#ShopSmall

The initiative Shop Small Business was founded by American Express in 2010. The event is a day titled Shop Small Business Saturday in November, the day after “Black Friday”. The idea behind this initiative is to support smaller businesses, thereby preventing them from going out of business due to their lack of funds to compete with huge corporation. After the day was established in 2010, within a year it was recognized by the government as the United States Senate unanimously passed the resolution to support Small Business Saturday. Following that in 2012, every single state in the country (and Washington D.C. wholeheartedly supported this initiative. In fact the website for this initiative states that “from Washington D.C., to Washington State, governors, mayors, and even President Obama championed Small Business Saturday.” In 2014 the idea took off with an estimated 14.3 billion dollars be spent in small businesses on that day alone thanks to the movement. Then last year in 2015, 95 million shoppers shopped locally on that day.

Small businesses are still considered the backbone of America and thus need to be nurtured and protected or else they will become a part of American history. This initiative I consider successful because of how much revenue, people, & governments stand behind it. The idea was simple, just getting people to shop locally instead of at huge corporations for at least one day out of the year and from that, it spread and became statistically one of the largest movements (as stated in the brief history above). What also made me believe that this movement is successful is because it has garnered support from the government at all different levels from federal down to local community municipalities. That signifies that so many people and store owners took notice of this movement that it then received the proper attention.

The social media aspect of this campaign is also extensive as they re on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and showcase messages from partakers, as well as pictures/videos from people who are shopping local. All in all, this campaign started out as an idea from a credit card banking company and grew into an actual nationally recognized holiday. Now one could argue that the campaign being back by a well known and financially superior company helps spread the information, but I believe that the willingness of people to go out and shop small is the true reason the idea spread as quickly as it has.

 

Flixster- Movies anyone?

The Flixster app is a one stop shop for everything movies. The app includes trailers, Rotten Tomatoes reviews of almost every movie, showtimes, and even lets you purchase tickets from the app. So basically if you are interested in any movie, whether it is out in theaters, available for at home viewing, or even if it isn’t out yet this is the app for you.

There are some shortcomings with this application, like the fact that it sometimes has movies listed that have not yet been confirmed by production companies and that can be confusing. Also a major problem with this application is that when purchasing tickets for shows it takes you to another website to complete the actual purchase which can be concerning to people entering their credit card information.

Aside from those minor complaints the application is reliable and never let’s it’s users down in terms of watching videos. seeing reviews, or just plain looking up information.

Generation Like Commentary

The documentary “Generation Like” offers a hard look at how this generation has become more connected and communicative than any other generation prior. This has allowed us ample opportunities to make friends, comment on content, and be put on display around the world. This generation being put on display through social media has allowed a new form of acceptance and appreciation that is the “Like” button. By “Liking” something on social media one is saying that they enjoyed, connected with, or appreciated the content or person who posted the content. This has evolved from a simple concept to an electronic form of popularity, self-assurance and in some cases unfortunately bullying.

Businesses and corporations see this newfound importance that being “Liked” has on this population and are finding ways to use it in order to push their brands/ agendas. When marketers create content now it is with a goal to be liked and shared in order to attempt to break into as many social circles as possible. Corporations and marketers also are utilizing celebrities socially in order for fans of those icons to see their favorite actors, athletes, musicians, or other performers like and share a certain product or brand. By using celebrities who have built in fan bases numbering in the thousands or millions on social media one can push their product/brand to numerous social groups or circles at once.

However reaching this consumer segment and having your content being liked and shared is important it is not the only thing that is important for marketers in order to be considered successful. The same people sharing and liking the content as it is spread through social media platforms need to also then translate to actual sales in the real world. Same is true with celebrities, if the fans are following on social platforms and seem to appreciate your work but that doesn’t transfer to ticket sales or such then it is in my books considered ineffective and needs to be adjusted. All in all the documentary points out several positives (from being able to connect to businesses and celebrities and open dialogues among consumers) and negatives (to self-esteem being linked to how many “likes” one may received on a post) to the connected world we are experiencing today. I am excited on what the newest trends that the next generation will bring to the table and how marketers will try to break in and appeal to them.

 

Spreadable Content-“Now This” videos

These are informative videos often about 3-5 minutes that explain or bring to light a certain topic. They can range from medical advancements, to cool new technology, to political and highly discussed topics, to simple popular culture trends. The reason that these videos are so easily spread is because people often use them to prove a point or to gain attention to a certain topic. Also they are easy to share since they are not long videos and often take scientific, political, or other hard to understand concepts and make them accessible to the average person.

Matthew Espinola

Matthew Espinola is a current student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with a Marketing major and minor in Psychology. I have gained experience, through several internships, in marketing  research in the corporate atmosphere. This experience includes speaking directly to consumers and data analytics using qualtrics, SPSS, and google sheets.I was born and raised on the southside of Chicago in a small neighborhood called Beverly.