This weekend is one of our bigger Spring events, TSDL (Think Social, Drink Local). TSDL is a runway fashion show and dance party, held at the Angel Orensanz Foundation in NYC. Basically, our classmates and Stern administration model fashionable outfits from top NYC designers. Sponsors include Absolut Vodka, Brooklyn Brewery, Brooks Brothers, DKNY, etc. and proceeds go to support the Social Impact Internship Fund, which provides a financial stipend for students who spend their summers working for often unpaid non-profit and social impact-based businesses.
I’m excited for this event and another exciting thing coming up, Spring Break! Every year, Stern’s community clubs organize different treks for students to join, or students can organize their own informal treks. This year, students were able to pick between Thailand, India, South Africa, Vietnam & Cambodia, Ecuador, Japan, and more (a lot of times, the students who choose to go on these treks are first year students since it’s a great way to meet new people)! As second year students, a bunch of us are going to Tulum and Playa del Carmen in Mexico. I’m very excited to relax on the beach (and do nothing but read and eat) for my last spring break ever (sad!).
On the class front, things are going well. We just settled on a project topic for our Customer Insights class, which is essentially all about conducting effective marketing research. We decided to do our project on Apple iWatch. According to this article, Apple plans to launch this wearable, smartphone watch soon. Our job as market researchers is to not only figure out who the target consumer is, but how to make it a successful launch. To make it successful, we must answer questions like why the category for traditional watches has been declining, whether there is even a need for a smartphone-type watch amongst the target demographic, and if there is one, what features our target consumer would have a willingness to pay for. This launch is a hot topic in the news, and seeing how innovative Apple has been, it will be interesting to see whether the company is moving in the right direction or not with this new idea.
That’s it for this week – until next time…..