It's a Quick Response Code!

It’s interesting that I wanted so badly to get out of marketing, after my last (real) job left such a bad taste in my mouth. Yet, here I am researching the very thing that made me spend a year and a half of my life wondering why I took that course of study. Not surprisingly, I’m looking at marketing through different eyes now…more mature eyes…eyes that actually want to be in school.

The more research I do on nontraditional marketing, the more I am fascinated with how industries evolve and how during your undergraduate studies no one cares to talk about this evolution. I’m not saying that all professors ignore industry trends, but for the most part undergraduate classes are taught from textbooks that took several years just to make it to publication. In the meantime, the internet was created, flash mobs (that date back to the 1960′s) started being used in marketing strategies and the Oral Cancer Foundation combined Guerilla Marketing with technology by passing out t-shirt with quick response codes on them. The quick response codes took smart phone users to the foundation’s website and helped spread the news about oral cancer to young people. (Who would have thought that young, non-smokers are the most vulnerable population when it comes to oral cancer? I would have never known, had I not been researching nontraditional marketing…it’s funny how things work that way.) You can read the full article here.

I started this semester feeling a bit sour that I had to take a marketing class. After all, I have 28 undergraduate credit hours in marketing and the majority of my classmates have none. I thought I would inevitably find myself fighting to keep my eyes open during a snooze fest. I was fortunate enough to be assigned an interesting discussion topic that has really opened my eyes to a different marketing world– one I actually like! One I may even consider writing a thesis on…oh yes…a thesis. Stay tuned for details.

Do you love the new layout? I love the new layout! I made the header myself which was a huge accomplishment for me, as I am not awesome with all of this photo editing business. It frustrates me. But maybe I’m changing…maybe I’m learning some patience.

I finished Water for Elephants a couple of weeks ago and it slipped my mind to blog about it until I was updating my to read list. I am more into self-help, informational, research-based literature. I rarely finish anything that’s fiction. (Rarely, not never!) This historical novel was absolutely fantastic, though. I hate to give a synopsis. I feel like it takes a lot of the fun out of reading the book. In (very) short, this novel is the reminiscences of a 90-something year old man who spent much of his youth working in a circus. It has everything that anyone could ever want in a story, love, lust, conflict, excitement; it makes you laugh and it makes you cry. But the real appeal to me was Gruen’s writing style. It’s warm and inviting. I didn’t want to read this book in a busy breezeway while I was waiting to go into class. I wanted to read it on my couch with dim lighting and a cup of coffee.

Gruen’s latest book, Ape House, just debuted this month and if it’s written in the same inviting tone as Water for Elephants, it will surely be added to the long list of books I intend to read in the near future.

I say…read it!

I’ve been suffering this week in my quest to keep the balance up between love and money (and education and cleanliness). I’ve been suffering to find a balance between my current reality and what I want my reality to be. I’ve started to wonder if all of the aspirations I have are just my way of trying to discover who the grown up version of me is, or if I’m really just that ambitious.

Regardless of whether I’m ambitious or just going through a quarter-life crisis, I’m frustrated. There is not enough time in the day to work, read, write, study, exercise, cook, clean. I have spent so much time trying to master the art of time management, but I fear that there are some things that time management simply cannot fix. Sometimes you just have to sit back and for just a few moments live like there is not a care in the world. I can’t even remember the days when there was not a care in the world. Luckily, my parents did get some photo documentation of these days.

Unfortunately, I spend no time at all climbing on couches anymore.  Most of my time, in fact, is spent doing this…

Keep reading for my reality to fantasy life comparison

I am sitting here writing this with a million HUGE hot rollers in my hair. My new role as Recessionista’s  Sort-Of-Social-Media-Marketing-Maven makes me feel like I need to be exceptionally fashionable. I have never really known how to do anything with my hair except air dry and straighten it– and the straightening is always half-ass because I have way too much hair to take tiny little pieces and make them perfect straight. I would be sitting here trying to do my hair until Saturday…and I seriously can’t be bothered. And curling irons are not an option because they freak me out.

Now you’re wondering what my head full of hot rollers and my social media role at Recessionista has to do with my school project. (Yes, the title of this blog post has to do with the discussion I’m supposed to be leading for my marketing class which I blogged about here.) Well, Recessionista has a little nontraditional advertising and promotion all rolled into one in the works. I don’t want to give details, because that would just spoil the surprise. But I do strongly suggest that you follow that blog. So that when I do launch this awesomeness that is nontraditional advertising and promotion that benefits both the consumer and the organization, you can appreciate it.

So I’m still working on this discussion that my group will have to lead on nontraditional advertising and promotion. Thanks to a very good friend of mine who works in the advertising industry and will remain anonymous, I’ve been provided with SO MUCH information about nontraditional forms of advertising and promotion that I don’t need to look for any more! Now I just need to find academic and industry publications to back up the ideas she gave me.

Want to read about all of the forms of advertising and promotion I’m researching? Keep reading!