Design Sprints

The last part of our consumer behavior class consisted of doing design sprints. Design Sprints is a process designed by Google Ventures that consists of a five day process that answers a certain critical question. 

For our Design Sprints we had to come up with answers to the challenge of: Create a product or service that will help 20-somethings transition into independent, happy, productive adults. 

We came up with all of the possible problems associated with this challenge. 
We concluded that these people were:

• Hurting for time
• Did not have good time management skills without a school schedule
• Were not experts in basic daily tasks
• Were hurting for money
• Most move and lack friends in the new areas
• Most are trying to do "adult" hobbies

From there we had to come up with possible answers. We decided to make a kit filled with adult things to teach transitioning adults basic things or so they do not have to go out of there way to find all of these items, we all no that this generation likes instant gratification due to their growing up in a technological age. The kits would be anything from a professional man kit to a cleaning kit. We thought they would serve as great ways to do entertaining like a professional whiskey kit or sushi rolling kit. 

There are many subscription based kits out on the market. This one would be different because they are all geared towards transitioning adults. Also, the kits would be only for the consumers choosing, not a subscription. We would make the kits for a limited number or time to play on the scarcity effect. The scarcity effect is that people want something there is less of, which is why this would work. Also a butt load of branding and advertising wouldn't hurt to make it go viral.

So what do you think? Would these kits really work out? Is it a good idea? 

Tablets, ereaders, and smart phones, OH MY

Is the tablet a fad or a revolution? I see it as a mini computer. Isnt that what your smart phone basically is? Tablets just have bigger screens and sometimes more memory but if thats what users want why cant a laptop and phone suffice? So where and why are we using iPads?

According to the latest research by Nielsen: 70% of people use them while in front of the TV
57% while in bed
44% of people use them with friends and family
42% use them while waiting for something25% in the bathroom
24% use them in the meetings or classroom
21% while shopping and running errands
20% when commuting


The eReader

These virtual libraries are something I never will own. Another question of why wouldn't your laptop or smart phone suffice. The eReader market is growing at 300% year on year when you compare the first 3 months of 2010 to February, 2011. So where are people using the Kindle and its competitors such as the  Noble and Barnes ‘Nook’

Again Nielsen tells us: 35% of people use them while in front of the TV (compared to 70% on the tablets)
61% while in bed
17% of people use them with friends and family
32% use them while waiting for something
17% in the bathroom10% use them in the meetings or classroom
9% while shopping and running errands
11% when commuting

The eReader keeps growing steadily, which really confuses me. It really seems like such a fad. But are ereaders still considered ereaders when they can do everything a tablet can? It seems like we started with a comprehensive tablet/ereader which was the laptop and now we need specific gadgets for each of the things we want to do.

The Smartphone

The smartphone that is connected to the internet and provides a multimedia mobile device anywhere and at any time is impacting our lives maybe more than any other man made object. It's up there with the invention of cars, television, and the internet.

68% of people use them while in front of the TV (compared to 70% on the tablets)
51% while in bed
58% of people use them with friends and family
59% use them while waiting for something
28% in the bathroom
23% use them in the meetings or classroom
59% while shopping and running errands

I know that I find myself on my phone ALOT. When first waking up, when relaxing, when feeling awkward in a situation and many other cases. But I must say I feel so free when I don't have it, like I live string free.

 It's sad how many of my friends will go out with each other and be on their phones! I understand if someone else is meeting up and you need to give them directions but for god sakes get off your phone and socialize! 

I won't rant on this blog about how phones are making people social inept and causing depression, well that's from social media too, but maybe another post I will address this issue.

Chri$tma$ Tree$

Getting a Christmas tree was always so magical for me as a kid. My mother, father, sister and I would go to a Christmas tree farm, packed in the truck and argue about the perfect Christmas tree. When we finally found it my dad would cut it down and drag it back to the truck. We would go back to the farms barn and have hot cocoa with those yum little sugar cookies in the tin can. We did this almost every year when I was growing up. The only few exceptions were when I was a little older and my mom and I went into our woods and drug a tree behind our horses.

These are some very sweet memories, but I can only imagine how much money all those Christmas trees added up to be for my family. When you're a kid you do not think about how much everything really costs. Now of course I do. $45 for a Christmas tree at a grocery store!? That's how much it is to get one of those sad looking Christmas trees in front Smith's. You don't even get the magical experience of going with your family to pick the perfect tree!

Many families choose to just get an artificial tree. I feel bad those families do not get that magical experience of picking their perfect tree or even such a wonderful holiday tradition. These families still pay a heavy price to have a artificial tree. Targets cheapest 4.5ft tree is $60. Which is not bad considering the hefty cost of a fake tree that only lasts one year.

Of course if you own property your tree can be free every year if you have some pine trees. If you don't own any property in Montana you can get a tree permit for $5 to cut a tree down in national forest or on state land.  

Don't even get me started on Christmas light costs or Christmas decoration costs! Its ridiculous the amount of money spent on only Christmas trees. Here's the 11million dollar Christmas tree in India:

 

Here's exactly what I was talking about with Christmas decorations http://theweek.com/articles/454574/5-most-obscenely-expensive-christmas-decorations

Horse Blankets

I don't know if it's something only people with horses notice, but there are a lot of people that have blankets on their horses! I don't mean a literal blanket on a horse of course, (horse of course haha ;D) I mean a horse jacket or coat like this one:

I used to always be one to believe that horses need jackets when it's so cold out because I put myself in their shoes. I thought I sure would be cold if I was out there so I think we should put blankets on. This is what most horse owners believe too.

But if we think about it not too many wild horses have jackets over their natural fur winter coats. Also you don't see too many pictures from years ago with horses with blankets on. 

Horses naturally produce their own body heat by what they eat so feeding more often during the winter will keep them warmer. I feel like many people do not realize this and only feed twice a day and see their horses shivering a bit, so they throw a blanket on them. 

Another reason people blanket is because they believe it will make the horse have less of a winter coat so they can ride and not have a super sweaty horse. I have read that this is not true. That horses will grow their winter coat due to the decreased sunlight whether or not they have a blanket on.

Some people choose to body clip their horses in the winter so they do not get super sweaty. This is were they shave the fur off the places that get sweaty like this:

Then I think that blanketing your horse is appropriate because they are missing that fur. 

Not many of the horses I see blanketed around here are body clipped though so I kind of feel bad these horses have to have these blankets on for 7 months out of the year or sometimes longer. It breaks down their fur too. Their poor fur coat just doesn't look as good as the horses that aren't blanketed.

Oh well, I guess people have to waste their money on something because I am aware of the destruction that the horses love to do to their blankets, as well as their pasture mates.

The Last Name Effect

Time Magazine wrote an article about weird economics and consumer behavior academic studies. The study that I found most interesting was the study on the "last name effect."
http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2045050,00.html

The last name effect says that people with surnames that start later in the alphabet are faster to make a purchase. They found that people with a last name r-z were  more respondent to call to action. This means that those commercials that urge you to come since the furniture store is closing for the 12th time, will really attract Mr. Young or Ms. Zimmer.

 

This was the conclusion made by Kurt Carlson an assistant professor at Georgetown and assistant professor Jacqueline Conrad from Belmont University after conducting four different experiments.

 

With such creditable sources talking about this study like Time Magazine and the Huffington Post, it is hard not to believe this study. 

With that said I have many questions. After taking statistics and marketing research, I know think about these things before believing a study.

Was this study representative of the United States or just the area they studied?

Since it was done at a university, was it only representative of some college or college educated people?

Were the sample sizes big enough to make these generalizations?

Is four experiments enough to make such a generalization?


They contribute this phenomenon to people with those later last names always being chosen last in grade school or being ordered last in a line. Which I think is pretty old school, I know that all of my teachers would try to change it up so no one was ever last all of the time.

Its definitely interesting what association happen often and people assume that something crazy can cause something else.

Red Meat Warning

The World Health Organization concluded that eating processed meats hot dogs, ham and bacon raises the risk of colon cancer. They said that red meats "probably" raises the risk as well. The International Agency of Research into Cancer, a section of the WHO, “classified the consumption of red meat as probably carcinogenic to humans (Group 2A),” and processed meat “as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1).” 


Some people are already taking this advise to heart despite the vague indications of the serious threat that red meat possesses. It's not any surprise that processed meat is definitely a carcinogen. We have all heard many warnings of the effects of any processed food. This seems to make sense that our bodies cannot process unnatural things.

But what about these red meats that eaten by our ancestors for ages?
Could they really a possible carcinogen?

According to the National Institute of Health, all research in the past tied red meat to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. But most of the studies that could not be taken too seriously because the studies were done over limited periods of time, had design flaws or weren't done with American diets. They talk about one study that seemed to provide more evidence but even this study, which was an observational study, had flaws in totally believing the association between red meats and health diseases.

I believe that everyone is different. Therefore, the way that they eat will effect them differently. Also what that person's environment, genetics and their lifestyle (active or not) plays a big role in their health.

This warning probably won’t change consumer behavior, according to an analysis of historical trends by the NPD Group. I really can't see too many people changing. There is still a big industry for tobacco and that has been an obvious carcinogen for a long time. I will agree though that it has went down in the last few decades and where people can smoke is totally different. I definitely don't see red meat being something rare we see on a menu though.  

2nd Best Christmas Gift 2015

According to TopTenReviews top ten Christmas gifts of 2015, the second best gift this year is the DreamWalker. The DreamWalker is comparable to Marty McFly's hover board on "Back to the Future." They describe it as a Segway without handlebars.http://best-christmas-gifts.toptenreviews.com/dreamwalker-review.html

You may wonder why I chose to review the second best gift and not the first best, that is because I think the DreamWalker is more interesting than the R2D2 look alike that is #1. It is a robot drone of some sort that I didn't even bother looking into since it only sold for $150 I can't image it could do too many commands or at least the commands I would want my robot to do: fold my laundry or make me a drink. Maybe I am selling it short by not looking into it but drones and droids scare me anyways ever since I watched the movie I, Robot with Will Smith where the robots siege war on the humans.

The DreamWalker may be exactly what Dean Kaman needed to make instead of the Segway which he believed would change the way that most people commuted. Even though I do not see the DreamWalker being comparable to a bike for commute, it might actually do netter than the Segway. I could see this being the thing to replace the skateboard.

It seems as though this thing takes some mastering. The operator must figure out first how to stabilize it when they mount it. Then, they must try to figure out how move forward, backward, stop and turn by adjusting their weight. We'll just say, this isn't a good gift for your grandma.

The reviews all say that it is best to be on even, smooth ground. I cannot image this thing would be good for off-reading. A rock in the road could send your weight backwards which would send the machine flying backwards as well.

It seems like a great $500 conversational piece or with some good marketing the next new X-Games sport for the 21st century.

I can definitely say I do not have any techie friends to get something like this for, but I'm sure some people would be geeked to see this under the Christmas tree.