Jason Eisner

I have decided to use the bottom of this "Junior Year" page to reflect on the big two-part project this semester, and lead you through the steps from “source” text to “re-purposing” essay to “re-mediation” project.  The original "source" text can be found under the "Freshman/Sophomore Year" section of my portfolio.  That piece was an argumentative research paper about the benefits and advantages of guerilla marketing.  In it, I defined guerilla marketing at length, and used research-based evidence to prove the technique as beneficial and advantageous to companies, both large and small.

 

I wanted to alter this research paper for my "re-purposing" project because I knew it was something with a vast amount of information, much of which I had yet to research, and I knew I could adapt my audience in a way that would allow me to successfully change my formula.  My research of different formats eventually led me to the idea for a magazine article for a business/marketing magazine article. My idea was not only to explain guerilla marketing to business owners, but also to explain to them how they could implement it themselves. In order to do so, I had to alter the tone that my "source" text possessed.  I knew that this article had to be less formal, as I was trying to communicate with my audience.  In order to address both big and small businesses, I provided examples from both sides of the spectrum and offered suggestions on how each could succeed.  Finally, my favorite part of the article was creating my own example of a guerilla marketing technique for a well-known company.  I created a campaign for Gillette, in which they teamed up with Facebook to create a Gillette drawing app that Facebook users could use on their pages to draw and erase facial hair on their friends' photos.  This example was important in showing my audience that is is possible for them to create their own guerilla marketing campaigns.  They just needed to be creative.

 

The final part of this project, the re-mediation, was the most daunting, yet also the most satisfying.  For this project I decided to create my own fictitious company and create a guerilla marketing plan presentation.  My fake business was a late night waffle house in Ann Arbor.  Please click the link below to see the presentation and read about the guerilla marketing plan I came up with.  In order to make this presentation, I decided to use Prezi.  This was a format I had never used before, so I was very nervous when I first started.  As I continued to work, however, I became much more comfortable with how to operate the program, and eventually I developed a finished product that I was truly happy with.  It was unlike any presentation I had mad before, and with that, I knew I made the right decision to use Prezi.  I also recorded my presentation using ScreenCast-O-Matic, which I had also never used before.  This process was much easier, however, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who needs to record a presentation.  Finally, the last form of technology I used for this project was Photoshop, in order to make a logo and merchandise for my business.  I was only slightly familiar with photoshop, but I definitely learned much more from this experience.  Overall this project opened me up to so many new technologies.  Without it, I probably would have never ventured to try them.  Now, I have the confidence to try new things, knowing that with practice, I can learn to use just about any new technology.  The same goes for this Eportfolio.