Wikipedia Project

Friday, Nov. 20, 3:17- look on both Google and Bing to find out how to make a revision. Fail.

Sunday, Nov. 22nd, 5:16- repeat previous task. I then figured out how to make a revision. I chose to make one on an article about my summer residence, Rockaway Beach in Queens NY. I made an edit to the education section of the article, then pressed save.

This assignment drove home just how easy it is to make revisions to articles. What I posted, although true, does not have much to do with the education in Rockaway. However it will stay up until someone decides it does not fit the rest of the section, however long that may take. I could have written something derogatory of offensive about Rockaway, and yet it would at least stay up for a few hours after posting my revision. This makes me truly wonder how much of the information on Wikipedia is believable.

David Barko
Media Literacy
10/15/09
Midterm Part 1
“Future of” Marketing Tactics
There are constantly new ideas arising that lead to the creation of new products. With these new products comes a need to market them to the consumers. Companies go to great lengths in order to find the most efficient ways to market their products in a way that will touch their potential consumers on a personal level and incite them to purchase their product. One such idea that is in the process of becoming a product is the Virtusphere, a machine that brings users in a virtual realm that they can walk around in. It is made of a literal life-size hamster ball, about 200 times the size, that a person can walk around in. With a headset attached, they are able to look and walk around whatever virtual realm they choose the computer to bring them to. This machine would make it possible for people to walk around historic sites around the globe or even explore the deserts of Mars. A product like this would require a marketing and advertising strategy to make people aware of the product and eventually buy it. Two tactics that could be used to market this product are cool hunting and narrow casting.
The Virtusphere could be marketed by trying to find out what interests certain types of people. Certain places that the virtual sphere could take you or what activities or games could be played in it would be influenced by what people think is “cool”. Some people might want to participate in first person shooter games, some might want to play a sport, or some might want to explore through a jungle. This type of information could be found by doing research on what activities are “cool” nowadays and what would attract people to use this device. If this product incorporates what is cool into its uses, more people will want to buy this product. This type of persuasive tactic is used by some of the biggest companies in the world today. Researchers are constantly trying to find out what interests people and what people find cool in today’s world by immersing themselves in the culture of the demographic they are trying to study. Between meeting these people in person, logging into chat rooms, and going to events that they will be at, a researcher can gain great insights into what these people want.
Another tactic that could be used to market the Virtusphere is narrowcasting. The act of narrowcasting, also known as target marketing, is when a company picks a specific target audience to market their product to. This is a basic tactic used by marketers and is helpful ,making consumers feel as if the advertisement was made for them. Stronger connections are then built between the company and the consumer and it becomes a more personal relationship with the brand as opposed to just a buy. This could be used to market this product by depicting people partaking in various activities while in the Virtusphere. This tactic is very similar to cool hunting in that the marketers want to find out the interests of their potential consumers. The Virtusphere advertisements could show one person walking around Yankee Stadium in their virtual realm while another ad could show someone wandering through the Coliseum, both as if they were actually there. There could be people playing video games, sports, or touring the world without even leaving their ball. By showing different activities happening in the Virtusphere, you are targeting the specific interests of different groups of people, all of whom will get the same excitement to partake in their realm of interest. This tactic is being used today by all companies to market products. Through focus groups for certain demographics and even cool hunting, marketers are trying to hit a specific target audience with their advertisements. Without this essential tactic, the message will slip through the cracks of the general public without touching a specific group.
New types of marketing tactics that could be on the horizon are going to be much more electronically based. Tracking or polling such things as what people buy, where they go, and what their interest are are just a of these few possibilities. With the rise of social networking sites like Twitter, marketers can find out exactly what people are thinking during their daily activities. By keeping tracks of these types of sites, marketers can know exactly what potential consumers are thinking about, possibly during their interactions with advertisements or during shopping decisions. Interactive ads have been around for a while but personalized advertisements based on the information gained through social networking sites may also come about. This will cause the relationships between consumers and companies to grow even stronger than they are now, leading to higher levels of brand loyalty and more specific brand characters.
Marketing in today’s world is very complicated due to the numerous amounts of other advertisements in essence trying to accomplish the same goal that you are. In order to market a new product such as the Virtushpere, two possible tactics that would be beneficial for marketers would be cool hunting and narrowcasting. With the constant changes in techniques for reaching consumers, who know how marketers will advertise the Virtusphere in the years to come.

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.

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.

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)

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