Analyzing other blogs..

The first blog that I read was Vanessa's on a qualitative fieldwork facility in France called "Louvre Focus Group". I found this very interesting because I did my presentation on focus groups and I never thought to consider actual facilities meant for qualitative research as a location to conduct your focus group. I was thinking in a very narrow scope, considering libraries, stores, study rooms, restaurants, but never facilities meant for that purpose.

Vanessa makes an excellent point about conducting the focus group at a neutral place to prevent bias. As I was looking through the website I realized that I personally, would definitely feel more comfortable talking with strangers about my personal opinions and experiences in a such a nice atmosphere. Although I could also see this setting seeming a bit too professional for some people. It might make them feel as if they are being judged (for say an interview for a job), rather than giving their input on a product or service.

The next blog that I read was Laura's blog about qualitative research and the Celebrity Loop Forum. Obviously it is more difficult to conduct qualitative research with celebrities, given the fact that it is almost impossible to get in touch with them, so this Forum seems like a good idea. But a question that comes to my mind is how reliable is this site? While I was browsing I could not find one response from a celebrity. I also noticed that these celebrities are not who you would consider your current IN-celebs, but that is beside the point. It seemed that it was very easy to put a post on there, so I'm wondering if it would be just as easy to give yourself an official celeb name, include the word "official" and BAM! you are now a "celeb" in the Celebrity Loop Forum, something just seems off to me. I'm sure if you give any IT major this website for 15 minutes they could completely break it down and have everyone from Jay Z to Kristen Stewart on there answering the fans questions about them, which would in turn, most likely just cause a huge law suit.

On the other hand Laura did make a good point about business professionals using social media sites to find out what celebrities are saying about their products. I just think it would be a better idea to stick to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, rather than message boards that everyone in the world could potentially have access to.

Street Fashion

For decades fashion has been an ubiquitous theme in the media. A magazine might be covering a recent cat walk or comparing outfits from a previous awards show like the Grammys, but fashion is not just about clothes, accessories, makeup and hair. Every element of fashion represents a certain attitude, period of time or personality. Everyday we observe these elements of fashion through street fashion.

Street fashion is the silent language of fashion, personality and individuality. Every time we step out of our house and come in contact with another human being we are conducting a form of qualitative research called observation. Do you ever wonder where a fashion designer gets some of their ideas for the clothes they design? Or what about a model and the unique style that they wear. Elle Magazine, one of the most well known fashion magazines in the country, quotes on their website "High fashion is covered from the runway to the street and then brought to you online each day". They show street fashions, runway fashions and celebrities fashions. All in all a lot of the clothes have very similar aspects, but the people wearing them do not. Elle's website also includes a section on their web page called the street chic of the day. They tell the readers the details of what the person photographed is wearing, but they leave it to their readers to decide the attitude and personality of the model.

Here is an example of Elle's "street chic" of the day from earlier this week. The only information Elle gives is about the detail of the garments, once you scroll down, comments, observations and judgments from individuals just like us are revealed. One person spoke about how "aging" she looks, stating that she "looks a few decades older than the other girls in the photo". Many other comments were made about this outfit being a Halloween costume and it being far from elegant, and more sloppy looking.

Just by making a few simple observations, you are gaining insight into those girls attitude, behavior, values, culture and lifestyle. Not always all of them, but you can definitely hit a few. When I look at this picture I first see a girl who sloppily tossed her hair up and threw on sunglasses to cover her face that she didn't have time to put makeup on. The outfit seems to have taken a little more time. She chose a long tight leather dress. This shows confidence. The lack of smile on her face shows arrogance. The printed cover up looks like a bathrobe. The shoes just add to the randomness of the outfit and why does she have a small purse and a clutch? It is overall a total mess. None of it coordinates, she simply looks Gothic, angry, unhappy and unorganized.

Our observations may not always be correct, but the more you observe the more accurate your results become and the better you become at analyzing. Street fashions works as a way to give insight to people about what type of individual you are. Whether you are expressing yourself through colors, texture, print, fabric, etc. everyday you are being researched and analyzed before someone even speaks a word to you.

Comments on other blogs

After a stressful start to this midterm week I came across the perfect blog to set my mind at ease for a bit. In  Jackie's blog post about travel PR, she highlighted fantastic points. Public Relation Professionals are great communicators. They know how to maintain good relationships with people as well as keep people happy, so what better job to get involved with then working in travel PR. In travel PR, professionals work to enhance our vacations the best they can. When planning a vacation, a lot of thought and research goes into it. You are not only making a dent in your savings account, but you want to make sure that every penny you spend is worth it. Travel PR professionals make sure that every minute of your vacation is full of options. After studying abroad last semester, I could definitely see myself going into Travel PR.

The second blog that I looked at was Sam Greitzer's about the new hit movie "The Social Network". This blog appealed to me because the movie honestly changed my perspective on life. I left the movie having complete motivation to do something spontaneous. I wanted to change the world, create the next big thing, do SOMETHING that would make me famous that looking at now, seems so silly, like Facebook.

Sam talks about how Facebook is the 2nd most popular website in the United States under Yahoo. To think that an idea, that started out as Facemash (a website comparing pictures of girls) and resulted in the 2nd most popular website in the U.S is absolutely outrageous! The fact that all it took was some unobtrusive research to figure out what students like Mark Zukerberg desired and would think is "cool", makes me think that unobtrusive research must have been used decades ago as well. 

Reading my fellow classmates blogs has really shown me how often PR research is used. Come to think of it I can't think of a time when research is not used!

Pandora - Researching New Music

   Every day thousands of people go on Pandora to find new music based on their old and current favorites. You simply type in an artist, song or genre and Pandora will start a channel with songs and artists that have musical qualities similar to what you posted.

  I am a huge music buff. I am the type of person when asked, "What type of music do you like" I respond with "Everything", and actually mean it. I am constantly looking for new ways to find or "research" new music, and by using Pandora I am conducting my own unobtrusive research. Pandora is a very popular site used by many people not only on their computers, but on their phones as well.

  Musicians can also use this as a way to see what popular channels Pandora has and judge how well they think they are doing in their careers. They can also use Pandora to figure out what other bands or musicians they should team up with on tours.

  Another benefit to Pandora is ratings. The site allows you to rate if you like a song by pressing a thumbs up or thumbs down symbol. It will then readjust the type of songs it gives you so they are not similar to the songs you dislike. This website is a simple research tool for all music lovers and musicians.