#criterion 2

I have no idea where this rumor started- maybe by the statisticians who gather and disseminate all the data...perhaps they want to feel needed?

In any case, much like it is for other criteria, how you identify your professional practice gaps is up to you.  Survey your physicians.  Look at trends (the current meningitis outbreak is a perfect example).  Look at past evaluations (you have to anyway for C11).

Find what your learners don't know, what they don't know how to do, or what they are not doing- that's your gap.  For public health data- that's great, but you have to determine whether or not that is truly a gap of your learners, or just something that's occurring (if there is some weird salmonella outbreak and the doctors in the area know how to adequately treat it, that's not really a gap.  The gap is clearly in food handling and whatnot).  

Then determine how to address it- do they need more information, more training, more...?  That's your need.

After discussions with our tutor, we decided our next steps for this project should include constructing a list of both rational & irrational reasons why a typical student would buy a newspaper and put together a persona of such a person.

RATIONAL

Interest in current affairs

Relevant to course work

To read on the commute to uni

To contribute to a conversation

To read a featured article of particular interest to them

To collect printed voucher for relevant offers

To complete included puzzles

Enter included competitions

To find out what's on TV/local events

IRRATIONAL

To appear intelligent

To impress peers

To make a hat

Enable them to sit on a seat when it's raining without getting wet

Mop up a spilled drink

To protect surfaces when painting

To use in a pets litter tray

To make a boat

Keep warm on the street

To make paper chains

Wrap fish & chips

To construct a ransom note

To use instead of wrapping paper

To block light out of windows

To spy on people by cutting out peep holes

To make a paper aeroplane

To draw on

A substitute for toilet roll

To use as an umbrella

After Compiling the list of rational reasons to buy the 'i' against irrational reasons we noticed that there were a n umber of uses for the newspaper that cannot be achieved be reading articles online, such as making paper aeroplanes or wrapping presents. This ties in with the theory that advertisements should push the benefits rather than features when trying to sell a product, in this case, the benefits of being a newspaper would be the other uses for the paper.

To conclude our research we created a persona of what we think a typical student 'i' consumer would be like.

PERSONA

Paul.

24.

Student at Dundee University - Final year studying politics.

Likes football & socialising.

Has a part-time job.

In a long-term relationship but lives with two other male flatmates.

Likes films and occasionally plays computer games.

Good taste - careful with money and saves up for more expensive items.

Takes care of himself and eats well.

Inquisitive nature.

THE PROBLEM:

Day 3

As mentioned in my previous blog, in order to gain a greater understanding of student communities and their views on newspapers we constructed an online survey with the aid of Google Docs. After publishing the survey last week, we have a total of 33 responses.

One of the more interesting but perhaps least surprising results was that 36% of students asked preferred to read news articles online in comparison to just 6% purchasing newspapers (as shown in the picture below).

Another important point that came to light was that although very few students would choose to buy a newspaper, a staggering 67% (2/3 of those who responded) said they would read a newspaper if it was given to them or was lying around. This shows that perhaps it is more important to initially get newspapers in front of students as apposed to encouraging them to buy a paper themselves, relating back to - and supporting - the brief that states "once people trial the product they love it." The pie chart below illustrates the drawn conclusion.

Currently our group is considering the most effective use of a campaign to make the 'i' newspaper popular among students. We have looked at the following three options:

1.To target students directly and encourage them to purchase the paper.

2. To target the student unions, shops, etc. and come up with ways to get them on board and push the product. (Where it's sold, how it's sold, promotions etc.)

3. To find a way of getting students to sample the paper initially then lead up to selling the paper to students.

As mentioned above our research suggests that a combination of the second and third approaches would be most beneficial for the product. We have discussed how it might be easier to convince students who are regular newspaper readers that the 'i' would be beneficial to them but the real challenge lies in convincing students who do not currently read newspapers to start.

As I stated in my previous blog about the American Government's ad campaign, men are well known for avoiding making doctor’s appointments even when they have a problem which needs seeing to. Therefore symptoms which could be treated easily are instead left to develop and - in many cases - create more serious problems further down the line.

As part of our advertising and branding module we were given just one day to come up with our own hypothetical ad campaign to tackle this problem. Below is what our team of about 15 people came up with.

Aim: To encourage young adult men to visit their GP by targeting women.

Problem: The majority of men tend to ignore symptoms which could potentially lead to a much more serious illness.

"Taking risks and thinking nothing will happen is seen as being part and parcel of being a man." - This quote taken from an article published by the BBC suggests one reason this might be the case.

Research: In order to gather as much information as possible in the shortest amount of time, we split into two main groups: desk researchers and live researchers.

The first was made up of a team of four (myself included) and we looked at various articles on the subject and found many relevant quotes, statistics and looked at existing campaigns on similar topics including the video I posted recently and the Aviva life insurance ad with Paul Whitehouse (http://youtu.be/TkyoCHCZlKw). We found these existing campaigns to be particularly blunt and felt they could perhaps be quite frightening to both customers and consumers.

The live researchers split into a further two groups one finding out what severity of symptoms would make men go to doctors and the second finding out how women influence men. We found that most men would wait for a problem to develop before going to their GP with one man stating that even if he found a lump in his testicle, he would still refuse to go see a doctor. Women mentioned various ways in which they would encourage men to do something with their partners claiming they just done things to make the women happy without actually agreeing with her.

Approach: After brainstorming our findings we quickly started to generate initial ideas with the philosophy that at this stage, every idea was a good idea with the potential to be developed and nothing was left out. After exploring as many avenues as possible we each stated which ideas we liked and why with two clear winners. Both ideas were then exhausted with further brainstorming before we all voted for the one we felt was most relevant to the brief.

Campaign: Our final campaign was further developed with the catchphrase changing from "or is it?" to "or is he?" to allow it to be applied to various scenarios and ensure it was specific to men. We originally decided on this phrase as it was not gender, age or relationship specific and also it does not give to much away about what the ad is about, encouraging customers to look closer. 

"Or is he?" encourages women (and men) to question potential symptoms of illness instead of scaring them into going to the doctors in the way the American campaign did.

We chose to twist the problem and play on women's concience by targeting women who frequently brush of men's health issues and turn the women into the problem. This also avoids women being portrayed as nags or moans which we felt would put them off encouraging men to go to their GP. This twist enables the ads to reach out to men as well as they can associate themselves with the scenarios, feeling sorry for themselves instead of feeling like the bad guys.

We chose three scenarios that we felt both men and women could relate to for demonstrating our proposal. Man flu, shortness of breath and forgetfulness, all symptoms which could demonstrate an under lying problem. Other potential extensions of this campaign could include a man complaining of stiff mussels and a women suggesting he is over doing things at the gym... or is he?

What are focus groups?

Focus groups are a form of qualitative research and involve inviting a group of participants - typically 6 to 8 people - to share their thoughts, feelings, attitudes and ideas on a specific subject. They are commonly used by companies as an input to design as they are a useful tool in gathering opinions on a new product or service from the potential target market.

Why use focus groups?

Pros:

They are quick, cheap and easy to organise.

Participants can speak freely and give deeper insights.

One person's train of thought can lead to another's and therefore ideas can be bounced from person to person (better than 1-to-1 interview).

Encourages involvement from younger persons and those with low levels of literacy.

Companies can find what issues are most important to customers and/or consumers.

Cons:

Responses of each participant are not independent.

A few participants may dominate discussions.

Groups need a skilled moderator to keep conversations on track.

In order to get the most information from focus groups, data gathered should be analysed by someone experienced in doing so.

Preparing focus groups:

Focus groups typically last for approximately one hour and an agenda should be prepared beforehand, including a list of the most important topics to be addressed. Allowing time for an introduction to explain to participants how the session will run enables the group to have a clear understanding of what is being asked of them. Encouraging participants to wear name badges and sit around the same table will enable free-flowing discussions including everyone.

A persona is the identification of significant fictional characters whose profile gathers up the features of an existing social group. In this way the personas assume the attributes of the groups they represent: from their social and demographic characteristics, to their own needs, desires, habits and cultural backgrounds. Collecting a description of each allows a clear and visible picture of the different kinds of customers within the target market.

In order to gather the relevant information for creating personas of SMASH, our team of advertising and branding students set about constructing a couple of interactive surveys.

Before doing so we came up with the following list of questions we would aim to answer through carrying out the surveys:

Is the person male or female?

What is their marital status?

What is their profession?

Do they have any children?

What age bracket do they fall in to?

Where do they live?

Who do they live with?

Are they the main food shopper of the household?

Are they the main cook at home?

How long on average to they spend preparing a meal in the evening?

How long on average do they spend sitting down to eat a meal?

Our first interactive survey involved asking participants to map out their preferred meal from the given ingredients by drawing a line to connect an picture from each column: side, meat and veg. One of the given side options was potatoes, and the idea was to identify participants who chose this option without specifically mentioning Smash. We then asked the participants who opted for potatoes to rank 5 potato based products – chips, Smash, wedges, microwaveable mash or traditional potatoes from scratch - in order of preference to gauge Smash in relation to some of its competitors.

From this we quickly realised that although most of the participants chose potato as a side, Smash was the lowest ranked of the given products.

Our second interactive survey involved asking participants to draw their preferred meal on a paper plate. Drawing offers a common ground for discussion -  even when participants have different cultural or social backgrounds - so this method proved successful, as participants could animate their choices and thoughts could surface naturally.

After encouraging participants to be involved in shaping our results, we again asked them to rate Smash against its competitors of the relevant food group.

Again, Smash did not prove popular. However, these surveys did reveal that potato is a very popular meal accompaniment among various groups of people.

Two examples of different personas that our group constructed are as follows:

Mikey

Age: 23.

Occupation: Graduate working part-time at both a clothes shop and restaurant while looking for a career relevant to his degree.

Marital Status: Single.

Children: None.

Lives: In a small flat in a city centre with other male graduates.

Interests: Sports, Socialising, Social Drinking.

Relevant Information: Mikey lacks a disposable income and cannot afford to bulk-buy when food shopping. He is very busy juggling multiple jobs and a demanding social life so he mostly eats on the go. He has never properly learned to cook and is still living a typical student lifestyle.

Sarah

Age: 37.

Occupation: Full-time demanding job as a hairdresser where she is on her feet for several hours at a time.

Marital Status: Single.

Children: Two young children. Max, 8, and Sophie, 12.

Lives: In a house in a relatively small town.

Interests: Not a lot of free time but mostly socialising with close friends who pop round to visit her at home.

Young female students - who are moving away from home and intend to continue their existing relationships - form one segment of the potential market for Little Riot's "Pillow Talk." In order to construct a hypothetical advert that would appeal to this segment of the market, our team of Advertising & Branding students first looked at what the product entails, and why this segment of the market would purchase it (for both rational and irrational reasons).

What is this product?

"Pillow Talk" consists of two plastic rings, two pillow pads complete with speaker and light and a free downloadable application for Android, Blackberry and iPhone devices. Watch batteries are used to power both the rings and the pillow pads. "Pillow Talk" can be used every night if needed, and the product comes neatly packaged in a white bag, tied with ribbon. Initially, the product will only be available online, with future plans for it to be made available in retail outlets across the country. In total, the product will cost £199.

Why female students would buy it - the rational reasons

Long lasting

Replaceable parts

Easier to fall asleep at night without the presence of your partner

Helpful if partner is far away/unable to visit often

Why female students would buy it - the irrational reasons

Innovators

Memories of being close

For the novelty

Display of emotion (when given as a gift to/from partner)

Which means that...

Young female students could buy the product because they may personally believe it is a good idea without having a great need for it, because they still see their partner often. They may also buy the product to demonstrate that they are willing to take a long-distance relationship seriously. Young female students should buy the product if they are in a long-term relationship as they can make full use of it, as opposed to buying it for novelty reasons.

In order to appeal to both rationally and irrationally-minded potential consumers, specifically young female students in a long-term relationship, we identified two possible scenarios the potential consumers may identify with. For rational consumers, we used the scenario of a student in bed unwilling to say goodnight to her partner, and therefore unwilling to go to sleep alone. For irrational customers, we decided to focus on a student comparing her relationship with another couple who already use the product, assuming that her relationship is not as serious as the other couples'. Possible magazines in which these adverts could appear include Stylist Magazine (popular among students in Glasgow), which is free and contains reviews of a variety of other gadgets, as well as focusing on fashion and relationship advice, features that are popular among young females.

Below are the rough sketches of the two possible adverts and a computer-aided mock-up:

Rational:

Irrational: