Reply to Dan: Eye-level placement

After recently making a visit to Shaw's Supermarket I noticed how they use product placement to their advantage. The most noticeable thing that stood out to me occurred when I walked down the cereal isle. Cereal is a product that you can really set clear distinctions on by age groups. Supermarkets like Shaw's are aware of this and apply a concept called "Eye Level Shopping" to their advantage so that customers with specific wants see what they want right away. Eye Level Shopping is the concept that when you walk down an isle like the cereal isle that depending on your age and height, that whatever brands are at your eye level are put there strategically. Cereals that are geared more towards adults like Raisin Brand are placed on the upper shelf while cereals that are meant for kids like Luck Charms are placed on the bottom shelves. Supermarkets do research into finding out the average height levels of all the age groups are strategically place their boxes of cereal according to the data they collected. Another way they use eye level shopping is with items that are on sale. If your walking down the cereal isle and at your eye level on the shelf are boxes of cereal that are on sale you are probably going to be more willing to buy them. For example if I were to be walking down the cereal isle and there were boxes on sale that were on the bottom shelves I may not notice them because my eye level and I would not buy them for that reason.
    I think that this is a very affective tool that supermarkets use and it is an extremely important aspect of shopping. The more that items are at my eye level the more I'm going to notice those products and not the products on the bottom shelves. I think that this concept is effective but I am wondering if other people think this way as well, or if placement on shelf levels don't matter to them when they are shopping?

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I think placement is extremely important, especially in supermarkets. I think your example about the cereal aisle is good. The cereal aisle has always overwhelmed me when I walked down it. With the repetition of colors, and shapes and pictures, the cereal aisle could be seen as a study in the importance of packaging as well. Going along with what you said about eye-level placement you can also notice the specific demographic that certain box designs are after. The higher-placed cereals are more grown-up, stressing health and nutrition. The lower cereals are bright, flashy, provide games, and are enticing to children because of their playful appearance. It amazing that such a common product, like cereal, has such a wide variety of marketing strategies behind it. Entering into this market would be difficult in my opinion because of the difficulty in differentiating yourself from the rest of the market.

The End of The Flip

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/technology/13flip.html?_r=1&ref=global

Recently, Cisco Systems concluded production and sales of the FlipHD video camera that was so popular over the last 4 years. Although technology markets mature more quickly than other markets, the demise of the Flip has been quick and sudden. Why did the Flip become defunct so quickly?

The Flip was originally marketed as a super affordable, easy to use, HD camcorder solution for everyday use. Capitalizing on the Youtube craze, the Flip was aimed at allowing consumers an easy way to upload high quality content to the video sharing site. However, with the speedy advancement of smartphone technology, the Flip has quickly become obsolete. The new iPhone shoots HD video, as well innumerable amounts of other tasks for the consumer, for the same price as the Flip. The problem seems to stem from the inaction, or inability for the Flip business unit to adapt to the changing market place, and the changing consumer demand. The article argues that this is partially due to Cisco’s lack of experience with consumer goods. Why do you think the Flip failed? Did you own a Flip? Are you still satisfied? What could Flip have done to survive?