Blog Assignment 6 - Due 15-Nov

This week, we'll be discussing social media as a way to gain insight and create customer experiences. You have a couple of choices for this blog and you do not have to do both. On either choice, I would like you to incorporate what you have read from the Groundswell chapters I assigned. This is such an important topic in marketing right now and you all are obviously the experts on this.

1. I would like to hear your thoughts about the best ways for companies to use social media to do one or both of the things we talk about in class often - gaining insight or creating experiences (or both).

- You can certainly focus in on a company or two that you think are doing a good job incorporating social media into their marketing strategy.

- You can also focus on any type of social media - Facebook, Twitter, blogs, other user generated content. Just try to keep some sort of focus in your comments rather than hopping around haphazardly among the different types of media.

2. I would like to hear about your experiences using social media research tools. Use the tools below (or others you know of) to search for a particular brand, company, person, etc. that (who) you think is interesting and then report back on your findings. You don't have to use both extensively, but at least try them out and report back on at least one (note: the zeitgeist has several tools).

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/

http://blogsearch.google.com/

As always, please keep the length guidelines in mind and have fun with it!

Blog Assignment 5 - Due 29-Oct

I came across this creativity exercise a few years ago and then again just a couple of weeks ago and thought it would be fun for us to try. (BTW, the above images are supposed to be a stone, a camera, and a camera made out of stone... my photo-posting skills a blog are not that great.) I haven't done this with a class before so we'll see how this goes. Here are your instructions:

Send the following text message to two different friends:

Working on a class project. Need you to send me the word of a random inanimate object/thing.

Do not cheat on this step (i.e., do not pick the words yourself). You can put it into your own text speak – I’m not sure how you all abbreviate things these days, but try to not to change the content of the message.

If one of your friends sends you a word that is too difficult, like maybe “sky” or “ground,” then feel fee to text a third or fourth friend. If they send a word like “bird,” just point out that it needs to be inanimate (and then point them to a dictionary if they don’t know that word). J

Once you get the words, here is how you should structure your blog:

First word: (insert first word here in all caps)

Write out a few lines of your thoughts about this word. Just brainstorm here – a mind dump. You can write down any thoughts that come into your head as you think about the word, maybe synonyms, uses of the object, memories or whatever comes to mind.

Second word: (insert second word here in all caps)

Same instructions as above: Write out a few lines of your thoughts about this word. Just brainstorm here – a mind dump. You can write down any thoughts that come into your head as you think about the word, maybe synonyms, uses of the object, memories or whatever comes to mind.

Now, start listing and describing ways that you can combine the two objects. I would shoot for 10-20 ideas here. Keep pushing yourself. If you get stuck, leave the task and come back to it later. Do not filter your ideas, put them all out there.

Lastly, do any of the ideas seem like they might be viable products or services? Are there any that could be with minor alterations to your original idea?

Blog Assignment 4 - Due 11-Oct

As we've been discussing in class, this next blog is an opportunity for you to explore your paper topic. Here's what I want to see:

- Idea for the topic, fleshed out as much as possible - this can also include all the questions you have about the topic at this point. Use the blog as a brainstorming session for yourself to get your ideas out there and make this a first attempt at organizing your thoughts around the topic.

- Why is this topic interesting to you (remember: this is a big goal for the assignment)?

- What is the connection to the gathering and identification of customer insights and/or the design of valuable customer experiences? (at least, as you see it right now)

- Cite and briefly describe at least one article that is related to your topic (this can be either an academic article or trade article, at this point). Do your best to find an article that might be a central source or guidepost for your paper.

Have fun with it. And don't forget the length guidelines. Also, try NOT to write in sentence fragments, although a list here and there is fine.

Life Sack Addresses Clean Drinking Water Challenge

Another friend posted this on his blog and the design features on this just seemed like something perfect to share with this class. A bag that can be used to shop grains and such that then can be used as a water filtration system - not to mention that it can be worn like a backpack to and from the water source. Admittedly, I don't understand the purification technology, but this sounds really amazing.

http://inhabitat.com/2010/09/16/life-sack-solves-drinking-water-issues-for-the-third-world/

Blog Assignment 3 - Due 24-Sep

Wow - already at Blog #3. So, we have been discussing customer experiences this week, including the overall idea of an experience and an example framework to understand a bit better how to operationalize the idea. Using some of the discussion points from this week, identify and describe a customer experience that you think was particularly meaningful to you. Describe the overall experience, including how you felt and the immediate connections you have with the experience, and then break apart the experience in some way so that you can make sense of the parts that made up the overall experience. I'll talk about this more in class on Wednesday - at the very least, to get started, try to think of that great experience and just put some words to it. Don't forget about the guidelines from the syllabus and the feedback that Jay and I have been giving you. As always... have fun with it!

Blog Assignment 2 - Due 15-Sep

After reading the chapter on the persona lifecycle and looking at the Cohort Personas I also posted, think about the kind of information that a marketer would need to create an accurate and rich persona of you (or people like you).

With that in mind, create a persona for you (or people like you) in a way that would be very valuable for marketers. Remember, what we are looking for here are detailed and nuanced descriptions about you that would lead a marketer to discover or identify key insights about you - of course, what you provide may just be the first nugget and the researcher might have to dig deeper to uncover the real insight, but the information you provide should be a great start.

Please remember the length requirements for blogs as well as the grading criteria (all of which are available in the syllabus). Have fun with it!

Blog Assignment 1 - Due 1-Sep

Well, hello and welcome to your first blog assignment!

This blog needs to be posted by the beginning of class on Wednesday, Sept. 9th.

For this one, I'm interested in your reaction to the information you'll read and the discussion we'll have on Monday regarding incorporating a design philosophy into our marketing practice.

Here are some questions to which you can respond (you do not have to respond to all of them):

1. Was there anything that was especially surprising, intriguing, or interesting about what you have read/heard, in terms of a design philosophy (either the history and/or the current practice)?

2. Was there anything that you found to be especially unhelpful, misleading, or maybe even destructive/distracting about incorporating a design philosophy into our marketing practice?

3. Can you think of any products, services, or overall experiences that you think are especially creative/innovative or thoughtful in terms of its design? In fact, does anything about it seem to correspond to the principles presented by the various designers that Jeff covered? If you can't think of anything, maybe you can comment about something you have read about or heard about, thus far, that you think is especially interesting or not so much.

Remember the length and other scoring guidelines. Also, keep in mind that this is also a writing/communication exercise for you to use to improve those skills. Finally, try to have fun with it.