StREEt QuILTs

These pieces by Amy Ahlstrom, combine textiles with pop and street art in the form of quilts. Amazing!

http://www.amyahlstrom.com/index.html

Assignment 4 - HApPy tO HeLP

How do salespeople influence purchases?
A lot of people have a lot to say on the subject of salespeople. "rude and ignorant", "civility costs nothing, no matter how little your wage was, you should always treat people as you would want to be treated yourself." Are a few of the comments i found on the "This Morning" Facebook discussion page.
So for this project instead of asking the shoppers for they're opinions, i thought i'd ask the sellers themselves how they believe they do or do not influence their customers and their experiences when the tables are turned.
I began creating my questions by researching and  reading some articles on peoples experiences in high street shops. The articles below gave me a few ideas.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/blog/2010/jul/09/sales-assistants-happy-to-help?INTCMP=SRCH


http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/janet-street-porter/i-was-and-am-lousy-shopassistant-material-682193.html  


I then needed some salespeople. So i went to my home village of Aberdour and armed with bribes of cake, went into a few of the independent gift shops and asked if they wouldn't mind. I spoke to Annie and Claire both shop owners. Claire had worked in retail all her life where as Annie had only been in the business 5 years after a career change. I hoped this would give me different perspectives on the subject.  

I wanted to find out a few things in particular. 
1. Their views on customer behaviour.
2. How easy they feel it is to influences sales.

3. How influential to sales do they think employing people for the way they look?
4. How they feel being sold to themselves?


Here are the questions i asked - 


Question 1. Do you find customer behaviour predictable? 
Of the two sales people i spoke to, the general view was customer behaviour was very predictable. The way people look and walk into the shop gives them an instant first impression and predicts their buying habits. Walkers for example don't come out expecting to buy and their body language shows this. One of the shop owners, whose shop was definitely aimed at females, said in general men are in buying presents and have a very 'in and out' approach. They come in and pick up one of the first things they see suitable. "They are shopping for purpose not for experience."


Question 2. How easy is it/do you find it to influence sales?

On the subject on trying to influence sales both said they didn't do it actively and it wasn't something they enjoyed. This surprised me, so i asked what they didn't like about the sale process? Annie said simply it just wasn't something she found easy and she was overly aware of being pushy. "I often say something like 'is it still cold out?' and see by their response if they want a chat. A lot of the time people will answer, 'yes' and then go back to their shopping. Then i know to leave it. Its common sense." What is interesting about Claires response is that she said she would just as easily put off a customer from a product as encourage them to buy it. Simply because she didn't want customers coming back with regrets or feeling pressured. "You have a responsibility" It seems that some sales people are just as aware of putting off customers with pushy service. 


Question 3. Does creating an ideal buying experience influence purchases? How would you create this?
Claire said something she is dedicated to is showing an interest in the person. She commented that if possible she trys to remember regular customers names and create a personal experience, that she believes has been lost in the UK,  due to the mass produced high street and supermarkets. I found a BBC news article called, "Why service is still so bad in the UK" by Rosie Waites and it makes some very interesting points. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12123463 She argues that no matter how good the product in a shop or restaurant, it is the service that makes people come back and "regulars are their lifeblood". This is something that is definitely true for these wee shop, as they rely on repeat customers and positive word of mouth to gain them trade. 
Annie mentioned how she feels making things aspirational is key. Clothes shops mock up outfits to create a desire and a 'If i buy that i could look like that" attitude. She says she trys to do the same. "when people come into my shop, i think its important that people feel there buying into a lifestyle." I think this technique is being used more and more for example Jack Wills shop fittings are used as much as their clothes to create an experience. Queen of shops Mary Portas champions this idea and of how influential to purchases creating desire can be. "We all know the power that a well-designed shop window can hold over us; in one glance you can be transported into a different world. Through the glass, products come alive in a visual story that compels you to enter the store and part with your hard-earned cash." http://www.maryportas.com/mary/
  

Question 4. Being a salesperson how do you find being sold to? 
Annie's immediate response was, "I know their game."  She was joking but i understood what she meant. Being in the business perhaps make you more aware of people actively selling. She also said she now saw them less sincere. Claire also said she didn't like being sold to, neither do i particularly and neither did any of my friends who i asked. Does anyone like the hard sell? When we complain about customer service we just bit of acknowledgement and help when we need it. "... there's a difference between being helpful and trying to pretend like you're a shopper's best friend." Say Johnathon Haynes, author of "Sales assistants: When 'Happy to help' becomes a hindrance", for the Guardian. He is arguing that some sales assistants are adopting a very Americanised over helpful attitude to service, that can just as much influence you. Influence you into getting out of the shop as quick as is physically possible. "His incessant interest lost him the sale and left me a touch disturbed." 


Question 5. Can you name some high street shops where the sales assistants have influenced you? Either good or bad.
At this question both needed little time to think and i think this sums up  a lot. People remember the service they receive. Claire said one of her worst experiences was in Jenners in Edinburgh. "Nothing major happened but the sales assistant was just down right rude" She thought that this particular Jenners sales assistant thought she was above dealing with customers. This seems to be one of the biggest problems facing the service industry, a snobbery.  Chef Michel Roux Jr thinks "The issue of service in Britain is, maybe, a class problem with service seen as subservient." A huge number of people on both sides see selling and service as a lower class job and this the root of the problem. Mary Portas comments that service is at the centre of the retail trade and that those who offer it are key players in the overall success of the company. Service can be a well paid and respected career.


Question 6. Do you think its right/beneficial to sales to employ people for the way they look?
This question came out of reading an article about Riam Dean who sued Abercrombie and Fitch for banishing her to the stock room after finding out she had a prosthetic arm and it didn't fit with their 'Look policy". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8116231.stm 
I wondered what these 2 shop owners though about this. 
Annie - "I think this is definitely wrong." She said she found nothing wrong with asking employees to dress smart or wear clothing that the shop sells. Again its all about being aspirational to the customer.
 Claire - Thought that in this case it was completely discriminative and is annoyed at how much people are judged on appearance. "Of course the big shops are doing it, they want people who are the right look for their brand." Again she said she would want anyone she employed to be well presented but as long as they were good at their job she didn't really mind.

The insight i gained from Claire and Annie turned out to be much more than just about the influence on purchases and more about the retail service industry as a whole. Sales people do have make a huge impression on us when were shopping, whether good or bad it is something people like to boast and rant about. People are harking back to the days of good service and are beginning to realise that they deserve it when they are shopping. Of course there are other influences to sales but nothing beats that personal touch.


 

2 cOMes aftEr 3 RIgHt? Assignment 2

For this assignment we were to look at the idea of Polysemy. Polysemy is when a word has two or more similar meanings and that everyone interprets them differently. Apparently all images are 'Polysemous' and that different text or imagery can completely change and 'fix' the meaning. In the essay 'The Rhetoric of the Image' the author Roland Barthes asks, 'How does meaning get into the image?' and this is what we were attempting to find out by carrying out this experiment.
Our group decided to go for the ink blot experiment and started by creating our random ink blots. I then went about asking my 3 non art student flatmates over a cup of tea, "what do you see?" The results were more interesting than i thought.
Ed - a business student and all round extreme sports guy thought the 1st looked like an angry dolphin, the 2nd a brain and the 3rd some skis.
Robbie - Ray Mears wannabe and Geography student thought that the 1st was a horse shoe crab, 2nd a space volcano and the 3rd some tree bark.
Nick - Film and English student and radio 4 listener saw the 1st as a spinning diablo, no 2 as rain on a window and the 3rd as smudged musical notes.

1.

2.

3.

Apart from being totally different it was strange how what each person saw completely represented their interests and personality. (It probably would have been beneficial to speak to more people, perhaps within a different age range or social environment.) The next part of the experiment was to add some text or extra pieces of imagery to 'fix' the image and hopefully encourage everyone to see the same thing. To the 1st i added 2 triangles to the top to represent ears and now all three saw either a fox or cat. On the dotty example i wrote the words, 'buzz, buzz' and immediately they all saw bees. Thirdly i added blue ink to the liner example and 2 out of three now saw water. It is impressive how 3 such different views could be altered to the same by such simple additions.
It makes you think about the power of images in advertising and how they are manipulating images to make us, the consumers see their products positively and want to buy them. When i told my three experimentees the results they also commented that they couldn't believe how susceptible they had been and how much I'd influenced them into seeing what i wanted them to see.
I also told them i had sneaky ways of getting them to do the dishes, so they'd better watch out!

TaLL, SKInnY, dECaF LaTte tO Go! Assignment 3

Rugby. Field. Grass. Boys. Ball. Rain. Shouting. Huddle. Scrum. Shorts. Mud. Goals. Cheers. Game. Teams. Gang. Broken Ribs. Laughter. Outsider. Fear. Cold. Banter. Water Bottles. Support. Strength. Zone. Training. Girl.

For the Design Safari assignment i decided to go to a Rugby match. Foolish perhaps as i am someone who hasn't even graced a football match, so rugby was definitely throwing me in at the deep end. I went with my boyfriend who is on the rugby team but happened not to be playing that particular Wednesday afternoon. It made me feel only slightly less anxious going with him, despite the fact that he knew everyone and had promised not to leave me on my own. As we arrived at the Riverside pitches we had to walk through the changing rooms, amongst people milling about in football and rugby strips but pretty much the first thing i saw was some guy getting medical attention for broken ribs. Not a great way to put me at my ease. As we approached the field the game was in full swing and all i could hear were encouraging shouts and whistles from the group of people standing at the side. As we got closer the ball was kicked up into the air and being a rugby novice i thought it was heading straight for me. I let out  a squeal as the ball landed far far away from me and many of the people standing on the pitch line turned with unimpressed expressions to see who the idiot was. I recon though, their response would have been very different if a boy had acted the way i did. This is when i realised i was the only girl amongst about 30 boys. If we were being asked to go somewhere out with our comfort zone, i was so far out i couldn't even see mine.
The atmosphere on the pitch side was tense but very social. Some were watching the game intently, shouting things and clutching their heads in their hands when things went wrong. Others were chatting and laughing and floating from group to group. There were definite huddles of people, probably friend groups but i wasn't keen on trying to join any. They all seemed to be acting quite masculine and laddy not really caring to be introduced. I think in that environment its constantly competitive, each of them trying to outdo each others stories. It seemed to me that most of them were putting on a facade taking on the persona of a rugby boy and my boyfriend agreed saying that most of them acted differently on a one to one basis. As a new comer i didn't feel that welcome, but maybe that's because i didn't really fit in. No one was horrible to me but i feel they didn't really have much time between play fighting and slagging each other off, for me. 




Noise. Cake. Smells. Cups. Aprons. Laptops. Dishes. Napkins. Teenagers. Music. Counter. Queue. Shopping Bags. Signs. Prices. Chairs. Papers. Chatting. Cream. Standing. Waiting. Window. Broom. Panini. 

For my secondary site i went to the Starbucks in Dundee Overgate on a Sunday afternoon. The first thing i notice was the way that as soon as you enter you are directed towards the food counter and then herded round to the till, place where you collect you coffee, the napkin counter and then the seating. This all follows a one Way system directed by the differently coloured tiles in a path on the floor. After being processed through the system i sat a watched how clinically people were queuing mostly single file and moving up. This is the epitome of the fast food culture. However much Starbucks have tried to create a coffee shop, what they really have is a dressed up Mc Donald's. I heard once that the average time it takes someone to order, pay for, eat and leave Mc Donald's is 14 minutes and it seems the same with Starbucks. If you want a fast fix go to Starbucks, if you want the experience of going to a cafe, steer well clear. Another thing i noticed is the table politics. The people who take up a whole table meant for 4 just for themselves and those who baggsie tables before they've even ordered. These things seem to really annoy people when they do the table scan. In Starbucks there is alot of people standing and walking which isn't very relaxing, especially for those with their laptops out working. Starbucks is the last place i would go. Something else that was prominent was Mobile phones. Lots of people seems to be talking and texting, especially those sitting on their own. I suppose its probably a defence mechanism, something to do with your hands and somewhere to look, i know i do it. But its still kind of sad that people cant even go for a coffee without being on their phone. I think people are more likely to do certain things in a cafe chain than in an independent cafe and i think my findings would have been very different if i had gone to a smaller place. For example some people were eating their own food, letting kids run about wild and again abundantly using their phones. But on the other side the staff were messing about amongst themselves (trying to make a cream egg frappes) and not paying the customers much attention and also sweeping around dining customers. neither was treating the other with much respect.

Through going to both of these places i have realised that people do act differently in different situations. probably if i met any of the boys from the rugby in the street they would be in a completely different frame of mind and react to me differently. Also going into Starbucks and really looking and taking in my surroundings has put me off it a bit. It seems so clinical to me now and not the sort of place i want to  go and sit and pay extortionate prices to do so.
And do you know where else i wont be going... thats right, the rugby!

sERvicE DesiGN ToolS

After browsing the examples of design research tools i came across Group Sketching. This is the process of doing simple drawings to encourage everyone to take part and enhance the flow of ideas. It sounds simple but i think it would have been beneficial when we started our, trend forecasting project. No one really understood what trend forecasting was and there was confusion as to what we were being asked to do. If we had all gotten together and used this technique everyone would have gone off with a clearer aim in their mind i feel. Also the idea of Mood Boards seems like it would have helped us along our way. In our sketchbooks we are encouraged to create colour pages not unlike mood boards but if everyone was told to make an A2 mood board to completely capture their topic, shapes, colours and over all mood this might have stopped people going on tangents as they could always refer back to it. I think this is some thing i am definitely going to try and do at the start of my next project.

"Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!"

I have never been a huge fan of Disney films. 'I haven't even seen the lion king', i commented on last Friday to a group of shocked faces. Fridays lecture on disneyfication really interested me and has been one the few lectures that i have enjoyed telling my friends and family the facts i have learned. Did you ever think about Disney being sexist? I don't think i really did but after it was pointed out its as clear as day. Particularly in the short film we were shown that commented on the idea of Jasmin in Aladdin, seducing Jafar (or whoever, see not a Disney groupie) to help Aladdin get away with the lamp. When you think about this its ridiculous, conveying to young girls that all they need to do to get what they want is sell themselves. Similarly in The little mermaid when Ariel sacrifices her voice to have legs so she can be with the prince but now all she has to woo him with is her body, a similar message don't you think? Maybe some films are sending out a fairy tail messages about mens and womens roles but they are fairy tails and many have been told for hundreds of years, is this perhaps looking a bit too far into things? Like everything these days people are looking for the hidden meaning or conspiracy.

Another really interesting point was about Disney land and the master planned community, Celebration Town in Florida, also not surprisingly set up by Disney. A perfect man made town, a real life fairy tail. Our lecturer likened it to the film 'The Truman show' where the main character seems to be living this idyllic life in the perfect town, but little does he know its all fake because he's living in a soap.

It seems that Disney have a bit of an obsession with the perfect and it surprises me that anyone would want to live in such a prescribed, set like place. I have a complete aversion to this after growing up in a small village where people strived to create there own little Dibley. For example a few months ago the council decided to treat us with some new lamp posts. After thousands were spent and the new lamp posts were in, there  was an uproar that these were not in keeping with the historic buildings and the council were harassed into ripping them out for mock Victorian lamp posts. Whats funny is this small village probably wouldn't have even had lamp posts in Victorian times. The image of the perfectly preserved olden days village is fake. These villagers are doing exactly what Disney does. It reminds me of the lyric in the song 'One God', by The Beautiful South. "The world is turning Disney but theres nothing you can do, were trying to walk like giants but we're wearing Pluto shoes".
 I still don't like Disney but not because i believe its going to corrupt our children but because its just a bit...Disney!