Does It Affect Culture as Much as Culture Affects It?

Semiotics in Fashion Photography: Does it affect culture as much as culture affects it? Introduction Fashion Photography has taken quite the belittling from the conventional world of photography. Where other forms of photography ‘naturally capture beauty, fashion photography is have said to be too meticulous in ‘setting up' the photograph.. Brooked states that, â€Å"fashion advertising, in particular, is seen as negating the purity of the bibliographic image. We see the typical [in fashion photography] instead of the unique moment or event. †Despite such an outlook on fashion photography, it has received thorough analysis and academic attention from the likes of Breathes, Wilson, Anderson, Brooked and Kumara. Breathes has taken fashion photography and placed it within a seismological framework, where he applies the semiotics into fashion photography as a meaner of communication through the signs and symbols for any photographs. Culture revolves around fashion phot ography. Or is it the other way round? It has become apparent that semiotics is greatly relevant to fashion photography, and assign is an excellent example off ‘identity-image producing media'.Fashion is an incredibly distinct language itself, and â€Å"emblematic the essence of its social context†. With that, is culture affected, or is the fashion photography affected by culture? With this essay I will be investigating the idea of whether culture is affected by fashion photography, or does fashion photography dictate our culture. Enquiry Outcomes I will be exploring the world of semiotics and how relevant it is to fashion photography and using it to solve the question of; whether fashion photography allow culture or dictates it.We take it for granted that fashion photography is something we pass by everyday, something that we do not pay very much attention to detail in our everyday lives and we don't know how much it really affects our culture to a certain degree. With this essay I will propose the idea of culture either being the one affected and dictated by fashion photography or the vice versa. Feasibility of proposed enquiry Fashion is constantly everywhere around us, and I will take advantage of the fact that I live in a world surrounded by fashion.For my research I will be gathering large amounts of my facts and data from online sources, Journals and e-books, and if possible from books, and my own observational analysis from fashion magazines and opinions of audiences. My aim for this essay is to analyses and conceptualize the semiotics in fashion photography, coming to the conclusion of how much it affects society and culture. With my own analysis of fashion photography I will come to the conclusion of either end of the spectrum. Relevance of enquiry to personal practiceThrough the research that I acquire and what I learn, I think it is important to broaden my aspects of skill to other industries. The fashion industry is not too far from t he design, and I think as being one of the most ‘communicative languages' through visual meaner, fashion is an important step to understanding wholly of what makes the world tick through visuals. As an inspiring designer and photographer, I would like to use this practice to benefit me in constructing my own meanings in works and to conceptualize them on my own in the future. Bibliography 1 . Jacobsen, M. 008) Semiotics, Fashion and Cognition. Unknown. A paper that concentrates on â€Å"Rolando Breathes early cosmologically inspired theory of fashion and discusses how this theory can be revised to fit later cognitive theories of language and semiotics. † Has a considerate large amount of relevant information pertaining to my essay. 2. Breathes, R. (2006). The Language of Fashion. Oxford: Berg Publishers. The original source of placing fashion photography into a semiotic framework, I will base most of my essay towards Breathes theories of semiotics in fashion. 3. Rhodes, A & Galoot, R.A semiotic analysis of high fashion advertising. Http:// www. Garrotes. Com/Semiotics andafashionF Though I will be focusing more of fashion photography, advertising does play a great role, and fashion photography is basically the significant part of fahsfashionertising. Through this source it concentrates more on a fashion advertising aspect and describes the art of it. 4. httpHttpews. mongMonogamym/Com5/0507chicaTinaler. htmlHTMLs is a paper done by Tina Butler on BartBreathesshion Photography as semiotics: BartBreathes the limitations of classification.Here Butler describes the details of semiotics, how they work in fashion photography and analyzes BartBreathesory in such a framework. 5. Stone, R. A Semiotic Analysis of Four Designer Clothing Advertisements http:// www. aberBaber. AC/mUKia/SstuStudents9robbersmlHTMLpite this source focusing more on an advertising aspect rather than photography, ultimately those two will always go together. Through a more thorough a nd focused analysis of brands, ads and the semiotics they present I can further contconceptualizehion photography in a semiotic framework.

Preparation of Identification by Ir and Nmr Spectroscopy Essay

The reactive acid chloride can then be treated with a primary or secondary amine to give the amide along with HCl, which reacts with the excess amine to give an alkylammonium chloride salt. The mechanism of this process is shown on the following page in Scheme 22: [pic] Scheme 2 To carry out this reaction, the apparatus shown in Figure 1 will be assembled. The apparatus must be dry, since thionyl chloride will react with water to give sulfur dioxide and hydrogen chloride. The acid chloride will then be cooled to room temperature and dissolved in anhydrous ether. Ice-cold diethylamine will be added as a solution in anhydrous ether to form the amide. The resulting ether mixture will washed with aqueous sodium hydroxide (to remove any excess acid chloride), then washed with hydrochloric acid (to remove any excess diethylamine). The resulting ether solution of DEET will be dried and evaporated to yield the crude product, which will then be purified by column chromatography to afford pure DEET. The percent yield from m-toluic acid will be determined and the product will be analyzed by transmission infrared spectroscopy (IR) as a neat sample using NaCl plates5 to confirm its structure by (1) looking at the major absorptions and comparing them to a correlation table6 and (2) by comparing the spectrum to that of an authentic sample. Thionyl chloride is toxic and corrosive! Do not breath the vapors! Use in a hood! When heating a reaction apparatus, be sure that it is open to the air so that pressure build up and subsequent rupture of the apparatus does not occur. When heating liquids, make sure the liquid is stirred (or a boiling chip is added) to prevent â€Å"bumping†. When performing an extraction, make sure to vent the separatory funnel often to prevent pressure build-up. The apparatus shown in Figure 1 was assembled. The 10-mL reaction flask was charged with 0. 275 g of m-toluic acid (0. 0020 mol) and 0. 30 mL of thionyl chloride (0. 492 g, 0. 0041 mol). The condenser water was started, and the mixture was gently heated with stirring on an aluminum block (block temp ~ 90 oC) until boiling started. The reaction mixture was then gently boiled for about 15 minutes. After the boiling period was finished, the reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature. 4. 0 mL of anhydrous ether were added, and the mixture was stirred at room temperature until a homogeneous mixture was obtained. To this solution was added (dropwise over a 15 minute period) a solution of 0. 6 mL of cold (0 oC) diethylamine (0. 462 g, 0. 0063 mol) in 1. 33 mL of anhydrous ether. During the addition, a thick white cloud of diethylamine hydrochloride was formed. After complete addition, the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for about 10 minutes. 10% aqueous sodium hydroxide (2 mL) was then added, and the reaction mixture was stirred for an additional 15 minutes at room temperature, then poured into a separatory funnel and allowed to separate. The aqueous layer was discarded, and the organic layer was washed with an additional portion of 10% aqueous sodium hydroxide (2 mL), followed by a portion of 10% hydrochloric acid (2 mL). The organic layer was washed with water (2 mL), dried (Na2SO4) and evaporated to yield crude N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide as dark brown liquid. The crude product was filtered through a short alumina column using hexane as the eluent (~ 5 mL). The hexane solution was evaporated to give 0. 340 g of pure N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide as a yellow liquid. Reaction of m-toluic acid with thionyl chloride, followed by diethylamine produced 0. 340 g of a yellow liquid the IR spectrum of which unequivocally showed the presence of the amide carbonyl functional group at 1633 cm-1. In addition, absorptions due to aliphatic C-H (2980 – 2880 cm-1), and aromatic C=C (at 1585 cm-1). The IR spectrum is attached to this report. These data are consistent with the structure of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET), shown in Figure 2 below: [pic] Figure 2: N,N-Diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET) In addition, the IR of the product closely corresponds with that of an authentic sample of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET) shown in the lab text. 9 Also, the 1H-NMR shows the presence of four (4) aromatic protons in the region 7. 3 – 7. 1 ppm, as well as a three (3) proton singlet at 2. 35 ppm, which corresponds to the benzylic methyl group. The presence of two ethyl groups is clearly shown by the presence of two quartets which integrate to 2 protons each at 3. 53 and 3. 24 ppm, and two triplets which integrate to 3 protons each at 1. 23 and 1. 09 ppm.

Informational Memo Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Informational Memo - Assignment Example There are thousands of small islands surrounding the four main islands. There are a lot of mountainous regions in Japan. The weather in Japan experiences all four seasons with hot humid summers and cold winters. Japan has a high risk to natural disasters including volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis.The official language of Japan is Japanese, but in the business scenes the use of English is common as Japanese include English as part of the secondary education of young students. The two primary religions practiced by Japanese people are Buddhism and Shinto. Shinto stresses a person’s relationship to nature and its many gods (CultureGrams, 2011). The capital city of Japan is Tokyo. The city of Tokyo is considered the most popular metropolis in the world (Japan-guide, 2011). The US Embassy in Japan is located in Tokyo. The embassy’s phone number is 03-3224-5000 and its address is 1-100-5 Akasaka Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8720 Japan (Usembassy, 2011). The official currency of J apan is the yen. The current exchange rate between the US dollar and the Japanese yen is 1 to 78.6 (Xe, 2011). Japan’s has a sound economy that generates for its people a gross domestic product per capita of $32,600. The country is highly dependent on its manufacturing activities. Some of the industries that are thriving Japan’s economy include machinery, textiles, chemicals, and engineering.

Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 13

Law - Essay Example The social control theory can fit this scenario. This theory tries to explain why people do not engage in criminal activities. Being close to other members of the social group can make someone not to become a criminal. This is because people who belong to the same social group may find solutions that affect them in their daily routine. They may also have some conventional rules that can ensure they live together in harmony. This theory is applicable to this scenario since workers belong to the same social group and therefore they know what they need to do in order to avoid crimes. The state senator that is a go between the workers do divide them has his agenda that may not concur with their rights. He thinks that dividing them would establish a good condition for the workers but in the real sense, it does not . An implication of the theory is that it was intended to create harmony in the society given that the conditions were fulfilled. When the senator assures the donors that their work will not be interfered with by the union workers gives them the go-ahead to do what they want with the workers. The donors who are the major investors may turn up to humiliate the workers in what may be termed as the modern slavery. This is because the workers will have no one to give their complaints. They may end up doing a lot of work in very poor conditions. Their work may also be not compensated with a good wage. This kind of crime that the senator commits towards the labor sector deserves a lengthy punishment.

Strategic Management - McInerney Holdings Essay

Strategic Management - McInerney Holdings - Essay Example The issue was oversubscribed 11 times. It is in this context that the faith of the stakeholder need be respected. It calls for proper stakeholder management. UK housing and construction market saw the phase of a big collapse in 1989, subsequently the company underwent a major restructuring, following which, the company is now known as McInerney Holdings plc. McInerney Holdings plc is listed on the Dublin and London Stock Exchanges with a total of 33,160,571 listed shares as on 31st December 2005 with stakeholders ranging from Banks and trusties to the general public. Besides this the employees, related companies, suppliers etc. too are also happen to be the stakeholders in the company as their interest too is in some way linked to the well being of the company. The impact of different people and groupings determine the direction of the company. Larger corporations, Banks, etc in particular play a significant role in chalking out the strategy for the company. These very groups require special attention in stakeholder management. There are of course needs of their direct owners, various other groups, like employees, public interest groups like environmental organizations, strategic partners, journalists or public monitoring bodies. Bank of Ireland Asset Management is the biggest stakeholder in the company with 10.51% of shares. Other sign ificant shareholders being Barry O'Connor, Bri Tel Fund Trustees Limited, Norwich Union Life Insurance Irl Ltd., Quinn Direct Insurance Ltd, Standard Life Investments, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co, Irish Life Investment Managers etc. The businesses operate within a complex system of interests and influences. While identifying the stakeholders the company must look beyond the formal structure of the organization. Therefore it is required to have a look at informal and indirect relationships too. The company management has to make a balancing assessment and evaluate all such external forces in order to adjust them with company's objectives. While taking crucial corporate decisions, it is necessary to know about the expectations of different stakeholders and to determine the extent to which they could and would exert their influence. Johnson & Scholes define stakeholder as, "Stakeholders are groups or individuals who have a stake in, or expectation of, the organisation's performance." Stakeholders all have power, someone has a formal power invested in a position of authority or it could be the social power of being able to persuade others to support or oppose the policies of the company. People with higher power could be the company's most useful supporters or most dangerous opponents, depending upon the prevailing dynamics. In case of McInerney Holdings plc we can do the power analysis to help us in prioritising our focus on stakeholders. To start with a comprehensive listing of stakeholders is prepared as the starting point for stakeholder mapping and analysis; Fig: Power-Interest Matrix in case of McInerney Holdings plc High Power Low Low Level of Interest High As is apparent from the above matrix the key players include Shareholders (small/ individual): He is more interested in having the higher rates of dividends or better price of its share in

Blakley and Johnson Revised Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Blakley and Johnson Revised - Essay Example It can be justifiably asserted therefore that a combination of digital technologies and internet usage enables millions of people in the world rapid access of various information than any historical library, allowing people to be an innovative and creators in their own perspective. The collaborative and shared platform brought about by digitization elicits different reactions. On one hand, proponents of the idea strongly suggest that it has transformed how people share and create information, creating a platform for product innovation and how people â€Å"own† and â€Å"copy† information. On the other hand however, Governments and technological companies view low restrictions placed on IP as a potential threat to cloud computing and mobile technologies. Blakley’s model of open copyrights provides enlightening information on IP rights from a business perspective. Her elaborate ideas of the phases of technology in determining the information to be copyright protect ed and subsequent elements in ownership from a fashion industry offers additional insights into technological innovations and the kind of ownership required in a digitized economy. (Blakely) At the same time, Johnson Steven’s â€Å"Where Good Ideas come from† examines the origin of innovative ideas from a historical perspective. In his analysis of the origin of great innovative ideas, Stephen starts his journey from London’s Coffee House â€Å"Liquid Networks† through Darwinian slow ideas of the revolution towards today’s highly technological creations brought about by the internet and the world wide web. (Johnson) The concept of ownership infers having control over any form of a thing, or an idea. Sharing on the other hand implies that other persons have access to the idea or object, and can even incorporate new ideas into the existing idea to come up with a modified version. Usually, the association between ownership and balancing is often achiev ed when a person has the ability to appreciate an object or an idea without having to ask who controls the idea or object. It therefore implies that both parties derive benefits from the shared item and non existence of role confusion while enjoying that idea or creation. The balance and concept of ownership are often easily understood when referring to tangible assets like objects and things as opposed to intangible issues like ideas. There exist various issues surrounding the sharing of information and innovation and pragmatic issues of copyrights. In essence, proponents of the open creation or low IP suggests that the success of an innovation depends whether an innovation is shared by the creator, and the achievement of equilibrium is largely dependent on voluntary sharing by the owner of the idea. While supporting this theory, Johana Blakely offers insightful information into the sharing of ownership ideas. She relates the success stories from the fashion industry where the sect or has recorded tremendous gains from sharing of fashion ideas. She further argues that the sharing platform as witnessed in the fashion industry enables all fashion designers to share and enable them to incorporate other people’s ideas into their creations. The fashion industry does not have any copyright law for these ideas. The success in this approach presents high gross sales in sectors that have low IP protection as

Progressive Movement and Social Control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Progressive Movement and Social Control - Essay Example In this progressive era, a  young man with   great   political   experience   became   the   president   of   United   States   named     Theodore   Roosevelt. At   the   age   of   forty   he   became   the   youngest   president   of   United   States. The   main   cause   that   made   him   popular was   his   policies   that   reflected   his   personality   as   an   activist   and   moralist.In   this   progressive   era, a   young   man   with   great   political   experience   became   the   president   of   United   States   named     Theodore   Roosevelt. At   the   age   of   forty   he   became   the   youngest   president   of   United   States. The   main   cause   that   made   him   popular was   his   policies   that   reflected   his   personality   as   an   activist   and   moralist. His   main   concern   was   railroad   regulation   which   ended   up   with   a   compromise   between   the   two   positions. His   greatest   achievement   was   to   conserve   America’s   natural   resource. He   won   a   noble   peace   prize   for   negotiating   an   end   to   Russo-Japanese   war   and   preserving   open   door   policy   in   China. Woodrow  Wilson was the   governor   of   New   Jersey   and   became   the   president   of   United   States   in   1912. He   started   the   Federal   Reserve   Act   in   1913. This   act   provided   the   control   of   government   over   banking. He   also   introduced   Federal   Trade   Commission   Act   that   regulated   the   trade   by   taking   commission   from   these   trade   corporations. He   appointed   commissioner   to   regulate   these   trades   affairs. The   appointment   of   these   commissioners   was   not   liked   by   progressives. The   progressivism   was   exploited   mostly   by   the   white   men. Women   were   the   victims   of   progressivism. This   resulted   in   the   launch   of   National   Women   Party     which   fought   against   women   suffrage. Black   were   also   the   sufferers   of   progressivism. Rich   people   were   exploiting   poor   and   hampering   cultural   ethics   by   making   wrong   use   of   progressivism. But   above   all   its   drawbacks   progressive   reform   developed   the   culture, lifestyle, new   trade   methods   and   much   more   advancements. The   government   became   more   responsible   towards   the   economic   and   social   welfare. Middle   class   people   became   more conscious   towards   their   right   in   the   society. The   banking   procedure   was   changed   and   got   under   the   control   of   government. Progressivism   preserved   the   capitalist   system. Progressivism   introduced   many   democratic   ideas   from   different   parts   of   the   society. This   was   the   end   of   nineteenth   century   and   progressivism   was   the   major   reform   of   this   century.

Students must demonstrate the ability to identify, assemble, and Research Paper

Students must demonstrate the ability to identify, assemble, and disseminate extant information relating to a topic in - Research Paper Example 205). Majority of Americans, whether supporters of the Republicans, the Democrats or Independent candidates, have repeatedly put into perspective the religious beliefs, values, and principles of political contenders in the run up to the country’s elections. For instance, religious affiliations of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Bill Clinton, George Bush, John F. Kennedy, William Howard, Ronald Reagan, and Barrack Obama among others played significant part in view of their chances to clinch the presidency. While most of these candidates were purportedly Christians going by the official membership, American electorates also considered a number of them Muslims, deists, or even atheists (Newport, p. 205). In essence, religious affiliations always became subject of scrutiny and criticism during political campaigns and had significant impact in the candidate’s ability to articulate his plans and schema for the country and citizens. Controversies that surrounded Mitt Romney ’s religious affiliations played a role in his shocking loss to President Obama. Review of Literature Religious affiliations of political candidates have boosted or narrowed down their chances to clinch the presidency and other political positions in the United States. ... Even political parties have been subject of scrutiny as far as religion is concerned. In essence, most allegations lack substantial proof and attestation. Various scholars have attested to the issue of religious belief and affiliation especially during campaign periods in America. According to Fisher and Koch (2004, p. 62), Roman Catholics emerged as the most preferred religious affiliation by most presidents. However, their book The Entrepreneurial College President, indicate a huge disparity in terms of the chances that a Roman Catholic presidential candidate has to become an effective president of the Unites States. Hence, there is serious underrepresentation of the Roman Catholics by considering the number of effective presidents they ever produced since the country attained its political independence. In their analysis, a meager 24.5 percent indicated preference for a Roman Catholic president (Fisher & Koch, p. 62). The trend is more shocking when one considers the Baptist presi dential representation. Apparently, Americans who subscribe to the Baptist denomination constitute a skimpy 16.3 percent of the entire population. The mainstream Protestant denominations such as the Lutheran, the Methodist, and Presbyterian are surprisingly overrepresented despite their minimal frequency in the entire country’s population. According to Fischer and James, the Presbyterian Church constitutes less than 3 percent (precisely 2.7 percent) yet it enjoys massive representation in the overall presidency outlook (Fisher & Koch, p. 62). However, the study indicated no preference for a Muslim president notwithstanding realism of the religion constituting a significant percentage of the

Summary of Don't tweak your supply chain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summary of Don't tweak your supply chain - Essay Example While making changes to the supply change, managers need to take into consideration the cost at which they are obtaining raw materials, the quality of these resources and should give importance to inventory management. The author further states that the managers need to create a map of the internal constituencies that are connected with the supply chain and at the same time they should keep an eye open for opportunities and threats that their actions may cause to the society. While taking up any change in the area of supply chain organizations should identify how those changes will impact the overall society. The managers should not only be concerned about the practices and operations of their suppliers, they even need to keep an eye on the suppliers who are supplying raw materials to their suppliers. This is because if their suppliers are indulging in socially responsible practices, this does not mean that the suppliers of their suppliers are even doing the same. Lee, Hau L. Don’T Tweak Your Supply Chain—Rethink It End To End. Harvard Business Review. N.p., 2010. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.

Economic Philosophy Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Economic Philosophy - Term Paper Example Though there are theories that can be described as being best suited to explain crime, the question is whether it can be argued that there is the best punishment that can help reduce criminal acts in the world. It is worth noting that scholars have held different points of view concerning whether there can be a theory that can explain in totality the criminal behavior of the contemporary society. Advancing this debate, this paper uses Gary Becker point of view to argue as to whether that there can be an appropriate punishment to deal with criminal behavior in the contemporary societies. In justifying this statement the paper would utilize the four part approach centered on three theories: Rational choice theory, Strain theory, and Labeling theory. In social strain theory, Robert Merton, postulates that most individuals have very similar aspiration, however, they do not all have similar abilities or opportunities. According to this theory, whenever individuals fail to realize the expectations of the society by approved means such as delayed gratification, and hard work, such persons might attempt to achieve their success through crime. Although this theory has played a significant role in sociological theorization of crime, limitation identifies in this theory, indicate that the theory cannot explain in totality what can drive individuals into committing crime. Cohen the first critique of Robert merton theory, there is ample amount of delinquent or crime behavior that is malicious, negativistic, and non-utilitarian. This indicates that not all crimes can be explicable with the use of Merton’s theory. As much as Merton’s theory can explain well, crimes such as theft, and fraud on such basis as innovation, this the ory does not explain youth crimes that in most cases are involved in for social status reason rather than material acquisition. Moreover, Strain theory fails to address adequately issues such as gender and race and it

Survey Example Essay Example for Free

Survey Example Essay We the students of communication skills 14 are conducting a research paper regarding the causes and effects of smoking and drinking to 2nd year students of Centro Escolar University, Manila school year 2012-2013. Here are some questions below, please answer it by putting check on the answers provided before the line. Thankfully yours, (name of respondents) Researchers Questions For Drinkers: 1. Have you ever consumed alcohol? __yes __no 2. At what age did you start consuming alcohol? ________ 3. . Why did you start consuming alcohol? __ peer pressure __family problems __curiosity __to have fun Other(please specify____________) 4. Have you ever passed out or experience memory loss due to drinking? ___ yes ____no 5. What alcoholic beverages do you often drink? ____ beer ____ cocktails ____ rhum ____ whistkey 6. How often do you drink? ____ once a week ____ twice a week ____ once every two weeks Others: (please specify) _____ 7. Do you drink to escape pain, either physical or emotional? ___ Yes ___ No 8. How does it affect your condition the next day? ____ makes you lazy ____ makes you feel sleepy ____ makes you feel out of the mood ____ makes you feel sick 9. Have you ever skipped or missed class because of drinking? ___Yes ___ No 10. How does it affect your performance in school? ____ gives you poor outcome in class participation ____ makes you feel lazy to come to class ____ makes you feel sleepy during class ____ gives you low grades 11. Have you ever skipped or missed class because of drinking? ___Yes ___No 12. Did you ever get into any fights while drinking? ___Yes ___No 13. Any future plans to stop? ___ Yes ___ No Questions for Smokers: 1. When did you start to smoke? ____ 10-12 years old ____ 13-15 years old ____ 16-19 years old Others: (Please specify) _____________ 2. Why did you start smoking? ____ peer pressure ____ stress ____ curiosity Other(please specify) ______________ 3. What do you get from smoking? ____Relaxation ____ Habit ____Good time Others(please specify) ___ 4. Who among in your household smokes? ____Father ____ Sister ____Mother ____ Brother Others(please specify) ____ 5. How many sticks did you used when smoking? ____1 to 2 sticks ____ 2 to 3 sticks ____ 3 to 4 sticks Others(please specify) ____________ 6. How often do you smoke? ____ everyday ____ every other day ____ once a week Others( please specify) ____________ 7. What influenced you to start smoking? ____ peer pressure ____ to gain new experience ____ being done in the family Other(please specify) _____________ 8. Why do you smoke? ____Relaxation ____ Habit ____ Good times Others(please specify)____ 9. Are you aware of the effects of smoking to yourself and to the people around you? ____ Yes ____ No 10. Any future plans to stop? ____ Yes ____ No

Sports Equity and Inclusion in British Rowing

Sports Equity and Inclusion in British Rowing British Rowing: A critical review Rowing is a sport which involves propelling a boat on a body of water using oars to push against the water and produce a force to move the boat. Rowing itself can be recreational or competitive and competition in rowing can be traced back to Ancient Egypt. Modern rowing as a sport dates back to the 10th Century in London. The arrival of Boat Clubs, for example, the Leander club in England, and the formation of University and public school rowing teams, especially at Oxford, Cambridge, and Eton in the early 18th Century, propelled the popularity of the sport to other Universities and boat clubs around the globe including the U.S and Germany (Burnell, Page, 1997).   Rowing is also one of the oldest Olympic sports. Initially it was part of the 1896 Olympics but the racing could not go ahead due to bad weather. Since 1900 it has been present at every Olympic Games with competitions ranging from individual races (single scull) to eight-person shells (coxed eight). Rowing has also had women participants from 1976 and Paralympic athletes from 2008 (Olympic Studies Centre, 2015). Despite being an amateur sport, rowing in Britain has always reflected the division of social classes by being synonymous with the more upper classes. Sugden, Tomlinson (2000) support this by suggesting that involvement in Henleys boating regatta can be a clear sign of high social status. Social classes, in their most basic form can be described as a division of a society based on social and economic status (English | Oxford Dictionaries, 2017). Later in the report I will analyse this further using different theories and concepts. During the rise in popularity of sports in Britain in the 18th century some sports, for example, football and Rugby, were more associated with the working and lower middle classes and other sports, for example, tennis and golf, where more associated with the upper middle and upper classes (Wilson, 2002). This can be attributed to all cultural consumption, including sports consumption, which requires the right tastes and preferences as well as knowledge and skills. This is called cultural capital. (Bourdieu, 1986, cited in Holt, 1998). Cultural capital is defined by access to cultural processes and products. These include the way by which educational, social and intellectual knowledge can used to advantage the social and economic position of a particular individual or group (Bourdieu, 1986, cited in Beedie, Craig, 2010, p. 268). The access to higher levels of educational knowledge in the 18th Century was achieved through the public schools which required fees to attend. Therefore, th ey attracted students from more economically advanced backgrounds and wealthy families that could afford the fees. These included schools like Westminster, Harrow, and the previously mentioned Eton (UK Parliament, 2017). As rowing was only available at boat clubs, universities, and public schools, all of which were out of reach to all but the ruling class, rowing became the preserve of the higher classes. People in poverty and low social classes, therefore, found it harder to participate in the sport. Rowing in England today is governed by British Rowing. The organisation was founded in 1882 and oversees both indoor and on-water rowing. They are responsible for the development of rowing in England and the selection of crews and individual rowers that represent Great Britain. They are affiliated with the International Rowing Federation and the International Olympic Committee. British Rowing has roughly 30,000 individual members that range in age from 11 to over 80. Individual members are usually linked to one of 550 associated rowing clubs, which in turn are within ten rowing regions in England. Each region has a regional rowing council and representatives who represent them on British Rowings Council. The British Rowing Council is made up of the members of the Board, the Regional Chairmen, the Honorary President, the Honorary Rowing Safety Adviser, the Regional Representatives, Home Nations Representative, and Honorary Life Vice Presidents (Governance British Rowing, 2017). The m embers of the Board are the Directors of British Rowing who meet regularly to manage the business of the organisation. This is headed by the chairman, Annamarie Phelps, CBE. Together they create and govern the policies and initiatives of British Rowing. This report will look specifically at the Equity and Inclusion policies and initiatives for British Rowing. Equity is about being fair and impartial and examines inequalities resulting from race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age, religion, or disability (Fletcher, Dashper, 2014). Being inclusive is about providing many different options to suit people of all ages, skills, and backgrounds, in the most appropriate manner that is possible. Therefore, Equity and Inclusion in sport can be defined as being fair and providing a range of opportunities for different people from different backgrounds to participate in sport. By being equitable and inclusive, a sporting organisation, or sport in general, can help to tackle inequalities that are present in wider society. In sociology and sport the idea of inequality has been broadly characterized and has been connected to different political ideologies. Inequality, as characterized from the right, is unavoidable, or is important for society to cope well. Conversely, from the left, inequality is a social detriment and ought to be killed by vote based or progressive means. This can mean democratically via policies and initiatives or even via revolution and forced change. As indicated by Donnelly (1996), Sport by its very nature, produces, and displays inequality. Early research proposed that sport reflected existing inequalities i.e., it was a microcosm of society. Regardless, more critical research of sport has since uncovered that, as opposed to being a passive component and simply reflecting inequality, sport, by means of social operators collaborations with sporting spaces, is effectively involved in creating, repeating, supporting and indeed, acts as a site for resistance when it comes to inequal ity (Dashper, Fletcher, 2013). Jarvie, Thornton (2012) add to this by stating that Inequality is often limited to two notions of inequality namely inequality of condition and inequality of opportunity. Inequality of condition refers to factors such as time, income, occupation, and education, whereas, inequality of opportunity focuses on the individual and the degree of freedom they may have. Equity and inclusion policies should aim to negate these inequalities. In order to correctly analyse the equity and inclusion policies and their impact on a group within society an organisational SWOT analysis will be conducted for British Rowing in regards to their Equity and Inclusion policies and initiatives (Appendix). A SWOT grid / matrix is a grid that highlights the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with an organisation. The strengths are positive factors that are internal to the organisation and within their control. The weakness are also internal factors that may hinder the organisations ability to attain their goals. Opportunities are external factors that the organisation can use and take advantage of in order to progress. Threats are also external factors that could jeopardise the organisations progress.   Once the grid has been filled the information is analysed to ascertain the limitations and issues affecting the organisation. The benefits of a SWOT analysis are that it is cost free, quick and easy to use, anyone can conduct it, it can highlight strengths, weaknesses, deter threats, capitalise on opportunities, provide a better understanding of the organisation and help develop goals and strategies. There are, however, limitations to a SWOT analysis. A S WOT analysis cannot provide solutions, doesnt prioritise issues, it is open to human error, can produce a lot of useless information and doesnt address complex two sided factors that could be considered a strength or a weakness. Taking these into consideration I have listed 3-5 key points in each grid and will expand on them during the analysis. The first strength that was highlighted was that the British Rowing Equity Policy identified key principles in regards to equity in rowing. It stated that Sports Equity is about fairness in sport, equality of access, recognising inequalities and taking steps to address them. It involves changing the culture and structure of sport to ensure that it becomes equally accessible to all members of society (BRITISH ROWING EQUITY POLICY, 2014). It goes on to explain that no members will be treated differently due to certain factors (age, class, gender etc.) and that anyone can have an equal opportunity to participate. This shows that the equity policy has considered the two notions of inequality as previously discussed and that it will try to address these issues. The second strength highlighted was the implementation of an equity action plan to display their commitment to sports equity. The action plan is 5 points and one key point is the commitment to tackle under representation should eff ort be unevenly distributed. They also state the need to review the policy annually which is good practice. The third strength highlighted was the recognition of the legal requirements to be fair and equitable. This includes The Equality act: 2010 among others. The forth strength highlighted was the Adaptive rowing initiative designed to encourage people with disability to join rowing. Through this initiative, they also recruit people to participate in the Paralympics. This is an excellent strength and one that is surely equitable. The final strength was a statistic from 2013 showing that 52% of new recruits were men and 48% were women which displays a very even split between the two genders. This shows their equity policy is working to break down gender barriers as previous stats showed a 60/40 split in favour of men (British Rowing, 2013). The first weakness in the equity and inclusion initiatives was that participation from state schools remains low. 7% of the U.Ks school children are educated by independent schools but 54% of Great Britains elite rowers from the 2012 Olympic games were educated at independent schools. Those from state schools learnt almost entirely from boat clubs (Brown, 2016). The second weakness was that the cost of equipment/membership. Membership at clubs can be on average  £150-300 for a junior participant and even more for adults (Club rules, forms and prices, 2017 and Smithson, 2017). There is also a membership fee with British Rowing from  £17 for a junior to  £1150 for a lifetime membership. These fees may not be affordable for those who are struggling financially and who are in poverty and therefore the costs of the memberships act as a barrier to participation for those individuals. The final weakness is that equity policy states that British Rowing will publicise this to all employ ees, members, volunteers and officials through its website, Almanack, magazine and club mailings (BRITISH ROWING EQUITY POLICY, 2014). This is good to an extent but there is no mention of publicising its equity policy beyond its members and inner circles. By publicising its equity policy to a wider and more diverse audience in the public it is possible to encourage more participation from individuals that may not realise the opportunity is there to join the sport and that it is inclusive. The first opportunity highlighted was the increased popularity in rowing after the success of the 2012 Olympic games in London. British Rowing endured a spike in new recruits of 12.2% in the final 6 months of 2012 (British Rowing, 2013). British Rowing could take further advantage of this by specifically targeting certain groups in society that have low participation levels. The second opportunity is related to the first. It was that the one of the Olympic legacys goals were Promoting community engagement and achieving participation across all groups in society through the Games (London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Annual Report February 2011). The final opportunity is that rowing is one of Britains most successful sports. They have accumulated 68 medals, including 31 gold, in mens rowing alone at the Olympics, 3rd overall in the history of the games. This can inspire more people to join and be part of the sport. The first threat highlighted was that costs may remain high or even grow with inflation. Costs to participate is a barrier for individuals but the cost for state schools to build facilities and buy equipment, such as boat houses, indoor rowers, storage rooms etc., can be a major factor in state schools deciding not to become involved in rowing. Another threat is that, despite being one of Britains most successful sports, rowing still falls behind other sports such as football, rugby, tennis, cricket, badminton, swimming, and athletics, in terms of popularity (Russell, 2014). Other sports may be more appealing to new participants and sports that are played regularly at both state and independent schools will inevitably have higher participation levels and a more diverse participation pool. The final threat is that now that the 2012 Olympics is long over, and the buzz around rowing is diminishing, the opportunity to encourage state schools and people from social deprivation backgrounds to participate could be fading. From the SWOT analysis, we can see there are issues and challenges for people in social deprivation and in the lower classes of society. To fully understand the context and impact of this, definitions must be understood and sociological theory must be applied. Sociology, as defined by Giddens (2001), is the study of human social life, groups and societies. A theory is a framework for understanding, but it always develops within a particular cultural context and is always provisionalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ theory provides us with a starting point for our understanding but it begs to be expanded, contradicted, refined, replaced (Birrell, 2000). Therefore, a sociological theory is a framework of understanding around the study of human social life, groups, and societies. Three key terms must also be understood and they are ideology, power, and politics. Ideology is the shared ideas or beliefs which serve to justify the interests of dominant groups (Giddens, 2001). Power is the ability of individ uals, or the members of a group, to achieve aims or further the interests they holdà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Many conflicts in society are struggles over power (Giddens, Sutton, 2013, p. 584). Politics takes place wherever conflict exists about goals and the method of achieving those goals (Houlihan, 2002). The way in which society develops unequal layers based on wealth, income, status, and power is defined as social stratification (Beedie, Craig, 2010, p. 116). Karl Marxs Conflict Theory can be used to better understand the social stratification from the perspective of poorer groups and less powerful of people. Karl Marxs work on conflict theory can be best understood by taking into consideration the context of the social world in which he lived. He developed his work during the mid-19th Century, which was a time of deep political and social unrest, due to the rapid expanding system of industrial capitalism and the political and economic issues that accompanied it (Foster, 1979). These political and economic tensions helped to further divide society in the form of social classes, that competed against each other, forming a class conflict. The Marxist view on social class can be basically divided into two main groups but the reality is that there are at least four groupings, which Marx identified to a certain extent. They are the lumpenproetariat, the proletariat, the petite bourgeoisie, and the bourgeoisie. They can also be called the underclass, the working class, the middle class, and the upper class. Each have their own problems and goals and are interconnected and interdependent to a ce rtain degree. This makes it hard to allocate class labels at times as it be a fluid and elastic term that is ever changing. Nevertheless, Marx describes the upper class as the class in control of the means of production and the classes below are the ones that make these means possible by selling their labour for wages. This division of labour causes relationships between classes to become exploitative where the upper classes exploit the lower classes by maximising commodity production for profit rather than need. This profit driven ideology is based on and creates inequalities and these inequalities between the classes cause conflict. This relates back to the definition of power where by conflicts in society are struggles over power and that the groups that wield the most power (upper class) can further their aims and interests that they hold. This also then relates back to our definition of politics; that it takes place wherever conflict exists about goals. This explains why some o f the most powerful people in society are located at the summit of politics (Rigauer, Tomlinson, 2002). When applying this sport, it is important to understand, as previously mentioned, that sport can act as a microcosm of society and reflect the fractures and divisions within society. If modern sport was developed in the 19th Century in tandem with the rise of industrial capitalism, then it is understandable that the same divides and conflicts that were in society at the time were reflected in sport. Houlihan and Malcolm (2016) add to this and state that Sport reflects and reproduces the ideologies of capitalism like aggressive individualism, ruthless competition, elitismà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦These ideasà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦in sport, reflect the broader structure of capitalist society. Having considered the historical context of rowing at the beginning of the report, it is clear to see how Sugden, Tomlinson (2000) suggested that rowing was a sport more associated with the upper classes. As rowing as a competitive sport began to form in independent schools, which became less and less accessible to the lower classes with the rise of industrial capitalism, the only class with the opportunity to participate in the sport were the upper classes that attended the high fee paying schools and as a result rowing, with its lack of lower class members became a sport for the upper class in the 19th century.   Beedie, Craig (2010) support this with an example of the town of Bedford. Bedford is a town with a tradition for rowing due to the River Ouse which flows near it. The grass roots entry points to rowing here were dominated by the fee paying independent schools and thus, any school children from state schools wishing to get involved in rowing had a very little oppor tunity to do so. They go on to state that rowing does not reflect the cosmopolitan diversity of social groups living in Bedford, but instead remains populated by those privileged educationally. Despite conflicts of social classes being less volatile and society being more integrated in the modern era of sport, the class divide in British Rowing is still clear to see. Of the 12 board members in British Rowing, only 2 attended state schools and of all the elite athletes that represented GB, 54% were educated in independent schools. Despite the organisations significant steps to improving inclusion for disability and female participants, it still has an identity as an upper-class sport. This could be further explained again using Marxism as Marx suggests that the ruling elite à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦controls the means of mental production (Storey, 1993). If the people in charge of British Rowing and the lead figures and elite athlete are constantly coming from upper class backgrounds, then the image and idea of rowing being an upper-class sport cannot be changed. As I have previously mentioned, equity and inclusion polices should seek to negate the inequalities associated with that spo rt. One of those inequalities was highlighted as a lack of opportunity for people in poverty and the lower classes as poverty is at the core of exclusion (Collins, Kay, 2014). To combat this inequality and exclusion, I recommend that British Rowing should seek to reach out to other organisations to form a partnership with the goal of bringing more water sports to state schools. Craig, Mellor (2010) state that the recognition of, and involvement in, common activities enables and promotes social cohesion. Therefore, if more and more people from poverty and social deprivation backgrounds can have a better opportunity to participate in rowing it would improve relations between social classes even more and help to alleviate any barriers. For British Rowing, it will also provide a much larger pool of athletes to choose for elite level competition, for example the Olympics, and this could boost Great Britains success in the sport even further. They have proven that initiatives for specific populations (Female, Disability etc.) can improve participation and success in those groups and further effort for people in poverty could boost participation for that group a lso. Other potential means of improving participation could be to place a cap on membership fees so that they cant rise to a level that will become unaffordable to more people. Reaching out to state schools and providing them with equipment would be highly costly to the organisation. As sport becomes more commercialised and media heavy it is perhaps an option for British Rowing to negotiate a TV or sponsorship deal to raise capital for initiatives to improve equity and inclusion in their sport. Events at the Olympics and The Boat Race are the two main televised rowing events. As The Boat Race is one day per year and events at the Olympics only come once every 4 years, opportunity to highlight the sport to wider audience is not as frequent as some of the sports competitors. Staging exhibition races or creating completions for television could get more regular coverage and help to spread interest in rowing and also raise funds for initiatives to improve equity and inclusion. As sport not only reflects society but also helps to shape it, by using rowing to break down social barriers within the sport, and within social groups, society too may be effected in a positive way. Breaking down these barriers will help to provide more opportunities for participation and to be more fair and equal.

Co-branding Curtin University Miri

Co-branding Curtin University Miri Executive Summary The followings aim to allow the reader to have an understanding of co-branding. Certain real life business example is used to illustrate of the relevant theories that has been extract from research journal. Many other relevant articles are also being used for discussion to make the subject matters as current as possible with the objective to stay valid as in point of reading. Inside this paper, co-branding was explained as to why it has been applied as a strategy to explore new market and growth by businesses. Types of example in co-branding that exist and practise in the market. In addition, all the marketing-mix tools are discussed as to how it can impacts the co-branding process. The benefits and disadvantages are also being put forward for discussion with a recommendation to use co-branding as a business strategy. Introduction In today complex business world, whereby competitions are fierce especially for the fast moving consumer goods industry (Helmig, Huber and Leeflang 2008, 359), marketers tried to use any tools they has in order to open a path for additional opportunities for new customers and trade channel to generate greater sales from their existing target market. Co-branding is one of the marketing strategies that used by marketers to create opportunities in achieving business growth in the market. Some may have wonder, what is co-branding? Co-branding is either two or more renowned brands that combined to form an alliance to work together and creating marketing synergy (Kotler, Keller and Burton 2009, 361). In simple term, it means that two brands comes together to create a single, unique product. This pairing can be in a marketing context such as in advertisements, products, product placements and distribution outlets (Grossman 1997, 191). Such marketing synergy can potentially expands the customer base, to increases profitability, responds to the expressed and latent needs of customers through production lines, strengthens competitive position through a bigger market share, enhances product introductions through enhancing the brand image, creates new customer-perceived value and yields operational benefits through reduced cost as stated by Chang (2009, 77) of a notes identified by Gaurav Doshi 2007 article. Co-branding An example of successful co-branding is the McDonald ice cream with MMs candies and also Kraft Oreo cookies which resulted to the creation of MMs Mcflurry and Oreo Mcflurry ice cream products. The success of both MMs and Oreo Mcflurry ice cream is an example of utilizing two or more brand names to introduce a new product with competitive advantages. Chang (2008, 220) state that the purpose is to capitalize on the reputation of the partner brands in an attempt to achieve immediate recognition by the consumers. Airasia, the low budget airline of Malaysia has done very well in the online booking for air travelling, had form an alliance with Citibank to introduce their unique Airasia Citibank credit card (Citibank and Airasia tie the knot! 2007). In this example of joint-venture of co-branding, both Airasia and Citibank have their own separate brand equity, and both also earned brand awareness and positive brand image. Their alliance for success comes from a logical fit between two brands, thus their marketing activity maximises the advantages of each other while minimising their disadvantages as mentioned by Kotler, Keller and Burton (2009, 361). The research done by Park, Jun and Shocker (1996, 464) shows that consumers are more likely to accept the co-branding product when two brands are complementary rather than similar. Their alliance is a perfect match as both Airasia and Citibank which can tap on each other customer base to increase their business activity and on top with increase in p rofits. Further to another type of co-branding is known as same company co-branding. This is an example of Nestle Company in Malaysia when they develop Nestle ice cream using their well known chocolate brand like Kit Kat and Smarties to penetrate into the ice cream market (Nestle in your life: ice cream n.d.). Thus, with immediate brand awareness among their loyalty customers, Nestle are optimising their chances of success of a new launch product. The list does not stop here as there are other types of co-branding, which is multiple-sponsor co-branding, such as Taligent, a one-time technological alliance of Apple, IBM and Motorola (Kotler, Keller and Burton 2009, 361). There is also retail co-branding, example like Pizza Hut and KFC in Malaysia, where two retail businesses use the same location as a method to maximise both space and profits. Moreover, ingredient co-branding is another type of co-branding; a successful example of this is Intel whereby the ingredient branding was so strong that the consumers insist of buying Personal Computer with Intel Inside. Thus, it gives great impacts towards major manufacturer such as Dell and Compaq to adopt Intel chips for their finishing products (Kotler, Keller and Burton 2009, 362). The benefits of Co-branding It is common for all businesses face towards the challenges of financial risks when introducing new brand to consumer market (Aaker and Keller 1990, 27). In addition, a product or services life cycle is getting shorter each day as the advancement in technology has makes it easier to copy among brand in the same industry. It is because of these, the risks inherent in establishing new brands are high, with a failure rate ranging from 80 to 90 percent as mentioned by Leuthesser, Kohli and Suri (2002, 35). So, in this instant co-branding make sense as it can increase brand distinctiveness by capitalizing on the values embedded in cooperating brands. Through the arrangement of co-branding, businesses are able to do brand-leveraging which capitalize on existing brand equity rather than building new brand equity as noted by Dickinson and Heath (2008, 22).Take Airasia Citibank credits card for example, the benefits of being the card owner automatically becomes an elite traveller to enjoy spe cial fares and holiday packages not available elsewhere. By merging values and identities of brands originally engaged in different industries, now both are able to gain consumer choices, loyalty and consequently lead the brand to uniqueness and distinctive as compare to their competitors. From this example it has deliver the aim to increase the distinctiveness of the co-branding product and also gain customer loyalty by providing them with the alliance benefits. Thus, it also achieves its set objective of co-branding that is to expanding customer base, creating a new customer perceived value and most importantly to strengthen its competitive position in the market. As market condition change rapidly, it is not easy for a product to have a safe sailing to success as there is full of choices and is keep on increasing for the consumers to choose. Brands research also found that a single brand may not be able to meet the demands of variable individual needs such as custom design with added value (Djurovic 2009). By using extension co-branding to enhance the products will able to meet those individual needs. For example Bacardi and Coca Cola or Bacardi and Sprite, to have co-branded Bacardi Mixers range to show and suggest alternative ways to consume the two brands. By this arrangement, both brands will gain financial benefits, to have introduced a new product range with a strong image and also respond to the expressed and latent needs of the customers. The other benefits of co-branding is that the product has it uniqueness and distinctive characteristic, thereby induce more sales and also reducing cost of product introduction as noted by Desai and Keller (2002). Interestingly, co-branding is able to work more efficient and effectively communicating through to the consumers as the two brands awareness is high (Aaker 2003, 84). Marketing tools for Co-branding Indeed co-branding activity has increase over the past decade as Spethmann and Benezra (1994) noted that the number of corporate alliances worldwide, including co-branding ventures is continuing to grow at 40% rate each year, involving billions of dollars in assets. Such an increase in co-branding activity may project itself to be a popular strategy as mentioned by Hilton (2007). In addition he asked is it also a smart one? and he answered it with a qualified yes if it is executed well. In order to execute well, we need to discuss any of the relevant seven Ps in marketing mix tools. The seven Ps mentioned which is Product, Price, Promotion, Placement, Physical evidence, Process and People. Marketers use these tools to make marketing-mix decisions for influencing their trade channels right to their end users. In practise, companies seek growth through innovation of new products by their research and development team and co-branding strategy can develop this new product to success by provide perception of quality and image as it capitalizes on the unique strengths of each contributing brand (Chang 2008, 498). For easy focusing onto one industry, we use the fast moving consumer goods as our point of discussions Generally for a co-branding to success, the potential partner has to be large and have strong distribution channel or customer base with positive market image. As mentioned, the market environment change rapidly and the speed to market is one of the key success factor to a co-brand product or services. The aim is to establish a strong foothold before the onslaught by competitors. With wide distribution coverage or customer base will enable this task to be accomplish on the set target. In order for the execution of the co-branding to have a speedy reach out to the market, marketer must look into trade promotion and advertising campaign to assist in numerous ways. The joint sales promotion and advertising campaign is to stimulate interest and inquiries in the market among their loyalty customer and the trade promotion activity should focus on communicating the benefits and value-added the co-branding can provide to the consumer. When these two brands form an alliance for joint promotion on their co-branding product or services, the objectives is for those two brands to provides greater assurance about the quality standard than those of a single branded product from the perspective point of view as noted by Rao, Lu and Ruekert (1999, 259). Thus, from this positive point of view by the consumers it lead to higher product evaluations and this will allow the co-branding product or services to command a premium prices (Helmig, Huber and Leeflang 2008, 360). To illustrate our point we take the Nestle and LOreal as example. Nestle and LOreal recently announced their pairing. One may have asked what common value does these two have. Nestle is the world leading nutrition food producer and the company mission is to produce healthy food to feed the world but not restricted to inside but also our outer body, which is our skin. Indeed, LOreal comes in as a perfect match as the brand is the global leader in skin care. Their pairing is seen to be an unorthodox brand alliance as noted by Lindstorm (2003) but it has those values that the customers can relied and be convincing of their brand alliance commitment. In this instance, the uniqueness and distinctive of the co-branding product has a high evaluation by the customer as indicating of higher chance of success sales and also better command of price point. Although physical evidence is most commonly being used to evaluate for the service industry such as restaurant and hotel (Physical Evidence the lifeline for service companies 2006), we can also make it to be a relevant point to discuss for fast moving consumer goods as in its packaging as physical evidence. The packaging has to be attractive and user friendly. An example of user friendly packing is the pull up cap for canned foods as it allows the buyer to easily open and consume it. As nowadays consumer are also concern of environmental issues, they are also choosing for product packaging that can be recycle after consuming their contents. This physical evidence can also take form as in a warranty or guarantee. Take Duracell for example that has guarantee against defects in materials and workmanship due to a battery defect (Duracell Guarantee n.d). Here the physical evidence is clear and has communicate to the user that Duracell will repair or replace it. These are deems to be an im portant physical evidence a co-branding product can emulate to makes it unique and distinctive. The other Ps of the marketing mix is the process. In marketing mix, the process is an element of service that sees the customer experiencing an organizations offering as mostly in the service industry. As for fast moving consumer goods, the process that the co-brand product wishes the customer to experience is hassle free to access to the product. In short, the availability of the product is sufficient in every retails store and in arm reach location. One such example is the Wrigley Company in which their sales strategy is to focus on the process of the potential consumers reach for their chewing gums product. The result, Wrigley chewing gums was distributed to any corner of the world and to display it at arm reach location in order for the customer to have pleasant experience when reaching for their products. Wrigley understand it well that it continue to focus on recognizes the uniqueness of each one of their consumers and efforts are made to reaching them and in return of hopes th eir potential customer will get to know more of their products and purchase them. The last Ps is the people. Peoples are very important in co-branding. What makes co-branding products a success besides its uniqueness, distinctive and value added to attract the consumers is its people that work behind and in front. A consumer who comes into contact with the co-brand product will make an impression, and they can have a profound effect, either positive or negative and that is on customer satisfaction. The reputation of co-brand product rests in the peoples hands so they must be therefore trained, well motivated and have the right attitude. They must have high level of commitment, competence and complete understanding of their products. The attitude to believe that their co-brand product is unique and will bring them more sales and profits thus, it cans moves them to self motivate to service their customer to satisfaction. The disadvantages for Co-branding By now, the above presented, should be able to give the philosophy behind co-branding and that is to increase both market share and revenue as well as gaining competitive advantages through customer awareness by providing them with a co-branding product that is distinctive and unique. Although co-branding looks rewarding and it does sounds like a perfect strategy to seek growth and by understanding the benefits of co-branding and reviewing the marketing tools to assist it to success alone is not enough. Co-branding does not come without risks, as one have to aware that only one in five attempts of a brand mergers succeed as mentioned by an article by Knudsen et al. (1997, 189). In many ways, brands can be explained like people, they their own values and direction. In real world is difficult for married couples to reconcile their differences and commit to stay to each other forever as noted by Lindstorm (2002) and that half of the worlds marriages ending with a divorce so as co-brandi ng partnership. The risk of co-branding is pairing with a partner that can tarnish the existing products strong brand equity, as the two alliance brands has become connected together in the consumers mind as mentioned by Ueltschy and Laroche (2004, 93). The pitfall here is that when consumers attribute any negative experience due to the fault or negligence of any one party of the alliance, the overall brand equity could be damage and poses threat to co-branding and resulting the other brand being perceive as weak (Kocherp 2009). Thus, when it lead to a negative evaluation by the consumers and is likely also to cause damaging to the co-branding privilege of price command in the market as it used to enjoy over their competitors. The other scenario that a co-branding may fail is when the two products have different market and are entirely different such as no complimentary effects. If there is difference in visions and missions of the two alliance companies, then the co-branding may also fail costly. To take an example of a failure co-branding is the case of American Airlines and America Online. They ambitiously launched a joint consumer-loyalty program in 1999 in search of brand synergy. As the program never met any of the co-branding expectations, they separate their alliance and some analysts say that their failure was due to the co-brand product and never really did anything interesting with it and didnt seem to commit to it as noted by Buss (Brandchannel n.d.). Perhaps their co-branding failure is due to the absence of a clearly defined strategy. When this physical evidence happens, the people as mentioned in the marketing-mix, also has an impact onto them. Failure of alliance means the loss of their cre dibility and capabilities to be able to create a market synergy branding product. The process the customer experience is unpleasant as we used American Airlines as example, to illustrate our point. Imagine all the loyalty program as promise to their loyal customers has either end up empty handed or being compensated by other means in which may not be up to the expectation of their customers. This will surely cost the image of the parent company. Co-branding may result into creation of new ideas for products or services, which leads to the entrance of new competitors who combine the features of both brands into one (Kocherp 2009). Such case was the example of IBM and Microsoft partnership to develop DOS operating system for its personal computers in which it lead to a series of sequence events that eventually creates Microsoft as dominance as we know it today (Leuthesser, Kohli and Suri 2002, 42). So, the potential partner for co-branding arrangement should be place under screening and be analyse to what extent it can be spawn to be the next competitor. As always we have to bear in mind that, every coins has two side and after being able to present the above disadvantages, we also must not forget the benefits of a co-branding has to offer as mentioned earlier for marketers to adopt as a strategy to seek growth for businesses. It is always practical to apply a S.W.O.T analysis as in Strengths, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat to review the co-branding proposal. The S.W.O.T analysis is a useful tool to provide an insight to the potential co-branding proposal of their strength versus their weaknesses within the brand and company of alliance. It also provides to review of what was the opportunities can be created through the partnership versus the threat and challenges facing towards. Co-branding as marketing strategy Before drawing any decision to adopt co-branding strategy to gain market advancement, lets review some important co-branding points that have been mentioned earlier. The alliances can provide an equal benefit for both entities, the values of both brands can complement each other and the brand relationship can creates value added to the customers. According to Leuthesser, Kohli and Suri (2002, 41), which defines four co-branding strategies which is, reaching in, reaching out, reaching up and reaching beyond. By reaching in, the strategy is to achieve greater market penetration by alliance itself to other brands that can complement what the existing brand shortfall when introducing over line extension. Such arrangement was the example of McDonald MMs Mcflurry ice-cream in which McDonald capitalize on MMs strong brand awareness to reach in for greater market penetration. Mcdonald by focus on products has actually utilised one of the marketing-mix tools to reach in for greater market penetration. In reaching out, the strategy is to tap onto new market horizon and to achieve this objective is to co-branding with an alliance that give complementary effects and such example was shown in the arrangement of Airasia and Citibank credit card. Their alliance has enabled each of the partner company to reach out to tap into different industries. Thus, it increases the distribution channel of its business as what marketing-mix tools call it placement, which is product or services reach out to customer through difference networks. Reaching up is a strategy to achieve market advancement by alliances with partners that can elevates positive brand image. The Oral-B brand is such a good example to illustrate this strategy. In the Malaysian consumers market before Oral-B, whereby Colgate is the eminent household name among the majority of Malaysian consumers and of cause needless to say, Colgate was dominating in the retail outlets as well and where Oral-B brand was unknown to the local Malaysian. Then Oral-B start to strategy for the past decade by getting the endorsement from the dentist association of Malaysia to raise its brand image among Malaysian dental care user and as a result of the prominent co-branding and today the Oral-B branding has been strong in the mind of the consumer. In order to achieve total cavities free, Oral-B dental care product range is now the Malsysian first choice upon purchasing. As highlighted by Ueltschy and Laroche (2004, 93), when the two alliance has become connected together in the consumers mind, the result is a strong brand equity been build. The successful of reaching up, to elevates the brand image has enable Oral-B to have better command onto their product pricing thus it makes more profitable business than the rest of its competitors. This is a case of using the marketing-mix tools of price. When a brand has a better command of price it generates not only handsome profit while also generating a substantial amount of advertising and promotional activity fund to create sales opportunity whenever there is a necessary. It is shown that Oral-B has demonstrate how to utilise the price tool very well in order to be price competitive and with profit where many others has failed upon utilising it. In reaching beyond, the strategy involves alliance with a co-branding partner that can elevate strong image and gaining access to new customer. The objective of this strategy is to reach up and reach out. The Airasia and Citibank credit card is also showing an example of this strategy. Airasia by co-branding with Citibank is said to be reaching beyond as it can tap onto the huge customer base of the bank while Citibank is also said to have reaching beyond when co-branding with Airasia by tapping onto the growing customer base as the airline is expanding rapidly to more than 18 countries mainly in Asia. As Airasia continue to grow, so will Citibank as they both are complementary each other in every sense of their business. Conclusion All the above materials is to gives an overall understanding of a co-branding whereby it is one of the marketing strategy often time utilise by marketers to seek growth in a saturated market environment. By accessing to the marketing-mix tools and its function, marketers who intelligently applying it can accelerates their co-branding business to new heights while others that has already in the forefront can also creates new heights as the benefits of co-branding as presented is encouraging for one to consider to venture into it. However, when applying co-branding as the strategy, it is advice to use a S.W.O.T. analyse to screen for the weakness and threat it possess and whether the overall alliances is worthwhile the risk that is at stake that can influence the parent brand. In general through research as discussed above, co-branding will success when there is a logical fit with the alliances. It is thereby the possibility for a co-brand to build into a successful trademark is high as long as it executed well as noted by Hilton (2007). References Aaker, D. The Power of the branded differenciator. MIT Sloan Management Review 45 (1): 84. http://proquest.umi.com (accessed February 19, 2010). Aaker, D. A., and K. L. Keller. 1990. Consumer Evaluations of Brand Extensions. Journal of Marketing 54 (1): 27. http://proquest.umi.com (accessed February 18, 2010). Chang, W. L. 2008. A Typology of Co-branding Strategy: Position and Classification. 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Brand Management 11 (1): 35-47. www.marketingritson.com/ documents/week4cobranding.pdf (accessed March 3, 2010). Lindstorm, M. 2002. Brand + Brand = Success, Part 2: Brand Marriage Failure. http://www.clickz.com/988901 (accessed March 8, 2010). Lindstorm, M. 2003. Unorthodox Brand Alliance. http://www.clickz.com/3099131 (accessed March 8, 2010). Nestle in your life: ice cream. n.d. http://www.nestle.com.my/Nestle+In+Your+Life/Our+ Brands/Ice+Cream/ (accessed March 3, 2010). Park, C. W., S. Y. Jun, and A. D. Shocker. 1996. Composite Branding Alliances: An Investigation of Extension and Feedback Effect. Journal of Marketing Research 13 (4): 464. http://proquest.umi.com (accessed February 21, 2010). Physical Evidence the lifeline for service companies. 2006. http://sevenpsofservicemarketing. blogspot.com/2006/04/physical-evidence-lifeline_114569507522538712.html (accessed March 10, 2010). Rao, A. R., Q. Lu, and R. W. Ruekert. 1999. 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Defining Identity Essay -- Personal Narrative, Identity Essays

There are millions of words across the globe that are used to describe people and uncover their identity, but what is identity? How can you begin to describe something that varies so greatly from one human being to another? Can you create a universal meaning for a word describing human concepts that people often fail to define for themselves? Of course there isn't one definition to define such a word. It is an intricate aspect of human nature, and it has a definition just as complex. Webster's dictionary describes identity as sameness of essential character, individuality, or the fact of being the same person as one claims to be. So your identity can include your name, your age, your job title, or simply characteristics of your body. These things are facts, facts you don't care to share with the world. Just as the word suggests your identity is something by which you can be identified. These are things that describe a person in terms a stranger would understand. This area of identity is proof of who you are. However, your identity is also composed of what you are. They mark your role in society. Who you are and what you do make up your identity. This is essential in the human life span because people are always searching to find where they truly belong in the world. Obviously a word that has such a deep meaning can?t have a shallow definition. The other component of identity is one?s personality. Your thoughts, emotions, and attitudes also have a huge impact on your identity. This part is not something the world can hold to be true, but something you know to be true. This portion of your identity is not something that you have passively acquired, it is something you have experienced and built upon through... ...can go through an entire lifetime and not really know how to define their own identity. In many cases people suffer through a great crisis to discover who they really are. If someone doesn?t know the meaning of their own identity, how can society apply a definition to the word? It leaves people to ponder whether or not there are some feelings and parts of life that simply cannot be explained. When defining the word identity scholars and common men alike must agree to disagree. It is a word so diverse in context that it is seemingly impossible to take it down to a simplified definition. There are some things in life that just aren?t meant to be completely understood, and one?s identity is among these things. Not until a person has a lived out their live could they sit down and tell you how their adventure has shaped them into the person they became in the end.

The Character of Cyrano De Bergerac :: Cyrano Bergerac

The Character of Cyrano De Bergerac A man who knows every thing, has never ending wit and charm, and has a way with words like none other, but is still to horrid to convey his true feelings to a beautiful woman. This poor but yet amazing man is Cyrano from the play "Cyrano De Bergerac" by Edmond Rostand. This man has more intellect than sand in a desert and is the most courageous Gascon of all. Yet he has one tragic physical flaw. He has an enormous nose, of which he is very self conscious about and only he can talk about it. If any one else has anything to say about it the better say something very witty or there done for. All of this is portrayed in one of Cyrano's speeches on page 40-41. The speech reveals how clever and smart he is when he says things like "what a sign for a perfume shop" (41) and "Is that a conch, and are you Triton rising from the sea?"(41). Cyrano reveals a lot about himself in his speech like how intelligent he is to use such big intellectual words off the top of his head. Cyrano uses phrases like "The end of it must get wet when you drink from a cup. Why don't you use a tankard?"(40) And words like Grandiloquent to show off his wit. Most people in that age weren't educated as well as Cyrano was and that showed a lot when he spoke. Not many people in the room knew that grandiloquent meant pretentious or non straight forward. Aristophanes was also another word that no one ever used or knew what it meant. Cyrano also revealed that he had no patience for people that made fun of, or picked on those that were less fortunate. Cyrano thought as himself as less fortunate to have a nose like his. So when people made fun of it he got very angry but yet he never lost his cool. So Cyrano would just take care of business with the bully in a entertaining manner and then be on his way. In his speech he showed his willingness to fight and his aptitude to make people mad at him.

Carbon Sinks In the Oceans Analysis Essay -- greenhouse gas, carbon dio

Carbon sinks are found when there is a collection of carbon dioxide within a reservoir. Both, the terrestrial and aquatic systems, can act as natural carbon sinks, as can the atmosphere, where the collections of carbon dioxide as well as carbon dioxide emissions are high. The efficiency of these sinks has been declining since the 1990’s (Canadell et al. 2007). Approximately, 50% of carbon dioxide emissions are collected in the terrestrial and oceanic sinks (Ritschard 1992), which are detrimental to the ecosystem. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have been significantly small compared to the anthropogenic emissions when it comes to substantiality (Canadell et al. 2007). This is because the natural carbon sinks of the ocean remove some of the anthropogenic carbon dioxide (Canadell et al. 2007). Although the exact amount of carbon stored in these sinks cannot be determined due to lack of research, scientists do know that coastal ecosystems (or intertidal zones) are the most inte nse carbon sinks around (Vierros 2013). It is well known that carbon dioxide is a radioactive gas (Edmonds 1992). Carbon dioxide as well as the other radioactive gases such as ozone and water vapor, (Edmonds 1992) are the gases that become trapped in the atmosphere and are commonly referred to as greenhouse gases. There is approximately a 0.4% increase of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere a year (Ritschard 1992). Carbon has been collecting in the oceans for many years. Because of the addition of human activity, much of the carbon dioxide that enters into oceanic and other aquatic systems comes from the terrestrial systems (Oswood et al. 1996). These sources include but are not limited to eroding peat, inorganic carbon, runoff and soil dissolved ... ...O2 growth from economic activity, carbon intensity and efficiency of natural sinks. PNAS. V104(47): 18866-18870 2) Chung, I.K., Beardall, J., Mehta, S., Sahoo, D., and Stojkovic, S. 2011. Using marine macroalgae for carbon sequestration: a critical appraisal. J. Applied Phycology V23(5):877-886 3) Edmonds, J. 1992. Why understanding the natural sinks and sources of CO2 is important: A policy analysis perspective. Water, Air and Soil Pollution V64:11-21 4) Orr, J.C., and Sarmiento, J.L. 1992. Potential of Marine Macroalgae as a Sink for CO2: Constraints for a 3-D General Circulation Model of the Global Ocean. Water, Air and Soil Pollution V64:405-421 5) Oswood, M.W., Irons III, J.G., and Schell, D.M. 1996 Dynamics of Dissolved and Particulate Carbon in an Arctic Stream. Landscape Function and Disturbance in the Arctic Tundra. Ecological Studies. V120:275-289

Male Image in Victorian Poetry Essay

In Robert Browning’s â€Å"My Last Duchess†(1842), â€Å"Porphyria’s Love†(1842), and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s verse novel â€Å"Aurora Leigh†(1856) we have two contrasting images of male lover and husband. The greed for wealth and power drives the male characters in Robert Browning’s poems to grow from dominating to domineering psychopaths and destroys the object of their affection; in contrast Aurora Leigh, a woman of substance, refuses to play the second fiddle and spurns the offer of love and marriage from her cousin Romney to be able to pursue art independently. Though the Brownings are not known as the typical representatives of their era, some of the characters reflect the dominating values of their time. The upper class male characters in these poems are vain and arrogant in their attitude, and condescending to women. Robert Browning’s view in â€Å"Porphyria’s Lover† and â€Å"My Last Duchess† through the dramatic monologues. The Duchess, being a woman of â€Å"a softer mood†, becomes the soft target of her hard-hearted husband. She lacks the education and confidence to choose her path of freedom. The two male characters – the obsessive lover in â€Å"Porphyria† and the Duke in â€Å"My Last Duchess† — reveal the dark motives through the successful use of dramatic monologues. In â€Å"My Last Duchess† it is an exaggerated view of his social status that leads the Duke to neglect his wife first, then as she obdurately follows her natural inclinations of innocence and equanimity to all, she is smothered to death with aristocratic diplomacy: â€Å"This grew; I gave commands;/ Then all smiles stopped together. † (ll. 45-46) The Duke who gets rid of his last Duchess so inhumanly, shamelessly negotiates marriage with the daughter of a rich Count. He admires the beauty and the grandeur of the Duchess’ portrait, and it is the famous artist Fra Pandolf or Neptune taming a sea horse, the rare sculpture of Claus of Innsbruck to highlight his position and ensure â€Å"master’s known munificence/ Is ample warrant that no just pretense/ of mine for dowry will be disallowed. †(ll. 49-51) It is greed that drives the Duke to murder his first wife to make way for a more profitable second marriage for a hefty dowry. The Duke represents the values of the rich upper class; he overestimates his nine- hundred-year-old status and underestimates the priceless sweet disposition of his humble wife: â€Å"She had /a heart – how shall I say? – too soon made glad,/ Too easily impressed;† (ll. 21-23) His typical male vanity is expressed in his own words: â€Å"Who’d stoop to blame/ This sort of trifling? † (ll. 34-35) The male ego in the Duke is so domineering that it would not brook any kind of opposition to the custom and culture of his â€Å"superior† class. Marriage is a matter of convenience and a passport to accumulation of wealth. As soon as he realizes the incompatibility of his first marriage, he is ready for the second even at the cost of murdering his last Duchess. The Duke stands for the ruthlessly ambitious capitalist of the Victorian era who does not mind building his empire on the graveyard of his hapless victims. His criminal nature is camouflaged by his high social status. Robert Browning’s â€Å"Porphyria’s Lover† bares the psyche of a lover obsessed with jealousy. The dramatic monologue focuses on the central character of the male lover who kills his beloved on the ground of suspicion. This abnormal act of murder exposes the deeper recesses of his soul. In a cold and stormy night he makes love to his lady after she returns from a sortie and then strangles her with her hair. Even after this diabolical act the male lover does not feel any remorse; on the contrary, he gloats over the absolute surrender of his beloved: â€Å"Murmuring how she loved me – she †¦And give herself to me forever. † (ll. 21, 25) It is vanity that sustains the lover; but he feels insecure from some unknown threat of an imaginary rival: â€Å"Porphyria worshipped me; surprise/ Made my heart swell and still it grew† (ll. 33-34) He kills her with a desire of immortalizing the consummation of their love. The sadist manipulator of woman delights in the â€Å"blue eyes†, â€Å"blushed burning cheek† and the â€Å"smiling rosy head† of the corpse. This may be an extreme case, but the absolute domination of the male over their female counterparts is fact of Victorian society. The death wish of Porphyria does not sound true, it seems to be her lover’s wish-fulfillment. The sick lover takes stock with a calculating mind: â€Å"And I, its love, am gained instead! † (l. 55) The women in Robert Browning’s poems pay with their lives for trusting their men. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s â€Å"Aurora Leigh†(1856) explores the fate of a progressive thinker Aurora who turns down the marriage proposal of Romney, she finally emerges triumphant in her profession of a poet and reformer as she proclaims: â€Å"Their sole work is to represent the age,†(V. 200) She refuses to give up her profession of writer to complement the philanthropic work of her cousin with a bold assertion: â€Å"You misconceive the question like a man,/ Who sees a woman as the complement / of his sex merely. † (Bk. II. ll. 434-36) Though Aurora is deprived of her inheritance because of her refusal to marry her cousin Romney Leigh, she fares better than Robert Browning’s women who are playthings in the hands of their dominating men. She represents the New Woman who struggles against the male domination and finally emerges successful. Aurora notes that she faces opposition not only from the Victorian males but also from her aunt who is deeply conditioned by patriarchal culture as she describes her : â€Å"She had lived/ A sort of cage-bird life, born in a cage,†(Bk. I. 305-06) Such expresses the lot of the vast majority of Victorian women: â€Å"I only thought/ of lying quiet there where I was thrown/ Like sea-weed on the rocks, (I. 378-80) The relationship between Aurora and Romney breaks off when he scoffs at the idea of her becoming a poet– a trivial achievement. The superiority of the males is always highlighted in their conversations. Women are thought to be incompetent enough to be singers. She sums up her objections to male proposal of love and marriage: â€Å"What you love/ Is not a woman, Romney, but a cause:/ You want a helpmate, not a mistress, sir/ A wife to help your ends, — in her no end. †(I. 400-03) Only a clear-headed and intelligent woman could see through the male pretence which is part of Victorian culture. The most trenchant comment made by Aurora on the need for individual identity is: â€Å"That every creature, female as the male,/ Stands single in responsible act and thought/ As also in birth and death. †(I. 337-39) She drives home the truth to her fiance that she is unwilling to regard his work as her own and concludes: â€Å"I too have my vocation. – work to do,† (I. 455) It is no mean achievement for a financially dependent woman to have the courage to declare: â€Å"I / who love my art, would never wish it lower/ To suit my stature. †(I. 492-94) The men of Victorian age definitely enjoyed more power over women and used this power to suppress their potential. As we see the women of Robert Browning’s poems are victims of male sadism and manipulation. But in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s â€Å"Aurora Leigh† we notice the beginning of a new dawn. Education help women struggle for emancipation at every level and achieve some freedom which means end of the era that treated women as their helpmates and as exclusive properties. Barrett Browning is regarded as an avant-garde writer of her age. Work Cited Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. â€Å"Aurora Leigh† in The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th Ed. New York. W. W. Norton & Co. 2001. pp. 1898-1912 Browning, Robert. â€Å"Porphyria’s Lover† in The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th Ed. New York. W. W. Norton & Co. 2001. pp. 2025-26 Browning, Robert. â€Å"My Last Duchess† in The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th Ed. New York. W. W. Norton & Co. 2001. pp. 2028-29 O’Gorman, Francis (ed. ) Victorian poetry: An Annotated Anthology. Malden. Blackwell Publishing. 2004. 173-175