Week 4 EOC: An App for That - Food Allergies and Eating Away from Home

It seems as though the general public is becoming increasingly aware of various kinds of food allergies, food intolerances, and alternative diets or lifestyles, and restaurants are responding to this health food revolution by vastly changing their menus. Therein lies a problem, though – there are so many different lifestyles that it can be hard to accommodate all of them, try as a hardworking business owner might. People with allergies, intolerances, or even simple food preferences can find the experience of trying comfortably eat away from home to be laborious and difficult, effectively ruining the experience for themselves and eating establishments alike.

In order to solve this issue, I propose the creation of an cell phone application that first takes a person’s immediate food restrictions and current location into account, and then proceeds to scour local eateries’ menus for sufficient recommendations on exactly where that person can potentially eat, without fear of being let down, accidentally poisoned (for lack of a better term), or secretly scrutinized or scowled at simply because they cannot or will not consume certain ingredients. With proper care and attention, such an app could become a sort of lifeline to those who, initially, would refuse to eat away from the safety of their own refrigerator.

There are two ways this app could be designed, each with their own potential drawbacks and appeal. The first implementation would require software that scans local menus, looking for key words and narrowing one’s food choices in that way. The downfall here could be that a simple software design flaw, miscalculation, or misunderstood ingredient may eliminate safe eating options or suggest unsafe options. The second implementation requires the cooperation of restaurants in nearly all places in offering certain meals or safe eating options, which would, of course, be an incredibly time-consuming endeavor that must take menu changes in innumerable establishments into account at all times.

Week 3 EOC: My Demographic

In the book Marketing: An Introduction, millennials are mentioned a few times and are often described as being one way or another. That said, those instances seem to involve generalizations that may or may not be true, depending on the item or items in question as well as the behaviors described. For instance, in chapter 6 and on page 197, millennials are brought up in a discussion about car sales as follows: “The young Millennials are an expressive, hypercreative bunch who are setting out to establish their independence. They value things built just for them, with lots of room for personalization. Finally, these younger buyers grew up with the Web, blogging, cell phones, text messaging, and social networks. They’re a uniquely social group, with both the need and the technical savvy to stay in touch—anywhere, anytime.” While many millennials, including myself, would like to identify as hyper-creative and independent, an argument can be made that some of the technology we possess can make us rather dependent on luxuries like the internet or cell phones, and that we are drained of creativity at times due to this dependence on what is factually stated on the internet. In that regard, though, the book is correct in establishing the idea that at least the vast majority of millennials have experience with technology as a necessity for modern life, even if not all people of that age identify as being particularly “tech savvy.”

One completely true acknowledgement that the book makes on page 73 (in chapter 3) is that millennials are constantly being bombarded with marketing messages. It is true that now, more than ever, companies are taking advantage of a relatively free market and seeing consumers flock to the highest bidder. Corporations have a large degree of control, but it should be noted that still-living baby boomers, gen-x-ers, and those who are a part of the newest generation (whatever that may be called) are also receiving those marketing ploys whenever possible.

Week 3 EOC: Making Money for Good

When most people think of charity, it is likely that they think of food drives for a local homeless population, or even simply donating cash or canned food to a large charity. What many may not realize is that several parts of the world do not have the luxury of clean water or even soap. Hand in Hand decided to raise the public's awareness of that issue and help to provide such things to those in need, using one-purchase, one-donation system that they affectionately refer to on their website (handinhandsoap.com) as “buy a bar, give a bar.” Anyone familiar with the popular shoe brand, TOMS, is probably familiar with this rather self-explanatory process.

Essentially, each sale the company makes is for-profit, but for every bar of soap sold, Hand in Hand donates part of those profits to supplying an entire month of clean water to children in need who live within a given area, as well as giving one child a bar of soap. “Courtney and Bill set out to start a business based on sustainable giving.  By directly tying charitable donations to the sale of an everyday product, Hand in Hand is able to give soap and clean water to those in need and save lives…” (www.handinhandsoap.com/pages/about-us)

Soap, however, can be harmful to the environment if not disposed of properly. Hand in Hand knows this and has taken steps to engineer a product that is as eco-friendly as possible, so as not to do more harm than good. “To have a product that is truly eco-friendly, means more than just having natural ingredients.  We have found that many natural soaps use ingredients that ultimately come from intentionally cleared rainforests, which was something that we wanted no part in.  Every ingredient in our soap is not only natural, but it is harvested and grown in an environmentally friendly way." (www.handinhandsoap.com/pages/about-us) 

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

Star: Easily, the mobile device application market is the star of the video game world. The majority of people in developed countries have phones or tablets with numerous applications, and the potential for growth and innovation is seemingly unlimited, given how games evolve alongside the features that develop with each generation of mobile devices. Such games are also the most widely accessible both in terms of pricing and in terms of attention span and entertainment value.

Cash Cow: The PS4 can be considered a recent example of a cash cow. It doesn’t offer many new features when compared to the PS3, but managed to take hold of the market and find success over Microsoft’s Xbox One after the consoles’ initial releases. Still, the PS4 is just a means for Sony to continue profiting from console gaming with little innovation. “Sony's profits have more than tripled year-on-year in the April to June quarter (PDF link), thanks to strong sales of camera sensors and the PlayStation 4, which has now sold 25.3 million units globally to date.” (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/07/sonys-profits-triple-as-ps4-sales-reach-25-million-units-worldwide/)

Question Mark: Online gaming of the PC variety comprises a respectable portion of the modern gaming industry, seeing growing profits in recent years. It can be considered a question mark as it has the potential to continue growing, especially with regards to Steam and other companies’ reliance on that platform. That said, people who are not at least casual gamers will likely not see value in spending excess time and money on the lengthier, more expensive, and more time-consuming titles. “…the quantity of game releases on Valve’s Steam have more than doubled from 2014 (1,500) to 2015 (almost 3,500). That’s in all likelihood to the explosion of Steam Greenlight, where almost every title is accepted within a week…” (http://wccftech.com/eedar-xb1-sales-20-million-dec-2015-steam-game-releases-twofold-yearly-increase/)

Dog: "Nintendo came up very short in gamers’ eyes when it comes to the new Wii U. Yes, there are definitely some great titles for the console and many more on the way, but gamers didn’t see enough new features on the box to warrant an upgrade from the wildly successful Wii." (http://bgr.com/2015/02/18/ps4-vs-xbox-one-vs-wii-u-lifetime-console-sales/) The Wii U appears to be a dog in the video game market due to its necessity for heavy funding only to see limited success, growth, and popularity. The majority of customers don’t seem to value it as highly as its predecessor, the Wii.

Week 1 EOC: Great Customer Service

"Customer value and customer satisfaction are key building blocks for developing and managing customer relationships." - Marketing: an Introduction

Customer value is the single most important thing that a business can teach its employees to develop. A satisfied customer will not only continue to purchase a company's goods and services, but will urge others to do so, as well. Recently, I had experienced exceptional customer service while dealing with Optum Rx - a specialty pharmacy - and the manufacturer of the immuno-suppressant medication, Humira. From the start, Humira's representatives and on-call nurses had been incredibly kind and accommodating over the phone, answering any questions I had about the drug and calling and e-mailing me frequently in order to ensure my complete understanding of their product's applications. It was clear to me that they hold incredibly high value in their customers and those customers' health and comfort. That said, I've heard great things about Humira from others who have taken it or who have worked with it before. Optum Rx, on the other hand, has treated other members of my family rather poorly in terms of customer service, and unsurprisingly sent my package full of heat-sensitive medication to my old house in Arizona. When I tracked the package and learned that it was sitting on the front porch of an uninhabited house in the middle of the desert on a hot summer day, I immediately called Optum Rx and informed them of the issue at hand. To my great relief and surprise, they changed my address in their systems and mailed a new package overnight. The problem was fixed quickly and efficiently, and I would be more than willing to continue working with them at this point. After such pleasant experiences, I would certainly recommend these companies to friends and family, and to a company that holds customers in high regards, that loyalty is more valuable than a quick buck.

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

My name is Austin Lane and I'm an audio professional. For as long as I can remember, music and the music industry have moved me. I've been a musician for over ten years, now, and continue to explore both sides of the musical world that so few people have come to truly know and so many have grown to love. Now, I explore the practices of recording, mixing, and mastering audio in a studio, as well as setting up, monitoring, and mixing live shows - the bread and butter of the modern professional musician. Of the aforementioned activities, I've slowly and unexpectedly developed a passion for the grit and demand of live sound over the comfort and relative predictability of the recording studio. It's quite possible that I may come to enjoy recording studio work just as much, given more much-wanted experience, but there's something incredible about the intimacy of hearing music live that I want to allow audiences to understand. Post-production is another, rather rewarding career path in audio with which I do have some experience, though the process of recording for video is tedious in my opinion. Regardless, there really is nothing more rewarding than getting to work with what I love.