Monday, September 28, 2009

Persuaders Questions

The Persuaders Questions:

1. One thing about the Persuaders that surprised me was the part about using the ideas of a cult in order to figure out why people buy certain brands and or products. The film stated that it takes the same thought process that goes with joining a cult is used by customers in their decisions to buy certain products. A sense of belonging and being part of something bigger than yourself is surprisingly a reason for spending an extra $30 dollars on jeans or extra thousands of dollars on a car.
One new thing I learning about politics was how influential the words chosen by certain candidates are. It was amazing to watch the man (I can't remember his name) go through the certain words to his focus group to see which words will help give his client the best possible speech, proposition, etc. It is not a hard idea to understand and makes a great deal of sense, but I do not think many people actually thought as heavily about what words they are using in order to get their point across with positive feedback.
I feel that for most people who watch this film, the one thing that is reiterated about oneself is that the amount of advertising we see on a daily basis is unreal. Something that may have been different for me, being an advertising major, was how creative I will have to be and how cut throat I will have to be with my ideas in order that they are seen through the clutter( massive amounts of advertising everywhere we look). To stand out with your advertisements, extreme research and connection with the consumer is only one of the many steps to having a successful ad.

2. It was extremely surprising to see how in depth the questions were that the market researcher was asking the man about white bread. When asked if white bread made him feel tired, angry, safe, or nervous, at first I laughed but then realized just how much companies want to know about their consumers in order to make a strong connection. I personally have never felt anything close to safe or nervous about the food i eat or the clothes I wear, but to see that companies are going to these extremes to find out what consumers really want in their products is interesting.
Another surprising method used by the French market researcher was how he conducted his focus groups. He split them up into 3 stages. The first he would put a word up on a board and have the people tell him what words came to mind when thinking about that word. The second stage he would make people make up a story that they would tell to a 5 year old from another planet to throw their minds off balance. Then in the final stage they would sit on the floor instead of chairs. He would then turn off the lights and have the people fall asleep. When they awoke, he would ask them more questions. His reasoning for this was to catch the peoples' minds and thoughts at their ripest which was in his opinion when they were thrown off or when they were just waking up. Many companies would travel to his mansion in upstate New York to hear his ideas on how to understand the consumer so he must be doing something right.
I usually do not do surveys or questionnaires, but if I were to I would probably provide all of the information asked besides my cell phone number. As the video showed, market researches and companies already have large amount of information about us as it is. What kind of music I listen to or favorite snacks is no big deal. However, I would be hesitant to give out information like social security numbers, cell phone numbers, credit card information, and types of medications that my family members take. This type of information could lead to companies being able to track a consumer much easier than that person may want.

Thursday, September 24, 2009




This picture shows the myth of photographic truth very well in my opinion. The origional picture shows a man snorkling over a massive whale shark, but when cropped it is just a picture of a man swimming the the water. You cant really see what kind of water or even how deep it is when cropped but looking at the original copy you know that he much be extremely far out into the ocean.

Monday, September 14, 2009

This Photoshop collage represents the medium, content, and message for the social networking site Facebook. Facebook has quickly become one of the most popular ways to stay connected with friends and acquaintances from all over the world. Through member profile pages, pictures, and wall posts, Facebook members are now able to stay connected to others who are geographically distant from them. Facebook's message or impact is that it has not only helped people stay in touch from different parts of the world but has also completely redefined how we stay in touch with one another. (Sorry about the link text, not sure why that happened)

Thursday, September 10, 2009

3New Mediums

Three new mediums that were extremely knew and took time to adjust to are:

Ipods

Social Networking Sites(Facebook in particular)

DVD Players