A Very Random Entry

Time to flex my creativity with an exercise.

First word: PASSPORT

A compound word. Allows you to pass a port. Gives you access to the world. Represents freedom. Represents experiences and memories. The first few pages of my passport are littered with my adventures through Europe from this past year. The stamps are much more boring than you think. Ireland used green ink during St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Or maybe they use it all year round. I wouldn’t know; I’ve only been there once.

Passports always remind me of junior high. In junior high we would have an annual International Day. Parents would come and set up booths representing different countries from around the world. At every booth, you can pick up food (Antarctica had ice cubes) and get your passport stamped. Those stamps were fun.

In my opinion, the U.S. passport is the best passport. I love looking at other countries’ passports. Our passports are nice and thick with images and quotes representing our diverse country and proud heritage. The Australian passport just has pictures of animals and the outback. The Canadian passport is just embarrassing.

Now that's a high-quality passport.

Most recent passports have an RFID tag in them. This allows them to be easily scanned or something. Some people believe the RFID tags put you in danger because terrorists could have an American RFID tag-detecting device that will track down Americans so they can hold them hostage. Some people are crazy.

My passport is in a safe in my house in Katy. In my mom’s opinion, it is very important that I never lose my passport or my social security card, so they are both in a safe. This is usually fine unless I unexpectantly need my passport. I wanted to spontaneously go to Toronto this summer but I couldn’t because I didn’t have my passport. Or I could need my passport because I lost my primary form of ID- my driver’s license. When I went to Vegas for Labor Day weekend this year, I left my driver’s license at the airport in Austin. This caused many problems because 1.) I didn’t have my passport, the only other acceptable form of ID and 2.) I was in Vegas without an ID.

I want to use my passport to its fullest potential. It expires 2017. That gives me plenty of time to travel and fill it up. I got my first passport when I was ten. It was for Vietnam. I got my second and current passport when I was seventeen. It was for Mexico. I will use my passport next when I go to Belize to volunteer during my final spring break. During my last spring break, I was using my passport to go to Italy and Greece. These memories always make me sad as I sit in my apartment in Austin.

Second word: TEAPOT 

Another compound word. A pot that holds tea.

This weekend when I was in Denver, a friend told me that I seemed like the kind of person who would own a teapot, and if I didn’t own one, I should buy one. I don’t know what kind of person would own a teapot, but I would have to agree- me owning a teapot seems completely natural, even if I don’t drink tea. I had a friend who collected teapots. She was from Kansas and she and I were quite similar.

I like teapots. I like ceramic ones. I like the strength of ceramic. I like the form of the teapot. I like the curves. It reminds me of Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast. Except Mrs. Potts was old and plump- two things that I hope I am not.

When I was younger, my sister and I had two wooden teapot sets from Vietnam. Of course we played tea party with our stuffed animals (Beanie Babies to be exact). You don’t even need to ask.

Now I am older and I still have a younger sister. This one is six. She enjoys playing tea party too. Why do children like playing tea party? Who came up with the idea of children playing tea party? Why don’t children play brunch party?

I went on a first date at a teahouse a couple of years ago. I didn’t like tea but I lied and pretended that I did. It worked out; don’t worry. Then I went to England and a French guy with British and American parents taught me how to drink tea with milk and sugar while we sat in first class on a chunnel ride over from London to Paris. Since then, I’ve enjoyed drinking tea.

Tea with milk and sugar is the only way to go.

I actually don’t know how a teapot works. It seems too beautiful and fragile to heat up on the stove. My roommates make sweet tea in a pot. An actual pot. Not a teapot. Would it be considered a teapot if it were a pot containing tea?

Combination: PASSPORT AND TEAPOT

1. A teapot with a passport pattern on it
2. A teapot that acts as a passport
3. A passport with a teapot pattern on it (probably for the UK)
4. A passport that acts as a teapot
5. A passport that holds tea leaves
6. A teapot that hides a passport inside
7. A teapot made of passport material
8. A passport made of teapot material
9. A teapot that comes with your passport
10. A passport that comes with your teapot
11. A “passport” containing teas from around the world
    

My last idea of a “passport” containing teas from around the world might work. Tea is different from country to country; and there are many people who would like to experience that firsthand. I am imagining this tea passport as a large book with different packages of tea leaves attached to the pages. Each page will tell the story of the tea and how to prepare it. Did this tea come from Nepal? If so, do we need to seep it in milk and top it with cinnamon to make dudh chia? Mmmmm… yes please.

Going Underground, Mind the Gap, or Some Other Generic Tube-Related Title

Let me preface by saying I love every part of London. I love the abundance of theatres and museums; I love the conglomeration of cultures and languages; I love the city's history. But the coup de grâce is London’s public transportation system.

The London Underground, which will be henceforth referred to as "The Tube," opened in 1863, making it the world's first underground railway system. Think about it; it opened before the Internet, The Beatles, World War II, even World I and not only is it an icon of the city, it's still in use today. Most impressive of all, in a world of constantly innovating technology, people still love this aged system. Well, at least I love it.

The reasons I love the Tube can be broken up into three aspects: physical, cultural, and community.

Physical

One of the most iconic parts of the Tube is the colorful map. This has also become an icon of London. Go to a souvenir shop and you can get the Tube map on shirts, towels, pens, shower curtains, facial tissues, and even shot glasses. It was revolutionary because the designer, Harry Beck, realized (one could call it a customer insight!) that people do not really need geographical accuracy in an underground transportation map. They are more concerned with getting on and off at the right spot. Because of this insight, in 1931 he created a simple, colorful map, based off his design concepts, which are still in use today. Many cities have since incorporated his ideas into their own subway maps.

I have been to many major cities in Europe and the United States, and I must conclude that London does the best job of making each stop unique. Get off at Baker Street, and you will see many tunnels lined with different aspects of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Westminster, one of the most tourist-packed stop, is a dramatic futuristic larger-than-life space that gives the impression that one is stuck in an Orwellian novel. You do not get this type of personality in Stockholm, where the underground system feels like an immense cave, or in New York City, where the white bathroom-tiled walls reinforce the emphasis of function over form.

The Beautiful Tottenham Court Road Stop

Despite not having any trashcans (thanks Irish terrorist groups!), the floors of the station are not that dirty. This is because London was clever enough to design a ticket machine that “eats” up your ticket once you exit the station. This eliminates much of the waste that you would see on the floor of the Paris metros (Here, metros mean underground transportation systems. Each city has their own term for their underground system and Paris, like Washington, DC, uses the term metro.). Of course, you can always opt for the more environmentally friendly Oyster card, which leaves no physical trace behind.

Billets! Get off of the floor!

Cultural

London is a city with more museums than Paris and more theatres than New York City. So of course it would be natural to assume that this prevalence of culture permeates throughout the city and what a more natural way to move throughout London than through the Tube? The London Underground makes an effort to promote music, art, and poetry both inside and outside the train carriages. This movement has become hugely successful, as evidenced by the countries around the world that have emulated this idea. It is amazing how a short science poem about the galaxies can brighten up your daily commute.

Approved musicians perform in designated areas that they pre-book for 2-hour intervals. 

Art on the Underground <3

Poems on the Underground educate and entertain you inside of train carriages.

Community

The physical aspects of the Tube made me like it. The cultural aspects made me respect it. The community aspects are what makes me love the Tube system.

One of my favorite advertisements in the Tube features different Londoners making promises to be more conscientious of others such as “I won’t play my music out loud. And I won’t eat smelly food.” The tagline is “A little thought from each of us. A big difference for everyone. Together for London.” That is what I really love about London. It is more collectivist and community-oriented than America. It’s Together for London. The police’s slogan is “Working together for a safer London.” The agency in charge of transportation is known as the Transport for London (TfL). This emphasizes that everyone, even the tourists, should work together to make the city a nicer place to live.

Another display that stood out to me explains why certain stops were temporarily shut down more than a simple “Out of Order” notice. The “Transforming Your Tube” campaign shows life-sized construction workers fixing the Tube system. The tagline was something to the effect of “Thank you for your patience. We are undergoing a massive transformation to rebuild a better transportation system for you.” Again the collectivist “for you” theme shows up again. This is so important because people often forget in the rush of their day that inconveniences happen for a reason and that reason is often that something is being improved for them not because the UK government loves to ruin their day and cause them to be late for their 9 o’clock meeting. You see explanations like this repeatedly in London. The city likes to keep its citizens and its visitors informed.

TfL also shows an immense amount of respect for its employees. There are posters reminding people that TfL employees are people too and as such, do not like to be insulted. This is a helpful check for those with a temper. The Tube also has art showcasing the faces of employees. Each face comes with a name and how long the employee has worked in the Underground. Together this gives the Tube a greater sense of community. It personalizes the workers. If we remember to treat them with respect, they could become our new friend.

The combination of all of these forms of communication makes me feel as if I were a part of the community. As if I were in on what is going on. It makes me feel like a Londoner, and that is perhaps the greatest gift a city can give a visitor.

An Abbreviated Confession of My Love for Barnes & Noble

Customer experiences are private events that occur in response to some direct observation or participation in an event or events. They must be induced. This can be done intentionally, in which case the marketer is usually the one responsible, or unintentionally. Because these customer experiences are private events, they mean different things to different people. What could seem like nothing more than a ribbon tied to a bag to one person, could validate a claim of quality to another. Today I will talk about a customer experience that is personally very meaningful to me.

I spent this summer on the east coast. Because I had been far away from home for a long period of time (I stayed in Europe from the end of December to early June and left for Washington, D.C. the day after I arrived home), I started to feel homesick. Not to mention, I took advantage of the fact that public transportation was more accessible on the east coast and that, for the first time, I had access to interesting cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. These constant upheavals made me feel even more uprooted. However, whenever I stepped into a Barnes and Noble to seek solace from the unforgiving summer sun, it was if I was instantly transported back to Houston. I always found a home inside of Barnes & Noble.

The best way to break apart this experience in order to analyze it would be to view it from my, the customer’s, point of view in the order that I experience the store.

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

Walking from a distance to Barnes & Noble, you see the strong, dignified forest green and white letters, beckoning you closer. The large window displays show off bestsellers and offer you a glimpse of the satisfied patrons reading inside. If you are anything like me, you smile and your pace quickens because you know what awaits you inside.

THROUGH THE DOUBLE DOORS

Barnes & Noble has two sets of double doors to all of their stores. This has less to do with the customer experience, and more to do with the fact that two sets of double doors conserves more air-conditioning than one set. However, because this extra chamber creates space, retailers decided to maximize its potential by displaying bargain books that fall under a certain theme. I suppose this enhances the experience for some customers, but personally, my eyes just quickly glance over it as I hurriedly grab the second set of wooden double doors.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

As soon as you enter the bookstore, you just smell it. It's distinctly Barnes and Noble: the smell of Starbucks and new books commingling over a good read. This is usually where I pause for a second or two to take in my surroundings and appreciate the fact that I am here and literate. I soak in the bright space and high ceilings. I appreciate the wooden shelves and tables. I hear the soft notes of adult contemporary music playing in the background. I note the cash registers on my left and the Starbucks coffee shop on my right.

FRONT OF THE STORE

The main promotional tables are placed inside the octagon at the front of the store. Small green signs with cream letters announce descriptions like “new arrivals” or “best-seller.” Most customers will stop to at least look around these tables, which is why this is the most expensive spot for a publisher to place their books. 

Barnes & Noble will purposely arrange for books with the most copies present to lie in the center of the display table and for books with the least copies present to lie towards the edge of the table. This makes it easier for customers to see what titles are available and it makes it easier for customers to grab a book if they are interested. This display strategy increases sales.

THE CHILDREN’S SECTION

Barnes & Noble provides an area aimed towards children. There are benches surrounding a stage in the front. Occasionally, authors will come and read to children from the stage. The children’s area is also filled with child-sized picnic tables that give children a place to read. At least in Texas, there are children’s books written in Spanish here as well. This area helps make Barnes & Noble a family-friendly place. Parents are happy to take their children to a bookstore over a park when the weather is over 100 degrees or after the sun goes down. This area also encourages parents to shop at Barnes & Noble more often because it allows them to safely leave their more independent children alone in the children’s section while they find their own books.

THE MEDIA SECTION

The music section is strategically placed in the back to entice non-readers to purchase some of the books they passed on the way to get to the CDs and DVDs. A great thing about the Barnes & Noble’s music section is that they let you sample CDs and purchase it immediately in the media section of the store.

THE RESTROOMS

I have to be honest and admit that the worst part about Barnes & Noble is their restrooms. It looks like an average public restroom and is usually not as clean as you would like. The quality (or lack thereof) of their restrooms always surprises me given the attention to detail they give the rest of the store.

THE REST OF THE STORE

Barnes & Noble laid out their bookshelves very logically. Books on aging are placed next to books on health, next to books on dieting, next to cookbooks, etc. This eases the customer’s navigation of the store, which only makes them feel more positively towards Barnes & Nobel. It also places common areas on interests next to one another, in theory, increasing cross selling. 

The bookshelves always appear full. Employees fill up gaps in the shelves by turning books to show their cover instead of their spine, therefore increasing their chances of being noticed, and hence, purchased. This move also assures the customer that Barnes & Noble is not falling behind in restocking their inventory. It looks more purposeful than a half-empty shelf.

Perhaps one of Barnes & Noble’s most distinctive characteristics is its comfortable couches and chairs. I have many a fond memory in those green chairs. This is what originally differentiated Barnes & Noble from traditional bookstores. Traditionally, bookstores were very tiny and they discouraged reading books inside of the store (sampling merchandise, if you will). And then Barnes & Noble came along and offered wide open spaces to explore thousands of books and seats to sample them all in. This sampling, lingering strategy can also be seen in Barnes & Noble’s music section and online at bn.com. It is a major factor in why Barnes & Noble became so successful.

THE PEOPLE

Now, I cannot write about a customer experience inside a retail store without touching on customer service. If a customer asks a worker about the location of a certain book, the worker is encouraged to walk the customer to the bookshelf, grab the book, and hand it to the customer. These small gestures make Barnes & Noble feel more like a community.

Another way Barnes & Noble creates that sense of community is through special events which can range from the midnight release of the last Harry Potter book to a Malcolm Gladwell book signing. 

You have, by now, read many reasons why Barnes & Noble offers such an exceptional customer experience; however, the sums of the parts do not equal the whole. Much of the reason why I enjoy Barnes & Noble so much is because it brings me back so many memories. Almost every week from elementary school to high school, my dad would take my family out to Barnes & Noble, followed by Marble Slab, which is a completely different and wonderful customer experience in itself. So when I step into Barnes & Noble, I am transported back in time. I am just eight years old again and my parents are finding their own books a few yards away, not a few hundred miles away. 

All About Me, Me, Me

So when I saw that I was tasked with the assignment of creating an accurate and rich persona to gain insights about myself and people like myself, I was thrilled. Reading the cohorts vignettes reminded me of how much I love making up stories and generalizing about random people I see on the streets. Now it’s time to turn that on myself. Here we go!

Tam Le- young, open-minded student who is focused on forming social relationships and securing a full-time career

Personality:

·      There are two books in her room: The God Delusion and The New Testament. One was given to her by her father; the other, by a strange man on the streets. Which is which? Hint: Her father is a Buddhist who dabbles in atheism.

·      Tam does not believe in ghosts. They are just a figment of the imagination or a hallucination. People will see what they want to see.

·      Tam is going to spend her last spring break volunteering in Belize. She spent her previous semester studying abroad in England and traveling around Europe. She can ask for help in nine different languages.

·      She believes money is for spending on things that will make a person happier.

·      She is not athletic at all but she will attempt any new sport or game once.

·      She knits and goes to the shooting range for fun. She enjoys picking up odd hobbies.

·      Forever 21 is her favorite store. When it comes to fashionable pieces, which will go out of style in a few years anyways, it is better to have quantity over quality. But when it comes to wardrobe necessities, high quality is a must. For example, Tam likes to get her sweaters and long-sleeved, button-up shirts from Ralph Lauren.

·      Tam has twenty pairs of shoes and fourteen handbags in her college apartment alone. This is not her entire collection, just her favorites.

·      She lives and dies by her iPhone. She needs her iCal and Toodledo applications to remind her of her many obligations.

·      Tam gets a lot of her news from Twitter, which she sees as a more attractive and social form of the RSS feed.

·      Although she interned with a Top 40 station, listening to the radio for over 10 minutes bores her. She prefers her own podcasts, many of which are produced by NPR or the BBC. She is infatuated with Ira Glass’ voice.

·      Tam grew up in a strict Vietnamese household. She spent her childhood and adolescence fighting for her rights, like the right to sleepover at her best friend’s house or to use a tampon. Although Vietnamese was her first language, she often forgets her roots.

·      It takes her awhile to become close to someone. She still keeps in touch with a lot of her friends from high school and considers that bond to be special. She has known her best friend for over twelve years now.

·      Tam is environmentally conscious. She unplugs her chargers when they are not in use and reuses printer paper as often as possible.

·      She thoroughly enjoys musicals but not concerts or opera, although she is afraid to admit this last part for fear of seeming ignorant.

·      She believes most of the world’s problems can be solved with a creative application of technology and kindness. Some might call it naïve. She calls it having the courage to look at the world and its problems and to reject traditional methods that do not work and come up with new ones that will, even if it takes a lot of time and effort.

·      As a child, she spent many hours in her private backyard pool with her sister and her cousins playing a long-running imaginary game called “Orphanage.” It consisted of four orphans who fought evil with their magical powers. The game lasted for three years.

·      In first grade, Tam pulled out a book during her spelling test to make sure that her spelling of the word “giraffe” was correct. She has not cheated on a test since.

·      Tam got a perfect score on her first college exam- Introduction to Psychology.

·      Once, Tam was able to track someone down on Facebook without knowing his name and after only seeing him twice from afar.

·      Tam has held eleven jobs. She changes career aspirations every few months.

·      She would not say she has a true home. She has not lived any place for over nine months since graduating from high school. That is why she currently sleeps on a futon and all of her drawers are made of plastic. Everything is temporary until she gets a fulltime job that she will stick with.

·      Tam becomes annoyed when her peers use improper grammar and spelling online or in text messages. They are educated and should act like it.

·      For the fifth grade science fair, Tam invented glasses with lights attached to them so people can read in the dark. She loves reading.

·      She never has any trouble falling asleep. More than once, she has fallen asleep during sixth-grade choir practice while standing-up and singing.

·      Tam kicks herself when she lets a potential good deed go undone in front of her. For example, she feels awful when she does not give up her seat on the bus to an older adult and will re-visit the moment throughout the day as a reminder to never let that happen again.

Audio/Video:

·      MacBook Pro

·      iPhone 4

·      Photography

Outdoors:

·      Taking walks with or without one other person

·      Biking alone

·      Camping with friends

·      Laying out in the sun with friends

·      Going to the pool with friends

·      People watching with or without others

Sports and Fitness:

·      Attempting golf

·      Attempting Taekwondo

·      Healthy eating

Connoisseur:

·      Cultural Art/Events

·      Foreign Travel

Investor:

·      Not yet

Traditionalist:

·      Family life

·      Coin collecting

·      Our nation’s heritage

Other Interests:

·      Career-oriented activities

·      Self-improvement

·      Donate to charitable causes

·      Volunteer

·      Travel in USA

·      Fashion clothing

·      Current affairs/politics

·      Wildlife/environmental issues

I do not know what % of U.S. households fall under this cohort, but because I would like to believe that I am special and unique, I am going to go with 0.000017%.

Can You See It Now?- Designing for the Other 90%

In my last Customer Insights class, we discussed incorporating a design philosophy into our marketing practices. One current design philosophy that particularly struck a chord with me was “design for the majority.”

The vast majority of designers and marketers only serve the top 10% of the global population- a.k.a. well-off Americans and Europeans. Think about it: how many people can really afford a iPod? We need to start designing for the other 90%, the base of the pyramid that makes up a majority of the world and potentially, the majority of the market. Hand in hand with that is another recent design philosophy: “design to empower.” Design in a way that allows those people who are at the base of the pyramid to better their own lives. Help them access clean drinking water; give them shoes that will prevent them from contracting many deadly diseases. “Design the system” to consider all stakeholders and understand the context for which the product exists. Why would you give laptops to children who don’t have access to electricity? Consider all of the logistics and create a system that works best for your consumer. Do all this in a way that makes money and you have a great business model.

These three philosophies remind me of something I read awhile back that still resonates with me as a perfect convergence of business and social benefit. Although it does not explicitly deal with design, the emergence of cell phones as tools for banking in Africa has inspired me to look for unique solutions anywhere and everywhere.

Africa is one of the world’s top growth markets for cell phone usage. They have largely been ignored in the past and written off as too poor to be worth the initial investment of cell phone towers. Now, according to The Christian Science Monitor, more Africans have access to a cell phone than to a clean toilet, but that’s another issue altogether.

The interesting part though, is people in Africa are doing much more than calling or texting their friends and families- they are mobile banking. They can use their cell phones to do something as meaningful as sending money to loved ones who live far away or as mundane as buying the groceries. These are people who wouldn’t normally have convenient access to local, traditional banks, credit cards, or ATM machines. Some of these people can’t even afford conventional banking. But now, thanks to the mobile banking system, they are able to save money more securely than physically keeping cash in a cardboard box under their bed. But not only is this method safer, it is also faster, cheaper, easier to use and more convenient than previous, traditional forms of banking.

I truly believe mobile banking is the future for developing nations. They are able to bypass the advances we made in the 20th century, like landlines for examples, and go straight into the 21st century. I just think this new system is so beneficial to Africa’s economy and it makes me so happy that someone realized that and turned it into a profitable business. It really is a designed system that empowers the other 90% of the world.

P.S.- Props to USA Today and NPR for providing me with the content and props to Professor Walls for making me write this blog. ;)