My Comments on Two Classmate's Blogs

For this week’s blog I will be focusing on two of my classmate’s blogs. I immediately thought for this blog that I wanted to see how my classmate Sacha’s blog was progressing due to the similarities of our blogs. Sacha has been focusing on nonprofit public relations this semester for her blog. In Sacha’s last post she focused on how donations are a main component for nonprofit public relations. Through my research and personal experience with American Cancer Society, I have been able to see the importance of donations to a nonprofit organization. Through unobtrusive research Sacha explained how it can be a vital tool for an organization. For example, Sacha stated “By analyzing past records of people and corporations who donated over a period of years, researchers could see who stable donors are. If the same people have donated the past 5 years it is likely that they will continue to donate.  It is very important to see who is an annual donor because it saves 20% of money that it would cost to find new members.” Sacha provided viewers with an article that explains the importance of donations and how one can increase donations within their organization. The article explains various ways of getting charitable donors for your organization. American Cancer Society relies on their donations, and making sure their donors understand fully where their donations are going and how they are helping others is of great importance.

            For the second blog I have chosen the blog written by Meghan Parmentier, Meg’s Munchies. I really was interested when I saw the title and wanted to find out more. In Meg’s most recent blog she discussed unobtrusive research methods as well. One aspect which I found extremely interesting was the article regarding a restaurant in the Netherlands in 2007. Meg explains in her blog how this restaurant was “equipped with several unobtrusive cameras to monitor their diners' eating habits and meal preferences.  The cameras were aimed to find out what the customer preferred in color, noise, smell, food preparation, packaging, taste and even light stimulus.” I found this form of unobtrusive research to be extremely risky but rewarding. It will allow the restaurant to monitor the clients and see their reactions to certain things such as wait staff, food and much more. The kitchen staff was also monitored during this research to see how they were working behind the scenes. One aspect of this research which Meg mentioned was how they signed a consent form. When I read this I automatically thought that it could have changed they way the clients reacted in the restaurant. Here is the article if you would like to find out more about this research performed in this restaurant.

            Overall, I feel that both of my classmates are doing a great job with their blogs and I look forward to seeing what they will be writing about for the rest of the semester. If you would like to get involved or donate to the American Cancer Society please visit this website!