Money Worth Spending

I enjoyed our class discussion last Tuesday about whether several commercials were effective and if it was money well spent. I thought the Macy's and Cheerios commercials were very effective. I liked the Macy's commercial the first time I saw it on TV. In the commercial it shows all stars who have lines at Macy's and it shows them getting ready for the store to open. The audience can relate to them because they can see how important their lines are to them and how much work they have put into them. At the end of the commercial it ties the stars and Macy's together: "only one star can bring all these stars together." It's so simple yet very powerful. This commercial is definitely money well spent. It was distinctive, informative, persuasive, and had good recall.

We also watched a Cheerios commercial about adoption. This was a great commercial. It definitely stands out when compared to it's competitors. Most cereal commercials target children, this commercial is targeted to parents. This commercial connects with the audience and pulls on their emotions. The commercial is silent but that helps make the message even stronger. Cheerios brought the parents and their newly adopted children together, made them smile, and helped them to begin building a relationship together. The ad is persuasive and has good recall. It was also definitely money well spent!
A commercial that was not as effective was the H&M Madonna commercial. Even though I am studying retail I found this commercial to be confusing. It was distinctive and had good recall but not persuasive. The commercial jumped around to much and left you confused.

~Dana

More Vera!!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that in the "Woman Wear Daily Magazine", they mentioned Vera Wang signing a lease for a bridal boutique in L.A. The location for the bridal boutique is 8447 Melrose Avenue. It also states, "The 3,600-square-foot store, Wang's first freestanding unit outside of New York, is expected to open in fall 2008."
She is expecting to carry her own bridal line there. And I think this is very exciting because she will also have tabletop items, shoes, and fragrances. She definitely is putting her name out there because it also mentioned Vera Wang is expecting to open her very first ready-to wear store on Mercer Street, New York’s SoHo.
-Elizabeth

Staying Connected From Anywhere in the World!

In class we have discussed how different brands differentiate themselves. This is a very important step in the brand’s marketing strategy. There are many different types of applications that allow you to talk to your friends over the Internet. The two I would consider to be most popular are AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and MSN Messenger. Recently I have been introduced to another application, Skype. Its main purpose is to allow people to stay connected with anyone in the world. I found out about Skype because my friend is studying abroad in Scotland and next semester I will hopefully be in Europe studying abroad as well. With a Skype account you can call people computer to computer for free. They also have really cheap rates available so that you can call landlines. It was great to be able to talk to my friend who’s in Scotland and to actually be able to hear her voice. I know she uses it to talk to her family and next semester I plan to use it as the main way of talking to my family.
On top of being able to make phone calls you, you can use have a video connections as well. As long as you have a web camera. They also have a chat feature that is very similar to that of AIM. I have been using AIM since middle school to talk to friends online. I love it and use it all the time. I’m still becoming familiar with the different things that Skype offers since I have only had it for about a week. One of the features that I like better on Skype then on AIM is the Emotions (on AIM they are smiley faces). AIM has many different options for you to choose from for your smiley, but the Skype expressions are animated and there are more than just smiley faces to choose from. You could say something like “don’t rain on my party” just by using the Skype Emotions. It makes the conversations much more fun. It's perfect for talking to people around the world. It is also a great way to talk to friends that are at different schools or to talk to family members who live farther away. I think Skype is a great application for keeping in touch with family and friends no matter where they live.
~Dana

Yahoo Avatar is ADDICTING!

In our RCS 362 class, our professor asked us to write about the current Yahoo Avatars. She said, “If you already have a yahoo account- You should most likely have an Avatar.” However, I was very surprised when she said this, because although I do have a Yahoo account, I never hear of Yahoo Avatar until now. I decided to check it out on Yahoo, and became addicted to all different ways I could make my Avatar look.I really wish I knew about the whole thing before, because I think it is awesome, and can be used to describe how a person is feeling, or their type of style. My favorite thing to do was looking at all the different kinds of clothes and hair options.

I really liked how I was able to save an Avatar so I would be able to use it later. However I felt that choosing a background, clothing and accessories was a little bit inconvenient. I think that Yahoo should set up the Avatar with the different kinds of backgrounds or clothing with certain categories inside each one. An example of this would be beach theme, or fall, summer, rain, or winter. (this could be used under the clothing or background options.) As a Consumer, Apparel and Retail studies major, I feel this would be able to help whoever is creating their Avatar, without going thought all the stress of trying to remember what number a certain picture was on. Also I feel that there should be a link which connects the Avatar on the home page of Yahoo.

Also, I understand that the Yahoo Avatar can be used in Yahoo Answer, Messenger, Yahoo 360, and even shows up on the Yahoo e-mail profile when you log in. However I was very disappointed that I could not use my Avatar when I wanted to send an e-mail to someone with my Avatar attached. I think it would be a great way for people to use the Avatar in Yahoo e-mail (if they wanted) because it would be a great way of advertising the Avatar, and showing a person how they feel. (ex: If I get an e-mail saying from a friend that said they could not meet me in the library to study because they are sick, it would be really cute if I could see their Avatar of themselves wearing a rob and holding a boxes of tissues in their hands.)

Also, I understand that the Yahoo Avatar is used for Yahoo Instant Messenger. However, I don’t think a lot of college kids use Yahoo Instant Messenger- because the competition is AOL Instant Messenger. That is why I think using the Yahoo Avatars in e-mail may be more effective, because people will want to check it out and see what it is about. It is something that is quite fun and I see that could be very addicting. It definitely could be very effective, and I feel if more people were able to know what the Yahoo Avatar was, then they would want to check out the Yahoo 360. The Yahoo 360 looks really neat, and it really does remind me of MySpace. As a Consumer, Apparel and Retail Studies student I would also like to suggest that Yahoo 360 profiles should be advertised through e-mail on the yahoo accounts. If yahoo is willing to put security on the 360 profiles, I feel that more and more people will be willing to join. (I’m not quite sure about the 360 profile because I don’t have one yet; however, I would like to know more information) What kinds of people are on there? Is it secure? Would anyone be able to create a Yahoo 360 profile?

Facebook has been the main craze throughout several different Colleges and Universities. One reason for this is because I feel that people feel like it is secure, because is started out being just for college students, and has later developed into a network for all kinds of people. I think several people wish that Facebook still stayed the same and it could only be used for college students and above. Now, even little 12 year old girls have facebook, and I feel that a lot of people might wish it was just for the “older croud.” I think Yahoo Avatar would be more effective if it was lean towards our (college students and above) generations instead of just anyone, because that would make it very special, and not some people say “Oh- yeah that Avatar is just like for anyone.”

Elizabeth

Yahoo Avatars

The Yahoo Avatars give more personality to your messenger etcetera. Something Yahoo could add that would appeal to not only college students but college football and basketball fans would be backgrounds/wallpapers or mascots supporting your favorite team or school you’re attending. Also, it would be helpful if they added subcategories to the background tab. There are so many options it takes a while to look through all of them. The other tabs have subcategories and it's much easier to find what you're looking for. Some subcategories could be: the mall, Europe, Asia, beaches, sports, seasons/weather, school, around the house, and random.
It’s cool that you can change the Avatars’ expressions and outfits to fit your current mood. Also, you can change outfits to go along with the changing seasons, even to show what you are doing on vacation or a weekend, and also to show what hobbies you have. They have a feature where you can change your hair, skin color, and facial expressions to match your own. I thought Yahoo could have a little more variety with the hairstyles. I just finished creating my Yahoo Avatar and had to go with a ponytail because I couldn't find one that matched my hair.
Another suggestion is to make it so that you can move your Avatar. With this feature you could do things like wave to your friends, etcetera.
Overall, I think Yahoo Avatar is a neat feature that AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) doesn’t have. Yahoo has a lot of options to make your Avatar more personal. That's very important to have when offering something like Avatars.
~Dana