Blog 6 - Social Media

As the Groundswell book says, I think social media can do the most for companies by promoting a relationship between customers and the company. By giving customers a chance to participate in the company’s activities, the company can foster a personal connection between the customer and itself. This can not only strengthen the customer experience, but help the company gain insights for the company. However, I think many companies are much too overkill on the idea to promote on facebook or twitter. Instead, I think they can be more successful using social media to market by creating these social media interactions on their own sites.

In my experience, websites like facebook are best for connecting people, not advertising for companies. In fact, any company page on facebook is an immediate turn off for me. Instead, I think companies can be much more successful if they develop their own site, geared towards a goal that is relevant to the company. Like the Groundswell book mentions, let customers talk but steer them in a certain direction, so that the content discussed is not a random discourse like Youtube. This can be best done if the company uses its own site for social media, instead of relying on a site like facebook. If the site is well designed, customers will be happy to post and discuss on it, satisfying both their customer experiences while helping the company gain insights about its customers. On a site like facebook, neither is achieved. Customers either shun the blatant advertising where it’s not supposed to be, or even if they do manage to click there, quickly skim past the company’s “facebook page” (I feel weird even saying that). Many companies have offered promotions if someone “liked” their facebook page, but all that does is make the customer click the “like” button, print the promotion coupon, and nothing more. It does not build that interaction companies seek.

I have had a good experience with NewEgg and their usage of social media. Newegg sells a huge selection of electronics such as computer parts, cameras, TVs, etc. on their website newegg.com. When someone clicks on a product, there are user reviews from people who bought the product before. However, the reviews on newegg are much more meaningful than most reviews seen on other company websites. Looking at the review below, we can see that newegg asks users to specify their “Tech level,” and “ownership.” It also shows when the review was posted. This detail allows customers to review the item in much greater detail than just an “average rating.”

But what newegg has really been able to do well is its ability to get its customers to post meaningful reviews, caring reviews. On many and most other company websites, a review is usually posted by someone who either hated or loved the product. Not on Newegg. Most of the reviews are very specific for a specific product, and give meaningful insights to the product, like the one above, “Won't bring in stations from 500 miles away,” but “Great value for the money.” Newegg has managed to create a community of customers who want to help each other understand a product. Personally, I enjoy reading the reviews posted on Newegg and have found them very helpful. Almost every product, even the most obscure little hardware parts in its breadth of products has some meaningful reviews. Customers who post reviews may even feel like they are contributing to this “newegg community.” This is the interaction companies should look for in social media. And newegg has done this by carefully and subconsciously directing the social customer discourse by giving users seemingly obvious but meaningful categories to talk about (refer to the categories in the picture above), and making a website with a friendly user-interface. The categories look so simple, but are absent on most other companies’ customer review websites. And that’s the important thing – to not make customers feel like they are posting a review for the company, but instead posting for the community and their own sake. If customers feel like they are posting a review because the company needs reviews to help advertise, then the reviews will not be thoughtful, like most of the posts on Amazon. Read posts on Amazon and then posts on Newegg. There is a big difference.

Thus, in the ways I talked about above, I think Newegg is a good example of how companies can use social media to create value for both the customer by creating a good customer experience, and for the company itself – by knowing which products consumers like and dislike, and for what specific reasons.

Blog 5 Innovations with a Mouse

So I’m doing this as I write. Maybe I’ll come up with some pretty wacky things.

First Word: MOUSE

I had to clarify that it was a mouse for the computer, not the animal. Words, synonyms, and associations that come to mind: mouse (the animal), technology, cursor, Logitech, laser, wheel, pointer, computers, click, button, skipping, rolling, Microsoft, scrolling, battery, wireless, mouse pad, gaming, word processing…

So you ever stop to think about how much utility the mouse provides us with? I absolutely hate not having a mouse. When I first got my laptop, for a few weeks I did not have a mouse, and it was very irritating. While it might be ok to browse the web or type in Microsoft Word using the touchpad on the laptop, doing anything slightly more advanced like video editing will become very tedious, and gaming will be impossible. And having a good mouse gives you is such a different experience compared to just a so-so one. You have so much control over exactly where you need the cursor to go at the exact moment…something gamers would understand intimately.

Second Word: BEVERAGE

Words, synonyms, and associations that come to mind: Coke, Sprite, Orange Juice, juice, alcohol, water, bottle, can, Dasani, soda, mug, cup, thirst, gulp, quench, Gatorade, chug, cold, ice, hot chocolate, aluminum cans, milk, cartons, Capri Sun, coffee, Starbucks, wine, soy…

I love beverages. Drinks are absolutely amazing, and a meal without them is like a day without the sun. Sometimes, it doesn’t even matter so much how tasty the drink itself is, just the feeling of the cold liquid flowing down your throat is sheer bliss.

I prefer 100% juice drinks over soda, not just for health but I think juices taste spectacular too. But a soda or alcoholic beverage once in a while is refreshing too. The drink I drink most often though is milk. I love milk, and usually anything that goes with it. When I make my coffees, hot chocolate, they’re usually over 50% milk. If I have to go more than two days without milk I get unhappy. The only exception is if I can have a soy drink, which can replace milk for me. I do this when I go to China, where soy drinks are excellent and cheaper than water. I drink milk when I am in the states, because for some reason soy drinks here are quite expensive (relatively).

Combination Ideas:
1. A mouse pad that is see-through and has liquid on the inside.
2. A mouse that is see-through and has liquid on the inside.
3. A mouse pad with beverage pictures on it
4. A mouse with a beverage company design over it; for example instead of a grey mouse it’s a Starbucks mouse pad
5. A cup or mug with the words of a mouse-making company over it, like Logitech
6. A mouse shaped like a wine bottle
7. A digitalized picture of a beverage drawn by a mouse
8. An aluminized-cased mouse, like soda cans.
9. A mouse that has a malleable outer shell, supported by liquid inside
10. A mouse that has a cup attached onto it so you can drink when you are in front of the computer.

To be honest I am very surprised and happy with my ideas. In fact, they all seem like viable product ideas to me, a few of which already are. The first two are just for an aesthetic design. Numbers 3 – 4 I’m sure have been done by companies at some point.

My favorite two are the last two. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mouse with a malleable outer shell that can custom-fit every person’s hand shape. What if it is supported by one of those gels that can take the shape of a person’s hand when they use the mouse? It might also be more comforting on the hands to hold something soft rather than hard. Wow I actually really like this idea. Any ideas on how I can pitch that idea to Logitech now?

The last one – I like to eat behind/around my laptop. It becomes inconvenient when the cups and bowls start stacking up around my workspace. I know this sounds kind of odd at a first glance, but what if you had a cup that fit over a mouse? It has to be wide and relatively deep so the liquid doesn’t spill all over the place when you move the mouse around. Then you could drink without having another cup on your desk.

3D Book Opening

Book opening from Bruce Li on Vimeo.

So finally I have something up here that doesn't look like crap. This export looks a lot darker than it did on after effects,so I'll probably go back and lighten the image. But yeah, 8 seconds of animation took I don't even want to say how many hours. It depresses me that I worked so long on 8 seconds. This might be the beginning to my final project in the class.

This composition included lot of billboard arranged 3D, one camera, and one light.

Text: Title credits

Title Credits from Bruce Li on Vimeo.

A title page I created that could be used for a production company. I actually kinda like this one.

Particles: Puke

PUKE! from Bruce Li on Vimeo.

So I messed with the particle creator a bit, and I wanted to create an effect of a cartoony-looking puke. There are 3 layers, one that bounced off the ground, one that created most of the spray, and one that created most of the spread on the ground. Any suggestions on how to improve it to make it look a little thicker or more viscous? Maybe add a layer with a custom particle?

Old people don't like movies? Blog 4

Do older people intrinsically enjoy movie-going less than the younger population? For my paper, I would like to look into why movie attendance is so low for the older populace. When studio executives in Hollywood decide to “green light” a movie, or to give consent for a film to be made, a big factor they consider is if the film is geared towards an audience younger than 28. According the Motion Picture Association of America 2009 report, (http://www.mpaa.org/Resources/091af5d6-faf7-4f58-9a8e-405466c1c5e5.pdf) almost 50% of all ticket purchases were made by movie-goers under the age of 24, which roughly only makes up 30% of the US population. For ages 50 and over, there is a drastic decline in movie-going attendance. With a growing baby-boomers population, I am wondering if something can be done to get that segment into the theaters. Is it impossible to get older people to the theaters, or is this a segment that Hollywood has chosen to neglect due stale traditions and misunderstandings of how to market to this segment?

I want to dive in and explore through understanding customer insights what it will take to increase movie-viewing for this group. Some questions/ideas I pose include:

-Does the older population want to see a certain type of film that is not
being made, for example, drama, or with certain actors, etc.?

-Marketing might consider different channels to reach the older
population. Instead of promotions on television and the internet, they
might consider ads in newspapers or whatever other sources of media the
older population uses.

-On what occasion would a senior individual go see a movie, is it with a
spouse, friend, or grandson?

In class we talked a lot about experiences, and I think this applies to movies as much as anything else. The experience of going to see a movie is much more than just the movie itself. For an individual, it involves hanging out with friends and family, sitting in a nice, comfy chair, and eating popcorn or other sweets. And theater chains have worked to create this experience, from the very design of the building to the foods offered at the concession stands. But once again, everything in theaters today screams for the youth and modern: from the “hip” shapes of the walls, down to the employees that work there. Have you ever seen an older employee work at the theaters? I was reading an article on Vodafone, which was trying to design a cell phone for older people. In one example, older people actually said they did not want to go into the stores because all the employees there were too young and spoke in terms that the older people did not understand. The older people did not feel like they fit in with the atmosphere of the stores. While the interactions between employees and customers might be less in a theater, I think it is all these small, unconscious things that come together to create the experience.

I was at an independent theater chain in New York that showcased smaller, independent films. To my surprise, I was the only attendant there that looked under the age of fifty. Was it because of the genre of the film that was shown there? Was it because theater had a certain way of advertising to older people? Or was it something else?

I hope my research leads to answer some of these questions, or even discover new ones. How can films be marketed to older people, from the very start in the production of the film to the exhibition? In production, studios might have to open up to new script ideas or directors that speak to the older audience. Then, distribution and exhibition might have to create a whole experience that this segment would enjoy, through insights like on what occasions do older people go to the movies, or what are they looking for when they go see a film (other than the film itself)?

Motion Tracking Assignment

I uploaded the original image also to make a comparison with the image after it was edited. Basically, there was a boom shadow in the billboard and it had to be removed. It was a bit harder than I thought because the way the camera moved the perspective of the image changed, so I had to go in and hand tweak a lot of the frames. Unfortunately I had the wrong codec for the video so the compression looks very bad.

Edited:

Without Boom from Bruce Li on Vimeo.

Unedited:

Boom on Billboard from Bruce Li on Vimeo.