JMC 620 Final Exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

JMC 620 Final Exam - Essay Example Set objectives will be measured against achieved results. Some of the evaluation tools that will be used include website hits, number of enquiries and questionnaires. Marketing can at times be so discouraging, it becomes even more daunting if there is no budget for the marketing tasks. Even so, it is possible to market the Kentucky Boat Show and increase the attendance without a budget. Some of the ways I would use include; We would build relationships within the community to help the business and the show gains exposure. The network would include online influencers, we would share their comments with friends and ensure we are discerned in their platforms. The link to our sites will always be included whenever we give comments. Print advertising has had a tremendous comeback in the recent years. It is affordable and always brings value to the investment (Parente, 2006). We are going to use a multi-faceted approach to our visual communication by making the fliers and posters in different ways though conveying the same message. The visual advertisements will be visually captivating and appealing. The posters will attract the eyes and be convincing to the mind. It is in line with recent research that suggests that an attention drawing advertisement with a quick response code draws just as much attention as a well written copy. Higher institutions of learning are rich in skills and creativity. Our plan is to organise a contest for creating fliers and banners of all types with awards for every acknowledged entry. Fliers will be given to customers, employees and sent to shareholders. Banners will then be placed about the business premise and at strategic places in town where there is large human traffic to ensure a large audience is reached. Multiple fliers made in different ways will ensure that the attention of several people is grabbed The effectiveness of this approach is expected to be high. Our method is aimed at grabbing attention

American Idiot Essay Example for Free

American Idiot Essay The song that I chose to write about is titled American Idiot by Green Day. This song was on Green Day’s album titled American Idiot. This album was originally released in 2004. American Idiot, the song, peaked at number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100. My reason for choosing this song is that it talks about how the media runs society and how people shouldn’t let the media run their lives. The main social issue that is talked about in this song is how the media runs our lives and society. One of the lines in the song is â€Å"Don’t wanna be an American idiot, one nation controlled by the media. † This line refers to how people in America rely heavily on the media for everything. They trust every word that is printed in a newspaper or magazine or said on television without question. People hang on every word that is pumped through the media. I don’t consider this to be a personal problem because it refers to all people being controlled by the media. It is not as if the singer in the song is the only one that the media affects. Media is worldwide ways of letting people know what is going on around them. What Billy Joe Armstrong is saying throughout this song is that people need to realize is that not everything that a person hears is necessarily true and people should not panic just because of what the news says. Green Day is an American rock band that was formed in 1987. the group consists of three members: Billy Joe Armstrong(vocals), Tre` Cool(drums), and Mike Dirnt(bass). In 1988, they signed to Lookout Records and then in 1989 they released their first EP titled 1,000 Hours. However, the band didn’t have much success until it released the album Kerplunk in 1993. After Kerplunk’s success, Green Day proceeded to leave Lookout Records and sign with Reprise Records. In 1994, they released their first major label debut, Dookie. Over the next few years, Green Day would have much success but then decided to take a break in 1996. They returned in 1997. When they returned, they began to work on a new full-length album. This album was entitled Nimrod and was released in October of 1997. This album deviated from their normally pop-punk style of music and gave listeners a variety of music. They didn’t release another album until 2000 when they released Warning which further continued their new sound that they started with Nimrod. After releasing Warning, they were nominated for 8 awards in the California Music Awards. They won all eight awards. The band then continued their success over the next few years. In 2004 the band released American Idiot. And then in 2006 they won the Grammy for record of the year because of the track Boulevard of Broken Dreams which spent 16 weeks at the top of the charts. The lyrics to American Idiot are as follows: â€Å"Dont wanna be an American idiot. Dont want a nation under the new mania. And can you hear the sound of hysteria? The subliminal mindfuck America. Welcome to a new kind of tension. All across the alienation. Everything isnt meant to be okay. Television dreams of tomorrow. Were not the ones whore meant to follow. For thats enough to argue. Well maybe Im the faggot America. Im not a part of a redneck agenda. Now everybody do the propaganda. And sing along in the age of paranoia. Welcome to a new kind of tension. All across the alienation. Everything isnt meant to be okay. Television dreams of tomorrow. Were not the ones whore meant to follow. For thats enough to argue. Dont wanna be an American idiot. One nation controlled by the media. Information age of hysteria. Its calling out to idiot America. Welcome to a new kind of tension. All across the alienation. Everything isnt meant to be okay. Television dreams of tomorrow. Were not the ones whore meant to follow. For thats enough to argue. †

Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty In Mobile Phone Industry Marketing Essay

Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty In Mobile Phone Industry Marketing Essay A customer is the person who brings us his wants. He is not an interruption of our work, but the purpose of it. We are not doing a favor by serving him; he is doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so (Sara Gustafson, Erica Lundgren 2005). Customer satisfaction is the degree to which customer expectations of a product or service are met or exceeded (BNET Business Directory). The term customer loyalty is used to describe the behavior of repeat customers, as well as those that offer good ratings, reviews, or testimonials (WiseGeek). Consumer satisfaction and loyalty plays an important role in the success of any business. Therefore these are considered as priority task for many businesses (Kotler et al, 2002), as satisfied and loyal customers bring in profitability and competitive advantage to an organization (Bowen and Chen, 2001). As Gould (1995) proposes that no company can survive in business without satisfied and loyal customers. This is the reason, that organizations put efforts to develop and provide offerings to satisfy their customers and maintain their loyalty. Loyal and satisfied customers not only increase the value of the business, but also enable it to maintain the costs lower than those associated with attracting new customers (Beerli et al, 2004). 3. Industry Background The mobile phone service industry provides network services for communication of voice or data signals through wireless mode. There are more than 74 million mobile phone subscribers in U.K. in which 85% of the adults have a handset. UK represents the most competitive market in Europe and there is a huge war among the service providers to differentiate themselves from their competitors (Mintel 2008). Subscription levels are expected to continue to grow, however, it should be noted that while there were 73.5 million subscriptions in UK in 2007, it has been cited that nine million subscriptions are for SIM cards that are inactive and a further 7.7 million that are barely active. Mobile phone subscriptions are forecast to increase in 2008 to 76 million subscriptions. Currently the UK represents approximately 9% of the European market and by 2010 it is forecast to have 78 million subscriptions. (Mintel 2008) There are five mobile phone networks currently operating in the UK : O2, T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone and most recently 3. Vodafone and O2 (formerly BT Cellnet) are the largest and oldest. These two networks were joined by T-Mobile (formerly One 2 One) swiftly followed by Orange. All of these companies now operate digital networks. In addition, there are many virtual networks operating on these major networks, packaged under a different name. e.g. Virgin, OneTel, Lycatalk etc. All the above mentioned facts shows that there is a huge market for Mobile service providers in U.K. Mobile phone is everyones need and there is a large customer base who uses the services of more than one network provider. 4. Justification for the choice of research Over the last decade organizations of all types and sizes have increasingly come to understand the importance of customer satisfaction. It is a renowned fact that it is far less costly to keep existing customers than to make new ones. It is becoming accepted that there is a strong link between customer retention, customer satisfaction and profitability. In a large area of public sector customer satisfaction itself is the measure of success (Nigel Hill, 2002). Mobile phone network industry is a giant industry in U.K. I chose this research topic because I personally observed there is a huge competition in this industry, and the industry is prone to face problems of customer decay. The average business loses between 10 and 30 percent of its customers each year; but they often dont know which customer they have lost, when they were lost, why they were lost or how much sales revenue and profit this customer decay has cost them (Nigel Hill and Jam Alaxender, 2002, p 3). A loyal customer fe els committed towards the organization and results in profit and growth to the organization. In this highly competitive era, every company tries to offer uniqueness and best value for money, an educated and smart customer has some determinants to choose which organization to stay committed with and which company to switch over. 5. Research objectives 5.1 To find out the right service gap Service gap is the difference between the present quality of service and ideal quality of service. It is very important for an organization to know the right service gap so as to focus on narrowing down that service gap and offer better services to the customer. Nigel Hill and Jim Alaxender have specified five types of service gaps (Nigel Hill and Jim Alaxender, 2002, p 5.): Promotional Gap -When what is said about the service differs from the standards actually delivered. Understanding Gap when managers perceptions of customers expectations are inaccurate Procedural Gap when customers expectations are not translated into appropriate operating procedures / system. Behavioural Gap When the service delivered is different from the specifications of the service. Perception Gap When the level of service perceived by customers differs from the service actually provided. 5.2 To find out the degree of customer loyalty There are different levels of customer loyalty referred as a ladder of pyramid in literature. These levels of loyalty vary from the customer perspective. These are defined as follows (Nigel Hill and Jim Alaxender, 2002, p 16.): Suspects When suspects are unaware of the product or have no inclination to purchase it. Prospects When customers have some attraction towards the organization, but they have not yet taken the step of doing business yet. Customers usually one-off purchaser or may be sometimes repeat buyers, but no real feelings towards organization. Clients Repeat customers having positive feeling towards organization, but their support is passive rather than active. Advocates Actively supporting clients who recommend organization to others. Partners Strongest form of loyalty, where both parties see mutual benefit in partnership. Predicting the right level of customer loyalty towards an organization helps in strategically planning the measures to enhance customer trust and shifting from bottom to top level of the loyalty pyramid. There is usually a homogenous segment of customers lying at each level. Identifying that segment and planning accordingly will help in increasing customer retention. 5.4 To analyse the factors that affects customer satisfaction and loyalty. A questionnaire will be designed with an aim to find out first two objectives and carrying out customer expectations from their mobile service provider. In-depth analysis of the data obtained will bring out the factors that affect customer satisfaction and loyalty. The organization can thus underpin those factors in their customer relationship process and try to retain customer commitment. A committed customer stay longer, buy more often, buy more range, spend more, recommend more, consider competitors less and feel committed. (Nigel Hill, Jim Alaxender, 2002) 6. Research Methods The research is clearly classified as exploratory study. This kind of study is a valuable mean of clarifying the understanding of a problem (Saunders et al. 2003, p.96). The above research objectives will be achieved using qualitative primary data in the form of unstructured questionnaire. The primary data will be collected from the below mentioned sample size in the form of unstructured questionnaires. The research strategy that will be carried out will be Survey in the form of unstructured questionnaire. The research will be exploratory study as the precise nature of the problem is not sure (Saunders et al. 2007, p.138). 7. Data collection and analysis Both primary as well as secondary data will be used for this research. Secondary data will be obtained from various sources to obtain theoretical background for carrying out the research. The secondary data collection source would be :- Research Methods for Business Students Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill, 2003. Handbook of customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement Nigel Hilla and Jim Alexander, 2002. Online library resources e.g. Mintel, Emerald etc. After getting the theoretical background for carrying out the research, Primary data would be collected from the sample size in the form of unstructured questionnaires. Unstructured questionnaire would be preferred as compared to other survey methods as it will be less complicated and deems fit for carrying our research like this. . 8. Time scale and resources I have sufficient resources to carry out this research. I have divided my research plan into activities with clear completion time frames and my tendency would be complete the research within the designed time frame. Month Day Activities March 1-15 Further reading on key theories and concepts involved in research and drawing relevant information for the literature review. Mid March to April 20-30 Commencement and finishing of critical literature review drafts May to June 5-30 Collection and compilation of research data July to mid August 1 17 Analyzing the data and writing the first research draft. Mid August to Mid September 17 30 Compiling the final research and carrying out conclusions and recommendations. References Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrain Thornhill (2003) Research methods for business students 3rd Edition. FT Prentice Hall Financial Times Pearson Education U.K) Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrain Thornhill (2007) Research methods for business students 4th Edition. FT Prentice Hall Financial Times Pearson Education U.K) Nigel Hill and Jim Alexander (2002) Handbook of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Measurement. 2nd Ed. USA : Gower Publishing Company. Mintel (November 2008) UK Mobile Services and Network Providers.

Robert Browning’s Andrea del Sarto Essay -- Andrea del Sarto

Robert Browning’s Andrea del Sarto Lucrezia del Sarto (To My Dear Husband) My dear husband, put away your plate of bread Or, pray you, hand it to the dogs; the sun Has but an hour to make its mid-way trek, And here sit you etching pewter with crust, And smearing cheese and jam with lazy thumbs. Ah, yes! Kiss me so. Then kiss me better To smother my lips. Your artlessness is What makes me smile so, dear, and not your kiss. No, I will speak. And should you be so kind As to listen, you’ll find me plainly spoken. Long last night, in my bed, I turned and turned; As much as I’d suffered your words while they Tumbled from your lips, I suffered them once More, and more fresh, fettered fast inside my head! Love, the night wore on, black, blank, and at last Thinned. But how you wear me! Tell me you shall Keep your promise to each one of the three: To myself, to my cousin, and to thee! I will tell you how I mean: Do life’s work, Honor your wife, your word, and yourself If it pleases you. But be first a man; No—a husband—above all else. Tell me, ’Tis possibly better to honor yourself? My dear husband, I have much in reply To offer your last eve’s soliloquy; So perhaps it shall suit you to gaze less Dumbly at my brow and more at my mouth Whilst I so plainly speak. Your talents do Not waste themselves on me. Do not doubt it. I am more certain of your skill than you May think. And so I am less humored by The fickle errantry of a mind which once Was sharp and sweet. My pride in you has waned. Pick, pick, pick, but never paint! Well enough, You say we are all only but in God’s Hands; ’Tis not God who binds you down, nor I! Your works have touched heaven, but you are low; God, you think, assign... ...ehind a play of words or a psychological puzzle, tempting his reader to dig for it there, later. I have come to appreciate the rich expressiveness inherent in the dramatic mono-logue format. Without actually stating or describing very much, the poet is able to depict a scene and its props, animate characters, and imply action, emotion, and rhthym for the audience. I discovered that each time I implied action on the part of either Lucrezia or Andrea, (â€Å"put away your plate . . . But even now you entwine me . . .†), I was, at the same time, implying action—and its accompanying emotion—on the part of the second character, as well. The poem becomes a dance—a dense, complex web of subtleties and surprises. This poetic form is a pleasure to read and a pleasure to mimic. It carries an intimacy which embraces the poet, the characters, and the reader all at once.

Analysis of Professional Development Plan Essay

The definition of professional development varies in school districts and educators agree that the term is ever changing and involves the use of technology. Some educators have said that the term has an operational definition. In the article, key design factors in durable instructional technology professional development, author John Wells offers the following definition for educators within the context of the technological age:Professional development†¦goes beyond the term training with its implications of learning skills, and encompasses a definition that includes formal and informal means of helping teachers not only learn new skills, but also develop new insights into pedagogy and their own practices, and explore new or advanced understandings of content and resources. [This] definition of professional development includes support for teachers as they encounter the challenges that come with putting into practice their evolving understanding about the use of technology to sup port inquiry-based learning (p.2). Professional development may encompass various characteristics such as goals and outcomes aligned to the districts, relevant topics in trainings, opportunities for staff collaboration, development maintained by an on-site coordinator, high quality and professional training and evaluations to determine effectiveness of program. James Polk, author of traits of effective teachers, states, â€Å"the need for a strong professional development program is well established in research† (p.2). Mr. Polk (2006) cites a recent study of factors contributing to three aspects of the teaching process that, â€Å"teachers ranked professional development in the top third of importance on each aspect† (p. 2). In analyzing the professional development plan of my school district, Richland County School District One, I noticed several issues that were identified by Mr. Polk. Mr. Polk outlined several problems associated with the traditional in-service programs that are deemed ineffective. Mr. Polk (2006) states that:assumptions, such as periodic in-service being sufficient to develop new teaching methods and improve practice, teachers being able to learn by listening to a speaker, and professional development being a luxury  rather than an integral part of district improvement, are all negating factors in the implementation of patronization of training programs (p. 2). Mr. Polk further identifies research-based, more effective assumptions such as professional development should be perpetual, and school change involves external and internal organizations and personal development. In professional development programs, the instructions to teacher should be demonstrated or modeled, practiced with feedback and professional development should be integrated into the daily life of teachers. Mr. Polk (2006) states that â€Å"if professional growth rests solely on bimonthly, two-hour in-service sessions after the students are dismissed early, then any training received will unlikely be reflected in student mastery† (p.2). Richland County School District One’s (RSDI) professional development program has several components such as the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA), Avatar, and classroom walkthrough. According to the Richland County School District One’s website, Plan Do Check Act is used in â€Å"designing curriculum and delivering classroom instruction, in providing student support services, staff goal setting and evaluation, developing any new program, product or process design, planning strategically and starting a new improvement project or implementing any change†. The Plan component is identifying the learning problem and gathering the needed data. The Do component is analyzing the causes and implementing the plan on a trial of pilot basis. The Check component of PDCA is gathering the data results of the solution and analyzing the data. The Act component is implementing the instruction for all students and modifying the improvement plan. Avatar is the district’s professional development management system that allows for teaches to sign up for trainings offered by the district. All the trainings are offered after school or in the summer; this contradicts the recommendation offered by Mr. Polk that professional development should be integrated into the daily life of the teacher during the school day. The classroom walkthrough team is a district employee, the principal, assistant principal, and the professional development on-site coordinator. The team conducts the classroom walkthrough by observing the instructional strategies of a teacher for a total of five to ten minutes. The teacher is not offered prior information or feedback on the classroom walkthrough to correct or enhance his instructional strategies. The Richland County School District One website offers the levels of engagement of the students who the team should identify during the walkthrough. The levels; Authentic Engagement, Ritual Engagement, Passive Compliance, Retreatism, and Rebellion and their definitions are cited on the web page but teachers would not know their level due to lack of communication from the classroom walkthrough team. The problem of the poor quality of professional development was identified in the South Carolina schools that I have researched. For example, in Richland County School District Two, the district’s professional development program mirrors Richland County School District One’s program by only focusing on providing monthly in-service trainings on half-days for students or summer in-service activities. Both districts also provide the occasional monthly state or national conference in the teacher’s subject area and online training, i.e. Educational Television. Richland County School District Two differs by offering their Richland School District Two’s Technology Education Collaboration Mentors Program. The program is for school-selected representatives from every school in the district. The program focuses on helping fellow staff members develop personal technology skills and integrate technology into their classroom. Besides this program, I was unable to find any difference from the two districts and the professional development training. Richland County School District One and District Two professional development programs consist of low quality training once a month, irrelevant topics, lack of feedback from teachers and administrators, and concepts but lack of implementation. The districts’ programs lack the scope, high quality, accessibility (besides the Avatar system in RSDI), relevancy, and feedback from students. The majority of the district’s professional development program is the poor quality program described by Mr. Polk; two-hour  in-service sessions after the students are dismissed early from school. Reference Polk, J. (2006). Traits of effective teachers. Arts Education Policy Review, 107, p. 23-30. Wells, J. (2007). Key design factors in durable instructional technology professional development. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 15, p. 101-123. www.richlandone.org/ipda/Training_Tools/pdca.htm and www.richland2.org

Improve Your Planning Skills to Perform Better in College

Improve Your Planning Skills to Perform Better in College College can become a great struggle if you dont know how to balance your school, social life and probably a job. The ability to manage yourself and resources available to you, such as time and circumstances, determines your academic performance. If you want to be a successful and confident learner, you need to improve your planning skills. Why? Because planning and prioritizing will help you stay focused on the most important tasks and complete them on schedule. Here are a few simple tips on how to become more efficient by improving your planning skills. 1. Identify Critical Tasks First of all, you need to determine the most important tasks to make sure that they are done first. Accurately think about the crucial activities to be carried out during a day: maybe you have a scheduled meeting with your professor, a rehearsal with your band, need to conduct a research for your case study or write an urgent essay for your English class. It might be challenging to do it at first but as the time passes, youll be able to define the most relevant tasks among all other daily activities. 2. Arrange Tasks in a Logical Order To accomplish all the tasks that are assigned to you, you need to arrange them in a correct order. List all the things that should be done, the approximate time for their completion and the deadline. Then structure them in the following way: start from the smallest tasks that dont take much time and proceed with the more difficult and time-consuming ones. Do not immediately jump into doing a big task, it will just discourage you. Until you see that you have a lot of things to do, youll be overwhelmed. 3. Establish Priorities You need to differentiate between urgent, important and unimportant tasks. For instance, your essay with a one-day deadline is an urgent task. Starting to make a research for your paper is an important task but not critical. Watching a movie is an unimportant activity for your college performance, unless you need to write a movie review. You need to sort tasks by their significance for your academic success. 4. Create â€Å"To-Do† Lists By making organized â€Å"to-do† lists, youll be able to prioritize the things you need to do, keep track of what should be still accomplished and feel productive and prepared in all areas of your student life. To-do lists come in different shapes and forms, so its all about what works for you. There is a variety of apps that help create a personal to-do list or you can write information by hand to remember it better. Just make sure that your list is simple, specific and displayed in a prominent place to remind you of what is important. 5. Organize Personal Time for Your Responsibilities While planning, you need to find some time for your personal needs and responsibilities. Make sure that you always schedule such things as phone calls to your family, eating out with friends, shopping, etc. Your daily schedule should be realistic and include time for eating, sleeping and going out. If you just plan time for accomplishing the academic assignments, you will become exhausted very soon and wont be able to manage your workload. 6. Work Step-By-Step Working step-by-step will help you achieve a better output. If you have a systematic workflow and follow it, youll be more organized. Check your to-do list from time to time to make certain that you are on track and always cross out the tasks you have already completed. The feeling of progress will motivate you to do quality work in a faster way. 7. Remember the 6 Ps of Planning Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Planning skills are important in everything you do. A person who is organized can deal with all the tasks more effectively in less time. Once you start developing your planning skills, youll see how a more productive student you become. You want to complete everything faster, dont you? Then force yourself to plan! If you need help in creating long-term plans, check out our infographics on How to Write a 5 Year Plan.