LuxIt Reflective Journal

The company that I interned for was a beauty app called LUXit. LUXit describes itself as a beauty app to your door. Customers would use the LUXit app for one of their beauty services (Hair, Make-up, Tan, Massage, Nails, Facials and more) and a professional would come to their home or to their work for their service. I like to describe this app as Uber but for beauty, where you call upon the services of another and they come to your home, to your workplace or wherever you need them to be.

I applied for LUXit because it peaked my interest regarding fashion, apps and UX.

The founder of LUXit was Fabiola Gomez. Taken from the About Us section on the LUXit website

“Fabiola, a corporate lawyer and entrepreneur, has worked her magic behind the scenes in the beauty and fashion industry for over 10 years and brings LUXit unparalleled expertise influence and connections.

Being a natural connector, Fabiola founded LUXit in August 2015 to facilitate the lives of Australian women and men seamlessly and conveniently allowing them to receive premium beauty well-being and personal care services at home.

LUXit represents ingenuity, luxury and exceptional customer service and these intrinsic values are at the forefront as Fabiola advances the beauty industry, bringing LUXit Australia-wide.”

 

During my first week at LUXit it was more of an introduction to the brand and app and getting to know what I can do for them and what I’m looking to get out of this Internship. Fabiola said to me, “It’s your business. What would you do?’ What she was saying to me was if this was my own business, how would you run it, she wanted to me to have that quote in the back of my mind during my internship.  For what I can do for them, I offered mainly UX design help for both their websites and their app; research tasks, graphic design and social media.

During the first week Fabiola was nominated for the B&T Women in Media Power List. During this time she wanted me to do some research on her competitors. She wanted me to look at what they did for a business and who they are as a person. She also looked at if there could be a possible partnership between her and the other women that were nominated. This was a first for me hearing this sort of tactic. It was one thing to see what the competition was and it was another to see what they as a business person could do for the LUXit Brand. The following was the gathered information from the other nominees:

• Ally Watson at Deepend, Melbourne – An energetic self-motivated and versatile developer. Holds a BSc in Computing Science. Founder of Code like a girl.
• Denise Wyer at AdRoll, Sydney – Experience in leading new projects from fruition through execution. Head of Sales at AdRoll.
• Renece Brewster at Data Creative, Melbourne – CEO & Founder of Data Creative.
• Vanessa Hunt at GroupM, Sydney – Production and strategy professional with broad experience in Mobile Production, Media Buying, Promotional Marketing and Direct Response Advertising. Head of Mobile at GroupM.

Another research tasks that Fabiola wanted me to do was to look at their competitors. There competitors were American brands GlamSquad and GoPriv. These apps had similar services that LUXit was offering. I had to research what their social media interactions were, what past competitions and promotions were done and how they engage their followers.

I also had to research what type of websites would come up when a customer types in LUXit on google as well as adding terms such as LUXit Instagram, LUXit Twitter, LUXit Facebook and any other social media contacts. Upon typing in LUXit and its various social channels in google majority of their social media was on the first page on google. When it came to google images, images of lamps, lightening boards and lights in general were the majority of images that popped up. This type of information helped the brand know where they are when it came to their customers viewing their content.

The following week, I was tasked to look into Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality for LUXit. This was the time when Pokemon Go became popular. Fabiola was really energetic about new technology and how it could help her brand. I researched how other brands are utilizing VR and AR as well as the audiences reactions and how immersive it was for them. I also added in information regarding ASMR since this was a popular trend at the time. At first I really couldn’t see how virtual reality and augmented reality would help with a beauty app, but after researching the best uses of VR and AR in marketing I was able to make a reasonable opinion on the implementations for LUXit.

In my opinion for virtual reality, I could see it as a video of someone getting their hair/make-up done in 360 with an explanation of what LUXit is and how it works. For augmented reality, I saw more potential to use for LUXit in regards to taking photos of your hair/nails/face and then editing it to what you wanted to look like, this gives the specialist a better understanding to what the customer wants before they arrive. I also thought of it in a gamification way, if the customer has a child or needs to kill time before the specialist gets there, they could play around with how they want their make-up/nails/hair done.

Fabiola wanted me to return to looking at their competitors/similar apps on social media and see what kind of competitions they have done in the past as well as the type of videos they have on YouTube. She also recommended that I come up with a competition for LUXit to get their brand moving. On YouTube, GoPriv, showcased what they do as a brand similar to what LUXit has done in their YouTube videos. Competition wise, GoPriv and GlamSquad partnered with other brands in order help promote their brand as well as the other brands. An example of this is GoPriv partnered up with Dress For a Day and one winner who liked the post and commented #PRIVit #DFTD won a complimentary PRIV service and featured on DFTD website. GlamSquad partnered with New York Fashion Walk where winners  won two tickets to the Yigal rouël ‪#‎SS17 show,  ‪#‎GLAMSQUAD makeovers, $1,000 Orchard Mile shopping spree, 14-day cleanse from Be Well by Dr. Frank Lipman, 1 night at the Gansevoort Meatpacking NYC. Because at the time LUXit didn’t have any major partners I couldn’t do a competition of this caliber. Instead I looked at the smaller competitions. For LUXit, I thought of two competitions:

• Using #LUXit post your best make-up advice, for your chance to win 15% off your next make-up service. This idea will bring conversation among the users of LUXit
• For your chance to win 20% off for you and a friend, tag a friend who hasn’t used LUXit before. Make sure you and your friend have liked LUXit and have shared this post.
  This will raise awareness among LUXit users.

Unfortunately, none of them were used.

The next couple of weeks, LUXit were interviewing some beauty experts to show on their YouTube channel. These beauty experts talk about their experience with LUXit and how it benefits them. I had the great opportunity to edit some of the videos and upload it onto YouTube. This was very exciting for me mainly because I’ve always loved video editing, video editing was a passion of mine for quite some time and I wanted to get back into it. When I put my hand up to try my hand at it even Fabiola was excited about it. At the time Fabiola gave me all of the files that I needed to edit, the bad thing was, my laptop couldn’t handle editing. Fabiola said it was okay for me to work from home for the next couple of weeks coming in when I needed more files or when I needed a chat face-to-face. This was the first time I’ve ever worked from home for an internship so this experience was something different for me as well.

While working from home, I also decided to use my User Experience knowledge and analyse the website to see if there are any problems with either the layout or the user journey. I would have also loved to analyse the app but it was only available on iOS and I have an android phone. Such comments I made regarding the website is as follows:

• 3 logos – Remove one of the logos since there’s three on the homepage
• Have a USP under LUXit – Include text underneath the banner
• Social Media links – Include icons in the empty space
• Have pictures of service in each page
• Consistent text among all pages same font and size
• Don’t see a need for the LUXit wheel to spin
• It would be nice to put a picture to the name and quote
• Keep time consistent –FAQ 8am-8pm, About Us 8am-10pm
• Update pictures on Press
• Have headings and descriptions

At the end of my internship, the LUXit webpage had a complete makeover with better user interface and a better user experience and this was all thanks to the comments I made regarding the website. To me this was something awesome to see. That my UX experience helped changed a website and I get to see it come to life.

For me, my internship at LUXit was something that had re-kindled some interest in both the past and the present. An example of this is my interest in fashion which started in 2012 and my current interest in user experience. My interest in video editing and my interest in new technology like VR, AR and ASMR. I’m glad that I had the chance to intern here at LUXit it was a fun experience and I learnt to much, gained new experiences and re-learned some old ones.

Hanabee Campaign

My client is a company called Hanabee. Hanabee is an anime and pop-culture distributor here in Australia and they’re located in Melbourne. The word Hanabee is inspired from Hanabi (花火), the Japanese word for fireworks. Every summer, Hanabi festivals are held throughout a blazing hot Japan to the delight of millions, who often dress in traditional yukata’s or kimono’s and drink too much sake while taking in the thousands of artistic explosions that light up the night sky. It’s purely a celebration of Hanabi and nothing else, and that’s what makes it so special to Japan. Hanabee Entertainment is about celebration. Hanabee wants to find all of the worlds most interesting and amazing entertainment so you can enjoy them.

Recently Hanabee has changed their logo from a colored Firework to a more corporate black and white logo. The reason for that is, because Hanabee distributes so many different titles with their own logos, Hanabee shouldn’t be the main focus but the logos of their products. Their products should be the main focus to the consumer.

So why me? Why am I representing this company and pitching for them? It’s because I love their products. I am a huge fan of both Rooster Teeth and Anime. I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve helped Hanabee in multiple conventions.

The main problem for Hanabee was to raise awareness of Hanabee’s ecommerce platform. Their Key insight was that they’re the only brand in Australia to sell Rooster Teeth merchandise with a target market of:

• Fans of Anime
• Fans of Rooster Teeth
• Australians
• 16-30s which can be extended to 12-40s
• Gamers
• Collectors
• Pop Culture Fans

And a Madman is their competitor.

My concepts for a campaign were:

• Fireworks – using the circles from their original logo to represent an aspect of Hanabee.
  • One for the anime
  • One for the Rooster Teeth
  • One for the events.
• Two sides of the same coin – No matter what kind of fan you are, either anime or Rooster Teeth, Hanabee can cater to fans of both cultures.
• East meets West – Hana in Hanabee means flower. This is the idea that A bee goes to a flower and then goes back to the hive and spread the flowers pollen. In this case the Bee represents culture and the flower represents Eastern culture.

Concepts:

Poster – This is a double sided poster with each side representing either the Anime or the RT side. This appeals to the target audience because fans and collectors collect posters of their favorite shows, games, etc.

 

 

 

Bus Stop – This is an interactive touch screen bus stop where the user can switch between both sides of the poster.

Social Media Action – Hanabee have a facebook following of 41,300. The message posted is:

Subscribe to our newsletter on the Hanabee website for the latest New Releases, Sales, News, Events and more. New Subscriers receive a 15% off on their first purchase. On both the Hanabee store and the Rooster Teeth Store. #RTSide, #AnimeSide #NoSide

The reason I said Hanabee and RT store is because, while Hanabee stock RT merch, Hanabee doesn’t stock all products immediately.

Interactive Banner – This banner has a slider, where people can slide the banner to what they want, either anime or RT. Each circle contains one of your products and when a user clicks on it, it goes into the info of the product. From there they can either go to your website or go back to see other products.

YouTube Pre-roll – This Pre-Roll resonates with the target audience because in the pre-roll I’ve left in some Easter eggs that fans of either Anime or RT can notice.

 

Edward Bernays

Edward Bernays Blog Post

Originally, I was going to write about World War I and how advertising propaganda was used to recruit soldiers. But, as someone who is also studying Art Direction & Design and Intro to Public Relations, I couldn’t help but grab assets from my other units. In Intro to Public Relations we learnt a little bit about Edward Bernays and how he used a two-way asymmetrical model to get inside the heads of consumers, and that sparked my interest into writing about him.

Who is he?

Edward Louis James Bernays was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda. He is often referred to as “the father of public relations.” He was also the nephew of psychoanalysis pioneer, Sigmund Freud who he would use his ideas as well as the ideas of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology.

During World War One, Edward worked for the administration of Woodrow Wilson on public information. Here he used his methods to promote the idea that America’s war efforts were primarily aimed at ‘bringing democracy to all of Europe.’ Stunned by the degree to which the democracy slogan had swayed the public both at home and abroad, he wondered whether this propaganda model could be employed during peacetime. Due to negative implications surrounding the word propaganda because of its use by the Germans in World War One, he promoted the term public relations.

What did he do?

Bernays’ public relations efforts helped to popularize Fred’s theories in the United States. He also pioneered the public relations industry’s use of psychology and other social sciences to design its public persuasion campaigns. He stated, “If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without knowing about it? The recent practice of propaganda has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within certain limits.” He called this, scientific technique of opinion-molding the engineering of consent.

Public Relation Career and Techniques

Bernays graduated from Cornell with a degree in agriculture. But instead of farming, he chose a career in journalism, eventually helping the Woodrow Wilson Administration promote the idea that US efforts in WW1 were intended to bring democracy in Europe.

In 1919, Bernays’ opened an office as a Public Relations counselor in New York. His clients included President Calvin Coolidge, Procter & Gamble, CBS, the United Fruit Company, the American Tobacco Company, General Electric, Dodge Motors, and the Fluoridationists of the Public health Service.

One of the most famous campaigns of Bernays was the women’s cigarette smoking campaign in the 1920’s. Bernays helped the smoking industry overcome one of the biggest social taboos of all time: women smoking in public. Back in the 1920s women were only allowed to smoke in designated areas, or not at all. During this campaign, Bernays’ staged an Easter parade in New York City, showing models holding lit Lucky Strike cigarettes or “Torches of Freedom.” After the historic public event, women started lighting up more than ever before. It was through Bernays that women’s smoking habits started to become socially acceptable. The “Torches of Freedom parade” was covered not only by the local papers, but also newspapers nationwide and internationally. Through his teachings, Bernays was duly convinced that linking products to emotions could cause people to behave irrationally. In reality, of course, women were no freer for having taken up smoking, but linking smoking to women’s rights fostered a feeling of independence.

Bernays created this event as news, which it was not. Bernays convinced industries that the news, not advertising, was the best medium to carry their message to an unsuspecting public. He had a very pronounced view on the differences between what he did and what people in advertising did.

Another one of Bernays favorite techniques for manipulating public opinion was the indirect use of “third party authorities” to plead his clients’ causes. He says, “If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway.” An example of this was to promote sales for bacon. Bernays conducted research and found that the American public ate a very light breakfast. He went to his physician and found that a heavy breakfast was healthier than a light breakfast. He asked his physician if he would be willing to write to 5,000 physicians and ask them whether their judgement was the same as his. About 4,500 answered back, all in agreement that a more significant breakfast was healthier for the American people than a light breakfast. He arranged for this finding to be published in newspapers throughout the country with headlines like ‘4,500 physicians urge bigger breakfast.” As a result of these actions, the sale of bacon went up. Here we see the use of a two-way asymmetrical model where Bernays used scientific persuasion to change the opinion of the mass regarding bacon. He used a spokesperson, the physicians, to address the situation and have their opinion on the matter.

In Bernays’ mind, the belief that propaganda and purposely created news were legitimate tools of his business, along with his ability to offer philosophical justifications for these beliefs that ultimately embraced the whole democratic way of life, set his work in public relations apart from what ad men did.

PR and Bernays Today

Today, we might call what Bernays pioneered, a form of branding, but at its core it represents little more than, a particular bold set of techniques to manipulate people to get them to do your bidding. We also use PR models today which presents both a positive theory (a description and explanation of actual practice) and a normative theory (..of what ideally ought to be.) Bernays method was known as the Two-way asymmetrical model which uses persuasion and manipulation to influence audiences to behave as the organization desires through scientific persuasion. This way, practitioners used research to get inside the heads of consumers and to help fashion the sell messages. It’s also known as ‘scientific persuasion’ and it remains the stock-in-trade of advertisers everywhere. It’s all about persuasion to trigger a transaction, thus its popularity with marketers.

Internship Diary #12

Today was my final day of my Internship at Redii.

I started of by finishing up on the quote typography from last week. After that I had to make an Infographic for “Why Recognition Matters.”

My day ended with a small thank you from the Redii team and some gifts for me as a small thank you for my efforts that I put into contributing with Redii.

I had a really great time working for Redii.

Internship Diary #11

Today was day 11 of my Internship at Redii.

I had to make an infographic for, “The top 3 reasons why staff quit” and make quote typography for photoshop and re-upload later.

 

Internship Diary #10

Today was day 10 of my Internship at Redii.

I had to make an infographic for, “10 steps to building the best recognition program”

Internship Diary #9

Today is Day 9 of my internship at Redii.

Today I had to make another infogrpahic regrading “8 ways to increase productivity and performance.” I also worked on social media advertising options for Facebook and Twitter. This was done by researching the following:

• What are the advertising options available (e.g. Twitter has cards, sponsored posts – I’d like to know the difference between each one and, based on the content we already have, what you’d recommend we use)
• What data do we need to target the right audiences
• What’s the pricing model (do we set a daily/campaign budget)
• What design / ad assets do we need to prepare (e.g. do we need featured images/ad graphics and if so – what size for each medium/channel?)

Internship Diary #8

Today is Day 8 of my internship at Redii.

Today was another day of coding and converting blogs for Linkedin as well as finishing up the infographic for “5 things you need to know about running a startup.” I will say, I am really proud the way it turned out at the end, and I can see how much i’ve changed regarding infographics.

Internship Diary #7

Today is Day 7 of my internship at Redii.

I was able to make contact with a couple of the people that I emailed last week. I also did a bit of coding for some linkedin blogs. l also started an infographic regarding “5 things you need to know about running a startup.”

Internship Diary #6

Today is Day 6 of my internship at Redii.

Today, I had to research articles of bloggers who blog the same ideas as Redii does and reach them out to blog our content. I was able to email 5 bloggers who share the same value as us when it comes to motivation, the power of praise and dealing with bad bosses.