I try not to start every blog entry with "So...", but it feels so natural. It's the way you pick up a conversation after a few moments of silence. It reminds me of Dr. Ford's reference to SWWC in Week 0. "So what, who cares?" The conversation has made it to the exhaustive point that you have covered everything you need to say, and then there's this "So" followed by your personal call to arms. I'll come back to this later.
This week we talked about marketing insights and discussed the importance of recognizing fads, trends and megatrends. Trends are interesting in my opinion because in the early phase of adoption, people think they will be the next megatrend and try to encourage momentum. Going back to fads, its funny to think of the items that catch on in America, and even more hilarious how long these stick around. Key fads that were mentioned were silly bands and snuggies. Megatrends piqued my interest, because I'd love to be a part of creating a product that revolutionized the world. iPod has changed the way people work, play, exercise, travel, shop and I've probably not even stated half of the places iPod is marketed to. The iPad is next. What blows my mind is that they really just made the thing bigger added some futuristic touches and again every company is considering using this product in their every day business.
Ok, you were waiting for the segue, here it is. Our major project for Marketing class is a facebook fan page. [I'm probably suppose to capitalize the F, we know Zuckerberg capitalized on it.:)] I just can't get behind this movement. I see that it has mesmerized way more people than I can imagine, but I wonder about the marketing impact. I've been thinking SWWC for about 3 years now. Well, I have to do this assignment regardless of my desire, so I picked up "The Social Network" movie this evening at a Redbox (I can get behind the Redbox movement, sorry Blockbuster, it was nice while it lasted.) I hoped that the movie would help me to understand why people have such an insatiable desire to feel connected online. I didn't get my answer, in fact I felt like maybe I don't have what it takes to see a real winner of a product. Honestly, the company is valued at 25 billion dollars. The only positive takeaway I got was that I don't have to worry about getting sued by my friends. I feel so confused and I think I would like to read comments about what it is I am missing on facebook. I get this feeling that if people spent half as much time on social networking sites they could spend that saved time being helpful in the community. The answer to SWWC is apparently a lot of people care as well as a lot of businesses, too. Maybe, just Maybe, I am waiting for someone to make me a believer.
Marketing class flew by again this week, and I was so engaged in the conversations about the Hyundai Equus and Infiniti that I basically forgot to write anything down. This is becoming a "trend". I'm hoping that I can retain the information as a result of actually caring about the content rather than forcing it down my throat. I really felt again like this program is the right fit for me in where I am at. I wouldn't have gotten anything out of it three years ago.
Economics has a very professional feel to the class, and I really liked the way Dr. Estrada pulled three or four questions and answers together to make one larger question in the end. Questions about who bears the responsibility of an ad valorem tax, why are we outsourcing jobs, why not tax foreign companies for selling products to make our countries more competitive. These are questions that my coworkers and I will discuss in our break room at lunch but I always find that the engineers of the world all seem to think so similarly. When Dr. Estrada facilitated the discussion I found myself "chewing" on unfamiliar thoughts. This is why I'm sold on the cohort based system of education.
The work load last week was manageable since I was ahead in Economics reading, but this week looks to be twice as much work, and we need to get rolling on this facebook page. As a group, my four teammates and I are secretively creating a fan page (which I won't disclose on this blog), because the other groups are going to attempt acts of "corporate espionage" to help them gain more followers. For this reason, I hope everyone uses the correct privacy settings when joining the fan page.
Sorry so long, good night.
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