Step Away From The Bag of Chips

When I was in 6th grade my teacher's son, who was a medic for the army, came to visit our class to talk about his experience overseas. I don't remember a lot of what he talked about except one thing. MREs- Meals Ready to Eat. The science behind them I found so cool when first being introduced to them. One food he brought was beef strew, and if he broke a certain area of the packet and mixed water with is the beef stew would come to life. I seriously thought that it was black magic.

He handed around samples of the beef stew for us to try and the entire class thought that they were pretty good. I remember it looking and tasting just as any beef stew that I had. However, when we were all done he made this comment," MREs get gross, fast." Well then.

To this day I have wanted to taste again a MRE and see what changes can be made in order to make it better. However for now I'll stick with my inconsistent meal plan of frozen food, ramen, and fruit. Every once in a while I find myself downing a case of Pringles with ease. I'll change my approach by taking one out at a time, to a small stack and then tell myself "okay, that's enough, Julia". It just kills me that a Pringle canister fits perfectly into a cup holder in a vehicle. Because that stack of Pringles went through a long growling process of what appeals to a consumers. The thickness, taste, shape were all considered.

I found the science behind our addiction to junk food really fascinating. The amount of time and dedication towards a simple food product such as spaghetti sauce was very interesting. Example being, it took months of research to learn what kinds of sauces were the most popular. Three categories were devised: Plain, spicy, and extra chunky. Discovering that Prego did not offer an extra chuck option took them by surprise. They revamped there formula and put them on the shelves. The thought process, simple data collecting, and implementation of Howard Moskowitz revolutionized the food industry thought process. oH

I will never forget the day I walked into a super market and saw Lays'  southern biscuits and gravy flavored potato chips on the shelf. A product from the "Lays do us a flavor" contest.  What kind of process did this flavor go through to become a thing? I am by no means dissing on someone's idea. The person who created this flavor, Hailey Green, won 1 million dollars for her flavor. However, I cannot see how empathy was applied to this process.

While in deep thought it reoccured to me that's the point of consumer behavior. My ideas, thoughts, and motives are all based on the same notions . Everyones ideas, thoughts, and motives can come from the same question.  It is how someone applies there ideas, thoughts, and motives which differentiate us. Yeah, I kinda see biscuits and gravy chips as gross, unattractive, and pointless, but someone doesn't. Which is perfectly ok. Everyone's needs should be address.


P.S.- So I'm confident that I have a photo of a chipmunk in Yellowstone National Park snacking on a chip, but I can't find it. So Yahoo Answer user Pebbles will have to do. Till next time.

Say Yes To The Dress Your Friends Say Yes To

Most afternoons on Tuesday's and Thursday's after my last class of the day I head straight to the library to continue working on the numerous projects that have taken over my life. However, on this particular afternoon I was able to go home, eat something that wasn't ramen, and turn on the television. Flipping through the channels one show caught my attention that I haven't seen in a long time: Say Yes To The Dress.  

Seeing that no one was around to watch me indulge in the high fashion wedding dress industry, I decided to watch what kind of wedding dresses were out there. I decided to watch two episodes before going back to the library. 

For those who are unaware of how the show works, brides and there entourage come into Kleinfeld Bridal and "Say yes to a dress". Kleinfeld sells more designer dresses than any other store in the world. Friends and family come in to help the bride pick out the perfect wedding dress for her big day. Multiple women are featured in each episode, along with information about themselves, their fiancés, and the drama their guests bring. 

One bride in particular was back to get a fitting for the dress that she had picked in a previous episode. She brought her mother and a friend to see her in what the dress would really look like. Her comment moments before entering the dressing room was, " If my friends don't like my dress then I don't know what I am going to do."

Those words made me think a double take of what she said. Why would her friends have that much power over HER wedding dress? I always thought that it was suppose to be what you liked and wanted, friends would guide you but preferably just be there to have a good time. She had a beautiful dress picked out and it looked stunning on her. In the end, her friend did like the dress she picked. 

Her thought process on deciding what dress to pick reminded me of Predictably Irrational. " Overall, those who made their choices out loud, in the standard way that food is ordered at restaurants, were not as happy with there selections as those who made their choices privately, without taking others' opinions into consideration". 

So for Say Yes To The Dress producers, maybe they should recommend that brides come alone?Leave the mother-in-law, sister, cousin, aunt, girlfriend's options out of it. 

Persuaders Persuaders

I have always had an infatuation of NYC and in particular Times Square. The lights, screens, and nonstop movement of people is a far cry from the small town living I am used too. It truly is the city that never sleeps, and for that matter, the city that never stops advertising.

I sat at Cold Smoke and set my timer for 15 minutes to see how many ads I would see. I saw eight different brands of backpacks. Eight! Nike, Under Armor, JanSport, The North Face, High Sierra, Osprey, Swiss, and Dankine. Laptops varying from Apple to Toshiba, most being designed to the users liking. The popular Beats headphones and a lot of knock off designs. Flat bill hats that said Brooklyn ( oh how ironic) to the Patagonia ball caps. The further I go along in this list of my findings, the more disorganized and rather chaotic it becomes. The clutter crisis is here in Bozeman at a local coffee shop and is just as prominent as it would be in the heart of Times Square.

I get overwhelmed by life and everything that gets thrown at me. So I try to make an effort to go to Yellowstone National Park once a month to "unplug". I love the scenery during every season and watch how the circle of life will progress throughout the park. Here is a link with 32 fun facts about Yellowstone National Park: http://www.yellowstonepark-trip.com/fun-facts-about-yellowstone-park.php

However, their is all no service in the park as well as Cooke City- making a weekend trip seem long and unentertaining in the evenings. In a situation where telephone service and other internet devices are put to a mute, ads easily enter into the park. Car brands, bumper stickers, and clothing can be just as overwhelming as Times Square if you take a moment to point out ads in your surroundings.

This documentary also made me realize how wording truly does change the emotion associated with the meaning. It was so fascinating to hear how Frank Luntz approaches problems his clients bring him and how the simple answer is to just listen to what consumers want to hear. 80% of our life is based on emotions, the rest is intellect. From there Luntz can bridge the gap to bring deep emotions to every conversation. From the Iraq war to the war on terrorism. I thought of one: college payments versus college tuition. Wording can completely change the way you think or approach a topic. To persuade you towards what they want you to think.

Every product and service is a representation of a brand that wants to leave an impression on you. After watching The Persuaders I came to this realization that their really may be no escape to ads.

Disney- A Human Trap Set Up By A Mouse

Hi again. So my twin sister has been off on an LDS mission for the past 17 months and will be returning home here shortly! Ah, I'm so excited. I was just flipping though some photos of our last adventure before she left.

We decided to go visit a mutual friend who lives in Maryland and got the crazy idea to road trip from Fruitland, Maryland to Disneyworld in one day. She told me it was only a 7-10 hour drive depending on the traffic. I believed her but as it turns out it was a 17 hour drive. I thought I was going to die from how people drive over there.

After a long day of driving we hit the parks. We went to a couple of Disney parks and Universal Studios over a 5 day span. It was during the heat of May, so I witnessed a lot of meltdown due to the heat side effects.  We were all literally melting in this heat. A bottle of Dasani water was $5 and the drinking fountain water was disgusting. My sister did some research before hand and decided to bring some water flavoring packets to offset the taste. That was a mistake, so we were inclined to buy the water bottles.

There was a point when it was so hot that one of my friends could not handle the heat anymore, and decided to buy one of those water bottle misting fans.

Guys, Disney was selling this water bottle misting fan for $18-19.

The salesman who had these water bottle misting fans was selling them like hot cakes (pun intended). Ice cream was upward of $7. We split meals in order to compensate for the money spent. You notice the trend here.

There are forums and blogs about how expensive Disney is getting. A year or two ago, Disney announced that they would raise there prices to over $100 for an adult ticket. And yet people are still buying tickets and taking family vacations there
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Disney is one of the top companies in the world, and rightfully so. They have developed an experience that is nothing like you'll ever get anywhere else. With that being said, I feel that people are so infatuated with the brand and they are willing to pay anything with Disney involved, including during there time there. That is the ultimate goal of any company. Disney has developed the story of being the happiest place on earth.

Is This On Sale Or Regular Price?

Men do this too!

So the other day at work I was fixing up some product and I over heard the following conversation.

Employee: Hi, are you finding everything okay?
Customer: I have a question. Is this on sale or is it just regular price?
Employee: That would be the regular price.
Customer: *Proceeds to place power drill back down slowly*- Oh okay.

Would that customer really buy that power drill if it happened to have a sales sign on it? With  everything else staying the same, including the price the customer was looking at. I have always wondered...

Mattress stores, furniture stores, and outlet malls are always having a sale it seems. How can you forget the crazy dancing cartoon billowing in the wind. The word sale is a trigger, making whatever the product or service becoming more valuable. According to this website, "a sale is the old faithful of marketing words. While a lot of businesses use the word "sale", it has the power to motivate customers. Who doesn't love a good deal?"

There are times where I wonder if a sale item is really on sale. Did those sneakers really drop 50% in price? It appears to me that spending $130 on a pair of Nikes is just way over priced for a pair of shoes. However, if this pair, at the same price of $130 were on sale (↑) from the "original listed price" of $260, then this was such a good sale and buy! I am so guilty of purchasing thing solely because they are on sale. I'm sitting here waiting for the day a Professional Kitchenaid goes on sale. But my point being is if wording such as sale, everything must go, off,  and now are all just specific and strategically used words to trigger consumers into a buying mood?

Because it doesn't really fool me, but then again, it does.

The next time I go to Yellowstone National Park I will try to seek out if I see any sales, promotions, or liquidations that are attracting all the late season tourists. I'm sure there must be something with more and more parts of the park beginning to close. Reflecting back, I can't really think of any sales , so if something comes up I'll report it!

Choices Upon Choices

I just finished reading The Paradox of Choice  by Barry Schwartz. It was a very interesting read. Funny how the further along you get into your degree, the more enjoyable book assignments become. Anyways, the book's theme was based on choices and how many a consumer will face. It wasn't just about small choices such as comparing gas prices, but  big ones like picking a spouse.

The biggest take away for me was the discussion on finding the key to happiness. It is crazy how comparisons come into play when deciding if you are satisfied with your choice. Did my friend make a better choice? What will another friend think?  Schwartz discusses how everyone falls for the same price concepts, its how humans are programs.

This is the trend of Maximizers- a term used of those  who look at every avenue before making a choice. I found myself being a maximizer when deciding what kind of king mattress I wanted to purchase.  It was Labor Day weekend, claimed to be the best time of year to hit up the mattress stores for sales. I left my fishing trip early to commute back to Bozeman to research were to go and what is considered a good mattress. Store after store my list began to shrink, however, the mattresses all started to feel the same.

After looking at every store in town, I went home empty handed. Then I decided to look at online reviews and see what other people had said. First of all, it was extremely difficult to find the mattresses I tested out online. So find a review was impossible. However, I did find some that were similar enough and went off those reviews. All of them were good reviews, but one did stand out. After reading that review I walked into Mattress King and made the purchase.

After reading this book, I now can analyze how and why I make decisions. I'm sure I'll still succumb to bad decisions and make comparisons, but now I understand why.

This Is Halloween

Its the most wonderful time of the year! And no, it's not Christmas.

I feel that October brings the full swing of the holiday seasons. October = Halloween. November = Thanksgiving. December = Christmas. It makes the end of the year fly by as well, which at times isn't terrible to hurry up the semester.

Halloween starts the series of marketing campaigns that will be issued through the holiday season. For Halloween, ads for candy, costumes, and decorations will take storm. Each year, I've noticed that retailers are releasing product that is holiday related earlier and earlier. It is so noticeable with Christmas, due to the holiday music blaring throughout the stores. But for Halloween more and more stores are starting to try to sell halloween oriented stuff before October 1st.

Getting ready for Halloween 3 months in advance

According to Fortune, " Americans are expected to shell out for Halloween, with the cost of candy, costumes, and decorations expected to total $6.9 billion as the average American spends $74." I don't think that $74 is terrible, especially after see how expensive a big bag of candy is. Seeing the price of $20 made me feel a little bad for those neighborhoods who get slammed with kids though. So maybe instead of Christmas in July we will start seeing Halloween during Easter?

 I never realized how big the holiday industry was till I started paying more attention to the marketing efforts that were being made. The more I look around, the more industries I notice "being born" to me. Holiday industry, wedding industry, I wonder what I will come across next?