Blog 5 - Privacy

These days everyone has a smart phone.  We download apps and are asked a barrage of questions about ourselves, and if you have an iPhone or Android phone the last question is typically about using location services.  We all have the ability to opt out of this function on aps.  Why then does the phones OS supplier not give us the same level of respect? 

In today’s information age we are all so used to giving out our name, email, and birthday out to access websites, such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Spotify.  We understand that we are giving this information “at will.”  Facebook at least gives us the ability to adjust our privacy settings to limit the amount of people who can see our content.  But even Facebook sells our personal information to the highest bidder to be used as market research.

The article about Apple and Google states that they are gathering this information to improve the functionality of their product. They are trying to create massive databases of wifi hotspots.  This way they can help their customers find the closest wifi.  Google says they are using the location tracking information to understand the flow of traffic for the maps app.

Right now they are keeping databases of information using a phones unique identifier, that they say is not linked to any personal information.  We all know that companies keep databases of people who buy their products and normally have the serial numbers attached to this information.  So in all reality they are just a database link away from tracking real people.  I think if we are willing to opt into this, then that would be fine, but the fact that they are doing it without our consent is wrong.

Phones are very lacking in the security space.  They are considered the easiest devices to hack to steal personal information.  Now with the new near field technology people are even able to pay with their cell phones.  So in addition to where you are they will also be able to track your buying habits and credit card accounts.

If Apple and Google are okay with storing your location information, what will keep them from taking it a step further and to tracking your buying habits, or even keeping track of what you are looking at online.  I know the government has only just started looking into setting standards for privacy on the Internet.   I feel that there is a definite need for privacy standards to be set so that the average consumer’s information is protected.

Most people don’t really understand how privacy settings work.  No matter how easy Facebook makes it, there are still people out there that allow everyone to see everything they do, with out really intending to.  With more and more people using the internet and more and more people who do not really understand how the privacy settings work, this is becoming a much bigger issue than most people think.

I was reading the book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,”  to my daughter the other day and I feel this is how companies will react to being allowed to do one thing.  If you give a mouse a cookie, he will want a glass of milk.  If you give these companies permission to ping phones for location, they will want to do other things like track the internet usage.  Until you put some restraints on them, they will continue to push a little further across the line of invading the privacy of their consumers.

It will definitely be hard to place standards on this sort of thing, since all of these companies are global.  I feel it is necessary to make sure that large companies are not taking advantage of consumers, and doing things like this with out letting them know.

Creativity

I was always the athletic one in the family and my brother, who is 18 months older, was always the creative one.  I always loved playing along with the things he would come up with, but very rarely had the ability to come up with them myself.  We would really let our imaginations sore when it came to building things with Pipeworks.  This was the coolest toy I ever had growing up.  It was essentially a building kit for kids.  You could build jungle gyms, vehicles, lemonade stands, and much much more out of pipes, platforms and connectors.  My brother was always good at coming up with a vision, and I was always good at turning it into reality. 

My brother always seemed to see the world differently than I did.  What I saw and just a blank scrap of paper he saw as a ticket to the moon.  I feel that he is the one who taught me how to be creative.  It is so much easier to work at being creative as a child, when you have very few inhibitions.   But as I got older I feel like my ability to be creative is lacking.  I like things that are logical and make sense to me; I guess this is why I like finance.

In my work I think my creativity shines through in a different way.  Maybe it would show in the way that I come up with new ways of doing things, or making processes more efficient.  The Journal article stated that creativity is pulled from things that you know, or know of.  I think my strengths are understanding computers and being able to see tasks differently than others do.  I could take a 1-hour task and turn it into a 5-minute task.  My ability to create efficiencies is where I think I am most creative.

When I worked at Dell I was always encouraged to talk to all different people throughout the organization.   I found that this really helped when I reached a roadblock, or needed help with a project.  I always knew who to ask for help or new insights into problems.  I thought this was great, but as an organization Dell doesn’t really bring out the most innovative products.  They always seem to be a step behind everyone else in the industry.  Then they are the leaders in cost and this could be why it seems that way.

What I liked about Dell was that they didn’t care how you got your job done, as long as you got it done.  I was given a lot of freedom in how I went about doing my job.  When I get into a new role, I am constantly asking myself how I can get the day to day tasks done faster, so I am more time to look at strategy.  I think that creating strategy is a great way to practice creativity.  You don’t have to be in advertising or product development to be considered a creative person.  Anyone can be creative in how they go about solving problems from day to day.

I love digging into data and discovering new things about how the company is running, then taking that knowledge and creating a better way of doing things.  This is why I feel I excelled at Dell.  People were not used to employees who did this in my group.  For them most part people just did their job the way they were taught and that was that, but for me a job is what you make it.  Anyone has the ability to turn any job into something that they love doing; you just have to be able to make it your own.

I think I do well operating alone, but bringing in a group allows for a whole new experience in problem solving.  If you get a group of people together for a lot of different areas and ask them to solve a problem, I believe they will come up with a very creative solution.  It will probably be a better solution than if one person alone had sat there trying really hard to be creative about it.  The great thing about groups is you can pool the knowledge and ideas of a bunch of different people.  Normally they will come up with a better solution than a single person, and they will do it in much less time.  It is the give and take, which makes groups so successful.

In the article they talk about how some people have to stop thinking about the problem at hand in order for their brains to really take in all of the different aspects.  They need to talk a walk and clear their heads.   Then on the other hand there are some people who would be better off if they continued to tinker with the problem a bit longer.  I think this is very true, and he states that you often know which route you need to take.  I can always tell by how clearly I am thinking.  If I start to drift off or my head starts to feel fuzzy, I know that I need to step away for a little bit, or work on something else.  Maybe it is the alternate task that gives me an idea for how to solve the problem.  I can also tell when I need to keep tinkering, especially when it comes to data analysis. There are millions of ways for people to look at a given set of data, and sometimes you just need to keep tinkering to figure out how to fix something.

In the end I feel that I have my creative moments, but it is not artistic creativity, it is logical creativity.

  

Blog 3

Since I am very interested in statistics, I thought it would be interesting to research how companies use statistics to help them create customer profiles.  I was reading the consumerist the other day and they had posted a New York Times article about Target and how they get to know their customers through statistics.  They talk specifically about how when people go through major life changes, for instance having a baby, their brand loyalties are up for grabs.  Here is an excerpt from the article:

“…Timing is everything. Because birth records are usually public, the moment a couple have a new baby, they are almost instantaneously barraged with offers and incentives and advertisements from all sorts of companies. Which means that the key is to reach them earlier, before any other retailers know a baby is on the way. Specifically, the marketers said they wanted to send specially designed ads to women in their second trimester, which is when most expectant mothers begin buying all sorts of new things, like prenatal vitamins and maternity clothing.”

Apparently we all have consumer habits that cause us to buy the same products, brands, and so on when we are in a normal state of mind.  This all changes when a major life event occurs, and our usual routine is forever changed.  If a company like Target can understand how these habits is created, it can make them easier to manipulate. 

It seems to me that Target is creating individual personas for each customer in their database.  They are able to track a person’s buying habits and notice any sudden changes.  Then they could go further and use the coupon generator at the check out to test these theories.

I know for a fact that when you buy any kind of baby product at HEB you get a coupon for Enfamil formula.  I assume this is automated and it spits out every single time someone purchases anything.  If they had been able to create a persona on me they would notice, that I have never purchased formula before at the store.  Whereas when I buy something at Target the coupon is related to the purchase.  For instance, the other day I bought a box of breast milk storage bags and when they checked me out I was given a coupon for Avent bottles.  Now this could have just been a coincidence, but that is the brand of bottle we use and I have bought them at Target before.

I would like to research more on why this works.  Either they need to store and immense amount of data on each individual and are in turn creating individual personas, or they are creating multiple personas then fitting customers into them using their past purchasing data.

Would it even be possible for them to create individual personas for customers?  Think of how it would work for these large companies:

-       Home Depot (New Homebuyer (New or Pre-owned), remodeling, re-landscaping, etc.)

-       HEB or Kroger

-       Macy’s

-       Best Buy

-       Office Depot? (Entrepreneur)

-       Apple App Store?

Would it work for smaller companies?

-       J. Crew

-       Coach

-       GAP

I am interested in exploring all of these possibilities and making recommendations on how a couple of different companies could use this to better understand their customers and what they want out of each unique experience with the store.

Blog 2

In order to accurately gather information through social media, you first need to make sure you are looking at the right source.  If you were looking for general information about what I like, where I am located, or even my family life, Facebook would be the best route to take.  If you are more interested in my work and how that affects my life and sways my purchasing habits, it may be better to look toward LinkedIn.  Beyond that, Pinterest, is a great place to understand what is important to me.

So say you need to know about my dreams and hobbies.  The best place to find this information would be on Pinterest.  This is the newest source of consumer data that hasn’t really been tapped into yet.  You can gather information about different hobbies, interests, and aspirations that I have.  Then from there you can see how many people like certain ideas.  It would be a great place to test out the buzz marketing concept.

If a designer baby clothes company would like to get a feel for what people like they just need to look at people who have created boards that have to do with baby stuff.  You can normally tell by the name of the pin board, whether a person really has kids or not.  Take mine for instance, it is call sweet baby, buy my friends is called baby someday.  You could normally tell from mine that I already have kids, and you could see what kinds of things I have pin to that board and get an idea of my style when it comes to my child and my parenting style. 

You could use this information to design clothing that people would actually want to buy.  The only drawback would be understanding how much someone is willing to pay.  This is where Pinterest data would be severely lacking..  Since it is a site filled with dreams and aspirations, it is hard to tell what a person could actually afford.  Since people are constantly pinning outfits that they may either want to buy, or they just want to model an ensemble after what they have seen on the site.   

So back to the baby clothing company, even though it is hard to understand the consumer aspect, they can gather data on the newest trends.  They can get a general understanding of the fashion styles that are making their way around the pinterest boards, then model their clothing to match the most popular styles.  From there they can start blogging about their new lines and get a feel for how people are going to react. 

This is where Pinterest is limited, but if you consider the use of both Pinterest and Tumblr, you could gather even more valuable information.  Tumblr is a blog site where people can subscribe to different topics, such as fashion, food, do it yourself, and technology.  This is actually where a lot of the content for Pinterest comes from. If you can start a blog about inspiration for the baby clothes design, and have a link to the store site as well as getting the blog on Pinterest.  This would be a way to reach a parent like me, someone who wants their child to look great, but also want a couple of outfits that are unique.

From these two sites you would be able to tell that I like to sew, bake, and travel.  That I am not interested in hiring people and would prefer to figure out how to do things for myself.  That I like the idea of fashion, but it is not that important to me.  From this a company could gather that I am not a big spender, but will spend on good quality things.  I don’t buy anything that looks like it would be easy to make on my own.  They would then be able to take this and have a good idea of the different kinds of baby clothes I would like to buy.

The best way to get to this kind of information about me is to follow me on pinterest.  This is much easier that following someone on Facebook since you do not have to know the person to follow his or her pins.  If you follow enough people who seem to be in your target demographic, you will be able to understand what they are interested in by their pins.  Granted you would need to be checking the site quite often, and it would take a long time to follow enough people to really get a good idea of who your target customer is.

This method of customer research does have its drawbacks, but t would be great if someone could tap into the data that is provided by Pinterest!

Hello my name is Blake!

       Hello my name is Blake Garcia!  I am 35 years old and live in San Antonio, Texas.  My family is very important to me.  My wife works for one of the big homebuilders and we have a 4 year old daughter who is the center of our lives.  Everything we do is to give her a better life.  I own my own used car dealership and I work very hard to make sure that it runs smoothly.  I went to college, but school has never really been my strong point.  I want my daughter to excel in school and I am very concerned with her education.

     I really like the idea of technology, but I don't know much about it.  Each time I am told about a new gadget, I want it, but I really don't use the full functionality.  I don't do a lot of research, but listen mostly to what my friends and advisors tell me. If a new purchase requires installation, I prefer to have someone else do it for me.  I am too busy with my business and family to worry about doing it on my own.  I also feel that I don't know enough to understand how to put some things together.

     I eat out a lot, since my wife and I both work. We eat at a lot of the nicer restaurants in San Antonio and when we go out with friends it is normally to the nicer clubs and bars downtown.  I consider myself well off and don't really view money as an issue in my life.

    When it comes to friends, I keep mine very close.  I am always trying to help them out, by recommending their businesses to others, and using their services myself.  My friends tend to also be business acquaintances.  We are not the type to have profiles on Facebook, or any other social media sites.    We like to have fun and go out, but are also family men.  We like to watch sporting events together and really enjoy talking shop when we are around each other.

    I feel that people view me as very energetic and passionate.  I am the kind of guy who will buy a stranger a drink at a bar and strike up conversations with people I have never met.  I like fashion, and enjoy shopping for new clothes, but also leave it up to my wife to buy most of them.  I normally dress in athletic apparel, but like to dress up when I go out with friends.  I take pride in my body and work out a couple time a week, whether it is at home or at our local gym.

    My biggest fear is losing my family, followed by my business failing.  I get frustrated with the fact that I don't know much about setting up the new gadgets I buy.  I wish I didn't have to hire people to do some things for me.

   I would like to start a second dealership, or even expand my online capabilities, but cannot do it on my own.  I know I am successful when I can provide for my family and by daughter is doing well in school.