What You Notice When You Travel

A week from today I will be sitting at home, back in Minnesota, curled up with my dog and big glass of wine, thinking back to this semester and everything I endured within it. WAIT, let me stop myself before I get too nostalgic, and forget that I still have a 5:45 a.m. flight standing between me and being home. I'm not trying to say that I dislike flying, because I really, really do love being on airplanes. But, all of the people and other factors you have to deal with while flying, well, that's what I hate. The only part besides the airplane that I actually enjoy about flying is the people watching as well as how airports vary from place to place.

For example, the Bozeman airport is a small quant hub that screams, "HEY THERE YOUR IN MONTANA NOW!" With all of its mountain pictures, its wood cabin layout, oh and the fact that there are statues of wild animals by the baggage claim. Whereas, the Minneapolis airport feels almost more like a shopping mall than an airport. From its intense number of stores to its large variety of restaurants. Even the Port Charlotte airport has its own share of quirks, such as its rows of rocking chairs that sit facing massive windows as to create a sense of southern comfort within the airport for wary travelers. 

The fact that these three airports, can vary so significantly has made me wonder if the individuals that designed each airport did so with the intention of fitting consumer preferences in that area. Or, if they maybe based their designs off of those who will be traveling to that airport. For instance, Minneapolis is an international hub for hundreds of different connecting flights, which in turn may insinuate that those who travel through the airport may have longer layovers. These long layovers could then result in a greater need for shops and restaurants to occupy consumers as they wait for their next flight. Bozeman on the other hand, only has select flights that run daily. This may reveal that because there isn't large variety of consumers flying its airport there is no need to have a large variety of shops and restaurants. In fact, it could also be determined the Bozeman airport was designed to target consumers that are familiar with Montana, such as locals or those who frequently vacation here. Whereas, the Port Charlotte airport lies within the middle of the two designs. This is due to the fact that it is an international hub, but still possesses qualities of local consumers, such as the southern comfort rocking chairs.

Overall, though flying can be tedious and dreadful, it has its perks. Now on my flight home, I can distract myself by trying to observe factors that I may have missed in my previous travels through the Bozeman and Minneapolis airports! 

Free Trials Turn Into Life Dependencies

Being that I am currently a subscriber to Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, I can't help but wonder if the benefits that I'm receiving from each service are worth the monthly payments. As I was wondering about this, I asked myself when did I even start paying for these services? From which, I realized that I had no idea. The only small fact that I could recall was that I definitely went through each services free trial periods of: Spotify's Premium Free month, Netflix's free trial month, and Amazon's Student Prime 6-month free trial.

The fact that I couldn't remember how I actually started paying for these services, led me to question if I had simply forgot to cancel my subscriptions before the end of each free trial. I was quickly able to determine that this was more than likely the case. I also realized that I thought I had been blindly paying for these services, I was still actively using each one and had no intention of cancelling them. It was like I was hooked on something that I didn't even know I was using! I mean, I knew I was watching Netflix, ordering Amazon Prime, and listening to music on Spotify, but I didn't see how much each service was impacting my life.

Once I was able to see this, I fully understood the reasoning that businesses offer free trials to consumers. It's an ingenious way to get consumers addicted to a service or product without them even knowing, and more importantly being mad about it. I, for example, should be at least a little upset about being charged for subscriptions that I thought were terminated after the free month trial, yet here I am still raving about each of these businesses and their services. I now understand how the use promotional techniques can give businesses the ability to instill a sense of convenience in consumer minds, so that once the promotion is over they feel as if they now need said service in their life. It's truly a brilliant technique, and I'm not just saying that because it worked so well on me...

3 Ways Patagonia Has Established Quality:

Patagonia: A status, a fashion, a sponsor.

A company that has established its brand at the top of the mountaineering food chain. All while still developing and creating new and revolutionary ideas. Yes, that is Patagonia. So, how has it managed to make leeway in such a competitive market? 

Well, I believe the answer to this is quality. Patagonia has instilled a sense of quality within its brand that has caused consumers to prefer its products over its competitions. It has done so by utilizing these three factors:

1. Price
2. Sponsors
3. Social Responsibility

#1: PRICE

The price of a product is strongly correlated to the brand that it is associated with. Setting higher prices for its products gave Patagonia the opportunity to separate itself from generic brands that already existed in the market. This in turn gave Patagonia the ability to create a sense of prestige for its brand in the market. It was then able to influence consumer perceptions by instilling that its brand prestige was linked to the high quality of its products. Therefor, now when consumers are making purchasing decisions for which outdoor gear product they should buy they recognize that Patagonia's products 

#2: SPONSORS

A second way that Patagonia has established quality for its brand is by teaming up with professional athletes in the outdoor sports industry. For example, it has sponsored Ryland Bell, a professional snowboarder featured in the film Deeper, by Jeremy Jones. This sponsorship has allowed Patagonia to advertise its products to a vast majority of the snowboard consumer base. These consumers then begin to recognize that Ryland Bell actively wears Patagonia gear within ski films. This in turn allows them to interpret that because a professional snowboarder, featured in many ski films, is wearing Patagonia, the gear must be of the highest quality.


#3: SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY


The final way that Patagonia instilled a sense of quality in its brand is through the use of public relations, and more specifically, taking social responsibility. Due to the fact that Patagonia is an outdoor gear based company, it prides itself on donating to nonprofits that are based on saving the Earth's natural environment. For example, on Black Friday the company initiated its, "100% for the Planet," campaign, where it donated 100% of sales that day to grassroots organizations. This donation allowed Patagonia to demonstrate that it cares more about its social responsibility to the planet than it does about money. By demonstrating this Patagonia was able to, yet again, emphasize that in order to use high quality outdoor gear consumers first need a high quality planet to adventure in.

Overall, Patagonia has used strategies, such as, setting high prices, sponsorships, and taking social responsibility by donating to a great cause, to establish quality and push itself to the top of the outdoor gear market.

Let's Talk About Sidewalks

Let's talk about sidewalks. You know, the paved paths are put out around neighborhoods, shopping centers, and college campuses? Yeah, I want to talk about those. Have you ever thought twice about why we all use them? Well, earlier today I started thinking about this and may have found an answer to this question. 

It relates to the concept of nudging, which I thoroughly described in my earlier blog about the use of trash can receptacles on the Montana State University campus. Both sidewalks and trash receptacles are placed in certain areas to get individuals to use them without acknowledging that they are being guided to do so. I'm not trying to say that people only use these conveniences because they are meant to do so, but I do feel that there are greater underlying reasons for which we do so. For example, if I asked you why you use a sidewalk, instead of just making your own way to your destination, how would you answer? Well, I would say that I use a sidewalk because it's safer and easy to walk on Both of these facts are correct, but are they actually the only two real reasons I use a sidewalk? I believe that the reasons go much deeper than this, and correlate with how our society has structured itself.

Our society is based on maintaining order among civilians through the use of various social constructs and laws. Sidewalks are just one example of the these. By creating easy to walk on paths that are apart from vehicular traffic, we as civilians perceive them as safe. When in fact you can still be hit by a car while walking on a sidewalk just as easily as if you were walking on the side of the road. Yet, we still see walk on them with comfort. This in turn, may be related to the fact that we, as humans, search for ways to belong. So, when another person tells you at a young age that you need to stay on the sidewalk because it's safe, you believe them and carry that belief with you for the rest of your life. Or, maybe you ran off of the sidewalk once and accidentally ruined your neighbors favorite landscape, causing you to be scolded and singled out amongst your peers. What I am really trying to get at, is that there are so many more factors that contribute to our unconscious decisions to use a sidewalk than the mere it's safer or easy to walk on.

Now, you may have read through this whole blog post and still don't agree with my reasoning for sidewalk usage, and that's okay. But, I encourage you to double think the next time you find yourself mindlessly walking to class on a sidewalk instead of cutting out five minutes of that walk by making your own path.

Advertising Between SnapStories?

Today, I decided to mix things up and try studying at a local coffee shop instead of the campus library to see if I could spark up some creativity for these blogs. As I was getting all settled in and waiting for my coffee to cool down, I decided a quick look at my Snapchat would be a good first step in my creative process. I played around with Snap filters for an embarrassing ten minutes, then started watching my friends Snapstories. As I was clicking through them, I noticed that advertisements had been randomly placed between a few of the stories. I quickly realized that these ads have the click through feature and a maximum length of 10 seconds just like a regular Snapstory, yet cannot be replayed. Being that the advertisements between Snapstories don't necessarily have to be viewed in full, it can be assumed that the first few seconds of each ad impact consumers the most. This realization caused me to wonder if Snapchat is attempting to use a new form of subliminal advertising for third parties that are willing to purchase media space. Subliminal advertising is the use of images and sounds that unconsciously influence consumer perceptions toward a specific brand/business.  

In order to see if this was the case, I began asking my friends around the coffee shop if they have noticed the ads between Snapstories. None of which responded that they were aware of the advertisements. At first this fact confused me to a great degree, but then I began to see that this was exactly what subliminal

advertising aims to accomplish. By playing ads that are a maximum of ten seconds and can be clicked through at any moment, third party businesses are able to impact Snapchat consumers’ perceptions within the first seconds of each ad. 

The fact that these impacts are on an unconscious level led me to question the ethics behind the ads and their placement. For instance, do you think it's fair to have ads flashed in front of your face without even being aware? And more importantly, do you think it's fair that these ads could very well be the reason you are craving a certain food, or suddenly have the urge to buy a new product? Well, in my opinion, I feel that though it may not be fair, it is certainly ingenious.

I mean think about it, what's a better way to sway millennial consumers into preferring your brand than tapping into their most used social networking app? It virtually allows Snapchat to increase their sales revenue, while simultaneously giving businesses an opportunity to influence consumer preferences. By increasing consumer preferences within the young millennial generation businesses can also begin to create customer loyalty among their consumers as well. And, let me remind you, this is all being done at an unconscious level. So, next time you are clicking through all of your friends Snapstories keep a close eye out for any subliminal advertising that may be occurring right in the palm of your hand.

For more insight about Snapchat's between story advertising check out this article:

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/snapchat-launches-colossal-expansion-its-advertising-ushering-new-era-app-171924