Monday, February 21, 2011

Brand Utilities

The brand utilities that I use most often are on my iPhone. Things like the weather in different locations, drink mixes, Weight Watchers, iSkins, new book applications, sleep cycle monitors and even games all apply as utilities to me. It makes me one with the brand, they are offering me things that I either need or find interesting. It really helps me to build a relationship that will stand the test of time in this era.  

I honestly can't think of any missed opportunies at the moment. Almost all utilties I could ever think of are at my fingertips…

A few brands that I think could offer utilities are Lululemon offering some sort of sizing app, Petsmart having an interactive adoption option and I could list many, many others but I'm sure in the near future they will exist. 

I think brand utilities are a great way to interact and give consumers a reason to want to know your brand. The future of branding is looking to be a very deep one between consumers and their products. 


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Broadband Challenge


Ahh, the broadband challenge. It’s a challenge to spend a whole week, NOT using traditional medias like TV or Radio, and instead looking to newer things like Internet. Well, that certainly wasn't a problem for me. I have an iPhone and a Mac, in fact even before these things, I never watched TV. In my car I plug my iPod in and I get all my songs from online. Basically, this entire week was the same as any other week for me.

I find all of my songs, TV shows and check my emails and stay in touch with people all online or by iPhone. I even bought a kitten this week (she’s awesome) and I found her online! 

I think the point of the Broadband Challenge is to challenge people who aren't up-to-date on the reality of access through new medias aka the Internet. 

Thank god for me, I already fit into the "in" crowd on that level, funny the in crowd is now what we would usually call nerds. 



Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Social Media Monitoring

I tried out the social media, monitoring tool called www.socialmention.com. Its really cool how you can just go right onto the website and type in whatever your interested in discovering. There are options for all social media tools and you can identify which one you want to cover or choose them all. 

I typed in "whose going to win the Oscars?" and got a lot of predictions. 

The prediction I thought most obvious was that Bieber would take home tons of Oscars with relative ease. Beiber fever is hilarious in my opinion. I also saw mentions of Adam Sandler taking home some prizes.

   Some other nominees of the event are Colin Firth, who is expected to win, Natalie Portman whose also expected to take home some best actress and Mila Kunis, her co-star. 

Movies to be nominated are: The Social Network, The Town, Winter's Bone, Black Swan, Inception, The Fighter, The King's Speech and many more.

I really think these social media monitors are a great idea, they not only connect you with the information you may be looking for on a particular social dimension, but they also allow you access to a million other social medias to find out even more desired info. 

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Social Media - Lululemon


I chose to monitor Lululemon Athletica on Facebook for the past week. I went on about 4 times throughout the week and read all the way back to the beginning of January.

My perception of Lululemon has always been that they are a very high-class yoga wear company. I have made many purchases from there and have always noticed that the customer service is impeccable and the employees really take a genuine interest in their cliental.

As I followed Lulu on Facebook, I came to realize that employees of Lulu lemon and their followers are all very enthusiastic about not only Lulu clothing, but also yoga, and a healthy lifestyle. Positive thinking is also very prominent in the posts and blogs associated with Lulu Lemon.

Some of the most interesting things I found out are:

  • -       Most locations do yoga and healthy living classes
  • -       They have events in store to promote their brand
  • -       They offer personal help to clients
  • -       They post all their new products online
  • -       There’s a huge fan-base and all the feedback I saw was very positive.
  • -       They have a blog on their website
  • -       Manifesto – positive messages/encouragement
  • -       They are involved in organizations such as marathons, worldwide.
  • -       They have a page for their top rated products.
  • -       Each store has its own personal community calendar for events and classes
  • -       They are associated with iPhone and suggest applications on Facebook.
  • -       They offer music playlists on their Facebook page
  • -       They have tutorials on how to set up a yoga studio
  • -       They want to help boost values and reignite goals in their cliental

After seeing all these awesome, positive things that Lulu does, I support the brand so much more. I even “liked” them on Facebook. Their products are extremely expensive but I’ve come to realize that may be due to the fact that they are selling a complete lifestyle. They promote health and wellbeing and I think that they are a positive brand that I will continue to follow just due to their positive outlook and positive feedback.