Lately in class we have been studying the four types of brands:
Fast Brand - get to the point, 1 2 3 Action
Strong Brand - represents the mother, valuable possession
Social Brand - you belong within the group, you feel safe and comfortable
Smart Brand - winner, cool and trendy
When discussing the differences in brands it is much easier to look at a specific type of companies. For example, fast food restaurants.
Fast Brand - Pizza Hut, you call or submit your order online, they deliver it immediately. They mainly have pizza and bread sticks, not many options.
Strong Brand - McDonald's - represents that it is all over the world, no matter where you are in the world you can find one and count on them to find a hamburger
Social Brand - Subway - you belong within the group, they try to emphasize the health benefits and reach out to the population with real life stories, such as Jared
Smart Brand - Starbucks would be a good example because they try to show that they are trendy and cool, above everyone else
One brand isn't better than another, they just use different tactics in their advertising efforts. When you look at your favorite brands what category would they fall into?
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Somehow my math teacher coerced me into AP Statistics when I was in high school. The one thing I remember most from this course was, according to my teacher, "Statistics don't lie, people lie by using statistics." He repeated this constantly throughout the year, and tried to impress upon his young students that people can manipulate statistics to make any point they are trying to make. His philosophy has made me very wary of statistics.
The Generations 2010 study conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project, a project of the PewResearch Center, published their findings in a 29 page pamphlet on the differences of generations when it comes to their use of technology, specifically the internet. This study broke age groups into the categories of millennials, Gen X, Younger Boomers, Older Boomers, Silent Generation, and GI Generation (I find myself in the millennials category having been born in 1984.)
Some of the findings surprised me - for example, only 83% of millennials claim to use the internet for social network sites. Another statistic that they stated was the 80-89% of people in the millennials group uses the internet to find health information. However, across the board Health Info was something that the majority of all age groups are interested in. One other study they did was the changes in social network sites from 2008-2010, and what i found very interesting is how older generations' use of social networking jumped from 2008-2010. Gen X went from 36-62%, Younger Bookers jumped from 20-50%, Older Boomers from 9-43% and even the much older generations showed growth.
I was not surprised with the overall results that younger generations are using the internet more often and for more diverse uses. However, older generations are slowly beginning to catch up. I would be interested to find out the results of this in another 10 years!
On Tuesday night our entire class went to a lecture that was part of the CCSU "Living Room Lecture Program" presented by the author of Engine 2 Diet, Rip Esselstyn and his father Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. They joined us to discuss their research about the benefits of a plant based diet. Dr. Esselstyn studied the effect of eating a plant based diet in his patients with heart/cardiac problems, and found that when they changed their diet from a Western diet that includes dairy, meat and processed foods to a plant based diet they had astounding medical recoveries. He then studied this in patients with other medical issues such as diabetes or even leg pain and had similar results.
His astounding results changed they way he viewed western medicine. He instead focused on changing the lifestyles of the individuals instead of medicating them. He discusses the benefit of this in his movie Forks over Knives - a clip of the movie is below.
I love dairy, especially cheese, and any diet that completely restricts dairy would never work for me. When Rip Esselstyn was speaking he mentioned something that stood out to me - he said that no other mammal drinks another mammals milk other than humans. He said there was no reason we needed dairy after we stopped breast feeding as a child. He then said that the reason we like cheese so much is that it makes us feel good because it is an opiate. This statement shocked me - for sure if I were digesting opiates I would know right? So I decided to google this idea and see what I found. On a website called Dr. Bill DeanI found the following information:
Cheese is produced by acidifying milk and making a curd leaving the whey(watery protein) behind
The predominant protein in milk and therefore cheese is casein which if not completely digested will release in the gut as an opiate called casomorphin(BCM7)Opiates can produce a profound sense of pleasure
80% of cow's milk is casein Concentrated milk products(cheese, ice cream, milk chocolate) can have increased amounts of the addictive opiates or BCM7 proteins that link up to opiate receptors in the body, particularly the brain
Some interesting factoids
It takes 10 pounds of milk to make a pound of hard cheese(sour cheese)
It takes 3-4 pounds of milk to make one pound of milk chocolate A "chocoholic" is born
I think the best part of the entire presentation was learning about the powerful effects a plan based diet. I think when the Dr. was speaking about the results of his studies it really was powerful. How can you argue with the fact that his diet saved lives? I think it was a great awareness, and it makes me want to modify my diet to include more plants. Although I don't think I will ever be able to become a devout plant based vegan.
I feel bad writing this, but I truly think the worst part was at the very end when the very sweet and very enthusiastic Mrs. Esselstyn came on the stage to talk about how to incorporate more leafy greens into your diet. I think, for me personally, it was late in the evening and I really needed to get home. Her husband and her son had spoken so long that they took away from her time to speak, and she actually scared me with her suggestions. My friends know that I am a rather picky eater and some of her suggestions sounded more like rabbit food than normal human consumption. I feel like I was onboard with the diet before she started talking about how to prepare the food and her suggestions of eating dry oats. Although I am sure that if I went and had dinner at her house it would be delicious.
The other downfall I see with this diet, other than the obvious problem that I can't cook to save my life, is the expense all these "plants" will be. Unfortunately processed foods are much more inexpensive than if i were to purchase only healthy fruits and veggies - especially at with health food store prices. I wonder if this says something about our culture? The foods that are healthier for you are always triple the price of the unhealthy items.
Overall, I feel that this was an eye opening presentation and I will definitely be more conscious about what I put on my fork in the future.
