Week 5

On Tuesday this past week, we continued our discussion of segmentation and market segments through the use of our Bambooee advertisements. We each quickly presented our advertisement, the unique characteristics of our market segments, as well as the tactics we used to try to get our segment to by the product.  Some students kept their ad simple for the older-country folk, while some jazzed theirs up with pictures of the party scene for more upscale younger people.  Their age, geographic location, income, lifecycle stage, and interests all played a part in how we each ultimately marketed the product to them.  Many of these characteristics we looked at in class seemed to be stereotypes, which more often than not, is given  a bad connotation.  However, it is important for marketers to stereotype in order for them to reach their market.  In turn, these consumers are more likely to purchase their product. I believe that this process will really help my SMART Project Group, OK To Drive?, in trying to reach our target audience. 

This Thursday, we had a joint class with the engineering students to discuss, present, and review our concept memos. We started class by setting up our whiteboards by writing our revised and more in-depth POV Statement and arranging our three computer generated concepts, as well as our logo on the board.  Our updated POV Statement is as follows: Bars, restaurants, and law enforcement agencies need lockers activated by breathalyzers because people are too tempted to drink and drive when they have access to their vehicles.  This could prevent crime, injuries, death, and civil or criminal lawsuits by prohibiting the act of driving while intoxicated. We narrowed down our target customers from "society" to "bars, restaurants, and law enforcement agencies".  We believe that these will be our primary consumers.

Next, each group presented our concepts to the rest of the class for about three minutes.  A few questions were asked, and this process was helpful as I know better understand each group's take on their product little bit better.  Each time we present I am able to delve deeper into each group's product. After this process we were able to circulate throughout the room and do a Gallery Walk for each group's concept.  We used sticky notes to leave comments, questions, and criticism on each board.  We questioned if the product would actually fix the specific bug being tackled, pointed out our preferred logo design, and discussed which concept solution was our favorite.

At the end of class, we reviewed the comments that were left on our board by our classmates.  We were able to do our best to answer their questions about our product, as well as clear up some questions based on misunderstandings because of communication problems.  During this process, it was nice to get a point of view different from a voice within our groups.  One group pointed out that our logo was too confrontational, and that there was too much happening with it.  This, for example, I, along with the rest of my group, was unclear of.  This group then gave us the idea of using a car key as the logo, which we will look into at our next meeting on Monday.  Other students opinions are very valuable in this case, as our classmates often point out small issues or positive ideas that can be addressed or added to our product to make it more appealing to the consumer.