english gardens

1. I went to Macy's. They market to mid to upper-class people who have dispensible income.

2. a) From the outside, there was a display window with a dressed up manikin in a wintery, christmas looking scene. The manikin was wearing winter apparel (coat, hat, gloves, etc.). There was snow on the ground and a snowy looking background, along with Christmas ornament strings scattered across the ground. When you walk in, you see a projected clock in the forst floor and then there's the perfume section in the front and the women's shoes along the side. The second floor has women's clothing on both sides of you with jewelry in the middle. The third floor has home goods, starting with plates and glassware near the entrance.
b) Inside the store, there was Christmas music going because it was Black Friday and that's what pretty much all the stores do. It was very loud, due to all the shoppers. I would assume it was more crowded than usual. It seemed to have the normal sounds of people busy Christmas shopping on black Friday, meaning everywhere is busy and slightly noisy.
c) Most of the clothes were displayed on racks throughout the clothes sections, a few things like jeans were put onto some tables. The glassware was on glass shelves. The china was on black tables (they were covered in fabric), more like podium style. The jewelry was in cases or on racks for some of the less expensive things. The shoes are on the wall, and you have to request them all if you would like to try them on. The teen section has a more teen-like-feel. The colors get away from the red and black of the majority of the rest of the store, and are instead a darker blue/turquoise color along with more teen-like decorating of hip looking manikins.
d) The floors of the store are all a white tile except in the teen section where they are black and have somewhat of a sparkle to them.
e) The outside sign tht says Macy's matches the red and black theme by having black lettering with a red star. Inside the store, the signs for the elevators and the bathrooms have a white background, with black lettering and picture symbols. There wasn't any set section labeling that I noticed. I think that does help Macy's though, not to have a misses section vs a lady's section- it allows customers not to feel limited. The signs on the actual merchandise racks and shelves had an off-white background with black lettering to make it easy to read.
f) The cashier area's are set up as a koisk-type style. They have one somewhat round desk with multiple registers on three or four sides in portions of the store like the teens. These registers have one line running to them. Other parts of the stores have registers in the middle of a section that are small and only serve one person at a time. These are usually in the back of a specific section like dresses.

3. This image trys to looks somewhat up-scale while still keeping the typical department store look. They stuck with the red and black scheme that makes it seem like it is more up-scale. Red and black is a traditional color scheme. Red can be associated with celebrities and the red carpet. Black is usually a sleek color that can make another color stand out. The clothes in the store are more high-class also. There were multiple racks of furs. In most stores, you wouldn't see this, because not that many people wear furs. While I was there, my friend and I saw a guy offering to play 5,000 dollars for a fur. We were both in shock, and the salesperson started to negociate with the man a fair deal. I didn't know that you could negoicate for prices in a department store, but my dad explained that since it was such a high price, and they work off of commission, negociating is possible. The elevators in the middle also give the feel of a nice place. They have glass doors and gold lights. Other stores won't have elaborate elevators in the middle, and instead just have them on the side, and in the wall with only escalators in the middle of the store.

4. As I said before, we saw the one man interacting with the salesperson over the fur. The saleperson seemed to be engaged to the customer, but not willing to give him the first price he offered. He instead started to negociate. Other customers were in a hurry and just walking. Some customers were engaged in certain types of merchandise or certain sections. I did see men who were with their wives and looking bored or just following along. Most customers were shopping by themselves, but salespeople were around. The cash registers were all busy, but I would assume that's because it was black friday.

5. The thing I like most about the store is the clock that is projected on the floor when you walk in on the first floor. It is an eye-catching item that is also helpful. A lot of the time, you lose track of time when shopping or you would like to check on the time, and this clock is bound to be seen based on it's unique design. It also gives the store a special feel, just because it has something cool that no one else has. I also noticed that them men's things were all on one floor in one secion, while the women's was on multiple floors, very spread out. This went back to what Paco said- that men feel very uncomfortable in the women's section, and that women make up more purchases than men. It was also interesting though that a man was the one making the $5000 offer for the fur coat. Men have always been known as better barginers even though it was a women's coat.

answers

In response to Brandon's question, I'm drawn into a store by the products they sell and if I am shopping for that product that day. I'm also drawn in by online shopping a lot. If I'm bored at home and contemplating shopping the next day, I tend to go online and look for things I want to buy. This allows me to see a good chunk of the store before I even get there. I think it makes my shopping more productive, but it also sometimes makes it harder if you can't find the item in the store that you saw online. Store displays are less likely to draw me into a store. Usually I don't like the items on the displays, and then if you do, they tend to be impossible to find in the store because the display is no where near the actual merchandise. I think if a store wants to gain a new customer, they have to have the certain feel a customer is looking for in order to draw the customer in. If not, the customer will forever bypass the store. I can't be drawn into a store that I feel out-of-place in, so it's all about the environment they create for the potential customers.

In response to Laura's second question, I think the "butt-brush" theory is not disproven with clearance racks. The theory states that things that involve careful examination before they buy should be placed far away as to avoid the "butt-brush". With clearance racks, however, careful attention is not required. I think clearance shopping is more impulse buying. Everything is marked down, so you don't contemplate buying it as much. If you make a quick buy and regret it later, it's still okay because you didn't spend all that much money. The racks are allowed to be placed close together because the cheaper prices will compensate for the "uncomfortableness" of the racks.

question

Is the power of shopping really up to the store owner or can a consumer control their own shopping habits? Have you ever thought about your own shopping habits? Do you browse through everything, only go for what catches your eye, or have one particular reason for entering a store? Can you be swayed by the way a store is set up, or will you only go for what really interests you? Can the way a store is set up influence what you end up buying?

packaging part 2

1. We discussed how packaging can be used to draw consumers' attention to a product. What other purposes does packaging serve? Give examples.

Packaging serves a lot of purposes. For food, the packaging is used to keep it fresh, and adequately sealed. Some packaging for things like water bottles are made to purposely re-sealable.

For things that are fragile, packaging is used to protet the item. Some packaging may add extra layers or padding to keep something in-cased. Other things may have foam incasing the entire object to fit the exact shape to keep it safe.

Packaging on many things is used so that they can't be opened in stores and used prematurely. It makes it so the consumers know they are getting a good item, one that is perfectly new.

The packaging is also used for information about the item. Pretty much anything you buy has some type of writing on it. This can be anything from directions, to ingredients, information about the item, product specification, branding, taglines, etc. The packaging also tends to have a picture of the item that's in the package if it can't be visibly seen and the brand logo.


2.What do these articles suggest about packaging design? Give examples of how modifications to current practices could have environmental benefits.

These articles suggest that we use way too much packaging on most of our goods, especially packaging that pollutes the enviroment. If we want to save the enviroment, we need to change our current packaging and still be concerned about what happens to the packaging once we dispose of it.

Currently, if we reduced the amount of plastic used in packaging, we could greatly reduce the amount of plastic that ends up polluting our environment. We also should be using more biodegradable materials for packaging. As soon as we get a product, we dispose of the packaging, and it just fills up our landfills. Packaging needs to be minimized and biodegradable. This will greatly benefit our world.

We also need to reduce the use of plastic bags. This is one of the main things I think that could easily be reduced. If i don't need a bag, I never get one. Anytime I go to the bookstore or get one item somewhere I try not to get a bag. When I'm working in the bookstore, I always ask people if they'd like a bag if they have one or a few small items. If you ask people, they tend to say they don't need one. I know other employees who just put everything, no matter how small in a bag, and people will most likely not a refuse a bag unless asked. By asking about and refusing bags, I think I'm helping to reduce some of the waste of plastic bags in our world.

packaging

1. To what extent is packaging important in marketing a product? Give an example of how a package influenced your decision to buy (or not buy) something.

I think packaging is very important. I personally love things that are bright, colorful, and eye-catching. Anything that has an eye catching package is a lot more likely to grab the eye of a consumer. This can be done many different ways using the shape of the package, the design on it, the colors, etc. It's also about style in today's world. People want to be seen with the products deemed "cool". If you have a product that everyone is like "wow, where did you get that?" you're going to be seen as cool or stylish.

There are a lot of books that I completely pass over because their covers or the title on the binding don't look appealing at all. It could be a great book, but I won't even give it a chance unless the fonts and colors or the actual title grabs me. This can be both good and bad because most academic books are less appealing, meaning i'm drawn towards the entertaining books more.


2. What other products have iconic packaging?

A lot of foods have iconic packaging because they have to beat out their competitors. Most foods and their competitors have the same type of general design (like a bag of chips) but then the actual design on the bag has to appeal to a consumer. If it was tostitos vs better made, I would pic tostitos because the colors are more vibrant (blue, purple, and white), the font is big, bold, and cool looking, and the overall design is inticing. The better made one lacks in comparrison with less color, and a less appealing font in my opinion.

School supplies for kids are also very iconic. Kids always want to have the coolest things for school and the producers know that. They deck out all the supplies in bright colors, lots of designs, and make them as appealing as possible. Kids always want the more intensely designed product no matter if it's exactly the same as the generic one without the extra design.

A lot of alcohol bottles are also iconic. There's a party store by my house with thousands of different alcohol bottles, and I always go through and find the coolest looking bottles while I'm there. The ones with the coolest shape, color combination, and font usually win in my mind.


3. What usability issues exist for packaging? Give examples of particularly good or bad packaging from a usability perspective.

Packaging has to be there to be eye-catching but it can't hinder the use of the actual product. Some packaging is just poorly designed like bottles that don't poor well due to the shape of the top.

I have a small tub of lemonade mix in my room, and to open it, you have to peel off half of the label. The only problem is that it's not perferrated, so you usually end up ripping off more than you need, which usually includes the instructions for how much water to use with the mix. The lemonade should have a better peel off label.

The "industrial" size package of goldfish I buy is also not that great. The package looks cool because it's like a giant milk carton, but once you eat half the package, you can no longer reach in and grab goldfish, you have to use a bowl, which makes eating harder. The box is also too big to hold on one hand, so it is impossible to poor and hold a bowl in your hand. Though it looks like a cool design, it's actually harder to use.

bad websites

1. This article was all about poor design in websites. Things should be made user friendly logical, but this website demonstrated many examples of poorly designed sites. It had everything from hard to use/find links, websites that you can't tell what they're for, annoying things that commonly happen like music that you can't turn off, no-readable websites, etc. A good product means it is user friendly, and these websites all were not.

2. I think the most important point is making sure your website is navigatable. If someone is at your website, they want to be able to move through it all and find what they set out to do. If a website can't even do that, then consumers will be easily discouraged.

3. A website must be....
- navigatable
- have it's purpose easily visible
- not have any hidden links- all things should be accessed from the home page
- readable
- concise
- easy to figure out
- have a good search feature
- no annoying animations