A Moving Friday

Friday was a very productive day, being that that Brandon and I have finally compiled all of our footage and we are ready to edit! However, editing is an all-day task, so we decided to watch a couple documentaries that we may mention in our own. The first documentary we watched is Dear Zachary, which was easily the most moving FILM I have every watched; not just as a documentary. I really don’t want to spoil anything in the movie and the only advice I can give for those who are easily moved, bring a box of tissues. You’ll need them. After watching that film, Brandon and I watched The Poughkeepsie Tapes which is a documentary about the world’s most dangerous serial killer. Once again, a film that is extremely hard to watch and will definitely disturb the audience. The scary part of this film is that it is a mix of a documentary and a horror film. So it educates the audience, while scaring them at the very same time. 

Brandon and I have a lot of editing to do, and editing will easily be the most time consuming part of making this documentary. Having about 45 minutes to an hour worth of footage will definitely be a challenge to shorten it down to about 15-20 minutes. However, it will all be worth it in the end! 

#success

How is SWERVE marketing effectively? In what ways could it improve? How does SWERVE’s marketing compare to its competitors, Soul Cycle, Fly Wheel, Barry’s Boot Camp, and City Row (to name a few)?

Amanda and I were delegated the task of answering such questions toward the end of the week. In this fast-paced day and age… or more simply stated, in this increasingly globalized/modernized society, technology is a critical factor in all sectors of entrepreneurialism and business. As a result, entrepreneurs and companies/businesses alike have become dependent upon a universal language that consists of “hashtags,” trends, mentions and search engine optimization tools.

Knowing this, Amanda and I decided to besiege SWERVE’s technology/social media front. We dissected SWERVE’s website, seeking out flaws which could create a potential disadvantage. We noticed a lack of emphasis placed on important aspects of SWERVE’s business model, such as its referral program. On SWERVE’s home page, four alternating slides advertise a few of SWERVE’s perks. First—a testimonial, next, their “SWERVE down the aisle” bridal program, an additional insignificant slide and lastly the referral program. When Amanda and I tried clicking on the “Bring a friend, ride for free” slide (referral program), it brought us to another page that was blank: there was absolutely zero content relating to the referral program… this was such a fixable flaw, which we were glad to find.

After going through the website, Amanda and I compared social media and blogging techniques of SWERVE with its competitors. Our work culminated in an official proposal for Eric (CEO). If SWERVE takes our suggestions, we think New Yorkers will swerve their way up from SOUL cycle to SWERVE fitness in no time.  

Written May 23, 2014

-- Upon looking at SWERVE’s website, we saw a change: the referral program slide made its way to the front!!! (Second slide, at least). It is really great to see that our work is valued, and taken seriously by an established, increasingly successful corporation in New York City!

SWERVE-ing to the Goal

After finding the flier method ineffective at the beginning of the week, Amanda and I took a different route in terms of reaching SWERVE's neighbors (Flat Iron residents). We sought out information online about the 'management' of each residential building in the area. Some of this information could be found online, but some required a phone call. In acquiring this information (phone number/email of management), we planned to send a personalized note, addressed to the residents in the Flat Iron neighborhood, and have the building management team blast the email out to its tenants. This task was much easier said than done. We learned that very few of the building management teams supported this idea… this was a disappointment. We failed fast and forward, by brainstorming new approaches to reach the residents and not fall.

Amanda and I were still curious as to how SWERVE's competitor increase brand awareness. If we were hitting a dead end with the residential marketing approach, we surmised other companies (Soul Cycle, Fly Wheel) were as well. As mentioned in an earlier blog post, other athletic workout studios/companies suggested that word of mouth played a significant role in increasing brand awareness and business. This was corroborated by a Soul Cycle loyalist, which Amanda and I engaged in a conversation. Moreover, I haven't gone a day in this bustling city without seeing a handful of New Yorkers promoting Soul Cycle simply though their clothing! The majority of the apparel sold at Soul Cycle is embellished with a purposefully conspicuous, neon wheel (Soul's trademark). Naturally, this strange, fascinating wheel captures the attention, and invokes inquiry. It is clearly a huge marketing benefit for Soul Cycle.

While SWERVE’s athletic gear is comfortable and sporty, their trademarked SWERVE symbol should be promoted much more to help increase brand awareness. Perhaps Amanda and I will be able to facilitate this.

Written May 21, 2014 

social media guru

Our latest assignment is to focus on social media for SWERVE. Although SWERVE has a Facebook, twitter, instagram and blog, Eric believes the competitors are using their social media in a better way. Marshall and I spent many hours researching how SWERVE’s competitors use their social media and how it has helped them become so successful. We noticed that a big perk all the competitors have is the advertisement of their clothing line. In almost every picture they post, they have people wearing their very cool and colorful clothing. I think this is a huge part of why they have become so successful. One of the biggest competitors, Soul Cycle, has especially cool clothing. I have seen so many people wearing their clothing on the streets and on the subway, which leads to more people wanting the clothing (and going to their studio).

We also noticed that most of the competitors have very cool and interesting blogs. They are full of pictures and new music and inspirational quotes. SWERVE’s blog is mostly just text, which will cause people to be less interested in reading it. We have created a proposal for all the areas we believe SWERVE could improve in. We are going to present it to Eric on Tuesday morning. Hopefully he will agree with some of our research and SWERVE will begin to make these positive changes.

- Amanda and Marshall

A Playful(ish) environment: Best Way to Professional Work

Today was a productive day to say the least. But, something that I've been continually gathering about architecture and this work environment really came together today. A good design space has to consist of a playful environment. I'm slightly biased because this is the only business that I've really immersed myself into (in my entire life), but they've gotten the message across pretty clearly that a playful and fun environment keeps everything productive.

Today, I put together a couple hundred mini hotel room "modules" that we cut out with their laser cutter. My sponsor has me arranging and pondering ideas with this tiny hotel rooms like I would have with legos when I was in grade school. This is really making me designing a hotel fun and enjoyable. To be honest, I never really got bored with building legos and things like that, I just decided to grow up at one point. Now, I a pretty good excuse to have fun with tiny building blocks like I used to. Again, I have little experience to make the statement that I believe this is the best way to go about design work, but I'm really enjoying what I'm doing right now and I'm really getting to see its effect on the general work inside the office. 

5-21-2014, Tent Attack

One of my favorite parts about project is going out to eat lunch. I’ve gotten to know some cool restaurants in the area as well as the food trucks. My lunch break is pretty flexible and I can leave whenever I want.  I find myself starving half way through the day, so lunch is always a highlight. Today Kate, Hrishue and I went down to a random street for the food trucks and stands. I got a giant sandwich, but a Belgium waffle was used to substitute the bread. It was awesome and I’m dying to go back to that truck. It was extremely windy, and one of the food tents flew over and hit Kate. It caused a big scene and she has some pretty big bruises but is ok. I continued working on researching for the project I was assigned. I already created a list of the things ill need, and now I just need the resources that will provide me with them. The list has been hard to create and I’ve had to go to some of the software employees for help. This is nice because I’m getting to know the other employees in addition to the ones I’m working with.

fail fast, fail forward

This week at SWERVE has gone very well! I cannot believe its already Thursday. Tuesday was a little bit stressful because we were given a tricky task to do. We needed to find the management company of each residential building in the area. Then we needed to find their contact information so we could ask them if they would email all of their residents about SWERVE. After 3 hours of working, we realized many of the names we had found were actually realtors and brokers. We were very frustrated because we had to go back and dig deeper on all of them to find the management company. Eventually, we were able to obtain some email addresses and phone numbers. We have been making some calls and we have an email ready to be sent out to all of the residents. On Wednesday, after working on that for a while, we got to design some new ideas for t-shirts. I spent most of my time designing on the computer while Marshall spent her time drawing designs on paper. I was so impressed by her drawing. They looked like a professional artist drew them. The SWERVE team also loved them so I hope they actually transform Marshall’s designs onto t-shirts! Today, Eric has though of a new task for us so I am excited to begin!