Oliver Thomas Napier Jr.

Concept Paper: University Girls Apparel

Focus

This will be a 30-second commercial highlighting University Girls Apparel, focusing on the lifestyle of a student that wears pieces from the University Girls line.  Since UG Apparel is licensed for only WVU and Marshall, there will be two commercials, one exclusively for each school.  The commercial will show highlights from a day in the life of a University Girl: in the classroom, on campus, in an extracurricular activity, at an athletic event, or with a group of friends.  The models in the commercial will be current students at each school.

Brand

Founded by a West Virginia native, Nesha Sanghavi, University Girls is a clothing company that sells high quality, women’s collegiate apparel. The clothes are classic and look expensive. Currently, University Girls is licensed to produce apparel for West Virginia’s largest universities – WVU and Marshall. At only 25, Sanghavi is young, but has demonstrated a good understanding of the collegiate market with an understanding of what women want to wear on game day and on campus. University Girls, however, is just starting out, and the collegiate apparel market is very crowded. She also faces tough competition from established national brands.

Audience

A University Girl is loyal to her school and the values it represents.  She wants to wear timeless, collegiate classics that show her pride in a beautiful way.  She is busy and hardworking.  A University Girl goes to school, maybe has a part-time job, is involved on campus in extracurricular activities, and loves to support her team at athletic events.  For this commercial, a University Girl is between the ages of 17 and 26.  She attends either West Virginia University or Marshall University.  She may or may not be from the state of West Virginia, but she has become part of the proud heritage of the state and its educational institutions.

Content points

What is University Girls good for?  What should the audience know?

University Girls…

-          Offers classic collegiate apparel with modern flair.

-          Offers apparel for her favorite West Virginia college team.

-          Offers apparel that is good for work, school, play, and game day.

-          Is about a greater sense of community.

-          Is about looking your best when representing your school.

Concept Paper: WVU Bookstore – Barnes & Noble

Focus

This will be a 30-second commercial to promote the WVU Bookstore and all it has to offer.  The commercial will focus on the average student’s lifestyle.  The bookstore offers items for students’ needs and wants.  It also offers convenience.

Brand

Located at the heart of WVU’s downtown campus in the Mountainlair Student Union, the WVU Bookstore offers the traditional range of textbooks, books and magazines. The store is also a campus destination with WVU merchandise and a Barnes and Noble Café that serves Starbucks products. Carrying the Barnes and Noble name ties the bookstore to a strong, national bookseller that is surely familiar to most customers. The bookstore serves students, faculty, staff, and fans with a strong mix of merchandise. Like all college bookstores, B&N faces the perception that

Audience

The student body at West Virginia University is diverse in many respects.  Students come to WVU from all 50 states and over 100 countries.  In all, there are about 30,000 students.  The WVU Bookstore is a fixture of campus and the Mountainlair Student Union, passed by thousands of students a day.  WVU students are busy.  They travel from residence halls and apartments to class every day.  The Mountainlair is a hub for students to meet, have lunch, study, and take breaks, and the bookstore is a perfect destination for these activities.  Students need books for classes at the beginning of semesters, but they also may need test sheets, blue books, a t-shirt for the big game on the weekend, or a strong cup of coffee.  Convenience is a major factor in getting students to the physical store, and the amenities and merchandise mix inside are what keeps them there.

Content points

What is the WVU Bookstore good for?  What should the audience know?

The WVU Bookstore…

-          Is a campus destination, not just a bookstore.

-          Has a great mix of merchandise – textbooks, books, WVU merchandise.

-          Is convenient.

-          Is perfect for meeting with friends, studying, grabbing a quick bite to eat, or getting a cup of coffee.

It’s time to look at stats in this conference realignment game.  College sports fans LOVE stats right?  Bragging rights.  Touchdowns.  Yards.  Well, it’s time to look at education stats and set some of these stories straight.  I can’t sit back and watch WVU get slammed for academics.

Linked below is the peer institution list from West Virginia’s Higher Education Policy Commission.  These are some basic statistics that everyone should consider before they make a claim.  Conference realignment has little to do with the quality of academics or similarities between schools.  It’s more about money and media markets, period.  The conference realignment spectacle has shown the worst of college sports, higher ed administrators, and fans in all conferences.  It’s ugly.  It’s about money.  It is a hijacking of the basic principles and values that institutions of higher education should uphold.

If you check the list you will see schools such as Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, NC State, Texas A&M, Missouri, and Virginia Tech, to name a few.  Check it here: HEPC Peer List – WVU.

This list also does not include mission-based peers.  WVU is one of 11  research universities in the nation that has a land-grant mission, arts and sciences, and comprehensive health sciences.  Schools on that list include Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Arizona, and Minnesota, to name a few.

Just for kicks, you should also check out this press release about WVU’s rise in the U.S. News rankings.  WVU is a top 100 public university.

Enough of the trash talk on schools around the country.

And for my Mountaineers … For there is naught to fear, the gang’s all here, so hail to West Virginia, hail!  Beat LSU.

Founded by West Virginia native, Nesha Sanghavi, University Girls is a clothing company that sells high quality, women’s collegiate apparel. The clothes are classic and look expensive.  Currently she is licensed to produce apparel for West Virginia’s largest universities – WVU and Marshall.  At only 25, Sanghavi is young, but has demonstrated a good understanding of the collegiate market with an understanding of what women want to wear on game day and on campus. University Girls, however, is just starting out, and the collegiate apparel market is very crowded. She also faces tough competition from established national brands.

Located at the heart of WVU’s downtown campus in the Mountainlair Student Union, the WVU Bookstore offers the traditional range of textbooks, books and magazines.  The store is also a campus destination with WVU merchandise and a Barnes and Noble Café that serves Starbucks products.  Carrying the Barnes and Noble name ties the bookstore to a strong, national bookseller that is surely familiar to most customers.  The bookstore serves students, faculty, staff, and fans with a strong mix of merchandise.  Like all college bookstores, B&N faces the perception that textbooks are overpriced, competing more fiercely than ever with online competitors.

The most important message in the Get a Mac series of spots is simple.  Mac is better at “life stuff.”  The audience desires creativity, ease, and fun.  They want to save time.  They want to use their intuition.  They want a product that they can open up and explore.

The “Out of the Box” spot is a perfect example of how kids feel when they open up presents at Christmas.  This is a feeling with which everyone can identify.  The audience wants to play with their new toy, and they want to play now.  The audience wants to use the product itself to learn how it works rather than having to study how to use it in a manual.  They want an experience that not only produces results but also provides visual beauty and stimulation.  For the audience, using a computer is an experience, not work.  It is about integrating technology into one’s lifestyle rather than having to adapt one’s lifestyle to technology.

The audience is more interested in being clever than being a know-it-all.  The audience does not read the made-up Awesome Computer Review Weekly Journal for tech-geeks; they read more refined news sources such as the Wall Street Journal.

Mac shows a confident assurance that PC lacks.  Mac doesn’t give into the bait that PC throws at him to start arguments.  Mac is confident in what he can offer and is excited to share all the things he can do.  Mac even complements PC, admitting that sometimes he can do great things too like really complex spreadsheets.

As a whole, the spots take the audience from thinking about buying a Mac, to actually getting it home and out of the box, to using it in daily life.  It’s a simple story.  Beyond this story, however, the spots tell us some fundamental desires of the audience.  Fundamentally, technology should enhance the lives of people.

More Get a Mac spots:

Compilation

WSJ spot

Polo Ralph Lauren

Polo Ralph Lauren is the story of a young, Brooks Brothers salesman who started his own line.  Beginning with ties; expanding into British-inspired, tailored menswear; and redefining American classics, Ralph Lauren represents style, timelessness and quality (Ralph Lauren Media, LLC, 2011).  Polo Ralph Lauren is an institution in menswear.

Nordstrom

Seattle-based Nordstrom is the story of a family who started with shoes and expanded into clothing, becoming one of America’s preeminent department stores.  Fashion departments blend clothing labels to create looks that focus on a customer’s lifestyle.  An integrated approach to fashion is a hallmark of Nordstrom’s business.  A heavy emphasis on customer service that spans physical and ecommerce stores makes Nordstrom fashion-forward and accessible (Nordstrom, Inc., 2011).

Starbucks

Starting with one shop in the Pike Place Market in Seattle, Starbucks has come to define the coffee experience in the United States and around the world.  Starbucks’ mission, “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time,” defines the value it sees in its individual customers, its products and its locations.  Its logo only reinforces the company’s philosophy, drawing inspiration from Moby Dick and Greek mythology (Starbucks Corporation, 2011).

This week, I chose three movies that I have never seen before.  I stuck with the 1940s.  I was intrigued by many of the similarities in each of the films.  They are all full of emotion and passion.  Just imagine steamy, nighttime train stations full of passionate, conflicted characters!

Movie 1: Brief Encounter (Lean, 1945)

In Brief Encounter, Laura risks her life as she knows it – her husband and children – by falling in love with a man she barely knows.  Laura is a devoted wife and mother; she takes care of her family with an intense sense of duty and routine.  The story is told through Laura’s account of a love affair.  She recounts her conflicting emotions that move from misery to giddiness from one moment to the next.  Laura is transformed from an unhappy, bored woman into one that experiences the entire spectrum of human emotions regardless of what anyone thinks.  She comes alive, and her emotional rollercoaster dominates the mood of the film.  Laura could have dismissed her affair as a distraction from her routine and family, but instead she abandons her cares of what other people think.  Ultimately, Laura rediscovers what it means to lose rigid control of one’s emotions and to enjoy meaningful connections with the people by which one is surrounded.

Movie 2: Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944)

In Double Indemnity, Walter Neff risks a relationship built on years of trust for a fleeting moment of lust, passion and deceit.  His status as the most respected salesman at his insurance company turns his confidence into cockiness, ultimately leading to his downfall.  Walter Neff seems to forget everything he ever learned, only to be shown one last time that he should have never betrayed a friendship that had been proven time and time again.  Ultimately he ends up used and pathetic.  The only person there for him is the one he betrays.

Movie 3: The Third Man (Reed, 1949)

In The Third Man, Holly Martins struggles with the decision to preserve the good memories he has of his best, childhood friend or to pursue the truth of a mystery of which he has little control or personal interest.  The film follows the inquisitive Holly Martins on his personal quest for an answer.  His internal conflict arises when everyone seems to discourage his meddling.  Holly Martins is a man torn apart by indecision.  He is used by everyone but ends up with no one.  The transformational lesson is that every man determines his own fate and must accept the consequences of his actions.  His tenacious, yet conflicted, search for truth determines the energy and mood of the film.

Pew Research has found that blogging has declined 2% between 2008 and 2010 among Millennials, my own generation.  In 2010, Pew found that among Millennials, categorized as those between 18 and 33, 18% work on their own blog.

The rate of blogging has declined even further among teenagers in the same time period, from 28% in 2008 to 14% in 2010.  Pew cites one reason for the decline as the emergence of other technologies, namely social media outlets.  Many social media sites allow status updates, which could be replacing the role of traditional blogging.

Do you blog?  Did you used to blog?

I know for me that blogging has never been my strong suit!  Sometimes I think, “Why am I doing this?” or “Who really cares?”

I like social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, because I know who my target audience is.  My audience matters to me, because that are part of my online community and my own personal community.

Millennials, especially, I want to know what you think!

Here you can find the Pew study: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Generations-2010/Trends/Blogging.aspx