enJOY it

My big group project for my New Product Development class involves taking a brand and developing a new product for the company.  My group is doing Carl’s Jr.  A lot of class time is devoted to learning different methods of brain storming.  Brain storming is essential to new ideas.  Not so much the storm part, but definitely the brain part.

To the point, Elise…

Today we came up with attributes that people value about Carl’s Jr.  Six to be exact:

1. variety
2. taste
3. affordability
4. freshness
5. availability
6. health

Then we looked through an issue of Entertainment Weekly to determine what concepts advertisers used to communicate their product or service.  The six big ones were:

1. entertainment
2. sex appeal
3. art
4. fashion
5. celebrity
6. social/fun

And then we rolled two dice.  The number of the first one represented at attribute.  The number on the second one represented a concept.  So for example:

Availability (5) and Social/fun (6)

We then had to come up with a way to communicate the availability of our brand using the concept of "social".  And we decided we could market to college kids: You are out late.  Intoxicated. And hungry.  There is a Carl’s Jr. near you.  Go there.  Eat it.

Right.  So the goal is to create a link where you might not have seen a link.  Cool stuff.

And it applies to a lot more besides marketing.  Made me think about myself.  To my values (attributes).  To the actions that I take (concepts I use to communicate).

There is a link to be found between my values and my actions.  Somehow.  But the goal is to make the connections clearer.  Strive to make who I want to be consistent with what I do. 

I want to be creative in so many ways.  But I do not want to come up with crazy ideas to connect my morals to my decisions. 

Those should be pretty clear.