1) Packaging is a vital aspect or marketing for several reasons. First and foremost, it is the first thing the consumer sees and is what they base their initial judgment on. If packaging doesn’t stick out or is too overwhelming a customer is less likely to consider it if they don’t know what’s inside. Packaging is also important when considering the user and what they will be doing with the product. It’s important for a coke bottle to fit in one’s hand and for a milk carton to stow away nicely in the refrigerator. When considering costs of marketing, a product that takes up too much space is not cost efficient.
When thinking about different kinds of packaging, the first thing that came to mind was bottled water. Upon entering a convenience store, one is faced with the decision of deciding between numerous waters. There’s twist-off caps, squirt caps, round bottles, square bottles, clear bottles, blue bottles, grip bottles, short bottles, tall bottles, and many other designs, not to mention the product inside. With so many choices, certain bottles are bound to stick out a little too much while others go unnoticed. For example, Fiji water, with it’s short, square bottle has always caught my eye, but I’ve never bought one. On the other hand, there’s Aquafina, packaged in bulky cylindrical containers that I usually never notice. More times than not, I don’t choose Aquafina, Dasani, or Ethos, rather I go for the simple, convenient squirt top bottle. The design of these bottles just makes sense, it fits in a cup holder as well as in my hand, I can drink it without having to take the top off and put it back on with each sip, and don’t have to worry about spills in the car or on the run.
2) Other products with iconic packaging include: Axe Deodorant- has revolutionized the deodorant/cologne industry. The packaging is a very modern design, that is eye-catching, but not too much. Designed to be a quick way to apply a fresh scent, the axe bottle utilizes a spray top with a lock position to avoid any accidentally deodorizing. Overall, the Axe design is one that many people have come to recognize and are immediately drawn to; Patron Tequila- as the large, wooden door of the fraternity swings open to reveal a very conventional college party, picture all of the students holding majestic, stout, cork plugged bottles of patron in the place of their normal Keystone Light. Shocking, right? The resulting confusion and awe of the scene is the result of Patron's packaging masterpiece, in addition to their prestigious name in the tequila market.
A very uniquely designed glass bottle, short and stout with the classic patron cork and ribbon, the bottle is the essence of class. The cork portrays a sense of elegance as if conceived from a bottle of the world’s finest chardonnay. Plain and simple, the Patron bottle has become known as the epitome of style and class in a world that has become distraught over the tasteless and reckless consumption of alcohol.
3) Usability is a huge aspect of packaging. Sure the initial design can make a few sales, but if the product is unusable because of its poor packaging, then why would anyone want it? Natural and simple packaging is often the best stimulant for an easy to use product. Examples of user-friendly packaging include Propel Fitness Water and Oreo Cookies. Examples of bad packaging are Capri Sun Juice Boxes and Kool-Aid Bursts.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Uncle Ed's Oil Shoppe
1) The store I observed was Uncle Ed's Oil Shoppe in Kalamazoo. Their market is all car drivers, they try to attract customers who have become bored with the same old oil change routine.
2) a. On the outside the shop is all brick, with a kind of old European look. Cars enter around the back into one of three stalls.
b. Inside the store, workers are shouting information, data, and orders, creating an entertaining scene. Surprisingly much of the equipment was quieter than at a usual oil change joint. Beside small amount of the normal clinking and clanking of a service garage, there was really no constant, annoying sounds. Music from the radio is also being played throughout the garage.
c. There is some merchandise hanging on the walls, but for the most part the garage manager spends a lot of time showing and trying to sell different products. Before I even picked out my oil I was being shown the latest in windshield wiper technology. Next I was given a chart that meant nothing to me which displayed the different types of oil changes. I originally chose the cheapest, but not long after I was talked into a change that was three times the price of the first.
d. The floor wasn't too visible to me as the drivers stay in their cars during the change. Typical of a service garage, the cars were parked over an open floor into a lower level for service to easily work under the car.
e. Throughout the garage signs were posted guaranteeing certain services to be performed in under 10 minutes and done right. Other than that there was no information on the walls, just more quotes and saying about the professional quality oil change you were getting.
f. The cashier area was located in the middle of the store, but again was not accessible to the customer. Either way, the are was just a computer with a printer where customers' information was put in and bills were printed.
3. The business really focused on portraying a professional, friendly image. Before entering the garage the manager came out and introduced himself and told me it would be just a few minutes. Once in the garage I was given numerous tips on what I should and shouldn’t have done as well as being offered 20% off because I'm a little strapped for cash. Still, I felt a little taken advantage of. As with most people in a service garage, I didn't even realize there were different kinds of oil changes. I was offered $50 washer blades that are "the best ever," a $100 full engine cleaning to remove sludge, and was talked into changing from a $30 change into a $80 change. Despite clearly being taken advantage of, I felt that the guys really cared about what they were doing and did a good job establishing a relationship with me throughout the change (it took more like an hour, not ten minutes).4. An interesting concept applied by Uncle Ed's is the fact that customers don't leave their cars. When I opened my door to get out of the car I was asked if my window was broken, but then they realized I was a new customer and told me to stay in the car. Everything was brought to me, from charts and papers to my car's dipstick and air filter, I personally saw everything that came in, out, and back into my car. While in the car though, I was kept busy by the signs and all the different things to read on them.5. Overall, I was drawn in by the interesting, old-age design of the store and was further captivated by the design of the workers' image. The signs around the store were very interesting as well. Often in a service garage the walls are rather bland and you spend your time looking at a magazine, but here there was something to look at. Along with the close interaction with the service people, the signs were more than enough to keep me busy for the extended amount of time I was there.
2) a. On the outside the shop is all brick, with a kind of old European look. Cars enter around the back into one of three stalls.
b. Inside the store, workers are shouting information, data, and orders, creating an entertaining scene. Surprisingly much of the equipment was quieter than at a usual oil change joint. Beside small amount of the normal clinking and clanking of a service garage, there was really no constant, annoying sounds. Music from the radio is also being played throughout the garage.
c. There is some merchandise hanging on the walls, but for the most part the garage manager spends a lot of time showing and trying to sell different products. Before I even picked out my oil I was being shown the latest in windshield wiper technology. Next I was given a chart that meant nothing to me which displayed the different types of oil changes. I originally chose the cheapest, but not long after I was talked into a change that was three times the price of the first.
d. The floor wasn't too visible to me as the drivers stay in their cars during the change. Typical of a service garage, the cars were parked over an open floor into a lower level for service to easily work under the car.
e. Throughout the garage signs were posted guaranteeing certain services to be performed in under 10 minutes and done right. Other than that there was no information on the walls, just more quotes and saying about the professional quality oil change you were getting.
f. The cashier area was located in the middle of the store, but again was not accessible to the customer. Either way, the are was just a computer with a printer where customers' information was put in and bills were printed.
3. The business really focused on portraying a professional, friendly image. Before entering the garage the manager came out and introduced himself and told me it would be just a few minutes. Once in the garage I was given numerous tips on what I should and shouldn’t have done as well as being offered 20% off because I'm a little strapped for cash. Still, I felt a little taken advantage of. As with most people in a service garage, I didn't even realize there were different kinds of oil changes. I was offered $50 washer blades that are "the best ever," a $100 full engine cleaning to remove sludge, and was talked into changing from a $30 change into a $80 change. Despite clearly being taken advantage of, I felt that the guys really cared about what they were doing and did a good job establishing a relationship with me throughout the change (it took more like an hour, not ten minutes).4. An interesting concept applied by Uncle Ed's is the fact that customers don't leave their cars. When I opened my door to get out of the car I was asked if my window was broken, but then they realized I was a new customer and told me to stay in the car. Everything was brought to me, from charts and papers to my car's dipstick and air filter, I personally saw everything that came in, out, and back into my car. While in the car though, I was kept busy by the signs and all the different things to read on them.5. Overall, I was drawn in by the interesting, old-age design of the store and was further captivated by the design of the workers' image. The signs around the store were very interesting as well. Often in a service garage the walls are rather bland and you spend your time looking at a magazine, but here there was something to look at. Along with the close interaction with the service people, the signs were more than enough to keep me busy for the extended amount of time I was there.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Store Design
1) The first point made by Gladwell is pertaining to the aspect of the natural human walk and how stores can effectively use it to their advantage. There are many natural, predictable actions that a walking human takes such as walking on the right, walking faster past uninteresting buildings, looking to the right when entering a store, and taking time to adjust when entering a new location. Each of these facets can be used to the advantage of a store when properly understood. Location is everything; window visibility, the decompression zone, and adjacent stores are all important factors in a store’s natural appeal.
Next, Gladwell focused on interior design of the store. It is crucial that the customer feels comfortable while in the store, giving him/her adequate time to browse and indulge in as much as possible. The layout must also consider the shoppers’ other senses, especially touch/feel. When a shopper is invited to touch, hold, and try on clothing they are more likely to be enticed by the product. Overall, it is important that everything in the store be inviting to the customer, they must feel welcome, comfortable, and free to browse without distraction. The longer they are in the store the more they will buy.
Gladwell next stressed that stores cannot make shoppers conform to their wants, rather the store must conform to the shoppers’s wants. It seems that when stores try to manipulate their customers it doesn’t last long, the customer always comes out on top. A grocery store may have the cookies on the bottom shelf for young children to see, but soon the cookie aisle is completely avoided. The redesigning of cosmetic counters is another great example of conforming to buyers’ needs. As of recent, working women don’t have the time to ask a clerk for help, therefore the clerk must be able to get to the potential customer rather than waiting for her.
Gladwell then went on to talk about a company’s ability to predict, based on research, what certain people want. By very carefully collecting data, they are almost magically able to predict what certain people are looking for. In a community there is always a person or group of people whose opinions on are greatly trusted, people go to them for help. It is the thinking of these people that must be understand by retailers as their word is taken in high regard by the rest of society.
Shopper demographics is the next subject on Gladwell’s mind. Each shopper, male or female, young or old, has different preferences in store appearance. In order to effectively draw in and keep in a potential customer those preferences must be recognized. A store must point out its target audience and then attend to their wants. While considering the wants of customers the store is given a chance to manipulate the consumer a bit. If a store can construct a desirable setting/set-up for its customers, why not put the most lucrative items in the back? Force the customer to look at everything and maybe even make an impulse purchase one their way to their destination.
2) To me the idea behind a stores design is very subconscious, and for good reason. It is crucial that a store hide these elements of manipulation as best they can, or else the customer will feel, well, manipulated. Now that these factors have been brought to my attention and I look back on previous shopping experience, I do see how I’ve been manipulated, often without my knowing. Despite my new found knowledge, I think it will still be difficult to keep from falling victim to stores’ manipulation. Everything just makes so much sense; when I go shopping I need something and I know exactly what it is, but if on my way there I see something I want, there’s a good chance I might grab that too.
3) 1. Exterior Design/Location
2. Entrance phase of store
3. Product placement throughout store
4. Meet needs of gender, age, personality, etc. demographic
5. Understand wants of customers, adjust to those, and then take advantage (i.e. product placement)
Next, Gladwell focused on interior design of the store. It is crucial that the customer feels comfortable while in the store, giving him/her adequate time to browse and indulge in as much as possible. The layout must also consider the shoppers’ other senses, especially touch/feel. When a shopper is invited to touch, hold, and try on clothing they are more likely to be enticed by the product. Overall, it is important that everything in the store be inviting to the customer, they must feel welcome, comfortable, and free to browse without distraction. The longer they are in the store the more they will buy.
Gladwell next stressed that stores cannot make shoppers conform to their wants, rather the store must conform to the shoppers’s wants. It seems that when stores try to manipulate their customers it doesn’t last long, the customer always comes out on top. A grocery store may have the cookies on the bottom shelf for young children to see, but soon the cookie aisle is completely avoided. The redesigning of cosmetic counters is another great example of conforming to buyers’ needs. As of recent, working women don’t have the time to ask a clerk for help, therefore the clerk must be able to get to the potential customer rather than waiting for her.
Gladwell then went on to talk about a company’s ability to predict, based on research, what certain people want. By very carefully collecting data, they are almost magically able to predict what certain people are looking for. In a community there is always a person or group of people whose opinions on are greatly trusted, people go to them for help. It is the thinking of these people that must be understand by retailers as their word is taken in high regard by the rest of society.
Shopper demographics is the next subject on Gladwell’s mind. Each shopper, male or female, young or old, has different preferences in store appearance. In order to effectively draw in and keep in a potential customer those preferences must be recognized. A store must point out its target audience and then attend to their wants. While considering the wants of customers the store is given a chance to manipulate the consumer a bit. If a store can construct a desirable setting/set-up for its customers, why not put the most lucrative items in the back? Force the customer to look at everything and maybe even make an impulse purchase one their way to their destination.
2) To me the idea behind a stores design is very subconscious, and for good reason. It is crucial that a store hide these elements of manipulation as best they can, or else the customer will feel, well, manipulated. Now that these factors have been brought to my attention and I look back on previous shopping experience, I do see how I’ve been manipulated, often without my knowing. Despite my new found knowledge, I think it will still be difficult to keep from falling victim to stores’ manipulation. Everything just makes so much sense; when I go shopping I need something and I know exactly what it is, but if on my way there I see something I want, there’s a good chance I might grab that too.
3) 1. Exterior Design/Location
2. Entrance phase of store
3. Product placement throughout store
4. Meet needs of gender, age, personality, etc. demographic
5. Understand wants of customers, adjust to those, and then take advantage (i.e. product placement)
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Web Design
1) Throughout this article Flanders is constantly stressing the concept of user-focused design over firm-focused design. He states that, “too many organizations believe that a web site is about opening a new marketing channel” when in fact they should be focusing on aiding the viewer to gain any and all company related information.
This idea not only applies to web design but to all product design in general. When commenting on the color contrast, Flanders observed that a page’s designer can read the page even when he/she can’t literally read it. This concept, in my opinion, is the hardest obstacle to overcome when designing a product. Too often a “well designed” product is only well designed from the designer’s point of view; never was the customer’s viewpoint considered during the design process, making it terribly difficult for the final user to properly operate the product.
Consumer-focused designed is a key element in creating an easy to use, well organized product or webpage. When users can easily and efficiently use a product they are more likely to consider it a “good” product no matter how high-tech its components are.
2) Expanding on the notion of consumer-focused design, Flanders also touches on several other webpage design concerns including: the four second rule, layout/contrast, and navigation. All of these concepts are vital in the design of a consumer-friendly, easy to use website. A top-notch website utilizes the dialectical relationship between each key component noted by Flanders.
The four second rule is the foundation of a consumer-focused design; if the viewer is not able to quickly understand what they’re looking at, they’ll probably leave. This doesn’t necessarily mean the website can’t be creative and unique, but it is crucial to develop that creativity in an easy to understand way. Again, the point of a website is to further the viewer’s knowledge about the company; if they’re at a company’s website they’re attention has already been gained. At that point the viewer needs nothing more than the information they’re looking for, no further marketing is needed.
A seemingly obvious, but often missed aspect of design is the layout and overall look of the page. Too often do viewers come across illegible contrast or distracting graphics. It is difficult to understand how this mistake can be made, but it does in fact happen. Ultimately, a website’s user is unlikely to take the time to decipher a nearly unreadable page. This point comes back to Flanders thoughts on the designer being bale to read his/her website no matter how poorly it is designed.
Navigation is an underlying aspect of a webpage’s layout. Without clean navigation, a well laid out page is impossible to use. A site’s navigation need not be complicated; a simple navigation system is all that’s needed to allow someone to easily browse the site. Well labeled, properly positioned buttons, each with their own destination, make navigation a subliminal task. Again, the idea of navigation is one that is too often over-complicated, keeping it simple will keep users happy.
3) 1. Organized
2. Only necessary information
3. Few or no videos and/or animation
4. No introduction video
5. Simple navigation
This idea not only applies to web design but to all product design in general. When commenting on the color contrast, Flanders observed that a page’s designer can read the page even when he/she can’t literally read it. This concept, in my opinion, is the hardest obstacle to overcome when designing a product. Too often a “well designed” product is only well designed from the designer’s point of view; never was the customer’s viewpoint considered during the design process, making it terribly difficult for the final user to properly operate the product.
Consumer-focused designed is a key element in creating an easy to use, well organized product or webpage. When users can easily and efficiently use a product they are more likely to consider it a “good” product no matter how high-tech its components are.
2) Expanding on the notion of consumer-focused design, Flanders also touches on several other webpage design concerns including: the four second rule, layout/contrast, and navigation. All of these concepts are vital in the design of a consumer-friendly, easy to use website. A top-notch website utilizes the dialectical relationship between each key component noted by Flanders.
The four second rule is the foundation of a consumer-focused design; if the viewer is not able to quickly understand what they’re looking at, they’ll probably leave. This doesn’t necessarily mean the website can’t be creative and unique, but it is crucial to develop that creativity in an easy to understand way. Again, the point of a website is to further the viewer’s knowledge about the company; if they’re at a company’s website they’re attention has already been gained. At that point the viewer needs nothing more than the information they’re looking for, no further marketing is needed.
A seemingly obvious, but often missed aspect of design is the layout and overall look of the page. Too often do viewers come across illegible contrast or distracting graphics. It is difficult to understand how this mistake can be made, but it does in fact happen. Ultimately, a website’s user is unlikely to take the time to decipher a nearly unreadable page. This point comes back to Flanders thoughts on the designer being bale to read his/her website no matter how poorly it is designed.
Navigation is an underlying aspect of a webpage’s layout. Without clean navigation, a well laid out page is impossible to use. A site’s navigation need not be complicated; a simple navigation system is all that’s needed to allow someone to easily browse the site. Well labeled, properly positioned buttons, each with their own destination, make navigation a subliminal task. Again, the idea of navigation is one that is too often over-complicated, keeping it simple will keep users happy.
3) 1. Organized
2. Only necessary information
3. Few or no videos and/or animation
4. No introduction video
5. Simple navigation
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