Week 7 EOC: Final

“UP was designed to fit seamlessly in people's lives. Real life. It's a thoughtful combination of engineering and design, custom-made for how we live.”

“UP is both flexible and strong. Sometimes UP needs to slide smoothly under sleeves or bend to accommodate an active lifestyle. Other times it has to be strong enough to stand up to a snowball fight without a problem (or more likely, a few thousand showers). Day and night, UP is right there with you.”

“UP™ is a system that takes a holistic approach to a healthy lifestyle. The wristband tracks your movement and sleep in the background. The app displays your data, lets you add things like meals and mood, and delivers insights that keeps you moving forward.”

I chose one of Apples product; it is called the UP Wrist Band by Jawbone. Jawbone and Apple came together to create a really cool product called UP, and no it’s not the movie, it’s a lifestyle. UP is an innovative wristband that tracks your sleep cycle, caloric intake, how many steps you’ve taken, how many miles you’ve walked in a day, and many more. The only thing with the band is that you can’t see how much many steps you’re walking, or how much calories your burning. The only competitor to really do this technique would be the Nike fuel band. The Nike fuel band is completely different in the fact that it will show how many calories you’ve burned. The downside to the Nike Fuel Band is that it will only count calories if your arms move.  Whereas is you get the Up band, the counting is more accurate, and it actually tells you your idle time on your idle time and how long you’ve been sitting. Eventually it will tell you to get on your butt and tell you, you need to start walking. Another really cool thing about the UP band is it tells you how much you’re still burning even if you’re sitting, or standing. To my knowledge the UP band only works for Apple products, mostly the iPhone. It says you can connect it to your iPad, MacBook pro, and etc. Another cool thing about the app is if you take a picture of certain foods you and it will log it for you, you can also scan a barcode and it will easily log your meals for you as well. Overall I think that the UP wristband is a really good investment if you really want to be or go into a healthy lifestyle, that way you can track what you eat, when your suppose to eat, how you sleep, or how many calories you burn. There are many possibilities you can do with UP, you can also activate it with an alarm which is another cool feature of the gadget. One more thing before I leave, it is one of the best lifestyle products I have ever bought and I don’t regret it because it is a good fashion statement and great lifestyle choice. 

Week 7 BOC: Visit a retailer

          I recently went into a Thomas Sabo store. Their store is mainly all sterling silver accessories. Their motto is “We love fashion, we are fascinated by it, we are inspired by it, every day of our lives. For us, it is a way of playing with our personality as fashion is not static, but changes and develops – just like our personality.” Everyone that works there looks really punk, or alt. it wasn’t scary or anything but they do carry the brand really well, and they also know the product knowledge which is a part of their brand rep. skills.

            The store was made to almost look like the jewelry, it was stark and silver, and all the lights were really dim. The fixtures were of course, either white or silver. The message I got from the retailer is “if you want to look fashionable, outstanding, and different, shop at Thomas Sabo.” Like I said before the atmosphere was really interesting, at first it looks like you’re walking into a cave, then you also have the associates just staring at you, but they’re not staring, they’re really just observing you to see what you like and what you don’t like. Pretty weird huh?

            My overall thoughts of the store were really good, they had exceptional customer service, and their store layout and the whole concept of the store matched the jewelry. What I got from the store is that they are a statement brand. My definition of statement brand is what it says it means. It makes a statement in fashion, only because the jewelry is really gaudy and out there. That means you have to be very fashion forward and gaudy in a sense. Even though I would never buy it, other people would buy it because it’s their particular item they would purchase.

Week 6 EOC: Chapter Questions

1.                  Compare services to products, and examine the difference and/or similarities in their branding process.

Service is an act of doing something for the customer in terms of helping them, getting the product they need, and assisting them in whatever else they want. Products are a service in itself. It only depends on the customer knows the product and how to use, will the product sell itself. I believe that a service and a product work hand in hand. Honestly without service, how can you describe a product? And without a product, how do you expect a service to be demonstrated?

2.                  Define retail concept, and briefly discuss its role in the positioning strategy of a retail brand.

The service mix is the mix of attributes that define the retail store concept. They are: merchandise, price, location, and service. Merchandise is the product they place on the floor so that the customers can consume them, by buying them and taking it home. Price is a very important factor in a retail operation because price can either turn a customer away or make a customer purchase the product. That goes hand in hand with service, where the workers help explain the product and sell it to the customer. Location is also everything because it depends on how far will you travel? If its close to the consumers home then they’re more willing to go and purchase the product, if it’s far they won’t go anywhere.

3.                  What are the advantages and disadvantages of franchising as a global growth strategy?

Advantages of that are you can expand your brand and have it become world wide and known. Disadvantages of that are it can flop and you won’t make any money and your franchise will fail. You have to take into consideration where you’re going to have your store, what product your store is going to hold, and how much everything is really going to cost.

Week 6 BOC: Bruce Weber

“The condition of inebriation is very nearly a universal experience and the words come from all our societal venues-the fraternity house, debutante ball, literary luncheon, longshoreman's bar, the Wild West.”

“He's not 100 percent yet but he'll continue with the water therapy and riding the (stationary) bike and they might even let him do a little shooting. As long as he doesn't go crazy, anything that gets the blood flowing there helps the healing process. It was a positive report.”

“Anytime you win and have to fight to get through it, you learn from it. Experience is your biggest learning tool. We went through it, had some slip-ups on defense early and then late. And there were ill-advised shots that allowed them to stay in it, but at the same time, we held our poise and found a way to win it, which is the most important thing.”

Bruce Weber is an American Fashion Photographer. He is best known for showing his work in Calvin Klein, Abercrombie and Fitch, Gianni Versace, Ralph Lauren, Vogue, and Rolling Stones magazines. Bruce Weber is also known for his graphic nudity shots. His artwork sparks a controversy, but that is why high fashion companies love to use his photography to help   them help others understand their brand in a different perspective. His artwork is very abstract and appealing to the eye. He has collaborated with a couple artists along with celebrities, which makes him stand out from all the rest. Bruce Weber does have a website, and still continues his work, he also has a very extensive client list. Most of them are editorial.

Week 4 BOC: Final

“Several years of close collaboration with the German Sports Institute of Cologne resulted in revolutionary running shoes using natural motion. BIOM, as the shoe was called, became an immediate success.”

“We constantly strive to reduce the environmental impact of our operations while increasing the positive impact we have in our global communities. We have a responsibility to be an environmentally responsible neighbor and conserve resources for future generations through sustainable development.

ECCO owns and operates the production of leather, the production of shoes and retail stores worldwide. This enables us to fully integrate best environmental health and safety practices and design into all our businesses and operations. We can develop new initiatives and implement sustainable solutions efficiency throughout our operations.

“Running, interval and jogging. Light weight; appreciate the integrated tongue design that only opens to the outside. These are literally the most comfortable shoes that have ever been on my feet.”

I chose ECCO Retail LLC as one of my other brands. They started the company in 1963 but didn’t establish the company in the U.S. until 1990, which is 23 years in the making. Ecco is a lifestyle brand only made for a particular type of customer that would spend money on quality and not quantity. With their innovative European style, and color choice, they’ve made the breaking point of combining a fashionable shoe with comfort. As far as competitors go, they haven’t ad anyone match the product, most of these competitors are; Clarks, The Walking Company, Rockport’s, and Aerosole are some of their competitors, but non of them can compare to the way they make and produce the product. The product that I chose within the brand is the ECCO Biom technology, which is short for biomechanical. The idea of the shoe is that it is a performance shoe. Meaning that you can use it for running, walking, jogging, and any other athletic sport you can think of, even golf. What makes Biom so special is that they put so much research into the shoe that they actually scan 2,500 pairs of feet to get the right fit for the shoe line. The shoe was made to fit anatomically to fit your feet, and has a low to the ground profile so that you were made to feel like your wearing no shoes, or you’re barefoot. Studies do show that walking barefoot is good for you because you create more balance for yourself, and you aren’t confined to a shoe where it grips your foot and you’re dependent on the shoe for comfort. While using Biom you depend more on your feet than the shoe, creating the motto, which is the shoe, should always follow the foot. Biom has been a great feat for Ecco, and is one of the best selling shoes in the stores around the U.S. Not only is it a great shoe, but also it is designed very well with great materials such as Yak Skin, and Polyurethane. This brand goes to show you that you don’t need to be extravagant to be well known, you just need to be very minimalist and fashionable.