What I Did This Week

This week was a busy one for our group. We had to pull together a presentation and write a script before we presented on Thursday. We spent a lot of time writing the scripts and only a short time making the presentation. After presenting on Thursday, I felt pretty okay about our project. We were given some corrections to make, which will be done on Tuesday during class. We were told to fix our slides and even add more. Some people had to fix their scripts as well which we also need to get done. I was told to speak slower and put more emphasis on what I was saying to really get across the point of our hair salon.
In addition to our presentations, we also had to sell bracelets. Last week was great because we sold all of the senior bracelets (except for around 5) Sometimes, people didn't show up to sell which was frustrating, but we tried to make it work. We are having trouble selling them to the Freshman, although many Juniors have come up to us asking for our bracelets. Hopefully we will be able to turn this into our senior project and expand on who we are selling our bracelets to. To sell to the Freshman class, we tried making a flyer for the Freshman homerooms and we tried giving out free Twix to whoever purchased the bracelets.
I'm hoping we will have time next week to rehearse more for our presentation and really clean up the slides to make it look good. I'm confident our presentation will go okay- I'm more worried for the questions the panel will ask in case we don't know the answers.
I still need to finish up my case study in the next week, which I just have the conclusion left to write and then edit it.

Chapter 4

In chapter four, Gladwell mainly speaks on the idea of "The Power of Context." This means that if in that point in history or time something is introduced and it isn't the right time, it will be less likely to reach its tipping point. In order to prove this point further, Gladwell uses multiple examples from violent crimes that had occurred in New York City in the 1990's.
Gladwell also talks about how there are many factors that can cause a decline in the popularity of a certain product. He says that the biggest of these factors are subtle changes in the environment. This means that these factors were allowed to "tip," leading to much reduction in crime (going back to his examples from the 90's). Gladwell brings up the Broken Windows Theory, which states that even minor examples of deterioration where you live can lead to worse issues, involving your quality of life and living, if unfixed.
He speaks on how you may reverse these factors as well. How New York tried to remove crime was that they took small steps at a time. They began to cover up graffiti and crack down more on the law. Since these factors, Gladwell believes, took away from crime in New York, he also believes it helped influence many other things, like the deterioration of the crack cocaine epidemic.
How this chapter relates to business is that you need to make sure if you're making or selling a product, you must know if it is needed during this time and in that place. I was slightly confused as to how the whole New York part had much to do with business. I just understood how one small factor can cause a chain reaction and make situations worse.

The Tipping Point Chapter 3

Gladwell talks a lot about how things become popular and successful, while others do not. One thing he brings up is called the "stickiness factor." The stickiness factor is what makes something stick with people and makes it memorable. When something sticks with the public, it becomes more successful because it is memorable. People will know what it is- if they don't or don't remember what your product is, they won't feel compelled to buy your product. Gladwell also says that an element of this "stickiness" is that it is often different than the conventional. This makes sense because when something is different, it will most likely be remembered more than something that is the same as everything else. People want things that haven't been done before or that are different in some way than the conventional product. Gladwell proves this point further by exploring TV for children over a few decades.
One major example Gladwell used was Sesame Street. This children's show does an excellent job at improving a child's literacy and the way they do this is that they held the attention of children. If a show is able to do that, they will keep the child engaged and actually help them learn. Because children get distracted easily, they also tried to incorporate things into the show to help a child not get distracted. This can be seen by the many different characters and constant changing scenes to keep the kid engaged in the show. Gladwell also points out that Blues Clues later used many of the same techniques as Sesame Street, which resulted in studies of how TV shows can significantly improve a child's literacy.
It is important to have this "stickiness factor" because without it, nothing would be different and products wouldn't become successful. Sesame Street has been successful for so many years and that's because not only did it keep the child engaged, but it also taught the child, making it a win win situation. In order to make your product successful, you need to propose something different that allows the public to remember it.

What I Did This Week

This week was a very busy one for my group. A few times people were absent, making more work for the ones that were there, including myself. Although that was the case, we still got a lot done. With the deadline being today to finish storefront parts 1-6 and the packet for Mr. Gladstone, we had to rush to finish it. Madi and I finished parts five and six this week (finally) while others were hanging up flyers advertising our bracelets. Yesterday in class, we worked together to edit the packet for Mr. Gladstone and I wrote the intro letter for that packet.
We sold our bracelets twice this week- On Wednesday during first and second lunch (both of which I attended) and on Thursday during second lunch. We have already made around $130, if not more, especially off of the seniors.
I discovered that we shouldn't have got as many freshman bands and more senior ones. We know a lot of seniors, obviously, and it was easier to get all of them to buy our bands rather than people we have never seen or talked to before.
I am shocked at how many we've sold so far and I'm hoping to continue this project, eventually getting bracelets for sophomores and juniors. Rachel even went and bought Twix yesterday to give to everyone for free for buy a bracelet, which was a very smart idea.
Outside of class, I worked on my case study and edited our write ups.
I'm happy with the work accomplished this week. We stayed on schedule with what we needed to do and it worked out perfectly. I hope Mr. Gladstone reads our write up that we spent a long time preparing and that we will be able to sell more bracelets and even make a profit to order more.