Category: AAD Community

Logbook Entry: February 4th

Logbook Entry: List the risk factors associated with your product. Define ways to decrease risk for consumer’s decision-making process. What strategic marketing activities could lower perceptions of risk associated with your product or event?

As mentioned in previous posts, there is a big time commitment for Beats & Brushstrokes and a high risk factor because the quality of art is dependent on what art is submitted. Thus, our event is associated with a high level functional risk. I know that in previous years many people who came to buy art came specifically to support ELAN and not particularly for the art itself. Thus, most of our consumers are basing their decisions on internal factors like past experiences and association to the organization. These people have a higher motivation to attend the event and purchase art even with a high degree of risk and involvement.

However, we can not continue to depend on those that will support us regardless of risk. Furthermore, we could potentially loose these people if we continually disappoint their expectations.  This is difficult because we have two main consumer bases that we are trying to satisfy at the same time: the party crowd who spend a lot of money on beer and the sophisticated crowd who will spend more money on art. It is my assumption that we will end up making more money on beer than art. This leaves the question: is it necessary to continue to market the silent auction portion of the evening or should we focus entirely on the party? Since we are a professional arts organization, it makes sense to uphold both aspects of the event to represent our mission. Thus, we need to figure out a way to be professional and yet fun (this is also something I’ve always found difficult to present through social media).

I believe the key factor in getting more people to come to Beats & Brushstrokes this year is spreading good reviews from last year. I personally haven’t been to the event, so I am basing my opinion entirely on others. According to all the reviews, this event is the best thing ELAN does all year. Everyone I’ve talked to reports having an amazing time, including professors and students. Thus, I believe we need to build the hype for this year’s fundraiser by advertising these good reviews. I am going to try to use social media to do this. I have also been handing out fliers at arts events in town (First Friday and the JSMA opening) in order to attract an older or active arts community. Hopefully, if they look up our event, they will then see all the good reviews on our Facebook or twitter and use a subordinate decision making process to lesson their perceived risk of attending. In the meantime, we’ll continue to market that $5 admission includes drinks and food!

Personal Learning Environment (PLE)

Assignment Description: Students create a graphic representation of their Personal Learning Environment – examples on my blog from past cohorts, and links to PLE sites. A written and/or recorded narrative must accompany the PLE (depending on the media type used for presentation).

My PLE (click to see larger):

My PLE

My Narrative

I had been looking through my textbook for Youth Arts Curriculum and I saw an art project in which kids drew an x-ray of their bodies and then filled it with things that are important to them. This idea resonated with me and I decided to use it for my PLE. This method allowed me to divide my learning environments by how I interact with them. Furthermore, it would show which of my senses where highly involved in my process of learning. To me, this PLE represents where I find knowledge, how I act on it and the values I uphold.

It is no surprise that listening takes up a larger portion of my senses. All of my stories start by saying, “So I was listening to…”. I love radio and since, I’ve now decided to pursue a career in radio, I’m trying to fill my ears with good radio. Recently, I’ve become obsessed with Radiolab, hence why it’s at the very front of my ears. I also included the iTunes symbol for my music and the Portland Poetry Slam, because that is what exposed me to good slam poetry. I only expect that this list will will grow as I discover more about radio and spoken word.

I am guessing that the site category could be much more extensive, but I tried to find symbols that represented the bulk of my time. I do spend a lot of time on social media, partly for ELAN, but also for my MetaphorADay twitter and writing blog. Though, since I do use Facebook constantly for socializing, it’s right there at the front. I also included a symbol for movies and Netflix, because why I like to watch shows online, I love to go out to movies. The Google symbol represents the rest of the internet because Google is how I access most things, but I chose the Alphonso Mucha version of the logo because it also shows my love of art (and specifically that artist). The “Reading is Sexy” sticker and the dinosaur from Dinosaur Comics are slightly comical, but I love to read and I religiously follow a few web comics.

The two hands represent two completely different set of actions. The left hand shows what I do on a daily basis: work on ELAN, do school work, write, and often craft. The other hand is a series of hand gestures that I often use at concerts. They create an evolution of feelings from power to encouragement to love. I feel like these symbols represent 3 main facets of the way I act.

Going to the mouth, this sense both intakes and exhales, so I tried to include both. I’m a poet so I say poetry, but I’m also a very social person, so talking and hanging with friends is important to me. I included my two favorite foods: tortellini and home-made juice. And then I added my favorite hobby: singing. This list could probably be much longer.

The last category is my feet, which I used to show the kind of physical activities I do. The photo of the pond shows both where I live and where I run. I also enjoy swimming and I bike almost everyday. But lastly, I included footprints on the left, because I know that this learning environment will change and if anything, I am always moving forward.

 

Collect and Analyze Materials: Mailers & Flyers

As I mentioned in class, I don’t get many mailers. I’m not sure why, but I did receive my friend’s wedding invitation in the mail and I think it could make a great design for a mailer or a brochure.

It has four pages that are truncated so that you can clearly see the basic details of the wedding on the front. And then if you flip each page open, there is a picture (all beautifully matching in black and white) and more detailed information about the wedding, location and accommodations. There is a consistent elegant design to the format and type. All of the information is easy to find and they have their website clearly marked if you need more information. I know that wedding invitations are usually expensive, but they might be a place to look for good design for mailers.

I also think a good design for a flier is one that you keep, and I’ve had this flier for the UO University Theater since the beginning of the school year.

It may not be the best design color and flow wise, but I think it is a great use of space. It’s the size of a business card and manages to fit all the dates of the plays this season, a map of the theater and free parking (didn’t know that!), info about their box office, and advertise that tickets are free for students. That’s a lot to fit on one business card, but they did so without it feeling too forced. Also, the visual guide for the calendar and the map is very helpful. I know that I got lost trying to find the theater. Lastly, the image on the front does catch my eye even though the color might be a turn-off.

Logbook Entry: January 28th

Logbook Entry: Describe the general profile of your current consumer? Who are your missing consumers? Describe the market segments that need attention. List your direct competitors: What makes your product unique from them and what similarities do you share?

The current consumer for Beats & Brushstrokes would most likely be someone affiliated with ELAN and/or the Arts Administration Program. The large number of attendees will be the AAD students, faculty, community partners, supporters and friends. Since the main purpose of Beats & Brushstrokes is to sell art, we are trying to attract people who would spend money on art. Last year, this was difficult because the event quickly became more of a party than an auction. This year we are trying to deter that from happening by ending the auction at 9:30pm and saving the party for the rest of the event. We will also have an MC that will be prompting people to buy art. This will allow both of our main consumers to enjoy the event. Those who want to just purchase art can come to first half of the event and those who are looking for the party atmosphere can come to the later half. This will hopefully have the result of attracting more people with discretionary income who were previously deterred by the party atmosphere, but still maintaining our core group of consumers (especially those who buy beer).

Currently, our network is well connected to AAD students, some other graduate programs and key arts organizations in Eugene. However, ELAN does not have a strong connection with the University of Oregon as a whole and with community members. It is difficult to market to a whole campus, let alone a city when you are only a team of 6 with very limited funds. Thus, we are relying mostly on our existing network to make this event a success. However, we will be using the WOW Hall’s flyer distribution system to post fliers at over 200 businesses around Eugene and Springfield. This will hopefully pull in some new consumers from the community. Furthermore, we did tabling last week to advertise making art for Beats & Brushstrokes in Lawrence. I handed out at least 75-100 fliers. If anything, this marketing strategy increased name recognition of the event within the AAA department. However, ELAN is still housed at UO and therefore rarely reaches community members not affiliated with the university. In order to address this issue, I and a small group of students are going to First Friday this week and handing out fliers for Beats & Brushstrokes. We are also thinking of bringing a record player and dancing down the streets for a kind of guerrilla marketing. Perhaps this will bring in more community members who are already attending art events.

After reviewing Ch. 3, I would say that at this point the partner market (in particular a focus on the media) and the private sector market need more attention. We have only been marketing though social media so far because we’re waiting on confirming sponsorship before printing the fliers. This will definitely need to be addressed in the timeline for the marketing plan. The sooner we have the sponsors (specifically Ninkasi) confirmed, the sooner we can start advertising. Furthermore, we have just sent out sponsorship packets for food and decorations, which may also be pushing the deadline. I will have to review how and when we reach out to the private sector in order to create a timeline that has the best possible effect boosting media attention and forming strong community partnerships.

What makes Beats & Brushstrokes unique is the content of the art (art made from records and record sleeves) as well as the very cheap entrance ticket ($5 including drink tokens). I actually don’t know what other events are happening that night, but I do know that we will have free parking at the Hult Center (who is not having an event). Our event is off campus so we will not have to compete with campus events though we may not pull as many students. I don’t believe there any other big arts events happening during our date, but there will probably be some plays running that day as well as concerts. Our event is similar to many others as it involves art and alcohol and music, however it covers a wide range of incomes and is at an exciting new location (the new Crossfit gym with glass windows!). We are hoping to project Ninkasi’s symbol on the windows to attract people from the street. Also, we are planning to have the DJ at the front so people can see and hear the music from outside. Now, we just need to get some art!

OFN Practicum: Week 3 Log

This week put somewhat of a stall on the project. I was going to go look through box 61 of the TAAP files on Friday, but then Maya informed me that she had already looked through the box and it didn’t contain any pertinent artist information. Emily told Maya that she will contact Nathan to see if there are any other boxes we can look through. I did see some boxes labeled Rural Libraries and other TAAP boxes in the inventory. Perhaps we should look through those? In the meantime, Maya and I will be meeting next Monday to discuss what questions we have and how we should move forward from here. We will all be meeting at OFN Mon. Feb 4th to talk with Emily about those questions and present our first drafts of postcards. Next week I will be working on creating a draft of my first postcard based on the artists Maya and I have identified.

Since, I couldn’t do anymore research into possible artists, I decided to take an in-depth look into the Rural Arts & Culture Map in order to get a better idea of what information I should be gathering for our postcards. However, since the content on the map is so varied, I’m still not sure what our postcards should look like. I know we want to have photos, but what about videos? There may be some videos available for the more recent artists. Also, are we describing the art the artist makes or the background of the artist? We could just replicate the format of the TAAP application forms and talk about the art traditions they practice, where they learned them from and the importance of these traditions. Although not all of the TAAP applications has all this information. The current TAAP artists listed on the OFN website also have varying information. I would like to look at their actual TAAP application to see if there is more info not represented on the website. Also, while looking over the Rural Arts & Culture Map, I noticed some functional problems that will need to be addressed. A lot of the postings have a short blurb about an artist and then link to a site for more information. I’m not sure where we will link to for more information about the older artists we found in the archives. Lastly, there are two ways to see information on the map: stories and folks. It seems the folks tab is used for creating profiles for people posting to the map. You can click on their profile and then see all the stories they have posted. Perhaps we should create a profile for OFN and then link our stories from there? The only problem with this, is that not all of the stories I found through this method showed up on the overall map. I’m not sure why, but I want to make sure our stories are visible.