Science Fair Proposal V.2

1. Hypothesis: If there is a situation in which an individual has to make a decision, they will be more likely to go with the decision of the group they are with.
2. Dependent Variables: The decision of the test subject during round three and five of the "economic" experiment.Independent Variables: The products shown, and  the decision of the confederates during round three and five.
   Control Variables: Rounds one, two, and four of the "economic" experiment
3. This project will help me answer my EQ because marketers today have to figure out the target audience of their product in order to market it effectively. They make these deductions based on a number of demographics gathered from research, such as age, sex, occupation, behavioral traits, etc. They mix and match these factors in order to make an effective marketing campaign.
4. Materials:  Three posters of similar products, forty people (to be divided into different sized groups, twelve of these people are the actual test subjects)
• Divide the twenty people as followed: Two pairs of friends/acquaintances, two pairs of individuals, two groups of three friends/acquaintances, two groups of three individuals, two groups of five friends/acquaintances, two groups of five individuals.
• Participants will be told that they are taking an economic experiment to test how easily the value of the product is determined by visual standards.
• There will be five rounds. In each round, participants will be shown three products, and will be asked one by one to evaluate which one is the most expensive. 
• First round will be notebooks, second round will be cake, third round will be cell phones, fourth round will be dresses, fifth round will be shoes. 
• In each round, it will be glaringly obvious as to what the most expensive product is. Participants cannot change their answer once it has been said.
• In each group, all but one of the participants will be shown the correct answers beforehand and instructed to give the incorrect answer in round three and five. The person who has not given the correct answer is the true test subject, and will be always to give the answer last. (Also, make sure that whoever the test subject may be does not see this blog post, or remember Asch's experiment from Strand's class.)
• Record the answers in all of the rounds, as well as the reaction of the test subject during round three and five.
5. This experiment will fall under the Behavioral/Social Science category.

Service Learning

• For my service learning, I intern at AEON Medical Equipment & Supplies in La Verne, CA.  This branch focuses on medical supplies for mobility and respiratory needs, renting and selling them to both doctors offices, insurance companies, and private parties.
• My contact is Maria Bonus and Susan Esquivel. Mrs. Bonus is the CEO/Owner that will go to the various doctor's offices and remind them of AEON's services. Mrs. Esquivel is the person that I work under on a day-to-day basis, and whom I am working with in this first project that I have been assigned. Both can be reached via the contact information that I have provided on the service learning contact sheet.
• For these first ten hours, I am helping organize AEON's Google Merchant Center account so that their products and website will show up first on Google search engine. I research their products by using Google search and looking through their catalogs in order to fill in any missing information, and categorize their products so that it will be easier to find.

Marketing Myself.

A running list of my service learning ventures. This will be updated frequently.

Contact = Initial contact made with person, whether via email or in person

Response = Decision made

• Westfield Mall, West Covina
• Contact- Oct 9, 2011
• Response- Oct 25, 2011 [Pushed back to holiday season]
  Jan 4, 2012 [Liability- not allowed.]
• Comment: Even though I was disappointed, I was not surprised. A gut feeling told me that there would be a liability issue; the mall is part of another huge organization. They wouldn't all them to give school credit to kids. They did say that they would implement an internship program, but that wouldn't be for another year.
• CGI Marketing, Diamond Bar
• Contact- Dec 2, 2011 [Chance meeting @ Diamond Bar Library]
• Response- Dec 9, 2011 [Hour-long meeting]
• Comment: It wouldn't have worked out, even if I agreed to coming in on Saturdays and do research every other day. I think it might have been a clash of ideals, because I left the meeting feeling completely lost and confused (along with a minor headache). It felt like an interrogation, and all of the answers that I felt sure about were "wrong". Even though I haven't been studying this field for relatively long, it didn't seem like they were made to be marketers (in my eyes). I was so lost that I began to doubt myself as to why I was doing this project in the first place. When I finally got my feelings sorted out, I felt that I wouldn't get what I wanted to get out of the office, and that I would have ended up hating my entire project had I done my service learning under the company.
• Poly Post, Pomona
• Contact- Jan 2, 2012
• Response- Jan 5, 2012 [Wait until spring quarter; busy with two interns this quarter]
• Comment: Will be following up with them right before the spring quarter starts. I heard a lot of good things about the Poly Post, so I hope their marketing office is good too.
• AEON Medical, La Verne
• Contact- Jan 6, 2012 [Morning]
• Response- Jan 6, 2012 [Evening]
• Start- Jan 9, 2012
• Comment: I know nothing about medial supplies, but I'm willing to learn about anything. Time to get into what marketing's all about: research.

ESLR Blog

So far in this Senior Project, I believe that I have been an Effective Communicator and an Effective iPoly citizen.

Going into this project, I knew that I was going to have to talk to a lot of people. I have been an Effective Communicator because of the many times that I've inquired with different people about service learning and set up meetings with all of them. I learned which contact info and numbers to look for when finding information, as well as setting up these meetings and being as polite as possible. It was sometimes difficult to explain service learning to all of the organizations I've come in to contact with, but I've been able to figure out what their understanding of my project is and clarify it for them as best as possible.

As for being an iPoly citizen, it applies both inside and out of iPoly. I have been meeting all of my deadlines so far, both academic and project-based. I always try my best to be polite to all of the people I have come in contact with. I know that I am also giving them an impression of what iPoly is like when I'm talking to them about my project. Even if they rejected me for service learning, I am still polite as I leave their office. Also, I believe that this is the most that I have ever been involved in iPoly, and I have been involved in the school for a long time. The motivation for this project has stemmed from my position in yearbook, and my work in this project has motivated me to try and excel for the yearbook.

Third Interview Questions

Interviewee: TBD once I find a service learning place that will take me in. 

1. What is important in marketing a product?
2. How do you define marketing?
3. Does bad press affect how you market a product?
4. How do you determine what demographic and target audience you need to market to?
5. How do you determine what methods of marketing would be most affective on said audience?
6. What would be considered a bad or an unsuccessful marketing campaign?
7. Are there any basic rules of marketing a product that I should follow/ am not already aware of?
8. What do you think about businesses that keep connected with their customers after their initial purchase?
9. Is it possible to keep customer relationships in a negative way, and does that affect the sales of the product?
10. Why is communicating with the different departments of what you are selling important? How important is it?

Self Reflection

(1) I think I'm doing... okay. Well, not really. I get all of the projects done and all of the work, and I understand what I'm supposed to be getting at. The problem is, I haven't gotten service learning yet, so I can't really focus on a specific angle of marketing, especially since I jumped into this topic blind. I'd probably give myself a low P, because I'm not sure of what I'm doing yet. I can only blame myself for not being able to find service learning sooner, but it's difficult when there are certain types of marketing  I want to stay away from, one of them being product-based marketing. Hopefully, one of the two places that I have been able to communicate with will take me in and be able to teach me a lot. Speaking of learning, I definitely need to change my EQ. Hopefully that can change once I begin service learning. Same with the science experiment. I don't think I will be able to build something physical, but I hope it will still be just as rewarding.
(2) I've gotten better at responding to people professionally via email, as well as "play phone tag" with them. It's been getting easier for me to reply to adults working in the field, and I learned a lot during that failed venture I attempted during Science Fair Research. Because of that, I learned where to find a companies' customer service line.
(3)  I'm at a complete standstill right now when it comes to this project. Hopefully, I can get service learning to push me forward and get started on something. That would probably be what I would work on- getting something done. I can't help but feel as though I'm running on a little bit of luck....

Science Fair Proposal

1. If the typography of a company brand is in a sans serif font, then consumers will believe that it is a trustworthy professional company and will take their business there.
2. Dependent Variables: Which company the consumer will take their business to.
   Independent Variables: The various fonts used for a brand
   Control Variables: The company name and purpose.
3. This project will help me answer my EQ because the way that a company/firm is perceived affects how consumers will approach the brand. Since many people are visual, they tend to associate what they see (the brand) to what is in front of them (the business).
4. Materials: Profiles of different types of businesses (technology, retail, food, clothing, supplier), different print-outs of logos in different fonts, 25 volunteers
• Come up with a pseudonym for each business and print out the brand name in different fonts (one font from each category: oldstyle, modern, slab serif, sans serif, script, decorative. one of these fonts must be of or similar to the font of the original business).
• Have volunteers come in. Display all of the different styles of the brand name to them. Read to them the profile of the company. (Include: what kind of products they sell, mission statement, objectives, philosophy and company values)
• Have them rate each font on  a scale of 1-5 (5 being the most positive) based on how well the font matches:
• what kind of products they sell
• their company philosophy/mission statement/ objectives
• their company values
• Allow room for volunteers to give three words as to what the font reminds them of, and to comment on any other aspect as to how the font and brand mix.
• Repeat for other businesses. DO NOT use the same font used with the other business profiles (to prevent bias that may have been already formed during the experiment), but pull from the same font category.
5. This experiment will fall under the Behavioral/Social Science category.