass the marriageable age and choose to be single

Single families is over 4 million
Supermarkets sell items in smaller quantities

Marketing Strategies in Korea (considering the cultural factors)

Gurantee Marketing (tackling Korean's attitude of risk aversion)

DIY, warranty services, participatory strategies, i.e. delivery companies offering tracking services

Opinion Leadership Marketing (tackling Korean's attitude of Collectivism)
> a.k.a Word of Mouth communication or Buzz marketing
> i.e P&G has a 'tremor' group who are a prosumer group that leads the market for their products. Products are often tested on the 'tremor' group before officially rolling out
> Viral Marketing
> "Word-of-Mouse" communication

Kiehl relies solely on word-of-mouth to market their products. Product packaging often lack design, implying that the money saved on advertising and design is channeled to be used on charitable causes.

Social media platform

Blog marketing — Alpha bloggers / Power bloggers

Emotional Culture > Experiential/Emotional Marketing

Meaning of Volvo and it's logo

Having seen a few Volvo's on the street lately, besides knowing that they are the inventors of the seat belt. I have always been curious about the asymmetrical logo and did a search to find out about the meaning and concept behind the logo.

With it's symbolic meaning of the property of iron, it does echo the qualities of being tough. Surely reflecting their image as the safest vehicle.

Production of the Volvo automobile began in 1927 in Sweden. The brand name was based on the Latin verb "volvere" or "roll," to indicate all the transportation-related products made by the company. Chemical Symbol The logotype adopted by the new company was based on the chemical symbol for iron, which is a circle with an arrow pointing diagonally toward the right. This is also the symbol for the planet Mars, the Roman god of war and the male gender.

Symbol of Strength
By adopting the iron symbol, which has long been associated with the iron and steel industry, the car's makers intended to connote the durability, strength and quality of their vehicles.

Typeface
The name "Volvo" on the logo is written in a distinctive font, which the Volvo Owners Club website identifies as Egyptian.

Diagonal Band
Originally, a diagonal band served to clamp the car badge onto the radiator. This band has since become an integral part of the design and is found on the front grille of all Volvo vehicles.

Business Logo
The iron symbol with the company name can be found on Volvo steering wheels and wheel hubs, as well as in all the company's advertising. For many consumers, the Volvo symbol has come to represent a brand known for its exciting, high-quality automobiles.

Fashion Seminar

Fashion is popular style of clothing. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person. It is a style of clothing or a way of behaving that is popular at a popular time. It is ever-changing, fast moving.

Fashion changes, if it does not change it is not fashion
—Ann Hollander (Sex and Suits)

Importance of thinking different

In this entertaining 20 minutes presentation at the Lift Conference 2011, CEO of Hublot, Jean-Claude Biver talks about innovation, creativity, and his philosophy that can be summarized by three commandments:

1. Be the first
2. Be unique
3. Be different

Unlike other presenters, he speaks without any visual aid which really draws all the attention towards his natural comical nature, making the presentation to be most entertaining.

He ends his presentation with a story that summarizes his 3 commandments by 'painting a footballer's hair red', which I assume at that time was uncommon, which I doubt. Anyway ultimately that had played some influence which earned the footballer* the opportunity to play his football in Italy.

Fun fact: Jean Claude Biver was the man responsible for Omega's huge success over the past 10 years, with one of his notable marketing techniques was his product placement strategies, notably on James Bond films. On a separate note, he so makes his own cheese.

*I did a search and found that footballer to be Atsushi Yanagisawa, a very successful player in Japan who played in Sampdoria...but failed to net a single goal abroad.

The Tourist Lane

To improve pedestrian efficiency, the people at Improv Everywhere is suggesting tourists to commute on their designated walkways so they could do what they do, like randomly change direction and walk into things while looking up instead of ahead.

I reckon this is healthy and relevant for any urban society, especially for a city like Seoul with 22 million people. I guess this also acts to preserve the locality and identity of a place. It actually got me thinking about how this would have already been implemented in North Korean as visiting tourists are embarked on a full guided tour.

From a local perspective, as seen from the video, this would also probably invoke a certain value of pride to be proud of your own identity.

What looks ridiculous on first impression might actually hold true weight if thought through!

3 ways good design makes you happy

An excellent 13 minutes with Donald Norman.


Video link
http://www.ted.com/talks/don_norman_on_design_and_emotion.html

Visceral
How things look, feel and sound, affecting how we are biological pre-wired

Behavioral
Subconscious sense of usability towards things. Similar to physiological pleasure

Reflective
Similar to ideological pleasure. i.e. to buy a hybrid to portray the image of caring for the environment It's the 'voice' in our heads

The number of Os depicting the number of pages of results is a good example of a simple 'feel-good' design implementation.


The brain works better when it's in a state of positive valence—being happy, positive, or motivated, or being in the absence of criticism or stress

Cognition is about understanding the world / Emotion is about interpreting the world.

Essentially, it's all about designing things to make us smile.

Being Human

It's the midpoint of my first semester at SADI and I've been thrilled to be learning about different fields of design. Having learned new jargon coined by masters of the field such as Liz Sanders (MakeTools), Bill Moggridge (IDEO), Don Norman (User-centered design expert), and Engine and Cooper (both Service Design agencies), delivered through my highly esteemed professors all have provided great insights to to establish what the future holds being a designer in the 21st century. 

The gist of it all really goes down to be distilled and I conclude that design is has gone way beyond from being functional to having to evoking a similar emotional response from every user that engages the intention of a design. We have to recognize that every user is different (understanding contexts and cultural aspects etc.) in which each individual holds different expectations to the design. The ultimate aim is to first understand what is it to be human and then gain clearer insights as to how to interact with them. Thankfully both users and designers are human, so there's a great leveling plane to begin with.

Such tools, frameworks, and methodologies are after all created by humans for humans, user to user. This is probably the best justifications for my cause to further my knowledge and education—to know myself better and to understand the user. The keyword is emotion and the two words I find the most powerful is love and passion, they are simply the greatest. For me I draw the energy from the people around me who personifies these 2 words from 2 parties:

Love: Quite literally, my love ones. They are my partner, family and friends
Passion: The heroes of their trade and what they stand for. Because what they stand for—can change the world.

Just like how this man below did.

Brand Lecture

Usage of Metaphor > Scott tissues > Cloud > Soft

Quaker = Oats
Quakers are honest, frugal people
Quakers exude tradition

Print ads used to embed a symbol of death which are now banned. i.e a distorted image may be interpreted as death. Especially for tobacco and liquor products.

Know target audience. Sell children shampoo to parents who are going to buy it for them.

Tomato brand > Fresh World Farms > Literal and effective

Brand Elements > Rationale, Cultural, Experiential, Visual, Functional, Emotional

Jockey briefs has many sub categories to sell 1 product to speak to a broader audience. Classic (regular), Tech (performance), Reps (rhythmic), Zone (colours)

Nº5 CHANEL PARIS / Iconic structural packaging

Toilet duck packaging is unique and provides great functionality, but not feasible for production from the engineers perspective. The duck name is associated with the rubber duckie toy and evokes positive childhood memories, making household chores less painful.

Public Service

Digging into further insights for my project, I thought to approach the subject (subway transportation) from the perspective of a public service, leading me to this video on Design Council UK.

Video link: Design for growth: public services
(the downside of blogger is not having an option to embed videos outside YouTube...)

Design helps create new citizen-focused products and systems, helps in redesigning more efficient, lower-cost services and improves people’s well-being.

Use design to
> Reduce cost
> Improve quality
> Give value for money
> Better experiences
Why design?
> Improve well-being of citizens
> Drive sustainable growth

Research helps identify key opportunities for improvement.

Design is beyond changing visual appearances but to change outcomes. i.e. improve quality of service, increase reliability (through consistency). Design also increases staff morale.

Redesigning services changes the platform on which services are delivered.

Lovemarks

This is again a reminder for the purpose of building strong brands. Brands sustains businesses. In Lovemarks (Roberts, K 2005), it is identified that human beings (consumers) are powered by emotion and not by reason. The most powerful emotion, Love is believed to be the foundation for creating new kinds of emotional passionate relationships that brands need. To gain love, brands needs to earn Respect—Performance, commitment, honesty, service etc. are the most basic values that businesses must endure.

"The idealism of Love is the new realism of business. By building Respect and inspiring Love, business can move the world."
— Kevin Roberts

Reference
Lovemarks, The Future Beyond Brands, Roberts, K 2005

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What Branding is All About

“It’s (branding) not about consistency, it’s about creating stories that make sense.” Stories are the way we connect with people and create relationships. If we think of brands as people or personalities, they need to be magical storytellers. As humans, we thrive on all of the emotional connections we have. We get passionate about them. It’s the stories we tell and hear that trigger those connections."

Marina Willer of Wolff Olins London @ 2011 Brand New Conference in San Fransisco 

Healthy Living Experience — Reflections

The outline for the ADX408 final assignment is captured in the points below:

> Create a new product, service, and/or brand communication concept for healthy living based on experience based design framework and process
> Define healthy from consumers point of view
> Consider using 4 pleasurable products model
> Consider enhancing brand experience
> Must include 'Branding Elements' (experiential, functional, rational, cultural, emotional, visual)
> Outcome must be based on conclusive research

Marketing

Lecture series with Prof MyongKyu Lee


Marketing Concept
1. Customer satisfaction
2. Differentiation

Market definition STP
Segment
Target Position

Matching Concept 4Ps
Product
Plane
Place
Promotion

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Prof Lee mentioned the term Market Myopia and suggests that designers have to look at the market has to be as large as possible to gain larger profits. The example of Harley Davidson and Honda was used, suggesting that Honda found success with affordable motorcycles targeting at a broader market.

From a brand perspective, I would argue that Harley Davidson's focus towards it's target market has enabled them to become an 'inspiring brand'. I would imagine that it will be difficult to have the same traits of masochism and individualism if they had branched out to the mass market. Maybe they did with an entirely different brand? Ultimately business is about making money.

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Societal/Ethical Marketing is about providing product benefits with a long term perspective in mind. i.e. Social enterprise TOMS shoes. How can McDonalds consider long term 'consumer convenience'?

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New Product Development (differentiation)
> Idea Generation
> Idea Screening (screen criteria) Technical feasibility, Commcerial feasibility, Consumer welfare
> Idea Evaluation/Concept Testing (research)
> Development
> Marketing Strategy
> Commercialization

Fun fact: 3M = Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing

Elements of Good Design
> Creative/Original
> Aesthetic
> Functional
> Feasible
> Economical
> Fashionable
> User friendly/Ergonomic - Human Factors
> Consumer Well-being/Welfare

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Assignment 1
1. Explain the idea (design)
2. Target Market (why?)
3. Promotion Strategy (how it's being sold)


Designer/Marketing perspective


Something new and innovative


Product design awards: IDEA, iF, reddot, Good Design Award


3-4 slides / 5-10 minutes presentation — due 29/03

HCD Exercise: Self Documentation

Self-Documentation is a powerful method for observingprocesses over a long period of time, or for understanding the nuances of community life when the researcher can’t be there. Records of experiences, such as journal entries, allow the team to see how participants see their life, community, and relationships.

<Source: IDEO HCD ToolKit>

High 5 Escalator

Most of us have probably come across the Piano Staircase in Sweden by the Fun Theory (initiative of Volkswagen). But have you seen the High 5 Escalator?

The part that grabs me the most is the smiles put on commuters faces after seeing or giving a high 5 to Rob. This simple interaction presents a great opportunity to develop a tourist experience into a very memorable one.

Be Kind to the Color Blind

Because roughly 7-10% of all males suffer from a colour deficiency. Designers should consider this fact during the designing process.

To me Universal Design is about being sensitive to all users, but first of all, designers need to know about users. Because being a user doesn't mean that everyone is just like you.

Link:
Be Kind to the Color Blind