Blog Assignment 6 - Due 5-May

Here is your final blog assignment. For this one, I'd like you to spend some time reflecting on the Insight/Experience Audit & Prototype group project that you have been working on all semester. This blog is fairly structured, so please read and consider this one before completing your blog entry. This is your last one, so enjoy it! (oh, remember that you only need to complete 5 out of the 6 total)

First Paragraph
Pick one main idea, core concept, topic, or skill (or a combined set of any of those) from this course that you believe you understand better as a result of working on this group project. Describe what it is and give a specific example of how the project helped you gain a better understanding of it.

Second Paragraph
Pick another main idea, core concept, topic, or skill (or a combined set of any of those) from this course that you believe you understand better as a result of working on this group project. As above, describe what it is and give a specific example of how the project helped you gain a better understanding of it.

Third Paragraph

What part of the project was not useful or do you feel like was not of value in working on this group project. As above, describe as best you can and provide specific examples.

Fourth Paragraph
Lastly, describe the emotional reactions you had along the way as you worked on this project. Reflect on the experiences you had with your teammates, the instructor (me), and the process of the project. Do you feel like working with your group contributed to your learning and/or enjoyment of this material? Explain why or why not.

Blog Assignment 5 - Due 13-Apr

Next week, we'll be discussing social media as a way to gain insight and create customer experiences. You have a couple of choices for this blog and you do not have to do both. On either choice, I would like you to incorporate what you have read from the Groundswell chapters I assigned. This is such an important topic in marketing right now and you all are, likely, more expert on this than I am.

1. I would like to hear your thoughts about the best ways for companies to use social media to do one or both of the things we talk about in class often - gaining insight or creating experiences (or both).

- You can certainly focus in on a company or two that you think are doing a good job incorporating social media into their marketing strategy.

- You can also focus on any type of social media - Facebook/MySpace, Twitter, blogs, other user generated content. Just try to keep some sort of focus in your comments rather than hopping around haphazardly among the different types of media.

2. I would like to hear about your experiences using social media research tools. Use the tools below (or others you know of) to search for a particular brand, company, person, etc. that (who) you think is interesting and then report back on your findings. You don't have to use both extensively, but at least try them out and report back on at least one (note: the zeitgeist has several tools).

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/

http://blogsearch.google.com/

As always, please keep the length guidelines in mind and have fun with it!

Blog Assignment 4 - Due 30-Mar

First, note that I have extended the deadline on this one to March 30th (the original deadline was March 23rd).

This blog is based on the article "What Walmart Knows About Customers' Habits." I'm curious about your response to a few things - you should respond to at least 3 of these questions in your blog. And, as always, don't forget about the length requirements.

- Given the enormous amount of data that Walmart captures, do you think they have been successful at converting into an experience that serves as a competitive advantage for them?

- What do you think about the privacy issues associated with all of that data and the amount of personally identifiable data they are able to capture. Does it bother you? Do you trust them with it?

- What aren't they doing with technology that they could; that is, are they using all of the technology that is available to them to capture insights and create great experiences for their customers and, if not, what could they do?

- What impact do you think they are having on their suppliers - making them better and more efficient or driving them too hard and reducing their profitability. Again, try to keep this in the context of technology.

Blog Assignment 3 - Due 21-Feb

This next blog is an opportunity for you to explore your paper topic. This is not a final contract on your topic - you can certainly change your topic after you right this. The whole point of this blog is to explore the topic enough so that you and I feel comfortable about your ability to create a full paper out of it. Here is what I would like to see included:

- Idea for the topic, fleshed out as much as possible - this can also include all the questions you have about the topic at this point. Use the blog as a brainstorming session for yourself to get your ideas out there and make this a first attempt at organizing your thoughts around the topic.

- Why is this topic interesting to you? Remember: this is a big goal for the assignment!

- What is the connection to the gathering and identification of customer insights and/or the design of valuable customer experiences? (at least, as you see it right now)

- Cite and briefly describe at least one article that is related to your topic (this can be either an academic article or trade article, at this point). Do your best to find an article that might be a central source or guidepost for your paper.

Do not forget the minimum length guidelines. Also, try NOT to write in sentence fragments, although a list here and there is fine.

I will be reading all of these posts so that I can provide feedback on what you have thus far.

Have fun with it!

Blog Assignment 2 - Due 7-Feb

On Monday, we will be discussing customer experiences, including the overall idea of an experience and an example framework to understand a bit better how to operationalize the idea. For this blog post, I'd like you to identify and describe a customer experience that you think was particularly meaningful to you.

First, describe the overall experience, including how you felt and the immediate connections you have with the experience.

Then, break apart the experience in some way so that you can make sense of the parts that made up the overall experience. You can use the framework provided in the article/chapter assigned for Monday (Sense, Feel, Think, Act, Relate) or you can certainly create your own framework to help you/us understand the distinct pieces of the experience.

We'll talk more about this in class on Monday, so this is just to get you thinking in preparation for that conversation. Don't forget about the guidelines from the syllabus. As always... have fun with it!

Blog Assignment 1 - Due 31-Jan

Well, here it is... your first blog topic. After reading the chapter on the persona lifecycle and looking at the Cohort Personas I also posted, think about the kind of information that a marketer would need to create an accurate and rich persona of you (or people like you).

With that in mind, create a persona for you (or people like you) in a way that would be very valuable for marketers. Remember, what we are looking for here are detailed and nuanced descriptions about you that would lead a marketer to discover or identify key insights about you - of course, what you provide may just be the first nugget and the researcher might have to dig deeper to uncover the real insight, but the information you provide should be a great start.

If you'd like a template, consider using the Empathy Map (which I first saw in the Business Model Generation book, but may be used in other places) that I describe here. I'll also actually encourage you to use this in your project. The Empathy Map has 4 sections (numbered) and sub questions (bulleted) for you to consider:

1. What do you think and feel?

-- what really counts?

-- major preoccupations?

-- worries & aspirations?

2. What do you see?

-- environment?

-- friends?

-- what the market offers?

3. What do you say and do?

-- attitude in public?

-- appearance?

-- behavior towards others?

4. What do you hear?

-- what friends say?

-- what bosses say?

-- what influencers say?

5. What are your pain points?

-- Fears?

-- Frustrations?

-- Obstacles?

6. What do you hope to gain?

-- Wants/needs?

-- Measures of success?

-- Obstacles?

Please remember the length requirements for blogs as well as the grading criteria (all of which are available in the syllabus). Have fun with it!

Welcome to Customer Insights & Experiences

Hi Class!

This is our class blog - it's where you'll find the postings for the blog topics and the links for all of the class blogs for the students in this course. And, who knows, I may also post my own thoughts about our class topics or other things happening in the world along the way.

Blog Due Dates

All postings need to be made by class time on the dates indicated below. Remember, there will be 6 blog topics across the semester and you will get credit for the 5 highest scores (i.e., you could skip one if you are happy with 5 of your scores).

31-Jan

7-Feb

21-Feb

23-Mar

11-Apr

4-May

Have fun!