Turkey or Figs?

Thanksgiving break could not have gone faster with friends, family and food that adorned a weeklong occasion. Everyone usually gushes about Thanksgiving dinner, but I had a second meal that definitely beat my mom’s cooking. The amazing meal that took all of my mom’s glory was at the Flying Fig in Ohio City.

The restaurant features food from small local farmers, and the menu features seasonal items reflecting the agricultural availability. The food literally tasted as if it had been picked off of the farm that same day. My family was practically fighting over the appetizers because it tasted so amazing.

The wine and beer selection was also a lot of fun for my family to try new things and sample each other’s picks. I especially enjoyed the wine served on tap.

If you are in Cleveland and looking for a new place to try, I would definitely suggest trying out the Flying Fig. Maybe the menu will also surpass your Thanksgiving turkey. 

Ask McDonald’s

In “Measure What Matters” Katie Paine explains the importance of having a trustworthy and believable reputation with your entire audience. As I read through this chapter, I thought of McDonald’s. The global franchise may have one of the worst reputations I can think of next to Wal-Mart.

As Katie explains, this poor reputation can make handling crises a chore. The public doesn’t trust McDonald’s, so when a bad story breaks it is almost impossible to change the opinions of customers. This made me think of all the crazy myths people believe about the disgusting production of food in the restaurant. For example, people believe there is pink slime in the hamburger meat.

Katie explains you must know what your customers are saying about you, what they believe and what they do as a consequence. Currently, people are saying pretty gross things about the food at McDonald’s, just take a look at the documentary “Super Size Me”. Because of the negative comments, people believe all of the accusations found on the Internet. As a result, McDonald’s is not doing very well, but that is all about to change.

The biggest surprise of my week was learning McDonald’s is using social media as part of its new marketing strategy to change consumers’ common misconceptions and questions about the fast food chain. The unlikely giant corporation is letting you ask them questions on Twitter, and the business is actually responding!

In addition to answering your inquiries on Twitter, McDonald’s is using YouTube and Facebook to post video evidence answering your burning questions. In fact, Grant Imahara from MythBusters is sponsoring a series of videos that take you behind the scenes of the production facilities creating the food we eat at McDonald’s. If you have a question, maybe Grant will personally answer it himself.

It is about time McDonald’s begins engaging with its customers through social media to improve its reputation. In the past, the franchise ignored rude posts on its page, but now the company is honestly responding in a very transparent and honest way. If you check out the company’s twitter page, you can see how often McDonald’s is responding.

You can see the campaign is working. People are beginning to say more positive things about McDonald’s, and they believe the content McDonald’s is delivering. It is a matter of time before the company can see if sales are increasing. The new marketing strategy is so convincing, I may have to go buy a Happy Meal.

Laundry in Lakeview

There are 90 students living in Lakeview, and we all have to fight over just three washers and three dryers. I did some basic math, and if everyone in my building did their laundry once a week it would equal 12 people per day. So, how exactly are 12 people going to do their laundry when most people take up two machines at a time?

I don’t like to complain about my apartment; I actually love living in this building. But, can someone please buy us another washer and dryer? It is like I am going into a war once a week. Not to mention, I am paying over $8,000 a year to put up with this problem. After more math, that equals $720,000 the entire building is paying to ONU every year. I think they can afford one more washer and dryer, don’t you agree?

My dream come true

Power of a Zip Code

In my current retailing course, we discussed how marketing tactics should vary depending on your selling area’s psychographics. We learned how to use ESRI's Zip lookup, which is a tapestry tool that segments populations based on zip codes. You simply type in a zip code and the top three segments of that area will appear on the screen.

If you type in Ada’s zip code, you probably wouldn’t be surprised to find Salt of the Earth as a top segment, and College Towns was in third. Go ahead and type in your hometown, it is fun to see if the results are what you expected.

This tool is extremely beneficial for marketers to understand demographics, and it is completely free. It gives information on income, age, family size, interests and family life cycle. All of these elements are beneficial in choosing who and how to target your products or services. Not to mention, the tool is kind of fun.

Using Both Ears and One Brain

Katie Paine never ceases to tell you what she is candidly thinking in “Measure What Matters”. As I was making my way through Chapter 10, I noticed a direct paragraph explaining how people will only listen to what they want to hear. Her delivery could not have been more straightforward, don’t expect people to listen to you if they are not interested in what you have to say.

She couldn’t be more correct. In any organization it is important to understand this principle if you are trying to communicate effectively. However, you can still encourage them to listen if you choose the correct channel to send the information through and deliver the content in a concise manner.

There have been numerous times that people in the organizations I am in complain about communication when we have an intranet, Facebook page, email system, text system and we all live together. You can use multiple channels, but sometime people just don’t want to listen.

iMovie Novice

My latest project entailed a general introduction to iMovie and video journalism. My class was assigned an aspect of the PR department, and we were asked to make a short video targeted towards prospective ONU students. I had the honor of randomly selecting Dr. Kathie Fleck as the subject for my video assignment.

Although I never had a class with Dr. Fleck, I learned a lot about her through the students I interviewed. She brings a lot of enthusiasm and compassion to ONU, so I wanted to highlight her impact on students in the video. I did this by interviewing two of her past students, Alex Reese and Hannah Peterson.

When I interviewed the girls, they surprisingly gave me moving responses. It was obvious at that moment; I would have to make the video more about the emotional response that Kathie imposes on her students and less about her academic successes. So, I chose to do the video in black and white with minimal use of imagery. I felt hearing the words would do more justice than a photo collage.

Learning to use the iMovie software was easy and uploading the video to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter was extremely simple. Surprisingly, I found the process to be a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I definitely encourage you to try out your creative skills on a video and see what you are capable of creating.

Buy in or Get Out

Yesterday, ONU’s Greek life was gifted with a prominent speaker from CampusSpeak, David Stollman. He has spoken at over 500 campuses about fraternity and sorority life, and he continues to inspire Greeks across the nation to live up to the values that they pledge. He brought humor, energy and a hefty call to action that impressed everyone in the audience.

CampusSpeak

What makes Greek life so different from any other group on campus is we pledge to be better women and men. We make oaths, and we wear letters that symbolize what we stand for in our fraternity. However, not everyone in our organizations make decisions that align with these promises.

It is very difficult to live in the Greek community when we are constantly being stereotyped and criticized for mistakes made by other members. Greek life use to be an honor and privilege, but now it feels like I have to constantly defend our organizations. Every day Greeks are being ridiculed in TSM, TFM, movies and TV. All of these jokes are funny, but it has become detrimental to what we represent and who we are as leaders on campus.

I’m not saying all Greeks are perfect, and it is almost impossible to live up to every standard that is expected of us. However, we try our best to be someone that would make our founders proud. I hope people will start seeing us more as the leaders we aspire to become and less like imposters who can’t commit to the image we are selling.

Words Will Never Hurt Me

Katie Delahaye discussed the importance of being discussed on social media in her novel "Measure What Matters". However, she acknowledged that the discussion did not have to be positive. In fact, she implied it was better to be spoken of negatively on social media than to not be discussed at all.

When you are negatively being discussed, a brand advocate will usually come to your rescue. It is when you are not being discussed at all when you should start to worry. If no one is talking about you, your brand will not look newsworthy and customers will choose recognized competitors over you.

Negative conversations in social media can also give you helpful insight to improve your products and services. When you listen to your consumers, they can encourage beneficial change that will improve your sales and brand image. No matter the playground setting, sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you.

PR at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Of course, I am going to let you in on some more secrets from my Beta Gamma Sigma conference this past week. During my stay, we were fortunate to hear from the president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The racetrack is known for holding the Indy 500, but it also hosts a golf course, museum, driver training, tours and much more.

Douglas Boles, the president, gave an inspirational speech on following your dreams and servant leadership. However, I was able to gain a bit of insight into a slight PR crisis he handled, because one person asked if he had any interesting stories with celebrities.

Boles, surprisingly, gave us insight into the events that unfolded when Donald Trump announced he wanted to run for president in 2011. At the time, IMS planned for Trump to drive the pace car for the Indy 500 because of his connection to the Apprentice and IZOD. He seemed like the perfect fit, until he started releasing to the public his radical ideas for presidency and his efforts to run for office.

Boles later heard rumors that Trump may use his time at the Indy 500 to formally announce to the media he was running for president. Obviously, this would not support the image for IMS, and takes away from the event. So, Boles decided he had to fire the Trump.

After a rough phone call, Boles said he was glad he made the decision. I would have to agree, you should never combine politics and racing…ever. I never thought the issue of PR would occur during a leadership conference, but it proves that every business professional, no matter the position, will deal with PR. In the case Trump ever decides to run for president again, I don’t think he will attempt to announce it at a racetrack.

With fellow BGS students at IMS

I actually kissed the bricks!

The IMS Museum

Never Forget the Power of Influence

I’m currently attending the Beta Gamma Sigma leadership conference in Indianapolis. There are a little over 100 students here from across the globe, and they all have been asked to join BGS, because they are in the top 10 percent of their business school. So far, the experience has opened my eyes to some new ways of thinking, but my favorite session has been with Tim Clipson.

Tim, who may be the strangest and most likable person I have ever encountered, made us do an activity with children’s blocks. At first, he selected three people and told them to leave the room. Later, he selected another three people and told them they were going to stack as many blocks as they could using just one hand.

Tim also began telling the classroom the group was the best block stackers in the world. He encouraged the team to do well, and had all of the students cheer for them. He asked them to set a goal for how many blocks they could stack, and all of them set very high standards. All three of the participants worked together, and stacked about 100 blocks in one minute.

Later, the three that were excused from the room were asked to enter back into the space. Completely unaware of what just happened, these three were asked to perform the same task. However, Tim gave slightly different enthusiasm for their success. He told them they may not be very good at stacking the blocks, and they will have to be cautious of the other participants knocking down their stack.

The second group of participants all set their goals for their blocks at about one quarter as high as compared to the other team. The group also began competing against one another by knocking down each other’s blocks instead of working as a team. In the end, the second group only stacked about 10 blocks, which is pretty pathetic compared to the previous stack of 100.

I was honestly amazed at how different the outcome was for each group, and all Tim changed was his delivery. It very effectively demonstrated how significantly you can impact your team members when you have a positive attitude, and you believe they can succeed. It reminded all of us to never forget the power of influence.

Myths of Measurement

According to “Measure What Matters” by Katie Delahaye Paine, there are quite a few myths about measurement. She dispels all of the myths right in the first chapter, so you can put your objections at ease. One of the myths that I first believed was true, was that you can’t measure ROI on certain social media efforts.

I have heard numerous times that social media campaigns set out to strengthen relationships and build a community. With that in mind, I never thought you could actually measure if those initiatives are improving the bottom line. As a business student, I like to think in terms of calculable dollar signs, but I am beginning to realize money is not the only measurement of brand success.

This section taught me that some social media efforts will be difficult to measure, but if you think outside of the box you can pinpoint a change, and it might not be visible through sales. It isn’t just about the bottom line, but also about the future costs that you are avoiding. The chapter also noted how implementing a measurement program could keep you from losing out on opportunity costs.

Day of the Dead

If you thought Halloween was fun, you should go down to southern Mexico and celebrate the Day of the Dead. The holiday is devoted to celebrating and honoring loved ones that have passed away. Even though it sounds somber, the entire day is filled with happiness and celebration.

Day of the Dead is celebrated on the first two days of November, directly following Halloween. This is because the indigenous people believe that the spirits are released on Oct. 31. The people who celebrate this holiday go through extreme preparations and spend a lot of money to honor the deceased.  

One of the ways to honor ancestors is to make altars for their loved ones. These are elaborately decorated with flowers, food, drinks, candles and pictures to offer to the spirits. Later, the family will travel to the cemetery to clean the tombs of their loved ones. The families also spend time at festivals and parties celebrating those who have passed.

The holiday has seemed to recently make its way into America. It may be because we don’t have a day devoted to honoring our departed. I think we also are lured to the intricate sugar skulls and extravagant parties. I would love for America to start encompassing the rituals of this holiday, so we can finally honor our ancestors and pay respect to those who came before us.

The World’s Favorite Cookie

During my consumer behavior class, we examined the global marketing strategy of Oreos. Surprisingly, America’s favorite cookie didn’t focus outside of USA’s market until the mid 1990s. Oreo first decided to move into the Chinese market, but realized it had to dramatically change its strategy to succeed outside of USA.

Oreo had to change its packaging, pricing and product to capture sales in China. Based on consumer research, Oreo decided to introduce smaller packages in the Chinese market. Instead of the rather large packages in USA, China’s packaging only holds seven Oreos. This is because Chinese people have less pantry space, stores have less shelf space and consumers shop on a more frequent basis than Americans.

Strawberry and Vanilla Oreo Wafers sold in China

Oreo also learned that Chinese citizens are extremely conscious of cost, so the company decided to sell the cookies in packs of seven for only 29 cents. That’s a pretty big difference compared to the packs of 30 that cost $3 to $4 in USA. Next time I buy a pack of Oreos, I’ll go to China for the best deal.

The most dramatic change Oreo made, was changing its product altogether to capture the Chinese market. Oreo decided to introduce fruit flavors in the cookie to satisfy the taste preferences of the market. The company also created wafers covered in chocolate instead of the classic round cookie.

Double-Fruit Raspberry and Blueberry flavored Oreos

After its move into China, Oreo focused on consumer research before launching its products in other countries. The business now has Oreos in over 100 countries, and no cookie is sold in the same way. Maybe one day Oreo will be the world’s favorite cookie.

Strawberry and Vanilla Oreos in Argentina