Our group: EDEN

Cherry T.O.P *^^*

girl with Cherry Top sundae

Q1) The summation task and improvements

I was somewhat satisfied with the end result of our summative task.  Although I did find it a bit difficult to make a TV commercial for our music player, it was a fun challenge.  Our storyboard and idea was a good idea in the beginning, but when filming for it, due to the location, the final commercial seemed odd.  I think it would have been better to film the commerical at school rather indoors.  But due to timing and certain members’ difficulty meeting all at once, we ended up filming at a home.  I enjoyed learning more about marketing, advertising, and working in groups.  Our presentation overall seemed successful.  From our matching shirts, to making cherryade to attracting audiences/customers, to our print advertisements, and our product and package, I was overall pleased with the result in the time we had to do it.  If I were the teacher and could change the project to make it better, I would add a “creativity” section for scoring.  I noticed some groups that lacked in creativity and seemed to only add-on to the idea of an existing music player, such as the iPod.  The only difference I could see from their groups were a name change. Whereas my group spent a bit more time focusing not only on the package but the product to make it more unique and our own.  Credit was given with coins, but I feel equal credit was given to those groups who didn’t spend much time on the product itself.

Q3) Group mates and work

The strengths of our group:  I liked Lauren’s decorative designs for the logo Cherry Top, the matching uniform, and board.  Chelsy made another design of the package, and another upgrade to the music player.  Kathy worked on the storyboard of the TV commercial and I did the print advertisements and marketing. 

Weaknesses: I didn’t like how there was a lot of miscommunication, a lack of communication, a lot of unnecessary designs made (for example, many print advertisements), and absentees.  An absence is uncontrollable but participation and distribution of work should be fairly done and should not be complained about since it will be a team score.  Some people took control of certain sections and when asked for assistance or participation from other members to certain things, many time a complaint was in return.  When asked what could be done, it seemed certain people did not want to be in charge of or particpate in the “harder” parts of the project.  Thus miscommunication or a lack of one, caused certain people to only do what they wanted to do, leaving the remaining team members to do maany or most of the work.  there was efforts to equally do certain things, but how could a person control another member who is so against and unwilling to participate?  If there was a group effort and cooperation with each member of the group, I believe we could have gotten a lot more things done well or even better than now.  If people were more open to ideas, suggestions, opinions, or help, we could’ve made a better product.  This is a very important skill to learn, team work.  If we can’t work together, we probably can’t at all.  When we grow up, we will still need to learn to work with or be willing to work with and hear other opinions. 

Q4) Unit of Inquiry highlights and lows.

My favorite part of the UoI was that as a group we were able to make a product and advertise it.  I don’t think I could’ve done this all on my own.  My least favorite part was the fact that no credit was given for creativity.  Our group spent a long time making our own mp3 player, our own package, and our own jingle, not substitute or use one that is already real, such as iPod or use a melody from other songwriters/soundtracks.  Ours was our own and thus it was unique.

Q8) When you created your campaign did you: a) Think about who the message was for?  b) How does the message attract and keep their attention?  c) Did you leave out certain information on purpose?

When we were brainstorming for our campaign, we did try to focus on the message.  We wanted a product and a slogan that would appeal to all customers, male or females, younger or older.  Our slogan or message was, “So sweet but don’t eat”.  This is a general idea that many people can relate to.  It may be that many females or young girl might like our cute package and product moreso than males but because of the variety of color in our product, both gender at any age will be pleased.  In the beginning, “So sweet but don’t eat” came from idea that cherries are so sweet as fruits, but as a cherry-shaped mp3 player, it should not be eaten.  It is so sweet that people will want to eat it, but all-in-all they can only have it.  In addition to our slogan, came the name of our group.  I thought of this idea when I focused on the idea of our product as a fruit.  How could something be so good and yet you can’t get it?  Then, thinking of our school as a Christian school, I immediately thought of Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve went through the same temptations in the Garden of Eden, thus Eden as our group name.  It seemed to fit perfectly with the slogan I had made.  I’m sure everyone at one point or time had something they wanted but couldn’t have. We wanted our product to have that same level of temptation and appeal.  Something so good, you can’t stop thinking about it, like Eve did in the garden. That is how our slogan or message fit to all people young or old, male or female. 

How does the message attract and keep their attention?  As mentioned, with the appeal of the package, the simplicity of our slogan, and the connection that many people may have had once in their life of wanting something they couldn’t have, put it together and people will stay interested.  The more it is not available, the more people will want it or think about it.  However, we made our product available to all and easy to get.  It is just the slogan that  is like a trick, building a person’s desire or temptation. 

Did we leave certain information out?  Now that I realize it, we didn’t tell people where to specifically go to buy the product.  I guess as more people begin to wonder about Cherry Top, the number of customers will grow too.