Friday 13 March 2009

Wk 4. Website Evaluation Form: Swishing.org

1 = strongly agree..........6 = strongly dissagree
1. Effective use of colour on main page? 2, Black background with pink & white writing. Girly but serious.
2. Effective use of graphics on main page? 2, Only one banner image - is effective but could use more.
3. Consistant use of colour throughout site? 1, Strong colour scheme
4. Consistant look and feel throughout site? 2, Font use is basic - no different fonts used for titles etc.
5. Proffessional use of wording? 1
6. Contact person easy to identify? 1, Ashley Dow's email or telephone number given for media enquiries.
7. Site easy to navigate? 2
8. Returning to the main page easy? 1, 'Home' button on top left of each page
9. Site features good FAQs? 5, No FAQ's, although there is a definition of swapping and how to arrange swaps.
10. Site is exciting? 2, Could use photos taken from the swapping events on the home page to create more hype.
11. Site contents are appealing? 3
12. Site appears to be up to date? 1, Events are all in date order and old ones removed accordingly
13. Overall evaluation of site? 3, It needs to encourage more interaction from members - maybe through a forum or by persuading upload of photos from private swaps members have arranged.
14. Would you recommend this site to other people? Yes, it is organised for a great cause and is inkeeping with money saving / recession worries current to today.

Thursday 12 March 2009

The Ragdoll Video Advert!!!

Starring my sister as Ragdoll and my boyfriend as camera man. It is not the best quality as had to upload a low quality one. Please let me know your comments below, especially whether you think it effectively portrays the clothes swapping idea...

Enjoy!



Some Interesting Statistics On Unwanted Clothes

* UK Government statistics show that there are 2.4bn pieces of clothing unworn for an entire 12 months (many possibly brand new) cluttering up the national wardrobe, which adds up to a whopping £10bn worth of unused clothes, shoes, bags etc. Source: YouGov.

* The new First Lady of America Michelle Obama recently organised an up-market swap party in New York city. Source: CNN.

* The average UK woman spends nearly £13,000 on clothes she'll never wear. Source: BBC.

* Women in the UK spend a staggering £6bn every year on clothes, shoes and accessories they'll never wear. This means there are more than 30m wardrobes, each packed with at least £216 of unworn items many still with tags. Source: Bigwardrobe.com.

* Swapping will be a major trend for 2009, according to research that suggests 5.5m people (12 per cent) exchanged goods with others in 2008. A further 11m (24%) plan to swap items in 2009, the poll, conducted by ICM for broadband provider TalkTalk, indicated. Clothing topped the list (19%) followed by cosmetics (9%) and books (8%). Source: TalkTalk.

* Nearly 2m tonnes of discarded clothing, shoes and accessories go to UK landfill sites every year. This represents nearly 4% of all the waste in Britain that is sent to landfill annually. Source: The Observer.

Wk 5. Flesch & Fog Indices - How Readable Is My Promotional Blurb?


Wardrobe Nightmare?

Maybe it's full of dated high street 'trends', or maybe you can't afford to keep up with them!
Maybe your clothes are just too bland, or have you simply outgrown them?

Why not come raid ours!
Ragdoll is revolutionising the way fashionistas acquire clothes by bringing free clothes swapping to the high street. Women in the UK spend a staggering £6 billion every year on clothes they will never wear. Instead of private swaps we are inviting everyone to take part by bringing unwanted clothing to swap in our neat and tidy boutique stores.

Save money, be resourceful and get style savvy!
Flesch Indice:
0 = unreadable.....100 = very readable
Readability for Promotional Blurb = 75.92

Fog Indice:
0 = very readable...10 = becoming hard...20 = very hard
Readability for Promotional Blurb = 8.43

Monday 9 March 2009

Video Shooting

I shot my video over the weekend using my sister as the 'Rag Doll', my boyfriend as the camera man and myself as make up/scenery/producer! Preperation for the video took a while as I had to decide which scenes would be least busy to shoot in, track down a mannequin and camera tripod, find a red wig, and bribe my sister into the lead role.


We completed the filming in one afternoon - it started raining as we were finishing which was lucky. The only problem I discovered when watching the video clips back was that one scene (at the park) has the sun shining into the camera which has distorted the picture slightly.


I have shortened the Aerosmith "Rag Doll" song so that the intro is shortened and the singing comes into the advert earlier on. I also changed the ending slightly from my original storyboard by using a rag doll boy who cheers up when being given a top hat by the rag doll. I thought this ending was more fun than the group of girls in the storyboard as it portrays the clothes swapping idea more clearly.
Here is a little snippet from the filming yesterday!


Wednesday 4 March 2009

My Draft Video Storyboard!

The video idea follows a girl (with rag doll wig / make-up) who is fed up of her clothes. She leaves her house and embarks on her journey where she keeps coming across mannequins in the street / in the subway / in the park. Each time she sees a new outfit on a mannequin she changes into it. At the end a group of girls are staring at her clothes in admiration....she hands them a card which the camera zooms in on. On the card is the brand logo. Background music once edited will be Aerosmith - Rag Doll. Below is a rough storyboard for the video:

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Wk 3. WGC Case Study

(1) What characteristics did the WGC use to segment the consumer market?
- Country of residence (6 countries; India, Turkey, China, Saudi Arabia, USA and Italy)
- Behaviour & attitudes towards gold jewellery / luxury goods (I.e. an expression of wealth and tradition, emotional benefits, a financial investment)
- Usage of gold & values held (such as chosing yellow or white gold & ideals women hold central to their lives)

(2) What were the key aspects of the re-branding campaign? Globally? Locally?
A key finding globally showed that today's modern women primarly want to look their best for personal gratification. Women are also driven to gold for sentimentality (e.g. a gift from someone special or as a symbol of a person's individuality) and so purchasing levels have increased with women more willing to treat themselves (gold jewellery demand rose 17% compared to only 7% in non-promoted regions).

Locally, advertising campaigns and projects have been adapted to suit differing attitudes and values within the 6 countries. For example, the USA advertising campaigns use real women in real situations so as to relate to USA women's everyday lives and using gold to symbolise key events. On the other hand, adverts in the Middle East use rising pop star Nancy Adram as a brand ambassador to express gold as modern, bold and contemporary – moving away from it's previous image of 'old fashioned'.

By segmenting the attitudes of women wearing gold according to where they live, advertising campaigns have been tailored to appeal to values which are common in these locations – encompassing the different values from country to country.