I don't get out very often, meaning I don't often explore other areas. I often find myself on the same path, following a routine that drives my daily activities. So in times when I find myself outside of La Crosse, I can't help but notice all of the different people and the styles that they dress themselves up in.
When I went to Chicago several weeks ago, there were so many different people with different get-ups that intrigued me. Everything seemed classy to me no matter what they were wearing. Was it because it was so different from what I'm used to? I am constantly surrounded by college outfits here in La Crosse and if I'm not running into students its usually 40 years and up. In Chicago though, it's a range of everybody and the diversity is so much higher. It's kind of weird how just a few hours of driving can completely change the dynamic of the environment in terms of people and how they dress, which is kind of a genre within itself. Fashion greatly depends on the accessibility of each article of clothing. In La Crosse, we've got the typical brands of clothing such as American Eagle, Old Navy, etc. In larger cities there are much fancier places and the people that shop there have much different budgets. For instance, I was watching a video where these famous YouTubers went on a shopping spree for each other with no budget. Between the four of them, they totaled $10,000 worth of accessories. That is enough to pay almost half of my student loans and they spent it on clothing. This was out in LA so the style there is much more expensive than that of La Crosse. When I spend $80 on pants, I cry on the inside. These YouTubers spent $490 on a pair of sunglasses and didn't bat an eye. Pretty darn crazy.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Extended Protection Plans at Menards
One of the tasks of a cashier at Menards is to do our best at selling Extended Protection Plans for specific items that Guests are purchasing. This has always been a challenge for me because most of the time I can only get "okay, so this item qualifies..." out before the Guest interrupts me with a crisp "no." You can definitely say that my skills at selling EPPs are pretty darn low and I don't think John Menard is too happy with me for that, but I honestly blame the Guests because they don't even let me finish my sell phrase before they answer. That's my excuse anyway.
What I need to do if I want to sell more EPPs is figure out a way to catch the Guest's attention right away. They typically here the phrase "this qualifies for" and they immediately reject the idea of an EPP. They're right for denying it because they can just return it and Menards will most likely honor that return. So what do they have to fear and why do they need this EPP? They don't really, it's just a way for Menards to make more money. That doesn't deter me from my mission though because them buying those gives our store a better rating which brings good things to us employees.
This gets pretty tricky because I'm trying to get someone to spend more money and that's not what everybody wants to do. I have to convince them that this EPP is going to make them sleep better at night knowing their product is covered for damages and other miscellaneous things that could happen. I haven't been able to think of anything yet, but I'll certainly need to utilize some of the tools from this course and my rhetoric courses because this requires the art of convincing others to do something they didn't originally want to do.
What I need to do if I want to sell more EPPs is figure out a way to catch the Guest's attention right away. They typically here the phrase "this qualifies for" and they immediately reject the idea of an EPP. They're right for denying it because they can just return it and Menards will most likely honor that return. So what do they have to fear and why do they need this EPP? They don't really, it's just a way for Menards to make more money. That doesn't deter me from my mission though because them buying those gives our store a better rating which brings good things to us employees.
This gets pretty tricky because I'm trying to get someone to spend more money and that's not what everybody wants to do. I have to convince them that this EPP is going to make them sleep better at night knowing their product is covered for damages and other miscellaneous things that could happen. I haven't been able to think of anything yet, but I'll certainly need to utilize some of the tools from this course and my rhetoric courses because this requires the art of convincing others to do something they didn't originally want to do.
Web Content as a Genre
Web content is something we run into everyday. There are many different forms and styles of content on the web and each one has to deliver something unique in order to separate itself from the rest of the crowd. Yet, there's a mission for each website and in order to complete that mission there needs to be a layout that is both effective in displaying the information of that website and in getting users to do something with that site either through interacting with it or whatever it is the owner of that content needs audience members to do.
Jumping back to the La Crosse Distillery Company, you can see how their style is transferred to everything involved with the company, whether that be their menu, history pamphlet, website, etc. Everything they create fits the company's standard format in order to make sure that any piece read by a potential customer can recognize the company and its branding.
Taking a look at their website, you can see their style almost immediately. The color scheme is the same and the stories they include continue their signature theme of being local to La Crosse and the resources around this city. Their website is clean and the content is targeted to be to the point. The classy feel of the restaurant can be found in their website as well and that's how they get people to recognize them in any format.
Take a look at this page on their website and tell me that this doesn't feel fancy: https://lacrossedistilling.co/fieldnotes-gin/
The sharpness of the images and the clean/easy-to-read just drives that classy feel across. You can tell that everything they do is carefully thought of and I think that's what makes them high class.
Jumping back to the La Crosse Distillery Company, you can see how their style is transferred to everything involved with the company, whether that be their menu, history pamphlet, website, etc. Everything they create fits the company's standard format in order to make sure that any piece read by a potential customer can recognize the company and its branding.
Taking a look at their website, you can see their style almost immediately. The color scheme is the same and the stories they include continue their signature theme of being local to La Crosse and the resources around this city. Their website is clean and the content is targeted to be to the point. The classy feel of the restaurant can be found in their website as well and that's how they get people to recognize them in any format.
Take a look at this page on their website and tell me that this doesn't feel fancy: https://lacrossedistilling.co/fieldnotes-gin/
The sharpness of the images and the clean/easy-to-read just drives that classy feel across. You can tell that everything they do is carefully thought of and I think that's what makes them high class.
La Crosse Distilling Company
My girlfriend, Annie, and I went to the La Crosse Distilling Company this past week for drinks and it was an awesome experience. This new location just opened up a few months ago and we wanted to see what they hype was all about, not to mention we are both fans of good gin.
What we found there was a fresh new building design that really made the place unique. It was clean and classy on the inside and you could tell simply by the water glasses they brought out. The individual glasses were pretty normal, but the water container for the table was in a bottle that looked similar to that of the gin that the company makes and sells. I could immediately tell that this place was specifically curated to fit one theme, much like other restaurants, but this one went the extra mile. Everything felt classy even the menus we received, which were made of a slab of wood and a menu rubber banded to it. It's pretty neat to go to a restaurant type business that isn't a chain restaurant and see how much more money they are willing to invest in their decor and style. You don't see stores like Subway doing that and it's because they don't have to do much to gain attention. These newer more unique businesses have to be classy in their style in order to attract more customers and I can say that the La Crosse Distilling Company did just that. They defined themselves with a style that makes people feel like they are dining in a 5 Start location and that's what's going to make people want to come back.
What we found there was a fresh new building design that really made the place unique. It was clean and classy on the inside and you could tell simply by the water glasses they brought out. The individual glasses were pretty normal, but the water container for the table was in a bottle that looked similar to that of the gin that the company makes and sells. I could immediately tell that this place was specifically curated to fit one theme, much like other restaurants, but this one went the extra mile. Everything felt classy even the menus we received, which were made of a slab of wood and a menu rubber banded to it. It's pretty neat to go to a restaurant type business that isn't a chain restaurant and see how much more money they are willing to invest in their decor and style. You don't see stores like Subway doing that and it's because they don't have to do much to gain attention. These newer more unique businesses have to be classy in their style in order to attract more customers and I can say that the La Crosse Distilling Company did just that. They defined themselves with a style that makes people feel like they are dining in a 5 Start location and that's what's going to make people want to come back.
Billboards
Billboards are something we see frequently and they are almost everywhere we go. Just on my way to Subway for lunch today, I walked past 10-15 billboards (for the record, I'm counting store signs as billboards; image below as an example).
Taking the above example into consideration, I found it interesting how many different signs there are and how each one is unique to the store that it belongs to. I would think that the rules regarding store signs is that it has to be representative of the store it belongs to, but unique enough to stand out from the rest that surround it. So there would be a lot of things to consider such as font, color, how much text, images, what kind of content to display, etc. That's a genre I constantly think about as I pass signs and billboards.
Taking the above example into consideration, I found it interesting how many different signs there are and how each one is unique to the store that it belongs to. I would think that the rules regarding store signs is that it has to be representative of the store it belongs to, but unique enough to stand out from the rest that surround it. So there would be a lot of things to consider such as font, color, how much text, images, what kind of content to display, etc. That's a genre I constantly think about as I pass signs and billboards.
Video Game Remakes - A Type of Genre?
One thing that I've noticed as I grow up is the number of remakes to things like Disney movies, board games, and most of all video games. Pokemon is a game that I love to play and no matter how many times I tell myself not to buy the new one when it comes out, I usually end up doing so and it's usually because of one thing: it's a remake of a game I used to play years ago. My Pokemon game playing career started when I was 10ish and it was the Fire Red and Leaf Green games that I fell in love with. I continued to play each generation after that which soon led to the remakes of older generation games. Now, in 2018, the remake of Fire Red and Leaf Green has come out and it has caught my attention immensely.
I'm playing with the idea of a game remake being a genre within the genre of video games (so I guess a sub genre) because there are rules and strategies involved with making a remake. Considering audience is important because with Pokemon, its a kid's game as well as a game that adults would play because they used to play it when they were kids (like me). So not only does it need to entertain new players, it also has to have enough nostalgia for older players to feel like they are playing an updated version of the game they used to play years ago. I'll probably end up buying the game and trying it out because I can't resist and so I hope that it lives up to my expectations.
I'm playing with the idea of a game remake being a genre within the genre of video games (so I guess a sub genre) because there are rules and strategies involved with making a remake. Considering audience is important because with Pokemon, its a kid's game as well as a game that adults would play because they used to play it when they were kids (like me). So not only does it need to entertain new players, it also has to have enough nostalgia for older players to feel like they are playing an updated version of the game they used to play years ago. I'll probably end up buying the game and trying it out because I can't resist and so I hope that it lives up to my expectations.
YouTube Video Titles
YouTube thrives on views. Views are what keeps the business running by airing ads in videos that people are forced to watch through unless they pay for premium membership. Out of the millions of videos out there, what's going to draw millions in to watch your own video? This is the challenge that YouTube creators have to face when creating a video. You might have really good content, but that doesn't get display on thumbnail for the video so each video has to have some sort of creative/click-bait title that will bring a viewer in.
Click-bait titles are some of the most annoying things in the world. I'll see things like "You won't believe what happened when he did this" or "Watch Donald Trump slam this reporter." Those sound like amazing titles and I feel like I could find enjoyment from watching a video like that. Yet, when I click on those video links, I am disappointed by the end because the language of the title suggested that something cool was going to happen, when really its super scaled down when you watch the video. Trump almost never "slams" the reporters, he just avoids their questions and calls them Fake News. Is that the definition of slamming? No, I would expect something out of the ordinary or unique to that one situation, not what he does in almost every other press conference.
So there's a style here that requires certain rules to be utilized. First, the video has to actually have some sort of connection to the title. You can't just throw something random in the title just to get someone's attention. In the form of click-bait, the title has to be somewhat true, even if it is over exaggerated. Lastly, it has to be exciting enough to catch someone's attention. With all of those in mind, you can create effective click-bait material.
Click-bait titles are some of the most annoying things in the world. I'll see things like "You won't believe what happened when he did this" or "Watch Donald Trump slam this reporter." Those sound like amazing titles and I feel like I could find enjoyment from watching a video like that. Yet, when I click on those video links, I am disappointed by the end because the language of the title suggested that something cool was going to happen, when really its super scaled down when you watch the video. Trump almost never "slams" the reporters, he just avoids their questions and calls them Fake News. Is that the definition of slamming? No, I would expect something out of the ordinary or unique to that one situation, not what he does in almost every other press conference.
So there's a style here that requires certain rules to be utilized. First, the video has to actually have some sort of connection to the title. You can't just throw something random in the title just to get someone's attention. In the form of click-bait, the title has to be somewhat true, even if it is over exaggerated. Lastly, it has to be exciting enough to catch someone's attention. With all of those in mind, you can create effective click-bait material.
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