Quotes and Books

“Over the next five to 10 years, self-tracking will be critical to wellness,” - Tim Chang, the Silicon Valley investor (ARTICLE by April Dembosky is the FT’s San Francisco correspondent in the Financial Times Limited 2011.)

Emotions and Jewlery

Jewelry in the Cycles of Everyday Life

Petra Ahde

4. Emotions and Jewelry

Strong emotions often arise when wearing or just possessing jewelry, since they are often received as gifts, inherited, bought for an important reason, or there has been hard work done to achieve it. Later, the emotional attachments may provoke or restrict wearing them. When memories related to the jewelry are truly meaningful the possessor considers wearing it more carefully. Since some people are afraid of loosing their significant jewelry, they only wear them on important occasions. Some emotion attached jewelry is worn both on special occasions and in everyday life. They may ought to be worn on certain occasions. For example one woman writes about her brooch which she got as a Christmas present when she was a young girl. Back then she was helping a lady in her everyday errands and they became close friends despite of their age difference. This brooch figured a dancing girl. Decades later this lady passed away, and the woman went to the funeral wearing this brooch. She felt that she had to wear that particular brooch because she had got it from the lady. However, since the brooch figured a dancing girl, she felt it was inappropriate to wear it at a funeral. She decided to wear it inside her jacket, so the others would not see the brooch but she could feel the closeness to the lady. For her it was obligatory to wear the brooch because of the emotional attachment. The codes of wearing jewelry in particular venues do not have strict rules, but are rather emotional unwritten codes of behaviour or habits to perpetuate traditions.
http://www.iasdr2009.org/ap/Papers/Poster%20Highlight/Jewelry%20in%20the%20Cycles%20of%20Everyday%20Life.pdf

conclusion -321

Conclusion

The GLO bracelet created an unobtrusive wrist-worn, unisex device that measures inactivity, but without being a chore to the wearer. We want the reader to remember that GLO is an emotional product something that fits into their day to day routine, not a dieting strategy. GLO as a product is something the users should value and enjoy. This was achieved by our beautifully moving concept. GLO is not about health it’s about wellbeing and consumers are buying into something that will bring them happiness in subtle amounts. Ensuring the GLO bracelet and concept is sustainable in the future. For brand longevity there is the opportunity for product development

The future of GLO

 GLO would like to expand the brand globally making the product an international everyday part of people’s lives. We would also like to target a younger demographic, targeting this consumer group means them noticing their inactivity at a young age and being able to monitor and control it for the rest of their lives, through GLO. For this campaign the brands message will still be kept the same as "I am Beautifully Moving " but expanding on this message to different stereotyped consumers, for example -  'I am GLO Outdoors', ' I am GLO Party' 'I am GLO Athlete'. By still using the 'I AM' it still links the user to their product keeping the emotional attachment present It also demonstrates how it can fit into their everyday life styles. By assigning colours to these stereotypes such as Green, Purple and Red would take the brand in a new  young , fresh and edgy direction, still running alongside with the original GLO consumers. This Campaign would launch 2 years after the original campaign depending on the outcome of GLO. GLO young would be launched Spring/Summer using a Summer colour palate for the bracelets, also by launching in summer this is when people are seen to be most active. 

Projects Not Campaigns (354 words)

SECONDARY RESEARCH - projects not campaigns - what does this tell us? how have we learnt? 

Publicis and Contagious spoke at Cannes 2011 about the ‘Five Per Cent Club’ – a notion that brands should invest 5% of their money into risky projects and developments, with Contagious magazine then publishing an interesting article titled ‘Projects Not Campaigns’ which draws light on the fact that typically projects are more successful than campaigns, as people like to feel as if they are helping or contributing towards a cause. According to Contagious, this is a recent trend, possibly started by the fact that people of the 21^st Century are more aware and more critical of marketing methods used; often to the point of product rejection. At the Debussy, Altmann said that brands need to ‘stay involved in real life’. (http://www.afaqs.com/news/story.html?sid=30935) An inspirational example used by Paul Kemp-Robertson from Contagious was that of the Argentinean beer-brand Norte, who created ‘The Best Excuse Ever’ project, where every bottle top bought of Norte beer meant a minute of good-deeds which included maintaining schools, repairing buildings and cleaning lakes around the cities.

As a new brand, this is of particular use; being able to use their key findings to help develop the identity and progression of glo. Being inspired by a project rather than a campaign means longer brand life, and also a longer consumer loyalty to the brand; a campaign is disposable, but a project is durable, allowing the consumer of the brand to follow what they are doing and to feel a part of it all. From this, we have learnt that if we want to be successful as a brand, we need to offer the 21^st Century consumer something out of the norm, and away from typical advertising campaigns; especially because Dove was a key player in revolutionary advertising, straying away from the constraints of the size zero fad that has been prominent in many beauty and health related products.

Research that big brands are following the ‘projects not campaigns’ idea, including Pepsi Refresh, indicate that giving something back to the consumers, be it personally, technologically or in a community, is the way forward in terms of keeping the brand authentic and the customer loyal. 

Website (543 words)

Website

Technology has become intertwined with the daily lives of most people and in 2011, 77% of households in the UK had access to the internet. (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-226727) Statistics like this indicate that having computer-based accompaniments to the product is in fact a successful technique, as the evidence is there to prove that it it’s accessible.

A website would be created for the glo band (a mock up of which you can view at ) which allows the individual to log in and explore their own data, as well as being constantly updated with their progress, glonews and the chance to review their activity and happiness levels.

Progress: this will be data visualisation, hopefully encouraging the user to want to view how they are doing, without the fear of having to face a complex and confusing graph. The aim of this page will be to encourage the user to monitor their own progress; ‘progress’ meaning how their levels of inactivity were during the specific time period. There will be options to view the day, the week, month, and eventually the year, hopefully filling the individual with a sense of achievement as they can visually see what they are accomplishing.

glo News: this will be a page dedicated to glo as a brand, keeping the user up to date with all of the latest news (and maybe eventually other products) that are on offer. It is important for both the brand and the wearer to keep connected, as this will form a positive relationship, making the individual to feel that they are being looked after by the brand.

Happiness Levels: as one of the main functions of the band (other than inactivity monitoring) is to track the wearers happiness throughout the day, there will be a page which visually displays the wearers happiness levels at various time points of the day. If the user also uses the smartphone app (which allows you to enter locations and activities) then they will also be able to see where they have been happiest that day/week/month and also what it is that is making them happy – preferably activity related. In time, the user will begin to see themselves the positive correlation building up between activity and happiness; therefore encouraging them to stay active and feel good.

But these are just a few of the things that the glo website will be able to offer the user. As shown by the image (INSERT FIG. NUMBER), the icons enlarge and move around in a circular motion as you hover above the chosen icons; a visual which echoes the appearance of the glo logo. Some additional icon examples include: profile, chat, your story, weather updates and GPS.

During the introductory period of the product launch, the glo band will also feature on the main page of the Dove website, so that even if people are unaware of the product, as they are a Dove consumer, they will be discover and explore the product themselves when they visit the Dove website. In addition to this, because glo is a member of the Dove family, there will always be a link visible along the top toolbar of the Dove website, to always allow visitors of the site to access the glo website with ease. 

Secondary Research (754 words)

SECONDARY RESEARCH - looking at other products and why we didn't like them? and what we decided the Dove consumer would care most about to be measured and why? Deciding what the product will measure. 

It would be naïve to think that no other brand had considered the issues concerning inactivity before, let alone thinking that we were the first to release an innovative band. A whole range of secondary research was covered, in order to fully understand the consumer and to ensure that the product was able to develop successfully. The benefits of such allowed us to recognize gaps in the target market, as well as enabling us to explore key ideas which were then built upon.

Through this process we not only wanted to look at bands that were monitoring inactivity (as this was the most obvious first place to look) but to also explore what was out there in terms of wearable technology. Many bands were discovered, including the iBangle by Apple and the Computer Bracelet by Sony. In addition to this, research also helped us develop a product which, in a way, was alien to some of the leading competitors. Using questionnaire results as evidence, we found out that the typical Dove consumer wanted the wrist worn device to be ‘small enough not to become obtrusive’ – but looking at what was already out there (eg: Up by Jawbone) we noticed that there wasn’t an inactivity bracelet that was aesthetically appropriate to our demographic.

In regards to the aesthetics of the wristband, research seemed to demonstrate a recurring theme with the appearance of such bands; big, chunky and frankly, ugly. An example we looked at was the Life Microscope by Hitachi, which is a wrist worn device that also measures activity levels. Although the band is meant to imitate the same space as a watch, the futuristic band could not be more un-subtle. Attempting to be sleek and unobtrusive, the white plastic-coated band sits thickly on the wrist and has resemblance to police tagging bands. Hitachi’s creation has acted of use in terms of proving similar technology is available, it has also enlightened us to the fact that there is no current band on the market that is aesthetically what (we think) consumers want. With this in mind, and through further image denotations, the decision was made to use this research to produce primary research which would ask show people a multitude of images and ask them to rank them in order of aesthetics, from pleasing to unsightly; and therefore finally allowing us to produce a band that matched the consumers’ desire.   

In addition to this, and back to the beginning of our research, it was important for us to have a clear understanding of what exactly the band should do; and to do this, we needed to be clear of the methods that worked. An article in the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/12/news) reads that ‘34 per cent of workers felt stressed’ by email alerts, causing them to feel under pressure to respond or take action straight away. This information formed the decision to have technological updates as an option for the user, allowing those who reacted negatively to such nudges to avoid them (and thus maintaining a good relationship with the product) whilst also allowing the ‘28 per cent’ of users who were ‘driven
because they saw them as a source of pressure’ to be alerted this way.

Because of this, it was essential that the glo band was not another resented product that pressured the wearer into combating inactivity. Instead, it is something subtle with a LED glowing alert on the band itself (inspiring the name of the product) to help the wearer move in the right direction, at their own will, and without associating it with negative emotions.

Dove’s ‘healthier view of beauty’ (as outlined in their Campaign For Real Beauty, 2004) was the basis in which we formed our decisions about what the product will measure. The ethos behind all of Dove’s campaigns suggests a link between self-esteem and real beauty, thus leading onto connotations of one being happy within themselves. Finally deciding that the glo band will measure mood, happiness and primarily inactivity was the result of self-belief and secondary research, taking inspiration from The Robometer, a device that ‘takes readings of the surface of your skin to asses your mood’ (http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/wristband-senses-your-moods-robometer-measures-happiness)  - a wristband that Gizmowatch labeled as the ‘endless pursuit of happiness’. (http://www.gizmowatch.com/entry/robometer-for-that-endless-pursuit-of-happiness/) We believed this to be important to our consumer (the Dove consumer) as we would hope that through Dove’s recent marketing strategies, ethos and campaigns, people who buy into their products are doing so because they buy into the brand, and therefore believe in what Dove stands for.