Current Events:
It's no longer enough to have smartphones, smartwatches,
smart TVs and smart cars. Now a tech company is bringing artificial
intelligence to lingerie. Researchers at Microsoft have developed a prototype
of a "smart bra" embedded with physiological sensors that seek to
monitor a woman's heart activity to track her emotional moods and combat
overeating. Signals can be sent to the wearer’s smartphone to warn her about
making better diet decisions.
The high-tech bra, developed by Mary Czerwinski at
Microsoft Research in Redmond, is essentially a wearable stress sensor. The bra
has two sensors — an EDA sensor and EKG — for detecting when the wearer is
stressed out. It tells the wearer that they are stressed out, which is usually
enough for them to break the habit of emotional eating. The whole thing is
powered by a small 3.7-volt battery, which is only good enough for a few hours
of sensing — something that will need to be improved if Microsoft plans to
commercialize the smart bra.
Recent research suggests that, if you only stress eat on
occasion, and your normal diet is healthy, there’s no real risk — plus, more
importantly, the stress eating will make you feel better, which is really the
whole point of it in the first place.
Will this work? What about the concept for male consumers?
I think it is questionable whether this will really work – people are already
taking their own steps to a healthier lifestyle and have other resources to
help them with that.
Talk about cutting edge technology!
Harper’s Bazaar:
Harper’s Bazaar was definitely what I had expected to be as
a fashion publishing company. I have to admit, I had a vision of the company to
be something like the setting from the Devil Wears Prada movie. Everything
about the company was so stylish and chic – a reflection of the magazine’s
brand personality. I can definitely see the influence of fashion in the line of
work and amongst the staff. Everyone was dressed so nicely and “in trend” –
something that comes with the industry, I suppose. In my opinion, the people
who worked at magazine publishing companies are also “living and breathing” the
brand as a whole. You would really have to be passionate about the magazine and
this was demonstrated by both of the presenters, Carol Smith and Lindsay
Officer.
Having had no experience or knowledge in magazine publishing, I thought this visit taught me a lot. I was intrigued by Carol’s presentation and was amazed by how much she has done for Harper’s Bazaar. I definitely thought that she is a woman of so much confidence and her abilities had done wonders for the magazine, thus far. We all have heard people say “magazines/print media is dead” – I feel like I was one of those people who believed that print was slowly dying, especially because we are bombarded by other media channels – online and digital. However, it is apparent that print media is in fact, not dead. Carol talked about the different things that publishing companies are doing in order to remain solid in the market scene. Harper’s Bazaar was not only a magazine publishing house, but it also expanded into retail. Shop Bazaar allowed the company to establish a presence in the online channels in order to compete with other online content available for the consumers. I thought it was a smart strategy for the magazine to be a reflection and a representation of the products sold in the store. It definitely helps drive traffic onto their website and ultimately boosting sales for the brands.
I think the challenges that publishing companies face is the
ability to compete with other media channels and also amongst themselves.
Although I am not a current subscriber of any magazine, I tend to reach out for
ones that stand out from the clutter, particularly those that pertain to my
interests in lifestyle, trends and fashion. I like to think that the content of
the magazine is very important since it allows readers to keep up with the
current events and styles. I believe that Harper’s Bazaar is going in the right
direction and that they will continue to prosper in the market place. I think
that they have the advantage over other magazines since they were the first to
implement their strategy.
Since my main interest is not in publishing, I did not feel
like Harper’s Bazaar is for me. While it proved to have opportunities in the
market as they are tapping into new media channels, I still would like to keep
my focus on branding and strategy for consumer products or other related
fields.
Final Reflections:
It is hard to believe that the semester is over. It always
felt like time was passing by very quickly but I think it became so real as we
were approaching the final days of our classes. The Evolving Industry was both
enjoyable and insightful for me. I enjoyed every single class and company visit
because it allowed me to see the communications industry from different
viewpoints – seeing the similarities and differences that these companies have
with each other. I definitely thought that it was useful to see the things from
both the corporate and agency side because they have different approaches to
thrive and survive in the industry. These companies need to continuously
innovate, create new strategies, keeping up with current trends of the industry
as well as serving the diverse roster of clients. I definitely value the
experience as it widened my horizons on what I wish to do for my internship and
also after graduation. Although I may have felt like a lot of the companies
were not a fit for me, it helped gear my interests in the right direction. I
can say that the learning from all the visits definitely equipped me with necessary
tools to better prepare me for the “real world” in terms of what to expect and
how to manage myself in those types of working environments.
Thank you Professor Jarmon and everyone for a great
semester. Happy Holidays!
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