Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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Description
It is important for organizations and businesses to have some kind of online presence, as there are enormous benefits, including utilizing the power marketing tools to provide services for people. However, creating a website with a strong presence is difficult, in addition to ranking your website to be on top of google. Thus, the goal of this project was to rank a website using several marketing tools to increase an organization’s search engine optimization (SEO) for the company, Artificial Grass Master.
ContributorsSanchez-Apodaca, Esperanza Angelica (Author) / Steve, Cho (Thesis director) / Cynthia, Reid (Committee member) / Tech Entrepreneurship & Mgmt (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The purpose of this study was to examine the history of pilgrimage tourism and its marketability to a modern consumer. It was also to examine the role of government in promoting tourism activities. Through a case study on el Camino de Santiago and the Xunta de Galicia, I discovered a market gap and created a communications strategy aimed towards closing the gap and smoothing demand fluctuation. Target market research indicated consumer interest and supported the marketing strategy. The study was conducted through historical, statistical, ethnographic, and psychographic research and analysis. The major findings of this study were that the American consumer is not as religiously motivated to travel as their European counterparts. However, they find many other aspects of the pilgrimage experience very appealing. Their lack of interest in the religious aspect of travel experiences segments them into a group that can potentially help flatten demand fluctuation amid Holy Years along el Camino de Santiago. The modernization of the pilgrimage contributes to its movement away from pious tourism towards secular tourism and offers an opportunity for an untapped market to support pilgrimage tourism economies.
ContributorsPowers, Molly Kathleen (Author) / Eaton, John (Thesis director) / Eaton, Kate (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
To begin our creative project/thesis we sought out a project that would allow us to combine our interests in Supply Chain and Marketing. We chose to develop a drop-shipping business and analyze the effects that marketing had on our product sales. After reading and researching multiple potential products, we chose to begin by selling Sea Turtle Charm Bracelets. After selecting our product we created a webpage where we would be able sell it. Once we established a platform, we began to test different marketing tactics to observe the impact that they had on sales. The primary objective of this thesis was to test and analyze different marketing strategies and see which one would have the largest positive impact on sales. We researched different social media platforms and discussed how to best market the website so that we could increase traffic to our webpage and generate higher sales. We implemented different marketing strategies and sent out two surveys, through Qualtrics and Google Forms to understand the relationship between social media marketing and a consumer's likelihood to purchase. This thesis presents the development of a fully functional drop-shipping business, our approaches to marketing, the methodology behind the survey creation, obstacles and challenges we faced along the way, and the overall sales results that concluded our product was not suitable for consistent, long term sales. Through this project we have gained invaluable insight on how a drop-shipping business functions and the impacts that marketing has on it; looking towards the future we have decided to shut down our current business and utilize our knowledge on drop-shipping and marketing to create a new business which will sell items catered towards a broader customer base.
ContributorsDhillon, Marcus Singh (Co-author) / Bath, Beerjas (Co-author) / Eaton, John (Thesis director) / Vitikas, Stanley (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Alife is an event searching and event publishing website written in C# using the MVC software design pattern. Alife aims to offer a platform for student organizations to publish their events while enabling ASU students to browse, search, and filter events based on date, location, keywords, and category tags. Alife can also retrieve events information from the official ASU Event website, parse the keywords of the events and assign category tags to them. Alife project explores many concepts of Distributed Service-Oriented software development, such as server-side development, MVC architecture, client-side development, database integration, web service development and consuming.
ContributorsWu, Mengqi (Author) / Chen, Yinong (Thesis director) / Feng, Xuerong (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Historically, advertising was best when it was informative because people did not look at advertising for entertainment. Stories, however, were helpful in selling products and promoting trials. Advertising has since evolved with society. Copious amounts of research still go into advertising but some old principles get left in the past. Some can be adapted to today’s digital world while others simply do not ring true anymore. Today, the best of the best showcase in the Super Bowl. This has proven to be very beneficial to those that dazzle and entertain viewers.
The USA Today Ad Meter has been used for decades to rank Super Bowl ads and can show us what works well. All ads that run during the Super Bowl are rated by thousands of viewers and then ranked based on average ratings. The Ad Meter is the most used tool to look at these ads and discern what viewers enjoyed seeing. Entertaining ads do very well on the Ad Meter while informational and simple ads often sink. The Ad Meter does a good job telling advertisers what worked but it does not tell us why it worked or what people want to see.
These entertaining ads do well on the ad meter because, according to the following research study, people prefer entertainment in Super Bowl advertising, whether the product is relevant or not. People are willing to watch a Super Bowl ad that is longer than a normal ad would be because they expect entertainment and the length allows for a story to develop. People also have a strong preference for humorous Super Bowl ads but the emotional/meaningful ads that make it into the top 5 are almost the exception to the rule because the results of the research performed here show very little preference for these ads. While the Super Bowl still seems to be a beneficial way to advertise, the price is a big barrier to entry. Luckily, digital culture gives smaller businesses the power to capture viewers in other ways. The study’s findings suggest that many younger participants often just watch Super Bowl ads on YouTube after the game. Younger people are also watching the Super Bowl less and becoming numb to scrolling through ads on social media. It is important, now more than ever, for advertisers to have attention grabbing tactics for a generation with such short attention spans. Advertisers need to follow the trends to keep up with social media, but it will be worth it.
The USA Today Ad Meter has been used for decades to rank Super Bowl ads and can show us what works well. All ads that run during the Super Bowl are rated by thousands of viewers and then ranked based on average ratings. The Ad Meter is the most used tool to look at these ads and discern what viewers enjoyed seeing. Entertaining ads do very well on the Ad Meter while informational and simple ads often sink. The Ad Meter does a good job telling advertisers what worked but it does not tell us why it worked or what people want to see.
These entertaining ads do well on the ad meter because, according to the following research study, people prefer entertainment in Super Bowl advertising, whether the product is relevant or not. People are willing to watch a Super Bowl ad that is longer than a normal ad would be because they expect entertainment and the length allows for a story to develop. People also have a strong preference for humorous Super Bowl ads but the emotional/meaningful ads that make it into the top 5 are almost the exception to the rule because the results of the research performed here show very little preference for these ads. While the Super Bowl still seems to be a beneficial way to advertise, the price is a big barrier to entry. Luckily, digital culture gives smaller businesses the power to capture viewers in other ways. The study’s findings suggest that many younger participants often just watch Super Bowl ads on YouTube after the game. Younger people are also watching the Super Bowl less and becoming numb to scrolling through ads on social media. It is important, now more than ever, for advertisers to have attention grabbing tactics for a generation with such short attention spans. Advertisers need to follow the trends to keep up with social media, but it will be worth it.
ContributorsGriffin, Karina (Author) / Montoya, Detra (Thesis director) / Giles, Charles Bret (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The goal of this thesis is to find information to further develop understandings of male customers in the cosmetic and personal care industry. The methods and results are aimed to help direct marketers and product developers create more successful business expeditions in the future. The thesis is based off of an online Qualtrics survey created and distributed to male Arizona State University students enrolled in a Marketing Principles class and then appropriately analyzed with SPSS and Qualtrics data tools. The quantitative survey allowed an investigation of external and internal factors in male respondents’ personal lives and how that may translate into their skincare purchasing practices. Rather than asking what products consumers want, this survey aimed to find significant and influential factors behind young male interest in these products. After analyzing the responses the key implications are that social stigma, and perceptions of attractiveness and self-confidence are not the largest inhibitors for men, but rather that their relationships with others have the most significant influence over their use of skincare products.
ContributorsStroh, Jamie (Author) / Eaton, John (Thesis director) / Lee, Sanghak (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The sports industry is unlike any other in that it connects individuals and consumers from destinations around the world with one common interest. That commonality can be as specific as a favorite player, team, league, or sport. All in all, it bands together entire communities with their passion for the game. American sports leagues such as the National Football League, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, and many more, have all revolutionized the way that businesses view marketing though a user friendly, interactive, marketing tool with a universal reach.
ContributorsMarker, Sierra Kamalani Akiko (Author) / Eaton, John (Thesis director) / Lee, Christopher (Committee member) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
With the United States' diverse group of people, diverse set of beliefs and diverse cultural backgrounds, it’s no wonder that over the last few decades there has been a 51 percent increase in second-generation Americans in the United States (Child Trends, 2018). Though each of these second- and third-generation Americans experience life in the U.S. vastly different, the common steps of self-identity, acculturation and assimilation persist. However, what is often missed with this seemingly linear process is the delineating step: retro acculturation. Their sense of disconnect sparks a feeling of blurred identity, introducing the phenomenon of retro- acculturation, or an individual’s conscious efforts to connect to their heritage in new ways. Understanding the “why” behind this revelation is essential in understanding the “how”- or the actions taken by the individual to connect with their withdrawn culture. A deeper understanding of retro-acculturation and its processes is essential to leveraging a successful marketing effort in order to reach this demographic. As this population steadily reaches a larger population and quickly gains consumer buying power, it is important to be taking note of new and innovative ways of making lasting impressions on this demographic. This study focuses on exploring and discovering why individuals experience retro-acculturation and their triggers, as well as what approaches they use to connect to their heritage culture. Additionally, the insights gained were leveraged to provide recommendations as to how business can more effectively market to reach this demographic.
ContributorsHanson, Rebecca Jane (Co-author) / Burgess, Julia (Co-author) / Montoya, Detra (Thesis director) / Riker, Elise (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
DescriptionA two-way deterministic finite pushdown automaton ("2PDA") is developed for the Lua language. This 2PDA is evaluated against both a purpose-built Lua syntax test suite and the test suite used by the reference implementation of Lua, and fully passes both.
ContributorsStevens, Kevin A (Author) / Shoshitaishvili, Yan (Thesis director) / Wang, Ruoyu (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Learning to code is a skill that is becoming increasing needed as technology advances, yet is absent in traditional education. This thesis aims to provide a resource for middle school teachers to introduce programming skills and concepts to their students over several lessons designed to fit within the constraints of a standard class period. By targeting students in middle school, if they develop an interest, they will have enough time in middle or high school to prepare themselves for a degree in Computer Science or to complete a programming boot camp after they graduate high school. Additionally, middle school students are old enough to understand challenging programming concepts and work together to solve a programming challenge. The programming language and environment, VIPLE, will be used to teach the concepts in the lessons as it is a graphical programming language, which removes many of the common challenges faced by young students in learning to code, like dealing with syntax or remembering keywords for coding blocks.
ContributorsBelt, Emily (Author) / Chen, Yinong (Thesis director) / Miller, Cindy (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05