Charlotte's Organizational Rhetoric Blog

https://www.theoutdooradventurestore.com

1. ) While The Outdoor Adventure store offers quality outdoor apparel and experiences to it’s customers, one major constraint that applies to risk rhetoric is their effectiveness on assuring public safety among their consumers. This organization provides it’s customers with the ability to explore FarmVille through their bike and kayak rentals, however, nowhere on  their website does it explain how they can guarantee safety for the customers.     I believe if potential customers were able to have a better understanding of their safety policy, more would be likely to rent bikes and kayaks from the store.

2.) Non-experts qualify as the audience for this organization. While The Outdoor Adventure Store does a great job targeting it’s audience of frequent exercisers, or adventure junkies, it’s store is open to anyone among the public to come into  their store. Therefore, their audience is not restricted to just professional athletes, per say, or highly skilled outdoor enthusiasts.

3.) In regards to risk, The Outdoor Adventure Store remains strict on what it’s organization promotes. By only offering outdoor gear, activities, this organization has the potential to attract experts to their store. For example, someone from an expert audience may be a frequent consumer of North Face backpacks, and if they were to come across the store, they could start a movement on getting more expert audiences into the store. However, as of now it is still open to the general public. Thus the strategies they use for their non-expert audience is that they allow for anyone to enter the store at their choice.

4.) I observed that The Outdoor Adventure Store’s “Service Center” tab offers a safety check, for $25. The safety check is an inspection process on bikes. While this does ensure proper safety, it does not apply to all the bikes they rent out. It means that audiences can come in and have their bikes inspected for a small fee. This is, however, one minor way that the organization appeals to credibility within their organization, because they offer safety precautions to their customers.

5.) Because this organization needs improvement on promoting public safety, I would gather that as of now they are not entirely qualified to speak about this particular risk topic. However, they can fix this problem by altering their website so that it goes into depth about how they value the protection of their customers. For example, they could say that all customers are required to wear a helmet.

6.) Considering that there is frequent room for improvement with risk, The Outdoor Adventure Store invites participation in the risk assessment process. One way the store can provide participation is by hiring an expert on outdoor safety, and they can give them tips on how to provide their customers with  guaranteed safety.

7.) Since the organization does offer outdoor activity, that is one way it allows the audiences to make fully informed choices on whether risk is likely to occur. A potential audience member may want to know how this organization ensures a safe experience for them when renting a bike or kayak, and yet because the website does not give an explanation, they may assume consequences of their experience, such as falling off the bikes and not having any assistance provided.

As I continue to analyze my selected organization, The Outdoor Adventure Store, for this post, I will be focusing on what the site lacks.

Rhetorical Situation:

1.  Exigencies: The Outdoor Adventure Store’s site lacks information on the “story” of their organization. Most often, organizations will provide content on how their organization came about, whether it’s from previous experiences, or just simply what it took for the organization to get to their success. A story offers the audience the ability to have a more clear understanding of why the organization is passionate about what they do. For my selected organization, however, they do  not have a written story in their site. I would say that this is an opportunity for the organization to grow in their business by producing new content on their website. The website can be found here: https://www.theoutdooradventurestore.com

2. Audiences: The most appropriate audience for this situation are functional audiences. The audience members include people such as customers and employees. (Hoffman, Ford, 123). The Outdoor Adventure Store provides potential customers with efficient outdoor gear, as well as entertainment around FarmVille with their rentable bikes and kayaks. Therefore, without customers, the store would not function at all. The employees too, play a large role in the organization, because they are the foundation of the store when it comes to providing their customers with the full experience of their organization.

3. Constraints and Assets: In order to answer the exigencies, what may be difficult for the organization is figuring out how to produce new content for their website. I have gathered that they do not spend a good deal of time on their website, therefore, they may need to hire someone more equips in the technology field to create a more engaging site. The preexisting beliefs that could affect how the message is interpreted would not interfere with it’s audience, because they have not changed the way they run their store. That is, they are still an organization that focuses on outdoor activity.

Issues:

1. The organization does not focus on particular issue, however, if they were to focus on a possible lack in exercise or outdoor activity, they would be qualified in a sense that their organization sells outdoor gear.

2. I do not see any evidence from previous audiences that they have been consulted and had a reasonable opportunity to influence the process, mostly because the website does not exemplify a specific issue it’s focusing on.

3. Although no specific issue is focused on, what is clearly said is that this organization promotes outdoor activity. Therefore, some research could be done on whether or not society has a whole should get outside and get active more, and this organization would go hand in hand with that issue because of what their organization offers.

4. The Outdoor Adventure Store de-emphasizes information that might influence the issue, because the audience is unaware of an issue they are focusing on, and they do not have a story to tell, yet.

 

https://www.theoutdooradventurestore.com

1. Identifying Strategies of Organizational Rhetoric

a) The Outdoor Adventure stores uses association one way through their media, by showcasing an image of the store on the front of their website. This way, potential customers are able to get a feel for the store before even coming in when they explore the website. The picture is specifically inviting, as all the products are neat and organized, and thus, their content suggests that this store is a friendly and welcoming environment.

b) When it comes to differentiation, one strategy that the outdoor adventure store uses is that they offer free shipping on their products when customers spend over $50. This strategy allows the store to provide a unique option of payment, whereas other stores may not have this option when purchasing. It also encourages customers to spend a certain amount of money in order to save on shipping.

c) Branding is very apparent on this website. The Outdoor Adventure Store is known for selling various popular brands such as Patagonia, The North Face, Life is Good, Keen, and more. While these aren’t the stores brands, by offering such high demand products in their store, they can target a wider audience, and thus, grow in their own personal brand. The design of the store’s brand emphasizes that they promote outdoor activity, however, I feel as though they can elaborate more on their design.

d) These strategies help create a clear idea of what this company is all about. The Outdoor Adventure Store is unique in a sense that it is local, and competition is low. Therefore, they are given the availability to emphasize what makes their store great in order to attract customers. These strategies specifically help this organization maintain a focus on their local store, meaning that they can urge the public to see what they have to offer because they are different from larger stores that sell similar products.

e) Channels of delivery help spread the word to the public about organizations. Through blogs, people can see certain images on the organization’s profile of and keep up with specific events. Consumers can then be directed to a certain the website through their blog page. However, this company lacks an up-keep of their blog, therefore, some critiquing must be made.

f) The Outdoor Adventure Store is already known as a local store in FarmVille. People come to purchase their products, but more importantly, they rent bikes and kayaks from the store, which allows them to explore FarmVille. In order to maintain their identity to advance their own goals, this store can create a social media page in order to advocate for their store so that more people from the FarmVille community and beyond can find out about this store.

2. Key Elements of the Rhetorical Situation 

a) I would say that this is a situation that calls for identity-building rhetoric. While they are the only store in FarmVille to be an outdoor adventure store, they do not promote themselves effectively through media, and thus, business can be slow. I suggest that they can improve and bring more customers in by emphasizing how their store allows people to see FarmVille through and outdoor perspective. By displaying images of people in their products on social media, more people can become engaged with the store.

b) Functional audiences seem to be the target audiences in this situation, because without customers, this store would not make it very far. I think they store is very reliant on it’s customers, as well as employees, because their jobs keep the store whole. The employees of this store serve a purpose to promote the positivity of the store, and the customers keep it running smoothly by consistently purchasing their products.

c) I think that consistency is a constraint in this case. It’s noted that it’s important to be consistent with the rhetoric of the organization, and this organization is not extremely consistent in keeping up with the content of their website and their blog. This constraint may make it difficult for potential consumers to keep up with new things going on in the store, such as new deals on products, or store hours.

I have selected The Outdoor Adventure Store as my business that I will be analyzing and critiquing for my project. The Outdoor Adventure Store is a small business located in FarmVille, VA.

https://www.theoutdooradventurestore.com/

Analysis of the Website:

The website displays their products on the home page, therefore, the audience is able to make immediate decisions on purchasing the outdoor gear they sell. The story of the company is left unsaid. I believe when a business shares how they came about their company, buyers consumers are more intrigued to by their products, because they know the quality better. There is no specific speaker on the site, but there is a phone number for contact information. Anyone who enjoys the outdoors may find themselves on this site. While this business does attract people who prefer to spend their time outdoors, this limits them to more potential customers, because they only appeal to one particular group. They do, however, collaborate with several brands, such as Patagonia, The North Face, Life is Good, and more. I know for me personally, I am not constantly outdoors, however I love Patagonia’s clothing.

Improvement:

I would improve this site’s rhetoric by expressing my ideas to this company of how it can appeal to a larger audience. For staters, I would suggest that they implement the story of their company onto their site. I would also suggest that they showcase the brands that their store sells in a larger way, so that more people can see what they sell, and attract more customers. The uniqueness to this store is that it is located in FarmVille, VA. Their logo does not incorporate their location, therefore, I’d recommend that they include visuals of FarmVille into their logo.

As I continue to construct my analysis, I have decided to switch to a new artifact. I will be analyzing the brand, Dove, and how they promote beauty and confidence in women through their products. You may find my artifact below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

The Social/Public Issue:

Dove has brought serious attention to the issues that women are dealt with on a daily basis, which is how they perceive themselves. According to my artifact, women struggle with seeing themselves beyond their imperfections. Throughout the ad, each woman featured is challenged to describe herself, and what’s apparent is how much they focus on what they do not like about their appearance. Through this video, Dove conveys a message that woman are constantly putting themselves down for how they look, because they would rather look a certain way, and thus, their inner and outer beauty needs to be appreciated. Dove is brining up a vulnerable, yet important social issue on how women’s self-esteem needs to rapidly change, by showing that all women deserve to feel beautiful.

Method:

Considering that this artifact focuses on deconstructing the norms of how women are perceived, I believe the method I would need to analyze is feminist criticism. I would choose this method because the ad’s central focus is to get rid of how women view themselves poorly. Thus, a feminist perspective would bring attention to this social issue, and try to act on this problem, by critiquing how members of society among women have created unrealistic images of how women wish to look.

Audiences:

Dove is targeting women among modern day society that struggle with similar issues to the women in this ad. Because the ad features women of all ages, it appears that this artifact is aiming towards all types of age groups among women, and significantly, this brings a sense of inclusion to the women population that women ranging from younger to older experience the same struggles in the ways they view themselves. The implications of this company’s rhetoric is that Dove wants to bring women together, and lift each other up in order to tear down negative self-esteem that is experienced in an individual woman’s daily life.

Assumptions:

I have gathered an assumption that Dove is trying to sell their products with a story and a purpose. I am a frequent consumer of Dove beauty products, however, their message of delivering positive experiences about how women feel about themselves makes me value my products even more. I assume that Dove cares deeply on the social issue addressed about women’s lack of positive self-esteem, and has taken matters into their own hands. The members of this organization may have previously experienced lower self-confidence, or body image struggles, and put that into products that can make women feel confident. Another assumption may be that the members of this organization feel deeply about empowering women, and utilize their passions throughout their time spent in this organization. Society in general has clearly created false ideas of how women should look, and Dove is striving to end those generalizations for the well-being of struggling women.

Visual Rhetoric:

The visual rhetoric in this artifact suggests how women all come from different colors, shapes, and sizes, and are all made differently. This ad highlights the vulnerability shown in each women when they talk about what they’d like to change about themselves. The audience is able to see how women react to the images that are drawn of themselves by the artist in the video. Drawings of the women are shown, and the audience can visualize how hard women are on themselves for the appearances, when the drawings turn out to look nothing like them in real life.

Interests:

I think this can be answered rather broadly, however, when it comes to what interests represented by the organizations message, I think they primarily focus on women empowerment. Dove makes a powerful message that they want all women to change negative perspectives of themselves. Therefore, I can conclude that this organization feels passionately about making women feel they way they deserve, by giving them the freedom to open up about their insecurities, which, enables them to get past those insecurities. When women are encouraging other women, less harsh judgement is made about each other, and Dove is striving to end that through their ad.

My Personal Goal:

I strongly hope that anyone (even men if applicable), that finds this analysis relatable, or applicable to their lives can overcome their failure to view themselves for who they truly are. I believe that there is something about everyone in society that makes them unique, and when societal pressures to look a certain way takes over, most often, we tend to put ourselves down for not looking like a model on a magazine, for example. I believe my analysis can bring positive reinforcement on encouraging women to embrace their true selves, and that my potential audience is able to do so as well.

For my selected artifact, I will be analyzing a marketing company, MTKG and exploring the rhetorical straggles on how promote high quality branding, with creative and engaging strategies.

Exigencies 

I am specifically analyzing this company’s website. As far as exigencies in this artifact go, the only challenge that occurs in the rhetorical situation is how the website is poorly executed. When I did further research on this company, I found that they work for larger brands, such as the NFL, Leggo, Toyota, and more. Their website, however focuses more on advertising their company’s message. While it is clear that they strive to please their audience, the overall content of their website could use some work. Some options would that organizational rhetors include what specific brands sponsor, in order to bring in a larger audience, as these brands are highly well known.

 

Audiences

The audiences that seem to be the most appropriate for the rhetorical situation are functional audiences. Because this company sponsors very well-known brands across the world, the characteristics of a functional audience go hand in hand with this company. For example, according to the textbook, functional audiences consist of “employees, customers, or suppliers.” (Hoffman, Ford, 66). Thus, with such large brands taking place throughout MTKG, they attract audience that may work for the brands, as well potential customers and suppliers.

 

Constraints and Assets 

I don’t think I have a perfect answer for how it may be difficult for the organization to answer the exigencies, because they provide no explanation. However, what makes it easier is that they do value people. Not only do they pride their hardworking staff, they take into consideration that their audience may be attracted to a company that is welcoming, and hard-working, therefore, that could be why the content of the rhetorical artifact focuses less on the specific brands, and more on people, because that is their targeted audience.

 

Rhetorical Situations 

One rhetorical situation that is similar to other types of situations is risk. The company does put themselves at risk by not properly executing a more specific website. What they may need to take into consideration is how well they advertise their company, because if they don’t they are taking a risk on the success of performing strong rhetorical situations.

For my third post, I am displaying the content of MTKG’s website.

http://mktg.com/about/people/

The medium of delivery:

MTKG’s website allows you to explore each aspect of their company, and explains why they do marketing so well as well as what motivates their employees. I, however, specifically focus on a section of the website that discusses the people. The rhetoric of this website allows viewers to read about this company’s passion for people, and there are several photos of the members of the MTKG team.

“The backbone of MKTG culture is our commitment to a personal and trusting relationship with our clients and with each other. We pride ourselves on being vulnerable- connecting deeply and engaging sincerely.”

Ethos:

The website shows a plethora of real pictures of employees. The significance of these pictures are that they’re not just head shots taken in front of a white screen. These pictures consist of people actively doing things they love outside of their jobs. For example, there’s one photo of a woman named Susana in front of her horse. I can see that these pictures emphasize the importance of ethos, because they visually prove that their company is true to their word about creating meaningful relationships within the company, because they are accepting of everyone’s interests.

Pathos:

One major way that a rhetor appeals to their audience is when they allow themselves to be vulnerable about themselves in front of a crowd. Therefore, this website utilizes pathos when they state in the quote above that they are strongly acceptable to each other’s vulnerability. I believe that this allows viewers of this website to feel emotionally connected to these clients, and that they too, can be vulnerable.

Logos:

Once I clicked on the pictures of the employees, I find specific evidence about them. For example, under a picture of a woman named Laura, it says that she traveled the world for four months alone, and has been able to incorporate her passion for traveling within her job at MKTG. She brings brands together within local organizations in order to create effective social change in various communities. By explaining what Laura does within the company, logos is applied because there is valid evidence that the overall message of MKTG’s love for it’s employees and clients can be used every day.

For my paper, I will be analyzing a marketing company, MKTG. MTKG focuses on connecting branding with people all over the world. I chose this company because it has consists of an audience that goes from average consumers throughout the country, all the way to large companies including Toyota, the NFL, Lego, Wells Fargo, and more. This company cares deeply about influencing their audience emotionally, which is something I believe I can achieve with my own personal skills, thus, studying about a company such as MKTG provides with an opportunity to explore my career path.

By researching this company and learning more about their focus on effective marketing, I am able to gather a plethora of information on how to apply rhetoric into this assignment by observing how they use it to attract their audience, in this case, with marketing strategies. As an Associate Social Media Content Manager, I would work towards providing fresh and exciting ways to grab MTKG’s audience by coming up with abstract branding ideas alongside a team of professional marketers. Their main vision is this: “MKTG seeks boundless opportunity in helping achieve great, emotionally affecting life experiences. For the world’s leading brands, we architect and execute strategic, business-oriented marketing solutions via sport and entertainment, live experiences, retail marketing, enterprise/B-to-B engagement, hospitality, and sponsorship marketing.” (http://mktg.com/about/vision/). Because we live in a growing and diverse society, I feel that there is always room for creativity, and this company supports using it on a daily basis.

Getting to Know Me!

Hello! My name is Charlotte Dash and I am in my junior year at Longwood. I am an english major with a concentration in rhetoric and professional writing. I am from Richmond, VA, and a fun fact about me is that my positive experience in my ENGL 150 class motivated me to become an english major. I know the future is unpredictable, therefore I hope to apply the skills I have and will learn from Longwood, and utilize them in the real world.

What is the purpose of my blog and what will I be posting?

The purpose of this blog is to display what myself as well as my classmates will be working on in ENGL 305. I am interested in marketing and branding, therefore,  will be posting a frequent amount about my explorations of various brands and how rhetoric is applied in that field. I am passionate about effective communication skills and writing, and I highly believe that my major will provide with me the opportunity to pursue a career those categories. With that being said, I am taking ENGL 305 because I learned a plethora of effective writing skills and the use of rhetoric last semester in ENGL 301, therefore, I am confident that this course will allow me to advance as a professional writer.  However comes across my blog will discover what I will work on throughout this course, and hopefully will gain some insight on the use of branding and how it influences consumers/buyers.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more postings! 🙂 

 

 

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