Revisiting PILLOWTALK

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This afternoon, my group within the branding and advertising module met up in Starbucks for coffee in order to revisit our marketing techniques for the product 'Pillowtalk'.

We identified 2 potential market segments:

•  wives of those in the army
• business couples

As a group, we came to the conclusion that we should aim the product at 'business couples'.  We arrived at this decision because we felt that £199 for the Pillowtalk product (2 speakers and 2 rings) would be more affordable to this particular target audience, rather than wives of those in the army.  Business couples tend to be more stereotypically wealthy.  I guess this is because they're generically more mature, successful and professional. 

We also decided amongst ourselves that it would be best to target the early majority of the consumer population.  We felt that targeting businesswomen between the ages of 26-40 would be ideal as we thought it would be more likely that women would influence their partner to purchase this product.


WHAT is the product all about? 


Each person has a ring sensor they wear to bed at night, and a flat fabric panel which slots inside their pillowcase. The ring wirelessly communicates with the other person’s pillow; when one person goes to bed, their lover’s pillow begins to glow softly to indicate their presence. Placing your head on the pillow allows you to hear the real-time heartbeat of your loved one.


WHY purchase this product?


Reasons for purchasing this product can be divided up into rational/irrational decisions.


Rational:

• connects two lovers, regardless of the distance between them
• the product is cheaper than purchasing an accumulation of long distance flights

Irrational:

• creates an intimate interaction between two lovers, regardless of the distance between them
• a romantic gesture towards your lover
• proof that you're serious about your lover
• an emotional and sentimental experience

in saying these things..

WHAT will this product do for you as the consumer?

''When purchasing this product, you will automatically have the ability to connect with your long distance lover every night before you sleep.''

ADVERTISING THE PRODUCT

In order to best inform our target audience of the product, we decided that featuring an advertisement within a broadsheet newspaper would be ideal.  This way we would be able to target business couples of a certain wealth and maturity who are more likely to travel i.e. more likely to be away from their lover.  We also thought that we could advertise the product as a pull out extra within business women magazines.

Our group had also discussed featuring an advertisement within travel/flight magazines, however we felt that informing our audience of the product whilst they had already started their journey away from their partner wouldn't be ideal.  On the other hand, the target audience could be persuaded to purchase the product before leaving their partner on their next business trip!

A sketch of a potential advert:

The content of the advertisement is based on the rational and irrational decisions of buying the product.  The couple are seen standing either side of a heart (signifying their love for one another).  They are lovingly looking over at each other, realising that despite the distance between them, the fact that 'Pillowtalk' has been packed in the suitcase means that their romantic connection can still remain for the duration of the business trip.

The slogan could be either

• ''we're going to be okay, we've got Pillowtalk ''
• ''business trips made romantic, only with Pillowtalk '' (as seen on the advert sketched above)

WORKSHOP: Marketing Tools

In response to the branding and advertising lecture held on wednesday 14th september '11 -a workshop was held in the Dalhousie building, University of Dundee, to focus on marketing tools.


The purpose of this workshop was to give us an opportunity to practice using marketing tools in order to develop marketing strategies.


The workshop was carried out in teams.  Each team was composed of designers from different design backgrounds throughout DJCAD. 


TASK ONE. 


For the first task, our team decided to work towards producing a set of proposals for 'DJCAD Cantina'.  The tools we used were used to help stimulate creative responses.


We produced a general brainstorm on the cantina before carrying out a 'SWOT' analysis.  The SWOT analysis allowed us to determine the internal weaknesses and strengths as well as the external opportunities and threats of the DJCAD cantina.

After producing a SWOT analysis, we realised that there were many existing weaknesses.  Although the cantina is in the ideal location for art students to purchase food and drink, the variety and price of the products let the business down.  


We decided to produce a perceptual map in order to compare the cantina with other food/drink competitors within the University radius.  In doing this we realised that most other cafes/restaurants in the area have more variety in food with a higher quality, therefore emphasizing a need for change for the DJCAD cantina.

The image above shows our SWOT analysis, our marketing proposal and our perceptual map.


TASK TWO


Our second task asked us to apply the same marketing tools to help a real life client with her real life business, Little Riot.  The business has been set up by a recent interactive media design graduate of DJCAD.  The product the client wanted us to market was 'Pillow Talk'.  The product has been designed as an aim to connect long distance lovers.

How it works: Each person has a ring sensor they wear to bed at night, and a flat fabric panel which slots inside their pillowcase. The ring wirelessly communicates with the other person’s pillow; when one person goes to bed, their lover’s pillow begins to glow softly to indicate their presence. Placing your head on the pillow allows you to hear the real-time heartbeat of your loved one. The result is an intimate interaction between two lovers, regardless of the distance between them.

As a group we produced a SWOT analysis to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the product.  This allowed us to confirm that there is an existing gap in the market for a product like 'Pillow Talk'.  It also allowed us to think about potential competitors in the interactive design market.

As a group we wondered how the product would be delivered to the customer.  This was an issue that was identified as a weakness when carrying out the SWOT analysis.  We wondered if the two separate pillows and rings would be sent to one house hold, or to two separate addresses (saying as long distance couples live apart, therefore living at different addresses...)

We also identified the need for wifi as a weakness.  If a customer does not have wifi, then the product can not be used for it's purpose.   


When focusing on the opportunities of the product, we thought about how and where the product could be sold.  We reckoned the product would be best sold at airports and travel shops, as the products' target audience are more likely to be concentrated at these locations. 

I really enjoyed the workshop as it gave me real life experience in trying to market an existing product.  I now realize the importance of carrying out marketing tools such as a SWOT analysis or a perceptual map.  They are great ways of really 'getting to know' a product.

Architectural storage

Why not store all your belongs on your desk architecturally...!?

......architectural design is limitless!

GIDE: Creativity for local enterprises.

At the beginning of this week, we were told that we were par-taking in an international project where 7 European design institutions will each respond to the design theme: 'CREATIVITY FOR LOCAL ENTERPRISES'


GIDE is an international consortium of higher-education design schools, which work together to enrich the experience of students in the areas of interior architecture, art and design interdisciplinary practice and industrial & interaction design. 


GIDE members include design schools in:

• Scotland
• Belgium
• Germany
• Italy
• Slovenia
• Switzerland 
• England. 

GIDE has a long history, beginning with exchanges of
students and teaching staff as long ago as 1995. http://www.gide-net.eu/

In reaction to this brief, our year group of 25 third year interior environmental designers got together to brainstorm/discuss a number of possible creative strategies, interventions, processes and offerings that could be introduced to local enterprises.


The point of the exercise was to think about how local enterprises can be improved so that their profile in the market is more desirable by the public/their own specific audience.

When brainstorming the strategies involved in 'Co-Work' we were able to identify that a successful business partnership between 2 already successful companies, can lead to company collaboration, which in turn can potentially generate more business and more money. 


I look forward to researching more on this topic and hope to get my teeth stuck into this GIDE project!