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Exporting data from R to different formats

Exporting data from R is a crucial step in sharing your analysis, reporting results, or saving processed data for future use. R provides a variety of functions and packages to export data into different formats, including CSV, Excel, JSON, and databases. This section will guide you through the process of exporting data from R into these various formats.

Exporting Data to CSV Files

CSV (Comma-Separated Values) files are one of the most common formats for sharing and storing tabular data. R makes it easy to export data frames to CSV using the write.csv() function.

Using write.csv():# Exporting a data frame to a CSV file write.csv(data, "path/to/save/your/file.csv", row.names = FALSE)

row.names = FALSE: This argument prevents row names from being written to the file, which is typically preferred when exporting data.

Customizing the Export:

You can further customize the CSV export by adjusting the delimiter, file encoding, and other options.# Exporting a data frame with custom settings write.csv(data, "path/to/save/your/file.csv", row.names = FALSE, sep = ";", fileEncoding = "UTF-8")

sep = ";": Changes the delimiter to a semicolon, which is common in some regions.

fileEncoding = "UTF-8": Ensures that the file is saved with UTF-8 encoding.

Exporting Data to Excel Files

Excel is widely used in business and academic environments. R provides several packages to export data to Excel, with openxlsx and writexl being popular options.

Using openxlsx:# Install and load the openxlsx package install.packages("openxlsx") library(openxlsx) # Exporting a data frame to an Excel file write.xlsx(data, "path/to/save/your/file.xlsx")

Using writexl:

The writexl package is another simple and efficient option for exporting data to Excel.# Install and load the writexl package install.packages("writexl") library(writexl) # Exporting a data frame to an Excel file write_xlsx(data, "path/to/save/your/file.xlsx")

Both of these methods allow for multiple sheets, formatting, and other advanced Excel features.

Exporting Data to JSON Files

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format that is easy for both humans and machines to read and write. The jsonlite package in R makes exporting data to JSON straightforward.

Using jsonlite:# Install and load the jsonlite package install.packages("jsonlite") library(jsonlite) # Exporting a data frame to a JSON file write_json(data, "path/to/save/your/file.json")

Customizing the JSON Export:

You can customize the JSON structure by adjusting the pretty or auto_unbox arguments.# Exporting a data frame with custom settings write_json(data, "path/to/save/your/file.json", pretty = TRUE, auto_unbox = TRUE)

pretty = TRUE: Formats the JSON file with indentation for readability.

auto_unbox = TRUE: Converts single-element vectors to scalar JSON values.

Exporting Data to Databases

R can export data directly into databases, allowing for integration with larger data systems. The DBI package provides a standard interface for interacting with databases, and it works with specific database backend packages like RMySQL, RPostgreSQL, and RSQLite.

Using DBI with SQLite:# Install and load the DBI and RSQLite packages install.packages("DBI") install.packages("RSQLite") library(DBI) library(RSQLite) # Connecting to a SQLite database con <- dbConnect(RSQLite::SQLite(), dbname = "path/to/your/database.sqlite") # Exporting a data frame to a new table in the database dbWriteTable(con, "new_table_name", data) # Disconnecting from the database dbDisconnect(con)

This method can be adapted for other database systems by replacing RSQLite with the appropriate backend package (RMySQL, RPostgreSQL, etc.).

Exporting Data to Other Formats

In addition to CSV, Excel, JSON, and databases, R supports exporting data to various other formats such as:

Text Files: Using write.table() for general text-based formats.

SPSS, SAS, Stata: Using the haven package to export data to these formats.

HTML: Using the htmlTable package for exporting tables as HTML.

Example of Exporting to Text Files:# Exporting a data frame to a text file write.table(data, "path/to/save/your/file.txt", row.names = FALSE, sep = "\t")

sep = "\t": Specifies that the data should be tab-separated.

Best Practices for Data Export

File Naming: Use descriptive file names and include metadata such as dates or version numbers to keep track of different exports.

Check Data Integrity: Always verify that the exported data matches the original data, especially when working with non-CSV formats like JSON or Excel.

Automate Exports: For repeated tasks, consider writing functions or scripts to automate the export process, ensuring consistency and saving time.

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Key Audience Members or social media plan

A necessary part of a social media marketing strategy template is how to contact our audiences. Understanding the fundamental characteristics, motivational factors, awareness, social media platforms used, and just how audiences use each system are just a few of the factors that can come into play. Audiences need to be talked to in a way that is usually personable, not promotional.

Two styles of audience will be specified in your strategic plan. Principal audiences are those you want to targeted directly and that have a substantial relationship and connection to your customer. Secondary audiences are support and potentially viewed as influencers by the primary audience associates. With both types, outlining appearing audience members-or those who are definitely not on the client’s radar still, but could and perhaps need to be-is very useful.

Understanding people means painting a picture of the groups of individuals. Demographics can be a basic way to categorize several grouped individuals and involve the normal population data that are quickly collected, such as age, training level, ethnicity, and location. Throughout social media, the description involving audiences needs to be expanded a lot further. The more information we now have about our key viewers, the easier it will be to create effective and personalized communications to fit their motivational requirements and expectations.

This is where psychographics come into play, where we could categorize audiences based on their own attitudes, opinions, and beliefs. This higher-level approach to categorization narrows down the organizations into specific audiences depending on psychological characteristics and characteristics.

Human-to-human communication is what differentiates successful brands in social networking from those still having difficulties to build their community. Disregarding this principle is one point social marketers are past guilty of. Instead of pushing content material or playing the “pay for play” game, social networking strategists need to think of individuals as people. Effective crucial messages can help captivate the rand name voice as well as extend achieve to the community by providing a chance to participate in the conversation.

Knowing your audiences plays a substantial role in your ability to create key messages. Messages take some time, research, and a dash associated with creativity to make them efficient. This is probably one of the hardest duties you’ll have in social networking. Each platform has its own local community and brand voice, however this does not mean you should swing at all from your traditional as well as fundamental brand voice. Rather, you must craft the communications to align with your identity being a brand, and channel this character and voice to the suitable audience. The magic comes in existence when you provide the right tone of voice in the right channel towards the right audience at the most fortunate time. There are two types of crucial messages: primary and supplementary. Primary messages are wide statements that you want to connect to your key audience people. Each primary message needs to be simple, concise, and to the actual. This is not the time to elaborate. One sentence long, the primary meaning must capture what you want to perform and communicate to your people in a limited amount of time. For instance , Under Armour’s “Protect This kind of House” is a key meaning, and the tag line emphasizes constructing community.

If you want to expand along with elaborate on key messages, typically the secondary message comes into play. Supplementary messages provide additional proof to support the primary message. Utilizing facts, statistics, and additional info to build on the point layed out in the primary message, these types of messages can incorporate proof of what the client has already carried out on social media. There is no miracle number of secondary messages required to support your primary message, however, you should be thorough in your description of these points to avoid target audience confusion. A rule of thumb may be the more information you can provide to steer your audience members concerning actions they should take, the greater off you will be.

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The modern retail delivery model

The delivery model should be aligned with local market conditions, such as location, population (demography, household size and distribution), as well as customer habits and preferences (working time, family life). There are different requirements for delivery to urban, suburban, and rural populations (Boyer et al. 2009). Moreover, low price marketing strategies need to be matched by low cost operations (Boyer and Hult 2005). In the omnichannel context (Hübner et al. 2016b), it is possible to distinguish between traditional deliveries to the store, home deliveries, and pick-up from store by the customer (Click and Collect). In addition, different models of Click and Collect are being tested, offering the ability to pick-up goods in different locations. The major delivery models, to home and pick-up, are overviewed in the following sections.

Home Delivery

Home delivery is common in countries such as the UK and the Netherlands (Hübner et al. 2016b). This is usually done by a van designed to transport ambient, chilled, and frozen goods. However, home delivery may also be done via insulated boxes to keep food at the required temperature (Punakivi et al. 2001). Home delivery can be attended, when someone is present at the moment of collection (Hübner et al. 2016a, b). It can also be unattended, when items are left without the presence of the customer (Hübner et al. 2016a, b). This is also referred to as unsecured delivery—where items are left by the front door or in another, more secure location, such as a garden shed (McKinnon and Tallam 2003). Unattended delivery is not possible under all conditions. There may be no place for leaving goods or it is simply not safe enough due to theft, perishability, or accidental damage (Hübner et al. 2016a, b). In unsecured home delivery there is also no proof that the goods have been received by a customer, which can result in customer claims (McKinnon and Tallam 2003).

However, there are also problems potentially arising with attended home delivery. This relates to a time when a customer, or other family member, is available at home, and so is likely to restrict both the customer and the retailer during the allotted timeslot. So potential customer absence and retailer delay should be reflected in the planning and selection of the delivery slots offered to avoid the delivery having to be re-scheduled or cancelled. Unattended delivery tends to eliminate such problems but is not always possible or secure enough; however leaving a delivery with neighbours may be a solution when this problem arises, and could still be classified as an unattended delivery (McKinnon and Tallam 2003).

An alternative to an attended delivery is to leave the order in a defined pick-up point near the customer’s home or work place, such as an office or apartment reception, which is staffed during the day. In some solutions, goods can also be delivered to a home reception box or communal reception box designated specifically for online deliveries (McKinnon and Tallam 2003). Some reception boxes are designed specifically for grocery delivery—incorporating cooling systems to keep products fresh (Punakivi et al. 2001).

A combined model, when goods are left in a designated location and the customer has to collect items, can be classified as one of many types of Click and Collect delivery.

Click and Collect

Click and Collect is in fact a diverse concept and provides a whole family of solutions, as it might include various types of collection, from pick-up points, such as an independent local store, a drive-through fuel station, an automated collection point in a shopping centre, or some other designated location.

There are several Click and Collect (pick-up) classifications, and new models are under development so classifications might change over time. Hübner et al. (2016a, b) separated to in-store collection, attached to the store, and solitary (independent to the retailer’s location). Collection points can be also divided into attended (staffed) and unattended without a worker (McKinnon and Tallam 2003).

Click and Collect: In and Near the Store

An in-store collection point is located inside a store, such as at a reception desk. This option is relatively easy to create at low cost. At the beginning, it could be an existing customer service desk incorporating an additional collection service. However, there are limitations of this solution, such as the opening time needs to coincide with the store opening hours. This approach also requires customers to enter the store, usually after parking a car, so a convenient parking place is needed to be able to easily carry goods to the car (Delfmann et al. 2011). This approach may provide additional sales opportunities, as when the customer visits the store, they might also purchase additional goods or services during the visit. To address some of the weaknesses of in-store collection, attached points were developed, both attended (discussed here) and unattended (discussed as part of automated collection points).

An attached collection point, could be a dedicated drive-through point next to the retail store, thus there is no need to enter a store and carry goods from the store. The customer arrives by car, after getting to the drive-through point goods are loaded into the car and the customer drives away. Such attached points can be open at different times to the store. Another option of attached points, still located close to the store is lockers—or automated collection points.

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What Is Bitcoin Trading?

In general, trade includes buying, selling, or exchanging commodities. Bitcoin has been being used in the similar sense. Because of the very nature of bitcoin, one may see bitcoin as a currency as well as a commodity. Apart from using bitcoin as a media of exchange, one may make profits by buying or selling bitcoin when its price in the local currency decreases or increases, respectively. The year 2017 witnessed a huge spike in the price of bitcoin. Remember the volatility of bitcoin? The past trends have seen a variation of 30 percent in its prices in a single day. Also, it is generally possible to trade bitcoin 24/7.

Due to huge variation and jumps in price, there are two segments of traders, that is, long- and short-term traders. Long-term traders hold on to bitcoins for a longer duration with hopes of its value increasing even further. Short-term traders hold on to bitcoins for a comparatively shorter duration, in a hope to encash on the daily or short-term volatility in the price of the bitcoin.

Long-term traders study the past trends similar to stocks and hold on to it. A blockchain is considered as a bigger revolution than the Internet, whose potential is not explored yet. The possible use cases of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies are expected to explode much more in value than today. That is what long-term traders hope to cash on when bitcoin value soars much higher in value.

Short-term traders count on the daily fluctuations of bitcoin price. During 2013–2017 these traders made money based on the price changes on a daily basis. The price fluctuations were very high due to the adaptation rate by the users and merchants. More and more users and merchants are adopting bitcoin now. The adoption rate is also signified by Mrs. Watanabe. This is a term used to describe the archetypical Japanese housewife who seeks the best use of her family’s savings. Though historically risk averse, Mrs. Watanabe became a surprisingly big player in currency trading during the past decade to combat low interest rates in Japan. Mrs. Watanabe also considers safe investment options.

Considering increasingly lesser fluctuations in bitcoin price and more adoption rate with increasing acceptance by various big merchants, it seems better time to trade or invest in bitcoin today than before. With more knowledge of how bitcoin operates and gets used, one can reap significant benefits by bitcoin trading.

One can trade bitcoins as an exchanger. This means to identify the local bitcoin user community. One buys the bitcoins at a little lesser price, and then sets the threshold to sell at a little higher price. The range could be as low as 1 percent of the normal price or willingness to trade with higher risk appetite. Anyone can jump into this as an exchanger as it does not need market study as such. On the other hand, a trader needs much more financial analysis.

Are Traders Accepting Bitcoin? Which Ones?

Major traders have started accepting bitcoin as an additional method of payment for their goods or services. The transaction fees depends on the data size of the transaction and not on the actual amount of transaction. Regardless of the actual amount of trade, the transaction fees is the same.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin, said in 2009: “It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on”

And, this certainly has come true within a decade.

For the merchants, online or offline, transactions involving bitcoins offer security. The transactions are irreversible, reducing frauds or double spending problem. Currently, credit cards like Visa or MasterCard take a percentage cut on transactions. With payment gateways or card processors out of the picture, the merchants are able to keep more in their pocket. Most of the characteristics of bitcoins, for example, security, anonymity, may be taken as advantages or disadvantages to the merchants or users, depending on the context. It is important to understand that, even if bitcoin addresses and transactions are published publicly on the blockchain, still there is a factor of anonymity as the actual identifying details of the person doing transactions are not available. However, this anonymity is lost if the details of the bitcoin address-holder are also available.

There are a variety of goods and services one may buy using bitcoins. Bitcoin can be used to buy presents, gift cards, air tickets and hotels, app stores to download movies or games, or even donate to accepting merchants. An increasing number of online merchants are accepting bitcoins as an additional method of payment. The major merchants are Expedia, CheapAir, Microsoft, and Overstock, to name a few.

Overstock.com allows major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, Ethereum, and litecoin for online purchases. It also holds the distinction being the first big retailer to accept bitcoins back in 2014. A user selects the bitcoin option on checkout to make the payment using bitcoins. Expedia allows users to spend bitcoins to buy their hotel bookings. Coinbase was used to enable Expedia to do so.

Similar to eBay, Shopify offers users to have their online stores in their e-commerce platform. Shopify offers users to have bitcoin as one of their payment methods.

With bitcoins deposited as non-refundable funds, Microsoft allows users to download games, movies, or applications.

WordPress, Subway, Reddit, and Namecheapare additional merchants of reputation that accept bitcoin for their goods or services. The list continues to grow every day, hence instilling more credibility and confidence in the utility of bitcoins.

Quick response (QR) codes are becoming an increasingly popular means of payment. One can use the smartphone and wallet app by scanning the label and press the spend button. This way, the transaction gets completed.

As per coinmap.org, there are 12,994 venues as of July 31, 2018, that accept bitcoins as a method of payment.

As seen in the world map, the usage is not uniformly distributed. People in some countries are heavy users of bitcoins, whereas people in some countries are not into it at all, or not even heard of it. Regardless of how various countries or retailers are responding to it, it is evident that cryptocurrencies have made their stand quite prominently, bitcoin being the leader of these. Slowly and steadily, bitcoins and other digital currencies are evolving. A blockchain seems to be a big volcano in making in itself, until its use cases can be exploited.

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Understanding Activation Functions

In the human brain, a neuron collects inputs from different sources, integrates these inputs and then “fires,” sending its output to the other neurons it’s connected to. A node in an artificial neural network works much the same way:

Collects and weighs inputs from neurons in the previous layer.

Totals the inputs and adds bias.

Performs an activation function on the total and “fires” sending its output to the nodes it’s connected to.

Each neuron in an artificial neural network has an activation function that performs a mathematical operation on the sum of its inputs and bias and produces an output.

Different functions produce different outputs, and when you graph the outputs, you get different shapes. The most basic function used in artificial neurons is the Heaviside step function, named after its creator. This function outputs 1 (one) if its input plus bias is positive or zero, and it outputs 0 (zero) if its input plus bias is negative. In other words, the neuron either fires or not. When you graph this function, you get something that looks like a step in a stairway, as shown below. The output can be one or zero, nothing in between.

The Heaviside step function isn’t very useful for machine learning, because it has no sliding scale of outputs. For machine learning, you want to be able to make small adjustments to weights and biases, so the model can approximate a value precisely. With the Heaviside step function, a tiny adjustment to a weight or bias can flip the output from zero to one or vice versa.

To overcome the limitation of the Heaviside step function, artificial neural networks started employing the sigmoid function. When you graph a sigmoid function, you get an S-curve like the one shown below. Instead of only outputting a 0 (zero) or 1 (one), a sigmoid function can output any value between zero and one. Regardless of the magnitude of the input plus bias or whether it’s negative or positive, the sigmoid function’s output is between zero and one. Think of the sigmoid function as “squeezing down” the input, so it fits between zero and one. When you graph this function, the line looks as though it’s been squeezed to fit within a frame.

More recently, neural networks started using something called a rectified linear unit (ReLU). This function is sort of a combination of the Heaviside and sigmoid functions. Like the Heaviside function, if the input is negative, the neuron produces an output of 0 (zero); that is, the neuron doesn’t fire. If the input is positive, the function produces a precise output, as shown below.

Artificial neural networks use several different activation functions that produce lines of different shapes when graphed. The three activation functions described here are just a few of these functions.

The importance of the sigmoid and ReLU functions is that they enable learning of pertinent features for a given set of inputs. They enable the machine to make small adjustments to weights and biases to make small changes to corresponding outputs.

Adding Weights

Think of a neuron’s output as its brightness; the higher the number, the brighter the neuron. In the case of the 625 neurons that compose each of our dog images, each neuron’s output ranges from 0 (zero), black to 1 (one), white. Each of these neurons connects to the 20 neurons in the first hidden layer. By adding weights to these connections, any neuron in the first hidden layer can dial up or dial down the connection to shift its focus to different pixels, just as you might shift your focus when looking at the image.

For example, suppose you feed a picture of a Dalmatian into the machine, and one of the neurons in the first hidden layer dials up the connections to only those neurons in the input layer that output values of 0.01 or lower. This neuron is likely to focus on the dog’s spots and maybe its nose because they’re black. Or maybe it dials up the connections to the input layer neurons with output values 0.99 or higher and sees that the dog is mostly white. Another neuron in the hidden layer may dial down connections to input layer neurons with outputs in the range of 0.10 to 0.90 to strip out the background and focus on the outline of the dog, which might reflect its size and shape. Adding different levels of hidden layers may also result in learning different abstraction of features. The first hidden layer may learn basic features such as edges, corners, and colors. The second/higher hidden layers may learn higher order features such as dog’s facial features, tail size, body built, etc.

Each of these neurons in the first input layer is trying to identify a pattern that’s characteristic of the dog in the photo. If you feed it enough pictures of Dalmatians, it’s likely to start identifying Dalmatians.

Prior to training your artificial neural network, you assign random values to the connections. During training and testing, the network dials the connections up or down to improve its accuracy of identifying the different breeds. The network has 12,500 connections between the input layer and the first hidden layer, 400 connections between the first and second hidden layers, and another 200 connections between the second hidden layer and the output layer. That’s 13,100 total connections. You can think of this neural network as making 13,100 little decisions.

As you can see, this simple artificial neural network has a lot of dials to turn and ample opportunity to make adjustments. But those aren’t the only dials it can turn. It can also add and adjust bias, as discussed next.

Adding Bias

While weights enable an artificial neural network to adjust the strength of connections between neurons, bias can be used to make adjustments within neurons. Bias can be positive or negative, increasing or decreasing a neuron’s output. The neuron gathers and sums its inputs, adds bias (positive or negative) and then passes the total to the activation function.

In terms of the sigmoid function graph presented earlier in this chapter, weight impacts the steepness of the curve, while bias shifts the curve left or right without changing the shape of the curve. Together, weights and biases can be adjusted to shape the output to match the data. For example, suppose you plot points on a graph that form a pattern shaped like an S, but when you input data into your activation function, the S that the function generates is to the left of the data points. You can add bias to shift the S over to the right, so it aligns more closely with the data points.

This post is contributed by social media strategy blog.

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New product categories

And natural communication efforts you want to write a larger number of products. This is why the development of new categories has always been a favorite area for brands. One of the keys to success is the correct reading of the connecting lines between the original product and diversification of the area.

Michelin (1900) and road maps (1910) are examples of this type of historical interest of diversification. Promoting tourism as a manufacturer of car tires showed concern for innovation, but also fits perfectly into the context of the industry, which was in its infancy. At that time, the car remained the object of pleasure for the privileged classes, and not as a means of transport in general.

If the diversification of fashion and luxury seems natural environment, it is because the guard learned very early the importance of their labels. The famous No.5 perfume, launched by Coco Chanel in 1921 and is now the best selling perfumes in the world, remains one of the biggest hits. Over the last decade, this trend has reached feverish proportions, with the introduction of new products, which are sometimes completely removed from the legitimacy of the original products.

fashion brand, without traveling too far from the original matrix is ​​first transferred to the background: Rive Gauche Yves Saint Laurent and Emanuel Ungaro Ivory, compared Versace ""Emporio Armani"" D & G Dolce & G, DKNY Donna Karan, and so on. Then, in the 1990s, they developed a line of accessories (handbags, shoes, silk, glass), the sector with higher margins and growth, as well as effective communication carrier.

Ungaro, employed by the Ferragamo family in 1996 launched a line of accessories. Louis Vuitton began offering shoes. Loewe did the same thing, only to find that it does not become a shoemaker night, that to succeed in the new product category, you must be able to reach the consumer a message of seriousness, competitiveness not only in terms of product quality, richness and services at the point of sales, but also in harmony with the values ​​of the brand.

Going in the opposite direction, the signs of accessories (Ferragamo, Gucci, Bally, Prada, Loewe, and so on) in ready-to-wear diversified food. They created (usually through licensing) line of sunglasses, perfumes, watches and often. Bulgari began as a jeweler, and then developed accessories and fragrances. Jewelry and watches gained importance in the mid 1990. Now it seems as if lingerie is the new frontier of Christian Dior and Burberry, for example, are being developed in this field.

Finally, it attracts luxury hospitality brand. In 1987, the hotel Maruccia Mandelli (Krizia) opened the K Club in Barbados. Ferragamo family started investing in the mid-1990s, but without the association of the brand with her. Armani, just after the launch of products Armani Casa stores, has invested in hotels in Sardinia. Bulgari is more openly associated its brand with the industry in a joint venture with Marriott International group of luxury creation of Bulgari Hotels & Resorts, where Bulgari that manages compromise decor and Marriott. There is also a Versace, who opened the Palazzo Versace in Brisbane in 2000 and aims to develop in this area. After all, creating a living space, if well done and consistent with the brand values ​​must be an effective way to achieve the coveted status of brand styles of life. Only diversification outside of Camper shoes was in the area of ​​the hotel and restaurant.

Other companies are also interested in the potential of diversification. Marlboro has launched a clothing line by the mythology of the western open spaces, which based its digital advertising history for decades. Coca-Cola opened flagship stores selling all sorts of memorabilia, from t-shirts to coffee mugs, including elements such as trays decorated with advertising since 1930. Disney, Warner Bros., and even football teams (Manchester United Juventus, Real Madrid) has successfully developed this differentiation in the direction of product shopping.

Most brands and motorcycles began offering clothing and accessories more or less related to the use of their goods. Pirelli was one of the first to move in shoes, clothing and watches. However, products and customer segments, the most important extension was made by one of the most luxury brands Ferrari. In 2001, he was an important development of gifts, souvenirs, books, games, t-shirts, and so on, through licensing and brand, and the opening of flagship stores (about twenty in 2005, forty in 2010) and all the boutiques business world 2010, probably generated more than half of the total turnover of 1.92 billion euros. Ducati moving in the same strategic direction, showing more than fifty entrepreneurs on its website in 2010, with brands such as Microsoft, Puma, Mattel, and so on.

For some brands, such attacks can be seen as purely speculative and real growth ambitions, away from raw materials and brand identity. This is obviously a case of restaurant brands that have met with varying degrees of success (Lustucru Eurosport, Nescafe in Paris). And you may be wondering what the future of this perfume Harley-Davidson. Others, however, succeeded in recent years in developing new territories legitimacy that made them stronger. Time is a key factor here.

In his determination to reduce the number of brands in its group, Edwin Artz, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, he urged his people: ""Find a way, unique selling proposition, or justification for allowing the sale of different products within the same brand. ""

Another key to the success of product diversification strategy is the degree of brand conceptualization. The greater the number of values ​​expressed by the brand are conceptual in nature, the easier it is to adapt to the different categories and seemingly unrelated products. This led to the current fashion lifestyle brand, the natural culmination of the principle of diversification. The concept is very strong. Points for all products and services that people use every day, what they wear, eat, drink and smoke, but also their surroundings or sedentary life, including furniture, bedding, wallpaper, decorator items curtains, flooring, paint utensils, suitcases , and so on. Lifestyle is done by the hotel where they are staying.

With a single brand is a way to ensure the viability of all investments made in the promotion of that identity, which includes everything.

For brands whose identity is based on the style of life, diversification of production is often easy. Such is the case of Ralph Lauren, which promotes traditional lifestyle WASP New England. All products containing dishes and entertainment venues, and paint the homes of customers, are beautifully presented in shops, particularly in the flagship store on Madison Avenue in New York, where he offered a lifestyle that is very clear.

Other trademarks, whose identity is strongly linked with the product or characters are harder or more conservative. Missoni, which has established its identity in a specific tissue type and a specific color palette, do not go too far from mastering some of the clothing and accessories. In addition, most original initiatives are not always effective. They can increase the visibility of time-stamped, but without having to pay for the investment they represented. Consumers are always there to remind us that other products leave the domain of legitimacy consolidated harder it is to achieve rapid success.

Diversification is the surface so that it may be advantageous if the compound smart general rule is complied with. But it is not always obvious. It is important to take every precaution to be competent to explain the evolution of the characteristics of brands and products in time and especially for the treatment of time and change of identity reduces the trademark with respect.

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Facebook identity

The key distinction, then, between traditional notions of identity and the identity of the SNS (and Facebook in particular) is that while the former, though the same built, is in the singular, the second is the individual or innate, but the product of social, which is the result of a specific the social environment subject to various contexts.32 in 2007, were made available to the poor three years after the creation of Facebook, and just a year later, Facebook profiles of those who do not have a university e-mail account, a little cool transition from student members of the University staff has previously reported management their identities for different audiences, a practice which was common among people with personal sites and blogs for several years.

In essence, Facebook profiles amounted to a series of statements of identity, either express or implied. These are the first positive reports of these indicators, such as age, location, education, employment and marital status. The latter can be done by selective list of friends and favorite multimedia entertainment, business groups, photos, videos, and later improvements hobbies.34 Facebook privacy options to help manage strategic identity, allowing users to a group of friends as part of their profiles that they are willing to allow access. Initially, users are limited to ""tame"" their profile data, but sometimes find similarities in the data available at least discreet friends incriminating pages.

contact list associated with profiles on Facebook are often as different as they are long, often not only the family, friends and colleagues, who meet regularly in the physical world, but also those who are unlikely to find is included in the people, the future, the more distant relatives; main partner, high school and college; colleagues of past employment; knowledge of more casual; and even a little ""he never met outside the virtual space. Because Facebook allows users to mix to meet people at different levels and in different fields, and since Facebook allows strategic actions and specific identity, one would expect Facebook users to customize profiles for individual customers. And indeed, people in environments nonymous online are more likely to occur in such a way as to put them more in line with expectations, regulatory and Facebook profiles, in particular, they tend to reflect the identity, sometimes highly desirable identity as well socially, at least partly reflects the aspirations that still realized.36 still have to be these presentations can not change the basic components of personality: a recent study found that, at least when it comes to the big five personality traits -Opening, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism-there was no evidence that the figures were similar forum these stocks to psychological tests.

When these normative expectations differ from the user has ""friended"" or when interrogating specifications socially desirable identities, Facebook now offers at least two possible solutions: a group of ""friends"" in an almost unlimited number of categories, each with its own level of availability of content in user profiles (or other ""friends"" user) or create different profiles (and identity), all hidden for quick navigation, but makes visible ""user wants to see. first it requires constant attention to the possibility of new content for classes and from time to time to be the most appropriate category for ""friend"" in cases where the nature of the relationship with the ""friend"" is not static. the latter allows less supervision, but for geometric increase in job maintaining relations with one of those ""friends"" in all respects.

For users homosexuals whose sexuality defined as those in close proximity, both in terms of physical geography and the frequency and depth of contact, and therefore that the sauce was an anachronism or abandoned or part grata away from his past, this ability raises the specter of voluntary return symbol oppression and lack of recognition expectations, real or imagined, important to the other. It is also a reminder that in the period of the offer as much evidence of his marriage after rarity and Ellen and military service, and the gays and legislators lesbians collectively more progress than individuals, and not the validation of the performance prediction of a secret penetration Sedgwick elasticity, forced distance, convenience, and maybe even embarrassment.

Who owns the identity?

Potentially the most important issues raised by the notion of identity as something finished object manipulation, and propagation. Particular areas in which identity may be revealed face, mediated and virtual is probably what led to the simple but eloquent definition Altheide identity as part of the car, which are known to others. Definition 39 Gregory Stone provides greater complexity, but also more operational accuracy. This is more than the subject of negotiations in which the construction of identity includes both the announcement of the identity of individual identity and location made by others approve. Identity, and then the stone is laid for advertising and positioning of the match. In case using the approach Altheide part of me knows that it is constant, but part of it, we met other requirements are different, so those who do not really belong identity?

There is also the question of what might be called ""the primacy of identity"" or between multiple identities and conflicts can possibly be regarded as the most accurate and complete. As noted, Facebook allows users to create the expected possible identities that are not possible in the real world. Facebook ""friends"" who do not meet the new user in the physical space, it is the user's profile; no one else can think or significant and recognizable. Therefore, the digital, which not only improve their self-image and identity of the ad to the user, but also how Zhao, Grasmuck Martin said, very clear, as have real consequences for the lives of those who built them. 42 are not new copies are worse or exaggeration or online identity. There is a unique, authentic and without identity reminder identity, especially when identity have value only in its usefulness as currency of social exchange with others and, like most goods can be reproduced and adapted to the will,

This does not mean that the identity in the era of the SNS is of no value; in fact, they are very valuable because they facilitate trade compromise, which is not only prohibited by the geographical location of the parties. Perhaps his identity can not belong to another person. In what is undoubtedly an eloquent demonstration Facebook user said investigators believed their identity, along with those of other Facebook users may be linked to their Facebook page.

pending

There are significant for what has been achieved on the basis of the results of these SNS users who self-report their study and theoretical implications. Among the most significant, the author claims that this is the online identity provides a space to rethink the role of constant social changes in the production and reception.

In his recent article about online identity Alice Marwick and Danah Boyd mirror SNS he created a third type of hearing non-public writer, which is specific to the author's intention, nor the public media, whose various and indefinite restricted content producers of an appeal, but the mass public network, whose members are connected to the author / producer, but also to each other.44 observes the phenomenon of ""context collapse"" that occurs when a person can no longer be sure of a common set of experiences and expectations of those with whom he / she is connected. It also suggests a more engaged audience, which you can build not only a user's identity based on their exchange with the user, but also on the basis of exchange with others in their network to other networks, and by ""observing the exchange between users and others.

Identity can be considered as the main currency in the SNS. Even when trade Facebook you are not a user, when, for example, you have a point of view, publish a story, or ""friends"" invited to the game or join a group to exchange the meaning lies more in the ""who"", ""what"". If, as the author suggested in the preceding paragraph, the identity can not be treated individually because of its multiple and subjective authenticity (or lack of leadership), it follows that the characteristics surrounding the currency loses its meaning once. Boyd public network Marwick and is associated with the manufacturer of the network as well. Research on cultural identity as products bulwarks of trade between the producer and the society could not be more important, the multiplicity of negotiations (not all of them associated with the manufacturer apparent) will be held, although the manner (in this case, ""identity), is still in gearbox.

If this is the case, then many opportunities for future research seems simple. Firstly, the role of ""friends"" as a user (or public network, such as Marwick and Boyd to describe them) play in building their version of identity and make a connection between ""friends"" number in any building A unique identity composed by the user, whether they are able to build and maintain a modern identity for the user? What are the opportunities and risks associated with the effort for the user to change his / her identity, in particular if these efforts are directed selectively some of the network ""friend"" and these networks are connected to other networks ""friend""? And if no one ""owns"" he / she (or other) identity, considering the obvious trend of users of social media was forced to resign from the privacy of the perceived value (eg L ""access exclusive products and services, shopping discounts, or SNS ) applications what is the potential for manipulation of identity by persons who are not their friends, although the combination of products, services, causes, etc. street?

For LGBT people, the irony is that the same SNS-Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and its competitors, seemingly easy to create multiple identities (and cabinets) can make it difficult to maintain if other friends in their network - """" follow e ' 'cerchio members are involved in the construction and maintenance of identity and are aware of each other. SNS assuming that there are at least as ubiquitous in the future as they are today, it seems likely that with the advent of social media and the offspring of social marketing, commerce, among other things, that users see as part of the separate areas of their lives will almost certainly be more common and less identity under their ownership or influence by creating a digital media strategy.

Another paradox is that during the cabinet Sedgwick can be difficult to maintain in the future and, therefore, exists for people with friends and not related directly and indirectly with the SNS, the family, but also that raised legions, and they are allowed to ""those who they think they know something about what you may not know each other ""enormously inflated number.

[rickyabache]

Formulating a Problem Hypothesis

Skill

Customers may have expertise with service providers and confidence they can navigate the web, but have limited skills when typing long messages on a keyboard. In this case, these customers may love the website, but find the process of completing contact forms for service providers daunting and laborious.How to Identify Customers’

Problems

Many of you may be saying, “We talk to our customers all the time, and when we ask them about what frustrates them, they say they’re ‘okay’ or they ask for something we can’t fix.”As you begin your investigation, talking with customers and lifting every rock, your team may become frustrated by the lack of valuable leads. While talking with customers is a great way to explore your customers’ problems, it can be difficult to identify problems your team can actually solve.As an interviewer, it’s critically important to not only listen to what the customer is telling you, but also look for what they’renot telling you. Sometimes customers want to be agreeable and not come off as rude or complaining. They may accept a problem or inefficient workaround because it’s “not that big of a deal.” Without careful observation or attentive listening, you might overlook these types of problems.When Procter and Gamble (P&G) acquired Gillette, maker of razors and grooming products, P&G’s president of men’s grooming, Chip Bergh, became responsible for the new strategy. Although Gillette was already a successful company in the United States, Bergh was looking to leverage Gillette’s existing capabilities while identifying new growth opportunities. As part of his growth strategy, he wanted to expand Gillette’s business into new, emerging markets. This strategy led him to focus his attention on India.

P&G, which is known for their customer-driven research, thought it would be best to take the entire team to India for two weeks. For the Gillette team, ethnographic research was a new practice; they’d built a very successful company using quantitative metrics to understand their customers. The idea of traveling all the way to India to learn more about customers seemed like a waste of resources. The Gillette team felt that they could easily gather the same insights from Indian men living in the United States, without having to incur the costs of a trip to India.

Even though he was met with resistance, Bergh was finally able to convince the team to go to India. During their visit, the team spent time observing the mundane routines and practices of men shaving throughout the week. While many of the practices were the same as those of American men, the team quickly learned advertising and brand valuation, that there was one fundamental difference: many of the men in India were shaving without the use of running water. In fact, most of the men filled a single cup of cold water to shave.

The team was mortified. It was difficult to watch these men struggle with their razors as they became clogged with hair, ultimately becoming ineffective and useless. To work properly, the Gillette razor technology required warm water to wash the blades clean. It had never occurred to the team that customers would be using their razors with cold water or without a large sink. Their entire line of razors did not perform well under those types of conditions. The team had never considered asking questions about water usage and availability, because running water was plentiful in the United States.

Excited that they had uncovered a new opportunity, in emerging social media platforms, the team got to work on a new, single-blade razor specifically for markets without access to warm, running water.

Within three months, the Gillette Guard razor was released in India and became the best-selling razor on the market. The story of Gillette is a powerful reminder of the cost of having the wrong assumptions about the problems our customers are facing. If the Gillette team had stayed in the United States and held onto their assumption that the challenges faced by American men would generalize to groups living outside of the United States, they may have never uncovered a unique opportunity for new customers in India.

The bottom line is that customers reward us for solving their problems and ignore us when we don’t.

As with the type of customer and their motivations, we’re susceptible to having incorrect assumptions about the customer’s problem as well. If we don’t validate that our customers are, in fact, having a problem and that it’s painful enough for them to seek a resolution, we end up building solutions in search of a problem.

Focusing on Customers’ Limitations

At its heart, the Problem stage is where we focus on what’s preventing the customers from achieving their goals. As in the Customer stage, we want to gain a full picture of the problem space; only then can we provide the proper solution. Misunderstanding the problem can lead us down a path of providing ineffective solutions, or worse, introducing new problems our customers didn’t have before. While we may have technical limitations within our product, there can also be many external factors that prevent our customers from achieving a desirable outcome.

Let’s return to our example website that helps customers find service providers in their area. There could be many factors that prevent our customers from successfully finding a provider:

Money

Customers are limited by the amount they can spend on services like house cleaning, childcare, and pool cleaning. Therefore, finding a service provider that is affordable is of high importance.

Time

Perhaps the customer doesn’t have a lot of time to spend looking for the right service provider. They may visit our site with an expectation of finding providers quickly, but leave in frustration because it takes too much time to filter results to find the provider they’re looking for.

Knowledge

Our customers could have a diverse set of knowledge and experience. Some might find the site too basic and would prefer advanced features, while others want an experience tailored to someone just getting started.

Confidence

Customers can put off decisions or lose motivation if they feel anxious or defeated. Great products engender trust and empower customers, giving them the confidence they need to achieve their goals. Skill Customers may have expertise with service providers and confidence they can navigate the web, but have limited skills when typing long messages on a keyboard. In this case, these customers may love the website, but find the process of completing contact forms for service providers daunting and laborious.

How to Identify Customers’ Problems

Many of you may be saying, “We talk to our customers all the time, and when we ask them about what frustrates them, they say they’re ‘okay’ or they ask for something we can’t fix.”

As you begin your investigation, talking with customers and lifting every rock, your team may become frustrated by the lack of valuable leads. While talking with customers is a great way to explore your customers’ problems, it can be difficult to identify problems your team can actually solve.

As an interviewer, it’s critically important to not only listen to what the customer is telling you, but also look for what they’renot telling you. Sometimes customers want to be agreeable and not come off as rude or complaining. They may accept a problem or inefficient workaround because it’s “not that big of a deal.” Without careful observation or attentive listening, you might overlook these types of problems.

Let’s look at another example from Procter & Gamble. In 1994, P&G partnered with Continuum, a research and design firm, to help them identify new innovations in the category of home cleaning with the goal of generating $5 billion in revenue from new product lines.

If we talked to customers about how they clean their floors, we imagine that many of them would say they use a broom and a mop, and that for the most part, that method is “okay.”

To get around this, Continuum decided to not only talk with customers, but also to visit them at home and watch them clean their floors.

Formulating a Problem Hypothesis

As in the Customer stage, before we talk with customers we want to formulate our assumptions about our customers’ problems into hypotheses that can be validated. The Problem stage of the HPF uses the following hypothesis template:We believe [type of customers] are frustrated by [job-to-be-done] because of [problem].

Ideally, at the Problem stage, we have validated that this statement is true. In other words, we talked to office administrators working for small businesses for social media decals for business and determined that many of them use promotional brochures to promote their business offerings.

This leads us to the following Problem hypothesis template:

We believe office administrators working for small businesses are frustrated when creating promotional brochures because of [problem].

We’ve taken the type of customer (office administrators working for small businesses) and job-to-be-done (creating promotional brochures), and progressed them to the Problem stage. This is where the Progression comes from in the Hypothesis Progression Framework.

As a team, we can now list limitations, constraints, problems, or frustrations that get in the way of office administrators successfully creating product brochures.

For example, maybe we believe that, when office administrators create promotional brochures, they are frustrated by:

The lack of aesthetically pleasing designs

The time it takes to get started

Having to print the brochure correctly, so it can be folded the right way

Resizing images in the brochure and ensuring that they are still of premium print quality

Therefore, if we wanted talk to customers about these problems, our Discussion Guide might look like this:

How do you feel about the design choices StarDoc gives you for creating a brochure?

About how long did it take you to get started with creating your brochure?

Talk to me about the process of printing the brochure.

How do you go about adding images to your brochure? What’s that process like for you?

We could use it in our interview like this:If you could wave a magic wand and change anything — doesn’t matter if it’s possible or not — about creating promotional brochures, what would it be?Giving the customer a “magic wand” to point at the job-to-be-done allows them the creative freedom to explore their dream scenario. Customers may come up with some silly and unrealistic answers, but many times, you’ll find meaningful insights when you let them imagine a delightful experience.

Avoiding Problems Not Worth Solving

When talking with customers, it’s important to not only listen for problems that are worth solving, but problems that aren’t worth solving as well.

Going back to our service provider website example, imagine we believed our service providers were frustrated because they didn’t have a website to promote their services. We believed there might be a service opportunity for us to help our providers build their own websites and host them within our portal.

When we talked to our providers who didn’t have a website, we heard many frustrations. They complained about not having an online presence and how they wished creating a website could be easier for their business. They were frustrated because many of their competitors had websites, and they felt like it was a competitive advantage. In fact, some providers even suggested we offer a website creation service. One provider said, “I’ll give you my wallet!” if we solved this problem for him.

This may seem like a problem worth solving. However, the desire to have a website is not the same as having a problemwith not having a website.

Imagine we had asked them questions like:

How are you getting around this problem today?

How often do you try to solve this problem?

How much time do you typically spend investigating solutions to this problem?

How much money have you invested to try to solve this problem?

Many of our service providers said we should help them build their website, but when we asked them how they were currently addressing this problem, their responses were less than encouraging.

For example, none of the providers we spoke to had spent any money to solve this problem (even the one who said he’d give us his wallet). Additionally, only a few had spent time investigating a solution. Many admitted that they hadn’t really thought about it until we brought it up.

Therefore, we might conclude that while providers are frustrated about not having a website, it simply isn’t a problem they’re motivated to solve.

So, we need to ask ourselves, “If customers aren’t willing to buy other products that solve this problem, what makes us think they’d be willing to buy our solution?”

As you explore customer motivations and problems, it will become increasingly important to collect and organize your findings.

We also find there is tremendous value in meeting as a team, periodically throughout the project, to reflect on and assess how your customer interviews are going. Teams that have a constant, ongoing dialog about what they’re learning tend to grow much more rapidly in their understanding of the customer and their problems.

Be sure to check out the Customer and Problem playbooks at the back of this book. We’ve included sensemaking activities that can help you “flatten out” your customer interview data. This will help you see all the data points that have been collected, so you and your team can begin to identify patterns.

We will repeat this process, iterating and attempting to validate our Customer and Problem hypotheses, until we’ve gained a high degree of confidence that we understand the customer and their problems. Throughout the first two stages of the HPF, Customer and Problem, we are developing our understanding of the customer. However, customer development is only half the equation. Discovering a unique opportunity or a worthy problem to solve can be exciting, but how we solve that problem will ultimately determine our success.