"What Main Street Can Learn from the Mall" Q&A's

1.       Instead of answering the questions about the criteria Robert Gibbs uses to evaluate a Main Street in a paragraph, I am going to give a list:

a.       Does a “generator” exist? Is there a big store that will attract customers and businesses to the location?

b.      Is/are the retail store(s) are to adjust to the demand of customers quickly and effectively?

c.       Are the stores easy to see? Are there any objects (trees, benches, etc) obstructing the sight of stores?

d.      Do the sidewalks/streets encourage customers to explore or socialize more?

e.      Does the scene give the customers a positive feeling? (Security, landscape, etc)

f.        Which side of the street is the store located on?

g.       Does the store follow the cardinal rule: keep shoppers’ eyes on the merchandise at all times?

h.      Do the stores located next to a specific store attract or repel customers (ex: restaurants repel customers from clothing stores)?

i.         Does the store advertise effectively?

2.       Main Street should not be a mall for one crucial reason. Malls are effective in areas that have high population density. Since the 1960s, people having been moving to suburbs, which lowers the density of the population. Since the population has lower density, malls are not very effective. A more effective method is the stores have their own location instead of many at one location. This method would be more effective because the customers would have to do less traveling.

3.       My checklist to judge a Main Street:

a.       Is it easy to access?

b.      Are the stores visible enough for customers to know what they sell and what is on sale?

c.       Is it a friendly environment? Do customers have a sense of safe haven?

Chechen Insurgency - Wikipedia Article Posted

Here is the link to the Wikipedia article I created:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechen_Insurgency

Retail Analysis Q&A's

1.       For the Retail Analysis Project, I decided to observe and analyze Meijer, a supermarket store that is based in Grand Rapids. Meijer markets every-day products such as groceries, electronics, home appliances, beauty products and etc.

2.       When I entered the parking lot of the store, I thought it looked like a train station with the windows that you see when you go to a train station. That style gives the store a unique appearance. When I entered the store, it was not as loud as most stores are like. Most stores, I would hear mostly carts making noises and people talking on speakers communicating with its employees. When I walked around the store, I never heard a speaker or excessive noise of carts. I thought it was very impressive. The way the merchandise is displayed has a few flaws. For example, I went around looking for Gatorade and I expected it to be in the same section as sodas and beers. I was short on time and wanted to make a quick run to the soda section, but didn’t find any Gatorade, so I wasn’t able to get some. It is either a flaw the layout or a strategy to force customers to explore the store. The floors are mostly white or plain. It was nothing appealing or repelling. I thought the signs were a major issue. When I entered the store, I was only able to find 3 signs for each section when there are 8 plus sections throughout the store. The cashier area was excellent. There were 38 check-out stations with 12 of them self-checkout stations.

3.       Meijer seems to project the image it describes with its motto “Higher Standards, Lower Prices.” The style of the store was bland and not a stand-out from the inside while maintaining a good layout and attractiveness from the outside. The company simply tries to attract customers using its unique outdoor style.

4.       As I was walking through the store, I saw many customers testing out the products by performing the functions of them. From this observation, it seems the store concentrates on convincing customers their products function properly.

5.       The most interesting design I saw in the store was the way the layout forced customers to explore the store more than just look through one section. People would have to get pasta in one section, pasta sauce in another section.

Egg-Drop Experiment

When my partner, Kyle, and I were given the assignment to design a product that would protect an egg from a drop, we first decided to make it cheap and easy to use. Due to limited supply, we had to think of what we could find around campus to avoid going shopping. Kyle has Styrofoam and bubble wrap with him and we decided to use the two materials to protect the egg.

Afterwards, we discussed what we were going to use to store the egg. Kyle has a small cardboard black box about the size of a small tissue box and I had a wide Ziploc container. We tested the Ziploc container first. After stuffing the Styrofoam and bubble wrap into the container, we realized there wasn’t enough room and figured the container wouldn’t prevent the egg from breaking from impact. We tried to black box and since it was lightweight and lightly-dense, we figured it would reduce the force of the impact. We decided to use the black box.

When we tested the design on Wednesday, it failed and we were disappointed. I thought the visceral design was excellent. When customers would look at the product, they would assume it is a compact, lightweight device that can effectively protect an egg from a drop. As it succeeds in the visceral aspects, it suffers from the function aspect.

After experiment, I thought of two ways that could improve the function of the product.  First, the product needs to fall slower. In order to do that, we need to create air resistance. Another way to improve the product is to enlarge it in order to reduce the amount of force applied to the egg.

Overall, I thought it was a fun project to do and learned a lot from it.

Here is the link to Kyle’s blog:

http://kylecasadei.blogspot.com/

The Science of Shopping Q&A's

1.       The main point in this article is retail stores must adapt to how people shop in order to get the most of their customers. Examples of how customers interact in a store is female customers tend to walk through men’s and women’s section of a clothing store, while male customers only tend to walk through the men’s section. This study should indicate that clothing stores should put the men’s section in the front and the women’s section in the back. Another example of customer interaction is customers tend to spot items on the right of their 45 degree angle vision. Paco Underhill gives many examples of how customers interact throughout a retail store.

2.       I am not influence by the store’s design as much as an average customer because I usually go shopping for a specific item. Sometimes, when I find my item(s), I will look throughout the store to let time pass by. Majority of the time, I don’t buy another item when I walk through the store. I am a person who relies on his visual skills and enjoys looking at everything I see in my daily life. When I am in a store, I look at every single item in a specific section, but only buy a few depending on how much cash I have or what I intend to buy.

3.        My checklist:

a.       Is the store’s layout easy to follow? Can I find a specific item easily?

b.      Are customers forced to look at many items in order to find a specific item?

c.       Location of the store

d.      What are the customers’ initial reaction when seeing the store/store layout

e.      Are customers able to figure out which items are better quality/cheaper?

f.        Can customers see a specific product/service performing its function?

g.       Is the store in the right environment? Do customers feel comfortable around the store?

Isn't it Iconic? Q&A's

1.       Packaging is very important in marketing a product because it is what catches the customers’ attention.  “The concept of designing an iconic package-a package that, in its essence, becomes a signature part of the overall brand-has become something of a holy grail for brand mangers and package designers these days.” (Gordon 1). The package itself has to stand out from its similar products in order to successfully attract customers. An example of me buying a product based on its package is video games. I have noticed that very good games have a great box art design while other games that are considered bad, usually have a bland package design. This is how I bought Halo 3, not because of its popularity, but because I thought it would be cool to have its box art be a part of my video game collection.

2.       A well designed package is the peanut butter brand, Jif. It stands out more on the shelves due to its large letters and its red, blue, and green rainbow.

3.       Overall, a poor package design is one that is too complicated because complicated designs tend to blend with other products, preventing it from standing out more. To be honest, I cannot think of a product that has a poor package design because I usually don’t buy those or its hard to remember them.  

"Know it All" Q&A's

1.       From the way I see it, there is only one main point and a few minor points in Stacy Schiff’s “Know it All.” The main point is the article is how Jimmy Wales, Larry Sander and their partners saw the problems with Encyclopedia Britannica, went through trial of errors to create a website that is more effective and has more articles than Britannica. Wales wanted to create a website that has “free knowledge for everyone.” Sanger first created the website, Nupedia, which did not work out well. Sanger saw the flaws in Nupedia and decided to create another website that has “a simple software tool that allows for collaborative writing and editing.” This entire process started Wikipedia in 2001. Throughout the next several months, the website encountered many problems, but the administrators were able to fix the problems while maintaining the popularity and credibility of the website. The article gives many stories about the problems the administrators encountered.

2.       “At the beginning, there were no formal rules, though Sanger eventually posted a set of guidelines on the site. The first was “Ignore all the rules.” Two of the others have become central tenets: articles must reflect a neutral point of view, and their content must be both verifiable and previously published. Among other things, the prohibition against original research heads off a great deal of material about people’s pets.” (Schiff 4). This policy has prevented many editors and writers from posting false information. Being required to cite the source allows the article to have good credibility and forces writers to use only credible sources.

3.       Wikipedia’s design seems to be a more simple design. The home page allows you to see more information without getting confused while Britannica is a more complex page with fewer information. Many people like to go on these website to just search a topic. Britannica has tabs of different topic and I’m pretty sure the viewers just go the search function to find an article instead of using the tabs. Wikipedia doesn’t use tabs. It gives only the functions (search, edit, etc) its viewers will use all the time.