Friday, November 29, 2019

21 Words Stemming from the Latin Word for Look At

21 Words Stemming from the Latin Word for Look At 21 Words Stemming from the Latin Word for Look At 21 Words Stemming from the Latin Word for Look At By Mark Nichol A surprising number and array of English words derive from the Latin verb specere, meaning â€Å"look at.† Each word, and its meaning and related forms, appears below. 1. aspect: a part or quality of something, the way someone or something appears, or the direction that something faces (adjectival form: aspectual) 2. circumspect: reflective about the consequences of doing or saying something (noun form: circumspection; adverbial form: circumspectly) 3. conspicuous: easy to see, or attracting attention (noun form: conspicuousness; adverbial form: conspicuously) 4. despicable: obnoxious or worthless (verb form: despise; noun form: despicableness; adverbial form: despicably) 5. expect: look forward to something or think that something will happen, consider something necessary or reasonable, or, as expecting, being pregnant (noun forms: expectedness, expectation, expectancy; adjectival form: expectable; adverbial forms: expectably, expectedly) 6. frontispiece: an illustration opposite the title page of a book, or the front of a building, or an architectural feature over a window or other opening (the final syllable is not cognate with piece) 7. inspect: look at something carefully (noun forms: inspector, inspection; adjectival form: inspective) 8. introspection: examination of one’s own feelings or thoughts (verb form: introspect; alternate noun form: introspectiveness; adjectival forms: introspective, introspectional; adverbial form: introspectively) 9. perspective: point of view, a literal or figurative view, or a way to represent an image by using converging parallel lines to give an illusion of depth and distance (or such an image) (adjectival form: perspectival) 10. prospect: as a verb, scout, or search for mineral deposits; as a noun, an opportunity or possibility, or someone likely to be chosen (alternate verb form: prospecting; alternate noun forms: prospector, prospecting; adjectival form: prospective) 11. respect: as a verb, to admire or regard; as a noun, admiration or regard (adjectival form: respective) 12. retrospect: as a noun, review; as an adjective, relating to the past or a past event (alternate noun form: retrospective; alternate adjectival form: retrospective) 13. species: related living things capable of interbreeding with other members of the species, one of several kinds of atomic particle, or a thought or mental image, or, loosely, synonymous with kind or sort (adjectival form: species) 14. specimen: a thing typical of its kind, or a remarkable example of something, or a minuscule amount or piece of a substance to be examined or tested 15. spectacle: an impressive show or sight; in plural form, a synonym for eyeglasses (adjectival form: spectacular; alternate noun form, spectacular) 16. spectator: a person who watches an event (verb form: spectate; adjectival form: spectator or spectatorial; alternate noun forms: spectatorship, spectatory) 17. specter: a ghost or spirit, or something that bothers or haunts one; British English spelling is spectre (adjectival form: spectral) 18. spectrum: range of light or sound waves, or range of people or things; scientific plural form: spectra 19. speculation: guess or idea, or financial activity with high risk but possibility of high profit (adjectival form: speculative; adverbial form: speculatively) 20. speculum: a medical instrument inserted into a body passage, or an image showing the relative positions of the planets, or a patch of color on a bird’s wing 21. suspect: as a verb, think that a crime has been committed or someone has done something wrong or that something is the cause of something bad; as a noun, someone or something that has caused something bad to happen; as an adjective, causing doubt or a feeling that someone did something wrong or that something bad is likely or true (alternative noun form: suspicion) Todays YouTube video: Program vs. Programme Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Dialogue Dos and Don'tsWhat is the Difference Between Metaphor and Simile?What the heck are "learnings"?

Monday, November 25, 2019

Essay on Six Trig Functions

Essay on Six Trig Functions Essay on Six Trig Functions THE SIX TRIGONOMETRY FUNCTIONS BY: Chambria Rogers & Marc TRIGONMETRIC RATIO The six trigonometric functions are traditionally defined in terms of the six ratios of the sides of a right triangle. This approach is valid for positive angles of measure smaller than 90∘. Consider a right triangle ââ€" ³ABC with the angle C being the 90∘ angle. There are six functions that are the core of trigonometry. There are three primary ones that you need to understand completely: Sine (sin) Cosine (cos) Tangent (tan) The other three are not used as often and can be derived from the three primary functions. Because they can easily be derived, calculators and spreadsheets do not usually have them. Secant (sec) Cosecant (csc) Cotangent (cot) Sine (SIN) FUNCTION The law of sines for plane triangles was known to Ptolemy and by the tenth century Abu'l Wefa had clearly expounded the spherical law of sines. It seems that the term "law of sines" was applied sometime near 1850 In a right triangle, the sine of an angle is the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the hypotenuse. The sine function has a number of properties that result from it being periodic and odd. The Law of Sines relates various sides and angles of an arbitrary (not necessarily right) triangle: sin(A)/a = sin(B)/b = sin(C)/c = 2r. where A, B, and C are the angles opposite sides a, b, and c respectively. Furthermore, r is the radius of the circle circumscribed in that triangle. COSINE In a right triangle, the cosine of an angle is: The length of the adjacent side divided by the length of the hypotenuse. The law of cosines is best thought of as an extension of the Pythagorean Theorem, with a term that adjusts if the included angle is not a right angle. The usual statement of the theorem is descibed in terms of sides a, b, and c; and opposite angles A, B, and C. The usual expression is c2=a2+b2-2abCos(C). The theorem is cyclic about any of the three sides and so it can also be expressed in the alternate forms a2=b2+c2-2bcCos(A) and b2=a2+c2-2acCos(B). Since the cosine of a right angle is zero, each of the equations reduces to the usual form of the Pythagorean Theorem when the associated angle is 90o. TANGENT statement about the relationship between the tangents of two angles of a triangle and the

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Globalization - Essay Example In essence, globalization is designed in a way that is potentially damaging to developing nations. In fact it is structured in a manner that lifts wealth and knowledge from poor economies to economically and politically stable economies. In regards to economic and cultural growth it is evident that significant growth over a number of has been noticed. It is important to note that the contemporary situation is fundamental to the earlier events. This is accelerated by the speed, complexity and magnitude of communication networks that are involved. Due to this, the volume of trade, size of interaction and risks associated with globalization has virtually gone high giving globalization unimagined force. In fact, within the accelerated interconnection of world economies, deep seated political challenges have been experienced by poor nations pushing them to more overdependence on foreign aid from giant economies such as the United States of America. From such economies, poor nations tend r ely for capital as well as technical assistance. Further, there has been transference in control of economy from the nation or state towards multinational corporations according to Naomi Klein (Klein 56). In addition to this shift, there has been a rise and globalization of brands. This is an indication that large corporations are not only interested in developing and marketing brands among different countries but also within their producing nations. It is important to note that multinational corporations such as the Coca Cola Company and Nike Inc. among others are fabricated companies under control of a few individuals. Leading economists argue that globalization aims at diffusing philosophies, practices and expertise among cooperating states. They consider such practices as something beyond internationalization or universalization. Moreover, it is neither modernization nor westernization but a global intensification of social relationships linking detached localities in a manner t hat what takes place within is subject to control by events taking place several kilometers from that location. In this way, we are made to comprehend layout and localness in different way other than the normal understanding. It also involves postponement of dissimilar relations based on ideologies, economic state, military power and political alignment across nations in the world. It is vital to note that after the Second World War, globalization was a subject of diffusion of ideologies such as liberalism and socialism. This founded capitalism manner of production as well as distant range of military striking among a few strong states. In the early decades, reform movements were focused on fighting global injustices as opposed to the contemporary movements who focus is amassment of wealth for the benefit of a few individuals. For example, within the last few decades, a new brand of economy emerged around the globe that can be likened to a new brand of capitalism. It is characterize d by efficiency and keenness which is a function of knowledge creation and information processing. These firms and their territories are linked together in production, management and distribution networks whose key activities are global. The movement is a non-Zapatista because it seems to be fighting injustices for a few nations. Therefore,

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Heat transfer by convection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Heat transfer by convection - Essay Example A square cavity was used whereby its bottom and top walls were insulated. One of the side walls was presumed cold while the other side hot. Alumina/water nanofluid was used as the working fluid. It was concluded that using different thermophysical models might lead to opposite trend estimations for Nusselt number especially in high solid volume fractions. Effects of inclination angle (between 00 and 1200) of a square cavity filled with Cu/water nanofluid on heat transfer (Abu-Nada and Oztop). The boundary conditions of both experiments were similar. Different water based nanofluids containing Cu, Ag, CuO, Al2O3 and TiO2 nanoparticles were placed in a cavity with volume fraction up to 20%. One side of the walls was heated using heater mounted on the wall; cavity angle varied between 00 and 900 (Ogut). Increased concentration increases heat transfer rate. Average Nusselt number has a high sensitivity to viscosity compared to the thermal conductivity at high Rayleigh numbers; suitable v iscosity model should be selected (SAEED ZEINALI HERIS, Masoumeh Borhani Pour, Omid Mahian, Somchai Wongwises, 2014). Flow of Cu, Al2O3, and TiO2 nanoparticles is suspended in water in a cavity where top and bottom walls are insulated; right wall is kept cold while the left wall is subjected to the periodic heat flux. Use of Cu and TiO2 with volume fractions up to 20% leads to maximum and minimum heat removal from heat source respectively (Ghasemi and Aminossadati). Flow of Cu/water nanofluid (volume fractions up to 5%) in a square cavity and the bottom subjected to constant heat flux while cooling is conducted by entering a nanofluid flow from the left wall and exiting from the right wall (Shahi et al). It was concluded that an increase in the volume fraction increased the average Nusselt number in the cavity. Lin and Voili simulated the effects of particles size on natural convection flow of Al2O3/water nanofluid with volume fraction up to 5% in square cavity

Monday, November 18, 2019

Economy Industry Company Analysis Research Paper

Economy Industry Company Analysis - Research Paper Example This growth has enabled the potential investors in bonds, stocks and other investing opportunities, to establish their investments tremendously in the country. The gross domestic price that was analyzed at the first quarter of the year shows that it has grown for about 1.3 percent. This is the best indication of the economic growth and I will advice Johnnie to do an investment in this country. Gross domestic products, is a technique used to show the economic growth and stability of any given country. In Australia where the Crown head quarters is found, had a gross domestic product of approximately 918 billion united states dollars, with a growth rate of 2.3 percent, and the income per person or per capita income of40,800 in the fiscal year 2011. The standard rate of interest in Australia was previously indicated at 4.25 Percent, which was determined by the Australian reserve bank of panel. The graph shows that the rates of interest of the year 2010 and 2009 had a drastic fall. It has also increased gradually and encounters small decrease recently. This is a clear indication that the Economy of Australia, and the performance of the currency is in its stage of recovery. The estimate is that it has a moderate increase in the near future as it is indicated by the tendency of the graph. Increase in the interest rates means that the investors will benefit from the consequential increase in the amount of dividends that they will receive1. Given the fact that Jonnie is looking for an investment that will last for ten years, This is a favorable time to invest in a booming company in Australia. This is because during this period, there is an economic recovery and such will lead to better economic performance of all the factors discussed above. The ten year bond in Australia has also jumped to reach 3.02 percent increase. For a potential investor like

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Marketing Advertising in the Hotel Industry

Marketing Advertising in the Hotel Industry Until recently research on advertising appeals focused on either physical products or a comparison in relation to the way in which advertising appeals differed between products and services (predominantly professional services). With the continuing growth in the MICE and 5 star resort hotel market, the purpose of this paper is to look at the effectiveness of rational and emotional advertising appeals with respect to the MICE and 5 star resort hotel sector and provide a foundation for further study in this area. Introduction â€Å"Advertising appeals† are essentially the methods which advertisers employ to sell products and services. Some of the more common forms of advertising appeals include money (saving, making and/or retaining), well being, sex, health, fun, pleasure, love, fear, admiration, convenience, vanity, egotism and environmentalism. Different forms of advertising appeals are more effective for selling different types of products or services. Likewise, cultural factors play a large role in how well a particular advertising campaign is received by consumers. Within the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (â€Å"MICE†) and 5 star resort hotel industry, advertising appeals are generally classified according to whether they are rational or emotional appeals. The difference between how effective each of these is can only be ascertained when the customer’s preferences are taken into account. However, it should be remembered that the use of advertising appeals is not a precise science and that the difference between a campaign which is highly effective and one that is not can often be the matter of a few words or the use of the wrong colour. The most important factor with respect to the effectiveness of advertising appeals are the existing customer attitudes toward the product or service and the need or want that the customer is seeking to have the product or service fulfil. It is not therefore surprising that an advertising appeal which is effective in engaging business customers may not fare as well when appealing to leisure customers. The purpose of this paper is therefore to examine, both by secondary and primary research methods, the which type of advertising appeal (ie rational or emotional) is most effective when selling MICE and 5 star resort hotels to leisure and business clients. However, it should be noted that due to time and cost restraints the scope of this paper is limited in two important respects. There is no intention to examine customers who have never used a MICE and 5 star resort hotel before and the cultural aspects of advertising appeals is only briefly touched upon. 2. Aims and Objectives The aims and objectives of this paper are to determine the extent to which rational and emotional appeals apply to MICE and 5 star resort hotels. While the usefulness of various types of advertising appeals within the service sector generally has been researched quite extensively, this paper seeks to determine whether or not that general research can be applied equally to MICE and 5 star resort hotels. The peculiarity that is thrown up by MICE and 5 star resort hotels is that they have to appeal equally to both business and leisure consumers. Whereas most service businesses can focus on one sector of the market alone, MICE and 5 star resort hotels need to be able to attract both types of customers which can make creating an advertising campaign particularly treacherous as different appeals apply to each group. Furthermore, each type of customer group can be broken down into various further categories, for instance personal, family, tour groups, returning or first time clients, conference, by income, by age, etc. In light of the innumerable combinations and types of MICE and 5 star resort hotels, it is important to limit the extent of the research. As such, the focus of this paper is limited to MICE and 5 star resort hotels. These types of establishments only seek to attract the right type of clientele and as such are able to focus their marketing on certain sectors of the population and thereby limit the types of advertising appeals they need to rely upon. 3. Providing a rational for the work This work has both a theoretical and practical basis. From a practical point of view, the MICE and 5 star resort hotel sector is particularly competitive and the clientele is extremely discerning. There are always newer, more fashionable 5 star resort hotels or conference centres opening up and therefore it is extremely important that MICE and resort hotels understand how to market effectively to those sectors which are most likely to use their services. From a theoretical standpoint, research into the rational versus emotional dichotomy as it applies to the service industry is only now being touched upon. Even where it is being touched upon, the research often starts with the way in which emotional and rational appeals affect the marketing of physical products and then compares this to the way in which service advertising appeals are used. By focusing on a specific industry sector, MICE and 5 star resort hotels, this research is able to provide important feedback to the general theoretical position as to how well that research holds up in specific circumstances. By examining the most effective advertising appeals for the MICE and 5 star resort hotel sector, this paper aims to provide a solid foundation for both future academic research in this area and also to provide MICE and 5 star resort hotels with practical information which can be used to better tailor their advertising campaigns and most importantly, to avoid making mistakes the damage from which, particularly in a fast paced industry, can take years to undo. 4. Literature Review and Theoretical Framework In order to determine when it is most appropriate for MICE and 5 star resort hotels to use rational and emotional appeals it is first necessary to create a theoretical framework based on a critical review and synthesis of the relevant work in this area. With such a theoretical framework in place, it will then be possible to come to a conclusion as to the merits of both rational and emotional appeals as they apply to MICE and 5 star resort hotels. It is first important to clearly define the terms being referred to. An advertising appeal is defined by Wells, Burnett and Moriarty as, â€Å"something that makes the product particularly attractive or interesting to the consumer.† There are many types of advertising appeals that can be relied upon (sex, price, fear, etc), but as Albers-Miller note, most authors agree that overall all advertising appeals can be classified as either being rational appeals and emotional appeals. A rational appeal is, â€Å"a form of argument and motivation used in the promotion of products and services. Rational factors, including facts and figures, advantages and benefits, are used in an appeal to consumers’ intellects, rather than their emotions† , while an emotional appeal is where, â€Å"the basis of an advertising message having strong emotional character.† Some examples of rational appeals are; for products, the top speed of a car, the processing power of a computer and the memory size of an MP3 player; and for services, the leg room on a flight and the savings made when travelling on off peak public transport. Examples of emotional appeals include; for productions, the sex appeal of a new sports car and the popularity that comes from drinking certain alcoholic beverages; and for services, the possibilities which open up to a consumer once they obtain a certain credit card and the sex appeal of the latest, must-see Hollywood blockbuster which everyone is talking about. One of the main themes that comes through in the literature in this area is that there has been a lack of empirical research undertaken which focuses predominantly on the role of advertising appeals with respect to service industries. This is somewhat surprising when one considers that most Western economies are now service-based economies. As Mattila notes, this growth in the level of interest in services marketing has not corresponded in a similar level of interest in how service quality is communicated rather, most current research has focused on a comparison between service and goods advertising and even when focusing on services, has concentrated on professional as opposed to retail services. While the research may not have kept pace with the fundamental shift in the underlying economic foundations of Western economies, it is now quickly catching up with interest in this area increasing. While the level of general research in the area of advertising appeals and how they relate to service industries increases and the understanding of the differences between goods and services marketing increases, an opportunity exists for researchers to use this developing research base as a theoretical foundation from which to focus on more specific market segments. As such, the focus of this paper, while falling within the broad scope of the current research with respect to advertising appeals in service industries aims to focus in on a much more specific sub-set of this research area; that of the effectiveness of rational and emotional appeals in advertising MICE and 5 star resort hotels. At the same time as focusing in on a specific area of the advertising appeals in service industries research, it is important that this specific area be considered within the context of the marketing strategies of MICE and 5 star resort hotels as a whole. An organisation which wants to make the most effective use of advertising must have a clear understanding of the market segments that they are targeting and an overall marketing mix which allows them to focus their resources on communicating with that segment of the market. Advertising is only one part of the marketing mix and where the other parts are not working effectively, advertising will not provide the highest return on investment possible. Finally, it is important to take into account the environment (and in particular the external environment) in which MICE and 5 star hotels operate in when considering which advertising appeals are most likely to be effective. For instance, in times of rapid growth and high disposable income or when tax breaks are provided for entertaining, MICE and 5 star hotels would be wise to avoid focusing on appealing to the cost savings that can be made by staying with them. Rather, at these times, rational appeals are unlikely to be as necessary as emotional appeals as the necessity for a customer to substantiate a decision rationally is not as great. Before being able to consider the market segmentation that MICE and 5 star resort hotels target, it is important to define the market in which they operate. The market in which they operate can be defined broadly as, for instance, all hotels and resorts, all holidays, all business communication methods, etc; or specifically as all 5 star hotels, all hotels in a particular location, etc. Because of the diverse nature of MICE and 5 star resort hotels, it is almost impossible to come to a determination as to a market in which specific hotel operates as this will be influenced by cultural, geographic and other features. However, it is a little simpler to determine the market segments that MICE and 5 star resort hotels are interested in targeting. The market segments that all MICE and 5 star resort hotels are interested in targeting are business customers and wealthy individuals. As noted above, advertising is a sub-set of an organisation’s overall marketing mix. As such, before proceeding, it is important that the distinction between marketing and advertising is clearly set out. Marketing has been defined by the (British) Chartered Institute of Marketing as, â€Å"the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.† Advertising is defined by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising as, â€Å"advertising presents the most persuasive possible selling message to the right prospects for the product or service at the lowest possible cost.† The marketing mix refers to the â€Å"price/value proposition† and is, as expanded on by Kotler, often referred to as the four P’s; Product, Place, Price and Promotion. The Product refers to the good or service that the supplier wishes to sell and which the consumer wishes to buy; Place refers to the convenience of buying the goods or services; Price refers to the cost to the consumer of the goods or services; and Promotion refers to the ways in which the supplier and customer communicate with each other. Advertising comes within the ambit of the promotion function. When applying the marketing mix to MICE and resort hotels, one observes that in general the Product is appealing (this may not apply to such an extent in countries in which the idea of staying in hotels is a relatively new concept for a majority of the population); with respect to the Place, while requiring travel to reach and therefore not being entirely convenient to most people, most MICE and resort hotels are located close to either business districts or leisure areas (eg beaches) meaning that while the location may not be entirely convenient, the location is generally desirable; MICE and 5 star resort hotels are generally price prohibitive with a strong emphasis on catering for company functions and higher level clientele; finally, with respect to Promotion, MICE and resort hotels rely on strong business focused advertising and word of mouth. With respect to Porter’s generic strategies matrix, MICE and resort hotels clearly aim for the niche market which is distinguished by high differentiation and high relative costs. That said, while MICE and resort hotels aim to represent themselves as being highly differentiated, exclusive and expensive, they are in fact extremely similar and operate on a low cost principle. As such, it is important for MICE and resort hotels to maintain this faà §ade and to ensure that customers’ experiences of cognitive dissonance are kept at a minimum. This faà §ade that all â€Å"cathedrals of consumption† must maintain, this separation from the mundane events of everyday life, is particularly evident in MICE and 5 star resort hotels. These establishments must be able to offer an entire â€Å"package† not only satisfying a guests physical needs, but also satisfying their wish to be deceived, to believe that for the length of their stay they are deserving of the 5 star treatment that they are receiving even through the next day they their office-bound mundane life. Williamson summarises this â€Å"package† element which applies to all purchases best when he writes: â€Å"Advertisements are selling us something else beside consumer goods; in providing us with a structure in which we and those goods are interchangeable, they are selling us ourselves†¦ Ideology is the meaning made necessary by the condition of society while helping to perpetuate those conditions. We feel a need to belong, to have a social place; it can be hard to find. Instead we may be given an imaginary one.† A supplementary point which arises from Williamson’s statement is that of the language of consumption. Many potential consumers are put off purchasing new goods or services because they do not have experience in having used them previously. For instance, someone who normally eats dinner on the couch in front of the television will be extremely reticent to eat dinner in a 5 star restaurant in which a knowledge of dining etiquette is expected. While this reluctance to try new things increases with age, it can be bridged in several ways. Advertising is a particularly effective means of overcoming potential consumers’ fears of try something new. By using analogies which relate the new product with something that the customer has already used and feels comfortable with advertisers are able to provide new consumers with the consumption queues necessary to use the new good or service and feel more comfortable doing so. In general, such techniques are not often used by MICE and 5 star resort hotels in places in which their use is understood by consumers. In societies in which the role of these hotels is understood by consumers, the aim of their advertising, is to create demand within the specific market segment that they are targeting. As such, it is almost the opposite of teaching new consumers how to use the services. These establishments are more likely to assume that those they are targeting understand how to use their services and are more likely to try to limit the understanding of their services by the general population. This is usually done through language and by offering services which are extremely specialised (eg tens of different types of facials, massages, etc) which are intended to intimidate the average consumer. Cognitive dissonance occurs when a person’s expectations are not met meaning that their level of satisfaction is low. With respect to guests’ perceptions of hotels, Saleh and Ryan write that, â€Å"†¦it is imperative that guests’ expectations be realistic and possible for the firm to deliver, otherwise an obvious gap in service quality is created.† One advantage that MICE and 5 star resort hotels have over other hotels and resorts is that a large portion of their clientele are not required to pay for their own accommodation. In situations in which the accommodation costs are being met by a third party, it is unlikely that any potential feelings of cognitive dissonance will be as strong as those of someone who has booked and paid for a hotel or resort themselves. Furthermore, any such feelings by a guest who is staying at someone else’s expense are more likely to be directed at the payer, who should have chosen a better quality hotel or resort, rather than directed at the actual hotel or resort. In addition, for guests of MICE and 5 star resort hotels, the actual hotel is normally a background factor (ie to a conference, the beach, an event, etc). These guests have other matters to occupy them. This contrasts with individuals who stay at a resort hotel that they have paid for themselves and where actually being at a resort hotel is the focus of their trip. As noted above, Mattila focuses on what she believes to be a gap in the studies examining services advertising. She believes that most of these studies focus on tangibilizing the offering or â€Å"making the service more concrete† and as a result of this a gap exists with respect to knowledge about the role emotional advertising appeals play in services advertising. What is important to keep in mind when advertising either products or services is that the advertising appeal has to match the product or service type. Albers-Miller et al note that previous research on this point has found that, â€Å"a more emotional (value-expressive) appeal should be used for a value-expressive product and a more rational (utilitarian) appeal should be used for a utilitarian product.† The way in which advertisers determine the best combination of rational and emotional appeal is assisted by the level of involvement model developed by Vaughn and adapted by Foote, Cone and Belding. That model focuses on products but provides a useful tool for understanding the differences between rational (thinking) and emotional (feeling) appeals. The four options are, high involvement/thinking which relates to high importance purchases such as cars and houses and the message should be based on â€Å"long copy, informational demonstration, comparative†; low involvement/thinking which relates to routinely purchased products such as food and items for the house and the message should be based on â€Å"coupons and samples†; high involvement/feeling which relate to a customer’s self esteem such as make up, jewellery and clothes and the message should be based on â€Å"emotional and visual† triggers; and low involvement/feeling which relates to products which satisfy personal cravings such as alcohol, snack foods and cigarettes and the message should be â€Å"creativity and lifestyle† based. How well these levels of involvement transfer to the service sector is still open to debate. If one was to take the same levels of involvement and attempted to determine which group MICE and 5 star resort hotels fall into, one might have difficulty as they do not fit cleanly into any of the categories. In general, a large proportion of business-to-business type advertising relies on rational appeals due to the fact that buyers tend to be knowledgeable about the products or services that they are buying and are seeking supportable justification for their purchasing decisions. As Stafford and Albers-Miller note, â€Å"†¦rational informative advertising appeals may help reduce some of the uncertainty often associated with the purchase of services.† That said, in today’s marketplace, it is unlikely that rational advertising appeals would be made without consideration of the emotional aspects. As such, essentially what is being said when one refers to a rational appeal is not that the emotional aspects of the appeal are not present, but that they are used more subtly and as a backdrop to the advertising campaign. As Albers-Miller et al argue: â€Å"†¦there is no reason not to include an emotional appeal and service information and benefits. Indeed many advertising practitioners would argue that this juxtaposition is one of the aims of good advertising – informing the consumer and stimulating a response through appeals to emotional, right-brain influences. However, there still needs to be some guidance given as to where we lay the emphasis in this area or emotions and rationality. And this is especially true in diverse cultures.† The importance of emotional appeals is especially important today when product differentiation is becoming more and more difficult. With respect to the MICE and 5 star resort hotel market sector, while some of these hotels are able to differentiate themselves on the basis of location, facilities and other competitive advantages, the general level of such differentiation is not great. Most people using the facilities of a MICE and 5 star resort hotels expect that certain levels of service and facilities are available. As the, â€Å"USP (unique selling proposition) is fast disappearing, then what becomes correspondingly more important is the ESP – the emotional selling point.† With respect to the advertising that MICE and 5 star resort hotels engage in, it is important for them to ensure that they are using the most effective advertising appeals necessary to persuade the targeted market segment. Louise Ha argues that the study of advertising appeals with respect to the services market has been hampered by a failure to differentiate between service firms. She believes that the type of service firm should be taken into account when determining the appropriate advertising appeals to use and relies on Zeithaml’s classification of services into three categories which are; â€Å"high on search attributes (performance of the service can be known before consumption); high on experience attributes (attributes that can only be discerned after purchase or during consumption) such as haircut and restaurants. These services are non-professional services that can be substituted by self-service of the consumer; and high on credence attributes (attributes that consumers may still find them impossible to evaluate after consuming the service) such as medical services and repair services. These are professional services that require special training or license.† MICE and 5 star resort hotels can be classified as being high on experience attributes. It should also be noted that MICE and 5 star resort hotels operate in a global marketplace. Albers-Miller et al have studied the differences between rational and emotional appeals across cultures (and in particular, Brazil, Taiwan, Mexico and the USA). They conclude that, â€Å"culture appears to play a significant role in the use of emotional and rational advertisements for services, and anthropological measures of culture provide some insight into the differences in emotional appeals.† They also note that across cultures business customers, the main target segment for MICE and 5 star resort hotels, â€Å"tend to make decisions based on more rational criteria†¦ [and that] across cultures, cognition changes little, while emotions change considerably.† While the cultural aspects of rational and emotional advertising appeals with respect to MICE and 5 star resort hotels is beyond the scope of this paper, it does provide an interesting area of research for future studies. While the differentiation between rational and emotional appeals seems like a simple and logical distinction to make, the distinction is largely artificial as an advertising campaign which solely relies on rational or emotional appeals is unlikely, if not impossible. As such, the difference between the two in an advertising campaign is the level of emphasis that is given to one over the other. Both will be used, the decision is rather how best to combine the two for maximum effect. 5. Methodology When considering the type of methodology to employ the choice is between primary or secondary research methods. Primary research methods refer to those that generally require replies from and interaction with service users such as questionnaires, focus-groups and interviews (ie fieldwork). On the other hand, secondary research methods rely on reviewing books, articles, statistical data, etc (ie deskwork). While primary research is generally viewed as being superior to secondary research, this is not always the case. Primary research is almost always hampered by cost considerations, the sample size used, the manner in which the sample population has been decided upon, researcher bias, etc. In light of cost considerations, it is almost always more cost effective to ask yourself whether or not someone else has already done this research and if so to begin at that point and then use primary research to fill in any gaps or specific areas which have not been addressed in the depth required. Secondary research also has its own problems which include such factors as the fact that it is reliant on someone else’s primary research with all the inherent problems that presents as set out above, the researcher is limited to the questions raised in the secondary materials, etc. As such, it is important that in secondary research, the sources of the information to be used are reliable (ie government sources, peer reviewed journals, text books written by qualified authors, etc). In light of the above considerations, it is important that any market research conducted uses a balance of primary and secondary research methods. In the case of this paper, it was found that there was an array of literature (secondary sources) on advertising and the service sector. However, there was less to be found when one looked at the area of MICE and resort hotels specifically. As such, while secondary research could take us to a point, from that point it was necessary to use primary research methods. The most common primary research methods are interviews, questionnaires, surveys, focus groups and secret visits. As the objective of this paper is to determine the most effective methods of advertising appeals with respect to MICE and resort hotels, some of the primary methods referred to above will not be appropriate. MICA and resort hotels cover a large cross-section of the market and large distances. As such, secret visits to the hotels would not only be cost prohibitive, but would be unlikely to provide the necessary data required. On the other hand, as most of the users of these services are UK-based, a focus group may be more appropriate for personal holiday makers. In light of the practical issues of setting up a focus group of business users, questionnaires may be more appropriate for that sector of the market. A decision was finally made to make use of a questionnaire and a focus group. Both would target people who had already used MICE and 5 star resort hotels on the basis that this was the segment of the market that these hotels were targeting. It was decided that an attempt to include customers who had never stayed in a MICE and 5 star resort hotel would be too much for a paper of this length however, it would remain a potential area for future research. With respect to the design of the questionnaire, it was decided that while quantitative responses are the easiest to compile and analyse, they do not give the depth of information that can be gleaned from qualitative answers. Furthermore, in order to be statistically valid, a quantitative questionnaire would need to involve a large, randomly selected sample base. Due to cost and time limitations, this was not considered feasible and as such, it was thought most appropriate to concentrate on a smaller, specifically selected sample of the market segment being targeted and an analysis of their qualitative responses with a clear statement as to the understood limitations of proceeding in this way. 6. Findings, analyses and evaluation The purpose of this dissertation is to determine the extent to which rational and emotional appeals apply to MICE and 5 star resort hotels. A review of secondary sources and current research on the topic showed that this is an area which has suffered from a lack of research interest to date. While Mattila’s work provides a strong overview of advertising appeals as they relate solely to the service sector (as opposed to dealing with them solely in comparison with products), her work is quite broad and as such, while it is used as a starting point for this paper, it was necessary to supplement the secondary research and theoretical framework with primary research which consisted of a questionnaire and focus group. Further primary research was deemed not feasible due to cost and time constraints. In total, 150 questionnaires were posted or handed out. Due to the small sample size, the participants were targeted (eg businesses which book MICE and 5 star resort hotels for conferences, people leaving MICE and 5 star resort hotels, etc). Of the 150 questionnaires posted or handed out, thirty were returned. This was considered to be a reasonable level of returns in light of the type of person being asked to complete them (ie busy individuals who work long hours). A summary of the questionnaire replies are set out in Appendix 2. Due to the qualitative nature of the replies, statistical analysis of the responses is not feasible. However, they do provide an interesting insight into the way in which advertising appeals are able to influence guests of MICE and 5 star resort hotels. Along with the questionnaire, a focus group was used to try to determine in a more direct fashion people’s attitudes to MICE and 5 star resort hotels and more particularly, what effect advertising appeals had on their purchasing behaviour. As with the questionnaire, the group chosen was not chosen randomly, but rather was selected from people who had already used MICE and 5 star resort hotels in the past. Participants were shown various advertisements (not only limited to MICE and 5 star resort hotels) and asked to discuss various propositions put to them. Once again, the results were qualitative and as such not appropriate for statistical analysis. While the response to the questionnaire was not particularly high, those individuals that did respond provided some particularly interesting replies. Predictably perhaps, most responses were from middle aged, well educated men. This group is the market segment that most MICE and 5 star resort hotels seek to target with their advertising. However, the strong response by women suggests that those MICE and 5 star resort hotels that are spending most of their advertising budgets targeting men may be missing out on a large segment of the market which may still Marketing Advertising in the Hotel Industry Marketing Advertising in the Hotel Industry Until recently research on advertising appeals focused on either physical products or a comparison in relation to the way in which advertising appeals differed between products and services (predominantly professional services). With the continuing growth in the MICE and 5 star resort hotel market, the purpose of this paper is to look at the effectiveness of rational and emotional advertising appeals with respect to the MICE and 5 star resort hotel sector and provide a foundation for further study in this area. Introduction â€Å"Advertising appeals† are essentially the methods which advertisers employ to sell products and services. Some of the more common forms of advertising appeals include money (saving, making and/or retaining), well being, sex, health, fun, pleasure, love, fear, admiration, convenience, vanity, egotism and environmentalism. Different forms of advertising appeals are more effective for selling different types of products or services. Likewise, cultural factors play a large role in how well a particular advertising campaign is received by consumers. Within the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (â€Å"MICE†) and 5 star resort hotel industry, advertising appeals are generally classified according to whether they are rational or emotional appeals. The difference between how effective each of these is can only be ascertained when the customer’s preferences are taken into account. However, it should be remembered that the use of advertising appeals is not a precise science and that the difference between a campaign which is highly effective and one that is not can often be the matter of a few words or the use of the wrong colour. The most important factor with respect to the effectiveness of advertising appeals are the existing customer attitudes toward the product or service and the need or want that the customer is seeking to have the product or service fulfil. It is not therefore surprising that an advertising appeal which is effective in engaging business customers may not fare as well when appealing to leisure customers. The purpose of this paper is therefore to examine, both by secondary and primary research methods, the which type of advertising appeal (ie rational or emotional) is most effective when selling MICE and 5 star resort hotels to leisure and business clients. However, it should be noted that due to time and cost restraints the scope of this paper is limited in two important respects. There is no intention to examine customers who have never used a MICE and 5 star resort hotel before and the cultural aspects of advertising appeals is only briefly touched upon. 2. Aims and Objectives The aims and objectives of this paper are to determine the extent to which rational and emotional appeals apply to MICE and 5 star resort hotels. While the usefulness of various types of advertising appeals within the service sector generally has been researched quite extensively, this paper seeks to determine whether or not that general research can be applied equally to MICE and 5 star resort hotels. The peculiarity that is thrown up by MICE and 5 star resort hotels is that they have to appeal equally to both business and leisure consumers. Whereas most service businesses can focus on one sector of the market alone, MICE and 5 star resort hotels need to be able to attract both types of customers which can make creating an advertising campaign particularly treacherous as different appeals apply to each group. Furthermore, each type of customer group can be broken down into various further categories, for instance personal, family, tour groups, returning or first time clients, conference, by income, by age, etc. In light of the innumerable combinations and types of MICE and 5 star resort hotels, it is important to limit the extent of the research. As such, the focus of this paper is limited to MICE and 5 star resort hotels. These types of establishments only seek to attract the right type of clientele and as such are able to focus their marketing on certain sectors of the population and thereby limit the types of advertising appeals they need to rely upon. 3. Providing a rational for the work This work has both a theoretical and practical basis. From a practical point of view, the MICE and 5 star resort hotel sector is particularly competitive and the clientele is extremely discerning. There are always newer, more fashionable 5 star resort hotels or conference centres opening up and therefore it is extremely important that MICE and resort hotels understand how to market effectively to those sectors which are most likely to use their services. From a theoretical standpoint, research into the rational versus emotional dichotomy as it applies to the service industry is only now being touched upon. Even where it is being touched upon, the research often starts with the way in which emotional and rational appeals affect the marketing of physical products and then compares this to the way in which service advertising appeals are used. By focusing on a specific industry sector, MICE and 5 star resort hotels, this research is able to provide important feedback to the general theoretical position as to how well that research holds up in specific circumstances. By examining the most effective advertising appeals for the MICE and 5 star resort hotel sector, this paper aims to provide a solid foundation for both future academic research in this area and also to provide MICE and 5 star resort hotels with practical information which can be used to better tailor their advertising campaigns and most importantly, to avoid making mistakes the damage from which, particularly in a fast paced industry, can take years to undo. 4. Literature Review and Theoretical Framework In order to determine when it is most appropriate for MICE and 5 star resort hotels to use rational and emotional appeals it is first necessary to create a theoretical framework based on a critical review and synthesis of the relevant work in this area. With such a theoretical framework in place, it will then be possible to come to a conclusion as to the merits of both rational and emotional appeals as they apply to MICE and 5 star resort hotels. It is first important to clearly define the terms being referred to. An advertising appeal is defined by Wells, Burnett and Moriarty as, â€Å"something that makes the product particularly attractive or interesting to the consumer.† There are many types of advertising appeals that can be relied upon (sex, price, fear, etc), but as Albers-Miller note, most authors agree that overall all advertising appeals can be classified as either being rational appeals and emotional appeals. A rational appeal is, â€Å"a form of argument and motivation used in the promotion of products and services. Rational factors, including facts and figures, advantages and benefits, are used in an appeal to consumers’ intellects, rather than their emotions† , while an emotional appeal is where, â€Å"the basis of an advertising message having strong emotional character.† Some examples of rational appeals are; for products, the top speed of a car, the processing power of a computer and the memory size of an MP3 player; and for services, the leg room on a flight and the savings made when travelling on off peak public transport. Examples of emotional appeals include; for productions, the sex appeal of a new sports car and the popularity that comes from drinking certain alcoholic beverages; and for services, the possibilities which open up to a consumer once they obtain a certain credit card and the sex appeal of the latest, must-see Hollywood blockbuster which everyone is talking about. One of the main themes that comes through in the literature in this area is that there has been a lack of empirical research undertaken which focuses predominantly on the role of advertising appeals with respect to service industries. This is somewhat surprising when one considers that most Western economies are now service-based economies. As Mattila notes, this growth in the level of interest in services marketing has not corresponded in a similar level of interest in how service quality is communicated rather, most current research has focused on a comparison between service and goods advertising and even when focusing on services, has concentrated on professional as opposed to retail services. While the research may not have kept pace with the fundamental shift in the underlying economic foundations of Western economies, it is now quickly catching up with interest in this area increasing. While the level of general research in the area of advertising appeals and how they relate to service industries increases and the understanding of the differences between goods and services marketing increases, an opportunity exists for researchers to use this developing research base as a theoretical foundation from which to focus on more specific market segments. As such, the focus of this paper, while falling within the broad scope of the current research with respect to advertising appeals in service industries aims to focus in on a much more specific sub-set of this research area; that of the effectiveness of rational and emotional appeals in advertising MICE and 5 star resort hotels. At the same time as focusing in on a specific area of the advertising appeals in service industries research, it is important that this specific area be considered within the context of the marketing strategies of MICE and 5 star resort hotels as a whole. An organisation which wants to make the most effective use of advertising must have a clear understanding of the market segments that they are targeting and an overall marketing mix which allows them to focus their resources on communicating with that segment of the market. Advertising is only one part of the marketing mix and where the other parts are not working effectively, advertising will not provide the highest return on investment possible. Finally, it is important to take into account the environment (and in particular the external environment) in which MICE and 5 star hotels operate in when considering which advertising appeals are most likely to be effective. For instance, in times of rapid growth and high disposable income or when tax breaks are provided for entertaining, MICE and 5 star hotels would be wise to avoid focusing on appealing to the cost savings that can be made by staying with them. Rather, at these times, rational appeals are unlikely to be as necessary as emotional appeals as the necessity for a customer to substantiate a decision rationally is not as great. Before being able to consider the market segmentation that MICE and 5 star resort hotels target, it is important to define the market in which they operate. The market in which they operate can be defined broadly as, for instance, all hotels and resorts, all holidays, all business communication methods, etc; or specifically as all 5 star hotels, all hotels in a particular location, etc. Because of the diverse nature of MICE and 5 star resort hotels, it is almost impossible to come to a determination as to a market in which specific hotel operates as this will be influenced by cultural, geographic and other features. However, it is a little simpler to determine the market segments that MICE and 5 star resort hotels are interested in targeting. The market segments that all MICE and 5 star resort hotels are interested in targeting are business customers and wealthy individuals. As noted above, advertising is a sub-set of an organisation’s overall marketing mix. As such, before proceeding, it is important that the distinction between marketing and advertising is clearly set out. Marketing has been defined by the (British) Chartered Institute of Marketing as, â€Å"the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.† Advertising is defined by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising as, â€Å"advertising presents the most persuasive possible selling message to the right prospects for the product or service at the lowest possible cost.† The marketing mix refers to the â€Å"price/value proposition† and is, as expanded on by Kotler, often referred to as the four P’s; Product, Place, Price and Promotion. The Product refers to the good or service that the supplier wishes to sell and which the consumer wishes to buy; Place refers to the convenience of buying the goods or services; Price refers to the cost to the consumer of the goods or services; and Promotion refers to the ways in which the supplier and customer communicate with each other. Advertising comes within the ambit of the promotion function. When applying the marketing mix to MICE and resort hotels, one observes that in general the Product is appealing (this may not apply to such an extent in countries in which the idea of staying in hotels is a relatively new concept for a majority of the population); with respect to the Place, while requiring travel to reach and therefore not being entirely convenient to most people, most MICE and resort hotels are located close to either business districts or leisure areas (eg beaches) meaning that while the location may not be entirely convenient, the location is generally desirable; MICE and 5 star resort hotels are generally price prohibitive with a strong emphasis on catering for company functions and higher level clientele; finally, with respect to Promotion, MICE and resort hotels rely on strong business focused advertising and word of mouth. With respect to Porter’s generic strategies matrix, MICE and resort hotels clearly aim for the niche market which is distinguished by high differentiation and high relative costs. That said, while MICE and resort hotels aim to represent themselves as being highly differentiated, exclusive and expensive, they are in fact extremely similar and operate on a low cost principle. As such, it is important for MICE and resort hotels to maintain this faà §ade and to ensure that customers’ experiences of cognitive dissonance are kept at a minimum. This faà §ade that all â€Å"cathedrals of consumption† must maintain, this separation from the mundane events of everyday life, is particularly evident in MICE and 5 star resort hotels. These establishments must be able to offer an entire â€Å"package† not only satisfying a guests physical needs, but also satisfying their wish to be deceived, to believe that for the length of their stay they are deserving of the 5 star treatment that they are receiving even through the next day they their office-bound mundane life. Williamson summarises this â€Å"package† element which applies to all purchases best when he writes: â€Å"Advertisements are selling us something else beside consumer goods; in providing us with a structure in which we and those goods are interchangeable, they are selling us ourselves†¦ Ideology is the meaning made necessary by the condition of society while helping to perpetuate those conditions. We feel a need to belong, to have a social place; it can be hard to find. Instead we may be given an imaginary one.† A supplementary point which arises from Williamson’s statement is that of the language of consumption. Many potential consumers are put off purchasing new goods or services because they do not have experience in having used them previously. For instance, someone who normally eats dinner on the couch in front of the television will be extremely reticent to eat dinner in a 5 star restaurant in which a knowledge of dining etiquette is expected. While this reluctance to try new things increases with age, it can be bridged in several ways. Advertising is a particularly effective means of overcoming potential consumers’ fears of try something new. By using analogies which relate the new product with something that the customer has already used and feels comfortable with advertisers are able to provide new consumers with the consumption queues necessary to use the new good or service and feel more comfortable doing so. In general, such techniques are not often used by MICE and 5 star resort hotels in places in which their use is understood by consumers. In societies in which the role of these hotels is understood by consumers, the aim of their advertising, is to create demand within the specific market segment that they are targeting. As such, it is almost the opposite of teaching new consumers how to use the services. These establishments are more likely to assume that those they are targeting understand how to use their services and are more likely to try to limit the understanding of their services by the general population. This is usually done through language and by offering services which are extremely specialised (eg tens of different types of facials, massages, etc) which are intended to intimidate the average consumer. Cognitive dissonance occurs when a person’s expectations are not met meaning that their level of satisfaction is low. With respect to guests’ perceptions of hotels, Saleh and Ryan write that, â€Å"†¦it is imperative that guests’ expectations be realistic and possible for the firm to deliver, otherwise an obvious gap in service quality is created.† One advantage that MICE and 5 star resort hotels have over other hotels and resorts is that a large portion of their clientele are not required to pay for their own accommodation. In situations in which the accommodation costs are being met by a third party, it is unlikely that any potential feelings of cognitive dissonance will be as strong as those of someone who has booked and paid for a hotel or resort themselves. Furthermore, any such feelings by a guest who is staying at someone else’s expense are more likely to be directed at the payer, who should have chosen a better quality hotel or resort, rather than directed at the actual hotel or resort. In addition, for guests of MICE and 5 star resort hotels, the actual hotel is normally a background factor (ie to a conference, the beach, an event, etc). These guests have other matters to occupy them. This contrasts with individuals who stay at a resort hotel that they have paid for themselves and where actually being at a resort hotel is the focus of their trip. As noted above, Mattila focuses on what she believes to be a gap in the studies examining services advertising. She believes that most of these studies focus on tangibilizing the offering or â€Å"making the service more concrete† and as a result of this a gap exists with respect to knowledge about the role emotional advertising appeals play in services advertising. What is important to keep in mind when advertising either products or services is that the advertising appeal has to match the product or service type. Albers-Miller et al note that previous research on this point has found that, â€Å"a more emotional (value-expressive) appeal should be used for a value-expressive product and a more rational (utilitarian) appeal should be used for a utilitarian product.† The way in which advertisers determine the best combination of rational and emotional appeal is assisted by the level of involvement model developed by Vaughn and adapted by Foote, Cone and Belding. That model focuses on products but provides a useful tool for understanding the differences between rational (thinking) and emotional (feeling) appeals. The four options are, high involvement/thinking which relates to high importance purchases such as cars and houses and the message should be based on â€Å"long copy, informational demonstration, comparative†; low involvement/thinking which relates to routinely purchased products such as food and items for the house and the message should be based on â€Å"coupons and samples†; high involvement/feeling which relate to a customer’s self esteem such as make up, jewellery and clothes and the message should be based on â€Å"emotional and visual† triggers; and low involvement/feeling which relates to products which satisfy personal cravings such as alcohol, snack foods and cigarettes and the message should be â€Å"creativity and lifestyle† based. How well these levels of involvement transfer to the service sector is still open to debate. If one was to take the same levels of involvement and attempted to determine which group MICE and 5 star resort hotels fall into, one might have difficulty as they do not fit cleanly into any of the categories. In general, a large proportion of business-to-business type advertising relies on rational appeals due to the fact that buyers tend to be knowledgeable about the products or services that they are buying and are seeking supportable justification for their purchasing decisions. As Stafford and Albers-Miller note, â€Å"†¦rational informative advertising appeals may help reduce some of the uncertainty often associated with the purchase of services.† That said, in today’s marketplace, it is unlikely that rational advertising appeals would be made without consideration of the emotional aspects. As such, essentially what is being said when one refers to a rational appeal is not that the emotional aspects of the appeal are not present, but that they are used more subtly and as a backdrop to the advertising campaign. As Albers-Miller et al argue: â€Å"†¦there is no reason not to include an emotional appeal and service information and benefits. Indeed many advertising practitioners would argue that this juxtaposition is one of the aims of good advertising – informing the consumer and stimulating a response through appeals to emotional, right-brain influences. However, there still needs to be some guidance given as to where we lay the emphasis in this area or emotions and rationality. And this is especially true in diverse cultures.† The importance of emotional appeals is especially important today when product differentiation is becoming more and more difficult. With respect to the MICE and 5 star resort hotel market sector, while some of these hotels are able to differentiate themselves on the basis of location, facilities and other competitive advantages, the general level of such differentiation is not great. Most people using the facilities of a MICE and 5 star resort hotels expect that certain levels of service and facilities are available. As the, â€Å"USP (unique selling proposition) is fast disappearing, then what becomes correspondingly more important is the ESP – the emotional selling point.† With respect to the advertising that MICE and 5 star resort hotels engage in, it is important for them to ensure that they are using the most effective advertising appeals necessary to persuade the targeted market segment. Louise Ha argues that the study of advertising appeals with respect to the services market has been hampered by a failure to differentiate between service firms. She believes that the type of service firm should be taken into account when determining the appropriate advertising appeals to use and relies on Zeithaml’s classification of services into three categories which are; â€Å"high on search attributes (performance of the service can be known before consumption); high on experience attributes (attributes that can only be discerned after purchase or during consumption) such as haircut and restaurants. These services are non-professional services that can be substituted by self-service of the consumer; and high on credence attributes (attributes that consumers may still find them impossible to evaluate after consuming the service) such as medical services and repair services. These are professional services that require special training or license.† MICE and 5 star resort hotels can be classified as being high on experience attributes. It should also be noted that MICE and 5 star resort hotels operate in a global marketplace. Albers-Miller et al have studied the differences between rational and emotional appeals across cultures (and in particular, Brazil, Taiwan, Mexico and the USA). They conclude that, â€Å"culture appears to play a significant role in the use of emotional and rational advertisements for services, and anthropological measures of culture provide some insight into the differences in emotional appeals.† They also note that across cultures business customers, the main target segment for MICE and 5 star resort hotels, â€Å"tend to make decisions based on more rational criteria†¦ [and that] across cultures, cognition changes little, while emotions change considerably.† While the cultural aspects of rational and emotional advertising appeals with respect to MICE and 5 star resort hotels is beyond the scope of this paper, it does provide an interesting area of research for future studies. While the differentiation between rational and emotional appeals seems like a simple and logical distinction to make, the distinction is largely artificial as an advertising campaign which solely relies on rational or emotional appeals is unlikely, if not impossible. As such, the difference between the two in an advertising campaign is the level of emphasis that is given to one over the other. Both will be used, the decision is rather how best to combine the two for maximum effect. 5. Methodology When considering the type of methodology to employ the choice is between primary or secondary research methods. Primary research methods refer to those that generally require replies from and interaction with service users such as questionnaires, focus-groups and interviews (ie fieldwork). On the other hand, secondary research methods rely on reviewing books, articles, statistical data, etc (ie deskwork). While primary research is generally viewed as being superior to secondary research, this is not always the case. Primary research is almost always hampered by cost considerations, the sample size used, the manner in which the sample population has been decided upon, researcher bias, etc. In light of cost considerations, it is almost always more cost effective to ask yourself whether or not someone else has already done this research and if so to begin at that point and then use primary research to fill in any gaps or specific areas which have not been addressed in the depth required. Secondary research also has its own problems which include such factors as the fact that it is reliant on someone else’s primary research with all the inherent problems that presents as set out above, the researcher is limited to the questions raised in the secondary materials, etc. As such, it is important that in secondary research, the sources of the information to be used are reliable (ie government sources, peer reviewed journals, text books written by qualified authors, etc). In light of the above considerations, it is important that any market research conducted uses a balance of primary and secondary research methods. In the case of this paper, it was found that there was an array of literature (secondary sources) on advertising and the service sector. However, there was less to be found when one looked at the area of MICE and resort hotels specifically. As such, while secondary research could take us to a point, from that point it was necessary to use primary research methods. The most common primary research methods are interviews, questionnaires, surveys, focus groups and secret visits. As the objective of this paper is to determine the most effective methods of advertising appeals with respect to MICE and resort hotels, some of the primary methods referred to above will not be appropriate. MICA and resort hotels cover a large cross-section of the market and large distances. As such, secret visits to the hotels would not only be cost prohibitive, but would be unlikely to provide the necessary data required. On the other hand, as most of the users of these services are UK-based, a focus group may be more appropriate for personal holiday makers. In light of the practical issues of setting up a focus group of business users, questionnaires may be more appropriate for that sector of the market. A decision was finally made to make use of a questionnaire and a focus group. Both would target people who had already used MICE and 5 star resort hotels on the basis that this was the segment of the market that these hotels were targeting. It was decided that an attempt to include customers who had never stayed in a MICE and 5 star resort hotel would be too much for a paper of this length however, it would remain a potential area for future research. With respect to the design of the questionnaire, it was decided that while quantitative responses are the easiest to compile and analyse, they do not give the depth of information that can be gleaned from qualitative answers. Furthermore, in order to be statistically valid, a quantitative questionnaire would need to involve a large, randomly selected sample base. Due to cost and time limitations, this was not considered feasible and as such, it was thought most appropriate to concentrate on a smaller, specifically selected sample of the market segment being targeted and an analysis of their qualitative responses with a clear statement as to the understood limitations of proceeding in this way. 6. Findings, analyses and evaluation The purpose of this dissertation is to determine the extent to which rational and emotional appeals apply to MICE and 5 star resort hotels. A review of secondary sources and current research on the topic showed that this is an area which has suffered from a lack of research interest to date. While Mattila’s work provides a strong overview of advertising appeals as they relate solely to the service sector (as opposed to dealing with them solely in comparison with products), her work is quite broad and as such, while it is used as a starting point for this paper, it was necessary to supplement the secondary research and theoretical framework with primary research which consisted of a questionnaire and focus group. Further primary research was deemed not feasible due to cost and time constraints. In total, 150 questionnaires were posted or handed out. Due to the small sample size, the participants were targeted (eg businesses which book MICE and 5 star resort hotels for conferences, people leaving MICE and 5 star resort hotels, etc). Of the 150 questionnaires posted or handed out, thirty were returned. This was considered to be a reasonable level of returns in light of the type of person being asked to complete them (ie busy individuals who work long hours). A summary of the questionnaire replies are set out in Appendix 2. Due to the qualitative nature of the replies, statistical analysis of the responses is not feasible. However, they do provide an interesting insight into the way in which advertising appeals are able to influence guests of MICE and 5 star resort hotels. Along with the questionnaire, a focus group was used to try to determine in a more direct fashion people’s attitudes to MICE and 5 star resort hotels and more particularly, what effect advertising appeals had on their purchasing behaviour. As with the questionnaire, the group chosen was not chosen randomly, but rather was selected from people who had already used MICE and 5 star resort hotels in the past. Participants were shown various advertisements (not only limited to MICE and 5 star resort hotels) and asked to discuss various propositions put to them. Once again, the results were qualitative and as such not appropriate for statistical analysis. While the response to the questionnaire was not particularly high, those individuals that did respond provided some particularly interesting replies. Predictably perhaps, most responses were from middle aged, well educated men. This group is the market segment that most MICE and 5 star resort hotels seek to target with their advertising. However, the strong response by women suggests that those MICE and 5 star resort hotels that are spending most of their advertising budgets targeting men may be missing out on a large segment of the market which may still

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Essay --

Summary A Savage War of Peace was a fantastic book to read. It detailed the history of the Algerian War for Independence, which encompasses three separate wars. All of these wars were concerned with the future of the once French, now Algerian, city of Algiers. Beginning with the First War, it was a three-way fight between the FLN, the Front de Libà ©ration Nationale, the pied noirs population living in French Algeria, and the Fourth Republic of France. This First War began in 1954 and continued until 1958. The FLN was a terror organization that was anti-West, anti-Communist, anti-Liberal, and anti-Semitic. Their members were generally many Muslim opponents of French rule. The pied noirs were generally the white settlers of Algeria, composing a minority of the overall population of Algeria. The pied noirs could be seen as an in between population, not necessarily fully French but not necessarily Algerian as well. Historically, they were affiliated with Pà ©tain’s government during World War 2 and were hostile to liberal democracy. Finally, the Fourth Republic was the then current government of the democratic country of France. They inherited a very complicated situation in Algeria from their predecessor governments. France initially gained Algeria as a part of its empire when they conquered the land from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. The original system of government allowed the Muslim population to live under Sharia Law while the European settlers lived under French law and voted in French elections. Initially, the Fourth Republic’s goal was to allow the pied noirs to be citizens of the French Republic, while allowing the Algerian population to govern themselves. Each of these three factions had their own downfalls. The FLN was para... ...he European and French view. However, as the story is so exhaustively detailed I do not think it has compromised credibility in the paper. I found this book extremely useful. As someone who is very interested in French and European history, I was amazed at how large of an impact the Algerian War had on France, for example causing the collapse of the Fourth Republic. I was also amazed that so many politicians and military leaders use this book as a history lesson on what to do in Iraq. I found that the book related to the course due to the mentioning of the French involvement in Vietnam as well as how the French tried to learn from their lessons at Dien Bien Phu when they were in Algeria. I will certainly be hanging on to this book for future reference, as well as to read again even more in depth to see if I missed any comparisons or possible lessons to be learned. Essay -- Summary A Savage War of Peace was a fantastic book to read. It detailed the history of the Algerian War for Independence, which encompasses three separate wars. All of these wars were concerned with the future of the once French, now Algerian, city of Algiers. Beginning with the First War, it was a three-way fight between the FLN, the Front de Libà ©ration Nationale, the pied noirs population living in French Algeria, and the Fourth Republic of France. This First War began in 1954 and continued until 1958. The FLN was a terror organization that was anti-West, anti-Communist, anti-Liberal, and anti-Semitic. Their members were generally many Muslim opponents of French rule. The pied noirs were generally the white settlers of Algeria, composing a minority of the overall population of Algeria. The pied noirs could be seen as an in between population, not necessarily fully French but not necessarily Algerian as well. Historically, they were affiliated with Pà ©tain’s government during World War 2 and were hostile to liberal democracy. Finally, the Fourth Republic was the then current government of the democratic country of France. They inherited a very complicated situation in Algeria from their predecessor governments. France initially gained Algeria as a part of its empire when they conquered the land from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. The original system of government allowed the Muslim population to live under Sharia Law while the European settlers lived under French law and voted in French elections. Initially, the Fourth Republic’s goal was to allow the pied noirs to be citizens of the French Republic, while allowing the Algerian population to govern themselves. Each of these three factions had their own downfalls. The FLN was para... ...he European and French view. However, as the story is so exhaustively detailed I do not think it has compromised credibility in the paper. I found this book extremely useful. As someone who is very interested in French and European history, I was amazed at how large of an impact the Algerian War had on France, for example causing the collapse of the Fourth Republic. I was also amazed that so many politicians and military leaders use this book as a history lesson on what to do in Iraq. I found that the book related to the course due to the mentioning of the French involvement in Vietnam as well as how the French tried to learn from their lessons at Dien Bien Phu when they were in Algeria. I will certainly be hanging on to this book for future reference, as well as to read again even more in depth to see if I missed any comparisons or possible lessons to be learned.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Internal Conflict in Barn Burning by William Faulkner Essay

The works â€Å"Barn Burning† by William Faulkner and â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† by John Steinbeck at first glance may seem to have no connection, but in spite of different plot they focus on similar ideas. The story â€Å"Barn Burning† by William Faulkner discusses the inner conflict within Sartoris Snopes, a young boy who faced a dilemma. He tries to make a decision of choosing between to lieing in the court under his father’s pressiure who does not want to get into the jail and acting against his father by telling the truth. The main character is influenced by Abner, his father, who tells him, â€Å"You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you.† ( P 496). I think this quote reflects the main issue of the story, which is about blood ties. And we clearly see how Sarty is affected by these blood ties. Faulkner depicts the inner conflict and dilemma that the main character faces. We start to understand the moral dilemma of the main character from the beginning of the story. I think Faulkner make us think about the question: at what point should a person make a choice between what his parents and or family believes and his own values? The situation in which Sarty’s conflict is developeded is a trial. In this trial Sarty is asked, † I reckon any boy named for Colonel Sartoris in this country can’t help but tell the truth, can they?† ( P 154). The young boy, Sarty, somewhere deep in his heart has a feeling that he wants to act in a right way, but as he is oly 10 years old, I think it is hard for him to make firm decisions. His feelings and thoughts are influnced by his father, who pressures him, trying to prevent himself from punishment in the court. We also understand that Abner makes his son struggle with himself by the way Sarty describes him. Abner does not speak much. We see this in the way he communicates with his family and other characters. He is a person with so much pride that he is ready to do anything to revenge those who do something wrong to him or try to own him, even if he has to break the law. The choice that a young boy has to make stands between his family and conscience. When Sarty Snopes considers that he has to make a decision of choosing between blood, which is his duty to his family, and his own morality.  Sarty’s father stesses the value of loyalty to the family. He states,thatif he does not stick to hi blood, he will not have any blood to stick to. Sarty tries to make himself believe this and even starts a fight with a boy for insulting his father. At first Sarty wants to be a moral person. He is very very upset that he has to lie speaking to the judge, but he is still going to do that, knowing his father wants him to do so. As Sarty respected Abner for his values, he thought he could back up him. The boy believed his father was a brave man in the war, and that he wanted to send a warning beforehand with a slave so that no one was hurt. The battle between listening to his own heart and deciding to follow his family is the hardest struggle of Sarty’s life. He understands that it is not correct to agree with his father’s suggestions, but he is not interested in disreputing his father by disagreeing with him. The author explains that if he was older he would â€Å"resist the world and try to change the course of its events† ( P 379). Sarty learns that he does not necessaruly need bulk in irder to refuse Abner; at first he defends his father, but finally his decided to listen to his heart, which wants to help those who were harmed by obstinate and dogmatic Abner. Sarty warns the people in the big white house and goes down the road. Soon Sarty hears a a few shots, and he thinks that his father and brother are caught by the landlord and are shot by him. Regardless of what indeeed happened, he understands he can never return. The boy just continues to walk, and he does not look back. At this moment Sarty’s blood ties are broken, and he gets rid of the fear of his father’s wrath. The main character is free now. But his freedom requires paying some price. I think that the boy still feels some kind of blood tie, described by the author, and he made this choice with a lot of feelings on both sides of the issue. Sarty still cares for his family in some sense, he still feels love towards his father, even though he understands that what his father’s deeds are wrong and he really had to stop them and cease to be a part of them. The fact that the boy is not able to come back home is not a question of his  choice, I think he just canont go back. So, Sarty’s heart still suffers from some conflict that is not really resolved, even though the situation has really changed. As I have already discussed, at the beginning of the story Sarty feels a strong allegiance to his father, however, finally we learn that his views change radically. The point of culmination is at the end of the story when Sarty has warned Major de Spain of Abner’s intentions to burn the barn. I think that the main character experiences the burst of emotions, running down de Spain’s drive and hearing Major’s horse galloping behind him. The resolution to the conflict comes when Abner and his elder son are shot. But the real solution happens at night after Abner’s death, when Sarty is sitting upon the crest of a hill thinking about his actions and future life. Faulkner proves us that it is impossible to sruggle with one’s own heart . The moment when Sarty decided to choose morality over the blood pool and warned the de Spain’s revealed his true character. Though this meant the death of his father, Sarty didn’t regret of warning de Spain. Instead, it looked like the boy was trying to subsitute his memories of his father by some honorable, good person, who had strong convictions. In his story â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† John Steinbeck also reveales the conflict of a human heart, which is connected with women’s unfulfilled needs and desires. The author stresses that as human beings we have to appreciate each other, otherwise eventually we will make our lives dark and tragic. The main character, Elisa Allen, is frustrated with her present life. She is plagued with no children and her husband is not able admire her romantically as a woman. The only thing that helps her to calm down is her flower garden where beautiful chrysanthemums grow. Steinbeck shows Elisa’s thoughts nad feelings about her inner self by depicting those chrysanthemums. The story presents the idea that appreciation by the people who we love is an element of human existence. When Elisa was acknowledged by her husband, said, â€Å"maybe I could do it, too. I’ve a gift with things, all right. My mother had it. She could stick anything in the ground and make it grow† ( P  1261). At this moment the woman feels her husband’s appreciation for commenting on her wonderful flowers. This idea of recognition is shown by John Steinbeck to demonstrate the need for a felling of acceptance. Feeling a strong need for acceptance, Elisa turns to a stranger and makes attempts to be appreciated. While Elisa talks to this stranger, their conversation connects to the realm of Elisa’s flowers. â€Å"Elisa’s eyes grew alert and eager. ‘She couldn’t have known much about chrysanthemums. You can raise them from a seed'† ( P 1264). This depicts Elisa’s happiness and passion, as she has an opportunity to be appreciated through her flowers again. By undestanding the value of Elisa’s flowers, the stranger really accepts the woman, as her flowers are in some sense the expression of herself. They are everything Elisa possesses, being sometimes valued by her husband and also being valued by the stranger. â€Å"†¦ her eyes shone. She tore off the battered hat and shook out her dark pretty hair† ( P 1264). In this quote we see that Elisa opens her heart up to the stranger. She â€Å"tore off† the hat to free herself from the work which was not appreciated, and revealed her real beauty to the stranger. By acting so, Elisa is prepared herself to get the gratitude from the stranger, the gratitude that she did not receive often from her husband. . After the tinker departs, Elisa is looking forward to her evening with her husband. She hopes Henry will recognize her needs as a woman and provide her with the romance and passion which she desires. But this hope is quickly broken. The best best compliment on her appearance that Henry makes after she has changed is, â€Å"You look strong enough to break a calf over your knee, happy enough to eat it like a watermelon† ( P 393). This unflattering comment on her appearance does not do much for Elisa’s ego as a woman nor toward her feelings toward her husband. Elisa’s hope is finally destroyed, as she finds the flowers on the road. The woman feels that her soul is completely emptied by the tinker’s thoughtless rejection of her feelings. Just like her husband, he has failed to value the qualities that make her unique as a woman. This symbolic act has vanished her hope. Elisa realizes that her life will not change. Henry will not fully appreciate or understand her femininity and sexuality. She has to l earn to be content with such  unthoughtful husband and her awful marriage. She realizes that her devastation is really complete and leaves her â€Å"crying weakly-like an old woman† ( P 394). The chrysanthemums stand for the symbol of Elisa’s role as a woman. At the beginning they symbolize her children, later they represent her femininity and sexuality. Elisa feels that her life destroyed her soul because she lacked children and romance in her marriage with Henry. Eventually, her husband fails to appreciate her feminine qualities and her emotional needs. The encounter with the tinker reawakens her sexuality and Elisa starts to hope that she still has a chance for a more exciting and romantic marriage. However, seeing the flowers on the road she realizes that there will not be any changes in her life. Finally, her soul is devastated by such a miserable and uhhappy life. I think that in contrast to the inner conflict, which Faulkner’s Sarty experienced at the beginning of the strory and resolved at the end, Steinbeck’s Elisa faced different situation. She had some hopes that her life will go in the desirable way, but all her expectations failed. In my opinion, in spite of the conflicts which different natures, both authors proved in their works that if human heart comes into the conflict with itself, it brings suffering. But I think that it is worth to suffer like Sarty for the sake of resolving the conflict; however, life turns into the tragedy, when the conflict, like in Elisa’s case, is the final of a person’s dreams and expectations. Bibliography 1.Faulkner, William. Barn Burning. Bedford Introduction to Literature. Boston; Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. 2.Billinglea, O. Fathers and Sons: The Spiritual Quest in Faulkner’s ‘Barn Burning. Mississippi Quarterly: The Journal of Southern Culture 44.3 (Summer 1991). 3.Fowler, Virginia C. Faulkner’s ‘Barn Burning’: Sarty’s Conflict Reconsidered. College Language Association Journal 24.4 (June 1981). 4. Steinbeck, John. The Chrysanthemums. Fiction: A Longman Pocket Anthology. Ed. R.S. Gwynn. Second Ed. New York: Longman, 1998. 5.Beach, J. John Steinbeck’s Authentic Characters. Readings on John Steinbeck. Ed. Swisher, Clarice. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1996.

Friday, November 8, 2019

Archetypes in The Natural essays

Archetypes in The Natural essays After discovering a God-given talent, a young boy struggles to achieve his only dream; to become the best there ever was. Baseball is all he has ever known, so he prevails through the temptations and situations laid before him by those out to destroy his career. His hopes and dreams outweigh all the temptations along his journey. These hopes, dreams, and temptations are depicted through archetypes in the movie The Natural. An archetype is a universal symbol. It is also a term from the criticism that accepts Jungs idea of recurring patterns of situation, character, or symbol existing universally and instinctively in the collective unconscious of man. Archetypes come in three categories: images (symbols), characters, and situations. Feelings are provoked about a certain subject by archetypes. The use of the images of water, sunsets, and circles set the scene of the movie. Characters, including the temptress, the devil figure, and the trickster, contribute to the movies conflicts that the hero must overcome in order to reach his dream. However, to reach his dream, the hero must also go through many situations such as, the fall, dealing with the unhealable wound, and the task. By using archetypes in the movie, the viewer can obtain more than just the plot and better understand the true theme of the movie: to never give up on dreams. Archetypal imagery in this movie is abundant, but the most obvious and repetitive archetypes are those of water, sunsets, and circles. Prior to Roy Hobbs, the heros, arrival to the major league, the coach, Pop, comments, Wouldnt you think I could get a fresh drink of water after all the years that I have been in this game. At this point in the game, his team is losing miserably and Roys arrival only seems to make the situation worse because his first impression is an overage rookie. When Roy finally gets a chance to prove himself as a ball player...

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Role of Stakeholder Paper Example

Role of Stakeholder Paper Example Role of Stakeholder Paper – Research Paper Example Role of Stakeholder Introduction The term stakeholders refers to persons or groups who rely on an organization to attain their goals while the organization depend on them for support and other aspects such as governance. These include people who are likely to benefit from company’s operations hence work towards the success of the company. Stakeholders thus include persons who play part in the running of a company (shareholders and employees) in addition to other persons who may be concerned in the company’s activities but do not own it. Generally, stakeholders are all entities who influence or are affected by the operations and decisions of an organization. Stakeholders are the individuals or groups that share the benefits and risks of a company. They are thus and are affected by management decisions. However, some stakeholder may not be in support of the companies decisions depending on the effect such decisions may have on them. The stakeholders are thus crucial and i nfluence the management of a company. This paper focuses on the role of stakeholders in implementing a quality management process. The chief stakeholders in any business include managers, shareholders, company employees, government, communities, clients, trade unions, and other companies or organizations. Employees are important contributors in decision making thus their opinions are crucial in running of a company or business (Jackson, Sawyers, Jackson, Sawyers, & Jenkins, 2008). Trade union’s role in implementation of quality management in a company since they influence company decisions regarding employees security, compensation as well as the recruitment process. Shareholders are the most important component of a company and play a crucial role in implementation of management process since they are interested in the welfare of the company in which they have invested. They also partake in making of some company decisions. Customers or clients are another important stakeholder who determines how a company should be managed. This is because customers influence management aspects pertaining to quality, ethics, as well as organizational values. For example, a food processing industry will have to include the major customers in management aspects regarding the quality to ensure that the product made meet their needs. The government is a critical stakeholder in any organization, which influence different managerial aspects hence management. The government regulates features such as taxation and company legislation hence the quality of management (Jackson, Sawyers, & Jenkins, 2008). Other organizations are also important entities that affect the management of a company. They could be the competitors or the distributors. A good example of an organization where other organization are important stakeholders is a manufacturing company where the retailers involved in distributing company’s product and thus influence management decisions (Foster, 2012; Jackson, Sawyers, & Jenkins, 2008). References Foster, T. (2012). Managing Quality: Integrating the Supply Chain. New York: Pearson Education, Limited. Jackson, S., Sawyers, R., & Jenkins, G. (2008). Managerial Accounting: A Focus on Ethical Decision Making. Stamford: Cengage Learning.