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.

Children's Shows

I get up around 8am and my boyfriends daughter asks if she can watch some Netflix.
I tell her that she can as long as she watch the "kids" version.
As I am walking around trying to get some breakfas
t going, she picks a show. I hear one of the characters say something to the effect of "omg that outfit is so ugly." When I look at the characters they are 10 year old divas wearing every accessory you can and leather jackets with beetles t-shirts underneath. I thought it was crazy when people of my generation wore beetles schwag. But that character and the TV was a few generations off from being able to be a beetles fan.
Anyways, as I watched for these 10 year olds looked like they put more time and money into their outfits than I did in a couple weeks. Of course I know that this is just a TV show, but do children really know the difference. Is this what kids think they should look and act like?

I asked Kenzie if she could find a different TV show and the same thing. The little girls talking about superficial things with outfits that looked like something some 30 year old would wear going out on the town. 

I can see that his daughter buys into these shows encouraging girls to worry about their clothing and image choices. This little girl shops with her grandmother more in a week than I do in a year. She always wants to go get new clothes.

I remember being similar to her when I was 12-15 but not when I was seven years old! 

It's scary how young kids are encouraged by what they see on TV to be so materialistic. Even if you do not allow your child to watch any of these shows, other kids in schools who are allowed to watch these shows will influence your child.

I know that my changing point as a kid worrying about materialistic things is when I had to become more independent. Soon these clothes and shoes that were free came at a price. I definitely learned to appreciate the sale racks after that and soon realized that my hobbies were more important to spend money on rather than materialistic things.

Maybe that's what it takes for kids to realize the actually cost of these things they "need."

Easy Money

Everyone these days are looking for "easy quick cash" deals. I've always been raised on the thought that there is no such thing as easy money. Some of these deals seem to good to be true though.

You could earn a pink cadillac from selling makeup, which you know they will buy anyways, to all of your girlfriends?

That sure seems easy.

Sell a milkshake that will make you lose 40lbs in 3 months to your coworkers who are complaining they need an easier way to lose weight?

I haven't ever tried to do these direct sales but I can say I have attended Scentsy parties and some sex toy parties that were only interesting because of the food and social aspect.

I personally do not know of anyone that has been successful doing these directs Ellington achemes. But you alway here of these people that have financed their homes by these jobs.

With the evolution of the more interactive Internet, these "easy quick cash" schemes seem to be plentiful. I do have to admit I get suckered into these when they claim you can earn easy cash answering online surveys.

There's always a catch though.

One site seemed promising because I read about it off a public group on Facebook. I have forgotten the name of the website but you could do online tasks and earn anywhere from $2 to $20. Of course, many of these online tasks were highly technical and companies just wanted an easy way to outsource small minantinous jobs.

I have gotten smarter and have learned to read the terms and conditions. For this particular site it said that they were not responsible for the payments from the job provider. Which meant that if you were not to be paid you would need to take it up with that company you did they job for, in which you are not an employee and I would think they legally did not need to pay you. Besides, good luck finding the company they worked for because every company created their own usernames and did not have reveal their company id. 

On Pinterest, I ran across an article on 30 ways to make extra money. It mentioned blogging for money, Being a virtual assistance (graphic design for bloggers, social media promoting for people and other jobs), starting your own laundry service, eBay selling, tutoring, and other random jobs.
Some of these things seemed like promising ideas but as I went on it was hard to get through the article without accidently clicking on a sponsored link.

I see now, this was just a sponsored blog someone was making money off of for making it viral on Pinterest. How did this person start? How much were they making now? Did they actually successfully make "easy quick cash?"

The end of television as we new it

The way that most people watch their favorite TV programs is much different than a decade ago. Thanks to Netflix, Hulu and easy access to pirating television shows, TV will be dead in no time, much like cassette tapes or VCRs. 

If you read articles online, there are many saying how economists predict the end of cable or dish television. Other articles say that television is just evolving:
"In essence, television is not dying so much as it is evolving into an all-encompassing video category, one that includes content streamed over the internet on computers and mobile devices, as well as shows accessed on-demand via set-top cable boxes and connected TVs" (Aaron Taube, Business Insider) 

So television is not really dying the modes of viewing television is dying. Dish and Direct TV are the ones that should be worried. Along with cable companies like Comcast and Charter.

Investors in these companies are going to see this and start selling their shares before they go all the way "down with the ship". This makes this a very slippery slope for these companies. 

In fact Cable TV recently topped The Wall Street Journal’s “10 things not to buy” list as far as stocks

Comcast is well aware of this and tried to merge with Time Warner, who will be likely to survive this technology "ice burg" with online streaming possibilities. 

See ya Satellite TV!

The new "GoPro"

Since GoPro has had such a huge success many companies have tried to make some sort of action camera to compete. Some of the GoPro "wannabes" are DBcam, ActionPro, HitPro, and Polaroid XS extreme. With the GoPro camera being the best action camera in the market. You can find thousands of reviews online from all kinds of extreme sportsmen and women that all rave about their GoPros. 

It seems to me that the only reason that anyone would choose an alternate to GoPro for action camera is that the alternate option is less expensive or you have stock in that company or you are brand loyal or you are a hipster and you buy Polaroid expecting to have an instant video you shake. 

So another company to move into the action camera industry is Garmin. Garmin is usually something that is thought of as a GPS navigation and fitness device. The creators at Garmin started out with a small lipstick shaped camera with a LCD screen on the top. There was problems with this so the Garmin Virb EX ended up looking similar to the GoPro's design. 

To compete with GoPro, any company needs to set itself apart and be something more. There is an image that people buy when they buy a GoPro. Since it is the original extreme sports camera, it is what the most "sick" "killer" extreme sportsmen use. If you use anything else you are viewed as less serious or cheap. This is also the case for the brand Garmin though. They are a trusted, well known brand in the technology field, so they may be able to compete.

The Garmin Virb EX is definitely not cheap being $400.00 its about the same price as a GoPro. There are many things that set it apart from the GoPro though. It can dive 50m underwater without the use of a cover. One of the coolest features is that you can track its last known GPS co-ordinates in an app! That means when you high-mark that mountain on your Ski-Doo summit and forget to keep the throttle pinned, you can find it. Yeah, I have tried this at a not so amazing speed and lost some important things during the flip. I am not really a snowmobiler. I just ride and try to keep up and attempt a cool thing now and then or when I've had a shot of liquid courage. ;)

You can also use a Bluetooth microphone with it. Maybe so that you can do an awesome voice over of the sick stuff you are doing. I would personally use it to do a video diary of my horse rides. It also uses Wi-Fi and can pair with tons of different accessories like a heart monitor, multi-sport watches, OBD tools that capture heart rate, speed, RPM and even throttle postion. This sets a whole different dynamic to your videos when you actually can see the speed or things like vertical drop.

I think it is awesome that Garmin is trying to step into this industry and diversify themselves from just being a GPS brand. 

Halloween

Halloween is another huge holiday where consumers spend way too much on prefabricated costumes. According to National Retail Federation, 2.8 billion was estimated to be spent in 2014 on costumes. So there is definitely a lot of consumer behavior marketers are analyzing. I could talk about the trends with Disney costumes for children, risk-ehh costumes for adults or the classic witch, zombie, vampire and cat costumes but that would be getting to deep into the Halloween spirit which for some reason I didn't have much of.

I did do the traditional pumpkin carving and corn maze Halloween things but this year, unlike most years, I didn't dress up. It could be that my life has been way too busy or simply that I didn't have extra money to put into it. Anyways, I did pretend to be something for Halloween though.

A huntress 

 



Yes, I will admit I said pretend.

As much as I hate to admit it, like any other women that try to live down the stereotypes that women don't hunt, I am not much of a hunter.

I have been out hunting quite a bit though. More for the thrill of the hike and the beauty in the places my boyfriend or male friend takes me. I haven't ever shot anything and I really don't want to until I feel like Annie Oakley with a gun.

I believe I faked my boyfriend out when we first started dating that I was really into hunting. I did own some camo, (I bought in high school because I thought it was cool and would go with my country girl look) but I was a poser for the most part

But I am definitely not the only one out there. Case and point: 

Cameo is more like a fashion statement now.

You can get it in the most ridiculous colors that would make you stand out more than blend in.

 

That is a rant that I will save for another day.

 

So I went out on Halloween dressed in my Camo and orange at 6a.m. and hiked through the dark following my boyfriend trying to hush my breath while hiking a 2000ft elevation gain.

 

The hiking was not the concern of this trip. Hiking in a bear infested and possibly mountain lion infested woods carrying a .44 revolver I hadn't shot before was my main concern.

I have shot other hand guns before but not this one. How was I suppose to wipe out a gun I wasn't that comfortable with at a seconds notice and shoot a charging wild animal?

 

I am from Michigan, we like tree stands or hunting blinds not hiking up sides of grizzly bear and cougar mountains. I was a bit out of my element. With all that aside, when day broke it was worth all the hiking and worry because of the beautiful scenery I was able to see.

 

I will go out and "pretend" to be hunter more this season and will possibly shoot my first and last deer just to see if hunting is really for me.

 

 

Cleaning Products

As I may or may not have mentioned in my previous posts, I have been cleaning houses around the Bozeman area for a little more than three years. Most of our clients are wealthy stay at home mothers that do not have time to keep up with cleaning apparently because they do too much yoga or Zen meditation.

Anyways, most of these peoples houses are filled with all organic products and foods (or at least they would like to think that because the label says it). They have that weird brown super thin toilet paper and paper towels made from recycled whatever. They also have the extra bin you get for recycling.

My cleaning company I used to clean for promoted "green cleaning." Our products were supposed to be green. One product I know was harmful that we used was Comet with extra bleach. I found on treehugger.com that Comet contains 146 different chemicals some of which are: formaldehyde, chloroform, benzene, and toluene. Some of the chemicals are thought to cause cancer, asthma and reproductive disorders. Even if we aren't sure what the contaminates can do, I don't think many of our "green" want us to use a cleaner that has the chemical to preserve dead animals in it.

The next cleaner that most are clients are attracted to us because we use it is Simply Green. These are the same people though that have "organic" everything all over all of their food and probably don't realize that just because they slapped a label on that claims to be organic, doesn't mean that the product is 100% organic, in fact according to the NSF only 95% has to be organic to be organic. And it says contains organic materials only 70% has to be organic.
Simply Green is not as "green" as their name would imply. It contains 2-butoxyethonal which is a irritant and may damage red blood cells. Some members of this chemical family are banned by the European Union.
With that said it does work very well at removing grease from a stove top. Not sure that any "green" product could do that.

There are so many cleaning products on the market that are very toxic. With that, there are many blogs out there talking about how terrible all these cleaners are for you. But how are you suppose to clean 10 year old soap scum off a shower wall or super cooked on grease off a stove without a toxic cleaner?

Spoiled Puppies

This morning I fed the last of my puppies $45 Taste of the Wild dog food. I thought to myself "wow I'm complaining about how poor I am and can't afford much to eat besides spaghetti o's (because Ramen noodles were my main diet freshman year).
I'm used to my pets eating better than me though. My horses had a whole recipe concoction of vitamin supplements when I was showing them heavily. I know that with most loving pet owners this is the case. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average household spending on pet food alone was $183 in 2011. This was more than the amount spent on candy ($87), bread ($107), chicken ($124), cereal ($175), or reading materials ($115).
 
Pets have become a replacement for children with couples and single people alike. This is most apparent in an active city like Bozeman. If you ever hike the drinking horse trail across from the infamous M trail this will become apparent.

Now the trend of organic/raw ingredients has become a big trend with pet food as well. Most dog foods are trying to push these "better" dog foods on consumers. The Purina Beneful was one of the first that I encountered. I remember watching commercials about this food as a child. After people realized that you need to actually read ingredients put into the dog food, they realized they should of read the list from the bottom up. http://www.dogingtonpost.com/is-purinas-beneful-dog-food-killing-dogs/

Well I better get my furball son some all natural, no filler, nonperservative added dog food and stop by the gas station to grab a pack of donutettes that were probably made a month ago, that are still in great shape........ :/

Walmart is the corporate devil

Walmart may be trying to position itself as a sustainable company, but according to the food and water watch, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving peoples lives and protecting our environment, they are not doing a very good job of proving it.
Here's what they concluded:

1. Selling shoddy products- by selling these low cost items they are driving down the quality and durability of these product which in turn speeds up the process of the items to the landfill.
2. Reduction in waste is minuscle compared to waste generated
3. Lagging on Renewable Energy 
4. Increasing GHG emissions- their greenhouse gases have been steadily increasing. In 2012 the company said in its Global responsibility report that it 22 million metric tons of greenhouse gases.
5. Voraciously consuming land-2005-2015 they added more than 1,100 supercenters. Most of this land previously undeveloped. They have vacated more than 150 stores.
6. Financing anti-environment candidates
7. Consolidating and Industrialzing Food production
8. The distribution model favors not locally grown produce
9. Degrading organic
10. Spreading poverty- "When Walmart comes into a community, incomes decline and poverty increases. According to a study published in Social Science Quarterly, neighborhoods that gain Walmart stores"

My grandpa has always preached how terrible Walmart is. He has good reason to. The main reason he hates Walmart is because his local bike went out of business soon after Walmart started carrying the same brand of bikes his store sold at a lower cost.

This is exactly why Walmart is the corporate devil. They come into small communities and takeout the small businesses that can not compete with their low prices. Yes this may be Capitalism at its finest, but is it really ethical?

I know way too many people that claim to hate Walmart, yet they still get most of their household supplies there. They have no morals in my opinion. How can you support a business that could care less about anything than making the most it can without thinking of anyone else? 

Plus Walmart's suppliers in other countries like India, China, Bangladesh, and Mexico are not 'good wage' jobs even for third world standards. The people are overworked, underpaid, and forced to work in sub-human conditions.  The documentary "Walmart: High Cost of Low Price" explains how terribly not only these employees from other countries, but also employees in the United States are treated.

Basically, Walmart is the corporate devil. That is all.

Professional Rhinestone Cowgirl Outdoorswoman

As with all other professional occasions I have, I have to dress up like someone that I am not. I had to put on the pencil skirt, heels and dress shirt. This of course goes against my typical outfit of jeans, a t-shirt, and flip-flops/tennis shoes. 

After wondering around for two hours in the crowded mess of engineering opportunities, I got back to my flip-flops so my poor feet could relax. 

I walked down the Campus's mall and thought to myself what I interesting outfit I had on: bright green Patagonia wind breaker, black pencil skirt, and rhinestone cowgirl flip flops. Since I do not have a picture I will try to do a pictorial representation.   

All of these items tell most people different things about your lifestyle

• Patagonia Windbreaker- "I'm outdoorsy!"
• Bling Flip-Flops- "I'm only wearing these because I'm not in my cowgirl boots and don't I look fabulous"
• Pencil Skirt-"Where is my briefcase? I'm a true professional"

I know that everyone judges somewhat similar to what I said before. I just wish I could have heard what people thought as I was walking down the mall or maybe I really don't want to know.

It's so interesting that we even put personalities to different kinds of clothing. This is very beneficial to different companies to know exactly the personality they are going after. 

https://www.psychologies.co.uk/test-what-do-your-clothes-say-about-you 

Here's a fun link to see what your clothes say about you!

Pumpkin Everything!!!!

After a cold, wet hike up the drinking horse, I sit here watching some Netflix. My good friend suggested watching the comedian ILiza Shlesinger. About 10 minutes into the show she talks about how to all girls love fall and are required to love fall. This is hilarious because on my hike I was just talking about how much I love fall and that it's my favorite season. What a terribly stereotypical girl thing to say (I hate being a sterotypical girl but I don't care when it comes to fall, fall is the best). She goes on to talk about Pumpkin everything. 

Wow, before our hike we had to go get a pumpkin latte. Another terribly stereotypical girl thing to do. Pumpkin spice season started about a month ago. Every food establishment has to have some kind of pumpkin on their menu. Dennys takes full advantage of the women's (gay men and secretly straight men too) obsession with pumpkin with their pumpkin pancakes. McDonald's has always had pumpkin pies during the fall but only 38% (approximately 5500 stores) of McDonald's have their pumpkin spice lattes. That's okay we'll just wait for the shamrock shakes ;).  I can not even count how many hash tag pumpkin this or that have seen on Facebook or Snap chat.

http://www.popsugar.com/food/Pumpkin-Spice-Flavored-Products-2015-38165340?slide=27 here's a list of the worst and best pumpkin spice flavored products for 2015. The obsession with pumpkin seems to me to have just turned into a "thing" in the last five years. In fact, sales of pumpkin-infused foods and drinks are up 79 percent since 2011, according to Nielsen data.
Of course you never see pumpkin anything when it isn't fall. Maybe being a limited edition, seasonal trend keeps the pumpkin spice trick a strong way to boost sales year after year.
But what about the bacon trend? Bacon is everything too nowadays but it's not a seasonal trend. Maybe it's just because bacon is amazing and now we are not ashamed to be fatties and admit out obsessions with bacon.

Up in the Air

On a side note: as I'm watching Up in the Air I notice in the beginning the American Airline's stewardess says to the main character who is always flying for his job and calls airports his home "Pleasure to see you again Mr. Bigham" this is interesting to me because that woman does not even know Mr. Bigham, a promo on her screen says to say this to the frequent flyer Mr. Bigham. Airlines are very concerned with pleasing their customers. They offer so many incentives to their frequent flyers or even those who choose to fly first class. This is interesting to me because there really are not that many airlines to choose from. Why do they need to compete so much? That could be exactly why they need to compete. If that airline can snag a consumer from simply having a stewardess greet you buy name that's possibly $1200 for a red-eye flight to LA they may have earned. Better yet, they may have earned a new brand loyal customer.

As I continue to watch, there is plenty of branded entertainment throughout this movie. I already mentioned they showed American Airlines for product placement. They also mention Hertz car rentals, Colonial, Maestro, Hilton hotels, Maplewood Hotels

This movie is interesting coming from a consumer behavior perspective position too. Business travelers are a major target market for producers. Business travelers are interesting people. Many people envy them but Buzzfeed has the reality of business traveling covered. http://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleyperez/business-travel-expectation-vs-reality#.eqmB7P0Rm

 

 

 

Most business travelers are tech-savvy users wince they have to stay connected for their jobs and also for their personal lives. Usually they are well dressed and carry minimal luggage and seem to know all the ins and outs of the airports. They are savvy at finding deals with credit cards, hotels and car rentals. This is just coming from my own experience flying mostly in Denver, Chicago O'Hare, Detroit  and Minneapolis.

Watch out for those business travelers, they will run you down on the runway!

Organix vs. L'oreal Kids

This morning in the shower while looking at my three different Organix shampoo bottles I had a flashback. I remembered back to when I was a child and used the L'oreal kids tear-less shampoos. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrp0NqKvoYA  I would try to entice my mother into trying to buy every color they had. It was always a great memory going to the Glen's grocery store and smelling all of the flavors and picking which one I hadn't tried yet and smelled the best. Today I find myself doing the same thing. In the aisle at Target I'll smell all of the different Organix shampoos and usually I choose one that I haven't tried before. 

I find it pretty interesting that L'oreal kids tear-less shampoo was marketed on its different colored and smelling product line when I was a kid and now Organix seems to be similar in its marketing tactics. Coincidence? 

First Entry!

Let me start off by introducing myself, I am Hannah David. I am a Michigander that moved here 3 years ago to attend Montana State University.

 

The purpose of this blog is not only to receive points in my consumer behavior class, but also it's for myself to reflect on all of the things I have learned in this class during the course of the semester. I am a marketing major so there will be a lot of overlap of things I learn in my classes this semester. This blog may reflect upon that.

 

I will give you a little pictorial preview of topics and things that I enjoy and will probably be posting about as they relate to consumer behavior:

 

  

 

 Along with a bunch of other random articles I find on BuzzFeed or Facebook.

Enjoy!