Adelina Ruffolo W14: Topic Refinement

The pitch exercise, I found, did help me and my partner with our topic selection. During the writing process of our topic, we found our original selection did not really fit with the podcast show we selected. We went through three different stages until we settled on a new idea, which we found suited the Under the Influence podcast. We really had to take into consideration audience and other topics that had been discussed on the show in order to decide on a good idea. The research that we had to do helped a great deal in our topic selection. We looked at the podcast show's format and the description on the website in order to figure out if our idea was a good fit for the show.

I don't really know if the pitch would be a good fit for other assignments but I can see it be a valuable tool to get started on thinking about an assignment in the early stages. It could be helpful to use the pitch format to get started on thinking about if a topic is a good fit or even a good idea.

Our original topic was how humor in advertising is effective. We decided that we wanted to make our topic more specific and illustrate the changes in advertising and marketing. Under the Influence is a podcast that looks at concepts in marketing and advertising that deal with that significant shift, a persuasive dialogue. We narrowed down our topic to deal with branding. How brand names are so effective and how they market to people (through relationship marketing). We felt it would be a good idea to go with this topic because it looks at a shift in the marketing world from traditional forms of marketing to a more contemporary format. Relationship marketing focuses on building relationships with consumers, therefore making them loyal costumers for life. For instance when someone says once you're a BMW driver, you're a BMW driver for life. People create lasting bonds with the brands they are loyal to and it is an effective way to keep people coming back. These brands do not need to advertise heavily because people have been loyal costumers to them for a long time. These companies use techniques in order to keep costumers coming back, for example costumer service and loyalty programs. Or like using Advil and refusing to use any other brand besides that. Our topic will explore why this is and how it is so effective.