Robert’s Final Submission for 222.453 Reseacrh & Developmentert

WorkingPaper-05-28-Robert-Longuet-Higgins

DesignBrief-05-28-Robert-Longuet-Higgins

CRAFTBEERNZ.co.nz

DESIGN EXPERIMENTATION – STRATEGY AND WEBSITE DESIGN

Preface:

This concept was born from concept mapping and identification through gap analysis of the craft beer industry in New Zealand. This is a community that I live on the cusp of entering. Many small breweries and bars (retail outlets) are already using social media well to build loyal communities around them (see Tuatara Brewery, Malthouse).

The Community around craft beer

Craft beer brewers and drinkers tend to be very passionate about brewing, and through the experience of making and drinking craft beer there is a significant common shared interest – or shared repitore. The industry are currently connected via by the website Brewers guild of New Zealand, however it is used as a infomation center for the industry,

What has not yet happened, is a connection of brand users and the producers; Pine and Gilmore state that we must connect these two groups because this create authentic relationships that go both ways.

From the My Beers page users are able to see track the beers they like, suggest and recieve suggestions and open / find more information about breweries as they want.

It is important to offer a platform where people can find the most relevant and important information to them. So every beer and Brewery can maintain its own identity which allows real and brewery created (which in this case will be also seen as real) conversation can be shared around the beer itself. It will also keep you up to date with any new beers coming out like this one or new beers from that brewery.

The Concept part ONE

There are hundreds of craft beers to try in NZ and as with craft beers everyone has their own opinion, the concept of this initiative is to develop a platform that provides users with both a transformational / useful service that helps them navigate the vast about of beers as well as create a communication value for users.

The idea is that this enables you to track the beers you try and comment straight away about them (potentially from your current snaptag location- by implementing technology or other similar tech).

It is able to learn and suggest beers that you may like.

It puts your comments and the beers you try into a socail space where your friends can comment and spark new conversation.

Freinds are able to suggest beers directly to you.

The personal home space is a filter of information from the website and from Facebook.

The Concept part TWO

This has been a concept projection into the way inwhich communites can live across or through a platform like Facebook, The majority of the content that is viewed on the CraftBeerNZ website all lives within Facebook also, this means that the community members can choose to sync their accounts with facebook, which means comments made on craft beer NZ live in facebook as well.

ESSENTIALLY, the community website could become a Facebook filter that means if you want only Craft beer conversations you can visit this community and all the other crap is removed, aloowing for a strong communication value. (this has come from analysis of  the Google Buzz release presentation I looked at earleir in my workbook (see this)

What it achieves

The result of this initiative is that the users and industry will use it as a communication platform for everything around this whole industry (consumption, news, production, conversation).

+ please note at this point I am aware that the craft beer industry may be something that will continue to travel better as word of mouth rather than a large scale web home, but this is more a conceptual experiment than any finished designed strategy.

From my essay:

It is currently not an exercise in creating belonging, but an investigation into the potential of a brand hub model as a facilitator to a community of practice.  It is designed to connect drinkers and industry members to enhance the experience of consuming craft beers through an extended participation in an online realm.  It allows users play an active role in creating and sharing their own value by commenting, rating, joining or starting conversations among their friends or the entire community.

Some shots of my workbook! – just the important bits

MY PHYSICAL WORKBOOK, CHECK IT OUT

Roberts Major Workbook

View more documents from Massey University.

Plansbook For Advertising Campaigns

SLIDE 7 } Weaknesses of AIM

• “unable to interact with other socail networks” – you could assume that then social networks need to be able to intertwine with other networks and media streams.

SLIDE 11 } identifies three types of communication attitudes (Thumbers – Mailer – Facers), the key note here is that people will always communicate over different media, I can suggest that that is because of the communicaton value of that media.

Email – more formal – busniess – or one off personal messages

Text – perosnal – or at the moment the most proximate and relable for instant!

Facebook / Socail media – SOCIAL – INCLUSIVE – GROUPS – Expansive conversations

SLIDE 23 } WHAT IS CREATIVE IN ADVERTISING?

– If individuals base conversations on others recommendations networks and narratives should be developed in order to facilitate that!!!

Tuatara Shout a Mate – R&D

This was an experiment just exploring possible integrations into social media applications.

• This is designed to live in the individuals space (FB)
• It is only one aspect of what could be a much larger community hive (i.e. this could be a pull out from the main hive)

ANALYSIS

• The idea is that the consumption of a beer with a mate is not just a physical experience but means far more socailly – if I say “lets have a beer” i mean ” can we spend some time together” the conversation with other “mates’ is how people can find a sense of belonging – If im feeling lonely a beer with mate will fix that.
• The concept here is by facilitating a conversation (or starting and helping it take place) can the brand prolong its user experience. Although I have been unable to implement this, the theory I have been reading suggests that this brand consumption extension is one major facet of the new brand paradigm.
• The ideas is that (like facebook, friendster ) the event or conversation is extended arcoss the digital and physical and it becoms a living conversation (not just spoken) as with most of the conversations we are now having online.
• Extending the consumption experience – where consumption is actually the conversation and time with mates over common ground – is what this application attempts to address.

A Beer For Every Occasion & A nice wee Drop

By Mike White

The amount of beer New Zealanders drink continues to drop. Thirty years ago we each put away 125 litres annually. By 1995 that was just under 100 litres and in September this year it was down to 77 litres. (At the same time wine and spirit consumption has risen.)

However more and more Kiwis are turning to craft, imported and premium beers, which now make up almost a quarter of our 317 million litres a year beer market.

Realbeer.com

This is a shot from the realbeer.com community page (looks like an old school coca forum:)

This just gives some insights into what people are talking about around beer in an online place. ( i have highlighted them in order of amount of interest)

Knowledge and communities

r & DEVELOPMENT

So as far as a direction for creating the a proof of concept is too look into developing a service that creates a transformational offering surrounding how we buy, consume and talk about petrol and driving.

So what i intend to do know is to is plan out how that may work and then develop a plan for researching it (ie. finding the core values, issues, conversations)

How this could work:

• Petrol stations will no longer be stagnant places to spend money.

At a petrol station you will be able to send the information from filling your car to your cars personal account / identity

The data is recorded from your car. i.e. mileage since last fill up, how much petrol is purchased and the cost (i.e. $1.83 per litre , 20 litres, $36.60 total).

• Individual site / account is created where car drivers can register their car under their name

On this site you should be able to review your mileage, consumption, money spent.

Private vs public issues will need to be resolved.

• Social aspect to the Website, where conversation and debate can take place as well as connecting with others.

Alternative options to driving or conversations about reducing or better economic options, ie the best cars and other tpical infomation.

It will be able to keep users up to date with any current issues about price, future of oil etc

PetrolMonkey

• a website from Australia that does this.. kinda… but does not take account any ideas about convergence.

PLAN

1. Understand the market
2. Who could create this product – brand?
3. Will people use it?
4. How will the use it?
5. how will they connect over it?

http://cluetrain.com/

The 95 thesis, check out

Conversation about my project – Active brainstorm

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