Topic # 2 Wiki Leaks

1. What do you think of actions by WikiLeaks? Good? Bad? Useful? Irresponsible?
2. EXPLAIN why you feel that way.
3. Give an EXAMPLE to support your point of view.
4. How do you feel about the current state of free speech, access to information/internet or freedom of expression/creativity? Be specific about your stance (e.g. I'm fine because ... or note why you are concerned by government transparency or restrictive copyright rules ... or proposed new FCC rules on net neutrality ...)
5. Give an EXAMPLE to illustrate your point.
   
   
   1. The actions of WikiLeaks is a tough one for me. On one hand I think all this information should be open to everyone as we should all know whats going on. On the other hand would be releasing secret information that could be in the hands of people who are wanting to do harm to others such as terrorist. Knowing the exact location of things and how things are done or who did them could allow them to use it for horrible actions. I do believe it is a good thing. As you and I both know the government is great at hiding things and trying to lie about what is actually going on. The problem being is all this information we are seeing, who knows how accurate it really is. In todays day, anything can be said but the truth behind these words is almost never actually known. I think wiki leaks does a good job at providing valuable information, however, is it always accurate. I would have to say no. For example, WikiLeaks says that all of there information is given by anonomoius sources. Meaning that this could be anyone. Not a credible source. To me, if you do not know the source and cannot back it up you have no truth behind it. I need to know the facts.
   
   
   2. The current state of free speech. I feel that it has gone to far. I do believe that everyone has the right of free speech and expression and allowing there ideas to be heard but people take it too far. My prime example would be the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka Kansas. It is a highly known church simply because of its hate speech. They picket dead soldiers funerals saying that they deserved to die simply because they were protecting a country and allows homosexuality. This to me is absolutely awful. But it is completely legal. They have been sued time and time again but thanks to free speech they are allowed to do it. This is to much. I agree you should be able to say what you want and when you want it but when has it gone to far? When does it become moral? I think a line need to be drawn.

Blog Project #1 Advertising

"Alexa write my media blog for me!" 

If only she could! I am talking about the Amazon Alexa that is a voice activated almost artificial intelligence helper. It can hook up to the your phone and make calls and texts and can even get as advanced as hooking up to the house and controlling the lights and t.v. and even locking the doors!

The Add side of Amazon Alexa really got my attention mostly because it has a lot of humor aspects as well as I own one and it is always interesting to see what other people use it for compared to what I do, like telling me knock-knock jokes. 

The add itself was a combination add. What I mean by that it was multiple commercials being played one after the other all retaining to the same product. The Amazon Alexa. The commercials all tend to have the same general layout. The each start with two people, either a father/daughter, a husband/wife or a father/son. They are all sitting on the couch watching t.v. of some sort. Most of the time sports. Something is happening that you can tell is making one of the actors uncomfortable or in disgust. Mostly with food. Then the actor uses the product to order more food to fix the problem at hand. Food seems to be the big use for Amazon Alexa as they are commonly paired with Pizza Hut, I believe they are working together, as Amazon Alexa and Pizza Hut mobile apps are linked and you can order Pizza Hut through Alexa without making a phone call, a handy service I must say. Although food seems to be the big hit, another setup I happen to see with Amazon Alexa is when something breaks. Most of the time its men, trying to be "do-it-yourselfers"and failing miserably. Then they call Alexa and order something offline to fix it. Most of Amazon Alexa uses in these commercials is solving problems. An immediate problem is at hand and is solved in a short 15 seconds.  Most of the adds are 15 seconds although I have seen some that are around 30. I believe this plays into the idea that Amazon Alexa is fast, just like the commercial. I first started seeing these around christmas time of 2014, which I believe is when they were first made let me ask Alexa really fast. Correction, November 6th 2014 is when they were released. This particular add is apart of a series of adds that have had a very similar setup since the startup of the campaign. 

One of the persuasive techniques used in this particular add is definitely humor. The add starts with a a cute french bulldog standing on top of a food platter licking his lips, then the owner asking Alexa to order Pizza form Pizza Hut. The size of the dog in comparison to the size of the food that he has eaten is extremely disproportionate! Making the add very funny that such a small dog could eat so much food. Another technique that is used in the add is solutions. In every single Alexa add, like stated before, there is a big problem at hand. It has been bad food, something wrong with the house or reminders needing to be set. Alexa always solves these problems and does it fast.

I would say that the add incorporates the Association Principle. The add shows that people who have Alexa and that are Amazon Prime Members (Amazons membership for faster shipping) can use Alexa for more things and more efficiently. Making people want to have those traits when they have the Alexa, to be more apart of the Amazon group.

This add is new, simply because the Amazon Alexa is new. It has only been out for about 3 years and is not something that everyone has in there house. An add for a microwave with similar advertisement would not be very effective as just about everyone in the United States has a microwave in there house. But since this add is showing a product that is still new and advancing it catches peoples eyes and makes them think that this may be something that they need to make a household name. As far as target audience goes I would have to say it is fairly broad. Although most commercials seem to apply towards a younger crowd. Middle class caucasian men and women, ages from 45-18. I say this because almost every add i've seen with Alexa is in a nice home, with caucasian actors, in good shape, well dressed, young and tech savvy. For stereotypes, it definitely plays into the dumb male trying to fix something in the house. Several adds I've seen show a male trying to fix something in the house and only making it worse. Either with plumbing or electrical to cooking or changing a tire. For example, in this add https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9X4qtwRiIc you see the middle-aged man trying to cook and dropping it, then Alexa is used to order different food. I wouldn't say that this is offensive as I feel that we have all been in similar scenarios when we should have stopped trying to fix something that wasn't exactly broken

One of the biggest strengths in these adds is the length of them. With the attention spans of consumers being next to nothing, the average length of an Amazon Alexa commercial is 11 seconds. The perfect amount of time. Anything much longer starts to lose the attention of the audience. As you can see in all these videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIDSZP35mao,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrZtIby9Ju0,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mOAUI83Fc4, None of these videos are any longer than 11 seconds. As far as weakness goes I would have to say that the product shown in all of the Amazon Alexa commercials is not touch-less. What I mean by this is in all the adds people are just saying "Alexa....." However, the Amazon Dot is being shown on the front, and to use this you have to press the button first. It is not voice activated. They do have the voice activated version but it is much more expensive. I feel this will lead people to think that they are getting a touch-less Alexa but really they are getting the Dot. confusion of product is definitely a big negative. 

The commercials I wouldn't say are very memorable simply because they are so short. Short and sweet, but short. I have seen dozen of these adds but if I had not seen them that day, I could not recite them. Not that they are not effective, just seem to not stick as well. 

With target audience being the 18-45 caucasian middle class man-women I think it nails it right on the head. According to http://mashable.com/2016/11/04/amazon-sales-report/#dtni27GJHiqw, The Amazon Alexa has dominated the speaker sales and has seen 67 percent year-over-year growth between August 2015 and August 2016

Based on the adds that I have seen, I would buy the product again, as I have already purchased one. I think the adds are great and continue to keep my attention as I like to see what other uses for Alexa that people use that I didn't think of first! I do recommend Alexa as well to people who come over and check it out. Most people love asking it questions and playing music on it. After I purchased one and showed my dad he bought one!

In conclusion, I have learned that the Amazon Alexa is much bigger than I thought! After doing research, there are countless different commercials. Just scrolling through youtube watching different videos I must have watched over 30 without seeing an end in site. Each one just as short as the other, around 11-15 seconds. Which also bring me to the thought that I have learned how effective short and sweet can be. Keep peoples attention spans in check with short videos. A lot of commercials I see are 30 seconds or more and don't really have anything to do with the product. Every Amazon commercial add I have seen show the product in use and have very quick punchlines. Something that came a bring surprise when I looked further into the add was just how successful they have been. Amazon Alexa has dominated sales at 37 % of all speaker being purchased in the last 3 years. Boise coming in second at just 16 %. Just goes to show that effective marketing of a good product can really make it explode in sales. 

Here is another blog from Brandon Russel on July 13th 2017 that describes more on Amazon Alexa http://www.notey.com/@technobuffalo_unofficial/external/17094549/new-amazon-echo-aims-to-give-apple’s-homepod-serious-competition.html

Link to the Add!          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q54OfxdU8YE

Persuasive techniques

The good: Amazon primeday add
The add was on t.v. and it talked about the great deals they were having on July 11th for all its prime members.

The target audience was anyone who was a current amazon prime member.

I would have to say emotional branding was used in the add. I am definetly connected to Amazon. They have everything and very fast services. I use them anytime I need something and the add really appealed to me. Ass a matter of fact I made several purchases that day.

The techniques worked for me fairly easily. I am already sold on amazon so trying to convince me with discount prices is far from hard. The imagery for it didn't necessarily click with me. A lot of it I feel was more focused on the female audience. A lot of purses and furniture were in the add.

The bad: botched tv show?

The add was about a t.v. show called botched which is about people getting plastic surgery.

The target audience was most likely more well of people looking who are into plastic surgery

They used the famous person testimonials technique. And for me this didn't work at all. Mainly because I am no where near there target audience. Not one to want tk watch a show about people spending a crazy amount of money to make themselves look ridiculous.

The technique didn't work for me, however it very well could have worked for there target audience. I don't think any kind of strategy would have gotten me to want tk watch the show as the contect is just not for me.

Social media and advertising

For a particular brand I chose Nike. It is a large brand and a brand that I enjoy wearing and using its products.

For the target audience I would say it is young teens and preteens, as young as 7 to the older adult in the mid 30's. Almost all of Nike's adds are about a physical activity, most of the time a sport, and how good there products work and look. I would have to say it is working and working well. Everyone knows what nike is and a large majority probably owns an article of clothing if not multiple. Especially within tje target group. I remeber as a young teen always wanting nike as well. Its what all the professional athletes are wearing and the designs are new and trend setting. As a matter of fact I am wearing nike socks and shorts as I write this.

If I was the product manager the one thing I would focus some more attention on would be the quality of the products. Most adds I see say how much these products help performance and very little on comfort. The clothes, in my experience are very comfortable. But I feel the word comfort has almost a lazy connotation to it. Which nike is a polar opposite of. I would like to see the other side though. The relaxex side.