My new favorite thing is looking for memes online. They are funny and usually are pretty current with things that are trending in our culture. Webster's Dictionary defines meme as:

an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture

Events in the last few weeks have produced good material for memes that comment on how some of us react to things that are happening in our culture. Whitney Houston's untimely death, although tragic, really didn't affect me, yet for whatever reason I felt like commenting about it on Facebook. I was never a fan, although I did like one of her songs which I don't even know the name of. Unsurprisingly, everyone was talking about it on social networking sites. Most recently, on March 5th 2012, a documentary about Joseph Kony by Invisible Children went uber viral. Although it is a legitimate atrocity, I'm a bit skeptical about Invisible Children's motives. These two stories alone have provided lots of good material for memes. We also saw some memes surface from the Occupy Movement making fun of the 'Pepper Spray Cop'. It called attention on the poor training and the use of excessive force by police officers at the UC Davis campus. Memes serve a cultural function in the form that it depicts an idea or trend in such a way that, by simply seeing an image or a few words, the viewer 'gets it'. That's if the viewer is tuned in to the culture around him/her. Most Americans have seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (with Gene Wilder) and because of this the memes created with Willy's image are easily understood by most people. Here are some of my favorites: Whitney Houston

Kony 2012

You made a Willy Wonka Meme???

Kony we goin' find you!

John Pike AKA Pepper Spray Cop

KONY 2012

In case you didn't tune in and dropped out, the biggest news last week was a video documentary by Invisible Children that went uber viral on March 5, 2012.  It tells the story of Joseph Kony, the Ugandan Liberation Rebel Army leader, and his victimization of children.  I went on Facebook on the morning of March 5th and saw that a couple of my friends posted the same video.  I dind't pay much attention to it.  By the next day, everyone their mommas were posting the same video and were talking about an 'action kit'.  So I knew this was definately a new trend in viral videos.  I haven't seen the whole thing (it's 30 minutes long) but I've gathered the main points from friends and talking heads on the telly.  Viral genius? Yes! Effective marketing?  Debatable.  The video has garnished 71.5 million views in ONLY 7 DAYS!  It has definately made Kony's name recognizable.  There are those who argue that the video may have fallen short since it targets teens and young adults and these groups generally don't have the political clout or are in a position to make policy decisions.  I guess we'll have to wait and see if this actually leads to something or if it will be so last week.

Customer Relationship Management is a must for any retailer or service provider that can afford it, it's not cheap since it requires storing massive data. Storing the data isn't the big issue, but rather organizing and analyzing the data in such a way that is useful for your company. They most definately have a system that analyzes my behaviour and tries to figure out why am I on their site. How can they use my bahaviour patterns and make me purchase more? Amazon does a good job at implemeting a CRM system. I usually go on their site to either buy business or history books. I'm constantly getting e-mails from Amazon either recommending other books or asking me if I want to sell those that I've purchased. Whichever it is, they keep me engaged.

For whatever reason they always recommend more history books than business when in reality I've bought more of the latter. I guess in that sense Amazon doesn't get me 100%. They give users the option to 'like' different items in order for them to get a better idea what one looks for. Another company that does this pretty well is Netflix. Everytime I watch a movie I rate it because they obviously compile this information and can make better suggestions for me. So far I've rated 561 movies through them and that doesn't include all the ones I see in theaters before Netflix gets them. I'm really happy with Netflix's CRM system because their suggestions are usually pretty accurate. There has been a few flukes but generally they are pretty good at it.

I've lived in 'El Ey' my whole life and when I became 'of drinking age' I discovered a whole new side of Downtown L.A. The cocktail bars. The fine dinning. The interesting characters that hang out at these places. When I need a killer whiskey drink I go to The 7 Grand. Its above Mas Malo on 7th in DTLA and it has this old hunting lodge feel to it. There's Deer heads hanging from the walls, dark wood paneling, and a very beautiful art deco-ish ceiling. They are a part of this group called 213 Nightlife that owns several of DTLA's hotspots. They have a FB page but unfortunately it encompasses all of their bars and not each one individually. In our e-Marketing class we cam across some interesting statistics in regards to social media. One of the slides that really stuck with me was one that showed the correlation between the amount of posts and ROI and it immediately made sense to me. 7 Grand does not have its own page, it falls under the 213 Nightlife umbrella. I go there maybe once a month when I need my whiskey fix. The thing is that maybe, just maybe, if they had a 7 Grand page, they'd see me there oh I don't know, once a week.