╠ Wolf in sheep skin! - Twitter ╣

Now this is something that has been sort of building up since I first heard the word twitter. I honestly don't get it. I don't understand the hype about it. This video sort of shows the kind of feeling I have towards it. However despite all this it is still labeled as some huge marketing thing that everyone is up on. So I got one then after having the first status update I receive being 'having eggs for tea tonight. Yum!' I gave up and never returned. Yet it was still in the background as this big thing. I thought 'You know one day I will get it.' But I don't.

I mean I can see the marketing potential here, it is a very useful marketing tool, but so am I...haha wit! Either way cannot see how it has taken off. I mean yes I do use facebook a lot and find the twitter element of it fun but that is because there is so much else to that site. I really can't see myself being so drawn to something so simple though.

So this is my cry out to any twitter fans out there. What is there that makes it such a must have. I mean there are even books being made about twittering. So please if someone can explain it please go ahead and save me from having to get one of those books in order to see what I'm apparently missing.

╠ The Grim yet sad future for graduates ╣

The more time that I look into the generalizations of generations, the more I think I may fit some of them. Mainly the I want my path laid out in front of me simply for me to take. That being said I don't believe it should be easy, however I would like it to simply be like a quest where you must complete this, then this, then one last thing and then boom success.

However what is looking more and more likely as Uni draws to an end is what appears to be a complete dead end thankyou to Mr. Economic Crisis.

Now the problem that I face is basically I go and ask people who I like 'Do you have any graduate opportunities. Their answer so far without fail has included these two elements, laughter and a mention of the economic crisis as if I as a commerce student had no idea of all that such a thing existed. Overall I'm left not actually with a conclusive answer which is what I was after. I understand the situation, myself and many other people who have put themself through about 16 years of education often inclusive of putting themself into debt now no longer have opportunities to use any knowledge that they tried to specialize in.

Needless to say we understand the gravity of the situation. I think businesses are ignoring the potential opportunities going to waste here. With everyone cutting back there will be above average people who will create great worth for a business out of work so perhaps it is worth offering the odd spot here and there. Also by completely palming off prospective grads you're going to discourage them from turning to you when you do actually open your doors years down the track when they have realized great proportions of their potential.

I think businesses shouldn't just jump straight to cutting programs. They should be trying to find different ways around things. We will understand that you can't afford the spots now and also that we will probably face the issue of being a job not suited to our skills. If they say not now but try to hold onto us for when times are better it could value add to both parties.

Personally I don't know the best way to do this because it's obviously hard to lock someone in without yourself being bound to some requirement but for an example this would be how I would do it for Apple.

Apple have online training modules, I would give grads access to this as well as maintaining a blog for the so that they know whenever even a single spot is coming up. Because of the competition to get into a job you want people would keep up to date on the modules. So basically you have a trained group of university educated graduates knowing what you want them to know and ready to jump into the fray at quick access without actually locking yourself into actually providing them any reimbursement for their dedication to your brand.

Much better than a laugh in the face if you ask me.

╠ 99c is more expensive than $1 ╣

My endeavor to branch out and sample other markting blogs has gone quite well. One of the first posts to really get me thinking was Nathan Bush of Another Advertising Wanker's post on the terminology of the word expensive. In most dictionaries expensive means that an item is basically high monetary cost for a consumer. Nathan's argument was that it should instead be high perceived monetary cost. I personally think it to be quite apt because the original definition wouldn't class a bread loaf that costs $100 as expensive and converesely a house being sold at half price would still be expensive. So I believe this change to be much more acurate.

The second thing I would like to bring up is that there was a study that was referenced in the TV show of the same name as this blog that stated that people did not trust whole value items and perceived that having a non flat value down to the last cent appeared more thought on and therefore was a better price.

Now what I'd like to raise is cobining the two for low value items. Personally I believe the more thought on price would work against the seller for low cost items especially in an environment where there are more expensive items. Personally I think a value such as $1 is not a high value. For me it is impulse. If I have that gold coin in my pocket if there's something I want I'll just get it.

Non-rounded cents to me appears more to be something that requires thought. You have to take it in and then think about it before you come to the conclusion that it does actually cost $1. Now this isn't a long process but it still subtracts time which hurts the chance of impulse buy.

Now this is jsut my view but what would you prefer? a $1 item or $0.99 item?

╠What will you do with your $900?╣

I found this video in a post by Nathan Bush over at Another Advertising Wanker. Despite the name he's actually not a bad guy, this post in particular demonstrated it as this video is a bit of pro bono work that he helped on for the Children's Hospital Foundation Australia. The $900 is in reference to the stimulus package in the process of currently being paid out bit by bit. As a stimulus package the point is to spend it, but why not do some good while you do?

I think this is a great example of what marketers can do for good. A lot of the time we are helping soulless companies so it is really inspiring to see work like this going on.

╠ A new layout on life ╣

As most of you probably can see I've changed the layout for this blog. Since it's beginning my entire view about what this blog is and what I use it for has been an ever changing concept. In a discussion yesterday I realized that what I wanted this blog to be was no longer something that the previous layout helped me obtain.

Yes it was pretty but it didn't do enough to keep interest. It made the posts look not worth reading. So I figured it was finally time to change.

Originally my idea when looking for a new layout is to have something with wider margins to make my posts look less long...although if anything to me they almost look longer now. Either way I still do believe this layout is for the best though...well until I one day get so awesome to make my own. If you any opinions feel free to comment.

I hope you enjoy Gruen's new flavour.

╠ TV's aim is a tad off ╣

Zac Martin made a post a few months back about the classification of generations in Australia as drafted by characteristics based off of the 2006 census. The layout was as follows.

0-19 __iGeneration
20-39 _Generation X and Generation Y
40-59 _Baby Boomers
60-79 _Lucky
80+ __.Oldest

What I find interesting about this is that as time progresses it seems as if consumers are getting harder to reach via conventional means. iGeneration is almost completely dependent on the internet and therefore is hard to reach by means such as Television and as sad as it may seem I wouldn't be surprised if radio was almost a foreign system to them. Thanks to ad blockers even the internet isn't so successful.

The thing I find most intriguing about this is if things continue TV may just end up losing all of its power and beginning to be something of a targeted medium once everyone moves on and only the oldies stick to the aged technology. In may seem like an unbelievable thing nowadays as most people do watch TV. But if you compare average time of the iGen watching TV especially around the late teens I suspect a lot of TV time would have turned to internet time or at the very least to a combination. I know while I'm watching something on TV advertising is usually the time to turn to MSN meaning while it is being broadcast to me it's simply background noise. Most TV ads do not accompany for thi and try to be stimulating by sound alone so I get by pretty well.

Personally I figured out that I am horrible to target with advertising. All the advertising that I fully receive(Ignoring subliminal advertising) is posters on the train ride into the city every day and advertising that I seek out and interract with be it for this blog or simply interractive campaigns relative to my interests. Whilst my age may put me more in the Gen Y I believe I'd be more of an iGen but either way if the way I chose what advertising I am consciously allowing myself to acknowledge, then the future may to some look bleak...however I believe it will be more interesting. Creativity AHOY!

╠ The Viabilities of Insults ╣

Now personally I think the fatal flaw with this ad is the line 'Because if you don't like chicken, there's something very wrong with you.' This is simply my opinion but I don't think you should go around insulting people in your ads. While people who don't like chicken wouldn't be anywhere near the target market for this group some people can be relatively negative when it comes to such things. Personally I think some people woulld take offense even if they did like chicken if they simply liked another meat more. People can also tend to take offense on other peoples behalf and get defensive, so people who know people who aren't obsessed with chicken could also take offense.

So I think this is a mistake that should have never gotten through but that's just me. Do any of you have any thoughts about the use of such a strong line in adverts?