IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Apps

  • Spring Break Destinations

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    Are you looking for some peace and quiet this coming spring break?  Here are ten places you may want to avoid. These destinations have been named the ten most popular college spring break spots! This can mean loud noise and hundreds of 20 year olds taking the week off from college. You can read more about these spring break hotspots at http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/10-best-spring-break-party-destinations/story?id=23010485.

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    1. Panama City
    2. Cancun
    3. Dominican Republic
    4. Las Vegas
    5. Jamaica
    6. Miami
    7. A Cruise
    8. Bahamas
    9. South Padre Island
    10. Puerto Rico

    Traveling anywhere on Spring Break can be hectic and exhausting, but here are a few steps to keep your trip fun and easy!

    Downloading your airline’s App is a great start. This will give you automatic and fast updates on your flight departure and arrival.delta.png

    Keeping large amounts of cash is unsafe no matter where you are, but make sure to be extra careful during spring break. ATMs are everywhere and always notify the bank when leaving the country!

    Most importantly, if you are leaving the country, always have a backup form of identification.

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    Have fun and enjoy your Spring Break!

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    Where are you going on Spring Break? Comment below!

    -Caitlin R, Megan S, Erin F, & Sarah G

  • There is an app for that! A food app!

    If you are like most people you probably use technology to do just about anything, so why not use technology to help cook your Thanksgiving dinner? Being responsible for housing your in-laws, and preparing a feast for several hungry stomachs at the same time has never been easier! With loads of mobile applications you can make your grocery list, shop, and even have a step by step guide on how to make each dish for your meal to really have your Thanksgiving made simple. There are applications that allow you to make your grocery list and even tell you how much money you spend so you will not have the temptation to splurge. There are also apps called kitchen calculator for when there’s no time for math in the kitchen, not to worry this app has it covered. All you have to do is select a unit of measurement and in no time you’ll be converting, multiplying and adding your way to the perfect turkey stuffing.

    Leftovers? No problem! The application called “Love Food Hate Waste” offers advice on what to do with all that leftover food sitting in the fridge staring at you every time you open it. This app helps you to prepare meals with all those week’s worth of leftovers. The best part of all is that you can actually take all of the different types of leftovers you have and throw them into a virtual blender and it will concoct a whole list of yummy recipes straight from the ingredients in your fridge!  We all have a love for food. These smart apps help make our cooking experience easier and will also help bring out each of our inner Julia Childs. The digital marketing era keeps expanding and growing. Each and every day another food app is discovered and added to the encyclopedia of over 60,00 apps. What will these marketers thing of next??? Just type in food into any digital device and see!

    Enjoy your family, be thankful for all you have and don’t eat too much!

    Have a very happy Thanksgiving from IMC 2 class!

     

    -Ashley Nelson, Jordan Hill, Michela Noreski

  • Costumes, Candy, Consumption

    Most Holidays in the U.S. revolve around consumption.  Christmas decorations are out before Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day candy is in stores before Christmas, and we seem to be developing more and more reasons to shop.  For example, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Sale, President’s Day Sale, New Year’s Day Sale, and of course Black Friday.  Think about Halloween.  What began as a day to celebrate the dead has now been commercialized as a day to dress up as a princess or a firefighter and get lots of candy.

    Halloween has become more than a children’s holiday in the U.S.  It has become increasingly popular for teenagers and adults to dress up for costume parties as well as the occasional trick-or-treating adventure.  Neighborhoods now encounter issues with, “How old is too old to trick-or-treat?”  Shops and advertisements have created the idea that everyone can be something other than themselves for one day out of the year.  On Halloween, we are allowed to be crazy, go outside our comfort zones, buy an outfit that we’ll never wear again and not feel bad about it. Although Halloween is an old holiday, it continues to evolve due to the branding and commercialism done by candy companies and costume retailers.

    Branding is one of the most important aspects of a holiday. Since Halloween traditionally is not really seen as a national holiday and more recognized as an event, branding becomes that much more important. Halloween gives organizations the opportunity to build relationships with their customers and could even allow for new entry points.

    For example, Apple actually has an application that is known as the Halloween Costume Generator. This unique app gives the user over 200 costume ideas and asks a few simple questions to try and cater to their costume needs. Because of Halloween and Apple’s name, it may have attracted a slew of new customers based off of this app alone. It gives Apple the chance to take a tradition and looks to attract newer customers that are drawn to Halloween. Halloween could also act as bridging capital for companies as they look to connect with customers that typically don’t use apps or may not even own an iPhone or an iPad. By introducing a famous “holiday” into the fold, Apple now has potentially attracted a whole new customer base that is customarily dominated by adolescents, tweens, and teenagers.

    It’s going to be interesting to see how companies respond to the many different holidays that are celebrated throughout the year as the times go by and the technology improves. Keep your eyes open, because you may never know what trend, organization, or seemingly distant customer community will attract you by partnering up with your favorite holiday.

    -Tiffany Evans, Deji Adeleke, Anna Kate Babnik, Carissa Niederkorn, & Katie Eagle

  • Are Apps Changing the Way We Do Business?

    Technology giant Apple is once again in the news this week.  No, they haven’t come out with a new iPhone and the new generation of iPads are not yet available; the company has sold their 10 Billionth App.  Yes, you read that correctly BILLION!  On Saturday Gail Davis, of Orpington, Kent, UK, downloaded Paper Glider (a free App) making history for Apple and also making her the winner of a $10,000 iTunes gift Card.

    Apple’s Apps, short for applications, can be downloaded from the App Store on iTunes onto iPhones, iPads, the iPod touch, and now even your computer.  Ranging from free to $999.99, these popular downloads can help you with everything from finding a place to eat, translating words into another language, making dinner reservations, entertaining your child, studying for the California Bar exam (in case you were wondering what the most expensive App does) and anything else you can possibly imagine.

    The popularity of Apps has many retailers and other businesses taking notice and developing Apps of their own.  Apps have become yet another tool for them to reach target audiences and perhaps gain new ones.  Everybody from car insurance companies to retailers to airlines have developed Apps hoping to target new audiences and keeping the attention of existing customers. This trend has even spawned a new way of doing business, m-commerce.  Similar to e-commerce, or shopping online, m-commerce is shopping on your mobile device.

    This new form of business, ushered in by Apple’s introduction of the App, is changing the way companies market themselves.  In the age of Apple’s i-products, the standard practices of print and media ads aren’t going to cut it.  Companies must adapt and incorporate practices such developing Apps if they want to continue to remain relevant and build their customer bases.

    -Eliza Wadson