Free Money

So today, I spent some time trying to give away free money. As a college student, I never thought I'd say that, but I did. And it wasn't as weird as I expected it to be.

I decided to go to Turlington Plaza, because there are always people there. I decided I would try and get strangers to take my money by offering it with  good luck for midterms. I was surprised by the number of people who said no. I expected everyone to say yes, but 3 out of the 5 people I talked to said yes. Two people said no.

Week 7 reading reflection

 This week's reading was on Daniel Yankelovich and David Meer's "Rediscovering Market Segmentation."

1. So the marketing segmentation technique, if successful, helps companies tailor their products. But the technique is now mostly used by advertising agencies. That to me, was kind of a surprise. Because if you think about it, advertising is a business.
2. What confused me was the graph, which looked at two sets of characteristics versus a segmentation to develop advertising and a segmentation to develop new products.  While the graph clearly laid out what it was looking at in terms of data, I don’t understand how all of these variables play into the technique. Why is the customer’s attitude surveyed for advertising, but it’s the purchase and usage data on customers when it comes to developing new products. As I’m typing it out, it makes more sense, but I’m not sure what the graph’s use is.
3. If I could ask the author a question, I would ask: “What types of patterns of looking at what consumers buy have proven to be successful?” The author gives a good example about how a company, in this case Miller Lite, used an ad technique that wasn’t successful. Their commercial of mud-wrestling supermodels didn’t increase sales. So what could Miller Lite have done better, other than sexualize women?
4. There wasn’t really anything I disagreed with the author about. It’s just a concept I have to study a bit more to understand. 

Elevator Pitch No. 2

Your Next Destination is here to help you, the tired, stressed-out college student, find your place on campus. With your car! Believe it or not, there is one. The idea? Build a sustainable parking lot that’ll have a metro system to bring students on campus. The plan is to make it close enough so that walking is an option, but also providing a safe place for your car during the day, and having a way to get to and fro without having to walk in the heat, cold or rain. Because in the heart of the Gator Nation, we know that we’re not immune to the changing seasons of Florida. Our plan is to only sell as many decals as we have spots, or figure out a way only sell as many as we can provide during a busy time. I know what it’s like to circle the parking lot for several minutes. I don’t want other students to have to go through that again.

Looking back, I realized that my pitch is a lot cleaner and has a lot more information. Using feedback from the people I’ve interviewed, I’ve been able to get a clearer idea of what I want to create and build. It’s also a lot easier to talk about what I envision my project being because I’ve been building up the idea.