VC Star microsite help... Understanding the Facts of Life

VC Star is in the need of help if they are going to try and create a microsite in order to capture the youth market. After reading the Facts of Life, chapter 2 in the book Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug, VC Star has a lot to learn about web design and usability before they make a microsite.
The Facts of Life chapter brings some very good points to the table: 1) We don't read pages, we scan them. 2) We don't make optimal choices, we satisfice. And 3) We don't figure out how things work, we muddle through.
The VC Star needs to better understand these concepts in order to tailer to the younger crowd. When someone is looking through a webpage they are usually doing these 3 things. People are in a hurry and they want what they are looking for asap. People don't have the time or patience to read through the whole page, the want the meat of the necessary information and thats it. Also, people dont look for the optimal answer but rather satisfice around for a good enough answer. Lastly, if we can't figure out how to get what we want, we muddle through it until we come close enough. VC Star needs to take these things into account and make sure that their microsite follows these simply concepts.

VC Star Web - SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis relating to their web page

Strengths - Local, established in the community, has a presence and credibility within community.
Infrastructure - "in house management" and programmers. Available funding and openness to expanding

Weaknesses - the web page is just not pleasing on the eyes, it has to much clutter. There is a lot going on with the page and its tough to focus and find what you're looking for, its information overload.
Brand - in terms of their brand with the youth market, they do not have much recognition

Opportunities - they have a lot they can improve on with their web page, Simplify the page.
- they have a great opportunity to reach a young, new and large audience who are already on the web. Creating a social network site (using MySpace or Facebook) to attract the younger audience. Also, by having this type of page they can conduct low cost market research by seeing what links, headers, etc their audience is clicking on.
Promotion opportunities and target advertising.

Threats - Competition of younger, hipper, cooler, trendier web sites.

Overall the class felt that VC Star needed to become more in touch with the younger audience they are trying to capture. In order to do so VC Star needs to learn and become more educated in understanding the younger audience. They need to create a new site that will attract the younger crowd and keep them coming back.

Survey about iTunes

Take this survey to help me collect responses about iTunes

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=8nZkHEv3Tn78yepGDFs_2bkQ_3d_3d

Link to my del.icio.us page

del.icio.us / bbernhard /

Startup.com

If I was in charge of coming up with logo ideas for NextTown here is what I would add...
My two options for background picture ideas would be...
1.) An outline picture of a random city (doesn't have to be an actual city picture) just some kind of outline of a city with sky scrapers and other buildings.
2.) One of those old war time pictures of 'Uncle Sam' pointing at you. The ones they used back in the World Wars, that time period.
Then my Slogan ideas would be...
1.) Where you learn how gov works
2.) Connecting you to the gov or Connecting you to the Law

Something I found in the movie Startup.com that I felt was most compelling was the belief in and the desire and motivation to achieve a goal. Kaleil and Tom had a dream to make a great website and they set out to accomplish that. They had a great idea and were deeply compelled to make their dream a reality. Because of their dedication and endurance they had great success (for a couple years at least).

Apple iPod

The iPod has become one of the most innovative audio portable devices of our time. It has revolutionized the portable music device industry. Apple has done such a great job with them iPod they have been able to grasp a firm and large market share on the industry. From a marketing perspective, they have done an incredible job creating the iPod image and brand. It amazes me to see how Apple has created such prestige, such brand loyalty, that consumers are willing to buy and continue to buy the high priced iPod. Normally as the years go on we expect to see the price of electronics go down, but Apple has been so successful, so popular that they are still able to charge a premium for their products. Apple has done a phenomenal job making the iPod an iconic brand name that everyone wants.

The one thing that I have a complaint about is the actual battery life of the iPod. From my personal experience, it does not last as long as they say they do. As I am sure most of us iPod owners know, and most other people that have an electronic device with a lithium battery know, they wear down over time. I have one of the older models and the battery does not last long at all, I want to say a few hours max. But the problem with the iPod battery is that it’s not like a cell phone battery which you can just replace easily. Thus I would like to see Apple make a replaceable battery iPod but they probable will not do that since most people just go out and buy a new iPod.