#l.o.2

As I come to the end of my placement at RocketZone, I find many reasons to reflect upon my experiences as they affect my personal and professional goals.  In order to show clarity in my thoughts this End of Placement reflection is categorised into the format set out by the Industry Based Learning (IBL) guidelines:

·         General learning experiences

·         Personal learning experiences

·         Workplace cultures, values and practices

General learning experiences

At the start of my IBL journey with RocketZone, Danni and I had discussed theKIDzone project.  She had divided the workload into three distinctive phases: Research, Branding, Website.  Each phase was to take approximately a month to complete each and within each phase were a number of goals I needed to achieve.  I quickly learned during the first phase (Research) that Danni had very high standards compared to my own perception of what was needed.  Years of doing research for ‘make-believe’ scenarios at Unitec had made me complacent and the feedback Danni provided was the wake up call I needed.  During the second and third phase of the project I became familiar with the work standards at RocketZone and what was expected of me each time a task was assigned on the project. 

Apart from my PPLGs I discovered that I should familiarise myself with more digital tools as a means to making things easier for myself and because there are more innovative ways to produce works for different scenarios.  Up until this semester, I had only been using (and very confidently, I might add!) Microsoft Word and Paint but the various digital tools I have been introduced to have opened my eyes to the endless capabilities at my fingertips.  Some of the tools I have learned to use are Dropbox, Tumblr, MindMeister, and MailChimp.  Another competency which I need to focus on for the future is to ‘back myself up’ or rather be more confident in my abilities.  I need to develop strategies in order to overcome my taciturn disposition at face-to-face meetings, this all comes down to confidence and my inability to vocally express myself when in group discussions (usually I become silent when I am thinking but this often becomes translated as ‘not understanding’ the discussion). 

Regarding myself and my own learning abilities, I discovered that I listen and take instruction well but wait (sometimes too long) before providing my own thoughts on a given topic of discussion.  I have learned that what scares me is really not so bad, for example the process in creating a website was by far the easiest throughout the whole project but it was the one I was both looking forward to as well as worried about. 

Looking back on my work I could have performed better during the Research phase of theKIDzone project, infact if I had to redo the whole project, that is the one part I would change dramatically – the other phases I would make changes to but I know they would still essentially end up with the same result. 

My experience in RocketZone and on theKIDzone project has helped me with my future career choices and the type of organisation I would like to work for.  Supporting small businesses in niche industries is now a likely career path I would pursue and I know that with the knowledge I’ve gained I could happily do this regardless of the country I am living in.  I think the creative aspect of the whole process has appealed and excited me the most too.  I mentioned to my host supervisor that I learned more on this project than in two years of studying at Unitec – that is an immense amount of learning in the short space of four months!

At the end of my IBL the work I was most proud of was the branding design because it required me stepping out of my comfort zone in terms of research and design development.  My only regret was not learning how to use Photoshop to create my mockup designs but I realise that like all the other software skills I picked up this semester, it is another software that I can learn as part of my future goals.  As maybe inferred previously and throughout my learning journals, the work I was least proud of was the Research phase of the project.  I feel I could have performed better in this area and am disappointed because I pride myself on my research abilities. 

Personal learning experiences

Prior to starting my IBL I had anticipated that this would be scary but also exciting.  I understood that I would need to juggle two other full-time papers, a part time job, my family and social commitments.  However, I hadn’t considered for a moment that this would be an extremely tiring job because (a) I’ve juggled papers and family commitments in the past, and (b) it is my final semester therefore I felt my motivation would be at an all-time high throughout.  Boy was I in for a shock when the first week of IBL started!  I experienced many highs and lows throughout the semester which took my stress levels to new extremes I hadn’t felt before – let me just say that listening to loud music in my car at the end of a day of studies has helped my family cope with my stress levels! 

My new learning achievements became a motivating factor as I quickly came to view my IBL as an overall learning experience.  It was pleasing to gain on-the-job knowledge not only in a professional sense but also in my interpersonal relationship with Danni and Michelle.  I learned how to behave in a professional environment and how to communicate my ideas in a mature manner with peers. 

There were times during my placement when I was unmotivated due to outside influences.  During these times I wished I had not taken up two other courses at Unitec or committed myself to other engagements which took up my time and energy.  It also tested the perception that I work well under pressure – and although I still can produce good work under pressure, I now realise how important time management and scheduling is to any task whether big or small.

I was comfortable in my role by the second week into working on theKIDzone project.  I was lucky in this aspect because Danni and Michelle helped make me feel welcomed and comfortable from the instant I stepped foot into RocketZone territory.  Part of the reason I was comfortable was because Danni did not micro-manage me and rather left me to perform the tasks on my own – after initial guidance of course.  Her confidence in me gave me the assurance that I could work autonomously but still have her at my fingertips to ask questions or gain feedback regarding tasks.

At the end of each phase of the project Danni and/or Michelle would provide feedback and this would allow me to acknowledge that regardless of the result I felt; were I given the task again I would be competent to perform it with better results.  As with most things, my experience will come with time and frequent practice will give me the competency I require. 

Workplace culture, values and practices

RocketZone staff are encouraged to openly share ideas and bounce them off one another throughout the workday.  They are determined and are focussed on their tasks at hand.  They place the client’s needs first but always keep the end user in mind throughout every project/campaign.  I have seen Danni and Michelle create campaigns which are absolutely relevant to their client’s customers but the client’s themselves hadn’t understood the reasons for the campaigns (until they saw the positive results from these campaigns).  At the same time, it is a relaxed and friendly ‘vibe’ at RocketZone.  We have shared lunches everyday whereby each day is assigned to a staff member who will be responsible to providing lunch for that day – whether it be Thai chicken curry or pizza.

I consider both Danni and Michelle ‘gatekeepers of knowledge’ because they have been extremely helpful when I needed assistance throughout the project.  Danni’s marketing knowledge and experience paired with Michelle’s high degree of communication skills have been sources of inspiration for myself throughout this semester. 

Interaction between work colleagues are mainly verbal because we are all within close proximity to each other.  However, all other appropriate  channels of communication are used when staff are not in the office – such as phonecalls, text messaging, emailing, and facebook. 

There is a strong culture of giving and receiving constructive feedback.  The exchange of knowledge and information is vital to the working relationships amongst the staff.  The interesting thing is that everytime feedback is given; it is constructive, positive and adds value to the recipient’s work. 

Danni and Michelle are the experienced staff while I was the ‘new’ staff member who needed training and guidance.  The only differences between us was the level of experience between them and myself, and I have been given guidance and much support during my time at RocketZone.   Additionally, Danni learned a few tips from me about the cold calling process – something I didn’t realise she struggled with but she eventually found it a great experience after making her first set of cold calls to potential clients.

RocketZone makes the most of technology in all cases and use a digital platform well to their advantage.  The frequent use of Dropbox to store files remotely as well as their clever use of blogs to optimise the websites they manage are just two examples of the effective use of technology by RocketZone. 

RocketZone staff have strong ethical values and uphold them at all times.  They have clearly defined ideals and do not make compromises to their key values.  Family is very important to Danni and Michelle; for example prior to school holidays we would discuss each other’s schedules incase one of us (or all of us) had to work remotely from home because of the holidays.  Also, my hours at RocketZone were 9:30am – 2:30pm because of the time it takes to drop my children to school in the morning and pick them up again after school. 

Final words

I have enjoyed my Industry Based Learning (IBL) experience at RocketZone and would encourage anyone to put their heart and soul into it.  Although it has been a semester full of highs and lows, my IBL has been made less of a laborious task and more of a joy because of the people at RocketZone.  I would like to thank Danni Barnes and Michelle Doherty for their support and guidance this semester.  I value all the feedback I have been given and cherish the learning achievements I have made (many of them were firsts for me!). 

This is an email sent from Danni:  

 Danni Barnes <[email protected]> wrote:

Hello Tracey, I realise tomorrow is your last day at RocketZone Marketing and I would like to thank you for your excellent work on theKIDzone project, both Michelle and I have enjoyed having you as part of our team. We wish you well for future ventures and hope you will stay in contact. Please do not hesitate to include me as a referee on your CV. See you tomorrow, Danni Barnes.

Today Danni showed me how to create theKIDzone website.  

The website content, the full developers brief, the sitemap - all of this has been valuable information in putting theKIDzone website together.  In total it took me less than 4 hours to have the website up and ready (with a few little changes that Danni will make herself) but all in all I have managed to gain a new skill that has opened my eyes about developing websites.  

The website content required the most work because there needed to be information relevant to theKIDzone's clients, potential clients and their audiences.  I liked that I was encouraged to pull information from RocketZone and theSALONzone websites for theKIDzone one.  This meant that there is no reinventing of 'the wheel'.  Of course, the information has to be tailored to theKIDzone audience (for instance, I cannot talk about 'mirror talkers' promotions in theKIDzone because that is a promotion which is only relevant to theSALONzone).  

I am fortunate because Danni has walked me through the website stage of my IBL journey and her experience has allowed her to shed light on the best ways around web design issues which are apparent to a newbie like myself.  I feel more confident about web design and can envision being able to create websites in the future.  

Here is the link to the newly created theKIDzone website:  http://www.thekidzone.co.nz/

Today was also my collaborative assessment meeting between Danni, Roger and myself.  I have been nervous about this meeting from the time it had been arranged and I felt I was going to faint when Roger texted to say he was on his way at 12:17!! We quickly had lunch and I tried to hide my nerves by engaging in lunchtime chatter but I secretly started to understand why people bite their nails when they are anxious.  

Well, Roger arrived and I led the discussion/meeting as best I could.  The background of theKIDzone was discussed and I spoke about the time I have spent at RocketZone with Danni and Michelle and how they have made this IBL a very positive learning experience for me.  The meeting was a great way for me to show Danni and Roger the amount of knowledge I had gained during my short time here at RocketZone.  I wanted to also show Danni how much i appreciated her and Michelle's input into my own learning because I realise while it isn't easy being a student, it must be equally difficult being a mentor.  

A focus for myself for the future that I will take away from this meeting and apply to my future PPLGs is

to learn strategies to overcome my lack of confidence in face to face meetings

to learn new software that will allow me to stretch my abilities to create in a world outside of Microsoft Word and Paint (eeeek!)

and also to back myself up - to believe in my own abilities rather than seek validation at every corner because I'm afraid of making a mistake.  

Now one week away from the end of Uni and assignments I sense a little bit of sadness that my journey on theKIDzone has come to an end - the friendships I've fostered with Danni and Michelle is invaluable and I'm pretty lucky that I scored a great place to have my IBL experience.  

Last week Danni asked that I research and come up with the top 10 Search Engine Optimisers (SEO) for theKIDzone.  The SEO’s must of course be relevant and help the website achieve maximum exposure in search engines.  In short, my top 10 SEO tips are:

1.       Deep linking

2.       Social bookmarks

3.       Indicate page titles by using title tags

4.       Use description meta tags

5.       URLs which are easy to understand

6.       Plan the users navigation based on the homepage or ‘root’ page. 

7.       Use of Google Adwords. 

8.       Create fresh unique content such as blogs

9.       Anchor text that is easy to understand

10.   Optimise the use of images.

This list is in no particular order and the document I sent to Danni had accompanying justifications for each item on the list to show relevance of each item to theKIDzone website. 

I have completed the first two blogs which will go on the website.  They are based on my own experiences thus far in my work while on theKIDzone.  The blogs are about branding and writing briefs.  I found this exercise particularly challenging because the blogs are to be written professionally yet appropriately tailored to the audience (who own kid-related businesses), it must be informative but not condescending.  In truth, I’d started writing the blogs over 2 weeks ago and have been revising the contents as the weeks have worn on.  I can no longer revise the blogs and have finally placed it in Dropbox for Danni to view and critique. 

Also, to go with my work on theKIDzone website Danni gave me a website brief template.  This brief is best completed once all information to go in the website has been gathered.  I completed the template in a matter of hours because thankfully all the background work on theKIDzone has been done. 

I placed this work in Dropbox for Danni and sent her an email regarding the work. Below is the email communication between myself and Danni:

From: Danni Barnes [mailto:[email protected]]  Sent: Wednesday, 26 October 2011 5:14 p.m. To: Tracey Alenepi Subject: Re: KZ work today

Hi Tracey,

Here my feedback regarding the updated tasks for theKIDzone:

·             Top 10 Search Engine Optimisation tips for theKIDzone

I'm really happy that you have identified 10 worthy SEO tips relevant to theKIDzone website, please place them in order of application considering this is a new venture some tips such as reciprocating incoming links with other businesses will initially be limited. Ranking these will illustrate your knowledge of these activities and theKIDzone website. 

·             KZ website plan – to go with mindmeister

This is a correct copy of the RZ & SZ websites content, please add Testimonials. Can you see any pages we should add to extend the viewers knowledge & understanding about theKIDzone?

·              KZ blog

I like the design brief blog entry as I recognise that it is written about your experience, please be careful not to write negatively about graphic designers, imagine if Sarita read that. Ask yourself not "Why am I writing this?" but "Why would a potential client read this?" Check your use of jargon and remember your target audience has very little marketing experience. 

·             theKIDzone website brief

The focus on competition is useful and the critical analysis is insightful, thanks. Now that you have looked at our competitors maybe you can reassess the content prepared for theKIDzone website and check for relevance. 

I hope this helps your learning process.

See  you tomorrow,Danni.

On 25/10/2011, at 6:38 PM, Tracey Alenepi wrote:

Hi Danni,

 Just letting you know that I’ve placed and updated the following in Dropbox (IBL theKIDzone folder):

·         Top 10 Search Engine Optimisation tips for theKIDzone

·         KZ website plan – to go with mindmeister

·         KZ blog

·         theKIDzone website brief 

Cheers,

  Next week is my collaborative assessment meeting between my Academic Supervisor – Roger Hawkins, my Work Supervisor – Danni, and myself.  I have been encouraged to apply for a MERIT grade and am concerned that I may not meet the criteria for it.  I will give this much thought before completing the required forms and have all my fingers and toes crossed that the meeting turns out well! 

theKIDzone website design is  well underway but before the website is created, there are many things which need to be completed – the content for the website must be written (relevance to the audience is key here) and  the website plan must be drawn up (what will it look like, in which section does each information belong?). 

Although the design of theKIDzone brand has been decided upon, getting it down to the fine details of what Danni wants is crucial, that is why writing a brief for the design is not only a very good idea, it is also a vital component to the design.  We have agreed that theKIDzone website shall have a banner across the top of it so this week I wrote the design brief for theKIDzone’s website banner.  Danni’s experience with writing design briefs has allowed her to give me as much vital information that I need for this task.  I have written creative briefs for marketing assignments during my past three years at Unitec but I had not really learned as much in those instances as I have this week.

For starters, the term ‘brief’ can be quite deceptive if you aren’t familiar with the marketing terminology because of course brief can mean ‘short’.  In marketing speak it basically means ‘to get to the point’.  It is a document which describes your design in as much detail as possible down to the most fine and specific detail.  The brief I wrote this week is for Danni’s graphic designer Sarita – an incredibly talented person who lives in Dubai and has produced some inspirational work for RocketZone clients.  Danni has described that many graphic designers are so creative that if you ask them to design something (without being specific about it at all), the scope and depth of the selection they can produce will be immense, awe-inspiring I’ll bet, but immense!  As you can imagine, this does not bode well when you have a specific design in mind – so the onus is on the owner of the design to be very specific about their design requirements.  Hence, the design brief. 

Armed with this knowledge and researching how a brief should be written, I wrote my first ever website banner brief, here is what I wrote:  

I submitted my website banner brief to Danni via Dropbox who had a thorough look through it and made some required changes.  It is necessary to point out that although Danni made several changes to the brief, I am happy that she kept most of the items I had written too!  Here is Danni’s revised version of theKIDzone website brief:

This showed how much I’d learned about writing briefs and makes me more confident in my ability to write another one should the chance come up again.  What I really enjoyed is that Danni didn’t have a ‘slash and burn’ attitude towards my brief – she had made it clear from the outset what was required and I followed that as closely as I could.  The changes she made to the document were really based upon the aesthetics and the technical aspects of the banner – these things I don’t have much knowledge of just yet (for example:  Pixels and PNG format etc). 

The second thing I had to do today was create a sort of sitemap using a tool called MindMeister, found on www.mindmeister.com.  It makes creating brainstorming and sitemaps so much easier and involves mouse clicks!  This mindmeister task took me only 20 minutes to complete because I already had the content ready for the website creation.  I felt great about this because I now have another skill I’ve learned and can use in future scenarios.  I have attached a screenshot of my mindmeister below:

This week I presented my branding proposal to Danni and Michelle at RocketZone HQ in Titirangi.  I was so nervous because I didn’t want a repeat of the feedback I received from Danni from the last proposal I'd done for her and Michelle.  To prepare myself I had been fine-tuning the brand design as much as possible and made sure I had placed importance on the relevance of my idea to the brand (not to mention how it all relates to the audience).

I made several mock-ups of my brand idea and basically wanted to show Danni and Michelle how the brand could look in different scenarios.  Part of the research process in branding for me was to list all the touchpoints for theKIDzone and how the brand would be reflected on these touchpoints.  The touchpoints I listed were:

Stationery and Office:  Letterhead, folders and folios, business cards, pens, pencils, pen holders, book-covers, organisers, diaries, mouse-pads, stickers, calendar, compliment slips, email signatures, fax cover sheets, quotes and invoices, coffee mugs, stress balls, picture clips, lanyards, envelopes, notepads

Signage:  Company premises, company vehicles, road-front signage, flags, office showroom,  in-store signs and posters, instruction manuals, product tags, changing room signage, In-store instructions, fridge magnets

Identification:  T-shirts and staff uniforms, name badges, wristbands, security ID tags, answering machine message, umbrellas

Products:  Packaging, product tags, boxes and shopping bags, embellishments on products, labels,  price-tags,

Events:  Invites, programmes, public relations, media information, serviettes,

Online:  Email messages, Social media, blogs, networks, website, online forums, e-brochures, banners, images to be used online

Personnel:  Client interactions, team communication, business networks, presentations, events, promises and experiences

As anyone can imagine, this list could go on and on because there are just so many touchpoints that a business could take advantage of!  The main touchpoints that I used to illustrate my branding idea were the website, the business card, the road front signage, and the company vehicle.  Here are the mockups I prepared for my presentation:

Website:

Business Cards:

Road Front Signage:

Company Vehicle:

Danni and Michelle provided constructive and positive feedback regarding my ideas.

  They were drawn to the use of the kite on the brand – I felt happy about this because this was my favourite brand idea too!  The kite also represents freedom and playfulness and it’s connection with both adults and children is universal and non-generation specific.  I liked how Danni and Michelle could appreciate my ideas and helped refine it according to their ideal. 

In the end, Danni and Michelle contributed their idea and the final agreed-upon theKIDzone brand is:

There are still some changes that need to be made to this design of course.

  Such as, the connecting squiggly lines will be in crayon, the magazine icon’s words will be in red, the father in the family icon will have a brighter red tie and the mother will have blonder hair.  The use of colours in this brand is important as it ties in with the logo and the kite too – it’s pleasing to the eye and balances out the page in a sense. 

The next step in this process is to write a design brief which Danni will check to make sure I’ve covered all the design elements.  This brief will be sent to Sarita the graphics designer who will create the absolute final product – a vital aspect of this stage is to be as specific as possible when describing the designs to Sarita so that she knows exactly what we want.

Danni showed me some website templates I can use for theKIDzone so that will be next week’s task:  to create the website.  Before we do that, I need to bring to Danni the information which will be on the website so that’s what I’ll be working on until next time.

I’m very excited at this stage of my IBL and have been learning so much more than I imagined.  Next week I will be learning something brand new – creating a website – I have been looking forward to this aspect of my learning so look out for next week’s blog for the update!

This week has been busy busy indeed!  I continued my research into branding for theKIDzone which opened my eyes to how a simple and effective brand gets started from a range of ideas which can be complex or simple (or a blend of these).

I have been reading up about branding and its role in an organisation; the most important things I've taken away from these readings is best summed up by Dennis Hahn:  

Our conviction is that branding, at its best, is more than a marketing responsibility - it is an integrating business practice. We believe branding should span your organization, weaving across and through personal interactions, corporate culture, communications, products and services. It should both reflect and inform your business decisions, and it should guide all of your customer contact points. Your brand should be championed by top management and embodied from the inside out by all of your employees, product offerings and communications - at all times. Branding should never be treated as a project that has a beginning or an end. Dennis Hahn.

Today I arrived at RocketZone's HQ in Titirangi amidst scary weather conditions (rain and wind pelting against my little Toyota Vitz especially along windy roads is not pretty!) but thankfully it was nice and warm inside and Danni was ready to start a day of working on my project.  

The great thing about working with Danni is that she gives me the freedom to work on my own to gather my information - she doesn't micro-manage me and allows me to randomly bounce ideas off her from time to time.  I went through various websites and trawled the internet for further inspiration for theKIDzone brand concept when it hit me that the brand idea should stem from the running theme behind theKIDzone - to CONNECT with our clients and help them CONNECT with their own customers.  This led me to look for 'kiddy-themed' toys or activities which are universally associated with 'connection'.  I started off with Connect 4, then Danni helped me by suggesting Marble Run etc.  A lightbulb flashed in my head when I thought about 'connect the dots' which nearly everyone knows how to do -children play it and apparently, so do adults!  From there, the idea for theKIDzone's connect the dots brand idea was developed.  

By day's end, I had created a mockup version for Danni and we discussed how this concept could be applied in different branding scenarios - if the logo could stand on its own, if it could be put on a car, on business cards, on a road front sign etc.  She seemed quite satisfied with today's work although I agreed with her that it definitely needed refining.  I was not yet satisfied with the colour scheme I had come up with, the colours in my mind still don't yet match the colours I had selected in my mockup.  Well, it is still a work in progress and thankfully the final decision for the brand will come from Danni after I present to her and Michelle in two week's time.  

I am going to Sydney this Saturday and return in 9 days time, I had emailed Danni previously to advise her of my travel plans so that she was aware of my absence during that time, this is a copy of the email I sent to her (scroll down to read my email first):

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From: Danni Barnes Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2011 2:32 p.m. To: Tracey Alenepi Subject:Re: leave for 20th Sept 2011

Hey Tracey,

 How lovely, going to Sydney for a week and a wedding. Feel free to visit some kids stores in Sydney for added research & branding ideas hehe.

Thanks for the notice, I appreciate this.

Danni

On 1/09/2011, at 2:26 PM, Tracey Alenepi wrote:

  Hi Danni,

Earlier this year I was invited to a wedding in Australia for later this month.  I fly out to Sydney on the 17th Sept and return on the 26th Sept which means I miss out on one week of IBL work with you (the 20th Sept).  I understand that this falls during my branding research timeframe for theKIDzone project.  I can still work on my branding research while I’m there although I miss out on the one-on-one supervision which you provide on Tuesdays (for that particular week).

 I hope this is okay, let me know your thoughts please.

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I did my proposal this morning in front of Danni and Michelle.  I was so nervous, thankfully they understood and I was able to quickly get over it.  I had prepared a set of slides and also a mini-feasibility study ('mini' because it did not include financial projections).  The research conducted during the past couple of weeks was all summed up in that document and in my slides.  Danni had set for me several tasks to be concluded today:

(1)  aim to find approximately 50 small businesses which would need our services.  They must fit our criteria:  "boutique style" niche business that specialises in children's products/services, passionate about growing their business, do not have the expertise to run their own marketing programmes.

(2)  present my findings today in a proposal to her and Michelle whereby I would let them know whether theKIDzone is a feasible venture for them.

From my findings I discovered 31 small businesses which fit theKIDzone's criteria in the Auckland region.  It is my belief that there are indeed way more in Auckland than what I found but this gives good ground work for Danni and Michelle to look at.  I also advised them that theKIDzone is a good venture and the markets available are wide and varied with many opportunities for them to expand and find companies that would be happy to have their help.  

After my presentation, Danni and Michelle seemed satisfied with the presentation and provided feedback.  One of the main points they brought up is that put simply, theKIDzone is out to help their clients grow their business - This was a point which didn't come through in my presentation but I felt I had covered in my proposal which they were not able to read through at that time.  Quite understandably, it's their 'baby' and they wanted to make sure that I was conveying the right message throughout my whole project on theKIDzone.  Another point that Danni raised was that she felt my presentation was quite broad and she had expected more scope from me at this point.  She told me later on that she felt the information I had given her was nothing new and didn't challenge her thinking.  She felt that I could have bettered it by discussing overseas companies which do fit our criteria and who do 'one-off' services/products (eg. baby massage etc) - something that although may not be available in New Zealand yet, it could be and thus the image and theme of theKIDzone needs to be already prepared to market for this.  

That was my light bulb moment and I finally understood, I was approaching this whole thing from the wrong angle!  I've been doing this first phase of theKIDzone project as if it was a Uni assignment rather than a work-that-I-love-to-do kind of assignment because upon reflection I should have seen it the way Danni did and I should have anticipated all the angles for theKIDzone.  I'm just so used to the one dimensional (sometimes two dimensional) way assignments are answered at Uni that I have forgotten this is the real world and no longer 'make believe'.  

Humbled by this and blown away by my own inefficiency I started on phase two of my theKIDzone project.  This time I am conducting research on theKIDzone brand and gathering information as well as inspiration before I write up my first ever brand brief.  The idea is to let my inhibitions go and open my mind to all possible branding ideas for theKIDzone.  Luckily, when I have to present my findings I am encouraged to supply several key ideas and let Danni and Michelle select the one they want to use as theKIDzone's new logo and brand.  I want to say that I am super excited at this stage but to be honest I'm nervous because I don't want to let Danni or Michelle down.  Probably better for me to be cautious and tread this one finely rather than blaze through it like I do all my Uni assignments (!!)  

To end this entry at a high, from what I've seen today online during my quest for branding and logo inspiration, this is definitely going to be the most fun part of this project.  For this, I love branding and all the creative buzz it will surely bring!

Today I continued my research into theKIDzone.  My plan of action for this week is to research businesses which fit theKIDzone's criteria as part of a plan to assess the feasibility of this venture - otherwise why else should RocketZone attempt to promote something that is not needed?  So far my research has turned up with some very interesting businesses both in New Zealand and overseas which fit our criteria.  

While trawling through the internet and The Localist hard copy I found many small businesses with great products for children that I hadn't heard of before but their services and products were both really cool and very relevant to their audience.  You can almost see the passion these business owners have for their products and services by the way they have attempted to do their own marketing.  At the same time, it made me wonder why they hadn't jumped on the bandwagon and created their own website or furthermore updated their Facebook page - two simple yet crucial marketing tools almost every business needs.  

A discussion with Danni and Michelle about theKIDzone has confirmed how passionate they are about growing small businesses.  Danni has told me she is looking forward to seeing how my input will develop another dimension to theKIDzone that maybe she hadn't seen herself.  I hope I don't let her down, her creativeness is sometimes overwhelming and I find myself in awe a little bit at how much knowledge she and Michelle has.  This always humbles me and reminds me how much I need to learn and how much they don't really teach you at Uni.  

Taking a project from the start of its life to it's inception is going to be a big task but one that I'm looking forward to.  Although I admit this past week has been a challenging one for me, I think the key is to prioritise and complete the tasks that are most pressing.  

Next week I will be presenting the findings of my research to Danni and Michelle - I'm going to try not to be too nervous!  Sometimes thinking about a presentation gets me so nervous before it's happened that I will have ended up wasting so much time worrying about what I'll say and how I'll mess it up!  So, the only thing I need to do this week (apart from a million other things!) is to try and forget about the presentation until Sunday when I can practice it in front of my family.