Welcome to the Real World: Startup Style

 As I graduated with all of my friends on May 8, we were all on the verge of the real world. However, the real world was a different shape for some of us. As most of my friends were about to embark on one last summer break before starting their careers in July, August, or even November for a few of them, I was taking a different path. That following Monday, May 10, I was getting a jump start on life. And that was just the beginning.

 Being involved with a startup company has one important component, you try to run as lean as possible in those first few months. Running in these lean times usually leads to good times and humorous stories for all. For starters, during the hottest months of the year in June and July, air conditioning was but a dream. It became an everyday occurrence for the office to reach into the mid-90s by late afternoon. Thus the dress code was termed “Frat casual” better described as polo shirts, shorts, and boat shoes. 

 When it came time to do some traveling, there are also areas to keep costs low: lodging. Now when all of my friends were embarking on their first business trips, they were being treated to housing matching the names of Hampton, Holiday, and Hilton. My lodging of choice had greek letters across the front, and not always in shiny new condition. Without getting into the details, it was always an experience. It was almost a surreal feeling, as here I was 4 months ago living in a chapter house and living the life of these kids, but now I was here for a business stop. Or as close as you can get to feeling that you’re on a business stop as you can when at 3am you are awoken to raging music and bodies slamming into walls.

 All the humorous stories aside, it was and continues to be an awesome experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. No matter what alternate thoughts may cross through my mind when sitting in a 95 degree office, sleeping on a frat couch, or chugging 5 hour energies, all I have to do is sit back and think of that corner office. I think about, that at 23, I am working on an executive team to build a multi-million dollar business in its first year, and that is a TFM.


Ian Blackwell, Regional Sales Manager

I know your demographic, we’re friends.

In the time that I have spent in college (which sadly ended in May), my entire viewpoint of media has changed drastically. It started with solely relying on the traditional mediums such as radio, television and print in order to reach everyone, because you could. However, over the years I have seen the transition to today’s advertising mediums; the switch from mass communication to personalized communication in order to run after desperately seeking the attention of the target consumer.

The Gen Y demographic (born between 1985 and the present) is selective in its communication. They determine when and where the messages they receive --- and if they will interact with the message. 

Let’s take the news for instance. Not only can we receive the news in print, on the radio, and on television, we are now able to receive customized updates via Twitter, Facebook, and specified genres online and on our iPhone app. If we aren’t interested, we can literally tune it out.

This is the same for advertising. Companies are revamping their brands entirely in order to get through to their target consumer and give them what they want. They are learning that they need to actively engage them in their product or service to hear how they can improve and in turn have better brand awareness.

The first example that pops into my head is Domino’s. They recognized that people did not like the product and they challenged consumers to tell them how to fix it. They even encouraged customers to send in pictures of their pizza where they critiqued them online and in their television advertisements, now that is quality control.

Now what have we at The Odyssey learned about our select Greek students of the Gen Y?

An article by Kenneth Gronback in AdAge had an interesting insight about the Gen Y demographic, “Difficult to reach with marketing messages, their principal medium is cyberspace. Unlock the formula for efficient marketing to Generation Y, and you will print money. One anomaly: They love snail mail and anything with their name on it.”

Now I agree with most of this assessment, but I think we need to dig a bit deeper. I do not believe as a Gen Y-er that my principal medium is cyberspace. Yes, my eyes are infiltrated at every turn at every website where I am bombarded by messages, and frankly I just get annoyed. Advertisers think that if they go online then they will automatically see results. What messages mean most to me? The tailored ones, the ones that are just for me. I love snail mail, I love reading emails that call me by name, I love when I am being sent a message on purpose. I like when advertisers actually care about me, what’s going on, and what I’m interested in.

At The Odyssey, we are able to put out a product that is incredibly specialized to our target consumer, our demographic, our fellow Greeks and the messages that are being sent to them from our advertisers are being received. They have cut through the noise level in print and seeing great returns and better relationships with their customers, (who knew you could still do that with print!)

Bottom line: don’t just do a knee-jerk approach and immediately run to the dim light of a computer screen, remember the personalized tailored messages are best, even if it is a “dying” medium. Trust me, we will all benefit. 

Adrian France, Chief Creative Officer

Introducing Olympia Design Studio

Readers of The Odyssey may have noticed something different this year: higher visual appeal. We've recently added a creative team, Olympia Design Studio, to design a weekly paper that focuses on aesthetics and usability, and we've received an overwhelming response! Take a look at the progress so far:

So, why would a small business invest in five new Designers?

It's the best way to connect with your user in a cluttered market! 

Modern Psychology research confirms what the Design Community has been arguing for ages.  "The relative appeal of visual stimuli is closely related to both user satisfaction and perceived usability." www.swinburne.edu.au/hosting/ijets/journal/V5N1/pdf/Article1_Lindgaard.pdf. 

If it's not pleasing to look at and easy to use, on to the next.

Good Design compliments a Good Product

Visual appeal does not guarantee market success. The product must meet the needs of its user and must be able to change as those needs change. www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jan2010/id20100127_150531.htm

We're focusing visual appeal to make The Odyssey stand out from other print publications, but we're not stopping there.  Our audience is plugged in, so we've added online and mobile versions. Want to share it with your friends? Use our social media links. Who knows what'll be here in 2011!

In addition to In-House work, Olympia Design Studio works with professional service clients in branding, collateral, web design, and advertising. More on that later...

Amanda Parks, Designer