Life Comes Full Circle

Life is an amusing thing to be a part of. I love sitting back, letting the journey taking me where it may, and seeing where sections/phases/events in my life start and end.

In August, I took the plunge and moved out of my comfort zone of beachy, tropical Florida and into the concrete jungle that is New York City. My newly acquired job? Assistant agent at a fashion modeling agency.

I felt life come full circle when the office decided that we needed to do some scouting to recruit fresh-faced talent. "Where are some places we can look? Scouting events?" Now, if you work in the industry, probably the first event that would pop into your head is ProScout. Lo and behold, that was the first suggested event that popped out of my directors mouth. Once I tracked down the contacts to gain an invitation to the event, my director also gave me the responsibility of attending and scouting.

But let's rewind back five years, relocate to Orlando, Florida and open scene on my mom and I wandering through the Peabody Hotel lobby. I was the aspiring model, tugging my mom along to the registration table and scouring the room for potential scouts that could as well be keeping an eye on me. The two days at the convention run by like a blur, especially when nerves are as spiked as mine were. You could feel the tension from the stage moms and dads, evaluating the "less deserving" kids that weren't their own. Most of the kids seemed to be there for the fun of walking a stage runway and therefore having the bragging rights to tell their friends they saw the "top NYC agents." I wanted a contract. Badly. With fifteen callbacks I was sure I would secure something, anything. Nope. Not one single contract came out of the event. One of the managers could only remember me as the "girl with the ass" when I phoned in to see if he had potential updates on a contract. For Kim Kardashian, being the "girl with the ass" is a multi-million dollar brand but that rep as a fashion model will ruin you.

Wow. Is that even possible?

Skinny bitches.

Now fast-forward to the present. Model dreams aside, power agent goals ahead instead, I sit behind a ProScout callback desk in Philadelphia waiting for the first nervous participant. As the young girls, and one guy, lined up to speak with me, I couldn't help but talk their ears off explaining the workings of the high fashion modeling industry, why it has size requirements, and why they should not stress if nature didn't give them the super skinny lanky genes. I only spoke to nine or ten ProScout participants, and yet by the end of the callback session, I barely had a voice left. I refused to let them walk away thinking they had to force themselves to rail-thinness. At fourteen years old, that shouldn't be a primary concern.

My [model] life journey has taken me through aspiring model, working-ish model, frustrating weight gain (or developing and maturing as the normal public sees it), failed weight loss and finally resignation from that stress in turn for a job as the guide for the aspiring models to come. As I shook the hands of the young girls and their parents at the callback table, I only hoped that my mini-speech/Q&A session guided the doe-eyed teen to take a different fork in the road than what I had tried just five years ago. Who knows, maybe I'll see them on my side of the table in half a decade.

Groupon, Living Social... The Discount Effect

The concept of promoting a sale to the public to generate more traffic and purchases is not new. Who can forget the "every occasion sale" from JCPenny before the company restructured its marketing techniques? Or even currently, Macy's. The bombardment of sales gets boring, really. That doesn't seem to stop my shopping instincts, though. When I hear sale, I think, "I will be saving SO MUCH MONEY if I go shopping right now at this sale." Well, I could save even more money if I didn't shop the sale at all. Yet, my feet seem to uncontrollably start tip-toeing to the door while my wallet so happens to make its way into my purse and faster than I can perceive, I've purchased another pair of fabulous shoes that were 60% off. Oopsie.

But Groupon, oh Groupon. You have made it much easier for me to crumble under my shopping instincts and have removed the barrier of actually having to go to a retail location to spend money. Then Living Social, Gilt City, Bloomspot, KGB deals, Couptessa, and a hoard of daily discount offer companies popped up and I have never looked back. 

How has the daily deal marketing and business model affected the buying decision process, though? If you're like me, you've signed up for all possible daily deal websites that apply to your city. With that, I have an inbox full of deeply discounted offers for spa treatments, hair cuts, dinners for two, and two-night stays at a resort waiting to be sifted through right when I wake up. Those emails are likely to be the first ones you read when you wake up and have your morning cup of joe. So now, the entire day you will be thinking about the deeply discounted massage at the spa that you so well deserve at the end of the week.

Most of my savvy friends have also signed up for the daily discount emails. With the easy "share" button on all daily discount websites, the companies have made it easy for a friend to shove a deal I may have missed in my face via Twitter, Facebook or email. "OH EM GEE, did you not see this coupon for the amazing new restaurant. We HAVE to try it!" Now the created desire to purchase is brewing even more fervently in my brain. Then, we have the countdown clock on the deal's page that I've been perusing. I no longer have a couple of days to shop, like most Macy's and retail store sales, it's only 24 hours. Great. Now I must decide whether I want to allow this deal to "slip away" or buy it as soon as I think I want it. My wants normally trump my budget logic. Daily discounts, you win again.

Small businesses may be ready to leap onto the daily discount train. I mean, take a look at my shopper logic and tell me that's not appealing to a thirsty businessman looking to prey on more customers. But beware, little ones, of the Groupon effect. With the affect on the decision buying process of consumers strong, you may find you will bite off more new customers than you can chew.

Social Media: The Internet's Pandora's Box

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, Tumblr... I feel old saying that it's seemingly impossible to keep up with all this technology and social media, especially when my younger cousin only 6 years my junior actively digests and regurgitates tons of information off of all her social media outlets.

Social media is the modern day Pandora's Box. Once the box was opened (thank you, Mark Zuckerberg), the information from millions of voices out-poured at an uncontrollable rate, and now it cannot be stopped. The true freedom of speech in social media is used for the good and the bad. Examples: good= the riots that overturned the government in Egypt (well... good for the people, bad for those in power). bad= the riots that took place in London in 2011.

With all these worldwide voices so easily accessible, that means a plethora of useful information for nearly any business or brand. Think about the possibilities: no more gathering focus groups to gain insight or opinions on a product and possibly have the participants who are to afraid to... well... participate. Now, customers and fans simply blurt out their thoughts, sometimes far too often, and the company can pluck the necessary feedback off the Interweb.

However, now with the "common folk" all having Twitters and Pin Boards and Facebooks, companies, celebrities and everyone/thing in between are expected to have all possible social media outlets, also. This means brand management and creating a strong following, which requires a delicate balancing act. It's like that Facebook or Twitter friend of yours that feels the need to update the world on each and every activity he or she is doing for the day ("going to work" "going to the gym"). Social media users have to know when enough is enough.

For the businesses utilizing social media, nearly all take advantage of these lovely fee-free platforms, interaction with fans and customers lies in the statistics: what is being shared and how? If anything, a business shouldn't necessarily focus on interaction but rather what sparks a reaction. "How can we make this go viral?" Wasn't it all, before this dagnab technology, about word-of-mouth in the beginning? To make sure Sally told Sue who told Linda who told Mary that Mrs. Smith's Bakery shop was the place to find all the critical cake-making materials. Granted, it pays to interact with a customer and get feedback on what the company is doing well, and what it's failing in. Feedback works for when you get customers in the door, so to speak, but initially you have to create the interest, the "foot traffic". So my thoughts are: a company shouldn't focus on replying to that tweet, or liking a fan's post. Instead, marketers have to consider and creat the content that will spark the next Gangnam Style phenomenon.