Word Combinations

I was somewhat surprised at the number of people that do not truly know what the word “inanimate” means; I had a friend text me a fruit, which I thought may at one time have been alive so I decide not to use. After texting about 4 friends, I ended up with the words “paper” and “desk” for this exercise.

First word: PAPER

The word paper could mean a LOT of things, and paper itself is literally everywhere. I have a stack of printer paper sitting in my printer right now and an extra stack in my drawer. That stack is wrapped in a paper package. There is a paper card next to my computer with a reminder that I have an appointment in a week, and another piece of paper with some concert tickets printed on it. I have tons of sticky notes, index cards, and envelopes in my drawer. All of my written work is obviously done on paper, as are any notes I write or lists to remind myself of things. My notebook has a legal pad in it, also made of paper. All the books I read have pages and pages of paper.  I have to write a paper soon for this very class. Even the picture on my screen for Microsoft Word resembles an 8X11 sheet of paper. The newspaper on the bus today had an article about money, which is also made of paper. All over campus people hand out paper flyers; some of them are on the walls along with paper advertisements. In my house I have paper plates, paper cups, paper towels, napkins, Kleenex, and toilet paper. I find that most things that are made of paper are very cheap (unless it is some sort of prized painting or piece of art), due mostly to the fact that paper is easily destructible. On a lighter note, paper can be used for fun, like the art of origami.

Second word: DESK

I am sitting at a desk right this very moment as I am writing this in my apartment. A desk is a pretty standard item in anyone’s room or house; both of my roommates have a desk in their rooms as well. Today on campus I sat in three different desks, one for my first class, one while I was studying in the Reliant Reading Center, and another for my second class. Desks come in all different shapes, sizes, and materials. Some are made of wood while others are made of metal, and some are a combination. Some desks are just desks, while others have parts and accessories to allow for more uses. Some have drawers and/or shelves for storage. Some also have pull-out trays for a keyboard or extra work space. A desk can be a place to work, eat, study, read, play a game, or just sit for awhile and think. I feel like it is mostly identified as a place to get work done, as it is the primary workstation used at work and in schools. The desk is so widely understood in this way that the personal computer was designed with the desk in mind. A computer sits right on your desk and its screen even shows all of your digital items sitting on a “desktop”. Laptops and devices like the iPad allow this desktop to be portable. The word “desk” can also be used to denote work that is not physically challenging, hence the phrase “desk job”.

Here are some ways we could combine these two items:

• A desk made out of paper or a desk that looks like paper
• A desk that stores paper
• A desk that dispenses paper
• A desk that shreds paper
• A picture or drawing of a desk on a piece of paper
• A desk with paper built into it
• A desk covered with papers
• A desk made out of papier-mâché or carton-pierre (papier-mâché decorated like wood, stone, or metal)
• PaperDesk application for the iPad
• Stack of paper to hold up one end of a desk
• A paper desk-organizer
• A paper (essay) or book about desks

Image of the PaperDesk iPad app

Some of these combinations do already exist as products, namely the desk that stores paper and the PaperDesk app for the iPad. Others just came to mind, although I would be intrigued to know if the papier-mâché desk would work as a viable product. Papier-mâché is a low-cost form of production and when done properly can produce very sturdy items. In addition, the art of carton-pierre would allow the product to look exactly like your idea of a traditional desk.

Report Topic: Music Distribution

Technology, rapidly advancing as it is, has dramatically altered the face of the music industry. The industry used to control its own fate when it could control the use of new technology. However, as we discussed in one of our very first lectures, the digital age opened up a new format for all media that anyone could use, which totally added new complexities to the legality of the distribution of files from person to person. It also posed a new question of right and wrong when it comes to copyright law. Was it wrong for Napster to allow users to share and upload files for which they did not have the rights? The RIAA and the courts said so, but the people emphatically disagreed. For my paper topic, I want to write about how the music industry is adapting to this huge transformation and more specifically how new companies are capitalizing on new business models for music distribution. There is an article called Music in the Digital Age: Downloading, Streaming and Digital Lending that further describes this situation.

Many more programs like Napster came onto the scene after 2001, and most of them operated from decentralized servers so it was much harder to seek legal action. Also, few artists these days even bother to do so, and many even encourage free downloading. This is interesting because what we’ve seen is a population that has become gradually more accepting of the changing trends in media distribution. In response, some of these new programs, like the website Grooveshark, are embracing the change and going even further with it. Grooveshark operates like a used record store, only applied to digital media. Users upload and share their “used” music files, and other users can purchase these songs, for a price. Here is where they rope you in, though. Just for signing into the site, which is free, users are allowed to stream, for free, in perfect quality, any song in the database. This creates a listen-on-demand experience that provides instant access to over 22 million songs. Playlists can be created and saved, and music can be listened to as many times as desired. It seems too good to be true, and it definitely does not seem legal, but for the time being it is.

The site protects itself by holding users personally responsible for music they share. The problem lies with the record labels and with users who do not want to compromise themselves by sharing unlicensed music. Grooveshark gets around this by attempting to warm up to record labels and users of the site, who are each given a percentage of the cost of all the music shared through the site. For example, if a user uploads a song and another user downloads it for, lets say, 99 cents, 70 cents goes to the record label, 25 cents in credit goes to the user who uploaded the file, and the remaining 4 cents goes to Grooveshark. Essentially, Grooveshark is trying to make everybody happy, while giving the biggest royalty still to the record company. So far, this method has been fairly successful. Grooveshark has a growing “labels list” (http://www.grooveshark.com/labelslist/) of record labels with which they have royalty agreements. To date, no user has faced legal action from either Grooveshark or a third party.

Grooveshark obviously has a very unique business model, but not all programs of this type operate in the exact same way or even have the same features. Grooveshark has added and removed features throughout its lifetime and has changed its format and services to adapt to the changing landscape of music and demands of customers. One consistency the site has maintained, however, is its growing number of users. Grooveshark is tailor-made for the user, allowing more access to more music than ever before. I want to explore how programs like Grooveshark, Napster, Pandora and Rhapsody are using customer insights and experiences to define the current business of music distribution in their own ways.

Links:

1)      http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/caml/article/viewFile/25697/23793

2)      http://news.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/inside_uf_1-15-08-low.pdf

3)      http://venturebeat.com/2007/12/05/grooveshark-offers-p2p-music-downloads-but-is-it-legal/

4)      http://listen.grooveshark.com/

Customer Experience: Music Video

These days, if you are a popular band or up and coming musical act, the music video is as powerful a marketing tool as any. A good music video can mean accessibility to many more fans who may not know about the music yet or who haven’t heard of the particular artist. Music videos in popular music today are most definitely consumer experiences, as artists use these 3 or so minutes to connect with their audience on a visual and hopefully a personal level that cannot be achieved by just listening to the album. However, rarely does a music video make as big an impact as the actual song it displays or the source album.

One of my favorite bands, The Arcade Fire, released a new album this year called The Suburbs. I first heard about this new album online, but not before being first introduced to the video for the first single, called “We Used to Wait”. When I searched for the band I was directed to the website for the video (http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com). The link also informed me that I would need a computer with high processing capability (Windows 7 works best) and the new web browser, Google Chrome, to properly view this video. The website displays the words “The Wilderness Downtown” in a creepy looking font and there is a graphic of an even creepier flock of birds that flies across the screen. At the bottom, a dialog box told me to enter the address of the home where I grew up. After a loading screen, the video plays.

The fact that I had to enter the address where I grew up told me that this video was going to be personalized for me in some way. When the video started, the song started to play and a new window opened up on my computer showing a video of a boy running down a neighborhood street. More windows opened up on the same screen (sometimes overlapping) showing various aerial images of the street. The windows were constantly shifting, resizing, dropping out, and coming back into view. As more and more images flashed across the screen, I realized these weren’t just generic pictures of the suburbs. This was my street, with the house where I grew up and my neighborhood, all in clear focus. The video had used my address and images from Google Maps and Google Streetview to incorporate my actual childhood home into this song/video about growing up in the suburbs. An immediate wave of nostalgia swept over me and I was an instant fan of the song and the video. As the song continues to play, more images appear and there is even an interactive portion where you can type or write a message while the song is playing. The video goes even further mixing the graphics with the thematic elements to completely unify the song up to its dramatic conclusion, but the final result is pretty exciting. Needless to say, I was sold on the new music and bought the album right away.

With this new project, The Arcade Fire has elevated the music video from just a simple promotion tool to an actual customer experience that reaches and drives at the inner desires of the consumer. The feeling of nostalgia created by the images I recognized made me feel good and want to listen to the whole album. The video could be described as a type of sense marketing, because it appeals using images and graphics in a creative way. However, by combining this technology with the personal aspect, the video also impacted the way I felt about the music. It was completely unexpected and deeply effective.

Impact of Design on Marketing

I was very intrigued to learn how design became such an integral part of the marketing landscape. In the 1900s it seemed as if the market exploded overnight. With the flood of products, marketing for a new product needed something extra to distinguish one product from any other product. Using a design philosophy in marketing has proven to be very successful because the design of the product determines how it looks and functions. The design of the system that delivers the product or service is important as well, as it will influence the overall experience of the customer. This whole concept illustrated to me how the entire experience of a product can be personally designed to fit the needs of the consumer, down to the last detail. The pioneers of design outlined a fantastic set of guidelines to the design philosophy, all of which hold true for successful products. I especially liked the quote from Eero Saarinen about designing a thing by considering its next larger context.

The incorporation of a design philosophy can be very healthy for a marketing practice, but I wonder if it is always healthy for the market. Does it truly consider the consumer and fill a needed void in marketing? Design can give way to tons of new products and can create a sense of usefulness in these products, but I question how useful some of them actually are. Tons of products are released that claim to make things easier, to make difficult tasks simple, to make your life better. One example that comes to mind is the Roomba, a small circular vacuum that literally vacuums your house for you using computer sensors that detect walls and spaces. Roomba made consumers think its product was essential, boasting so many cool features that everyone just had to run out and buy one. Now it is a huge seller. I’ve seen one in action, and it does its job. Actually, it is a pretty amazing technological design. I suppose it even saves the consumer a little time vacuuming and managing a vacuum cleaner, but is this product a true technological breakthrough? Was this a real problem in America, finding time to vacuum our houses? To me it seems like it is a cool new toy, but its design and the design systems used by its parent company iRobot have made it seem like an essential to life. There are tons of products like these, and design philosophy could allow for even more. The diverge/converge method struck me as a brilliant way of thinking up new ideas and getting creative by stretching your mind. This can and has led to many great products that do serve a purpose. It has also led to the creation of useless things you will probably throw away in a few years, but you take the good with the bad.

My favorite designer that Jeff mentioned was Dieter Rams. His quote, “Good design is as little design as possible” should be a mantra for all designers. Also, his list of 10 principles of good design reads like the 10 commandments of design. It perfectly combines the functional responsibility with the ethical responsibility. Jeff showed how you can tread this fine line by thinking of two problems, creating a product to keep up with competition and creating a product to improve people’s lives. If you consider everyone in the equation, you can’t go wrong.