Some Things to Laugh About Essay Example for Free

Some Things to Laugh About Essay After reading the three articles one cannot help but realize that laughter is a serious but comical subject worth debating on. All in all, these three documents unite in one concept: that laughter can be used as a tool for social interaction for acceptance and as reinforcement to achieve certain positive responses. According to Richard Penson, et.al., many people believe that laughter is one of the best medicines that can cure not only physical ailments but human relationships as well.    Although laughing does not always result to healing, many consider good sense of humor as a great way to put their problems in better perspectives which in turn helps in better handling of awkward or grave situations. Gregory Berns supports Penson’s claim that laughter is a popular tool that is being used to gain social acceptance even though it can also jeopardize human interactions with misuse and abuse such as when jokes are delivered to embarrass a person. Jaak Panksepp’s article about rats supports Berns’ and Penson’s idea that laughter can be used in social interactions to gain certain rewarding results because his observations showed that rats tend to chirp (their version of laughter) when they are faced with threatening situations against fellow rats.   Panksepp implicates that rats try to lighten an aggressive encounter with a fellow rodent with their own way of laughing. Although studies about laughter and humor have been done, many researchers find it difficult to pursue their studies because of the ambiguity of how laughter originates from humans.   The scientific world has previously assumed that only humans experience emotional highs like laughing but Panksepp’s research on rodents can pave the way to show that other mammals also have their own forms of laughter.   Knowing that rats can also use their form of laughter called â€Å"chirping† as a tool for social acceptance and alleviating threatening situations can be helpful because this means that more research and observations can be done using animals instead of people which tend to be tedious and yield inconsistent results due to many uncontrollable factors. Panksepp’s frequent use of side comments such as referring to his insight as â€Å"delusion† was funny and it showed how humor can really help lighten even heavy subject matters like his research. However, his study needs to be validated and followed up by other scientists because as he has pointed out, it seems that he is the only one who can tell when rats are chirping even under direct provocation.   Although it is Panksepp’s perception that the scientific community is not very open to suggestions that animals can feel emotions, to reach out to his colleagues in the field by not mentioning this setback can probably boost his research’s acceptance. Berns’ article about how laughter or sense of humor says that â€Å"any discussion of humor would be incomplete without at least the mention of sex† because humor can actually originate from man’s hedonic brain processes. Berns’ assumption makes one realize that even common things such as laughter can be subconsciously used to gain social acceptance or even sexual attraction. However, it would take more studies to strongly validate these findings because of many uncontrollable factors that need to be considered when experimenting with human behavior.   Some of these factors include the personal family history of the participants, personality type and their probable experiences with the subject such as the comic strip’s theme.   Finding humor in a joke or comic strip relies on subjective perception. Therefore, many repeated studies must be done to show that these responses are really common enough to be validated as true. Although doctors and other caregivers showed how laughter can be a great tool to lighten the mood or atmosphere in their morbid situations, this writer believes that it is insulting to the patients when these professionals wager on the success of their treatments. The matter of life and death rests on the hands of these professionals and although gambling on a successful surgical operation may help lighten the stress the activity imposes, it comes across as disheartening to patients who would rather that their doctors pay attention to the risks involved and not on their wagers. More study on how medical professionals can use sense of humor in a better way to cope with their stressful jobs is evident so that gallows humor can be alleviated. More studies on laughter and how it originates must be done to help the human race use this very powerful tool to the fullest. The medical world will benefit from it by helping doctors, patients, and caregivers avoid or alleviate depression. The political arena, wherein everything is a serious matter, may also benefit if people become trained to use laughter as a device in peace talks and negotiations instead of dangerous artillery. More studies on laughter can be one of the most serious contributions that scientists can do to make the world a happier place.

Effect Of Marine Tourism And Diving Market Tourism Essay

Effect Of Marine Tourism And Diving Market Tourism Essay Introduction Marine tourism is a temporary movement of people to destinations out side their regular situation and activities within a marine setting. Marine tourism being a constituent of the tourism division is deemed to be growing swiftly both in stipulations of its size and its worth. This expansion in marine tourism is mainly important as such actions come up in places that could be measured to be peripheral in spatial, sequential and financial provisions. The peripheral environment of marine tourism destinations means that these places have been holdup behind in terms of their financial and communal growth. The marine tourism business acts as a chief role in making the World Heritage spot to a broad variety of guests. Aim Exploring the effect of marine tourism and diving market on people choices on their holiday destination Objective The objective of this research proposal is to analyze the trends and forecast of the marine tourism industry. This will be done by examining development in marine tourism growth globally. Factors encouraging people to go to coastal destinations A characteristic shared by many coastal destinations is a wealth of pristine coastal and aquatic environments for example most of these areas have the variety, ecological aspects and landscape features that are extremely sought by marine tourists. Examples of species around the world consist of cetaceans (dolphins, porpoises and whales) species of birds and fish, sharks, crocodiles sea lions seals, penguins, and polar bears. These species have a tendency to be attractive to the tourist because of being large and exhibiting fantastic behavior. The Activities at these coastal regions also influence people visit. They include; oil painting and mosaic making; jewellery assembly to cup cake decorating; artistic writing and photography; and cookery workshops, which are run by local citizens who are passionate concerning their focus and about where they reside. Creative workshops take place in exciting unique sites including the workshop leadersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ residences and backyard studios, many close to the marine. The creative workshops also present opportunity for people to enthusiastically participate in. Other activities that include species of plants and animals include guided rock-pooling activities. There are exciting self-sufficient shops selling local arts and crafts, art and theatrical venues, amazing galleries and vibrant music, at these seaside regions. There are also creative actions like Whitstable Oyster, Herne Bay, Festival Fuse in Medway and Whitstable Biennale, Broadstairs,Canterbury, and Deal Festivals which attract marine tourists. People working and living on these coastal regions provide skills that ensure segregation and local distinctiveness. Tourists visit these destinations to engage in leisure activities such as shell gathering, the aroma of salt air, the whack of the cottage screen door, the creepy elevation of a huge breaker, and sand all over the place. Tourist go on holiday to marine destination for relaxation and break: To stroll the walk on the seashore of a barrier island, construct sandcastles, stare over the hazy Adriatic from the holiday lodge with an arbor of fragranced jasmine. Some visit for adventure for example the boating tour to visit a puffin settlement on a natural creek, the walk atop surf-battered bluffs and the scuba push downward a sea cliff of coral. Others visit these destinations to see the coastal landscape and nature for example the rising seas; dwindling wetlands; oil drilling and shipping path offshore; garbage rinsing onshore and the air travel. 2. Exploring the reasons of increasing the marine and diving tourism Increasing the marine and diving tourism increases potential for expansion in the tourism division, and the marine tourism division as an input tourism factor that can naturally benefit from this growth. This also makes the tourism division to benefit from improved communication and transportation technologies. These enhancements can include better access to information concerning tourist destination and actions, and similarly outstandingly enhanced admission to tourism places by way of additional resourceful transportation. Enhanced transport efficiency can in turn make traveling quicker, extra direct and cheaper while improving admission to substitute settings. Diving tourism breaks has witness highest demand from local and international divers. It also aims to confine foreign tourist visitation thus boosting the tourism division 3. Identify typologies for diving tourism The growth in diving tourism has been encouraged by increased accessibility to training, apparatus as well as dive spots, and partially because of the negligible investment involved in taking-up scuba diving as different from other activities 4. Identify the top destination of diving tourism and marine ecotourism The North Sulawesi Watersports Association Formed in mid 1998 has agreed to support the North Sulawesi as a first-class marine tourism destination through development of high principles of service and security and sponsoring more ecologically aware water sports actions within the Bunaken National Park. The Turneffe Flats has for a time long been acknowledged as one of Belizes premier sea water flutter fishing, scuba diving and marine tourism destinations. This is located on the Turneffe Atoll, the major and mainly biologically varied coral atoll in the Caribbean, it specializes in finer service for a restricted number of tourist. Turneffe Flats is known as one of the Caribbeans leading saltwater dash fishing destinations. The variety of the brine flats fishing sets it at a distance from other destinations and the prospect to seize bonefish, allow and tarpon makes Turneffe Flats one of the rare. The atolls of Belize are charged along with the worlds best dive marine tourist destinations. It has perfect coral reefs, plentiful marine life and temperate Caribbean seas. There are hard to believe snorkeling is a basis of the parcel with a large variety of snorkeling options. The destination has several bird species that have been identified with West Indian Manatees. 5. Studying   the impact of the marine tourism on the destination Marine tourism makes logic of unity between host and tourists A big significance of marine tourism is generating feelings of resemblance between tourists and their relatives and friends with members and society in destinations. The understanding of calling other peopleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s places amplifies the feeling of solidarity and the force of the desire to contribute. Tourism is an important part of the local economy in many developing countries. Marine tourism is necessary to the livelihoods of huge parts of the destination population. Marine tourism contributes directly to the local economy, for example the informal division, directly profiting, the craft sellers, juice pressers, fruit sellers and local guides. Various destinations coastal areas face turn down marine industries. Marine ecotourism presents a means of realizing strategies for financial renewal, employment establishment and sustainable growth values, and improves the natural surroundings in which it exists. Marine ecotourism denotes ecotourism actions happen in the coastal region, in the marine surroundings. The marine and coastal surrounding is a collective global resource. More rigorous collaboration among neighborhood and nations on marine ecotourism guarantee the ecological qualities on which this tourism depends are sustained and improved. In most waning fishing neighborhoods in the European Union Atlantic Area, there is a similarity of possibility for the growth of marine ecotourism. The road and rail network for example, housing is largely already there in often dilapidated seaside resorts The biggest confront is the need for a transformation in the mindsets of policymakers within the various divisions that force upon marine ecotourism, as well as the populations with the prospective to widen tourism in the form of legitimately sustainable marine ecotourism. There is a necessity for events that understands in the local circumstance and with the confined stakeholders, without whose hold up and participation; no marine ecotourism would be legitimately sustainable. Marine ecotourism proposals should be optimistic to evolve at the confined community level. The basic major explanation for the expansion of marine ecotourism, it that it takes appropriate concern of the supply base which is the solution to preserving its wider reimbursement. Relating the profits of ecotourism to preservation guarantees that the interdependency is correctly recognized and taken into explanation in the preparation and organization of marine ecotourism. The available legal and other official methods have a significant responsibility to play in preparation and supervision for a legitimately sustainable marine environment. These require to be enhanced by a variety of unofficial and charitable actions in order to realize stability between top to down and bottom up advances. Increasing the statutory approach with charitable policies can tackle the inadequacy that official rigid configurations tend to display in value of the unique troubles inbuilt in preparation for legitimately sustainable aquatic ecotourism. The actions of marine ecotourism depend straightforwardly on the sustained accessibility of high excellence marine surroundings in which to function. The marine surroundings create a center of attention to tourists and grants them with ecotourism familiarities for which they are enthusiastic to compensate. In case marine surroundings are broken, tourists can longer desire to stay in the area concerned. Marine ecotourism has a tough incentive to check the marine environment upon which it relies, and it is vital to distinguish this in the expansion, preparation and running of such behaviors at a local point. The development issues that are fundamental in the preparation and organization of legitimately sustainable marine ecotourism reside in a problem area that requires partnership, than effortless collaboration. These problems are adequately difficult beyond the capability of any single person to decide them, dictating partnership between stakeholders. Marketing should prioritize the surrounding protection or else can serve to compromise the intended and run marine ecotourism actions. Accountable marketing of marine environment at the local stage should embrace the idea of surroundings and socio-cultural improvement, as well as local contribution and managing of marketing actions. The marketing of maritime ecotourism should be reliable with the main beliefs of sustainability. The ecotourism attitude grants a unique accountability on ecotourism familiarity providers to guarantee the inclusion of appropriate and efficient analysis of the marine environment. Visitors should also be well-informed about their probable collisions on the surroundings. Civic establishment are accountable for making sure that nautical ecotourism contributors are properly educated, and efforts made to make certain that local stage strategy makers, planners and other stakeholders fully appreciate the idea and reimbursement of marine ecotourism. Evaluating whether maritime ecotourism is being efficiently designed and managed calls for screening in short and long-term. This should be carried out with consideration to the efficiency and suitability of the dogmatic and charitable arrangement in place, the maritime ecotourism reserve base, the class of the merchandise and significantly, the reimbursement to communities. Crack and flaws in official preparation and guidelines means at a local level, unpaid arrangements should be made in working towards a sensible combination of official and unofficial procedures. This can also assist move charitable structures towards official appreciation, thus giving them power. This can be attained through licensing systems and revenue generating fees On the destination stage, marine ecotourism can be made as a product harmonizing existing festival activities as a naval ecotourism ingredient can be established to most seashore holidays if the funds and systems are present. This can decrease the overall worldwide warming repercussions as people take less but longer holidays. It can have more advantage in dropping the period of more traditional structures of tourism action in cooler destinations. Many countries all through the tropics account instances of how marine tourism has had outcomes in reef dilapidation. Terms of tourist amenities causes reefs to be mined for construction material choked by residue released in the creation and poison by ravage disposed from the finished, performance growth. Tourist growth attracts a profitable deal in marine junk which degrades reefs. Oceanic ecotourism has demonstrated itself capable of creating socioeconomic paybacks for destination coastal communitiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ different parts of the world. For example, the socioeconomic impact linked with whale watching, which is a financial actions are both considerable and prevalent. Marine ecotourism is able of making peripheral coastal areas with a growth option that sustainable other actions for economic prospective. Marginal regions tend to rely on inadequate variety of economic activities in sustaining the living of their local society. The general activities in these areas are sea, sand and sun tourism and sea fishing for profit. The marine ecotourism also helps in the redistribution of income and the necessitate to invest in infrastructure.

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Oxidative Stress Relationship

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Oxidative Stress Relationship Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease which causes a lethal twist in the structural integrity, and a roadblock in the function of brain, this eventually channel the situation to degeneration and shrinkage of brain, and override the control of brain over other parts of the body, and comes to the final closing remark of the disease- death. Studies done on the topic have corroborated that the disease is not reversible, and the only patch of hope is slowing down its progress. But as the disease advances through mid stage and evolves into severe AD, the condition of patient becomes pathetic and care giving becomes more painful. Studies have reported that notable symptoms of AD are seen only after 60 years of age, even though the disease has started before that. Initial symptoms are loss of short term memory- being forgetful about the recent events, and gradually over a period of time patient seems more absent –minded about the environment, things which are chemically etched in the long term memory begins to be erased, and the final stage starts pushing the patient into severe AD which is tremendously pathetic. Studies have proved that loss of function of neurons is the cause of AD. A closer look into the aspect revealed a complex set of events that precede the neuronal degeneration- oxidative stress and imbalance in homeostasis, formation of roadblocks in communication, falling apart of integrity and death of neurons. This enabled to go beyond the findings of superficial studies done and hypothesis developed, and helped to delve much deeper into the inner workings and mechanism of the disease. Hypotheses developed to explain mechanism of AD are: amyloid cascade hypothesis, cholinergic hypothesis and tau hypothesis. Amyloid cascade hypothesis says, APP- Amyloid Precursor Protein, a transmembrane protein involved in main roles of growth, survival and repair of nerve cells- is snipped at wrong places by an enzyme called secretase, leading to the formation of amyloid ÃŽ ² peptides which accumulates to form plaques- amyloid plaques- and bind to synapses blocking the communication channel, event ually causes memory loss. According to cholinergic hypothesis, downward drift in the levels of acetylcholine in brain is the cause for Alzheimer’s disease. Loss of function of cholinergic neurons was found in Alzheimer’s disease patients. Shift in the level of acetylcholine happens due to the lack of two enzymes involved in synthesis and breaking down of acetylcholine. This will lead to loss of function of neurons; brain’s functionality falls apart, and eventually leads to symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Tau hypothesis approaches the problem in another perspective, tau protein- a protein associated with microtubules in nerve cells- gets hyperphosphorylated, this enables cross linking among tau protein units, and they back off from being attached to the microtubules. This causes loss of structural integrity of nerve cells, and they collapse and clump to form tangles- neurofibrillary tangles. Studies conducted focusing on the inner workings of these hypoth esis have found that oxidative stress is the reason that enhances plaque and tangle formation, repair mechanisms in cells are unable to solve the situation as the oligomer formation and cross linking are predominantly made by non peptide bonds. In another study, amyloid ÃŽ ² peptides have shown close relation with some causes of mad cow disease. Studies related to genetics of AD have found the link between APOE gene on chromosome 21 and the disease. APOE gene codes for apolipoprotein, and one among its functions is breaking down of APP. APOE has variants, APOEÃŽ µ4 is the one which codes for less active protein whose capacity to break down APP is sluggish. People with this variant gene are more tend to develop AD in later stages of life, and any abnormality related to chromosome 21 also results in AD over a period of time. To know more about the mechanism of disease and its attachment to oxidative stress, further studies have done from different angles, and all the studies have come to a common point, the findings from all the studies stitched together gave a complex and elaborate picture about the mechanism of the disease. Free radical damage leads to oxidation of products in cell. Oxidation leads to new end products of glycation, nitration, lipid peroxidation, and oxidation of nucleic acids. These new end products chemically modify other proteins and compartments inside the cell. Oxidized derivatives impede with the channel of trace elements, and imbalances their homeostasis, and enables proteins like tau to form non peptide cross linking. In response to changes cell up the levels of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1)- an antioxidant enzyme to mitigate the bad effects from free radical damage- but rapid heaping up of neurotoxic substances goes beyond control leading to severe imbalances, blockage of communicati on channels, and eventually death of neuron. Since mitochondria is the main source of free radicals and oxidative precursors. Certain deletions in mtDNA resulted in change in normal levels and rates of metabolism and production of free radicals. Free radicals formed in mitochondria are short lived and they do not have the ability to cross membrane and reach cytoplasm to cause damage, this led studies in a new direction and found free radicals- OH from cytoplasm- can attack guanidine in RNAs in cytoplasm and this both can cross the membrane and reach into mitochondria, and cause imbalance and production of more stable H2O2 radicals which can come to cytoplasm and react with the channel of trace elements, and starts the primary events for the major causes for AD to come into being. AD starts at neocortex area of brain, and as the neurons die and rupture, the neurotoxic substances- plaques, free radicals, tangles, etc. pervade the nearby nerve cells, and the cycle goes on and graduall y covers the brain and makes it slip out of its normal being.

Sexual Harrassment Essay -- essays papers

Sexual Harrassment Sexual Harassment in the Work Place I. Definition Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment. Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following: The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex. In Oncale v. Sundowner, the US Supreme Court decided just this month unanimously ruling that same sex complaints are covered by the law. The harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee. The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.  ¨ Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim. The harasser’s conduct must be unwelcome. It is becoming increasingly rare to find the traditional â€Å"quid pro quo† claim of sexual harassment. The current trend is that of a â€Å"hostile work environment† which can be much more difficult for the employer to address. The EEOC considers the following factors in determining whether or not an environment is sexually hostile: Whether the conduct was verbal or physical or both How frequently it was repeated Whether the conduct was hostile or patently offensive Whether the alleged harasser was a co-worker or supervisor Whether others joined in perpetrating the harassment, and whether the harassment was directed at more than one individual. No one factor controls but an assessment is made based upon the totality of circumstances. II. Regarding Employees It is helpful for the victim to directly inform the harasser that the conduct is unwelcome and must stop. However, a victim of harassment need not always confront his/her harasser directly, so long as his/her conduct demonstrates that the harasser’s behavior is unwelcome. The victim sho... ... the employer be liable if they do or do not encourage or discourage workers from starting relationships that may go bad and cause problems on the job later. These are complicated issues and there are no cut and dry answers. Relationships develop in work areas all the time and always will. On a personal level, before you become involved with someone at work, there are consequences that should be considered. Once more, there have been many successful marriages so it is not necessarily taboo. If you are in a management position, you should be prepared to handle the complications that may result when one of these relationships go bad and effect work performance. For example, Michael’s boss could have handled the situation better. He actually made the decision to transfer Mary. Michael only recommended the transfer. Maybe he should have told Michael he needed to be the one to go. As the political make up of the US Supreme Court changes, and the decisions that determine what constitutes sexual harassment change, Human Resource Managers need to be ready to adapt and change with those swings. Sexual harassment is just one of a myriad of issues that have to be dealt with.

The Power Of The Situation :: essays research papers

The Power of the Situation A week of urban mayhem was ignited by the April 29, 1992 jury acquittal of four white police officers who were captured on videotape beating black motorist Rodney King. The angry response in South Central produced its own brutal footage, most dramatically the live broadcast from a hovering TV news helicopter of two black men striking unconscious with a brick, kicking, and then dancing over the body of, white truck driver Reginald Denny. The final three-day toll of what many community activists took to defiantly calling an uprising, revolt, or rebellion, was put at 53 dead, some $1 billion in property damage, nearly 2,000 arrests, and countless businesses in ashes. These two men, Damian Williams and Henry Watson undoubtedly committed a heinous crime, but thousands more looted, burned, and destroyed property with the same disregard for life and property. Were all these people criminals who used the verdicts as an excuse to commit crimes, or was the nature of the social situation the primarydeterminant of this nefarious behavior? In the course of this paper, I plan to explore this question from a psychological perspective with an emphasize on conformity and social norms, bystander intervention, social perception and reality, and finally, prejudice. Generally looking at the Los Angeles riots, and specifically drawing upon the Reginald Denny beating and subsequent trial, the power of the situation becomes evident, as thousands of people living in an extremely poor and crime-ridden area of Los Angeles, lashed out against a perception of injustice through violence. The conditions that lead people to perceive themselves as victims of unjust actions are rather complex. In this case, the favorable verdicts towards the officers who beat Rodney King was the "unjust action", not only for Rodney King, but for the community he came from. The perceived damage to desired social identities and justice led to resentment on the part of a historically poor and underprivileged class of citizens. The individual attempts to explain the event (the verdicts) by processes of attribution in which grievance may or may not be formed. (DeRidder, Schruijer, and Tripathi, 1992). The attribution of responsibility and blame is activated when confronted with unexpected behavior, unwanted consequences, or stressful, puzzling, and important events (Wong & Weiner, 1981). Thus the attribution process may be activated either when the individual experiences harm, or perceives an anti-normative action by another person or group. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone residing in south-central Los Angeles looted. Instead the majority stayed in their homes until the participants ceased their destructive activities. This does not take away from the validity of the attribution theory due to the individual differences in

Lenovo’s Promotional Information Essay

To create a brand is a difficult and expensive task but to build a brand with worldwide influence is even more difficult and is often associated with huge risks. Research shows that only 25% of new products/brands generate more than $7.5 million in sales in their first few years and even fewer are able to generate enough revenue to keep them on market for long. Lenovo continues to build brand awareness through aggressive marketing and new product promotions. Lenovo uses this promotional mix to strategically penetrate new markets worldwide as well as to sustain its position as a global leader and to continue growth over the long term. Investment in brand awareness through Lenovo’s recent â€Å"For Those Who Do† promotional campaign has proven fruitful, helping the company establish a foothold in the U.S. market among the top five PC vendors. Lenovo is investing aggressively in new products such as Ultrabooks and all-in-one PCs, allowing it to rapidly adapt to changes in the marketplace and to consistently meet the ever-changing demands of its customer base. Promotion and IMC Promotion is an important and integral part of marketing process. To be successful, a producer must not only offer a good product at a reasonable price but also inform potential customers about the product and where they can buy it. The overall range of tactics available to a producer is known as the ‘promotional mix’ and comprises of advertising, sales promotion, publicity, sponsorship, direct marketing, internet marketing and personal selling. In addition to these key promotional tools, its marketing team also relies on other techniques, such as exhibitions and product placement in movies, songs or video games, which have gained in popularity in recent years. The promotional mix used by Lenovo is aligned with the decisions made with regard to product, pricing and distribution and different promotional methods that handle different parts of the job. Determining to blend these together is a strategy decision that should be kept consistent to communicate its beneï ¬ ts to a target market. Lenovo’s uses a variety of techniques to effectively communicate its products to its target market. Their promotions come in the form of coupons, instant savings, and online rebates. Lenovo is informing, persuading and reminding customers of their products and educating them in deciding on their available choices. Lenovo continues to build consumer interest which helps build favorable impressions of the company and its products. Theme and Positioning Statement The positioning theme of Lenovo is â€Å"We are for those who do.† Lenovo’s mission is to bring affordable innovative products for its customers. Lenovo’s vision clearly states â€Å"We are now one company with one goal: To build the best, most innovative products in the world. To use world-class economies to put new and better technology in the hands of more people, by innovating on cost the same way we innovate on technology. To focus our energy and our commitment on the success and trust of our customers.† Though a lot has changed in the recent years, however, Lenovo has always remained true to its mission statement. Promotion Blend Lenovo is increasing its brand awareness by campaigning, including social media, design, branded content, retail experience, event and strategic engagement and partnerships. The company sponsored the annual HopSotch independent music fest, and was a tech partner with â€Å"Transformers 3† and even showed up at Fashion Week in New York with designer partnerships and the Lenovo Lounge. In the U.S., the campaign kicked off with a 60-second TV spot that laid out their â€Å"do† theme, while smaller, subsequent campaigns focused on specifics such as its rapid boot technology. In one advertisement, Lenovo throws a PC out of an airplane and it must â€Å"save itself† by booting up quickly and deploying a parachute. Salespeople In today’s fast paced world, where the electronic and print media are having huge influence on everybody’s life, a product or service cannot survive without proper promotion. Personal selling is an extremely important part of this promotional mix. Sales are divided into three main tasks: order-getting, order-taking and supporting. Depending upon the situation a salesman can performs all these duties. A good salesperson should be knowledgeable about the products and its competitive environment. In many situations salesman can also answer questions about what promotion should be directed toward the final consumer. Lenovo’s salespeople handle most of the important communication with wholesalers and retailers. Additionally, Lenovo uses sale promotions not only to focus on best profit potential but also to give itself a competitive advantage in the market. A good customer service not only builds brand loyalty but also acts as a promotion because often satisfied customers share their experience with their friends and family. Therefore, building a long term relationship and trust with its customer base is very important part of product selling. Sales Promotions for Channel Members/Customers/Employees Promotions are important part for any marketing campaign, as it directly influences customers. In order to be effective a promotion should be able to persuade, inform and remind its customer base of the benefits of its marketed product. Lenovo uses promotions to motivate employees to provide better customer service or achieve higher sales. Lenovo has a special birthday rewards program and each employee is emailed on the 1st day of the month prior to their birthday thanking them for their contribution to the success of the business and asking them to log onto Lenovo’s branded website using their unique user name and password to order their gift online. Recently, Lenovo also shared a $3 million bonus that they received of increasing success with its junior-level employees. Lenovo awarded CEVA Logistics, one of the world’s leading supply chain companies its Innovation and Operations Excellence award for the second year in a row in North America. This award recognized CEVA’s efforts around freight consolidating and optimizing transportation resulting in substantial cost savings. Lenovo also has year around online promotions available for its customers. Push and Pull Strategy Lenovo distributes with push strategy that involves selling into channel intermediaries like large retailers, wholesalers and it is also reliant on personal selling and trade promotions. Its promotional efforts like personal selling, advertising and sales promotion helps sell the whole marketing mix to its channel members. Lenovo also distributes using a pull strategy which relies on customer demands that pulls the product through the channel. Lenovo’s uses both push and pull strategy in combination to promote its products to large business customers as well as to individual final consumers. Lenovo’s highly aggressive promotion to final consumers using coupons or samples, builds consumer interest and help them achieve higher sales of their products. Its informative and interactive website includes customer reviews and video demonstrations that help customers build favorable impressions of the company and its products. Recent Positive Publicity Lenovo continues to excel in the PC market and its products has achieved highest recognition among both its peers and customers. Recently Lenovo received 16 awards and honors highlighting its brand innovation, design and versatility in the PC industry at Top Industry Awards at 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show. Additionally, Lenovo relies extensively on fundraising to enter into new markets and market new products. Eedoo Technology, the video gaming unit that is associated with Lenovo Group has raised tens of millions of dollars. Their gaming product, Ebox comes with 30 games built in and a set-top camera that can detect a player’s movements, according to the article. With this joint venture with a Chinese company, Lenovo not only hope to tap into Eedoo existing network within China but also hope that by including the games in the system they can cut down on the rampant piracy that is prevalent in the video game business in China. Interactive Media In order to be successful in towards highly competitive environment latest marketing trends and methods of communications are key to successful promotion strategies. Recently, Lenovo implemented a YouTube strategy, they created a competition called ‘Seize The Night,’ asking 15 finalists to create an alternative ending to the following video with the winner determined by most views. One of the contestants, Joshua, organized and filmed a massive cycle ride in London using a Lenovo laptop. Featuring hundreds of cyclists, the video has quickly taken off, going viral and spreading the Lenovo brand for free. This campaign has been very successful to Lenovo as it gained hundreds and thousands of YouTube views and followers without doing any marketing on its own. In addition, it is comparatively cheap and gains a much higher return on investment. Their YouTube campaign was extremely successful and has now become a must read case for all business people. Here is the link to the videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_119513&feature=iv&src_vid=xGtBPlPqIFQ&v=OoXr6sQlaRk and the responding video by the contestant Joshua is following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGtBPlPqIFQ&feature=player_embedded#! References Lenovo Reveals ThinkPad X1 Carbon, Shakes Up Ultrabook Market Lenovo Reveals ThinkPad X1 Carbon, Shakes Up Ultrabook Market http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdZNUxPiwMs http://wraltechwire.com/business/tech_wire/news/story/11335630/ http://www.cevalogistics.com/en-AU/aboutus/newsmedia/mediareleases/Pages/release_19_july_2012.aspx http://www.partnerinfo.lenovo.com/partners/br/pt/entitled/LENOVO%20COOKBOOK_V1.5_FINAL.pdf http://news.lenovo.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1557 http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120113005747/en/Lenovo-Receives-Top-Industry-Awards-2012-International http://www.lenovo.com/social_responsibility/us/en/Lenovo_CSR_Fast_Facts.pdf

Beyond the printed page

Technology is rapidly changing the nature of the global media. For example, Daniel Czitrom, in his book entitled ‘Media and the American Mind: From Morse to McLuhan’, states that one of three major traditions or persuasions in American thought with regard to the impact of modern mass media, views changes in communications technology as the driving force in the historical changes in such media impacts on society. This is the school of thought of the â€Å"radical media† theorists Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan, who are said to have highlighted the thesis in different ways in their works (Czitrom 1982, p. xii).Not only is the change with regard to the changes in the impacts of mass media on society, it is also in with regard to ownership of mass media, as both technology and economics are credited with driving a convergence of the different forms of media, and implicitly, a convergence on ownership of the different forms of media (Compaine and Gornery 2000, p. xv i). The online books have major advantages compared with print versions.It benefits greatly from the evolution of technology, with the new emerging technologies endowing online books with the ability to dynamically update, hyperlink, provide efficient searching, real-time interactivity and multimedia. All these instruments help the online books deliver materials to readers more efficiently and more diversely, than its print version. Moreover, the online books attract more non-local readers and many younger readers, while the print version mainly focuses on the local or national market. 2. What devices and technologies exist or will soon exist for reading digital books?There are no several devices being manufactured that will soon make the move from printed to digital books. In fact, the move to replace printed books with electronic versions has the stamp of approval of earnest researchers, experts and scientists such that readers are now able to access thousands of books in one port able, mobile and accessible case. For instance, the Sony Reader is a new electronic book device that makes use of the display technology called the electronic ink. It was developed by the E-link in Massachusetts where the display gives a most natural reading experience for the reader, using no backlight.It uses a form of electronic ink including displays on credit cards that do not break when bent. The food labels are able to change prices throughout the day too. How this is done is by plastic films with transparent microscopic liquid-filled spheres, the size of a hair’s diameters where there floats even smaller black and white particles. The black particles are negatively charged while the white particles are positively charged. These now forms ink patterns of black and white depending on how the electric charge is applied to the film.The Sony Reader need not be turned off and just like a printed book, it can just be set aside and the current page remains on the screen witho ut draining any battery power. Studies have even proven that users report increased readability and a minimal eyestrain compared to other electronic book technology. (Scientists develop E-link to Replace Books and Newspapers). 3. How are publishers adapting to digital books? Apart from the interest from readers, on the business side the idea of moving pictures in a newspaper attracts more attention and brings greater business opportunity.More and more advertisers are interested in using online video advertisements and are shifting some of their advertisements from television to the web. New kinds of video ads are becoming popular pre-rolls and post-rolls, video ads that run before or after the news video clip. Meanwhile, web news forecasts give the opportunity for TV-style commercials. In each three-minute News Journal Newscast two fifteen second ad fragments and one thirty second fragment are inserted. This idea was only proposed two months ago, and already more than eighty-five pe rcent of the airtime slices have been sold. (Oxfeld, 2004).Currently, publishers are looking into the digital rights. These issues are inevitable due to the large number of people involved in it. It is also complicated by the fact that these people come from different places. Laws which govern them are different. Yet publishers are quite discouraged. More so, there are not much available treaties or conventions from which rules and guidelines regarding digital rights can be seen. One of main problems with regard to digital rights is the problem on unauthorized copying and transmission of printed books and digital information. This is a problem about rights to intellectual property.Tran (2001) says there are many interlinked communities in the web. As such, sharing different materials can be very convenient. According to him, file types frequently used are MP3s, MPEGs, JPEGs, and PDFs. There is a proliferation of many copies of these kinds of files which are transmitted from two diff erent points. He further elaborates that the problem lies in putting a stop or even delaying the process of the undisturbed exchange rate of copyrighted digital materials. There are a lot of factors that cannot be easily prevented such as the increasing sophistication of technology and the speed of transmission (Tran).The problem is not as easy as it seems but publishers are still keen on the fact that there are still people who would want to have books instead of electronic devices as reading materials. WORKS CITED Compaine, Benjamin M. and Douglas Gomery (2000), ‘Who Owns the Media? : Competition and Concentration in the Mass Media Industry’, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,Mahwah, NJ, p xvi Czitrom, Daniel J. ‘Media and the American Mind: From Morse to McLuhan’, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, p. xii (1982), Guard and Nurture your Intellectual Property Rights.Retrieved May 20, 2007 at: http://archives. obs-us. com/obs/german/books/paperl /chap091. htm Oxfeld, Jesse ‘Watching the Newspaper, 2004. Retrieved May 20, 2007 at: http://www. editorandpublisher. com/eandp/columns/newspaper_2point0_display. jsp? vnu_content_id=1000739225 Scientists develop E-link to Replace Books and Newspapers. http://www. aip. org/dbis/HFES/stories/17027. html Tran, N. 2001. â€Å"Digital Right Management†, www. cas. master. ca. Retrieved May 20, 2007 at http://www. cas. mcmaster. ca/~wmfarmer/SE-4C03-01/papers/Tran-DRM-aux. html