For this exercise I will set up on the floor of my dorm and
ask fellow students that come in if they’d like a dollar. Hopefully they ask if there is a catch and
when they ask that I will simply reply that it is actually for a survey to
determine what people would go out and buy with this dollar. I think it won’t
be too hard to give the money away, people won’t feel too bad accepting a
dollar.
Out of the five people I attempted to give a dollar to, four
accepted. The person who did not accept
the dollar bill was someone who was walking quickly and talking on the phone,
and although they acknowledged me, they did not seem to care about the dollar
enough to stop what they were doing. I
also had one instance in which the person got mad that I interrupted them even
though I tried to be as polite as possible.
This is perhaps the worst experience in dealing with consumers out in
public. The only person that was actually okay with me filming the encounter
did not want the initial take used however, so we did a second take.
Honestly I thought giving people a dollar would be a piece
of cake when I first read the exercise, but when I actually went out and did
it, it was way more awkward than I thought it’d be. People often don’t want to be bothered by
someone they don’t know, and when they see a dollar being handed to them, they
automatically assume there must be some sort of string attached.
The people you gave the money to seemed to be much more receptive to the idea than many people in other people's videos. Perhaps its the comforting way you approached people or maybe that you were inside in a safe seeming environment when approaching people. A lot of other people stood outside and some even gave people money at night which I feel like affected the results they ended up[ receiving. Your dedication to this assignment is obvious and I think you did a great job.
ReplyDeleteJon,
ReplyDeleteI was only able to see one encounter so I may not be viewing this properly. I would have like to see a little more about your strategy and what your expectations were prior to your 'experiment'. I agree with you completely in that most people are uncomfortable with strangers approaching them and on top it, handing out 'free' money. I did not complete this assignment so you've accomplished much more than I. Do you feel you took anything away from this assignment?
Jon, while I didn't do this assignment I felt the opposite of you. I didn't think anyone would accept the money for the reasons that you stated about how awkward it was and people expecting there to be strings attached. I don't know if there is an easy way to go about handing someone free money because every video I have seen has been the same thing so it doesn't seem to vary much from person to person. Great work!
ReplyDeleteAwesome job! I liked that you actually gave the person a reason to give them a dollar. You seemed like you were pretty confident in talking to people which to me would be easy for them to take your dollar. I forgot to do this assignment so I can't compare your experience with my own. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHey Jon! I think doing this assignment at a college dorm is really good and the reason why you had an 80% acceptance rate. College students love money, especially money they don't have to work for. Also, I think when people are focused on things, such as talking to another individual, they don't want to be interrupted. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHey Jon, I liked your placement for the assignment, and feel like it really helped you to get friendlier and more accepting reactions. I think that UF students act like far more of a community than the overall Gainesville area, so they are far more likely to accept your idea there than pretty much anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to my blog. http://natehooper.blogspot.com/2016/02/elevator-pitch-no-2.html
"Truuu"
ReplyDeleteThat was hilarious. Although I didn't do the assignment, I expected to encounter that difficulty that you described in your post. I don't think I could have found a good enough reason that would make people want to accept a dollar from a stranger without thinking there's some sort of catch.