Jewel-Osco...a delightful surprise

Jewel-Osco, as most of us know, is one of the primary grocery stores in the Chicago area.  Today I decided to look on their website to see what they offer online... since most store websites are designed to let you buy and look at products offered.  What was interesting is they really focus it on furthering your cooking/baking/drinking/whatever experiences... they even have a blog called What's Cookin.  They seem really involved in their site, updating it and trying to use it in ways to improve consumers experiences.  One of the tabs I found most interesting was the "Recipe Box."  It included things such as recipes, beer pairings, recipes based on seasons, and they even let you submit your own recipe! They have a little of something for everyone, it does not seem to just be geared towards females... which is how most popular "recipe" sites tend to be, at least in my experience.  They also really get the consumer involved, if they choose to.  Jewel-Osco also offers healthy eating tips, pharmacy details, and sale information on their website.  Overall, there website appears well designed and consumer friendly.  This really surprised me since they are a big chain grocery store, but they really make their website geared towards the consumer.  I look forward to looking for new recipes and tips for this summer!

Traveling...made easy

In less than 3 months I will be studying in Limerick, Ireland! It is all becoming more real and kinda scary honestly.  I have never been out of the country or away from home for over 3 whole months, but with this being said I am extremely excited.  Before I can go, however, there are many things that must be done in preparation.  Something I have noticed while planning this trip is that the internet makes traveling a hell of a lot easier.  To book my flight I went online and checked out a few websites and ended up buying the plane ticket through the airline, but on their website.  It was all done online and it was quick, easy, and efficient; I was able to just take the time I needed in the privacy of my own home.  If you need to change anything with regards to the flight they make that easy too and then once it is booked they send you a confirmation email! So now whenever I need to check my flight information for the college's needs I just go to my email and find the information needed.  The internet made this a whole lot easier and I felt that it was a safe route to go.  I trusted the website that I bought the ticket from and so far they have had good follow-up... I don't want to say too much about it though because I'll have to see if it all works out. The internet also provides outlets to look up information about places in Ireland so I can see where I want to go and have trips planned out before I even get there. Oh the great things the internet can do.

Mobile Devices...An Emerging Form of Advertising

While conducting research for my final project I came across an article that I just couldn't wait to talk about.  I have known about the effects of the internet on advertising, but never thought about how mobile devices particularly have a huge impact on advertising.  Marketers are afraid to spend too much of their money and resources into mobile advertising until they have concrete proof that it would be the route to take.  I believe that marketers need to emerge themselves into this newer way of advertising because it will just increase the sales of the products.  The usage of the Smartphone is increasing and is speculated to keep increasing (see picture below) as well as tablets.  Mobile advertising includes smartphones and tablets, when putting these two devices together the usage by far overrides the amount people use laptop/desktop computers.  When advertisers immersed themselves in online advertising the products sold (both online and offline) increased dramatically; there was a positive correlation between the two.  Marketers began advertising online due to the trend of society using the web for their everyday tasks.  Now that the trend has switched over to mobile devices, marketers must follow in these footsteps and begin spending more money in mobile advertising.  It is known that marketers follow consumer trends later because they do not want to rush into a new phase too quickly; they first want proof of the medium's effectiveness before making a dramatic change.